When Bert impatiently interrupted the conversation between the two, Wickham realized that he and Zhang Mingxia had been talking on the street for more than two hours. Maybe he didn't have the opportunity to speak Chinese for half a year, but this time he met real Chinese, and Wickham said that he was so happy that he forgot the time.

"Brother Mingxia, my hired merchant ship is at the dock, and I will arrange a separate cabin for you on the ship. The conditions for sailing on the sea are very simple, and I hope that Brother Xia will not mind. Wickham was a little embarrassed when he said this, for the two merchant ships were now stuffed with Indian cloth, and the rest of the ship was crowded except for the captain's quarters.

Zhang Mingxia, who had lived a year as a coolie, waved his hand indifferently and said, "This is much better than my situation as a slave, how can I ask for more?" But I want to take Brother Zihan to the warehouse on the other side of the dock first, and buy those rosewood first, so as not to have too many dreams at night. ”

Wickham thought about it and felt that it was the same, the fleet was going to leave tomorrow, so it was better to hurry up and load those rosewood on the ship: "It's okay, then there will be Brother Lao Mingxia." ”

Wickham sent Bert back to the ship first, and then followed Zhang Mingxia towards the cargo terminal. Because Penang was a transit point for British merchant ships heading east into Southeast Asia and China, this small nascent city was small, but the warehouses on its docks were not small at all, and the endless array of warehouses in front of him almost scared Wickham's eyes.

Zhang Mingxia has been working on the construction site by the wharf for a year, and has a better understanding of the situation in this area, so he explained: "These warehouses are basically the warehouses of the East India Company of Yiren, which store a large amount of tea purchased from Guangzhou, and a fleet of ships will come to pull these goods away every six months." ”

It turned out to be the warehouse of the East India Company! Wickham was soon relieved that the British East India Company's tea business spread throughout the New World and throughout Europe, and the amount of tea that needed to be imported from China had increased. However, due to the restrictions of the Indian Ocean monsoon, the merchant fleet could only be once every six months, so the East India Company built a large number of warehouses on Penang as a transit point.

As soon as they arrived at the door of the warehouse area, Wickham and Zhang Mingxia were stopped by the janitor: "What are you two doing here?" This is the East India Company's warehouse, and it's not a place you can just enter. ”

Although Zhang Mingxia's clothes were tattered, Wickham was wearing a captain's uniform, and the janitor didn't dare to go too far, just scolded him slightly.

Whether it is Eastern or Western, the habit of watching people serve food is the same. Wickham sighed in his heart, and then said: "I'm here to talk about business, I don't know who of you here can call the shots?" ”

The little man did not dare to slack off, and said respectfully to Wickham: "Mr. Captain, our Governor of Penang, His Excellency Wright, is inspecting the warehouse, and I will go and inform him." With that, he ran in.

After a while, a middle-aged man in a richly crafted captain's suit and a three-cornered hat walked out quickly, muttering something as he went, but Wickham didn't hear what the middle-aged man was saying because of the distance.

Although the middle-aged man's clothes were worth a lot of money, the way he walked and the hat he wore crooked on his head showed his grassroots aura that could not be concealed, and this type of person was the most despised nouveau riche in London's high society. Even Lord Magalny openly declared in the House that the root cause of the parliamentary elections and the government's superficiality was these nouveau riche who had made a fortune in the maritime trade and colonial expansion.

Of course, this is a biased statement, and underneath the caustic irony lies the envy of the old aristocracy for the mercantile capitalist class. Just like the coal bosses in Shanxi in later generations, although they are scolded fiercely on the Internet, who doesn't want to be a nouveau riche if they have the opportunity?

When the middle-aged man saw Wickham's gold-trimmed officer's uniform, his eyes lit up, and he said quite kindly: "Mr. Captain, I am Captain Wright, the Governor of Penang, may I ask if Lord Magalny has brought me any instructions?" ”

Britain doesn't have much regular army in India, let alone the small place of Penang, Wickham's gorgeous military uniform shows that he is from the Marine Corps of the United Kingdom, and now the only one docked at the Penang dock is the fleet of the Qing Mission, and Wickham's identity is naturally not difficult to guess.

Wickham admired Governor Wright's vision, and it seemed that those who could get ahead would always have their own ancients. Just like the Governor Wright in front of him, although he has a very strong temperament in that grassroots, his ability to observe words and expressions is not weak, which is probably the reason why he can go from a small captain to a governor.

