Chapter 98 Biscuits, Noodles, Macaroni

Eltházi Manor, in the underground wine cellar.

The deacon in charge of the wine cellar was rubbing his hands. Although he was very dissatisfied with the royal family's robbing of the Eltházi family's property, he did not choose to follow the impoverished Prince Eltházi. After all, being able to look after the wine cellar for the royal family was also a good job.

It was just that this time, the wine cellar he looked after suffered a lot of losses. Of course, it was Mrs. Sophie's fault and had nothing to do with him. But no matter what he thought, at least in front of the young master, he still had to pretend to be good.

"Is all the wine here ruined?" Franz asked.

"Well, it turned sour a month ago." The deacon replied.

"A month?"

"Yes, a month ago."

"Then why didn't you report it?"

"Because these wines turned sour, it might be caused by the inferior wines shipped by Mrs. Sophie."

"Maybe? I asked you why you didn't report it?"

Franz's tone became stern. He didn't expect that the butler in his manor was such a person. He looked after such an important wine cellar, but he didn't know how the wine turned sour, and he didn't report it a month after the incident.

The deacon also noticed that the atmosphere was a little wrong, so he thought of an excuse.

"I thought Mrs. Sophie would tell you, Archduke Franz."

"What a hopeless bastard." Franz made such an evaluation in his heart.

"What's your name? Sir."

"Gushan Casse." The deacon replied.

"Well, Mr. Casse, you are fired." Franz said calmly.

"Why! I have worked for this manor for twenty years!" Gushan Casse said anxiously.

"Sir, please shut up, otherwise I will send you to court." Franz said.

Gushan Casse was about to argue, but was stopped by Talia.

"Mr. Casse, you have caused such a great loss to the Grand Duke. Not holding you responsible is the greatest kindness to you. Please do not continue to challenge the Grand Duke's patience. Children have poor patience."

Gushan Casse felt that he was not wrong, but he did not want to continue to anger Franz, because he felt that what Talia said made sense. Children have poor patience. If he went to find Mrs. Sophie, he would definitely be able to make things clear and continue to stay in the manor as his butler.

Franz looked at the wine in the cellar and felt a little sad. He did not feel sorry for the wine, but he felt that the wine was not sold for its due value, and it was a pity for this.

In fact, luxury goods such as high-end wine are worthless if there are too many, so it is not that Franz does not want to sell it, but that he cannot sell it. But who would have thought that there would be a fire in the backyard, and now it is good.

"Franz, what are you going to do?" Talia asked.

"What else can we do? Check it out. After distilling the less sour wine, it can be sold as cheap wine. The more sour wine can only be sold as grape vinegar." Franz had a bitter face.

Westerners are jealous, both materially and spiritually, and the history is long.

As for why Westerners know how to make vinegar, it is because this thing really does not require much technical content. At first, vinegar could be made by naturally fermenting honey with wine. It is estimated that some drunkard in ancient times accidentally mixed the two things together and discovered the existence of vinegar.

Half an hour later.

"Franz, the evaluation has been done. After classification just now, one-third of the wine can be distilled and sold cheaply, and the remaining two-thirds can only be made into grape vinegar. If forced to sell, it will affect the reputation of the royal family."

"Okay. How much can it be sold for?" Franz asked.

Talia blinked and gestured with five fingers.

"Just fifty thousand?!" Franz asked in disbelief.

"Five thousand!" Talia replied.

"If the cost of processing these grapes and selling is deducted, I am afraid the actual profit is only 4,500 florins."

".How is this possible?" As he spoke, an unknown white soul-like object was floating out of Franz's mouth.

Talia slammed the white object back into Franz's body with a clip.

"In recent years, except for the bumper harvest in Western Europe, the price of wine has plummeted. Now the price of wine is only one-third of that in 1830. The reason why the wine here can be sold at a high price is because of the name of the Eltházy family and the reputation accumulated over hundreds of years."

"." Franz understood what Talia meant. If he didn't want to exhaust the resources, he would have to accept the loss honestly. But this sudden disaster really made Franz very unhappy. However, Talia's words also reminded Franz that the continuous bumper harvests in recent years were abnormal. It should be that Eastern Europe should have frequent natural disasters and man-made disasters.

According to Franz's impression, this series of disasters included floods in Poland and rare ice floods in Hungary, which destroyed a large number of farmland and houses, including Petofi's home, and refugees were everywhere for a while.

"Talia, how much money do we have now?" Franz suddenly said.

"Let me see." Talia was rummaging through the folder and soon stopped.

"There are still 6,374,900 florins."

"Exchange all this money for food, grapes, in short, agricultural products!" Franz said excitedly.

"Franz, are you crazy? Yesterday, you were still mocking your mother for overestimating her own abilities, why are you going all in today?" Talia suspected that Franz might have intermittent mental illness, but it was no wonder, after all, it was a family disease!

"If you are asked to go, then go." Franz kept pushing Talia. He felt that there was no need to look at this wine cellar anymore.

"I am sure! In a year at most, there will be a great famine in Eastern Europe. At that time, the price of food will definitely soar." Franz explained.

"What if there is no famine within a year? The flour will go bad. The shelf life of most agricultural products is no more than one year." Talia asked.

"Then make the flour into biscuits!" Franz replied.

"Biscuits?" Talia was a little confused, because in her impression, biscuits are a very luxurious dessert.

At this time, Austria did not have biscuits in the modern sense. Austrian biscuits are called biscuits, but in fact, it is more appropriate to call them cookie cakes.

Beat the eggs and mix them with fine flour, add cookies and icing sugar, and after baking, sprinkle a layer of cream chocolate on the outside.

That's right! Super expensive!

"Are you sure?" Talia continued to ask.

Franz thought Talia did not understand the meaning of doing this, so he explained it carefully.

"Flour can be stored for a year. When flour is processed into biscuits, the physical properties of the flour in the biscuits change, so the shelf life continues to be extended, so it can be stored for another year."

Talia thought this method was very good, but the price of biscuits was a bit too expensive.

"In fact, you can consider making macaroni or noodles, which will cost much less and it will be easier to sell to the poor." Talia suggested.

Franz didn't understand what Talia was thinking.

"Why? Biscuits can be taken out and eaten directly, without fire or water, and can even be sent to the army as dry food. What if you encounter an enemy while cooking macaroni? Surrender?"

For some reason, when Talia mentioned macaroni, Franz thought of Italy. Seeing Talia's insistence on noodles and macaroni, Franz now began to doubt Talia's ethnic composition and whether she had Italian ancestry.