Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1348 Triangular Trade

The economic structure of North America determines that the slave issue is a big killer.The South, which was originally very opposed to the union of states, taxation, and raising the army, had to consider a compromise once Dashun used slaves to talk things out.

Dashun attacked those two plantations just to show his attitude.

The real threat is hidden behind attitude.

The economic structure of North America at this time, the South and the North are interdependent.

Southern slavery.

Northern slaves.

The manufacturing industry in the south cannot develop because it is relatively rich, and the average assets of rural households are much higher than those in the north.

The sugar cane wine in the north was hard currency for slaves.

Of course, after the Treaty of Utrecht-Madrid, Britain had an Atlantic slave franchise.But now, Dashun has reached Gibraltar, and its France has been stuck in Senegal. Under such circumstances, the British slave trade in the future will be cut off by Dashun.

In the past, the East India Company could still exchange slaves with the "sorrow cloth", that is, the blue oriental cotton cloth.

It's all right now, Dashun himself doesn't buy slaves, but he sells cloth instead.Except for sugar cane wine, North America and Britain can't exchange any decent things for slaves now.

Besides, as long as Dashun showed even a little bit of opposition to slaves, it meant that the slave trade might be blocked.At that time, the price of slaves soared, and of course the plantation felt that its assets had increased in value.

However, seeing that Dashun is going to break the British navigation regulations, the dream of free trade in the South, and the dream of selling tobacco and the like directly to Europe without going through a trade deal, is about to come true. good thing.

The people in the southern state also feel aggrieved in their hearts.

I can't help but think that you Dashun want a demarcation line and a buffer zone, but it's not us who do plantations that cross the line.Are you going to fight those Scottish horse thieves and Irish shepherds?What does it do to affect the slave trade?
But in the face of their grievances, Dashun also made it very clear.

Dashun directly sent troops to the Appalachian Mountains, which was very difficult and costly.

Forget it, it’s better to hijack slave ships in West Africa, force the southern plantations to pay for soldiers, and then use North American soldiers to suppress the farming people in North America.

In short, what Dashun meant was that they hoped that the elites of the thirteen states would serve as land guardians for Dashun, and they would ensure the existence of the buffer zone and the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary line.

Because the really rich people live in the east.And only rich people, such as big businessmen, slave owners, and big landlords, can speak well, and they are the real ruling class in the Thirteen States.

If you work hard, you won't make money.Because Dashun really has the ability to plunge the East into a depression.

If you are not desperate, you people are either thinking about asking the common people to collect taxes, or you are paying for it yourself.All in all, it is definitely cheaper for you to spend money to suppress the western pioneers than to cut off your trade in Dashun.

Just like the Opium Wars in history, the high profits of the opium trade came from the fact that the Manchu Qing Dynasty still had a certain ability to rule, and it was still possible to prohibit local tobacco cultivation for the time being.

The reason is the same.

Dashun believes that the thirteen states are too loose, and now the thirteen states must have a stable and united government with a certain ability to govern, so as to be able to prohibit crossing the Appalachian Mountains.

This governing ability includes three basic abilities of taxation, raising troops, and law enforcement.

If not, get it out quickly.Franklin's previous Albany meeting proposal was used as a blueprint, and it can be revised and revised, and everyone can discuss it again.

This kind of thing must not be as simple as having a meal together.Get together in the morning and talk in the afternoon.

Dashun also pursued a strategy of fighting while talking.

In mid-April, the elite Dashun engineers near the Delaware River had already dismantled their camp and boarded the ship.I made an appointment with the French, and waited for the estuary of the St. Lawrence River to thaw before starting to go north to help France repel the British troops in the north and retake Louisbourg.

By the end of May, the first mobilized merchant ships of Dashun had arrived in Philadelphia.

After berthing in Senegal to replenish food, this group of merchant ships arrived in Philadelphia along the classic route of the triangular trade.

As a result, the entire North America presents a post-modern magical scene.

Jurisprudentially, Dashun and the UK are now at war.

In fact, it is also playing.Moreover, many militias from various states, especially Virginia and Massachusetts, participated in the army that attacked the north and northwest.In other words, in fact, Dashun is also at war with North America.

But, on the other hand, both sides enjoyed themselves happily.

The north beats the north.

Business should be done in the south, and business should be done as usual.

Even because of the loss of the fulcrum of British naval power in West Africa, France and the Netherlands regained the initiative in the slave trade.

Originally, this was a trade monopolized by the United Kingdom, especially the transport of slaves to the Spanish colonies. This was the post-war pattern of the Spanish Succession War, which was signed and recognized by Spain.Even though the Jenkins Ear War ended and Spain spent 150 million taels to buy back the slave trade franchise, the British had more merchant ships after all, and Spain's trade control was too complicated. In fact, it was still the initiative of the British to control the slave trade. right.

But now, it's different.

The French slave trade itself was officially authorized as a semi-monopoly.Although the Netherlands is loose in its management, it has suffered a crushing defeat in the previous wars against Britain.

However, as Dashun went to Nanyang and cooperated with Dutch commercial capital, the slave trade in the Netherlands has also "prospered" in recent years.

Therefore, in the north, the North American militia and the British regular army were fighting in full swing with the Chinese, French, Indian tribes, and Catholic militia.

In the south, the songs were sung and the dances were danced. The French slave ships were welcomed by the southern states like never before to supplement the shortage of slaves after the British army's maritime trade was cut off.

Philadelphia is meeting.

