(This chapter is a turning point in the return to the European continent, and an account of the "aftermath" of the Caribbean.) Of course, the protagonist will come back, and after returning to the European drama (qíng), he will take a few years and cut directly into the main drama of Pirates of the Caribbean (qíng), which is mainly a foreshadowing to lay the foundation for the strong rise of the protagonist after the main drama (qíng) begins)

If I ask you a simple, simple question: what is the most profitable business in the Caribbean?

You must be able to answer without thinking: pirates~or smuggling~

It is true that these two industries are indeed very "rich", after all, can they not make money without a capital transaction? But after all, these two professions are doing illegal and undisciplined things, belonging to the trade of blood with the head don't on the belt of the trousers, such a (rì) child, not everyone is willing to live, the risk is large, the income is unstable, the luck is bad, and the small life will be explained~

Therefore, in fact, the largest number of people employed in the Caribbean is actually maritime business. The piracy industry, in a sense, was built on the basis of the prevalence of maritime commerce. After all, if there is no one to run the transport at sea, who are the pirates going to rob? And for pirates, in fact, the biggest problem is - sell the stolen goods!

Don't you see, in foreign countries, bank robbers ask for cash, don't they? It's because I robbed the valuables, if I can't do it, isn't it for nothing? Especially some valuables with obvious characteristics, such as famous paintings and unique jewelry, this kind of thing is basically a hot potato.

However, in the chaotic Caribbean Sea, due to the hostility between countries and information asymmetry, pirates can sell stolen goods to hostile countries or remote areas, and if they change hands several times, there is basically no possibility of being discovered.

However, in modern times, when hostilities ended and the situation in the Caribbean became clearer, pirates lost the soil on which they depended for their survival, and eventually became smugglers and large-scale criminal syndicates.

However, even the pirate who was mixed in the Caribbean Sea at this time, as long as he was smart enough, would consider turning to some legal business after "earning" the "first pot of gold", so it is not an exaggeration to call it "all evildoers" in this era.

As long as they are begging for a living in the Caribbean, they have basically engaged in illegal activities, and a few may have engaged in smuggling for profit. A little more, maybe they spent time on a pirate ship, and after saving enough money, they laundered themselves, bought their own ship, and started a legal transportation business.

Therefore, after more than a month of preparation, Han Xing decided to leave the Caribbean and engage in the most promising industry of this era - maritime business with both risks and opportunities. Of course, for Han Xing, this business is more opportunities than risks, after all, he has two things that almost all maritime merchants dream of:

A powerful fleet plus an almost infinite cargo bay (seaside area).

During this time, Han Xing relied on the trade license given by Governor Swan to buy everywhere in the British colonies in the Caribbean. As for the Spanish and Dutch colonies, leave it to Captain Alfonso and Blackjack.

Of course, Han Xing didn't pay for things, or rather, he usually bartered with the food and aged wine produced in the [seaside area], or sold food and alcohol before buying special materials from all over the Caribbean on a large scale.

Han Xing also came up with a new idea, and he also bought seeds for Caribbean specialty crops such as coffee, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, pineapple, banana, and sugar cane, and began to grow and produce them in the [seaside area]. After all, sustainable development is king~

For the first time in history, Han Xing's world power was used to the point that there were only 100 points left, so Han Xing had no choice but to give up, and there were already tons of cocoa, coffee beans, tobacco, cotton, and cane sugar in the [Seaside District]. As for pineapples and bananas, these fruits are not easy to preserve, or when the time comes~ plus the inventory purchased in various places, dozens of tons of Caribbean specialties have been accumulated. It is foreseeable how much profit these things will reap if they are sold to the European continent~

The Spanish merchant Alfonso also brought good news to Han Xing, who obtained permission from the governor of the Spanish colony to build a lumber yard on the southern Spanish mainland (present-day North Coast of South America, Colombia and Venezuela), which meant that Han Xing could obtain an inexhaustible supply of good timber with only a human investment.

Han Xing immediately sent the Devil Terminator to participate in the felling work, good guy, the timber brought back, just looking at it makes people feel jaw-dropping, one big tree, not to mention the thickness of one or two people embracing.

After all, the pristine rainforests of South America have been inaccessible for thousands of years, let's talk about the real world, and now, the Amazon rainforest, known as the "lungs of the earth", is still the largest forest in the world, right? Of course, logging also needs to plant trees, and it is very important to pay attention to sustainable development and green environmental protection~

For a sail warship, the most important thing is the keel, as mentioned above, the keel is to the battleship, just as the spine is to the person, the keel determines how long, how wide, how big a ship can be built, a thick tree with a bowl mouth, if it is dead, it can only build a two-masted schooner, if it is bigger, the keel will not be able to bear the force, if it is broken, then the people on the ship will have to feed the sharks~ Therefore, only one or two people hug the thick and thin trees, which can be used to build cruisers, battleships and other battleships.

Everything was ready, and Han Xing asked Blackjack to do his job as a volunteer patrol fleet, and if necessary, he could give the British eye medicine, but not too much. Maintain the style of "Robin Hood of the Sea", try not to harm the captain or crew, and as long as the cargo, if (qíng) condition (yǔn) permits, return their ships afterwards, and let them go back.

