Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 605 Do You Want To Go Home?
Under the yelling of the slave trader, several pairs of locked blacks crawled out of the hut with hands and feet together, so that they could finally get out of the crowded room.When a thug walked in to check, he found that the child had fallen into a semi-comatose state, his body was hot, and his teeth were chattering involuntarily, so he hurriedly dragged the child and another black man who was locked up with him outside. .

At this time, Carrington was two or three meters away from the door, and said in a deep voice, "What happened?"

"This little thing has a fever"

Before his subordinates could finish speaking, Carrington roared, "Damn it! It's typhoid fever! If anyone in this room is infected, it will be a big trouble! Drag him away and bury him immediately!"

"and many more!"

Seeing Zhao Xin's words to stop him, Carrington explained: "Sir, please stay away, this disease is contagious!"

Zhao Xin shook his head, and stubbornly stopped the thug who was about to drag the child away. He first touched the child's forehead, then casually opened the other's eyelids, and saw that the conjunctiva was full of bloodshot eyes, and then found blood on the edge of the child's lips. Herpes, he hurriedly said: "This is not typhoid fever, it is malaria!"

"What?! Why do you say that?"

Zhao Xin drove away the mosquitoes flying around with his hands, and explained: "I have seen a few in Southeast Asia before, and they all had the same symptoms. You are too close to the river bank, and there are too many mosquitoes."

In fact, whether he said it or not, the result was the same. You must know that whether it was typhoid fever or malaria, it was fatal to humans living in the eighteenth century.In some of Europe's overcrowded detention centers, more prisoners died of fevers than were hanged.

"Mosquito?"

"Yes, mosquitoes transmit malaria."

Carrington was dubious, but just to be on the safe side, he asked his men to soak some tobacco with rum, and then let every black man in the room drink a small cup.

He's been through this before.If it is at sea, the general method is to throw the dying person directly into the sea and finish the job. As long as you can quickly cross the Atlantic Ocean, transport the black slaves to Cuba to sell, and then get subsidies from the colonial government, it has nothing to do with you whether you get sick afterwards.But the problem is now in the African continent. If a large-scale infection is caused before boarding the ship, then he will lose a lot.

It is said in history that black slave trafficking in the black triangle trade is an extremely profitable business, but do you know where the profit point is?
For example, Heine wrote in "Slave Ship": "On the banks of the Senegal River, I bought six hundred blacks at a low price. They are all like the best steel, with strong muscles and strong tendons. I bought them Barter, using shochu, glass balls, and steel equipment: as long as half of it is given to me alive, I can make a profit of [-]%."

With regard to the profits of the slave trade, in fact, we need to separate monopoly companies and privateers. The 1790% profit rate that Heine said mainly occurred on privateers.Taking 26.4 as an example, the CIF price of slaves in the Americas was basically maintained at around [-] pounds.

As far as monopoly companies are concerned, life is actually difficult.For example, France, when the Senegal Company was resold in 1794, it was already in debt of 100 million pounds; the Royal African Company eventually went bankrupt due to high debts.In addition, the Danish company was closed for liquidation in 1787, and the Swedish company's conflict with Tsarist Russia prevented the slave trade from proceeding normally.As for the Dutch, the plunge in Amsterdam stocks in 1773 reduced loans to Surinamese planters, leaving them unable to buy slaves.In addition, Dutch entrepreneurs were reluctant to go to the colonies, because their plantations had become less profitable than those of the French.

Huge operating costs are the biggest burden for monopoly companies. They have to equip ships, pay sailors' salaries, build castles, and feed their permanent personnel in Africa.Of all the European companies that really made money from the slave trade, the only ones were the British, Portuguese and Americans.

British companies use financial means to increase profits.Since the colonists often delayed payment for a long time, they issued promissory notes due in 12 or 15 months, which were paid to the slave ships and could be used to prepare the necessities for the next voyage. Profit four times that of France.According to the statistics of later generations, the British slave trade accounted for 40.00% of the total European slave trade.

As for why Portugal makes money?Because they are mainly shipped to South America, they are sold to plantation owners or replaced with tobacco soaked in syrup (Africans are very fond of it), or replaced with gold.

And the Americans, forget it, everyone on the earth knows
In this evil trade of smuggling human beings to the Americas, the French government, in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of the privateers, stipulated in 1784 that every human being shipped to Martinique and Guadeloupe For slaves, a subsidy of £60; for each slave shipped to Tobago, Cayenne and the south of San Domangue, a subsidy of £100.As a result, by 1785, there were more than one hundred slave ships at once.The government's subsidies and the tax-free requirement in the northern part of Saint-Domangue Island jointly pushed the French triangular trade to its peak between 1783 and 1791. It is impossible to see that the Revolution had any impact on the conscience of the slave traders.

Don't think that Europeans later abolished the slave trade because they talked about human rights, but they had their own ghosts.

For example, the newly established French First Republic was afraid that the Antilles would be taken away by the British, so it simply announced the abolition of slavery from 1793, with the aim of winning the slaves to the side of the French and destroying the triangular trade of the British.Although the conflict of different ideas also weakened the tendency to rely on slavery, it was far from abolished, and private boat owners were still in full swing.In fact, when Napoleon came to power, under the pressure of colonial residents lobbying and petitioning, he resumed the slave trade on the day he received the petition.

And the British abolitionist movement was not "humanitarian" as some people said.At the beginning of the 19th century, because the British opened up colonies everywhere in Africa, they no longer needed to transport slaves out of Africa, but stayed there to work for them, so they shouted for the abolition of slavery.You must know that the situation of British workers in the 18th and 19th centuries was completely comparable to that of slaves, but no one cared at all!
Zhao Xin and Deng Fei originally planned to do more than do less. If they hadn't seen what happened to these black people, they would have gone back to the boat after shopping.However, when they saw everything in front of them, their sympathy was out of control.

"Buy them and let them go?"

When Zhao Xin heard Deng Fei's words, he shook his head slightly and said, "It's not that simple. If you let them go, it's like sending the sheep back to the tiger's mouth! What if they are caught again on the way back?"

Deng Fei frowned and said, "Then what do you say?"

Zhao Xin thought for a while, then walked up to Carrington and said, "Mr. Carrington, right? You can call me Zhao. How many slaves do you have now?"

"127. What, you want to buy them all? Let me do the math, 25 pounds for men and 30 pounds for women."

Zhao Xin raised his hand and interrupted: "It's not urgent. I want to ask, can these slaves understand English or French?"

"Not a few of them speak French."

"Please bring them here first, and let my companion chat with them. You have to understand, if you can't communicate after buying them, it will be too troublesome."

When Deng Fei followed some thugs to meet some slaves, Zhao Xin chatted with Carrington for a few words.He took out a cigarette and handed it to the other party and the shop owner. After lighting them and himself with a lighter, he saw the two people staring at his disposable windproof lighter, so he casually threw it to Karin pause.

"Is business doing well recently?"

Carrington looked at the lighter curiously for a while, and seeing the greedy look of the store owner, he put it in his coat pocket, and said: "The price has increased a lot! Damn the locals, they are getting more and more cunning! "

The shop owner also echoed, "I heard that the Phoenix was robbed last month, even the captain?"

Carrington said: "The captain of the Phoenix didn't want to cooperate with Radek's gang, and bought goods from another gang, which made Radek angry."

From the ensuing conversation, Zhao Xin realized that the local slave traders in Africa were also thieves.As the first-hand suppliers of "goods", when they realize that the supply is limited, they will control the quantity of "goods" sent and adjust the price.They also know how to deceive the Europeans, promising slaves over and over again, but never seeing the shadow of these slaves, so as to catch slave traders like Carrington, and finally make them have to pay high prices Buy.

Deng Fei talked there for about ten minutes. When he came back, he told Zhao Xin that those few people had no problem communicating in French, and one of them, a man in his 30s named Mbat, was the best at speaking French.According to the man, many of them were captured as slaves during the war, and several women and children were kidnapped by slave traders and sold.

Zhao Xin then negotiated the price with Carrington. For Carrington, the business was almost costless; apart from the lack of damage to the ship, the current cost of transport across the Atlantic was £9 per slave.You must know that one pound this year is 7.32 grams of gold.After grinding for a long time, he finally gave Zhao Xin a price of 23 pounds per slave, a total of 2921 pounds.

Zhao Xin didn't have that many pounds on hand, and he didn't want to take tea cheap to this damned slave trader, but he had the few boxes of gold sent by Tipu Sultan.
In short, after some tossing, by noon the next day, all 126 black slaves were sent to the Thor.The sick child was brought back by Zhao Xin and the others the day before, and the accompanying military doctors went through some treatment. Relying on artemisinin and antipyretics from another time and space, it took only one night. Much better. I drank a glass of milk and ate something in the morning.

After the blacks boarded the boat, in order to prevent them from running around, Zhao Xin didn't ask people to untie the chains around their necks immediately, but only undid the shackles on their feet.Then Deng Fei came forward and led a group of people on the deck to wash the dirt off their bodies with a hose.

When the laundry was almost done, a dozen soldiers from the special warfare battalion took more than 100 sets of labor protection overalls and shoes from the warehouse on the ship and put them on several prepared tables, and then a dozen more people carried them out from the poop. Several pots of cooked rice porridge, steamed buns, pickles, and bowls and chopsticks.

Deng Fei personally brought a bowl of porridge and a big steamed bun to the black man.Under the surprised eyes of all the black people, he took a sip first, then broke off a piece of steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth, with a satisfied expression on his face.Then he handed the food to Mbat, who is the best in French, and said in a kind tone: "Tell everyone, eat something first, and wait until you are full if you have anything to do. I ate everything, don't worry, it's not poisonous."

Mbat hesitated for a moment, raised his hand to take it, first smelled it, and then took two bites like Deng Fei.Although he was a little confused, he didn't know how this group of people from the East would deal with them, but he still knew whether the food was good or not, and he hadn't eaten enough during these days, so he spoke loudly with the others in Yoruba Said a few words.With Mbat taking the lead, the other blacks took the food from the soldiers and squatted on the ground to eat and drink.

