The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 363 Colonial Advantages
"It took our Qi State decades to establish a comprehensive public health management system, which has enabled all citizens to live healthier lives, significantly extended their life expectancy, and indirectly promoted the rapid growth of the domestic population."

Guan Huajin, the envoy sent by Governor Ryan to question the French, saw the dirty and messy environment of Cape France through the carriage fence. He couldn't help but shake his head and laugh, and said to Maynard: "Look at these French people. They know almost nothing about tropical diseases. It can be said that they have always lived in the most unhealthy way. ... Oh, the Spanish on the island are in almost the same situation. Various tropical diseases and epidemic diseases are constantly spreading, and the population mortality rate is abnormally high."

"What's funny is that these Europeans are fanatical about the medicinal effects of red wine, so they drink a lot of it. It is said that a slightly wealthy man drinks three bottles of red wine a day, and even women drink a whole bottle. Their drinking water is basically not treated at all, and the food is prepared by black slaves who are also unhygienic and don't wash their hands in places they can't see. If you go to observe the nearby cemetery, you will be surprised to find that the average age of those who died is extremely young. ... We are really risking our lives when we come here."

"That's true." Maynard nodded. "In fact, not only in the Caribbean, but even in many countries on the European continent, there are still a considerable number of people who don't know the specific causes of malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, and cholera. Although typhoid is extremely common in European countries, and even many princes and nobles have died from it, their treatment methods are still very backward. They cannot distinguish between malaria and yellow fever, and doctors usually diagnose them all as malignant fever. When analyzing the cause, there are many different opinions. Some say it is infection, some say it is drunkenness, some say it is the stench of sewage at the bottom of the cabin, or indiscriminately say it is because the tropical air is poisonous."

"As for the treatments proposed for these diseases, some are completely crazy, while others are simply torture. I saw a doctor in Scotland treating a patient with cholera. He crudely believed that the patient was simultaneously inhaling a vapor-like cloud of bacteria that was always floating on the earth. The method of treatment was to place a red-hot iron ring on the patient's navel. The 'famous doctor' swore that this would bring a thorough hot compress to the patient's intestines and kill all the bacteria inside."

"Haha..." Guan Lijin laughed, causing the black driver in front to look curiously. "Poor barbarians... Europeans. As far as I know, they usually only have one way to treat malaria, and that is bloodletting. If there is no professional surgeon present, the doctor will just pick up a knife and cut the blood vessels directly. That scene, wow... is absolutely bloody."

"The medical development of European countries has not kept pace with their overseas colonization, which makes the cost of their colonization much higher than that of our Da Qi." Maynard said with emotion.

"Your summary is so insightful." Guan Huajin couldn't help but look at the black-clad officer who temporarily served as an interpreter with a new eye. "For our Qi State, if we remove the restrictions on the sale of antimalarial drugs (drugs extracted from cinchona) to foreign countries, they can definitely be sold for more than gold. In tropical areas or rainforest areas, the probability of contracting malaria is as high as more than 90%. In this case, no one will refuse to pay a high price to buy a precious life-saving drug."

Cinchona is a high mountain plant that grows on the east side of the Andes Mountains. Its bark has long been used by Indians as a fever-reducing medicine. In the mid-17th century, Jesuit missionaries learned of the existence of this "mysterious medicine" and brought the information to Europe.

In Europe, malaria was an epidemic, so cinchona book covers sold well. However, due to the different types of cinchona, the content of active ingredients was also different, so there were countless cases of treatment failure, and even frequent deaths.

The State of Qi secretly introduced cinchona trees from South America more than 1685 years ago, and selected suitable places on Kaihua Island (now Java Island) and Xuanhua Island (now Timor Island) for large-scale planting. Through continuous refining and experimentation, it finally succeeded in extracting the active ingredient antimalarial (quinine) from the cinchona tree in , thus stabilizing the therapeutic effect.

The continuous supply of antimalarials accelerated the Qi State's use of this drug as a tool to expand its colonies, especially in the tropical South Pacific Islands, Indochina Peninsula, India, Myanmar, as well as the vast Africa and the Caribbean Sea. The death rate from disease among the Qi people who colonized overseas was much lower than that of the European colonists during the same period.

Europeans also learned from various channels that Qi possessed this "magic medicine" that could cure malaria, and they spared no effort and used countless methods to obtain the formula and source of the "magic medicine".

