Gould took out a pile of gold extremely readily, and Otto was stunned when he saw this scene.
Originally, this businessman was willing to spend more than 4,000 silver coins to buy goods in Fort Ross, which was already a big deal that shocked Otto. I never thought that this old guy would take gold coins without hesitation.
As everyone knows, Gould just drank a lot of wine and instantly lost most of his judgment. If he had a clear mind, he would not show his most precious treasure chest full of gold to the leader and son of the Ross people. There will be no gold coins spread all over the table.
"Rurik, tell me!" Gould said with a trembling mouth, "Tell me the answer, and the money will be yours from now on."
"Okay! I said it. You!" Rurik's immature hand pointed directly at Gould, "To make pure wine, the raw material is the most ordinary wine. You make a special pottery, pour ordinary wine into it, and use charcoal. Grill it gently. The essence of ordinary wine becomes gas, which will turn into pure wine on the pottery lid. You make a pipe to draw the pure wine into a small cup, and finally you will get a whole cup of pure wine. "Do you...do you understand?"
"I probably understand." Gould scratched his head and understood immediately, but Rurik gave him "boiled sea salt." The examples are deeply inspiring.
"Maybe you haven't understood yet." Rurik simply stamped his foot: "Just like this. When you sell out the soap, import a large amount of ordinary ale. You ship it, and I will make it all Buy it. Using the skills I just told you, I will try to make strong liquor in the new year." Having said this, Rurik thought about it and said more boldly. : "This is also part of Odin's wisdom. Those heroic spirits in Valhalla, they drink the strong wine you tasted today. Just now there was a voice in my head, maybe it was an oracle, telling me How to turn ordinary wine into burning liquor. Gould, what you bought for a hundred gold coins is Odin's wisdom. You must feel... feel proud!"
glory? Gould didn't quite believe it yet, and he sensed the huge profits with his keen business acumen.
"Are you serious?" Gould asked urgently.
"Yes. I want to do a business with you, right now..." Rurik felt his head was getting dizzy and simply sat down, "Oops, I'm drunk. Gould, When I wake up, I will discuss it with you."
After saying the last word, Rurik lay down lazily.
Gould stretched his fat head and asked Otto nervously, "Is he okay?"
"He must be drunk. Gould, your wine is really amazing." . Don’t worry, he’ll be fine after a while.”
“Well, what do you think about what he said? Your son wants to do business with me.”
"Me? Don't ask me about my attitude on this matter. I have always supported Rurik."
"Okay." Gould nodded confusedlyNodding, I understood everything, and my worries were gone.
A businessman is most afraid of variables in transactions. The larger the transaction amount, the higher the risk.
Rurik is a child after all, and a glass of strong wine can make him fall asleep. When a boy grows up, he should obey his father. It seems that the Ross chief and his son are extraordinary! Otto categorically claimed that he would not interfere with Rurik's property!
Gould poured himself another glass of wine and muttered: "I will pay soon. I will hand the box with the silver coins directly to him, together with the gold coins on the table. I absolutely If you don’t break your promise, please ask the great leader to deliver Rurik to my mansion personally.”
“Business dealings?” Otto nodded.
This dinner ended in an awkward way.
Rurik just chewed a little bit of beef, that's all, and the strong alcohol forced him to sleep.
Otto carried his sleeping son home, followed closely by Rumia.
Two strong warriors were sent by Gould, and together they carried a large wooden box and approached the shabby home of the leader of the Ross tribe.
A total of 4,200 silver coins and 100 gold coins. They are all currencies of good quality. Whether they are gold coins or silver coins, they were minted by Eastern Rome in quantities of one hundred coins per pound, and their weights were not much different from each other.
The total of forty-three Roman pounds of coins was equivalent to seventeen kilograms in later generations. The oak box that contained them was not small, it weighed sixty pounds. Together with the bronze lock and key, the entire box weighed over forty kilograms.
A strong warrior can move such a heavy cargo and carry him for a long-distance attack. Really, only a strong man who has been fed beef and has tons of muscles can do it. Such strong men are also rare in the Viking world.
