Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 9 Macau Experience
Shuikengwei Street behind the city gate is a gathering area for Chinese people. Both sides of the street are full of chaotic tents and huts. A large number of vegetable farmers, porters, tailors, craftsmen, pig butchers, human traffickers and unemployed vagrants from the coast of Guangdong have settled here to make a living.

Lin Hai and Lin Hai walked on the street and heard Cantonese accents all the way. Zhu Niang said excitedly: "Brother Lin, these are all people from Guangdong. Why don't we rent a house nearby?"

"No, there must be a lot of Xin'an people in this area. Let's go look elsewhere." Lin Hai shook his head. Shenzhen and Macau are only separated by a water. There are still many Cantonese here from Xin'an.Chief Gou will definitely arrest a few of them, and they will probably draw pictures and post them on the list. It is not safe to rent a house here.

Zhu Niang thought about it, nodded and said: "Then let's walk around first, maybe we can meet Sister Hexiang, and then we can rent her house."

"Okay, let's walk around and see where there are many ghosts. It must be not far from her home." What Zhu Niang said hit Lin Hai's wish. He had long made up his mind to rent a house in the Portuguese residential area, which is where this city is. The core is also the place closest to his ambition.

As the two of them traveled south, there were more and more foreign faces on the streets: blond Germanic sailors, Italian priests with tall noses and deep eyes, short and lean Malay servants, tall and strong black guards, and Japanese ronin carrying samurai swords. , a Persian musician holding an oud, a Gujarati businessman wearing a red turban...

"There are so many girls in this city!" Zhu Niang grew up at the Pearl River Estuary. She had seen black and white people several times. She was not surprised by these foreign faces. Instead, she was surprised that there were far more women than men in the city.

"What's so strange about this? The ghost guys all come from rich families. I heard that women account for [-]% of Haojing City, and most of them are maids and servants raised by Fo Langji." Lin Hai had read some articles from later generations and understood By this time, the male to female ratio in Macau was about one to four.

The reason, as he said, was that slave-keeping was common among the Portuguese in Asia during this era, and female slaves were always more popular than male slaves. This led to rampant human trafficking in Macau, with large numbers of people coming from Malay, India, Africa, Timor, and Japan. and women from the Ming Dynasty were sold to Macau as slaves.

Another reason he didn't say was that no matter what race they were from, most of the men in this city made a living at sea, and the mortality rate remained high all year round. It can be said that Macau is a city of widows.

The most prosperous place Zhu Niang has ever been is Nantou City, where Xin'an County is located. She has never seen so many people living in a city. She couldn't help but wonder: "How many people do you think there are in Haojing City?"

Lin Haidao: "There are always tens of thousands. There are not many serious Folangji people, only about a thousand."

The two chatted and walked around, and gradually came to the Senado Pavilion in the center of Portugal City. This is a Chinese-style pavilion with ventilation on all sides. There is a three-bay Chinese-style house behind the pavilion, surrounded by walls, and a high-rise building outside the wall. A stone tablet of more than ten feet.

This stone tablet was erected in the 41st year of Wanli by Yu Anxing, Deputy Envoy of Guangdong Sea Route, and Dan Qiyuan, Magistrate of Xiangshan County. The inscription is in Chinese and Portuguese, and is engraved with the five prohibitions stipulated in the Sea Route Prohibition Treaty.This was originally the place where the Guangdong local government held discussions and issued decrees. Later, during the Qianlong period, it was changed into the city hall by the Macao and Portuguese authorities.

Lin Hai noticed that there were three Chinese-style government offices next to the meeting pavilion, so he stopped to observe them with interest.He looked at the plaques on the main entrance of the government office one by one, which were the Titiao Department of Qianshan General's Mansion, the Japanese Administration Office of Qianhu Preparation in Xiangshan, and the Inspection Branch of Xiangshan.

Judging from the inscriptions on the plaques, these three yamen should belong to the three major systems of barracks, guards and prefectures and counties.Based on the diuretic nature of the officialdom in the late Ming Dynasty, Lin Hai speculated that gods from all walks of life were eyeing the oil and water in Macau and set up agencies here to make money.

