7 Traveling to the Middle Ages 007

In the Middle Ages, amethyst was considered a rather precious gem. The top-tier gemstones were rubies, sapphires, emeralds, opals, and red spinels (at the time, due to limited means of verification, red spinels were commonly mistaken for rubies). Beneath these, amethyst was among the foremost in the second tier.

It was also one of the "key gemstones"—a term used by the Catholic Church to describe the five most important gems frequently seen in religious ceremonies. These five were amethyst, white diamond, emerald, ruby, and sapphire, representing five distinct colors.

Today, amethyst is regarded as an affordable and beautiful semi-precious stone, a status incomparable to its medieval significance. This is mainly because amethyst was rare in the Old World, and high-quality specimens were even scarcer. Scarcity made it valuable, and combined with the noble symbolism of purple, it naturally became highly sought after.

However, in the 19th century, vast and high-quality amethyst deposits were discovered in the Southern Cone of the New World, causing its value to plummet.

Louisa’s ability to casually produce such a strand of prayer beads was not due to an unexpectedly wealthy inheritance from her mother, who died in childbirth before Louisa was born. Rather, it was thanks to a personal storage space she possessed—a sort of portable dimension. It was said she had brought along her family’s supermarket from her previous life, but in reality, she had essentially moved her entire home.

In her past life, Louisa’s family lived in an urban village house of four and a half stories. The first two floors housed a supermarket; the third and fourth floors were living quarters, and the attic was used for storage. Her parents died in an accident when she was twelve, and she was raised by her aunt. Two people couldn’t occupy such a large space, so her aunt converted the third floor into a jewelry design studio.

Her aunt studied jewelry design but, finding few good job opportunities, opened an online store selling original designs and accepted custom orders. Her creations targeted a light luxury market, using relatively affordable semi-precious or lab-grown stones (similar to Kanzashi, though differing in style and category).

The studio stocked a considerable amount of amethyst beads—these were quite common. While the quality was top-notch, the prices remained very reasonable.

Brudo Market, being the most famous international wholesale market of the time, wouldn’t have trouble assembling a string of premium amethyst beads, but the question was whether this particular middleman could procure them. Clearly, his earlier boast was empty; he couldn’t easily obtain the finest jewels, at least not without difficulty.

The jewelry matter was thus dropped, but the middleman did not give up. Leveraging the connection with the Allan knights, he lingered beside the carriage. Even if he couldn’t broker a deal, merely appearing before Brudo’s heir was beneficial—especially since he quickly realized Louisa’s good-natured temperament.

Had she been a rough-tempered noble, he would have kept his distance.

“…Ah, miss, that’s the spice merchant shop of the Republic of Nice; I know their leader. This year, the business is handled by Marco of the Bruno family,” the middleman quickly explained upon noticing Louisa’s gaze lingering on a particular shop, emphasizing his connections.

Louisa wasn’t aware of the shop’s trade; she was drawn by the rich aroma of spices, reminiscent of wandering into the hot pot seasoning aisle in a supermarket in her previous life.

The shopkeepers also noticed the luxurious carriage parked outside. Louisa thought it unwise to merely glance and move on—what inspiration would that bring? So she alighted.

Lighting was a major issue in buildings of the time. Even though window glass existed, few installed it, and those who did used it sparingly. These shops were no exception. Louisa did not find the shops brighter than the depths of the castle, but that was inconsequential; her focus was on the goods the clerks displayed.

With the strong spice aroma masking outside odors, Louisa felt a slight tickle in her nose but lifted her veiling veil nonetheless.

This spice merchant was relatively well-off compared to neighboring shops and maintained a neat and orderly interior, unlike other wholesalers where goods were piled high in a display of volume and abundance, reflecting a natural disregard for tidiness.

Here, even spices were sealed in containers to preserve quality, preventing degradation from improper storage.

Behind the counter, clerks busily packed orders, clearly recalculating each sale meticulously, accounting for every farthing.

