Chapter 715 Slave Trader
Although the Dutch merchant ship had been boarded and inspected before docking, in order to prevent unexpected situations during the acceptance of slaves, Roger dispatched a company of soldiers to the dock in advance to be on guard. If any restless slaves try to cause trouble here, the Haihan Militia will immediately teach them the rules that must be followed.
In addition, Li Dagui also transferred several foremen from Southeast Asia and East Africa in advance to wait for orders. These foremen have been on Ambrosia Island for more than a month, and they can already understand some simple Chinese instructions. If necessary, they can communicate with the slaves who have just arrived.
Yang Sen called his subordinates to give some instructions, and soon the hatch on the ship was opened to let the slaves out. Although the Dutch gave up equipping the ship with artillery in order to carry more people, the crew still maintained basic armaments. They were equipped with weapons such as waist knives and harpoons, which were arranged on both sides of the hatch leading to the deck from the cabin. A passage consisting of two human walls is formed. After the slaves came out of the cabin, they followed this passage and stepped onto the gangplank on the side of the ship to the shore.
Probably in order to prevent these slaves from causing trouble or jumping into the sea on the way, the Dutch used iron chains and shackles to connect every ten slaves together. This method is similar to the method used by Haihan when transporting prisoners of war or prisoners on a large scale. . After the slaves dragged their heavy shackles down to the shore, the Dutch crew came forward to untie the shackles one by one and asked them to sit down on the spot.
The staff at Haihan immediately began to check the physical condition of the slaves, mainly looking at the eyes and mouth, which are easier to observe physical conditions, as well as whether there are any obvious trauma or disabilities on the limbs and trunk. According to the agreement between the two parties, Haihan can reject or lower the price of slaves with obvious physical injuries or severe disabilities depending on the situation. Haihan's staff also inspected very carefully, because if those slaves with unqualified physical conditions were not picked out at this stage but were discovered later, then they, the inspectors, would have to bear the blame.
The physical quarantine carried out by relevant departments on these slaves is even more detailed than that of Hainan Island's acceptance of immigrants from other places. This is because the Ministry of Health has issued a notice specifically to prevent some strange tropical infectious diseases from flowing into the densely populated plantation areas on the island. Although this kind of manual inspection cannot completely prevent the influx of infectious viruses, it can at least play a certain preventive role. Highly contagious tropical diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, yellow fever, dengue fever, etc. are currently the targets of strict prevention and control by the Ministry of Health. As long as relevant symptoms are found in slaves, Haihan will unconditionally reject them. of suspected cases.
Roger had already given instructions before to try to suppress the Dutch supply price, so Li Dagui was particularly strict today. Before all the slaves on the first boat had landed on the shore, a dozen slaves in poor health had been picked out and driven to the other side to gather alone.
Yang Sen was a little panicked when he saw this situation, and quickly came to Roger and said: "Dear Sir, these people are just in a bad situation because they have consumed too much energy during the voyage at sea. I promise They don’t suffer from any disease that affects their work.”
Roger smiled and responded: "Of course I believe what you said, Mr. Jansen. But you are the captain, and I am a soldier. Neither of us are professional doctors, right? So as for judging their physical condition, I I think it’s better to trust the professionals.”
Yang Sen ate a soft nail, stepped aside with a sneer, and winked at Li Dagui repeatedly. When he shipped two ships of slaves last time, it was Li Dagui who was in charge of receiving them. The two of them had interacted with each other. Yang Sen also gave Li Dagui a small barrel of wine brought from Europe as a gift. But the time when Li Dagui could make the decision has obviously passed. Now this Haihan man is obviously much smarter than Li Dagui, and judging from Li Dagui's obedient appearance, he is obviously also a powerful figure in Haihan. Yang Sen could only hope that Li Dagui would remember his previous friendship, say a few kind words for himself in front of this noble man, and relax his standards a little.
