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Customers who come and go, if they look at someone, will open their mouths to look at their teeth, and take off their clothes to see if there are any unhealed wounds-in fact, they don't wear any clothes, just a few pieces of cloth to cover their private parts.

"Hey, guest officer, good morning." Seeing a customer approaching, a Han guy greeted immediately, "What are you buying for? These are low-grade goods from Nanyang, which are most suitable for buying and working. It is strong, obedient, and easier to use than livestock. If the guest officer wants to buy a good one, he can go to the store with Xiaoxiu."

The customer was a middle-aged man, wearing a lake silk gown, and speaking with a Jiangxi accent, said: "These foreign barbarians, do they know how to farm?"

The man laughed and said, "Animals can plow the fields and pull mills, but people can't teach them? Buy them home and let them learn. If they can't learn it, they will fight. If they don't obey, they will fight. Within a month, they can learn everything."

The customer asked, "How many taels of silver?"

"It depends on how much you buy," said the man. "The more you buy, the cheaper the price."

The customer said: "There are always not enough tenants in our side. I heard that in Macau, we can buy people to go back to farming. The big households in several towns, and an uncle who was conferred by the emperor, all entrusted me to come to Macau to buy. People. For the first batch, buy [-] first, and if they are easy to use, I will buy them again next year."

The waiter said happily: "You are a big customer, you have to discuss this matter with the shopkeeper. Please wait a moment."

The shopkeeper was quickly invited, the two sides bargained, and finally reached a deal: the first batch of 20 slaves, three and a half silver dollars each.Come back next year to buy again, the price can drop even more, the more you buy, the more you will drop.

Customers, with their entourage, went to inspect the goods one by one. They firmly refused those with rotten teeth, those with unhealed injuries, and those with rotten sores.After checking these, let the slaves run and jump, and can't buy back a defective product.

These twenty slaves were all from Southeast Asia, either Malays or Visayans.

The Malays were captured by the Netherlands, and the Visayas by Spain.The two countries opened up colonies in Nanyang and continued to fight with the natives. The captives were sold to Chinese maritime merchants, who then sold the slaves to Macau for bulk.

After the transaction was completed, the shopkeeper was still selling: "Does the guest want female slaves? They are all bought from Nanyang. There are many small islands in the south of Luzon Island, and the islands are full of indigenous people. Don't look at these indigenous women. He is a barbarian, and he knows how to do housework. If you don’t understand the housework, you can teach it a few times. You can buy it back and be a maid, or a fire lady. Is it worthwhile for a woman to be a servant?"

The customer hesitated, obviously being persuaded.

The shopkeeper continued to seduce: "Everything is good in Xinchao, but the women are not so obedient. Even the maid at home, if she beats and scolds too hard, she will sue the officials. She doesn't look like a servant at all. These Nanyang women , can be more obedient than Han maids. Looking at the skin color objectively, it is not much darker than Han girls. If you keep it at home as a maid, you can get even whiter if you don’t bask in the sun for a year or two.”

The customer was picky and said: "It's a pity that it's too short."

The shopkeeper said with a smile: "Not short, much taller than Japanese women. If you don't like being too short, you can buy a younger one and feed her leftovers with a lot of fat and water. After a few years, won't she grow taller?"

Customers are still picky: "It doesn't look good."

"That's easy," the shopkeeper smiled even more happily, "the ones standing outside don't look good. There are a few more in the courtyard. Although they are all Nanyang natives, they look very handsome. Their skin is dark, but they have a special flavor." Woolen cloth."

"Then... go in and have a look?" The customer was enthusiastic.

Entering the backyard of the store, customers carefully selected and finally found a particularly handsome one.

She is petite and has dark skin, but her facial features are particularly beautiful.

"How much is this?" the customer asked.

The shopkeeper pointed out two fingers: "30 silver dollars."

"30 yuan? You think I'm a fool!" The customer turned around and left.

The shopkeeper hurriedly stopped: "The price is still negotiable, how about 28 yuan?"

The customer said: "Five yuan at most."

This time it was the shopkeeper's turn to get angry: "Nanyang male slaves who are strong and can speak Chinese are priced at least five yuan. Such a beautiful Nanyang beauty, you want to buy them for five yuan? You go shopping in Macau Once, if you can buy such a thing with less than 20 taels, I will give it to you for free!"

"15 yuan." The customer continued to bargain.

"25!" The shopkeeper had a heartbroken expression on his face.

In the end, a deal was reached for 20 silver dollars, with the proviso that the customer had to buy two more ordinary female slaves.

