This was the first step for Jian Chen to open up "legal" smuggling. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

For this first step, all means must be tried. Because as long as there is a legal first ship that can be berthed, the rest will show their abilities, and everything will be difficult at the beginning.

However, the merchant quickly refused, and even though Jian Chen offered some great prices, the merchant still said that he could not do anything.

Jian Chen couldn't talk about it for a long time, so he had to put this matter on hold for the time being.

As for the share of the smuggling trade, he is confident that as long as the route can be established, there will be no problem with the sales of goods.

In less than a hundred years, Potosí in the south has grown from a large city of less than 500 people to a large city of more than 100,000 people.

It was a thoroughly mining and industrial city of this era, with half of the world's silver production said to have been produced at this time.

The large working population is a huge consumer market, and some of the policies of Spain in the South American colonies make the market extremely vast.

When it comes to Potosí, Jian Chen thinks of a product that may be in high demand and has great sales prospects.

A kerosene lamp was found from the sample, and after a demonstration, he said, "This oil lamp is bright, and if it is sold in Potosí, it should make a lot of money." If you are willing to cooperate for a long time, we can sign an agreement. ”

The merchant was very surprised that Chen Jian lit the fire with a match, and praised him when he saw the kerosene lamp, but he was a little hesitant.

"With all due respect, Mr. Governor, this beautiful commodity of yours will not be welcomed in the mines."

Jian Chen shook his head and said, "How is it possible?" The mine is not open-air, so doesn't it need lighting? ”

"You must know that Mr. Governor, free labourers are seldom used in the mines, and the wages of those labourers are too high, so they are all Medar Indians."

"Whatever it is, you need lighting."

"But for the mine owner, you don't need such a delicate oil lamp, just a simple rush or candle."

The merchant thought for a moment and then explained, "It turns out that there is a system of changing shifts during the day and at night, but the clever mine owner has found that changing shifts is a waste of time. So now they are all mined in groups of three, and food, shelter and excretion are all under the mine, which can save time. Everyone needs to work a rush in a different shift. If you use your oil lamp, you'll need the rest of the timers...... Moreover, even if you don't use oil lamps, everyone's daily ration can be completed, so why do mine owners need such delicate lamps? ”

The merchant added, "But there is one thing which, if you can get your hands on, will be very popular." ”

"What cargo?"

Jian Chen was a little curious, and the merchant smiled: "Slave, black slave." ”

Probably afraid that Chen Jian would not be moved, the merchant hurriedly said: "Mr. Governor, now in the coastal area of the Viceroyalty of Peru, the best goods to sell are slaves. The Indians were required to serve as midas in Potosí to mine, and two years ago they had changed from one out of seven to one out of three, and their numbers were getting smaller and smaller. And these filthy poor ghosts would cut off their fingers or toes or flee in order to escape servitude. ”

"So now the coastal area of the Viceroyalty of Peru is deserted with a large number of plantations, and all the plantation owners need a large number of slaves. If your fleet can bring slaves, I can guarantee you three to seven times the profit. You just need to ship the guns to Africa, where the chiefs will come and trade......"

While the merchant was still chattering, Jian Chen interrupted him and asked, "Do all Indians need to serve as conscripts?" ”

"Nope. Kasik doesn't, and if you have a 'blood purification certificate', you don't need it. ”

Hearing two strange proper nouns, Jian Chen was also a little curious, and after asking for a long time, he finally figured out what these two things were.

Similar to the local gentry, the Kasik was generally a prominent Indian chief in the local village, who was given the title by Spain and could be used as a low-level administrator, without the need for tribute and conscription.

This "blood purification certificate" is an Indian "carrying" ceremony. Descendants of chiefs who obtain this certificate can be treated as second-class nationals, can nominally have a status with native whites, and can even go to study at the University of San Marcos.

It needs to be issued by the royal family or the governor, with the consent of the Inquisition Pavilion and the Church, and of course it can be bought for money.

