Under the scolding of the slave traders, several pairs of locked black people crawled out of the hut on their hands and knees. In this way, they could finally move around in the crowded house. When a thug bent over and walked in to check, he found that the child had fallen into a semi-conscious state, his whole body was hot, and his teeth were shaking involuntarily. He hurriedly dragged the child and another black man locked with him outside, half dragging and half dragging 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 men could finish speaking, Carrington roared: "Damn! It's typhoid! If everyone in this room is infected, we'll be in big trouble! Drag him away and bury him immediately!"
"etc!"
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 child's eyelids and saw that the conjunctiva was full of bloodshot eyes, and then found bloodshot eyes on the edge of the child's lips. Herpes, he said urgently: "This is not typhoid, this is malaria!"
"What?! Why do you say that?"
Zhao Xin used his hands to drive away the mosquitoes flying around him, and explained: "I have seen a few in Southeast Asia before, all with symptoms like this. You are too close to the river bank, and there are too many mosquitoes."
In fact, the result was the same whether he said it or not. You must know that both typhoid and malaria were fatal to humans living in the eighteenth century. In some overcrowded prisons in Europe, more prisoners died of fever than were hanged.
"mosquito?"
"Yes, mosquitoes can spread malaria."
Carrington was dubious, but just to be on the safe side, he asked his men to soak some tobacco in rum, and then let every black man in the room drink a small glass.
He's been through this before. If it was at sea, the general approach was to just throw the dying person into the sea. As long as he could quickly cross the Atlantic, transport the slaves to Cuba and sell them, and then get subsidies from the colonial government, it would be none of his business whether he got sick afterwards. But the problem now is on the African continent. If a large-scale infection occurs before boarding the ship, he will suffer a lot.
Historically, it has been said that the trafficking of black slaves in the Black Triangle Trade was an extremely profitable business, but do you know where the profit points are?
For example, Heine wrote in "Slave Ship": "On the Senegal River, I exchanged for six hundred black people at a low price. They were all like the best steel, with strong muscles and strong tendons. I used the goods to Bartering, using soju, glass balls, and steel equipment: as long as half of it is kept alive for me, I can make an eight hundred percent profit.”
Regarding the profits from the slave trade, we actually have to look at monopoly companies and privateers separately. The 800% profit rate Heine mentioned mainly occurs on privateers. Taking 1790 as an example, the CIF price of slaves in the Americas basically remained at around 26.4 pounds.
As far as monopoly companies are concerned, life is actually difficult. For example, in France, when the Senegal Company was resold in 1794, it was already in debt for one million pounds; the Royal African Company eventually went bankrupt due to high debts. In addition, the Danish company was suspended for liquidation in 1787, and the Swedish company could not proceed normally due to the conflict with Tsarist Russia. As for the Dutch, the collapse of Amsterdam stocks in 1773 reduced loans to Surinamese planters, leaving them unable to purchase any more 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 of monopoly companies. They have to equip ships, pay sailors, build castles, and feed personnel stationed in Africa. Of all the European companies that actually made money from the slave trade, the only ones were the British, the Portuguese, and the Americans.
British companies have used financial means to increase profits. Since the colonists often delayed payment for long periods of time, they issued promissory notes that were due in 12 or 15 months. These promissory notes were paid to the slave ships and could be used to prepare necessities for the next voyage, which also allowed them to obtain Profits were four times those in France. According to later statistics, the British slave trade accounted for 41% of the total slave trade in Europe.
As for why Portugal makes money? Because they are mainly shipped to South America, after being sold to planters, they are either replaced with tobacco soaked in syrup (Africans like it very much) or gold.
As for Americans, forget it, everyone on earth knows...
In this evil trade of human trafficking to the Americas, the French government, in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of privateer owners, stipulated in 1784 that for every one person transported to Martinique and Guadeloupe, A subsidy of £60 was given for slaves; a subsidy of £100 was given for each slave transported to Tobago, Cayenne and the southern part of St. Domangue. As a result, by 1785, there were more than 100 slave ships. Government subsidies and the requirement for tax exemption in the northern part of Saint-Domangue Island jointly pushed France's triangular trade to its peak between 1783 and 1791. It is impossible to see that the Revolution had any impact on the conscience of slave traders.