The clerk presented a comprehensive array of spices—pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, saffron, paradise pepper, galangal, ginger, and fennel—but what surprised Louisa most was spotting cane sugar in a spice shop.

“Do you also sell sugar among your goods?” Louisa asked, puzzled.

The clerk, misunderstanding her wonder as a simple inquiry, proudly replied, “Yes, esteemed lady, we are among the largest cane sugar merchants in the market. Every year, we export to Goldenland; just last year, Prince Edward of Goldenland ordered 1,000 pounds of the finest sugar from us.”

Contrary to later online rumors that one pound of sugar in the Middle Ages could be exchanged for an equal weight of gold or silver, sugar never reached parity even at its peak price. The phrase “worth its weight in gold” was likely hyperbole. At that time, one pound of sugar cost about 1 to 2 sous, depending on quality.

As the clerk said, Prince Edward spent 2,000 sous annually on sugar, equivalent to 100 pounds of silver—a considerable expense. This was before the late medieval period’s currency devaluation. A typical baron’s yearly income hovered around 300 to 400 pounds of silver. Prince Edward’s sugar purchase alone accounted for a quarter to a third of a baron’s annual earnings.

Do not underestimate the rank of “baron.” Influenced by literature, many modern Chinese regard it as a low noble rank, but in the Middle Ages, barons were unquestionably high nobility. Most well-known literary works were produced in or after the Renaissance, when noble ranks had depreciated like currency.

In reality, throughout the Middle Ages, the most important noble ranks were counts and barons. Dukes were rare, appearing mostly through hereditary claims or when kings created ducal titles for their sons—though without accompanying lands, such titles were merely nominal.

Marquises were even rarer, often considered special counts (border counts).

Viscounts varied by country; where they existed, they served either as assistants to counts or as subsidiary titles for heirs without primary rank, providing them with external prestige.

Of course, Prince Edward’s large sugar purchase was not for his personal consumption alone. As a high noble, he had a large household to maintain, including his retinue of knights. Providing for their needs was part of his duty, so 1,000 pounds of sugar was not excessive.

It may not even have been his annual consumption—just a single order.

Hearing this, Louisa refrained from further questioning, not wanting to appear odd. She contemplated the high-quality, yellowish sugar before her. At this time, no truly pure white sugar existed anywhere—not even in India or China, where rock sugar and white granulated sugar lacked such purity.

Claims of “yellow mud” or “egg white” bleaching were myths; it was impossible to achieve such purity. This yellow hue represented the technological limit of ancient sugar refining.

“Is all this sugar imported from the East? I heard that in southern Roland, sugarcane cultivation has begun… I thought there would be sugar from Roland,” Louisa cautiously inquired.

Historically, around this time, Arabs introduced sugarcane to southern Italy. However, cultivation and skilled sugar production were distinct; Italy only began producing sugar domestically near the end of the Middle Ages. Earlier, they might have produced crude sugar at low yield and poor quality.

The clerk appeared surprised that a noble girl knew such “trade secrets,” even somewhat alarmed. Many still believed Eastern spices and sugar came from the “Garden of Eden,” salvaged from river deltas. That sugar came from sugarcane was “common knowledge,” but that it was grown locally? That was indeed a “trade secret.”

After a pause, the clerk avoided the question and changed the subject to other rare goods.

Louisa did not press further but pondered the sugar issue privately. She had found the inspiration she sought! Sugar, as a commodity, was expensive and scarce, entirely reliant on imports.

If Brudo could produce sugar domestically, it would yield substantial fiscal revenue—exactly the perfect answer to the count’s assignment.

With this realization, Louisa had no desire to linger at the market. After confirming the castle had its own blacksmith and forge, she returned directly.

She needed to order equipment for sugar production. Given Brudo’s climate, sugarcane cultivation was impossible. Even if it were feasible, introducing and spreading a foreign crop would take too long.

So Louisa’s thoughts turned not to sugarcane but to sugar beet.

Anyone with basic education would know that sugar beet and sugarcane, grown in northern and southern regions respectively, both yield cane sugar.