However, Roger's authority obviously far outweighed the superficial friendship between him and Li Dagui. Although Li Dagui could not understand the conversation between the two, he knew from his observation that Yang Sen had probably hit a snag with Roger. , instead of helping him, he said sternly: "Mr. Jansen, we are just acting in accordance with the agreement agreed by both parties. You don't have any other ideas about this, do you?"
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Yang Sen smiled bitterly and responded: "Of course... no."
To be honest, the slaves that Jansen transported this time were indeed carefully selected at the slave market in Batavia City. Several slave traders who supplied him also sold their friendships and kept the ones in better physical condition. Gave it to him. Moreover, a lot of thought was put into the process of transporting them to the Ambrosia Islands, such as improving the ventilation of the cabin and hiring a doctor to observe the condition of the slaves on the ship, in order to sell them at a good price to the Haihan people. But it’s really crazy to have hundreds of people stuck in a cabin, drifting at sea for more than two thousand miles, eating, drinking and eating. They can eat one meal every day and still be alive and well when they get off the ship.
If the Haihan refused to accept the selected slaves, then Jansen would have no choice but to transport them back to Batavia. However, judging from the physical condition of these people, it is hard to say whether they can return to the slave market in Batavia alive, or they may not even be able to get their money back.
After an hour passed, the inventory and inspection of a total of 317 slaves on the first ship was finally completed. Among them, twenty-seven people were singled out because of their suspicious physical conditions. This number made Yang Sen quietly wipe his sweat. Including the damage during transportation, this ratio is basically acceptable.
The second ship carried more slaves, so it took longer, but more people were picked out due to physical reasons, but the proportion was not much different from the first ship, which was close to 10%.
Seeing these patients gathered on the other side, Jansen's heart bleeds. Even based on the cost price he paid to acquire these people in Batavia, this is a large amount of money. In any case, he would try again to persuade Roger to accept this group of people.
"You see, noble sir, if these poor fellows are to be shipped back to Batavia, perhaps they will be called by the Lord on the way. I would like to ask your Excellency to allow them to stay on this island, It takes a few days to recover. If they can't survive it, then their fate is indeed bad, and resting here is their fate. If they can recover, then this is also a good thing for you, no. "?" Jansen walked up to Roger again and tried to get him to change his previous attitude.
Roger sat on a chair, holding a glass of fresh coconut juice in his hand, looking up at Jansen and smiling: "You mean, you want me to pay for these slaves who may die of illness at any time?"
"No, no, no, I have thought of a compromise." Yang Sen responded quickly: "I can leave these people here, and I will collect the money when I come next time. Of course, only living people will be collected." part.”
Roger responded: "This part needs to be deducted from the funeral expenses of the deceased..." "No problem." Jansen agreed without hesitation: "For the sake of fairness, we will use one-fifth of a slave's worth as funeral expenses. Yes, what do you think?”
"I accept your proposal." Roger thought for a moment and then agreed. At present, there is still a labor shortage in the island's plantations, and it is always good to have more manpower. As for the funeral expenses, it is nothing more than asking someone to dig a hole and bury the person. These slaves do not even need to erect tombstones after their death. The labor cost is minimal, in fact, it is much lower than the amount proposed by Jansen.
For the slave trader Yang Sen, this avoided the trouble of returning all the more than sixty unqualified slaves. By keeping them with the Haihan people, he also avoided the risk of damage on the way back. Moreover, these more than 60 people should not all die in a short period of time. At least Yang Sen would not believe this evil. It would be better to sell some of them than to lose all. Of course, for this reason, he probably needs to leave one or two crew members on the island to monitor whether the condition of these slaves has returned to the health level required by the Haihan people.
Before Jansen could put the big stone in his heart, he heard Roger continue: "But I have another thing to say hello to you. We are no longer interested in accepting the indigenous people from these islands in the South China Sea."