Wickham shook his head: "Your Excellency the Governor, I am Captain Wickham, the commander of the Independent Company of the Marine Corps, and this time I am on the orders of His Majesty the King to escort Lord Magalny to the Qing Kingdom. This visit was exactly what I intended, and Lord Magalny did not ask me to bring you any instructions. ”

After listening to Wickham's words, Governor Wright looked a little disappointed. As soon as the fleet escorting the mission landed today, Wright felt that his opportunity had come, but he had never found a chance to get close to Lord Magalny.

Governor Wright, who has always been very sensitive to domestic political developments, knows that Lord Magalny is a well-known British diplomat who has a lot of influence over both the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and that he has also served as a governor in Madras, India.

Wright's position as governor was obtained because of the sycophants of the royal family, and his colleagues in the East India Company had long been dissatisfied with him, and if he didn't find a backer, the position of governor would probably have to say goodbye to him. It's a pity that he is just a little-known person, and Magalny doesn't look like he wants to meet him at all, which makes Wright vaguely disappointed.

After his men reported that some of the warehouses by the docks were leaking, the disappointed Wright went directly to check on the goods in these warehouses, which were worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, and he did not dare to be careless. Unexpectedly, in less than three hours, the people "over there" came over.

Wright hunched his waist and smiled with wrinkles on his face: "Captain Wickham, I don't know what supplies the fleet needs, I'll send people to the port to prepare now." Also, I have something to report to Lord Magalny, I wonder if Captain Wickham can convey it on my behalf? ”

Wickham is full of black lines, this Wright's excuse is bad enough, Penang is a territory of the East India Company, and it is under the control of the Viceroy of India under the administrative framework, and if you want to report to work, you have to find the Marquis of Cornwallis, who has a fart relationship with Magalny.

"Governor Wright, the fleet is about to depart, and Lord Magalny may not have time to see you." Wickham snorted, he didn't do this work of passing the word, it was easy to leave a bad impression, and people who didn't know thought that he Wickham had received Wright.

Because of the relationship between staying in Penang for more than half a year, Zhang Mingxia's English is barely passable, and after listening to Wickham and the governor for a long time, he didn't talk about the point, so he coughed and reminded Wickham.

Wright glanced at this Chinese with some strange eyes, and immediately thought of what the soldier reported to him, and felt a little strange that Wickham brought a Chinese to discuss business, so he asked: "Mr. Wickham, I don't know what business you came to talk to me about this time, if it is the tea in this warehouse, then I can only say sorry, these teas are new teas that the company is going to ship to Europe, and I have no right to sell them at will." ”

Wright is indeed telling the truth, although he has the title of governor-general, but the position of the governor of India is far from the same position, and he has no right to meddle in the company's operational affairs, to put it bluntly, his current position is the captain of the colonization team.

Wickham didn't come here for any kind of tea, he wanted those rosewood that weighed as much as gold, so he stopped going around in circles and said directly: "Governor Wright, I heard that your company has a batch of lumber in its warehouse?" Wickham didn't know if Wright knew what "rosewood" was, so he said it vaguely.

"Wood?" Wright was a little unsure of what the young officer in front of him had in mind, wood was not a scarce commodity in the South Seas, to put it bluntly, Penang lacked everything, that is, there was no shortage of wood.

After considering his tone for a while, Wright touched his beard and said: "There is a lot of wood, and the dried ship materials alone are piled up in four or five warehouses, although these are used to supply the company's shipyards, but you can't sell them to Captain Wickham first." ”

Wickham was about to cry, he wanted a wool for the ship's materials, and he didn't run a shipyard, so he decided to say it directly: "Governor Wright, I heard that there is a batch of timber brought back from Burma in the warehouse in Penang. This kind of wood is too dense to be suitable for shipbuilding, so it is also mothballed. Let's be honest with you, the nobles of the Qing Kingdom liked these pieces of furniture made of wood, which was important for the kingdom and the Qing Kingdom to establish direct diplomatic relations, you know? This is a half-truth, and it also occupies the righteousness of the country, and Governor Delet is stunned.

Like most Europeans, Wright didn't know the value of the wood, and thought it would be nice to be a favor to the mission, so he said cheerfully, "No problem! I'll have them check which warehouse this lumber is in, and it will be delivered to the port by four o'clock in the afternoon. "If Wright knew that those things were worth as much as the weight of gold, I wonder if he would be so angry with today's decision that he would jump off the building.