After the customer paid, he left happily.The female slave bought three, one beautiful one, and bought it back to be a personal maid, and bought the remaining two for cooking.

Regardless of men and women, they are all tied with ropes and led to the boat like cattle.

And those slaves, with blank eyes and numb expressions, seemed like walking dead without thinking.

In the face of money, the evil of human nature is not hidden.

Daming has a tradition of human trading, especially in times of famine, where a bag of rice can be exchanged for a maid.In ordinary years, three or five taels of silver can buy a servant girl.

They don't treat the people of the country as human beings, so how can they treat foreigners from other countries as human beings?

Zhao Han is forbidden to keep slaves and maidservants, and all of them are changed to servants. The family of the big family is not going well, and they always feel that those servants are pushing their noses.Zhao Han allocated fields to poor farmers, who were busy with their own fields and didn't have much energy to farm the land of big families.In this way, the foreign slave trade naturally prospered, buying male slaves to go back to farming, and buying female slaves to go back to be maids.

"Announcement, announcement, the emperor orders the world!"

Several officials came from the boat, and when they arrived at the pier, they started shouting, and posted several copies on the bulletin boards in various places in Macau.

Merchants who trade in human beings see the edict as if they were mourning their concubines.

Because one of the notices ordered all businesses engaged in human trafficking to register with the government as a helper dental agency (labor intermediary company) within a time limit.Not only are people taxed for buying and selling people, but they can no longer be treated as slaves. If people are tortured and killed, whether it is a businessman or an employer who buys people, whoever kills them will break the law, and the punishment is the same as killing a Chinese.

There are many articles in it, one of which is to prohibit black trade.

Foreign workers (actually slaves) have to collect head tax every year, which also makes businesses very depressed.It is equivalent to increasing the labor cost of the employer, which will cause some large households not to buy slaves to farm, or to bargain wildly when buying slaves.

The Han merchants were depressed, and the Portuguese in Macau were even more upset.

Either get registered in the government and become a Chinese from then on.Either get out of the boat and return to Portugal immediately.If you don't want to be naturalized and don't want to leave, then you have to pay poll tax every year, and tens of taels of silver a year is a huge sum of money.Moreover, after being naturalized in China, intermarriage with white people is still not allowed, and marriage must be free after three generations.

"Your Excellency, Speaker, don't keep silent!" City Councilor Rodrik said urgently.

The speaker, Hua Liya, was paralyzed there, lying flat, and asked, "What else can I say?"

"We should resist, we should take up arms to demonstrate!"

"Go to Guangzhou to meet the chief envoy!"

"It's useless to go to Guangzhou. Go to Nanjing to find the emperor and ask him to withdraw this order."

"..."

The conference room was too noisy, Hua Liya couldn't help but pat the table: "Quiet, quiet!"

When everyone stopped talking, the speaker sighed: "Mr. Members, the Portuguese army has long been disbanded by the Chinese emperor, and the fort has long been taken over by the Chinese. The Chinese coast guard is just waiting for us to make trouble. , they can take the opportunity to kill the Portuguese!"

The MPs were completely quiet and began to calm down.

The Governor of Portugal in Macau is absent. Ever since Malacca was taken by the Netherlands, the Governor of Macau has been vacant.

Last year, a governor was appointed, and the Cape of Good Hope encountered a dead ball.A governor was appointed this year, and he has not yet left Africa. If history remains unchanged, the ball will still be dead.The governor appointed next year also died of illness in Macau after working for three years.

In other words, at this moment, there are no senior officials sent by the Portuguese royal family in Macau at all.

The members present here are all native-born Macau Portuguese, and more than [-]% of them are of Chinese matrilineal descent.They are in Portugal, they have no industry, no roots, so they go back to Europe to make trouble?

Hell the King of Portugal, the Emperor of China is more dear to them than the King of Portugal.

If these congressmen are allowed to continue to be self-governing, [-]% of them will be naturalized in China without saying a word.The reason for the quarrel was not because of the nationality issue, but because they were about to lose their power because the emperor wanted to send Han officials over.

Hua Liya said: "Everyone, the Chinese emperor has supreme authority, and it is impossible for us to compete with him. In this case, what we should do now...is to divide the municipal property. As for the trading fleet, since losing the Japanese market, There is no profit every year. I think this is a good opportunity to turn the fleet belonging to the Portuguese royal family into a joint-stock company. All of you here are shareholders. From now on, we are all Chinese, and the trading company is also a Chinese trading company. We enjoy all the privileges of a Chinese business company, maybe we can make more money!"

The councilors looked at each other in blank dismay, and were enlightened by the speaker's words.