However, Qi's confidentiality measures were pretty good, and so far, the Europeans have not been able to succeed.

All they know is that this "magic medicine" that can cure malaria is extracted from the cinchona tree, but they don't know how it is extracted and refined.

European countries such as England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands have also issued high rewards to the medical community and the public, soliciting methods for extracting antimalarial ingredients from the cinchona tree.

However, due to the extremely complex preparation process and the lack of chemical knowledge, the final extraction yield is very low and the therapeutic effect is extremely poor.

In addition, the production of cinchona bark, the raw material of antimalarial drugs, is greatly affected by the natural environment, and its price fluctuates greatly. In 1722, the production of cinchona bark in the Viceroyalty of Spanish Peru dropped sharply due to special weather conditions, and the price soared to 300 livres per kilogram, causing great pain for buyers from European countries.

Oh, by the way, in order to ensure the monopoly of cinchona trees and earn huge profits, the Spanish government also followed the method of Qi State and listed cinchona trees as controlled materials, prohibiting any country or individual from obtaining this tree species to prevent the spread of cinchona trees abroad.

In other words, the raw materials for treating malaria in the world only exist in Qixi and Xi'an, which artificially raises the price of antimalarial products and limits the scale of large-scale import of antimalarial materials for other countries.

Obviously, everyone knew how important this anti-malaria bark was for overseas colonization.

Over the past ten years, more than 5,800 people from the Royal African Trading Company of England have died in Guinea, including more than 4,700 deaths from disease.

In 1730, among the German armed mercenary soldiers stationed on the Dutch Gold Coast, only were able to perform their duties normally.

In the French colonial territory of Saint-Domingue, approximately five to six hundred people died each year from various tropical infectious diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dysentery, and cholera (excluding black slaves and mixed-race people).

In some years, there were even records of entire immigrant settlements being wiped out due to large-scale infectious diseases.

If you look carefully at the wilderness near every French town or immigrant settlement, you will find that it is densely packed with countless tombstones.

On the other hand, in the six years since the Qi people settled in Ruian Port, the total number of abnormal deaths of Qi colonial officials and immigrants was more than 230, of which only more than 140 died from various tropical infectious diseases.

By comparing these data, we can see that the cost of Qi's overseas colonization - well, mainly refers to labor costs, which is much more "economical" than that of their European counterparts.

This means that Qi can waste less manpower and focus on developing more colonial territories.

All of this has made European counterparts jealous and hateful.

They clearly have a "miracle drug" to treat tropical infectious diseases, but they are unwilling to share it with people in the civilized world. How selfish and cruel they are.

In fact, everyone knew that the reason why the people of Qi were so greedy and reluctant to sell antimalarial drugs on a large scale was not only because the extraction process of cinchona was complicated and the output was relatively low, but also because they had a sinister intention. That was that they did not want European countries to speed up the colonization process in tropical regions and thus enhance their own strength.

A French colonial territory like Saint-Domingue made a lot of money for the French by producing large quantities of sugarcane and tobacco. However, due to the harsh natural environment and humid climate, various tropical diseases frequently occurred in the area, taking the lives of hundreds or even thousands of French colonists every year. As a result, the population size of the island was only about 30,000 (excluding black slaves and black and white mixed-race people) during the more than 80 years that the French government controlled the island.

The population of the Qi-affiliated Haizhou Governorate, which was also located in the tropics (covering present-day Panama's Coiba Island, the Pearl Islands, and the Azuero Peninsula near the isthmus), had reached nearly 10,000 people (excluding local Indians) in less than 20 years.

You should know that the Haizhou Governorate is more than 16,000 kilometers away from the mainland of Qi. Even with the fastest steamship in Qi, the entire voyage would take more than a month. The difficulty and cost of immigration are definitely far greater than that of the French.

However, because the people of Qi had a complete medical and health system and corresponding Chinese herbal medicines to fight tropical diseases, the mortality rate of immigrants was much lower than that in the French territory of Saint-Domingue. This ensured a certain degree of population retention in the colonial territory controlled by Qi, without the need to arrange a corresponding number of immigrants every year like the French to make up for the population losses caused by various diseases in the colonies.

Of course, it does not mean that European colonists could not get any antimalarial drugs from the Qi people. At least the governors, senior officials, archbishops of the dioceses, and wealthy plantation owners of the colonies could still obtain some life-saving "magic drugs" at high prices on the black market. It is reported that each antimalarial drug costs as much as fifty gold yuan, which is about 650 livres. After falling ill, the patient must take four to five consecutive doses of the drug. It is true that "life is worth a thousand gold coins."