Don't think that the Europeans later abolished the slave trade because they cared about human rights, but they just had their own agendas.
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 starting in 1793. The purpose was to win slaves to the side of the French and disrupt the British triangular trade. Although the conflict of different ideas also weakened the tendency to rely on slavery, it was far from abolished, and private shipowners were still in full swing. In fact, when Napoleon came to power, under pressure from the colonists' lobbying and petitions, he resumed the slave trade the same day he received the petitions.
And the British abolition movement is not what some people call "humanitarian". By the beginning of the 19th century, because the British were opening up colonies everywhere in Africa, they no longer needed to transport slaves out of Africa, but had to stay there to work for them, so they called 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 less than to do more. If they had not seen what happened to these black people, they would have gone back to the ship after shopping. However, when they saw what they saw, their sympathy was out of control.
"Buy them and let them go, right?"
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 returning the sheep to the tiger's mouth! What if they are captured again on the way back?"
Deng Fei frowned and said, "Then what do you think we should do?"
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 on hand now?"
"127. What, you want to buy them all? Let me calculate, 25 pounds for men, 30 pounds for women..."
Zhao Xin raised his hand and interrupted: "This is not urgent. I would like to ask, do these slaves understand English or French?"
"Well...a few of them speak French."
"Please bring them over first and let my companions have a few words with them. You have to understand that it would be a big headache if you can't communicate with them after buying them."
While Deng Fei followed a few thugs to meet a few 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 using a lighter to light both of them and himself, he saw the two of them staring at his disposable windproof lighter, so he threw it to Carlin. pause.
"Is business doing well recently?"
Carrington looked at the lighter curiously for a while, and when he saw the greedy look of the shop owner, he put it in his jacket pocket and said: "The price has increased a lot! Damn the locals, they are getting more and more naughty! "
The shop owner also echoed: "I heard that the Phoenix was robbed last month, and even the captain was captured?"
Carrington said: "The captain of the Phoenix didn't want to cooperate with Radek's gang and purchased goods from another gang. As a result, Radek was angered."
From the subsequent conversation, Zhao Xin realized that the local slave traders in Africa were thieves enough. As the first-hand supplier, when they realize that the supply is limited, they will control the quantity of goods shipped and adjust the price. They also knew how to deceive the Europeans, promising to provide slaves over and over again, but never seeing any trace of these slaves. They used this to lure slave traders like Carrington, and in the end they had to pay high prices. Buy.
Deng Fei talked there for almost ten minutes. After coming back, he told Zhao Xin that there was no problem with those people communicating in French. Among them, a man in his thirties named Mbate had the best French. According to the man, many of them were captured as slaves during the war, and several other women and children were kidnapped by slave traders and sold.
Zhao Xin immediately negotiated the price with Carrington. For Carrington, this business was almost cost-free; except for the lack of ship wear and tear, the current transportation cost across the Atlantic was 9 pounds per slave. You must know that one pound in these days is 7.32 grams of gold. After dithering for a long time, he finally gave Zhao Xin a price of 23 pounds per slave, for a total of 2,921 pounds.
Zhao Xin didn't have that many pounds on hand, and at the same time he didn't want to give the damn slave trader cheap tea, but he had those boxes of gold given by Tipu Sultan...
In short, after a lot of trouble, 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. After some treatment by the accompanying military doctors, relying on artemisinin and antipyretics from another time and space, the child's condition improved after only one night. I felt much better. I drank a glass of milk and ate something in the morning.
After the black people got on the boat, in order to prevent them from running around, Zhao Xin did not let anyone immediately remove the chains around their necks, but only removed the shackles. Then Deng Fei came forward and led a group of people on the deck to wash away the filth on their bodies with water hoses.
When the washing was almost done, a dozen special operations battalion soldiers took more than a hundred sets of labor protection work clothes and shoes from the ship's warehouse and placed them on several prepared tables. Then a dozen more people carried them out from the poop. There were 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 and walked to the black man. Under the surprised gazes 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 Mbate, who spoke the best French, and said in a kind tone: "Tell everyone, eat something first, and wait until you are full to talk about anything. I have eaten everything, don't worry, it is not poisonous."