The main objective at present was to protect the passing merchant ships of the Allied countries (now under the Napoleonic order, Spain and the Netherlands were allied with France, and Britain and France were temporarily in a state of armistice), to combat piracy within the Allied territory, and to persuade these pirates to join the "French Caribbean Volunteer Patrol Fleet" "voluntarily" with "strong measures".

For the recalcitrant, their ill-gotten gains are confiscated, their ships are seized, and they are sent back to the nearest port of their home country on a ship that is humanitarian, and they are repatriated (shēn). Of course, this net (shēn) is not the other "net (shēn)", and eunuchs are not popular in the Caribbean·····

Before leaving, Han Xing personally visited Governor Swan in Port Royal and brought him a whole case of high-quality French wine, plus jewelry, gifts, and some fine tobacco. He was then introduced to Alfonso and asked for a trade license for him.

It is worth mentioning that don't look at the appearance of a lot of merchants in the Caribbean, but in fact, they make no less money than pirates, as long as they are lucky and quick enough, even if they do business in a proper manner, they can make a lot of money. Why else would so many people flock to it?

In the ancient Celestial Empire, merchants were once considered to be the lowest (jiàn) existence, and there was a way to be "Shinong and Industrialist"~

The reason is that the merchant does not produce and does not participate in labor, but relies on transporting goods and running merchants to earn profits from the price difference. And the most famous "business-hating madman" is Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. He was an old man from a poor family (shēn), worked as a cattle herder, worked long hours, was forced to make a living, and even became a monk.

Such an exit (shēn) and experience made him notoriously disgusted with businessmen who did not produce, but were huge and beautiful, so much so that there are still anecdotes of Zhu Yuanzhang going to the house of Shen Wansan, the richest man at the time, to "pick quarrels and provoke trouble":

"What kind of dish is this?" One day, Zhu Yuanzhang went to Shen Wansan's house again to eat and drink, and then pointed to the braised pig's trotters on the table and threw out a "proposition".

This is a complete trap, and ordinary people must casually answer: "Braised pig's trotters~"

However, don't forget, this Ming Taizu, the grassroots emperor, is surnamed "Zhu". If anyone dares to shout on the streets of the Ming Dynasty "Kill the pig, kill the pig~", waiting for him is at least a "life behind bars", and it is possible to lose his head directly if he doesn't make trouble~ The bad officer of that year was not as good as our police uncle~

Fortunately, Shen Wansan, the richest man, has a bright brain after all, so he immediately patted his thigh and said: "This is Wansan's hoof~ It is made by the unique secret recipe of the grass people~"

However, he could hide from the first day of junior high school, but he couldn't hide from the fifteenth, and when Zhu Yuanzhang, the "hater of the rich", was in power, as the richest man, even if he repaired bridges and paved roads every day, and gave porridge for disaster relief, it was a crime to have a lot of money~ In the end, he still did not escape the doom of raiding his house and destroying his door!

Pulling back to the topic, are businessmen really as useless as Zhu Yuanzhang imagined? Of course not, merchants play an extremely important role in the development of society, although merchants are not profitable, some merchants are indeed black-hearted (jiān) merchants, but it is precisely because of their existence that goods from all over the world can be exchanged.

Maritime merchants also played this role, although the Caribbean islands produced similar goods, but the output is different, for example, the origin of rum - Barbados, is rich in cane sugar, so the local people thought of trying to make wine from cane sugar. The birth of rum is, to a large extent, evidence of the inadequate flow of goods in the Caribbean islands.

The further increase in demand caused prices to skyrocket, and merchants in pursuit of profit naturally bought goods at low prices from wealthy places and came to sell locally.

It is worth mentioning that Fan Zhongyan, the famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, is the author of "The Story of Yueyang Tower", the one who "worries about the world first, and enjoys the joy of the world after the world". When he was the governor, he played a trick to draw salary, and the place where he was at that time was annoyed by floods, which led to a food crisis. Local (jiān) merchants took the opportunity to stock up grain and raise the price of grain.

Guess how he got it? Forced price reduction? Open a warehouse to release grain?

Wrong! This Fan Xianggong (Xianggong of the Song Dynasty refers to a person who has been a prime minister, and ordinary people cannot be called Xianggong, but can only be called an official. White Lady Liha~) choose to increase the price! That's right, the price will increase, and it will increase tenfold!

As a result, grain merchants from all over the country flocked to the country, but the grain was not easy to preserve, and the price of grain was too high for the common people to afford it. However, there is still a lot of water here, it is already humid, and after a long time, the merchants from other places are anxious, and they don't want to run in vain, so they start to sell grain at a reduced price, and even just want to save the capital.

It's like a stock market crash: once a "big head" starts selling, it will lead to a frenzy of stock crashes. For a time, food prices plummeted, and the crisis was completely resolved·······

We have to feel 1.2 million admiration for Fan Xianggong's wisdom, this is the real capable person~