"The commander of the trade fleet was sent by the Portuguese royal family. We can persuade him to give him more shares, and he will definitely be willing to be a Chinese."

"We shareholders can also intermarry with Chinese inland businessmen, so that it will be easier to buy goods and send goods to Southeast Asia at a lower cost. Even, we can re-enter the Japanese market, and the Japanese shogunate allows Chinese merchant ships in Nagasaki Trading."

"Yes, intermarry with Chinese inland businessmen. Big businessmen don't want to marry small businessmen. We can support small businessmen to grow bigger. This is also in response to the order of the great emperor. Our descendants all have Chinese blood, and future business will be more prosperous. Bigger and bigger."

"From today, I am Chinese."

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor of Datong, the King of Portugal, go to hell!"

"..."

Chapter 595 [New Governor of the Netherlands]

The decline of Portugal is visible to the naked eye, and it is still arrogant in East Africa.

The Brazilian colony in South America was snatched by the Netherlands a few years ago, but Spain and Portugal failed to take it back.

However, the Netherlands is also very embarrassing. After gaining a firm foothold in Brazil, although the colonial area has expanded year by year, there are not enough Dutch immigrants to enrich it.So it's funny, the Dutch colony in Brazil, the main population is actually the mixed descendants of Portugal and indigenous people, every year Portuguese farmers revolt.

Portugal's colonies in Asia have been continuously seized by the Dutch by force, and currently only a few ports along the coast of India remain.Moreover, the exploitation of the Portuguese royal family was too heavy. As a result, Portuguese descendants who settled in India continued to convert to Hinduism or Green religion, and they betrayed their mother country and called themselves Indians.

Bullying Africans is quite good. After occupying East Africa, the Portuguese royal family wantonly divided the lords.

The Portuguese lord in East Africa was called Prazo, and the lord's army was all blacks recruited locally. .Their main income is mining gold and selling black slaves.Due to the depletion of gold mines, a new business was opened up - auctioning the title of the lord, and the lord who made the money returned to Portugal and sold the power of the lord to the local rich.

If you want to say that Portugal has brought any benefits to the East, it is only the spread of knowledge and weapons.

The Franco cannon of Ming Dynasty came from Portugal, and the knowledge of natural science came from the Jesuits funded by Portugal.In India, the Indians have already learned how to make cannons. An Indian prince’s cannon was seized. It was 6 meters long and weighed 20 tons. It was called the "Diu Cannon". Even the Portuguese had never seen such a cannon. Big cannon.

Now that Macau has been completely taken back by China, the commander of the Portuguese-Macau (trade) fleet, without hesitation, gave up the Portuguese title and led the entire fleet into the arms of China.

The Portuguese-Macau fleet was renamed, and a group of Portuguese divided up the royal family's property and registered "Francis Macau Business Company" in China.The commander of the Portuguese-Macau fleet became the largest shareholder, accounting for 5% of the shares alone, while the chairman of the Macao Municipal Council became the chairman of the board of directors.

These Portuguese businessmen, led by missionaries, traveled around the southern provinces, seeking to marry Chinese suppliers.

In just half a year, more than 20 interracial marriages were successful.It is nothing more than a Portuguese woman marrying the concubine or a member of the Chinese businessman; or a Portuguese man marrying the concubine or a member of the Chinese businessman.

The first-born children of Chinese merchants don't want to marry a ghost at all, and the red hair and green eyes are creepy at first glance.

……

Batavia.

The tough Dutch governor Van Diemen died of illness early last year. The new governor is called Cornelis van der Linyin, which translates to "Fan der Lin" in Chinese.

Not long after Van Diemen died of illness, Van der Lin had set off from Europe.

It wasn't that the East India Company headquarters was unpredictable, but that Van Diemen died after lying in bed for more than half a year, and he was still sick and asked the headquarters to send a new governor immediately.Because the situation in the Far East is not optimistic, and the development momentum of China's maritime business is too strong!

"Your Excellency, these are the financial reports for the last 15 years." The adjutant handed over a stack of reports.

Van der Lin didn't bother to read it himself, so he just said, "Please briefly describe it."

副官说道：“从1631年到1640年,公司在亚洲的支出是1640万荷兰盾,收入约为2840万荷兰盾，利润为1200万荷兰盾，平均每年利润120万荷兰盾。自1641年到现在，每年的平均支出,较上一个十年增加110万盾，而年平均收入却只增加90万盾。我们的净利润,正在逐年下滑。”

"What is the main source of the increased spending?" asked Van der Linn.

"War!" the adjutant replied succinctly.

