The meeting ended, and Vigee, without embarrassing the envoy Eric, invited him to dinner.
After tasting the fine Bordeaux wines and dishes infused with precious spices, the envoy's demeanor softened considerably, and
he complained about the Duke's kindness.
After three rounds of drinks, the envoy gradually relaxed his guard and, under Vigee's guidance, casually mentioned Eric's recently built castle.
"Ge, ever since His Majesty and Ragnar captured York seven years ago, he has been obsessed with the stone buildings of York, and said that magnificent buildings contribute to demonstrating the greatness of a lord.
In fact, this statement makes a lot of sense. Take me as an example. An hour ago, before the ship docked, I was enchanted by your castle at first sight. I suppose most of the passengers are the same."
Vig: "Thank you for the compliment. In fact, I built the castle only for defense. The area is located on the northeast coast of Britain and
is often attacked by pirates. I had to spend a huge amount of money to build this castle."
"A huge amount of money?" the messenger was immediately interested. When he learned that the cost of Tain Castle was only 200 pounds of silver, he sighed:
"Too cheap. Eric's castle cost a total of 1,200 pounds of silver, from quarrying the stone to building it. Now it is only a semi-finished product, and it is estimated that hundreds of pounds of silver will be spent on it."
One thousand two hundred lists!
How much money did Eric's men appropriate?
Vig was glad that Geligiv was well versed in Latin literature and construction, so the masons had not deceived her.
Holding back his inner shock, he took the glass and sipped. "Eric is a king. In addition to protecting himself from foreign enemies, his castle must also perform administrative functions and receive guests from all over the world. It requires more space, so it is only natural that it costs more." "
Receiving guests?" The messenger's face lengthened. "The treasury is empty. Before the castle was built, guests could drink mead and sometimes taste the precious red wine from Francia. Now, ordinary guests can only drink beer.
Look, I am not intentionally slandering the beer of Tainburg, it is just that the price is too low, not enough to show the status of the king."
"It's okay, it's not that important. Beer has always been a common drink, not on the same level as wine and mead."
Vig ignored the messenger's comments and returned the conversation to Eric's castle, and then to the financial income of the Kingdom of Norway and the salaries of officials.
Speaking of salaries, the ambassador complained bitterly:
"Since last August, Eric has been paying salaries in kind, including woolen fabrics, grain and amber. The type of goods often depends on the availability in the warehouse.
For example, in April we distributed woolen fabrics. As soon as we received the salaries, we immediately took them to the market to sell. The increase in the supply of fabrics led to a drop in prices, and we usually lost from 10% to 20%..."
The dinner lasted almost an hour and eventually ended with the ambassador snoring.
Having ordered the maid to show him to the guest room on the second floor, Vig, fighting off sleep, took pen and paper to write down the information he had just received.
According to the envoy, the Norwegian royal family's annual income from various sources was equivalent to 1,300 pounds of silver, slightly less than Wessex's.
"According to later measurements, Norway covers an area of about 380,000 square kilometers, Britain about 230,000 square kilometers, and Ireland to the west about 84,000 square kilometers. Eric, King of Norway, is even less wealthy than the Duke of Wessex. It seems that Northern Europe is truly unfit for survival."
Rubbing his eyes, Vig dismissed his worries. King Eric was old and cowardly, and his castle had exhausted its many years of fiscal surplus, making an attack on Tyneburg virtually impossible.
"If nothing happens, the next step will be a period of wrangling." After the
messenger was dispatched, Vig's life returned to normal. He attended to government affairs, spent time with his family, and spent his free time wandering the city.
One day, he came across a parchment workshop southeast of the city and discovered that the artisans had mastered an early papermaking process.
For many years, three types of paper had been used in Tyneburg: expensive parchment, papyrus imported from the Mediterranean, and birch bark paper, a technique pioneered by the shaman Kemi Wildfire.
Each had its advantages and disadvantages. Because of cost and quality issues, Vig had to use a mixture of:
high-quality, expensive parchment for official documents and correspondence,
parchment and birch bark for books, and
papyrus for informal occasions.
To reduce these costs, he shared his memories of papermaking with the craftsmen. Years later, he finally figured out the technological route. From a
pond in the center of the yard, the craftsmen raked old, soaked linen, discarded fishing nets, and other materials, cut them into pieces, then mixed them with limewater and steamed them, stirring constantly.
The steamed fibers were washed with clean water and pounded repeatedly against a tree, resulting in a flaky mass.
The workers then poured the mixture into a vat of water, diluted it, and stirred it until it formed a turbid slurry. A wide wooden sieve was then dipped into the mixture and lifted horizontally, forming wet sheets. It was then dehydrated and dried, producing paper suitable for writing.
Having satisfied himself that the finished paper was of the required quality, Wig decided to move the workshop immediately.
With a population of over 3,000 and a booming trade, the technology of papermaking could easily escape the outside world.
So he planned to move the paper mill to the River Wear, a marshy area more than ten kilometers to the south, where the population was sparse and the secret could be kept secret. Although the technology of papermaking would eventually be discovered, every bit of profit was worth its weight in gold.
After leaving the workshop, Vig calculated the profits of the paper business.
Paper was made from bark, old flax, discarded ropes and nets, making it inexpensive. Sales were key.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe was in turmoil. Literacy rates in the early Middle Ages were approximately 1%-2%.
The vast majority of the literate population belonged to the clergy, while only a handful of merchants and artisans had basic literacy.
In contrast, the aristocracy valued military skills over cultural education, delegating tasks such as bookkeeping and letter writing to administrators and priests, leading to the influence of the Church on administrative power.
As for the vast majority of farmers and artisans, they had no access to education, no need for literacy, and led a mediocre life.
In summary, the paper mill's supplies, in addition to supplying the Tyneburg administration, churches, and schools, were mainly sold to monasteries throughout Europe.
The church's impression of Whig as a wily and cunning pagan nobleman was obvious. Realizing that this high-quality, inexpensive paper was being produced in Tyneburg, the church would likely publicly boycott it while secretly studying related papermaking technologies, effectively ignoring Whig's potential profits.
This realization immediately dampened his good mood.
"It seems that the idea of getting rich from papermaking is not very realistic. Well, satisfying domestic demand is a good idea. Since the formation of the Four Northern Counties, the demand for paper has been increasing. The advent of papermaking technology can at least relieve us of the high cost of importing paper."