Marin didn't know how influential the order he had issued to "plant betel nuts" was. Because, betel nut is a bit addictive to eat, and later it has become a favorite snack for Europeans. Then, oral cancer became a common condition in Europeans......

The betel nut tastes a little weird, but people are excited to eat it. And the current Europe, just like this strange taste like spices. Later, the Portuguese, who had tasted it, obtained betel nut seeds in Southeast Asia, cultivated them in West Africa, and supplied dried betel nut to Europe, which was very popular among the aristocracy. Then, many people in the aristocracy were recruited. Although the proportion is not high, there are many of them......

The funniest thing is that the original effect of betel nut to prevent miasma, the Portuguese did not use it to supply the immigrants who needed it most, but shipped it back to Europe to sell as a snack. Then, the Portuguese did not gain a foothold in Africa, and still relied on the blacks, laying the groundwork for the loss of the colony in the future.

Of course, that's an afterthought. Fortunately, Beihai Kingdom avoided various problems because of Ma Lin's laws prohibiting eating more. And people in other countries don't believe it, so they naturally chew on it, and they can't blame people if they are tricked. And Marin is also happy to see jokes, who let them not listen to their own advice. Moreover, the main ones who are recruited are those who don't stop chewing betel nut all day long. Eating less than two or three pills a day is not much of a problem. Chewing betel nut all day long is like smoking a few packs of cigarettes a day, you are all dying by yourself, and you can't blame others.

In order to alleviate the harm of betel nut in betel nut, Marin specially ordered the large-scale cultivation of lemons in Cuba, and then, extracted citric acid, popularized in the tropics and lemonade, and required the lemonade to stay in the mouth for a while before swallowing.

The specific requirement is that after chewing betel nut, you must first rinse your mouth with water, and then drink some lemonade with citric acid. In this way, the acid-base neutralization can also reduce the harm of arecaine.

Speaking of which, the island of Cuba is such a great place to be. Although the island is only 100,000 ordinary kilometers in size, most of the island is plain, which is suitable for agriculture. Therefore, after occupying the island of Cuba, Marin planted all the tropical crops he wanted to grow on the island. As for Panama, only some sweet potatoes, peanuts and other crops are grown there as a food supply to the local area.

In addition, there are world-class nickel mines on the island of Cuba. It can not only provide a large amount of nickel metal for Marin, but also produce a large amount of sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid in the extraction process of nickel sulfide, which can be used for the processing of phosphate rock and make it an easily absorbed phosphate fertilizer.

Thinking of Cuba's laterite nickel mines, Marin patted his head again and ordered another 20 million French Denire "silver coins" to be minted with nickel white copper.

20 million French Deniers "silver coins", worth more than 186,000 gold coins. It doesn't look like the total value is much, but you can buy a lot of supplies from France. Not to mention anything else, France, as an agricultural country, has no shortage of cattle and horses, and there are many donkeys and mules. These "silver coins" of white copper, which Marin had privately forged, could be purchased from France in large quantities of livestock. In addition, the wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux can also be purchased in large quantities with these fake deniers.

In addition, recently, Kohler's spy merchants suddenly discovered that it seems that you can buy people in France with Dniere silver coins......

Yes, coins can also buy people in France!

Don't look at France, like England, which has long since begun to abolish slavery. However, in many parts of the countryside, there are still many remnants of serfdom. Even, two or three hundred years later, during the "French Revolution", there were still millions of serfs left in the French countryside.

In France, only large cities such as Paris, Marseille, and Lyon and their surrounding areas can be regarded as developed regions, and their ideas are relatively progressive. However, in the vast countryside, there are still many remnants of feudal serfdom.

Moreover, France is now the least populous country in Europe, with a total population of more than 15 million, making it the least valuable country in Europe in terms of human resources.

Because it had not been a long time since war and the Black Death, the population of France was growing rapidly, and there was a lot of surplus population.

By chance, Kohler's spy merchant was on a trip to eastern France near Germany to buy goods with counterfeit silver and white copper coins, and found a down-and-out local nobleman selling serfs in the market......

Of course, due to the laws of the Kingdom of France, the down-and-out nobleman did not dare to sell people as slaves altogether, but sold the extra boys in the manor in the form of a contract and sold them to others as indentured slaves.

After all, slavery was abolished in French law, and human trafficking was not allowed openly. Therefore, when the owner of the manor sold the surplus serf children in the estate, he sold it in the form of a "contract of employment".

Although not a slave to the outside world, the "employment contract" does not specify any rights and interests of any "employed" slave. In fact, the French aristocracy also privately traded surplus serfs in the estates. Some are to repay the money, and some are simply because the population in the manor is too large to afford it.

Especially teenage boys, as the saying goes, "half the size, eat the poor". If there were too many boys in the serf families on the estate, the lord of the manor might send them away and become apprentices (apprentices were not paid for seven years), or some greedy lords would simply sell them to others in the form of "indentured servants".

This is somewhat like the slaves of the ancient Chinese feudal dynasty, although life and death are not in the hands of slave owners like slaves, but they also have no freedom and must obey the orders of their employers. Moreover, their property, like that of serfs, belonged to their masters. The only thing that is better than slaves is that employers can't kill them easily.

Generally speaking, such transactions are private. Moreover, it is mostly carried out between the lords of the manor. After all, some estates have a large population, while others have a small population.

However, when Kohler's spies went to Dijon (the capital of the original Duchy of Burgundy) to buy Burgundy wine, it happened that the owner of the manor was in financial crisis and could not sell the surplus serf boys, so he took them to the market and sold them, only to be discovered by Kohler's men......

Then, Marin was surprised to find out that there was also human trafficking in France! Although it is deeply hidden, there are still some of them.

After all, male and female servants were still very popular in Europe in this era. And the man and the maid must be reliable, and what could be more reliable than a contract servant?

So, privately, the French client trade flourished. For a dozen gold coins, you can buy a half-sized boy as a servant. If you are a half-old girl, the ordinary-looking one is cheaper than the boy, but the good-looking one has 30 gold coins. Because, this kind of good-looking maid is generally the plaything of the aristocracy, or bought back as a lover, and the price is naturally a little more expensive.

Marin wasn't interested in buying girls, but he was interested in the half-sized trade. After all, if you buy it and raise it for a few years, you will be a strong male laborer. As for women, can you buy cheaper hairy girls......