Chapter 22
When Glenn Wilson, the merchant who had once received the Queen upon her return home, was summoned to the seaside and saw bag after bag of snow-white salt, he could hardly believe his eyes.
In his youth, he traveled all over the country to do business, so he understood the value of salt even more. Especially in Britain, where salt was scarce and needed to be imported in large quantities, the best salt was once called "white gold".
He wholeheartedly agreed with the nickname; the finest salt was like a glittering gold coin!
Britain also produces salt in the warmer areas of the southern bays, such as Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Sussex and Devon. The poor workers there boil the sea for salt like in Scotland, but the salt they produce is mostly of poor quality, yellow and bitter, and cannot compare to the snow-white salt in front of us!
Moreover, those salt factories could only produce a maximum of 20,000 dan (a unit of weight) per year, which could only supply one-tenth of the entire British population, and the rest had to be imported from France!
Old Glen knew that it was very profitable to import salt from the Bay of Burnaway in France and sell it in England. He knew many merchants who had made a fortune selling salt.
These thoughts flew through Old Grannan's mind like a wisp of smoke. After calculating how many pounds the salt was worth, the bright future he could imagine made him breathe rapidly and his face flush.
He had already guessed why the Queen had summoned an old merchant like him. He almost ran to see the Queen and then begged Her Majesty to sign a monopoly certificate for salt for him.
He was willing to give up all his assets for this exclusive certificate, including Rhett's large house, a vineyard, and two fine properties.
“Mr. Wilson, I need someone with your extensive experience to pledge allegiance so that I can expand my business, but even if you gave me all your wealth, you wouldn’t deserve the monopoly on salt,” Mary said.
Gran Wilson was stunned by this bucket of cold water, but finally regained some of his composure.
“Then, Your Majesty, is there anything I can do for you?” Old Gran asked.
Mary pointed to a peacock-shaped silver vessel on her table, filled with snow-white salt.
“Of course it’s this salt. I don’t need a merchant with a monopoly, but I do need a steward to sell these large quantities of salt to various parts of England and earn enough pounds to improve the lives of the Scottish people,” Mary said.
Old Glenn pondered for a moment, then cautiously asked, "How many pounds does Your Majesty wish to obtain through the sale of salt?"
Mary crossed her arms in front of her, smiled slightly, and said, "Although I don't understand business, I do know that how much profit you can make depends entirely on local demand and prices, which is impossible to predict. However, you can sign a contract with my manager stipulating that you will receive one percent of the profits, and the more you earn, the higher your profit percentage will be."
“God is my witness, I will use all my business acumen to earn enough profit for Your Majesty!” said old Glenn.
“Besides that, there is one more thing that requires your attention. I want to recruit more people with business acumen to work for me. They should ideally be Scots, but people from other countries are also welcome. They need to have a clean background, be fluent in various languages, be willing to pledge allegiance to me, and absolutely have no connection with England or Protestantism. If you find such talent, feel free to recommend them to me, and I will promise them a bright future,” Mary added.
“Your Majesty, such a person is hard to find, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to find one for the time being,” Old Gelan replied.
Mary nodded.
“I understand, there’s no rush. I just need you to keep an eye on things as you do business,” Mary said.
When Mary returned to Edinburgh from the seaside, she also took several distillation apparatuses with her.
With this device, she can try to extract alcohol when she gets back.
...
Upon returning to Holyrood Palace, Mary was relieved to find that everything was as peaceful as before, with no unexpected incidents. In fact, the nobles treated her with even greater respect than before, no longer regarding her merely as a symbol and puppet, but rather with polite perfunctory manners.
It's clear that taking down John Knox was quite a deterrent.
Then, the material aid that Mary had been longing for finally arrived—from her uncle, the Duke of Guise, and the Pope.
This abundant shipment filled the hold of three sailing ships, sailed across the Channel of Calais, and then was transferred to horse-drawn carriages. It filled nearly a hundred large carriages before arriving at Holyrood Palace. The weight was so heavy that even the horses could not bear it, leaving deep ruts in the dirt road. It attracted a crowd of servants to watch as the goods arrived at the palace gate.
To prevent any embezzlement, Mary personally brought her confidential secretary, Basil, to these carriages, where they watched the servants unload the supplies and count what was inside.