After all, the Ming government could only receive 4 taels of tax silver from Macau every year, and the silver shipped to Macau from Nagasaki and Manila alone was nearly 300 million taels every year. At that time, the world's silver production averaged only 1000 million taels per year. About half of them ended up in the Ming Dynasty.

As for these yamen doing nothing but making money, as far as Lin Hai could see, at least human trafficking, which was expressly prohibited by the "Seaway Ban Treaty", was very rampant in Macau.

Zhu Niang also knew a lot of words now. Seeing that there was a government here, she kept urging Lin Hai to leave.

The two of them walked all the way to Nanwan in the southeast corner of Portugal City, which is where Portuguese luxury homes gather and is also one of the most important maritime trade centers in the world.Macau is like the mouth of the giant Chinese dragon, continuously sucking in silver from Latin America and Japan, and spitting out silk, porcelain and other commodities that the world desires.Most of the Portuguese houses are built on higher ground. They are usually three-story fortress-style buildings built against the mountains. Most of them only have windows on the top floor, and some also have walls, which are obviously defensive.Obviously, this is a mixed place, and most of the owners have substantial property.

Although these houses are square or round, with various shapes, the decorations are not complicated. The exterior walls are all white, and the doors and windows are painted yellow, pink or blue. The overall style is simple and elegant, which is more in line with Lin Hai's aesthetics.

While he was looking around for a rental house, someone suddenly called Zhu Niang's name from behind.He turned around and saw in front of him a Chinese lady in her 20s, followed by two burly black guards.

"Sister Hexiang!" Zhu Niang called out in surprise.Lin Hai knew that the person in front of him was Aunt Chunhua's daughter Hexiang, but he didn't expect that Zhu Niang had fallen in love with her and actually met her.

Lin Hai took a look at He Xiang's attire and saw that she had her hair tied up in a high bun, a bright sari on her head, gemstones on her neck and ears, and a split silk blouse and waist skirt under her colorful cloak. There is no trace of the Dan family woman at all.

He didn't know that this was a kind of Macanese women's clothing that emerged in Goa, called Saraspa Rug, with strong Indian and Malay styles, and later gradually spread to Macau.

After not seeing each other for many years, the little sisters seemed to have endless things to say. They held hands and started chatting affectionately, as if they wanted to talk about their respective experiences over the years, but left Lin Hai aside.

Lin Hai was very gentlemanly and did not interrupt. He listened quietly for a while but didn't hear anything.Apart from knowing that Hexiang's husband came to Macau nine years ago and had a certain status among the Portuguese in Macau, he knew nothing about his previous experiences. Lin Hai felt that maybe even Hexiang himself didn't know much about it.

Finally, when He Xiang asked Zhu Niang why she came to Haojing, Zhu Niang remembered to introduce Lin Hai, recounted recent events, and asked He Xiang if there was any room available for rent.

He Xiang had a troubled look on her face, shook her head and said: "There are vacancies, but my family has gone to sea, so I don't dare to make the decision. In recent years, when I married Hao Jing, I couldn't even go back to my natal family, except for the occasional visit by my mother. Look at me, I don’t even have anyone to talk to about myself.”

Hexiang wiped away her tears as she spoke, and added: "There is no shortage of houses for rent around here. The people from Langji usually rent the first floor to Tang people and live upstairs."

Zhu Niang heard that there were many Chinese here, and said to Lin Hai: "I'm afraid there are also Xin'an people here, and I'm still afraid that the dog officer will come looking for them."

"There are very few Cantonese people here, and most of them are Fu Lao who do business. Speaking of which, there happens to be a shopkeeper from Fujian. His wife and I often communicate with each other. I heard a few days ago that a tenant in her house is leaving. If you are interested in renting a house, , I can play with Xian'er in the middle, and I'll get a good deal with you."

Zhu Niang was still a little worried and asked: "Is that family easy to get along with? Will they not bully our Dan family?"

"That lady believes in Buddhism and is the most kind. Her official name is Huang Cheng, and she is the shopkeeper of Huang Hexing Foreign Company..."

"Huang Cheng? Does he have a nephew named Zheng?" Lin Hai suddenly interrupted He Xiang in an ungentlemanly manner.

"Do you recognize Zheng Yiguan?" He Xiang asked in surprise.

(End of this chapter)