Planters in the south have a keen sense of smell and know that Dashun will definitely abolish the British navigation regulations.From this, it can be seen that their plantation industry is about to make a fortune, and there is no longer any restriction on the "Listed Commodities Law" for trade, which means that they are about to usher in great development in the southern and central European markets.

As a result, plantation owners in the south are rapidly expanding the scale of plantations and increasing the number of slaves.

It is not just a bet on the future, but also because it is a competition for the "pricing power" of slaves.

When the fight started, the two sides hurt each other... Although the group of people in North America and the group in Africa haven't read serious economics textbooks, it doesn't mean they don't know the direction of prices.

Plantation owners in North America, the Caribbean and other regions thought at the beginning: Look, the fight between the two sides is in full swing, and it has become a world war.The slave trade was definitely affected.So, is it easy to draw conclusions?Are slave prices about to plummet?
Because the fight between the two sides is in full swing, the slave trade has been affected, and a large number of slaves are backlogged. Doesn't that mean that the price must drop?
This principle is completely understandable without reading economics textbooks.

However, they never expected that those African slave sellers, even though they had never read economics textbooks, knew to join forces to raise prices!

A large number of slave suppliers and chiefs did not choose to sell each other and lower prices, but contacted each other to reduce the supply of slaves and increase the selling price of slaves.

These slave suppliers found that with the start of the "First World War", the price of food dropped steadily. Although it is counterintuitive, it is the reality.

There is a large amount of commodity grain in North America. Because of the protection of grain prices by British landlords and the robbery of ships by China and France, the commodity grain in North America has nowhere to go.

What North America urgently needs is currency, slaves, and sugar.

New England, the Midlands, and especially Connecticut and other states that grow wheat and corn, they don't have any other industries, and they can't do anything else.

A large number of self-cultivating farmers, or the kind of small farms with family slaves, often have three or four hundred acres of land.They want to exchange food for things they use, of course, for money.

This makes a large amount of grain looking for export direction, and the slave trade in West Africa is an important market.

However, local slave traders and suppliers found that when the price of food was low, they raised slaves like pigs and did not sell them. They controlled shipments, raised prices, and made higher profits.

For example, get a boatload of grain, and let the slaves use plantain leaves to build a few shabby houses.When eating, they knocked on the basin and threw the grain into the slave pen, and the death rate was not very high.If you calculate the price increase, it is actually higher than the original yield.

By the way, they can also give birth to small slaves, and small slaves can also be sold for money, just like Dashun sells old sows and piglets.

Today, the Dashun Navy, the French Navy, and the British Navy are squatting in the north and south of the strait to compete for strength.

If it is really compared to privateers, France is not bad at all.

Portugal, as another important slave trader, has passed the period of great development of Brazil's gold mines in the past few years, and the output of gold mines has begun to shrink.Even though Portugal is now at war with France and Spain, slave traders still actively contact France, hoping that France will help sell slaves.

Under such circumstances, France quickly gained the initiative in the Atlantic slave trade, and thus such a magical scene was produced.

The north is fighting with France.

The southern port is wide open to welcome French slave ships to sell slaves.

Behind the slave trade, there is a bigger problem with the French industry.

If someone thinks about it, they will think about it, what did France rely on to complete the slave trade?

France also produces wine, but it produces brandy and other wines. Will West Africa need such a large amount of brandy?

West Africa wants wine, but it wants rum, but rum production is suppressed in France because it wants to protect the country's grape growing industry.

Guns for slaves?France does produce muskets, but it is impossible for so many slaves to trade with muskets alone.

If you think about this step, it is easy to think that France mostly uses Chinese cotton cloth as the main commodity in the slave trade.

Indeed, France has a ban on cotton cloth.

However, France also has comprador groups and slave trading groups.

Through their disdainful efforts, these men managed to open a breach.

Of course, historically, this gap has been opened since 1729.Allowed at Nantes to establish a factory for imitation cotton cloth.

However, because the technology is too low, [Africans don’t need to verify, they can tell the poor imitation cotton cloth of Nantes just by smelling it].

Historically, until 1759, because of the war, the flow of cotton cloth from the Netherlands and Britain to France decreased.

At that time, the boom in the molasses trade between New England in North America and the French Caribbean islands led to a sharp increase in the demand for slaves in the Caribbean.

French slave traders could not exchange New England rum for slaves, nor could they exchange cotton cloth for slaves because of the war and blockade.

Therefore, in 1759 in history, the French Ministry of Finance took the lead in approving the production of cotton cloth, but it must be "produced only for the purpose of foreign trade".Because of the external blockade, the cotton cloth manufacturing industry in France has developed rapidly since the blockade in 59.

However, now, at this moment, the situation is completely different.

The blockade of France was not as successful as in history. The local cotton cloth manufacturing industry in France was not supported by slave traders and merchants. The reason they supported in history was that they urgently needed cotton cloth to sell slaves. It is better than nothing, so the joint efforts of several parties and the leadership of the Ministry of Finance led to the anti-comprador and self-production movement that gave rise to the rapid development of cotton cloth production in Nantes, Rouen and other places-but now, slave traders and comprador merchants do not need Develop local manufacturing, but prefer to directly use Dashun's cotton cloth.

This is always the case, wars, hostilities, embargoes... The result is often to destroy the merchant group of the country, but to grow the local manufacturing industry.

However, France now has an ally in a pure commodity exporter.This ally does not impose an embargo on France, but has been trying to find a partner within France, a little bit from the 1729 Nantes export of cotton cloth license production order, which opened a gap.

(End of this chapter)