Damn, it's really for nothing! Although Wright does not know the true value of rosewood in China, this pride alone is admirable. Thinking that Wright would die of malaria a year later, Wickham felt he should remind him that the current poor health situation in George Town was absolutely deadly in the tropics, after all, someone had just inadvertently given him a fortune.

"Governor Wright, I don't know if you have noticed the worrying sanitary condition of the neighborhood of George Town, where the roads are completely unhardened dirt roads, and because of the lack of necessary drainage, all the domestic sewage is collected in the streets. And there is no special person to clean up the domestic garbage, and every household is piled up directly in front of the door. IMHO, such an environment is most prone to infectious disease outbreaks. ”

Penang is located in the tropics, and the rainfall is abundant, which means that the unhardened streets of George Town are almost muddy, and with all the sewage and garbage, it is a muddy pond. Such an environment is simply the most ideal place for mosquitoes to lay eggs.

Wickham barely saved Wright face by saying this, but it was the truth.

Governor Wright smiled bitterly, "Captain Wickham, I noticed the situation you said two or three years ago, but there is no way to solve it. The cost of a complete sewer system and hardened pavement is absolutely astronomical as almost all of George Town's building materials are shipped from Kolkata and the cost is prohibitive. Moreover, Penang undertakes more than half of the company's transshipment tasks in the Far East, and over the years, almost all of the above funds have been spent on the expansion of terminals and the preparation of shipyards, and the municipal investment is almost zero. ”

This is the current situation in most of the British colonies, where the mother country has very little investment and is entirely based on a free-range model. At that time, the colonies of the thirteen North American states were completely developed by themselves, and I am afraid that even the British did not expect that the poor people and those who were persecuted by religion and persecution in China could create such a great foundation in the Americas.

Thinking of the case of Singapore's citizens undertaking municipal projects on their own half a century later, I think it can also be applied here. Wickham said, "Governor Wright, have you ever thought of delegating all these municipal works to the citizens, including fire and law and order, and maybe they can do them all without spending a penny of public money?" ”

Wright shook his head without hesitation and said, "This won't work!" This model would have worked in Jamaica, but not in George Town. Because Jamaica's citizens are wealthy, most sugar plantation owners have made a fortune, and they can afford to do it themselves. Most of the citizens of George Town are poor people who have just immigrated and simply don't have the financial resources to do this. ”

Wickham was a little dumbfounded, he didn't expect that he had made the mistake of "one size fits all", or Marx was right, "specific analysis of specific problems" is the king.

Wickham said no more, took out the cinchona bark powder that he had been carefully storing in his arms, and handed a small glass bottle to Wright: "I heard that malaria is very rampant here in the East Indies, so give this bottle of medicine to Governor Wright, and it can be regarded as my gratitude to you." ”

While in Portsmouth Harbour, Wickham spent a fortune on bottles of cinchona bark powder, a lifesaver in the tropics, from a missionary. At that time, in order to prevent scurvy, he also prepared some soybeans to prepare for sprouts, but he didn't expect that the fleet would stop along the way, and the supply of vegetables and fruits was very sufficient, so those soybeans did not come in handy.

In the final analysis, Wickham is a very life-loving person, and to put it bluntly, he is very afraid of death. Wickham thought it would be good to get married, so he gave Wright a bottle of "miracle medicine" for malaria.

What Wickham didn't expect was Wright, who was certain to die in history, because a bottle of medicine he gave him picked up a life. Wright always remembered Wickham's kindness and later helped Wickham a lot.

Governor Wright took the bottle of medicine and sniffed it, wondering, "What is this?" ”

"Cinchona's bark powder, the missionaries in the Americas said that this medicine has a very good effect on malaria, and I also spent a lot of money to get it." Thinking of that black-hearted preacher, Wickham was in a pain in his flesh, and it was a shame to dare to accept him fifty ginis for such a little powder.

Governor Wright didn't take the medicine to heart, and casually slipped it into his pocket and thanked him.

Seeing that the matter was over, Wickham rushed to the dock with Zhang Mingxia, and he also had to go to the merchant ship to settle Zhang Mingxia, and explain the two captains who were going to load the goods at night.

ps: Recently, I have been reading the history of the British political system, a tome of more than 600 pages, and I have worked hard enough to write this book