Mbate hesitated for a moment, raised his hand to take it, smelled it first, and then followed Deng Fei's example and took two bites. Although he was a little confused and didn't know what this group of people from the East would do with them, he still knew whether the food was delicious or not. In addition, he had not eaten enough in these days, so he spoke loudly to the others in Yoruba. Said a few words. With Mbate 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 Mbate to eat a steamed bun, then took another half from the basin and handed it to him, and then said softly: "After you finish eating, someone will help you untie the chains around your neck, and those other clothes." The shoes and shoes are also for you."
Mbate was stunned immediately, with the steamed bun in his mouth and he forgot to chew it. He stared into Deng Fei's eyes in disbelief, trying to confirm whether the other party had lied to him.
"But I want you to talk to your people first. Don't run around after the chains are untied. I have something to tell you. Can you do it?"
Mbate nodded blankly like an idiot. When Deng Fei patted him on the shoulder, he finally woke up and immediately spoke loudly to other black people. Unexpectedly, as soon as these words came out, everyone stopped eating, put down their food, pulled the chain around their necks with their hands, and started screaming.
Deng Fei took one look and knew he couldn't wait any longer, so he asked the soldiers to get tools and began to remove the iron rings from the black men's necks. Whenever a person's chains were removed, the other blacks cheered, and their expressions turned gentle and grateful when they looked at Dunfey.
Taking advantage of this time, Zhao Xin started chatting with Mbate under the translation of Deng Fei. Only then did he learn that these black people were not actually the indigenous tribes who chased their prey with spears, but people from the Oyo Kingdom (today's southwestern Nigeria). Their village was attacked by people from the Kingdom of Dahomey, and then they were escorted to St. Louis by the Dahomeans and sold to Carrington.
When Deng Fei learned from Mbate that the largest slave trader in West Africa was the Kingdom of Dahomey, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly. Black people selling black people, what a big joke!
According to Mbate, the Kingdom of Dahomey often sends people to raid the border villages of the Kingdom of Oyo and plunder a large number of people. In addition to being used as slaves for religious sacrifices, the royal family and the army, the most important thing is to exchange weapons, ammunition, and weapons with European merchants. Luxury goods and shells used as currency.
Yes, the popular currency in northern Africa in these years was cowrie shells, known as "garriu". Since there were simply not enough shells along the coast, the early Portuguese shipped them over in boatloads from the Americas for trade.
The same is true for other countries such as the Kingdom of Oyo, the Kingdom of Benin, Asante, and West Sudan. The slave trade has become the main component of their political and economic life. Whenever they start wars with each other, thousands of people will be killed. Taken as captives, a large portion were sold to slave traders.
But what Zhao Xin and Deng Fei didn't know at this time was that these African local governments not only sold black people, they also sold white people! Many white captives were sold to the Arabian Peninsula.
After hearing so much, Zhao Xin felt more and more that Mbate was not an ordinary person. Not only did this guy speak fluent French, he actually knew the situation in the entire northwest Africa. Thinking of this, he asked tentatively: "Mbate, what did you do before you were captured?"
"Sir, I used to be the cavalry captain under King Alaafin Atiba of Oyo..."
According to Mbate, the reason why the Oyo Kingdom once dominated West Africa was because of its 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 armed with spears or bows and arrows, specializes in attacking the southern farming tribes before they finish harvesting. In addition to robbing mature crops, they also take captives for the slave trade.
After hearing this, Zhao Xin couldn't help but sigh, God's way is so good at reincarnation, no one will be spared by God!
Mbate was silent for a while, and finally couldn't help but ask the doubts in his heart: "Sir, you gave us food, gave us clothes, and took off the chains... What I want to ask is, what are your plans in the future? How to arrange for us people? Are we going to be your servants?"
Deng Fei and Zhao Xin looked at each other, smiled and said, "Mbat, do you want to go home?"
Mbate was stunned again. Since boarding this huge white boat today, he has been too shocked. He never imagined that these two Orientals, whose skin colors were completely different from those of the white people, would actually want to give them freedom!
. The fastest website for updating the mobile version of Apex:
