Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 130 Financial Secrets
After the meeting, Vigé did not make things difficult for Eric's envoy and invited him to lunch.

After tasting the finest wines from Bordeaux and dishes adorned with precious spices, the envoy's attitude softened considerably, and he remarked that the Duke was truly a kind and generous man.

After a few rounds of drinks, the messenger gradually lowered his guard and, guided by Vig, inadvertently mentioned Eric's newly built castle.

"Hiccup, ever since His Majesty and Ragnar conquered York seven years ago, he has been obsessed with York's stone buildings, saying that magnificent buildings are good for displaying the lord's majesty."

That statement makes a lot of sense. Take myself as an example: an hour ago, before the ship even docked, I was immediately drawn to your castle, and I believe the vast majority of travelers felt the same way.

Vig: "Thank you for your compliment. Actually, I built the castle solely for defense. My territory is located on the northeast coast of Britain and is frequently attacked by pirates, so I was forced to spend a huge sum of money to build this castle."

"A huge sum of money?" The envoy's interest was immediately piqued. Upon learning that Tyneburg's construction cost was only two hundred pounds of silver, he exclaimed in astonishment:

“It’s incredibly cheap. Eric’s castle, from quarrying the stone to construction, cost a total of 1200 pounds of silver. It’s only half-finished now, and we expect to spend several hundred pounds more.”

£1,200!

How much money did Eric's men embezzle?
Vig felt fortunate that Helge had read extensively in Latin literature and had some knowledge of construction, so he was not fooled by the stonemasons.

Suppressing his shock, he picked up his glass and took a sip. "Eric is the king. In addition to defending against foreign enemies, his castle also has administrative functions and entertains visitors from all over the world. It's normal that it needs a larger area and is more expensive to build."

"Entertaining visitors?" The envoy's face fell. "The treasury is empty. Before the castle was built, guests could drink mead and occasionally sample fine wines from the Franks. Nowadays, ordinary guests can only drink beer. Uh, I don't mean to disparage Tyneburg's beer, but the price is too low to reflect the king's status."

"It's alright, it's nothing serious. Beer has always been a common drink, not in the same league as wine or mead."

Vig ignored the envoy's remarks and steered the conversation back to Eric's castle, which then led to the financial revenue and official salaries of the Kingdom of Norway.

When the topic of salary came up, the messenger poured out his grievances:
"Starting last August, Eric began paying wages in various forms, including wool, grain, and amber, the types of which often depended on the warehouse inventory."

For example, from January to April, the distributed supplies were woolen fabrics. As soon as we received our wages, we took the fabrics to the market to sell. The increased supply of fabrics resulted in a drop in prices, and we generally lost 1% to 4% of our income.”

Lunch lasted for nearly an hour, eventually ending with the messenger falling into a deep sleep.

He had a maid help him to a guest room on the second floor to rest. Vig fought off his sleepiness and used a pen and paper to summarize the information he had just received.

According to the envoy, the Norwegian royal family's annual income is equivalent to 1,300 pounds of silver, slightly less than that of Wessex.

"According to later measurements, Norway's area is about 38 km², the British Isles' area is about 23 km², and Ireland's area to the west is about 8.4 km². Eric, as the King of Norway, was not as wealthy as a Duke of Wessex. In this light, the Nordic countries are indeed not suitable for living."

Rubbing his eyes, Vig put aside his worries. King Eric was old and cowardly, and his castle had exhausted its financial surplus of several years, making the possibility of attacking Tyneburg close to zero.

"As expected, the next step should be the wrangling."

After the envoy left, Vig's life returned to normal. He spent his days handling government affairs, spending time with his family, and inspecting various parts of the city in his spare time.

One day, he happened to pass by a parchment workshop in the southeast of the city and discovered that the craftsmen had figured out an early papermaking process.

For many years, Tyneburg used three types of paper: expensive parchment, papyrus imported from the Mediterranean, and birch bark paper proposed by the shaman Kemi Wildfire. Each had its advantages and disadvantages, and due to cost and quality issues, Viger had to use a mixture of them.

Official documents and letters should use high-quality, expensive parchment.

The books use parchment and birch bark paper.

Papyrus is used in informal settings.

To reduce these expenses, he shared some of his memories about papermaking with the craftsmen. After several years, he finally revealed the key to this technological advancement.

In the pond in the center of the courtyard, craftsmen scooped out old linen, discarded fishing nets and other materials that had been soaking for a long time, cut them into pieces, and then mixed them with lime water and steamed them, stirring them repeatedly during the process.

After being cooked, the fibers are rinsed with clean water and pounded repeatedly with a wooden pestle to eventually form flocculent pulp.

Next, the craftsmen poured the obtained pulp into a pool of water to dilute it, stirring it to form a turbid suspension. They then immersed the pulp in a wide wooden screen, lifted it horizontally, and formed a wet sheet. After dehydration and drying, they obtained paper suitable for writing.

After confirming that the finished paper was of acceptable quality, Vigor, after a moment's thought, decided to relocate the workshop immediately.

Currently, the population of Tyne Town has exceeded three thousand, and with frequent commercial activities, the papermaking technique could easily be leaked to the outside world.

Therefore, he planned to move the paper mill to the Will River, more than ten kilometers to the south, where it was covered in swamps and sparsely populated, making it easier to keep the secret. Although the papermaking technique would eventually be revealed, every little bit of extra profit was worthwhile.

Leaving the workshop, Vig calculated the profits from the paper business.

The raw materials for papermaking come from tree bark, old linen, and discarded rope nets, which are inexpensive. The key is in sales.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe was in turmoil, and the literacy rate in the early Middle Ages was only about 1%-2%.

The vast majority of literate people belonged to the clergy, and a very small number of merchants or artisans possessed basic literacy skills.

In contrast, the aristocratic class placed more emphasis on military skills than cultural education, and delegated tasks such as bookkeeping and letter writing to stewards and priests, leading to the church's infiltration of administrative power.

As for the vast majority of farmers and artisans, they had no opportunity to receive education, had very little need for reading and writing, and spent their lives in a daze.

In conclusion, apart from supplying the administrative system, temples, and schools within Tynburg, most of the paper produced by the paper mills could only be sold to monasteries throughout Europe.

In the Church's mind, Vig was undoubtedly a treacherous and cunning pagan nobleman. Realizing that these high-quality, inexpensive papers came from Tyneburg, the Church would most likely openly resist them while secretly exploring the relevant papermaking techniques, making it impossible for Vig to earn too much profit.

Realizing this, his good mood vanished almost entirely.

"It seems that the idea of ​​making a lot of money by relying on papermaking is not very realistic. Well, meeting the domestic demand is not bad either. Since the establishment of the four northern counties, the demand for paper has been increasing day by day. Now that papermaking technology has emerged, at least we can save the high cost of importing paper."

(End of this chapter)