Deng Fei waited for Mbat to eat a steamed bun, then took half of it from the basin and handed it to him, then said softly: "After you finish eating, someone will help you untie the chains around your necks, and the other clothes And the shoes are for you too."

Mbat was stunned for a moment, forgetting to chew the steamed buns in his mouth.He stared into Deng Fei's eyes in disbelief, trying to make sure if the other party lied to him.

"But I want you to talk to your people first, don't run around after the chain is released, I have something to tell you. Can you do it?"

Mbat nodded like an idiot in a daze, and only woke up when Deng Fei patted him on the shoulder, and then said loudly to other black people.Unexpectedly, as soon as the words came out, everyone stopped eating, put down the food, pulled the chain around their necks with their hands, and yelled.

When Deng Fei saw it, he knew that he couldn't wait any longer, so he asked the soldiers to bring tools and began to remove the iron ring from the black man's neck.Whenever a person's chains were removed, the other blacks cheered, and at the same time they looked at Deng Fei and their expressions became gentle and grateful.

Taking advantage of this time, Zhao Xin chatted with Mbat under Deng Fei's translation.Only then did he learn that these blacks were not actually the kind of aboriginal tribes chasing prey with spears, but people from the Oyo Kingdom (now southwestern Nigeria).Their village was raided by the people of Dahomey Kingdom, and then was escorted to St. Louis by Dahomey, and sold to Carrington.

When Deng Fei learned from Mbat that the largest slave trader in West Africa is the Dahomey Kingdom, he couldn't help shaking his head and smiling wryly.Negroes selling negroes, what a joke!
According to Mbat, the Kingdom of Dahomey often sent people to raid the border villages of the Kingdom of Oyo and plundered a large number of people. Apart from using them for religious sacrifices, servants of the royal family and the army, the most important thing was to exchange weapons, ammunition, Luxury goods and shells used as currency.

Yes, the current currency in North Africa this year is shells, called "gariou".Since the seashells along the coast were not enough, the early Portuguese transported them from the Americas by boat for trade.

The same is true for other countries like Oyo Kingdom, Benin Kingdom, Asante, and Western Sudan. The slave trade has become the main component of their political and economic life. As captives, a large portion of them were sold to slave traders.

But at this time Zhao Xin and Deng Fei didn't know that these local governments in Africa didn't just sell black people, they even sold white people!Many white captives were sold to the Arabian Peninsula.

After Zhao Xin heard so much, he felt more and more that Mbat was not an ordinary person. Not only did this guy speak fluent French, but he also knew the situation in Northwest Africa.Thinking of this, he tentatively asked, "Mbat, what did you do before you were captured?"

"Sir, I used to be the captain of the cavalry under King Alafin Atiba of Oyo"

According to Mbat, the reason why the Oyo Kingdom once dominated West Africa was due to the large number of light cavalry.The vast grasslands of northern West Africa provided them with a large number of native African horses and skilled riders.Oyo's light cavalry usually use spears or bows and arrows to attack the farming tribes in the south before they finish harvesting. In addition to plundering mature crops, they also plunder captives for the slave trade.

After hearing this, Zhao Xin couldn't help sighing, it's really a good reincarnation, who is spared by the heavens!

Mbat was silent for a while, and finally couldn't help asking the doubts in his heart: "Sir, you gave us food, clothes, and removed the chains. What I want to ask is, how do you plan to arrange for us in the future?" ? Is it your servant?"

Deng Fei and Zhao Xin looked at each other, smiled and said, "Mbat, do you want to go home?"

Mbat was stunned again, since he boarded this huge white boat today, it has given him too much shock.In any case, he never imagined that these two orientals, whose skin color was very different from those of the whites, wanted to give them freedom!
　Recently, a certain American movie has been fired in full swing, purely for the sake of "political correctness" of Americans for self-entertainment.A group of evil kingdoms that relied on the slave trade for weapons turned into fighters against the slave trade.The Dahomey kingdom's economy was built on war and slavery, without which they quickly declined.The reason why the ancient kingdoms in Northwest Africa frequently fought wars was to weaken their opponents by plundering prisoners of war and selling slaves to Europeans.Take an example as evidence: In 1708, the fifth king of Dahomey, Agadja, came to power. During his 24 years in power, he continued to wage wars.As a result of successive years of fighting, there was a shortage of male soldiers, so the warlike king turned his brains on women, turning them from the king's guard into an army. In 1722, a war broke out between Dahomey and the Ashanti Kingdom, and more than 8000 people were captured, of which 6000 were sold to Europeans in the Gulf. In 1727, the Dahomey soldiers defeated the neighboring Savi Kingdom; in the same year, they conquered the Vader Kingdom and brought back more than 4000 prisoners of war for human sacrifices to the voodoo god.So the author's conclusion is that this country is not worthy of sympathy.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)