Section 28 Slave Trade

"Hmm." Li Luoyou thought, the imperial court may not have this ability. No matter how sharp the Australians' firearms are, as far as the Australians' fortification in Bopu and the clippers in the strait, the imperial court will not send an army of tens of thousands of warships and two hundred warships, I am afraid that the Australians will not even bother to look at it.

"There's no need to worry about this, the Australians are strong and sharp, and it's not easy to move them." Li Luoyou deliberately did not lower his voice, seeing how this nephew's expression was, seeing that he was not afraid, he felt more and more that this matter was feasible.

"Even if there is any trouble, Baocheng you leave the shop and leave immediately, I will never blame you, and I will leave Qingshan without worrying about running out of firewood. There's no shame in that. ”

"Yes, my nephew remembers the old man's teachings."

The three of them discussed who to send to Lingao to assist in the errands, how to buy and sell this place, what goods to prepare, how to get out in case of any trouble, and how to respond in Guangdong.

While the Li family was deliberating, Quark was quietly invited to Liu San's office in the wet hall.

He was led by a servant carrying a lantern through the dark alleys and deserted passages, and when he turned and turned, he was taken to a courtyard. The courtyard is brightly lit. Liu San, who had negotiated with him just now, was waiting in front of the room.

Quark was welcomed into a side room, and as soon as he entered, he was amazed, how could the lights be so bright? The courtyard where Li Luoyou lives, the Yang family is wholeheartedly supplied, and the candlesticks in the room are more than four, and the lighting is also very dim, but this room is like dozens of candles.

The light came from a lamp on the table in the room, and a pinch of fire was dancing under the glass cover, illuminating the room with a glow.

The room is very simple, a Chinese-style desk, a few beautiful rattan chairs. In addition to Liu San, there was also a young man in the room that he had never seen, with a medium-to-fat figure and an ordinary appearance, with a scholarly face, wearing a pair of shelves on his face, and inlaid with two pieces of glass. Quark knew that it was glasses, but it was the first time he had seen the glasses directly on his face like this, so he couldn't help but look at them a few more times with curiosity.

The man sat in his chair, silent. Just looked him up and down a few times.

"Mr. Quark, please take a seat." Liu San smiled and said, "We have another deal to negotiate." You must be of great interest. ”

"Good." Quark thought that it was obviously not a good thing to talk about this deal with him alone.

Liu San got up and closed the door of the room, and closed the curtains tightly. Seeing that Liu San was so secretive and didn't know what to do, Quark showed an uneasy look.

"Mr. Quark, we have to sit down and talk about business with confidence, and we have to be cautious." The young man sitting on a wicker chair with glasses suddenly spoke. And he speaks English.

Quark was startled. English was neither an academic nor an aristocratic language in this time and space, but only one of countless languages in Europe. Very few people outside the UK speak English.

The most painful thing about his arrival in Daming was that there were almost no English speakers, so he had to learn Chinese on his own. I have learned Chinese, but I have learned a layer in the end, and it is sometimes difficult to express the meaning. Now I suddenly hear that someone can speak English, and I feel very relaxed.

The difference between Old English and Modern British English is still significant. But the two were finally able to communicate unimpeded.

This English-speaking person is Xu Tianqi, this person is a college student who learns languages, proficient in English and German, but it is useless after D-Day, and has been reduced to the basic labor group, and then Ma Qianzhu wants to engage in a mechanical card data management system, and he is seconded to the big library to translate the jishu information, and after the translation, he becomes the basic labor force

After the second plenary meeting, the broad masses of the basic labor force excitedly said: "Our spring has finally come." Xu Tianqi was officially transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When I arrived at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I didn't have much to do, and my main job was to translate jishu materials. This time I have a full-fledged job.

"Mr. Quark, have you ever sold slaves?"

Quark shook his head: "It's a very dangerous business"

The slave trade is a lucrative business, and a boatload of slaves can make hundreds of percent of the profit even if half of them die on the way. But the risks involved are enormous. Ships had to stop at slave trading posts in Africa and wait for slave traders from the interior to bring them in, during which many of them contracted a terrible fever and died; The profits were so high that there were people everywhere who spied on them, and raids on slave ships and merchant posts were common. If they were captured by the Spaniards on their way to South America, they would probably be hanged alive or handed over to the Inquisition, and even if they abandoned their faith and converted to Catholicism, they would have to endure years of slave-like hard labor before they could escape.

The people who dared to do this kind of trade were the most daring, ruthless and unscrupulous people, and Quark never thought of running this kind of business when he was at his most down.

"Now there is an opportunity--" Liu San explained through Xu Tianqi the business that asked him to traffic Southeast Asian natives to Sanya. “…… We pay for the natives you traffic to Sanya with sugar, tea or raw silk. ”

Quark hesitated and said, "You need slaves, I understand that. But weishenme wants this kind of native? They were short, lazy, and fierce. It's not material for work. ”

"Are there any lazy and murderous slaves?" Xu Tianqi said.

