1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 561 Barbary Pirates

On February 1646, 2, the fifth day of the lunar calendar, Malacca City.

"I heard you need a lot of young women?"

At the invitation of several local Chinese, Sheng Wencheng, the representative of Qiguo Hanzhou General Trading Company in Malacca, came to a restaurant in the east of the city to discuss how to represent Hanzhou products locally.When the wine was hot and the atmosphere was warm, two uninvited guests came to their banquet.One is Ma Huaiyu, who once had a lot of friends in Batavia, and the other is a gloomy man with an obvious Ottoman face.

That Osman came in front of everyone, said a few straightforward words, and then translated it to Sheng Wencheng, the representative of Hanzhou Trading Company, under Ma Huaiyu's bitter face.

"What do you mean by that?" Sheng Wencheng frowned, feeling a little displeased with the visitor's blunt questioning.

"We have a lot of high-end women in our hands!" Amari said proudly: "I heard that your Hanzhou needs a lot of women, especially young women. I think we can start business cooperation on this."

Hearing this, Sheng Wencheng frowned even tighter, and nodded apologetically to several local Chinese businessmen present.Why is this bloody human trafficker so careless, talking about buying and selling women in front of so many people in restaurants?What a shame!
Although everyone knows that Hanzhou will buy Nyonya with Chinese descent in the Nanyang region, or some better-quality local girls from Johor, Aceh, Jambi, etc., and even buy female slaves from India and Persia, but it is also You can't just ask any Ottoman you don't know if you want a woman.This made me, the dignified manager of the Hanzhou Trading Company, like a "Buddhist" who wantonly buys up women!
It's really degrading!
"Tell me. What do you have in your hands?" After saying goodbye to several local Chinese businessmen, Sheng Wencheng followed Ma Huaiyu and the Ottoman to a quiet courtyard. face, asked in a cold voice.

"White slaves!" Amari said with a smile: "White slaves from the Christian world in Europe, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, French, and even Englishmen, we have them all in our hands. Men of prime age, young and beautiful Women, wise old men, and skilled artists. Whatever you want, we can provide!"

"Craftsmen, young women!" Sheng Wencheng was stunned for a moment, and then said: "We only want these two types of people."

"I heard that the population of your Hanzhou is not very large, shouldn't you buy more middle-aged men to serve as slaves?" Amariqi said.

"Mature men, we can get them ourselves." Sheng Wencheng said, "We only need some young women now."

"Oh, I understand." Amari nodded and said, "You Hanzhou only need women's bellies, and you need them to help you give birth to Hanzhou people's children. You need to guarantee your Hanzhou people's blood, right?"

"How much can you provide each year?" Sheng Wencheng didn't want to discuss bloodlines with an Ottoman barbarian.

"How much can you eat every year?" Amari asked rhetorically.

"..." Sheng Wencheng couldn't help being a little surprised when he saw the other party's determined face. Hearing his tone, it seemed that they could provide as many women as we needed in Hanzhou.

"How about the price?"

"The average price for a young woman is about [-] akce (Ottoman currency), and for a craftsman, it is between [-] and [-] akce depending on the specific situation." A sly light flashed in Amari's eyes.

"Huh?" Sheng Wencheng looked at Ma Huaiyu puzzled.

"Uh, if calculated in your Hanzhou currency, the price of a young female slave is about 35 Hanzhou silver dollars." Ma Huaiyu calculated in his mind, and quoted a price in Hanzhou.

"It's too expensive!" Sheng Wencheng shook his head and said, "Do you know the prices in Johor and Aceh? It's less than half of the price you gave!"

"However, the women in our hands are all white slaves. After taking off their clothes, they are white slaves!" Amari shouted anxiously.

"Hey!" Sheng Wencheng sneered disdainfully, "We in Hanzhou buy women to have children. As for white skin and black skin, what is the difference between us?"

"However, if we want to transport the women here, it will take at least two months!"

"So, the women you provide are not cost-effective!" Sheng Wencheng said with a smile: "Although the cost of obtaining female slaves is almost zero, the price you give us is indeed not very attractive."

After listening to Ma Huaiyu's translation, Amari was stunned for a while, with a dazed expression on his face. Didn't it mean that Hanzhou people have relatively generous money and like to buy young women from all over the world? Why are they so picky now?
Ma Huaiyu approached Amari, and whispered something to him in Ottoman, while talking, from time to time looked at Sheng Wencheng who was in full swing.

When it was over, Amari had a look of surprise on his face, asking something repeatedly, until Ma Huaiyu nodded affirmatively, and then he showed a smile in satisfaction.

"If your Hanzhou purchases no less than 2000 people every year, our price can be reduced by another [-]%, and we can deliver the goods to your door!" Amari said solemnly: "However, we need to obtain the artillery produced by your Hanzhou, muskets, sharp swords and spears, and hard armor."

Hey, these human traffickers are still economically savvy. They know that our Hanzhou's firearms are sharp, and they want to use the money from selling white slaves to purchase firearms from our Hanzhou.In other words, these Ottomans are really brave enough to go deep into the European continent, plunder those Westerners, and sell them everywhere.