Fighting warriors often have strong upper body muscles, because everyone spends a lot of time on boats every year. Since people everywhere have not yet reached a sophisticated level of use of wind power, boats in various places mostly use oars. The sail is used hybridly, and even Otto must personally participate in rowing.
So most people are born with an unstable base, which is also a weakness of Viking warriors.
After sleeping all night until the sky was about to light up, the feeling of hunger urged Rurik to wake up from his long sleep.
"I... fell asleep?"
He slowly got up, startling his mother Niya, who was already pregnant, and hurriedly came over.
"My son, you finally woke up. You shouldn't have drank that damn wine. It's really crazy. It's actually flammable wine." Niya's words were full of pity and harshness.
Otto, who was chewing on the beef packed from Gould last night, was deeply displeased. "What do you know? Niya. Your son said that he can make that burning wine. If he succeeds, we will be richer."
When he talks about Qianiya, he is very happy.
Wealthy people are like Otto. He has been the leader for so many years and only has a thousand gold coins in his own money box.As the "key holder" of the family cash box, Niya is very aware of her family's savings.
After winter, my son actually started to make money! Last night, Niya smelled the smell of alcohol on her sleeping son and criticized her husband. But when she saw the big wooden box that was brought in and wanted to see the astonishing number of gold and silver coins inside, she felt so happy that her blood rushed to her head. Niya actually fainted in an instant.
This time her son woke up, and she rushed up to him and kissed his face several times.
Rumia, who had been working as a servant, could see it clearly, and a burst of envy and sadness suddenly rose in her heart.
Now Otto is very accustomed to ordering his son's servants, such as asking her to cut meat, and she does it.
After chewing a piece of meat, Otto turned his face to his sleepy son, "Rurik, do you still remember your agreement with Gould?"
"Deal? I remember."
"That's good, come and eat some meat. Niya, make some baked wheat cakes for your son. He's hungry. And Rurik, I'll take you there after dawn. Go to Gould's place again. Make your promise. I hope you will become richer for your actions."
Rurik nodded and came to his father's side.
Baking bread in a clay oven is a hassle. If you want to eat cooked pasta quickly, eat baked wheat cakes.
In fact, the so-called baked wheat cake is a kind of whole wheat biscuit, or one of the oldest cookies. All Viking tribes would make such wheat cakes. They invaded and settled in colonies, and their tribe's food culture was also integrated with the local ones. The art of making graham crackers spread and continued to improve, eventually evolving into modern biscuit culture.
Niya grabbed a handful of the Novgorod people’s tribute, which was their ground whole-wheat flour, in a linen bag. She put the flour into a stone mortar, filled it with water and sprinkled it with salt, kneaded it into a rough dough, then simply patted it into a cake shape, and then spread it on a stone heated by a campfire.
After a while, the noodles were cooked.
Eating hard and rough dead dough bread, chewing on cooked beef with no saltiness, and drinking some salty soup made from random wild vegetables (even sun-dried pine needles).
It is really a luxury for the leader’s family to have breakfast like this. Many tribesmen only eat two meals a day. On ordinary days, they just eat some dried fish and dried vegetable soup to solve the problem.
It was getting brighter and I ate a lot of simple meals. This kind of diet can be called a weight loss meal. People in later generations will think that this kind of diet is healthy, but people in this time and space will always long for bread.
A big businessman like Gould has a large family and a lot of wealth, so he has the opportunity to turn himself into a fat pig. Not only did he eat himself into a fat man, but his son and daughter had no chance of losing weight.
Precisely because of his bloated figure, he always takes advantage in the trade of the tribal alliance. Are you willing to believe that a rare fat guy must have huge wealth? When trading with such a person, you don't have to worry about his rhetoric and empty tricks.
TimeThe spring equinox is approaching, the days are already very long, but the climate is still cold.
The sea ice in the central part of the Gulf of Bothnia has begun to melt, and many seal hunters have also discovered significant changes in the ice through dug holes in the ice. In the foreseeable future, standing on the ice to catch seals has become a very dangerous job.
Otto took Rurik's hand, and the two walked towards Gould's "mansion".
The two of them arrived not in time, or because of the strong drink yesterday, Gould slept very deeply last night. The sun had already risen and he was still sleeping soundly. The servant explained this matter to Otto.