Quark nodded, "Okay." However, it is a bit more difficult to catch the slave trafficker. ”

"This is calculated within your cost." Liu San said, "I believe that British businessmen are struggling to find a suitable port to trade with China. ”

British merchants had no foothold in the South Seas and had to operate on Dutch territory. What the Dutch wanted was a monopoly on trade with China, first in Banten, and then in Ambon to kill eight British. The British held a grudge and shouted "Ambon Massacre" every day, wanting to use this righteous excuse to take revenge on the Dutch, but the British were insignificant in East Asia and were no match for the Dutch at all. As for the Portuguese and Spaniards, they are deeply entrenched in East and Southeast Asia, and even the Dutch can't gnaw on them, let alone the British.

"You mean—"

"Please." Liu San opens a map of the South China Sea.

"You drew this map?" Quark was amazed that the map was so beautifully drawn, not only beautiful, but also that it had drawn many coastlines that had not been mapped and were purely speculative.

"That's right," Liu San said, the map is a first-level control item, and he doesn't want to dwell too much on this issue, "This is the Qiongzhou Mansion." He pointed to Hainan Island.

"We're here." He pointed to the location of Lingao County.

"You're going to open this place as a free trade port?" Quark asked.

"No, not here. Lingao is still lacking as a trading port. Liu San said, "To be exact, it's here." He pointed to the southern tip of Hainan Island.

"There's nothing here." Quark said.

"No, there's one of our ports here." Liu San said, "As long as you transport the slaves there, we will pay you the most haode white sugar and rock sugar, as well as raw silk." ”

"You have a port there?" Quark exclaimed. Although he doesn't know the name of this location, from the geographical point of view, it is the only way from Chinese mainland to Southeast Asia, and the geographical location is very superior. Compared to Formosa, which was occupied by the Dutch, it was closer to Chinese mainland. It is very convenient for British merchant ships to be anchored here.

If you set up a warehouse in this place...... The gold in front of Quark's eyes began to fly again.

"I want to see it for myself. As for the slave ......" Quark still hesitated. The slave trade is certainly profitable, but it is not easy to get started. Unlike African slaves, a chain of production, supply and marketing has been formed. There is no such thing in Southeast Asia, and quarks have to build a chain by themselves if they want to do it.

Following the African model, it was necessary to buy several local chieftains to capture slaves, exchange goods for prisoners, and establish local trading posts for slave hoarding. The post must be well defended to avoid attacks by red-eyed peers or local chieftains who could stab them in the back at any moment.

That's a huge expense. Quark calculated the approximate cost. Zuihou shook his head:

"I can't make this deal. The initial input costs were beyond my reach. In order to show that what he said was true, he listed all the various inputs he needed to Liu San one by one.

"I'm going to build a ship or buy a ship, and I'm going to hire enough people to handle all sorts of things; The trading post needs to be fortified, cannons and weapons must be purchased, a small garrison must be equipped, and valuable gifts must be given to the local chieftains, otherwise they will not bother to hunt slaves for us, let alone give them a place to build a trading post. ”

"We'll send you a patent certificate for the slave trade." The Ministry of Commerce and Foreign Affairs had already considered it, "Grant you a monopoly on the slave trade in Sanya for five years." ”

Patent certificate Quark's eyes lit up. With this patent certificate, he can use it to organize a joint-stock company, raise shares, attract more businessmen to participate in this transaction, and solve the financial problem.

"How? Once you have this, you can go and form a joint-stock company. Liu San seemed to know what he was thinking.

"Yes, if there is such a patent, the problem of funding is much easier." Quark was no longer interested in the matter of the Li Luoyou cannon factory - this kind of thing could not be as quick as the slave trader made money

"It's going to take quite a long time, though." Quark said, "I'm going to go to Surat once to raise shares." It is also necessary to buy ships and recruit manpower. The first slaves will not be shipped until the end of this year at the earliest. ”

At the end of the year, just in time for the completion of the construction of Tiandu, mining began, and the first batch of slaves arrived just in time for use.

"Yes, but you have to hurry, if you don't get the first batch of slaves by the end of December of this year, the patent certificate will be invalid."

Seeing that the money was in front of him but still had to wait for more than half a year, Quark couldn't help but be so anxious that he was full of fire, and immediately promised: "Okay, I promise that it will be delivered." ”

"This patent only covers the natives of Southeast Asia, and you are not allowed to trade other slaves. Unless we ask for it. Liu San warned, "As long as it is found that someone else is entrained once, the patent certificate will be invalid." ”

"I'm asking for this-three...... Ya set up a warehouse. Quark then made a request.

"Yes. Since it was a trading port, merchants were welcome. As long as you do what we do. ”

At the same time, a state council was held in Baiqian City to discuss whether or not to sell arms to Li Luoyou.

Most people are opposed to the sale of arms: the danger of selling high-quality weapons to a potential enemy is self-evident. In case the Ming Dynasty came to attack, the traversers did not want to taste the 12-pounder shells of the Napoleonic guns they had cast. If Li Luo had resold it to Liaodong, the consequences would have been even more serious -- it would have seriously undermined the balance of the mainland. Historically, the Guanning Army was a transport team, losing a lot of firearms to Houjin, and the Dengzhou Rebellion that was about to occur in a few years made a large number of firearms, soldiers and Jishu personnel who used firearms fall into the hands of the Manchus, and Houjin began to manufacture their own red-coated cannons. If Li Luoyou resells, the advantage of firearms will be tilted towards Houjin earlier. It is not known that the defense of the Ming Dynasty, which relied on firearms, might collapse.