When he heard that he could spend money to buy them, Chen Jian was a little moved, if he got some of these certificates, some things would be much simpler, and it would be convenient to carry out some activities in the colony.

The merchant's answer, however, was firm.

"Mr. Governor, are you fluent in Latin?"

"Nope."

"Can you sing hymns?"

"Nope."

"Can you memorize the Bible?"

"Nope."

"So, Mr. Governor, this kind of thing cannot be solved by money. It was issued by the royal family and the Church specifically to have the blood of a chief, to study in the affiliated school of the University of San Marcos, to be proficient in Latin, and to be baptized at birth......"

As soon as I heard that it was so troublesome, and that it was no longer a matter that money could solve, I lost interest and discussed something about the smuggling of goods.

After the businessman left, Jian Chen found some more smugglers.

In addition to talking about business, it is to ask some details and institutions of the Spanish colonies.

After every deal, Jian Chen would bring an additional condition, hoping that these people could bring some Spanish books with them when they traded.

He had no interest in theology, and the books he wanted were mainly Spanish law, especially royal decrees, colonial governors' decrees, general law, and the system of servitude.

After a few days of communication, Chen Jian gradually got a rough idea of the Spanish colony.

Many of the methods of Spanish rule in South America are an interesting evolution, with some familiar shadows of Jian Chen everywhere.

In the early stage, in some places and not in the mining area.

For the Indians, the Spaniards used a method similar to that of the early Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Spaniards had the "guardianship" of the Indians in a certain area, called the guardian.

The guardian lord was similar to the fiefdom nobles of the Western Zhou Dynasty, they had the right to collect tribute, and the "wild people" under their rule were required to serve the guardian lord.

To some extent, there is a well-field system like public and private land, and the land owned by the guardian or the land directly under the royal family or the church belongs to the "wild people" are required to work on these public fields every year. Of course, the nominal guardians did not have land ownership, but Emperor Shangao was far from hindering them.

It's just that now, public land is not just a field. There are buildings, mines, and so on, but the essence is the same...... A few Indian Western ballads that have been handed down from that era, if translated in Chinese, are a song about different crops and labor in the post-agricultural era.

The cultural export is similar to the policy of Qi in Dongyi back then.

On the one hand, with the town as the center, schools were established to promote "Yayu". The children of the native Indian nobility needed to learn Latin and Spanish culture, because these nobles were the ones who mastered the culture, and if they changed, the culture would be cut off.

On the other hand, it is also to localize some local culture.

For example, Our Lady of Guadalupe, this is not Mary, but a new Madonna modeled after the local Indians, which can be burned at the stake to some extent.

When the Bible was promoted, the Indians were allowed to worship and pray in the way they were customary. In order to get the Indians to accept it, missionaries told the story of the Last Supper by changing the contents of the table into guinea pigs, alpacas, tequilas, or zamaw......

In just 40 years, the shortcomings of this classical colonial system, which was very suitable for the Bronze Age, began to be revealed, because it was already a post-agricultural era, and the difference between the well and the field and the country and the wild was outdated, but the cultural assimilation was still very effective, which is worth learning.

Under the difference between the country and the wilderness, the wild people will waste their private land when they go to cultivate the "public land", and they will naturally be dissatisfied. The productive forces have advanced to the age of iron cattle farming, and there is no future in this way.

As a result, the Spanish royal family took a step forward, centralizing power to a quasi-virtual feudal estate, and plundering to the beginning of the post-agrarian era and the early handicraft era.

The guardian still had jurisdiction over the "wild people", but he no longer had the right to levy labor to run the "public land" for them, but only to collect taxes. The guardian has become a half-virtual nobleman of many households, rather than the original nobleman with real power, which is equivalent to taking a small step towards centralization.

The land system also began to undergo some changes, at first the land ownership was not clear, but with the bankruptcy of the Spanish royal family more than a decade ago, the private land system began to be clear - the royal family needs to sell land for money.

All those who occupy the land receive ownership of the land by paying a ransom tax. This is for whites or native-born whites or descendants of chieftains who have bought a "sacred blood purification certificate".

