Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1102, Sugarcane in Nanyang
Nanyang.

When the Liaodong region in the north began to welcome the cold winter snow, it was still as hot as summer in Nanyang.

In Danhe City, Luzon, in Zhao Ming's plantation, Zhao Ming rode a horse to inspect his own plantation.

Looking up, apart from a concrete road connecting the outside world, there are endless sugarcane forests all around. Thanks to the superior natural conditions here, sugarcane grows very well here, with high yield, high sugar content, and extremely profitable amazing.

Therefore, planting sugarcane has become the first choice for plantations in several provinces of Nanyang. A large number of sugarcane plantations are spread throughout Nanyang, which in turn has formed an extremely large sucrose industry chain.

"The price of sugar cane has dropped again~"

Looking at the sugarcane groves ready to be harvested in front of him, Zhao Ming was a little unhappy.

Because the price of sugarcane is falling year by year, and it is getting lower year by year. Although the sugarcane harvest is bumper, it cannot be sold at a very good price.

"There are too many people growing sugar cane, and there are sugar cane plantations everywhere. It is normal for the price to drop."

"Maybe I should try to grow something else, otherwise I will have a hard time in the future."

Zhao Ming was thinking silently in his heart.

Soon, I came to a sugarcane forest on horseback, where hundreds of slaves were working hard, constantly harvesting sugarcane, and then tying up the sugarcane one by one, and then transporting the sugarcane to four places. On the carriage, waiting for their master, Zhao Ming, to transport the sugar cane to Danhe City for sale.

"Master~"

Seeing Zhao Ming approaching, Hussein hurried up with a smile on his face.

He is Zhao Ming's slave, a Persian businessman who has traveled far and wide and is well-informed, and is good at management and management, so Zhao Ming also entrusted him with the management of the slaves and the plantation.

"Are the new slaves still obedient?"

Zhao Ming nodded and looked at the more than one hundred slaves who were working.

These more than [-] slaves come from a wide range of sources, including Javanese from the mainland of Southeast Asia and Tianzhu from Tianzhu. Among the Tianzhu, there are Tamils, Dravidians and fair-skinned Aryans. These types of slaves were purchased by Zhao Ming through the slave market in Danhe City.

Later, Zhao Ming successively purchased many new slaves, including Persians, Arabs, and Ottoman Turks.

It can be said that although Zhao Ming only has more than one hundred slaves under his command, the sources of these more than one hundred slaves are very extensive, some are black, some are white, and all kinds.

"It's still obedient, and it works seriously and hard."

Hussain quickly replied.

"Ah That's good."

Zhao Ming nodded in satisfaction.

The economic prosperity of the Nanyang plantations requires a large amount of labor, and slaves are naturally the best and cheapest labor. Therefore, the Nanyang region has always been the most important slave consumer market in Ming Dynasty.

Hundreds of thousands or millions of slaves are sold to Nanyang every year, and then bought back by Nanyang plantation owners. The expensive slaves stimulate the development of the slave industry and form a very complete industrial chain.

There are several kinds of slave industry chains at the beginning. One is dominated by the Ming Dynasty merchants. They mainly colonize Tianzhu, and use various means to arrest the people here in Tianzhu, or directly arrest them with open flames, or It is the way of deception or purchase, which first concentrates a large number of slaves to Ceylon Island and then sells them to Southeast Asia.

Tianzhu is now the most important source of slaves in Ming Dynasty.

In addition to Tianzhu, in Myanmar, Siam, and the island countries of Southeast Asia, although Ming's business houses did not directly capture or rob these places, they often cooperated with some local local snakes, and the local snakes used various means to turn people into slaves. Sold to Daming's firm.

These are places that are relatively close to Nanyang. There are a large number of trading houses, merchants, and fleets that are mainly engaged in the slave trade. A slave can be sold in Nanyang for dozens of taels of silver. This is a very profitable business.

This stimulated countless people to devote themselves to this lucrative industry, and a large number of slaves were continuously sold to Daming.

However, most of the slaves in these places are dark-skinned and short in stature, so they are called black slaves by the Ming people. In addition to black slaves, there is also a huge market demand for white slaves in Daming.

Daming regards white as beauty and likes white slaves.

Therefore, some businessmen travel thousands of miles to the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Persia and other places to buy white slaves and transport them to Nanyang for sale. White slaves are generally tall, strong and strong, and the price is high. If they are female slaves, as long as they look good, they are often sold. Can be sold for a very high price.

This also led to a large number of merchants engaged in the slave trade in the Middle East, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire. They used various means to sell white slaves to the Ming people, and they could make huge profits as soon as they changed hands.

This has also become an extremely important industry in these areas.