However, whether the final draft can survive depends on praying for the blessing of the almighty God.

Yes, the antimalarial agent extracted from cinchona by the State of Qi was not 100% effective, with a cure rate of only about 65% to 70%.

But even so, Europeans are flocking to it and are willing to spend huge sums of money to buy and hoard it.

Two days ago, Guan Weijin and Maynard came to Cape France on behalf of Governor Ryan and questioned the French face to face why they were inciting the Maroons in the mountains to attack Qi immigrant settlements and plantations, and whether they wanted to provoke a war between the two countries.

At that time, the French governor was unhappy and gloomy, not only because he was embarrassed and angry at the questioning of the Qi envoy, but also because his lover and illegitimate son were both infected with malaria. But he only had five Qi-made antimalarial pills, which could not save both of them.

Besides, he prepared these precious medicines for himself just in case, and he really didn't want to "waste" them.

The other colonial officials and large plantation owners claimed that they did not have such a "magic medicine" and could only express their deep sympathy for the Governor's misfortune. Only the Archbishop of the diocese said that the church had a small amount of cinchona bark, which could help the Governor relieve his worries.

Yes, on a tropical island, even if you have extra antimalarial drugs, who can guarantee that you won’t get sick at some point and have to rely on these “magic drugs” to save your life?

So, Governor Louis La Béry, through his secretary, tactfully expressed to the two Qi envoys that he hoped to buy a few antimalarial pills from them at a suitable price to save his beloved and children.

In return, he could, within the scope of his authority, make corresponding compensation to Qi for the Maroon attacks on Qi's immigrant settlements and plantations, and try his best to restrain the French settlers and plantation owners on the west side of Jingyue Lake to stop border harassment.

What the hell!

Isn't this just taking advantage of power for personal gain?
Guan Huajin immediately took advantage of the situation and proposed to sign a regional non-aggression treaty with French Saint-Domingue to restrain each other's behavior and refrain from resorting to force or attacking each other.

Once it's signed in black and white, they can no longer harass our Rui'an Governorate like a dog-skin plaster.

Otherwise, if you go back on your word and enrich yourself, don't blame us for getting mad.

Governor La Berry hesitated for a moment, then agreed to the Qi people's suggestion and signed a three-year peace agreement with Guan Weijin.

Never mind. In three years, my term is almost up. I can just pack up and return to Paris. If my successor wants to suppress the people of Qi again, he can naturally not renew the agreement and do whatever he wants.

Guan Huajin was also very satisfied with this short-lived peace agreement. As long as it could be delayed for a few more years and no longer be squeezed and harassed by the French, the Governorate of Rui'an could free up more energy to develop local people's livelihood and enhance local military equipment, thereby increasing its ability to protect itself.

Having completed the mission of the visit brilliantly, Guan Lijin felt extremely relaxed both physically and mentally. After staying in Cape French Cape for two days, he could not wait to return to Ryan Port to ask for credit and reward from the Governor.

"I have brought three years of peace to Ryan..." He turned his gaze to the street outside the car again, feeling proud.

Haha, just because of a few antimalarial pills, the mission was successfully completed.

"Bang!..." The carriage stopped suddenly, causing Guan Guanjin, who was in a good mood, to fall forward and hit the wall of the opposite carriage.

"Damn it, what happened?..." He rubbed his forehead and looked outside angrily.

Damn black coachman, how does he drive the carriage!

A group of drunk Creoles (mixed black and white race) gathered in front of the carriage, cursing loudly, as if venting their resentment and anger, waving their arms and protesting towards the passengers in the carriage.

The black driver whispered to the other party to make way so that he could take the distinguished guests to the dock.

Several soldiers sent by the Governor's Office, holding muskets and shouting loudly, were ready to drive these drunkards off the road. They must not let the Qi people in the car laugh at them.

Quarrels, swearing, and pushing made the street extremely noisy.

"boom!"

Suddenly, a Creole pulled out a flintlock pistol from his waist and fired a shot in the direction of the carriage provocatively.

The lieutenant leading the team was startled and subconsciously turned back to look at the carriage.

But don’t scare the people of Qi in the car!
However, a horrifying sight appeared in his sight.

The envoy from Qi who was looking out from the carriage was shot!

(End of this chapter)