When the Liaodong region in the north begins to experience cold winter snow, it is still as hot as summer here in Nanyang.
Danhe City, Luzon, in Zhao Ming's plantation, Zhao Ming is riding a horse to inspect his plantation.
Looking up, in addition to a cement road connecting the outside world, there are endless sugar cane forests all around. Thanks to the superior natural conditions here, sugar cane grows very well here, with high yield, high sugar content, and extremely benefits.
amazing.
Therefore, planting sugarcane has become the first choice for plantations in several provinces in Nanyang. A large number of sugarcane plantations are spread throughout Nanyang, which in turn has formed an extremely large cane sugar industry chain.
“The price of sugarcane has dropped again~”
Looking at the sugar cane forest in front of him that was ready for harvest, Zhao Ming felt a little unhappy.
Because the price of sugarcane is falling year by year, it is getting lower year by year. Although the sugarcane harvest has been bumper, it cannot be sold at a good price.
"There are really too many people growing sugarcane. There are sugarcane plantations everywhere. It is normal for the price to drop."
"Maybe I should try to grow something else, otherwise life will not be easy from now on."
Zhao Ming was thinking silently in his heart.
Soon, they came to a sugar cane forest on horseback. Here, hundreds of slaves were working hard, harvesting sugar cane, then tying the sugar cane into bundles, and then carrying the sugar cane to the surrounding areas.
On top of the wheeled carriage, they were waiting for their owner Zhao Ming to come and transport the sugar cane to Danhe City for sale.
"Master~"
When Hussein saw Zhao Ming coming, he quickly walked up with a smile on his face.
He was Zhao Ming's slave, a Persian businessman, who had traveled far and wide, and was good at business and management, so Zhao Ming also entrusted him with the management of slaves and the management of plantations.
"Are the new slaves still obedient?"
Zhao Ming nodded and looked at the more than a hundred slaves working.
These more than a hundred slaves come from a wide range of sources, including Javanese people from Southeast Asia and Tianzhu people from Tianzhu. Among the Tianzhu people, they are divided into Tamils, Dravidians and fair-skinned Aryans.
These types of slaves were purchased by Zhao Ming through the slave market in Danhe City.
Later, Zhao Minglu purchased many new slaves one after another, including Persians, Arabs, and Ottoman Turks.
It can be said that although Zhao Ming only has more than a hundred slaves, the sources of these more than a hundred slaves are very wide, some are black, some are white, and all kinds.
"I'm quite obedient, and I work seriously and hard."
Hussein replied quickly.
"Ah That's good."
Zhao Ming nodded with satisfaction.
The prosperity of the Nanyang plantation economy required a large amount of labor, and slaves were naturally the best and cheapest labor force. Therefore, the Nanyang region has always been the most important slave consumer market in the Ming Dynasty.
Every year, hundreds of thousands or millions of slaves are sold to Nanyang, and then bought back by plantation owners in Nanyang. The expensive slaves stimulate the development of the slave industry and form a very complete industrial chain.
There were several types of slave industry chains at the beginning. One was dominated by the Ming Dynasty Commercial Bank. They mainly colonized Tianzhu and captured the people in Tianzhu through various means, either by directly arresting them with open fire, or by
Either through deception or purchase, a large number of slaves were first gathered on the island of Ceylon and then sold to Southeast Asia.
Tianzhu is now the most important source of slaves in the Ming Dynasty.
In addition to Tianzhu, Burma, Siam, and island countries in Southeast Asia, although the merchants of the Ming Dynasty did not arrest or rob directly in these places, they often cooperated with some local snakes, and the local snakes used various means to turn people into slaves.
Sold to Ming Dynasty's trading firm.
These are places relatively close to Nanyang, where a large number of trading houses, merchants, and fleets are active mainly engaged in slave trade. A slave can be sold in Nanyang for dozens of taels of silver, which is a very profitable business.
This stimulated countless people to join this lucrative industry, and a large number of slaves were continuously sold to the Ming Dynasty.
However, most of the slaves in these places had dark skin and short stature, so they were called black slaves by the Ming people. In addition to black slaves, the market demand for white slaves in the Ming Dynasty was also very large.
The Ming Dynasty regarded white as beauty and liked white slaves.
Therefore, some businessmen traveled thousands of miles to the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Persia and other places to buy white slaves and transport them to Southeast Asia for sale. White slaves are generally tall and strong, and the price is high. If they are female slaves, as long as they look good, they are often sold.
It can be sold at a very high price.
This also led to a large number of merchants in the Middle East, Persia, the Ottoman Empire and other places engaged in the slave trade, using various means to sell white slaves to the Ming Dynasty, and they could make huge profits once they were resold.
This has also become an extremely important industry in these areas.