For the most basic indigenous peoples, a hierarchical land division system was appropriately adopted, and a certain amount of land was allocated according to the different levels of the indigenous people. At the same time, the villages were merged, and the large tracts of land vacated were legally "purchased" by the white "pioneer group".

In some mining areas, the aborigines are drawn from one in seven years and changed every seven years to excavate ore. Nominally give money. But it is the din that is drawn, not the person, and the little money given is at most one-third compared to the annual taxes and family expenses.

So in the case of "voluntary", the wife and children have to go to mining, and the normal family of four can be just the same as the tax consumption, and if there is one more and can live to the age of twenty, it will be considered earned.

The scenes of mining are terrifying, especially in some of the mercury mines, where the toxic mercury vapours keep the average life expectancy of these miners under 23 years old.

Some mothers who feel sorry for their children often cut off their children's fingers or big toes before they reach adulthood, so that they do not have to serve in Mida.

At the end of the day, colonization is just a few tricks. Although Chen Jian's language skills are average, there are some things that can be guessed with a little analysis of interests.

Many things are changed by name, and there is not much sense of disobedience when they are placed elsewhere: replacing the Indian Cassik who ruled at the grassroots level with the gentry is easier to understand, and they are all exempt from tax and privileges; If you buy a descendant of a chieftain who has a blood purification certificate, it is equivalent to raising your nationality or becoming a second-class royal citizen.

As for economic plunder, the Spanish royal family also understands that its own catties and its handicraft industry are underdeveloped, and because paper money has not yet been circulated, it cannot be plundered by means such as military coupons, but it uses a more magical way: compulsory quota purchase of goods.

As soon as the ships that monopolized the trade came, they distributed the goods of the royal trade to the heads of the various local governors, so that they could sell them. Each village has a share, and you have to buy it, and you have to buy it if you don't buy it.

It is not impossible for this policy to be in the hands of the representatives of the advanced productive forces: it is understandable from the point of view of nationalism that these goods of compulsory apportionment can be turned into domestic machinery, domestic cloth, and domestic handicraft products, so as to accumulate funds to complete the development of handicrafts.

The problem is that there are too few things sold in China, and Spain, as a large wool-producing country, still has to import woolen wool from its poor neighbors in the north, and the things that are forced to be apportioned are mainly foreign goods.

If the goods are distributed for one peso, the magistrate can sell them for three pesos.

The bottom is dissatisfied.

However, the magistrate is in charge of the judiciary, and the complaint will only appear in the case of who is kneeling in the hall and who is suing the magistrate for what reason.

This is now, and later, the governor of Velasco said in his heart that he would take the jujube pill like this, and reform it, and set a detailed price and the number of apportionments, and clearly stated the amount.

Naturally, the magistrate had a way to take advantage of the situation to make a "fire consumption", and the goods were apportioned to be lost, so he levied a "fire consumption" of 3 to 6 percent, which was a legal levy, not a private apportionment, and the governor acquiesced.

Later, the royal family went bankrupt again, and felt that selling officials was a good way to make money, so everyone bought officials to become county magistrates.

The purpose of becoming a county magistrate is to save money, and he bought a county magistrate for 20,000 pesos, and only 800 pesos for three years, which is obviously a tacit approval of money.

So some county magistrates decided to assign the assignment in New Spain and Peru three to five years later. For the time being, I have not done such a shocking thing as receiving the apportionment in the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century.

Of course, the local Creoles will be shouting slogans of competing with the people for profit, beating up the tax inspectors, opposing the royal monopoly of the treasure ship trade, hoping for the legalization of smuggling, and so on......

When the French broke the four olds, broke the privileges of the squire and clergy, equalized land rights and killed people with land reform, and the heads were flowing with blood, the Spanish colonies played the Wuchang Uprising without so much bloodshed, so the fate of the future was also doomed.

Although they speak different languages and have completely different cultures, they have walked out of the artistic conception of different paths and the same destination.