Lu Ming

Chapter 143 Malaria and Slaves

From the barbaric era to the period of the Dutch occupation, and then the Zheng family's pioneering, followed by the immigration of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, and the beginning of the 20th century during the Japanese occupation period, the population of Taiwan was in the growth stage.

During this period, the large influx of immigrants covered up the high mortality rate of malaria. In fact, it was not until the Japanese occupation period in the early 20th century that Taiwan had malaria statistics in a real sense—the Japanese couldn't stand it anymore, and they were preparing to Taiwan aggressively eradicates mosquitoes, fills stagnant water, and builds underground ditches
According to Japanese statistics in 1910, in the past five years, the average annual death rate of Taiwanese aborigines was 5, while that of Japanese people was 10832.

At first glance, the number does not seem high, but this is only the mortality rate after the onset. At that time, there was a statistical figure that was the proportion of Japanese officials who were sick within 5 years-907 per thousand.That is to say, in the previous five years, almost all Japanese officials had suffered from malaria, and the Han people who lived in even worse conditions.
Quinine was already available at that time. Without quinine, the proportion of these officials who survived would be very low, and those who lived in cold regions would die of malaria in large numbers like the early Europeans in Africa.

In 1941, 7 U.S.-Philippine coalition troops surrendered to the Japanese army on the Bataan Peninsula. There was no other reason, but because of the outbreak of malaria, the sway was not too serious, and less than a quarter of the soldiers could still hold guns.

In 1942, all U.S. troops in Guadalcanal suffered from malaria without exception, and the reserves of quinine were quickly depleted.
This is the most frightening aspect of mosquito + malaria: highly contagious, and repeated infection, without immunity, without fundamentally changing the environment, the drug is actually ineffective.

In the face of malaria, Taiwanese aborigines are not much better than those dwarfs in Nanyang. In fact, everyone is the same, and they are all using muscle shows in the Middle Ages to cover up the high mortality rate-it seems that they can pull out a lot of naked, muscular Strong fighters, but the average life expectancy of 30 years behind this, no one has counted the tribesmen who died of illness and died in batches like mowing grass.

Traveling through the 17th century where everyone is, the situation is so bad. Taiwan is a barren land. There is no cultivated soil that has been exchanged for hundreds of years of immigration through high death rates in later generations. There is only the cruelty of fighting mosquitoes every step of the way.

To a certain extent, it is the high mortality rate of malaria + work-related injuries that has caused some later generations to tear apart hypocrisy during the peaceful era, thus giving birth to the slave trade of the high-ranking regime.

The basic foundation of the cross-traversal crowd is Ming immigrants. This is the foundation of the regime and cannot be shaken. In fact, they have no choice. From the most basic blood cognition, other ethnic groups have been excluded, not to mention belief and skin color. , hair color these obvious things.

Therefore, Travelers now has to establish two population input channels with a huge cost gap.

The channel of Mingren is very cheap, and the beggars and refugees in Moyunguan can be collected almost without spending money. Even if every Mingren who feeds fat and sends it to the officials, he has to bear the burden of eating meat, dressing clothes, seeing a doctor and lodging in Moyunguan. As well as the boat fee, 50 taels of silver per person is too much.

Ming people are cheap, but their status is high: the cross-travelers will let Ming people go to the kiln area to learn technology and join the army, but they will not send Ming people to die. The double crit of physics and biology-logging and pioneering.

So who will do the pioneering work with a high mortality rate?Only buy slaves to do it.

Maritime trade has been the most profitable commercial activity since the Han and Tang Dynasties. The 17th century was the era of great geographical discovery. The era of great voyages was in the ascendant. Navigators around the world walked a tightrope between high mortality and high profits.

In this era, a ship of daily groceries, lacquerware, porcelain, pots and pans, homespun cloth, rouge, and sewing needles, no matter whether the ship goes north to Japan or south to the Philippines, as long as there are no pirates or storms, it will be fine. To the ground, the goods on board can get at least 200% profit.

This is the characteristic of maritime trade, high risk comes with high profit, otherwise, you can just set up a stall at your doorstep, why should traders, big and small, go out to sea at the risk of storms, pirates, sickness and drowning?

Back to the slave trade.

The current situation is that the Dali regime has neither the ability to send troops to Nanyang to capture slaves, but also wants slaves to open up wasteland. Therefore, there is no choice but to find Europeans to buy slaves.

Europeans who are used to slave trading are naturally not so mentally retarded as to equate slaves with groceries.

First of all, slaves will not run into the cabin by themselves. Whether the colonists start a war or buy them from the tribe, they will still have to pay the cost.

Secondly, slaves are different from pots and pans. Compared with general cargo ships, slave ships have a huge and unavoidable risk: from the day they board the ship, slaves will continue to die in the crowded, hot, shitty and urine-filled cabin. So the slave trader is actually racing against time to reach the destination before all the slaves on the ship and the entire crew including the slave trader die.

This high cost will be evenly distributed to every surviving slave. Therefore, without a profit of more than 400%, no one will operate such a risky business.The reason is simple: no one will use the profit from selling cigarettes to sell big cigarettes. The risks are different, and the rewards are naturally different.

Traveling through the crowd to buy Nanyang slaves from Europeans, Europeans have a reference price.

Historically, after the reform of the British currency system in the 17th century, the ratio of the pound to silver was 1:4.3.

The cost for slave traders to obtain a black slave from the west coast of Africa is about 25 pounds (107 taels of silver). After transporting it to America, they can probably obtain items worth about 150 pounds (645 taels of silver), with a profit rate of 600%.

By the 18th century, the profits of the black slave trade had further increased. After buying a black slave for $50 in Africa, it could be sold for $400 in the Americas, with a profit rate as high as 800%.

The above are historical facts, just open Du Niang and search for it.

Therefore, in some YY novels of later generations, it is ridiculous that a large number of people can be transported from East Asia to America for just two dollars.To transport refugees from more distant East Asia to the Americas, how brain-dead must Europeans spend a year to transport refugees at a freight rate of less than 600 taels per person?
In addition, even the crew members who sleep in hammocks will die in large numbers during the voyage, so how many refugees who are crowded in the cabin can survive to America?If there were rest stops along the way and there would be no large number of dead people, slaves would have bought three and got one free. Why did humans invent penicillin?

Therefore, under the above-mentioned price system, the Dutch will definitely not reduce the profit of slaves to the same price as groceries. If the profit is 200%, it is enough to sell some spices and saltpeter in a safe and secure way. Why should they sell slaves?

Therefore, in desperation, the time travelers can only use more than 300% of the profits to lure the Dutch to trade slaves.

Or send a ship to South Asia to arrest people?

There is no large supply base like the Philippines. A ship starts alone, sparks and lightning all the way, and runs to a tropical island to catch people. This is even more stupid, and the cost will be much higher than 300 silver per person, and then a few more It is not unusual at all for the life of the time-traveling master.

Therefore, there is no free lunch in the world. Political correctness is a very expensive way to be correct. If you want to pass through the crowd and don’t want to bear the notoriety of "killing ancestors", you must pay a high price right now—unless one day The naval guns hit the gate of the Philippines, and the soldiers roared and began to rush to the beach. Only then did the slave prices pull out the big negative line.

(End of this chapter)