Many slaves even came from very far away Europe. They were sold from Europe to the Mediterranean, then purchased by Arab merchants, transported to the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf, and then sold to Ming merchants, who then sold these slaves to Southeast Asia.
Zhao Ming's plantation area is very large and has been continuously expanding, so he often goes to the slave market to buy slaves, ranging from one or two to five or six, and slowly he has more than a hundred slaves.
Slaves came from all over the world.
"Come on, follow me to Danhe City."
Zhao Ming looked at the several four-wheeled carriages that were already fully loaded, then rode towards Danhe City.
There are several specialized cane sugar trading houses in Danhe City that purchase sugar cane or sugar cane water. Planters can sell the sugar cane to them directly, or they can squeeze the sugar cane juice themselves and sell the sugar water to the trading houses.
Riding a horse and taking his slaves, he drove several carts of sugar cane slowly and leisurely towards Danhe City. Not long after walking, he met his neighbor Sun Hongli on the road. Although they were neighbors, they only belonged to two families.
The plantations are connected together, but the manor houses where they live are still somewhat far apart.
"Sun Xiucai, are you going to Danhe City too?"
Zhao Ming smiled and greeted Sun Hongli.
"Yes, this sugar cane is ripe. If we don't sell it, should we keep it to rot?"
Sun Xiucai smiled. The two of them had frequent contacts and were both old acquaintances.
"Sun Xiucai, the price of sugar cane has dropped. If this continues, we will all be drinking from the northwest."
"No, there's nothing we can do. There are too many people growing sugar cane."
"Now plantations are blooming everywhere, and sugar cane is grown everywhere. The price of sugar has been falling again and again. Can the price of sugar cane be reduced?"
"Sun Xiucai, you read a lot and read newspapers frequently. Have you discovered anything new? I want to focus on other things. I estimate that the price of sugar cane will be even lower in the future."
"You are right to have this idea. The price of sugar cane will definitely drop in the future."
"I read the latest Daming Business Daily two days ago. It said that the sugar sold to Europe dropped a lot in the first half of this year, and the price also dropped a lot. The price of our local sugar is also falling, so those commercial banks will naturally have to lower the price.
The price of sugar cane can be profitable."
"So, some of the new plantations no longer grow sugar cane."
"Then what do they grow? They can't grow rice, right?"
"Hey, on some islands in the south, there are plantations growing spices. Spices are the most popular in Europe, and the price is very high."
"Europeans have too much body odor, and they need this stuff to cover it up, so the demand for spices has always been very strong in Europe."
"In addition, the use of perfume has become popular in the Beijing-Tianjin region of Ming Dynasty, so some people have analyzed that the spice market will definitely be very good in the future."
"So I'm going to plant some spices and give it a try first. There's plenty of land anyway, so I'll plan accordingly."
"In addition, I have also heard that there are some trading houses that specialize in purchasing fast ships to travel to and from Nanyang, Ryukyu and the Beijing-Tianjin area. Ordinary ships take more than ten days to make a trip, but this kind of fast ship takes seven days."
"These trading houses specialize in purchasing fruits and vegetables from our Nanyang side and selling them to the Beijing-Tianjin area. As you know, when winter comes in the north, it snows heavily and nothing can be grown. Vegetables and fruits are worse than meat.
expensive."
"Really? In the past few days, won't all the fruits and vegetables rot?"
"I heard that they are picked in advance, before they are fully ripe, and then ripen naturally while being transported. Although they are not too fresh after being transported to the Beijing-Tianjin area, the price is still very expensive."
"So I'm going to plant some vegetables next. It's going to be winter soon, and the demand for vegetables in the Beijing-Tianjin area is very strong."
"You are still great scholars. You can know everything about the world just by reading the newspapers. I don't know a few Chinese characters and I don't understand anything."
"I just stayed in a private school for a few more years, but I still couldn't pass the exam."
"That means if you don't take the exam, as long as you take the exam, you will pass the exam easily."
"If I don't go, it will just be like that. What's good about being an official? It's not as easy as I am now."
"That's true~"
"By the way, why is there no news about the rubber we talked about last year?"
"Don't mention the rubber. A friend of mine invested a lot of money to plant some. As a result, they are still small saplings. Even the rubber plantations under Daming Ocean Trading Company have been losing money. I heard that they cost seven or eight dollars.
It will take years to produce glue."
"It will take seven or eight years. Fortunately, I didn't plant any seeds, otherwise the money would not have been able to come back until years and months of the monkey."
"That can only be played by rich people. But the last time I read the newspaper, the price of this rubber is very expensive. It needs to be transported back from Golden Continent. I heard that rubber has many uses. It is estimated that this kind of rubber will be used in the future.
Not bad, after all, Liu Shangshu’s industries are all growing rubber.”
"Seven or eight years is too long, and we don't even know how to plant it now. The risk is too great."