Then, the things that were moved down gradually brought tears to everyone's eyes.
The confidential secretary, Basil, quickly jotted down notes on the supplies with a quill pen, and by the end, he was utterly dumbfounded.
"A thousand sets of infantry half-body armor, eight hundred matchlock muskets and corresponding gunpowder, five hundred fine iron shields, five hundred spears, four new cannons custom-made from Italy... My God, Duke Guise is really going all out," Basil couldn't help but say.
Mary watched from the side, her face expressionless, but she was equally shocked.
When she wrote a letter to the Duke of Guise complaining that she only had a mere hundred soldiers at her disposal, she was indeed hoping that her powerful uncle could support her in this regard.
At that time, Mary felt that it was already good enough that the Duke of Guise could provide her with enough equipment to arm those hundred men. If he were willing to give her more money to expand the size of the guard, that would be enough for her to express her gratitude to God all day long and pray that her uncle could escape the Huguenot assassination in 1563.
Unexpectedly, the Duke of Giss has now sent enough equipment to arm a thousand guards, demonstrating his support for his niece in reclaiming her right to the throne.
If she were to utilize all this equipment and organize an elite army of a thousand men, she would possess military power in Scotland second only to the Earl of Morley and Maitland. Then, she could deal with the less powerful minor nobles one by one in the name of the Queen, in order to accumulate strength...
Several minutes later, the queen, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally let out a soft breath and suppressed the delusions in her mind.
Raising an army of a thousand men and maintaining an army of a thousand men year after year are two completely different things.
To maintain a reasonably effective army year-round, she would need to provide them with nutritious and filling meals, ensure their daily training, replace outdated weapons regularly, and maintain a large number of warhorses… These expenses would be astronomical for her at present.
Mary joked to Earl Boswell beside her, "Giving these equipment to my soldiers and then having them train properly is going to be a lot of work. It seems you'll be busy from dawn till dusk and won't even have time to sleep. I hope you won't hate my uncle, the Duke, because of this."
No man dislikes weapons. The Earl of Boswell's eyes were glued to the new cannons, unable to look away. He laughed and said, "I would love more trouble like this. Your Majesty, I only wish that your dear uncle would send envoys to Scotland several times a year."
Compared to the support sent by the Duke of Guise, the support sent by the Pope seemed much less impressive.
The Holy Father gifted this devout believer a large number of exquisite tapestries, Turkish carpets, gilded candlesticks, sterling silver tableware... each item was expensive enough to completely transform Holyrood Palace, but the problem was, while she was short of money, she didn't need these things.
The Earl of Morrie held complete control of the finances, but he didn't sting on them. Given Scotland's national strength, the living conditions at Holyrood Palace were already top-notch.
Each era has its own limitations. As Queen of Scotland, she had to maintain the dignity of a monarch and preserve a life of luxury where she could only afford to buy and not spend.
She can use or give away gifts from the Pope, but if she were to secretly sell them for cash, she would lose face and indirectly insult the Pope.
Finally, the messengers escorting the supplies took down the Pope's last gift, which was also the most precious one.
It was in a small box—an indulgence.
Mary "..."
"Indulgences?"
Mary repeated herself in a strange tone, almost doubting that she had misheard.
“Yes, the Pope has given the order that you may sell these indulgences in Scotland,” the messenger said with a smile.
Albert, thinking the Queen had never heard of indulgences, whispered in her ear, “Indulgences are very popular in Italy and Germany. I used to see priests selling them in front of churches.”
"The people of the Vatican say that the Pope has access to the infinite merits generated after Christ bore the sins of the world, which is the treasury of merits. If sinners who are destined for hell after death receive these merits, they can offset their sins and go to heaven. And the indulgences contain the merits added by His Holiness the Pope."
"However, indulgences are also divided into different levels. There are indulgences specifically for incest, adultery, murder of one's wife, and murder of one's mother. There are also indulgences that help the dead atone for their sins, absolve past and future sins, help nobles go to heaven after death, and can be given as gifts to relatives and friends for atonement... This little box contains indulgences that can satisfy all the greatest sins of the past and future. In Italy, they cost 100 gold ducats to sell. His Majesty the Pope is very generous to give these to you."
"..."
Upon hearing the last sentence, Mary raised her eyebrows subtly, unsure of what to say.
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