The richest VIPs in the open space were exchanging cups and cups, while the lesser buyers gathered around the high platform, staring at the host standing above and talking incessantly. The book in his hand was full of grease and fine crumbs, and then
The hands he was waving almost fell onto the hair of those guys.
There was a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old who handed out rubbing lists of slaves to people one by one.
After getting it, the gathered buyers began to discuss noisily.
Some of them had some technical questions after visiting the stables and looking at the roster in front of them.
For example: "This is not the first day I have been involved in the slave trade. My friend, it is difficult to guarantee that the goods I buy are healthy just by looking at your boastful introduction. Therefore, can you provide a more in-depth investigation? For example... check them
The teeth, muscles and limbs are not just casually glanced at, but carefully inspected. After all, I have to ensure that these items are free of deformities and infectious diseases."
His suggestion was approved by most people, and everyone echoed it.
The dealer on the high platform clapped his hands eagerly to calm down the slave owners. He then ordered his gang to bring the first batch of slaves over. There were ten people in total, including children, all of whom were tied up.
These people stood side by side in front of the slave owners and buyers. All men, women and children, old and young, had their shirts taken off. At most, only underwear was left for the women.
The cigar club seller walked over and handled each of them repeatedly like an animal, showing off their healthy skin and limbs to buyers.
What followed was a loud and bragging display, and while boasting, he also asked a series of questions to the slaves to humiliate them.
Worried buyers voluntarily raised their hands on stage, hoping to inspect the quality of their goods at close range.
Mike and Victor were at the back of the crowd, watching this uncomfortable scene with expressionless expressions.
Victor glanced over and saw that the kneeling "human goods" in front all showed extremely sad expressions. Fate forced them to come here from their hometown and succumbed to the heavy blow destined to them.
They were depressed, their eyes were staring blankly in one place, their bodies were being moved around at will, and they could not calm down for a moment.
But in full view of the public, few shed tears.
After people continued to come forward to inspect the goods, the first auction transaction began. The host of the cigar dealer looked at the numbers on the necks of the slaves and began to quote their names and prices.
"Male No. 1, George, 27 years old, top-notch planter! The starting price is 300 faraka!"
"Female No. 2, Su, 26 years old, excellent transplanter, starting price is 200 Faka!"
"Boy No. 3, Lato, age 6, starting price is 50 faraka!"
"Boy No. 4, Harry, age 4, starting price is 50 faraka!"
…
As buyers kept making offers, Victor witnessed all the first batch of goods being bought, and finally an astonishing average price was reached: 360 faraka for an adult male and 270 faraka for a female.
The price for children is on the lower side, 60 Faka per person.
This almost subverted Victor's cognition. You must know that he originally thought that the slaves in his family could only be exchanged for a few faraka each. After this calculation, their family's funds to build that industry could be
It's far more than a few hundred faraka, and Thomas's funding is particularly critical.
However, although he thought the price was expensive, when he thought about it carefully, this was a slave's lifetime freedom and life...
Furthermore, due to the implementation of the Abolition Act, the price of the slave trade has naturally increased. Just like wine, the price of alcohol increased sevenfold during Prohibition.
Human goods who are given the title of "superior" are so-called high-level workers, which means they have no physical defects and no escape record from the traffickers.
In the East, you can even use this affix to ask for "after-sales service" from a slave intermediary. Once the facts are found to be inconsistent with the situation, the slave owner can also demand compensation from the slave trader.
Victor knew this very well. At least in the ten years of memory he had in that dream, his father went to a slave trader to ask for compensation.
The first batch of human goods was bought, and the second batch was immediately dragged up, and batch after batch was quoted and traded. Basically, we can understand the routines of this market. The highest prices are for male slaves around twenty years old.
Not only can they work, but they can also contribute more time throughout their lives. The price for the elderly and children is very low, because when the children reach the age where they can work, the slave owner needs to pay the cost of raising them, and the elderly cannot do the work, which is inefficient.
.
In addition, slave owners are also happy to see the union of male slaves and female slaves, because in that case, the children they give birth to will also belong to the slave owners from birth, which is equivalent to picking up for free, and the slaves'
The family has also become a shackles for these people who long for freedom. The time and money they originally spent to redeem themselves are doubled on their children.
In other words, as long as a slave gets married, he will basically be trapped in the hands of his slave owner forever, and his original hope will be completely wiped out.
Therefore, Victor saw that these buyers would not only focus on strong young men, but they would also consider matching them with young female slaves.
Mike, who was out of tune with this extremely inhumane auction scene, finally couldn't stand it anymore. He patted Victor on the shoulder and called him aside to chat secretly.
"We have to do something."
"What?"
"Like starting a riot and ruining this ridiculous show."
Victor reached out and pinched the brim of his top hat, and tentatively suggested: "Call the police?"
"It's no use, my friend, we knew it early on." Mike looked around and then said, "Look at those people sitting at the table, who are they? We need to have information about the buyers, so that we know
What to deal with."
Victor spread his hands: "You don't want me to go over and ask them one by one, do you?"
"Of course not. We can wait until the auction is over and then check where they send the goods."
Mike gave suggestions, but Victor knew that this information would be closely guarded by the Cigar Club, and it would not be easy to get it.
An hour later, as the voices of the traders on the stage fell, the auction was a great success. They sold a total of 436 slaves this time, for a total of an astonishing 90,000 faraka. The average price of each slave was
More than 200 faraka.
Victor secretly smacked his tongue. There were at least nearly 10 million slaves in the entire slave state of Sai. If calculated based on this average price...
The value of billions of francs can be called a bubble economy...
No wonder I heard people say that the value of slaves in Sai country is several times the total price of gold mined in the past ten years.
Based on this calculation, Secred did not have the conditions to completely abolish slavery, and the contradiction between the east and the west and the contradiction between the north and the south were almost irreconcilable.
Seeing that the slave traders from the cigar club had begun to sign contracts with the buyers, Mike asked Victor to leave the open space, go to the previous stable, huddle in a dark corner and wait quietly.
The slave trader from the cigar club entered the building opposite with a stack of signed agreements. The slave owners and middlemen left the auction one after another and returned to the fruit market where the carriage had been parked.
But at this moment, a group of uniformed Prohibition Bureau officers suddenly appeared and stopped the crowd.