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Chapter 1131 The Portuguese Plantation

"The sea here is magnificent. If only there were never terrible storms and waves."

Many Chinese businessmen gathered on one side of the deck to look at the angle between the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. The place they can see is boundless, the sea is blue and undulating, and the waves beat against the rocky coast.

Their fleet encountered strong winds and waves at Cape Storm, but luckily the storm in the depths of the ocean did not hit Cape Storm, and the fleet was on the edge of the storm and passed by the storm.

After the fleet escaped from the influence of the storm deep in the ocean, the sky was clear, and the fleet left Cape Storm and sailed north along the coast of West Africa.

The people who survived the catastrophe couldn't help but rejoice that they were not affected by the storm and were enjoying the beauty of the boundless sea.

"It's God's blessing that we happened to be surrounded by the storm. Otherwise, I think the local giant waves might be three or four feet high, and it's not impossible for the waves to be as high as six or seven feet. Such huge waves might None of our ships can escape..." Several businessmen came to talk to Li Jinde, and found that Li Jinde was flipping through a photo, "This is the latest thing in the capital, a new thing called a photo?"

"Yes, this is a very precious thing, especially for those of us who often go out." Li Jinde showed a black-and-white photo to the businessman who was traveling with him. It was a photo he took in a photo studio before leaving.

"With this thing called photos, we can often look at the appearance of our wives and children when we go out, which can be a relief." Everyone discovered the benefits of photos at this time, and they can carry them with them when traveling!

"Not bad?" Li Jinde took back the black and white photos. His acceptance of new things in the capital was ahead of the times.

"To be honest, the voyage to the West is too far away, and it's extremely dangerous. We almost died just now. The food on board is really unpalatable. Fortunately, there are warehouses set up by Westerners along the route to replenish fresh food. .” Many Chinese businessmen complained about this voyage full of expectations.

They wanted to imitate Zheng He's voyage to the West, and also wanted to experience the strange and exotic customs, but the months-long voyage at sea made them suffer.

Fortunately, the route from the southeast coast to the Red Sea has been developed by Arab merchants, Indian merchants, and Chinese merchants for thousands of years. It is not an unfamiliar sea.

Only the exploration of the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica is almost blank.

"Because the risks of ocean-going trade are too great, Westerners will take the lead in setting up companies to do business in partnership. Even if the fleet encounters a storm and sinks on the way, everyone who pays will only lose the money they paid, and it will not be ruined." The merchants who contributed funds don’t even need to follow the ship in person, they only need to entrust a trustworthy captain to lead the fleet.” Li Jinde said.

"This is the reason why the military master asked to set up a company? If the profits are rich enough, it would be worthwhile to find a group of desperate people to take the risk of going overseas." Several big businessmen nodded.

For their businessmen, profit comes first, and any business activity has risks. As long as the benefits outweigh the risks, they will consider doing it.

This mighty fleet sailed north along the West African coastline. Before reaching European waters, they resupplied at the Portuguese-occupied island of Sao Tome.

When the Portuguese on Sao Tome Island in the Gulf of Guinea saw such a mighty fleet sailing into the pier of Sao Tome Island, they were taken aback.

The governor in charge of Sao Tome Island saw that some of the ships in the fleet were flying the British flag, while others were flying the Pixiu flag and the Dragon flag.

Sao Tome Island, who had never been to the East, knew nothing about the logo of the East, but he recognized the artillery on the warship.

The British envoy leading the way took the initiative to negotiate with the Portuguese on Sao Tome Island.

"There are a lot of black-skinned people on this island..." Many Chinese businessmen who arrived for the first time saw the black-skinned aborigines on Sao Tome Island.

"I have never been here, but the managers here should be Westerners. They occupied the island, planted crops here, and then captured the aborigines from the mainland to work for them." Li Jinde pointed Direction of the African continent.

He learned a lot about Europe from Selina, and he knew that many European countries with maritime power were carrying out colonial activities and slave trade along the coast of West Africa.So he speculated that this island, located on the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean and across the sea from the African continent, was the base for the above-mentioned activities.

In fact, Li Jinde's guess was not wrong. Sao Tome Island was the earliest stronghold of the Portuguese invading West Africa, and they built it into a plantation. They captured slaves from the African continent and went to Sao Tome Island to work for their plantation. and sold surplus slaves to America.

"You Britons are really just here for supplies?" The governor of Sao Tome Island looked anxiously at the huge fleet of more than 60 ships.

It is more convincing to say that such a fleet size is for trade, rather than expedition.

"The merchant ships with strange flags are Eastern China's merchant ships. They carried a large amount of silk, porcelain, tea, and spices to Europe, and the ships loaded with artillery were frigates to protect the huge fleet. I think you should know that this is the price It is normal for a cargo of hundreds of thousands of pounds to be protected by a warship. We want to resupply here, please rest assured that we will pay the corresponding price.” The British businessman who disembarked and negotiated said to the Portuguese Governor of Sao Tome Island.

"The merchant ships and warships of Chinese merchants? I have never heard that they will take the initiative to come to our Europe." The Governor of Sao Tome Island asked suspiciously.

"We are led by the Earl of Compton in Britain. With his identity, there is no need to deceive you. And you see that there are more than [-] ships armed with artillery on our side. If you really have any extra ideas about Sao Tome Island , just use force to attack directly." The Briton said.

"Well, as long as you pay a certain amount of money, I can resupply your ships. We grow a lot of food, fruits and vegetables here. But you can ask the merchants in the east if they can send me a batch of tea. "The governor of Sao Tome had the cheek to beg for tea.

"This is not a problem." Li Jinde and the others heard the request from the governor of Sao Tome Island, and they thought it was acceptable. After all, Sao Tome Island was a territory managed by the Portuguese with painstaking efforts, and they brought a lot of tea this time.

(End of this chapter)