"So what about plundering Europe?" Ma Huaiyu said with a smile: "They are the famous Barbary pirates, but they have the support of the great Ottoman Empire behind them, and they have a strict national organization. Their rulers also call themselves Papa Xia. They were also sometimes one of the main forces of the Ottoman navy."

After Amari left, Ma Huaiyu continued to talk with Sheng Wencheng about the intentional human transaction agreement just reached, and briefly introduced Amari's identity to him.

Barbary pirates refer to all true god pirates operating on the coast of North Africa, including Turks, Berbers and Greeks.Those captains from Algiers and Tunisia usually have the support of some local powerful figures behind them, and at the same time, they can get a bonus of about [-]% of the profits of the pirates.

The Barbary pirates plundered the merchant ships of the Catholic countries for the Ottoman Empire throughout the Mediterranean Sea and collected protection fees for passing ships, which made the Catholic countries in Western Europe feel great fear.Moreover, he united Algeria and Tunisia in the territory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire for military autonomy and maintained its own economic system through piracy, and its pirate groups were highly organized and disciplined.

According to rough statistics, from the 16th century to the 19th century, Barbary pirates captured about 80 to 125 million European coastal residents and sold them as slaves. Beginning in the 16th century, the advanced ships and technology brought by European pirates expanded the scope of Barbary pirate activities and reached their peak in the middle of the 17th century.Coastal villages and towns in countries such as Spain and Italy were deeply disturbed, and residents moved inland.

By the end of the 17th century, the navies of European countries gradually rose up and began to expel the Barbary pirates off the coast of North Africa, which led to the reduction of piracy activities.But coasts and ships not protected by the navy were still occasionally harassed by Barbary pirates.It was not until 1830, with the French occupation of Algiers, that the Barbary pirates lost their base of activity and were completely wiped out.

"Since the Barbary pirates rely on the Ottoman Empire and are enemies of the entire Christian world, what is their attitude towards the Dutch?" Sheng Wencheng asked tentatively.

"The Dutch are also members of the Christian world." Ma Huaiyu looked at Sheng Wencheng with deep eyes and said softly.

Although the Hanzhou people signed a peace agreement with the Dutch East India Company, they still regard the Dutch as their biggest potential threat in their hearts, and they always want to win over more anti-Dutch forces.

God bless, I hope that the Hanzhou people can fight the Dutch again to completely weaken the power of the Dutch, so that the people of God in the East Indies will be less oppressed and gain some freedom.

"How did they plunder the white slaves from the Mediterranean Sea and transport them to our Hanzhou?" Sheng Wencheng then asked curiously: "Besides, do they really have tens of thousands of white slaves every year?"

"After they obtained the white slaves, they would naturally transport them to Egypt first, and then escort them by land to the shore of the Red Sea through the local Pasha, and then cross the Indian Ocean by boat, and finally come to your mainland in Hanzhou." Ma Huaiyu said: "As for You don't need to worry about the number of white slaves. Even if they can't capture enough female slaves in Europe, they can get some from Crimea (the largest white slave trading market in the 16th and 17th centuries). You know, In Crimea, there will only be more white slaves there."

"If that's the case, then whether it's the Barbary pirates, the Crimea, or even the Ottoman Empire, there is a great demand for firearms, right?" Sheng Wencheng asked thoughtfully.

"It can be said that as long as your Hanzhou is willing to sell, we will buy all the firearms produced in your Hanzhou." Ma Huaiyu said: "We even have a certain demand for the Western gunboats you have."

During this period, when the Ottoman Empire faced the European Catholic Union, in addition to no longer having an absolute advantage in land warfare, their navy also began to decline gradually, and was suppressed by Spain, Venice, Genoa and other European countries along the Mediterranean coast. Eat defeat.Now it is competing with Venice for Crete, and has fallen into a long-term war, and cannot extricate itself, which has greatly dragged down Ottoman's military strength and urgently needs the support of various weapons.

If it weren't for the fact that France, an outlier in Europe, had established a strong military and economic alliance with the Ottoman Empire and provided it with a certain degree of material and military assistance, Ottoman would have struggled in the face of group fights in several Catholic countries in Europe.Therefore, Ma Huaiyu, who has an Ottoman background, tried his best to win over Hu Wenjin in the early stage, trying to find a potential partner for Ottoman in the East Indies, and restore and expand their influence here.

Now, seeing that Hanzhou has maintained peace with the Dutch East India Company after the war, and has continued to deepen economic exchanges, but secretly still regards the other party as a potential threat, Ma Huaiyu has another idea.Ottoman can form an alliance with France in the Catholic world, then, whether it is possible to form a similar alliance with the Far East forces in Hanzhou.

Although this country is still very weak, its strength is increasing day by day, and it will definitely have a strong influence on the entire East Indies in the future.Then, Hanzhou can be used as the most reliable handle for the Ottoman Empire to exert influence here.

After all, everyone has the same goal, which is to try to weaken the strength of the Christian world and expand the development space of their respective countries and nations.

(End of this chapter)