"Ah? Then I will find more black people to transport over next time." Yang Sen promised, but he felt something was wrong in his heart.
"I'm not talking about next time, I'm talking about starting from this time." Sure enough, he was afraid of what would happen. With a smile on his face, Roger gave a cold reply.
Yang Sen's heart trembled. Nearly half of the slaves transported this time were indigenous residents of the South China Sea islands. These slaves were basically captured from various colonies of the East India Company. Since these people were lazy and had no production skills, the sales situation in the Batavia slave market was not very good. Jansen originally thought that the Haihan people who were in urgent need of labor would become a new sales channel, but now it seems that the Haihan people are obviously not optimistic about the performance of these guys.
"Dear Sir, there is nothing wrong with the physical condition of these people, is there? They can work very well for your plantation. Even if there are some fools among them, I believe they will learn quickly under the whip. How should I serve this gentleman?" Yang Sen looked at Haihan's soldiers distinguishing the Nanyang natives from the crowd, and quickly pleaded with Roger.
Roger glanced at the pitiful Jansen and responded as if out of kindness: "Yeah, speaking of transporting these guys from Batavia, it should be a very troublesome thing..."
"It's not just trouble, it's just a torment!" Yang Sen immediately began to complain: "These guys don't have a unified language and writing, and it's difficult to communicate. Only a whip can teach them the rules. If you are unwilling to accept these savages, then I still have to spend time and effort transporting them back... This is a nightmare just thinking about it!”
Roger clicked his tongue and said: "Since everyone is in trouble, I don't think it's better to do this. I'll take half the price for what has been shipped this time. But the next time I trade, I don't want to see any South China Sea natives mixed in to add money. .”
Yang Sen thought to himself that this is also called a replenishment. This is a slave that is sold openly in the slave market with a clearly marked price. I also selected thousands of slaves who are in better physical condition to buy them and ship them over. The Haihan people are really difficult to take care of!
Criticisms come from the inside, but the business still has to be done, but it was cut in half by Roger's words, and Jansen would definitely not agree to it. If you really trade according to Roger's quotation, then there will be basically no profit at all in this trip.
Jansen was so stubborn that he foamed at the corners of his mouth, and Roger finally relaxed - but only a little, from cutting off half to cutting off one-third.
When Jansen was still waiting to continue grinding, Roger yawned and said, "Since Mr. Jansen is not satisfied yet, how about you stay at the port first, I will go into the mountains tomorrow, and we will continue talking when I come back in a few days. ”
How dare Jansen wait until a few days later to talk? Roger would still say no more by then, so Jansen would have lost both time and money. At that moment, I didn’t dare to fight with Roger any longer, and quickly finalized the final deal agreement. Although Roger cut off a lot of money in the second trip, the result of the transaction was not bad. At least Jansen still made a slight profit after keeping the cost of this trip. Of course, the premise is that there will be smooth sailing and no bad weather on the way back to Batavia. Otherwise, even if the journey is delayed for a few more days, the consumption of the two ships will be enough to absorb this profit.
After finalizing the deal, Jansen immediately took the withdrawal slip signed by Roger and went to Haihan Bank at the port to withdraw cash. Although Dutch merchant ships could dock here, he did not want to delay here at all. The Haihan people stipulated extremely strict rules. During the docking of Dutch merchant ships, the crew's activities were restricted to the dock, even those to the west of the port. You can't go to inland towns. This kind of regulation makes the crew members who want to go ashore to have a drink and relax with a few women very unhappy after docking. Moreover, the supplies provided by the Haihan people are very expensive. One more day of delay here will cost more. Jansen is not willing to return the hard-earned profits to the Haihan people in this way.
After sending Jansen away, Roger said sternly to Li Dagui: "From now on, all slave transactions with the Dutch will be handled according to the rules this time. If they don't accept it, they will refuse to accept it. They are not the only ones doing the slave business. Don’t spoil them!”
(End of chapter)