"Okay, you go and wake up your master, I will personally wait for him to come out to see me!"
You have to bow your head under the eaves. The leader of the Ross tribe is still on this trip to discuss trade matters.
Although it was very vulgar, a warrior who wore armor all day long broke into Gould's bedroom and woke up the big businessman who was being slept with by two Briton maids. Frankly, It means the leader is here again.
"It's...it's Otto. About trade? And Rurik? Ah! Are they so anxious?" Gould patted his face hard and wrapped it up as quickly as possible He put on his robe and walked out of the bedroom pretending to be energetic.
Gould's mind was still a little confused. He put on a smile, opened his arms, and said some polite compliments to Otto.
"Don't say any more words of praise. Let's continue what we did yesterday. You see, I have brought Rurik here, and you will discuss the specific matters next."
" Huh? What's going on?" Gould pouted for a moment.
"Are you pretending to be confused? Of course it's about trade, Gould! Don't you want to make a bigger deal with us? Or is your head still soaked in those flammable spirits? ?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm really drunk." Seeing that he had aroused the leader's anger, Gould slapped himself hard several times as an apology and to wake himself up.
When Gould drank another glass of sweet wine and nibbled on a small piece of sour rye bread, his whole spirit really recovered.
Everything was very similar to yesterday, the three of them were sitting in the hall of Gould's mansion. In front of Rurik was another low table, with some dried meat and dried fruits on it, and a glass of wine. It was obvious that at this moment Gould did not regard Rurik as a child at all.
Gould cleared his throat: "Rurik, I remembered what happened yesterday. You claimed that you have the ability to extract the essence from ordinary wine and finally turn it into a burning spirit. For this reason, I I also paid you a hundred gold coins to learn how to make it. I'm sorry, I forgot the technique you described now, but it doesn't matter. If you can make it, you must sell it to me, and I will pay a big price for it." /p>
"It seems that you are very concerned about the wine."
"Of course! I have paid a hundred gold coins for this. Rurik, spend it."I will not regret the money, I just hope that my huge investment will bring gratifying returns. As far as I know, you have taught the priests to make soap and the blacksmith to make steel swords. Now you can obviously make a lot of money by brewing wine. I am happy to be your seller. ”
Rurik nodded, and the matter of purification was originally on the agenda. But wine itself is a luxury consumer product, and the original purpose of brewing it is for drinking. As for After purification, it can be used for medical treatment or even as a weapon.
Wine cannot bring people heat. On the contrary, it can take away people's heat.
Nordic. People all over the world love to drink. The reason is very simple. After a small amount enters the body, the blood flows all over the body faster, and the warm blood warms the whole body. In a cold place, this feeling of warmth is happiness.
Rurik estimated. The alcohol content of ordinary ale is only three to five degrees. If the alcohol content can be increased to 50 degrees and the impurity lees removed, it will become a flammable spirit.
A large vat is filled with turbid alcohol. The price of foamy ale is only two to three silver coins at most. If the alcohol in it is concentrated into a small bottle of spirits, not to mention ten gold coins, five gold coins would be fine, right? Thinking about it this way, as long as Gould can provide a large amount. For ale, if you make a distillation and purification system yourself, you can earn at least twenty times the price difference!
It is certainly a good thing to have a lot of money, but simply hoarding gold and silver is not Rurik's purpose.
p>
If there is a lack of currency in circulation in a trade market, the entire market will tend to shrink. Today’s currencies are all precious metals, because they are very scarce, have a special color, are small enough, and are extremely difficult to destroy. People all believe that it has natural value.
If it is only used as a material for making jewelry, the beauty of gold and silver is of course nothing to say. The Aztecs, who could not even make bronze weapons, already spontaneously used it. Smelting gold to make decorations
Rurik never wanted to be a miser. Simple silver and gold coins cannot be eaten. Only by exchanging them for food, wine, and other daily necessities can coins be used. It makes sense.
Now that you have a huge sum of money on hand, you must make full use of it and let a large amount of silver coins continue to circulate in the Ross tribe and beyond, in exchange for what you want. Things are also meant to bring vitality to the entire tribe.
This is the charm of currency. It can mobilize everyone's desire for wealth, and sufficient circulation can promote the development of productivity.