Although Spain retreated to the South Philippine Islands, China, the Netherlands, and Spain signed an armistice agreement.However, small frictions between the West and the Netherlands continued. The Dutch warships always disguised themselves as pirates and ran to harass and rob Spanish merchant ships.

Meanwhile, the Dutch set up trading posts in North Vietnam and got involved in Vietnam's Civil War - and lost it.

The adjutant said: "Before Your Excellency took office, the Batavia Council held several meetings. Members unanimously decided to stop the silk trade with Japan at the Vietnamese trading station."

"Why stop?" Van der Lim asked.

The adjutant explained: "A few years ago, China was not unified. A large amount of Chinese silk was transported from Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi to northern Vietnam for trading, and we then shipped the silk to Japan for sale. But as the Chinese emperor occupied Sichuan, the silk After the Chinese emperor completely occupied Guizhou and Guangxi, it was even more difficult to buy silk and brocade in Vietnam. This year, the Chinese emperor occupied Yunnan, and our textile supply was cut off.”

It is very difficult for the Netherlands to get goods directly from China.

Of course, a small amount of goods is fine, but the supply of a large number of goods is extremely unstable, and they are all controlled by Chinese merchants.Moreover, China is also doing business with Japan, how can the Netherlands be allowed to seize market share?

Just last year, a total of more than 20 maritime merchants from Fujian and Zhejiang provinces joined forces to sell related textiles in Japan at a low price at the cost of silk sold in the Netherlands.Not only did the Dutch lose everything, but they also forced many small Chinese maritime merchants to go bankrupt, and Chinese large merchants took the opportunity to merge their markets.

After the adjutant explained in detail, Van der Lin frowned and said, "We can't let the Chinese maritime merchants develop. We should concentrate our efforts to fight a war with the Chinese and force them to sell us silk at a low price."

"I'm afraid this... Council will not support you," the adjutant said. "Once we start a war with China, no matter what the outcome is, at least one-third of the company's trade in the Far East will come to an end."

At present, 30% of the Dutch East India Company's trade volume (not profit volume) in Asia comes from pepper, and 28% comes from other spices.

However, due to Portugal's nonsense, the price of spices continued to decrease, and the profits of spice trade continued to decline.Although 58% of the trade volume comes from spices, the overall profit is far less than that of silk, tea and porcelain. Once war with China, Emperor Zhao imposed a trade ban, the Dutch East India Company would suffer a devastating blow.

Of course, the practice of trade bans is also a lose-lose for China.

The adjutant said: "This is the information submitted by the council. The emperor of China took back Macau, and all the Portuguese in Macau turned their backs on the king and became Chinese."

"Is there such a thing?" Van der Lin was quite surprised.

The adjutant continued: "In the trade situation in the past two years, the profits of cotton cloth, opium, and slaves have grown the fastest. The opinion of the council is to order more cotton cloth from China, sell more opium to Southeast Asia, and provide more Asian slaves to China."

Van der Lin wondered: "Why does the profit of cotton cloth grow so fast?"

The adjutant said: "As Shandong in China is revived, China's cotton production has greatly increased. The Chinese continue to invent new textile machinery, and the price of cotton cloth continues to fall, and the price of our purchases in Batavia is also falling. Regarding cotton cloth, the Chinese emperor still A decree was promulgated that part of the customs duties could be refunded for the export of cotton cloth."

Cotton cloth export tax rebate, one is to encourage the export of cotton cloth, and the other is to minimize the impact on small domestic handicraft industries—although the effect is not very great.

The adjutant said: "China's cotton production has decreased this year, and the price of cotton cloth has risen a lot, but this is only temporary. The overall trend is that the price of cotton cloth is getting lower and lower, and Chinese merchants are shipping more and more cotton cloth to Batavia."

Van der Lin had just arrived in the Far East to take office, so he didn't know much about the situation.He said: "Call a meeting of the reviewers, and I will discuss it with them in detail."

The meeting lasted more than ten days, and the result was similar to the decision of the council.

It is to increase the trade volume of cotton cloth. Anyway, it is very cold in Europe, so there is no need to worry about not selling cotton cloth.Moreover, cotton cloth has been selling well in Ottoman and Persia, and it can take the opportunity to expand the market share of these two countries.

Then came opium. The Dutch East India Company decided to spread opium throughout Nanyang, so that the natives of Nanyang could regard opium as a necessity.

The last is the slave trade. It is too troublesome to directly fight and capture captives.You can continue to instigate the indigenous forces, let them attack each other, and sell the captured captives to the Netherlands, and the Netherlands sells them to Chinese maritime merchants.

The Far East strategy of the Dutch East India Company has also undergone major adjustments: