And my job is to be lady of the household and a good wife and mother. I don't believe that excludes controversy, but there are others who do.
Alchemy involves transmuting metals, yes, and experiments with other chemicals and processes. I don't believe anyone has yet managed to transform lead into gold! I rather hope that they don't. Too much of that and the value of gold itself would be quite diminished!
That is a very great distance, much further than people traveled for the Crusades even. I don't know if anyone has ventured so far from England, but we certainly don't have any sort of trade with them.
Although it might be that if they invented it, so far away, then so can we. If there would be an advantage to it. Giving Philip of France a nasty shock, perhaps, if nothing else.