Some people think that they can make inferior cannons, and the performance is slightly higher than that of Hongyi cannons, and they can also sell higher quality arquebuses in batches. A special weapons workshop was opened to supply Daming.

"Comrades, we need metal to make weapons, and our iron and copper are still dependent on imports, which are strategic materials, how much pig iron or bronze do you need for a cannon? Have you counted? The Canton station was bought with great difficulty, and we caused the cannons to be sold again -- this practice is so strange that we are not short of these money. "And the production of artillery and muskets also requires energy consumption, whether it is electricity or coal, and it cannot be said to be abundant." ”

"How about processing with supplied materials? How much copper, how much iron, and how much coal does a cannon cost, and how much coal does it cost, and it has to be given in excess of ......"

"It doesn't mean much." Zhan Wuya said: "Don't forget that making artillery also consumes workers' man-hours and mechanical wear. It's all cost. ”

So the matter of exporting weapons was vetoed, and some people proposed to export the 30-type revolver produced by Lingao, which consumed very little metal or man-hours, and the ammunition could not be done with either the Ming Dynasty or the Houjin, and if you wanted to use it, you had to buy it from Lingao, and it was easy to get stuck on the ammunition.

"In addition, the revolver cannot be used to kill the enemy, in the eyes of the natives, it is just a strange thing. It is certainly very popular for generals and civilian officials to engage in a talisman. ”

"That's fine, but people don't necessarily want it. You know that this is a strange thing, Li Luo is not stupid, and naturally knows that it is not very useful. I can't buy much. ”

"Besides, I'm afraid that one day when a certain veteran is watching a play, the spies of Jinyiwei will quietly cover up from behind and use a 30 revolver to give him a shot like this." Wu Mu, who attended the meeting, said. He was acting as a representative of the General Directorate of Political Security to assess the political safety of arms sales.

Zuihou decided not to sell arms. Wu De said that he could consider helping Li Luoyou to establish a gun factory.

"Cannons don't sell guns?" Cheng Dong said he couldn't understand, "How do I feel that the cart is put before the horse." ”

"Strictly speaking, it sells some simple equipment. Proper diffusion jishu," Wu De's suggestion was to take advantage of the opportunity of Li Luoyu to open a cannon factory and sell him simple industrial processing equipment.

"For example, the bore boring and boring circle, which is not available in the traditional Chinese cannon jishu, we sell a few special artillery boring machines, which can greatly improve their level of imitation of Hongyi cannons. The power has been increased, but the increase is limited, and it will not affect our own security, nor will it have a great impact on the balance of the continent. ”

In addition to artillery boring machines, he also suggested providing iron mold casting jishu. This jishu can increase the yield of the gun and make the gun body more durable. At the same time, the production efficiency of artillery is increased.

"Iron mold casting is not an advanced jishu in the field of artillery production, and after we produce our own artillery, we mainly use the Rodman method and the overall casting deep drilling process, and the iron mold casting technology to Li Luoyou will not have any impact on our jishu advantages."

In addition, there are blowers, which are also equipment that can improve production efficiency.

"What about power, do you still need to provide a steam engine?"

"At this stage, we will supply water turbines or windmills." "Of course you have to provide a gearbox, otherwise you won't be able to use either of those things." ”

"What's in it for us when we sell it?" Ma Qianzhu didn't quite understand.

"Selling artillery and arms consumes resources, and selling machinery and equipment also consumes resources."

"We can sell services, but with the quality level of the parts we manufacture, Li Luoyou is afraid that he will go crazy when he sees the maintenance bill." Zhan Wuya said.

"You can't just think about making money. As for the consumption of resources, we should look at it this way. Selling cannons to Chongzhen is net consumption, and selling machines is a kind of hematopoiesis," Wu De said, "We can't always produce everything on our own, right?" It's not economical. Sooner or later, some areas of production will have to be opened up to the private sector. Since it is open to the people, of course, we do not want them to continue to use the traditional manual way of manufacturing, otherwise our equipment manufacturing industry will never develop - there is a lack of sufficient orders. ”

As long as you have seen the factories that pass through the crowd, you are all impressed by the industrial production efficiency. Yang Shixiang is already eager to change the pharmaceutical factory to mechanization, but the local economy of Lingao is too weak, and there are few people who have the funds to invest in industry. Industry, in turn, takes up a large number of people. Labor is already in short supply, and with the increase in the demand for private industries, the population bottleneck will become more and more prominent.

If the Pearl River Delta, which has a large amount of capital and a large population at hand, also joins this industrialization process, Lingao's equipment manufacturing industry can be greatly developed. And it will form a dependence on Lingao industry. The supply, maintenance and upgrading of machinery and equipment depend on Lingao Industry.