Many slaves even came from very far away Europe. They were sold from Europe to the Mediterranean Sea, bought by Arab merchants, transported to the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf, and resold to Ming merchants, who then sold these slaves to Southeast Asia.

Zhao Ming's plantation area is very large, and it has been continuously expanding, so he often goes to the slave market to buy slaves, ranging from one or two, to five or six, and gradually he has more than a hundred slaves Slaves came from all over the world.

"Let's go, follow me to Danhe City."

Zhao Ming looked at the several four-wheeled carriages that were already fully loaded, and rode his horse towards Danhe City.

There are several specialized cane sugar firms in Danhe City. When they buy sugarcane or sugarcane water, the plantation owners can sell the sugarcane directly to them, or sell the sugar water to the firm after squeezing the sugarcane themselves.

Riding a horse with his slaves, he drove several carts of sugar cane slowly towards Danhe City. After walking for a long time, he met his neighbor Sun Hongli on the road. The plantations are connected together, but the manors where they live are still a little far away from each other.

"Sun Xiucai, are you going to Danhe City too?"

Zhao Ming greeted Sun Hongli with a smile.

"That's right, the sugarcane is ripe, so it won't be sold, so it's left to rot?"

Sun Xiucai smiled, and the two of them are also frequent contacts, and they are old acquaintances.

"Sun Xiucai, the price of sugar cane has dropped. If this continues, we will all have to drink the northwest wind."

"That's right, there's no way, there are too many people growing sugar cane."

"Now plantations are blooming everywhere, and sugarcane is growing everywhere. The price of sugar has been falling again and again. Can the price of sugarcane not be lowered?"

"Sun Xiucai, you read a lot, and you often read newspapers. Have you discovered anything new? I want to focus on other things. I think the price of sugarcane will be even lower in the future."

"You're right if you have this idea, the price of sugar cane will definitely drop in the future."

"I read the latest Daming Business Daily two days ago. It said that the sugar sold to Europe in the first half of this year has dropped a lot, and the price has also dropped a lot. Our local sugar is also reducing the price. Naturally, those commercial houses want to lower the price. The price of sugarcane can be profitable."

"So, some of the new plantations don't grow sugar cane now."

"Then what do they grow? They shouldn't be growing rice, right?"

"Hey, on some islands in the south, some plantations are growing spices. Spices are the most popular in Europe, and the price is very high."

"Europeans have too much body odor, and they need this stuff to cover up, so the demand for spices in Europe has always been very strong."

"In addition, the Beijing-Tianjin region of the Ming Dynasty is also beginning to use perfumes, so some people have analyzed that the perfume market will definitely be very good in the future."

"So I'm going to grow some spices, try it first, anyway, there are a lot of land, so plan properly."

"In addition, I've also heard that there are some commercial firms that now specialize in buying those fast boats to travel between Nanyang, Ryukyu and Beijing-Tianjin regions. It takes more than ten days for ordinary boats to make a trip, but this kind of fast boat takes seven days."

"These commercial firms specialize in buying fruits and vegetables from our Nanyang side and selling them to the Beijing-Tianjin area. You also know that when winter comes in the north, there is heavy snow and nothing can be grown. Vegetables and fruits are worse than meat. expensive."

"Really? In the past few days, the fruits and vegetables will not be rotten, right?"

"I heard that they are picked in advance, picked before they are fully ripe, and then ripen naturally while being transported. Although they are not too fresh after being transported to Beijing and Tianjin, the price is still very expensive."

"So I'm going to plant some vegetables next. It's going to be winter soon, and the demand for vegetables in the Beijing-Tianjin area is very strong."

"It's still you who are great scholars. You can know the world's affairs by reading the newspaper. I don't know a lot of big characters, and I don't understand anything."

"I stayed in the private school for a few more years, but I couldn't pass the Juren exam."

"That's because you don't take the exam, as long as you take the exam, you will pass the exam without any hassle."

"I won't go, Juren is just like that. What's so good about being an official? It's not as easy as I am now."

"It's true~"

"By the way, why is there no news about the rubber mentioned last year?"

"Don't mention the rubber. A friend of mine invested a lot of money in planting some. As a result, they are still small saplings. Even the rubber plantation owned by Daming Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. has been losing money. I heard that it will cost seven or eight years. It takes a year to produce rubber."

"It will take seven or eight years. It's a good thing I didn't grow it, otherwise the money would not come back until the year of the monkey."

"That's something rich people can play with, but last time I read the newspaper, the price of this rubber is very expensive, and it needs to be shipped back from the Golden Continent. I heard that rubber has many uses. I guess this kind of rubber should be used in the future. Not bad, after all, the industries under Liu Shangshu's command are all planting rubber."

"Seven or eight years is too long, and we still don't know how to plant them. The risk is too great."

"..."

(End of this chapter)