African Nationhood

Chapter 105 Journey to the East (Part )

Shantou (still called Guangzhou Bay at this time) was forced to turn into a treaty port in 1860, and became a springboard for European and American colonists to plunder China's wealth and for Chinese workers to work abroad as coolies.

Shantou is located at the estuary of Hanjiang River and Rongjiang River, "blocking the entrance and exit of Shang and Yi". It has superior natural conditions and soon attracted great powers such as Britain, the United States, France, and Japan.

Shortly after the Second Opium War, the Qing government was forced to recognize the legalization of Chinese workers going abroad.

(The "Beijing Treaty" at that time stipulated that the Qing government allowed Chinese people to go to British and French colonies and work overseas)
  At this point, the biggest obstacle to Chinese going abroad from the Qing government was eliminated.

Western human traffickers even used the cloak of "legality" to set up "labor recruitment bureaus" in Shantou to recruit contracted Chinese workers, setting off a climax of plundering cheap Chinese coolies.

The so-called "contract" is a contract that is entered into after both parties agree on working conditions, a certain location, and a period of time between a person who is willing to sell himself to immigrate and the "recruitment bureau".

Although there is a contract in form, in fact once the contract is concluded, the buyer treats the seller as a "piggy" and has it at his mercy.

Buying and selling Chinese laborers is like buying and selling livestock at the livestock market.

Among all the great powers, Britain was the first to establish a consulate in Shantou.

The consulate is located in the Queshihai area of ​​Shantou City. It is a typical European-style building.

The whole building includes the main building, annex building, worker building and back garden, with a total area of ​​about 4200 square meters.

When Shi Jintang came here, he had to sigh, these British people really know how to enjoy it.

When it was built here, it was said that most of the building materials were shipped from the UK, and the total cost was 38014 pounds.

Although many major powers (13) have established consulates here, not many actually send consuls.

For example, Britain and France shared a consul for decades. It was not until 1906 that the French consulate opened its own consulate.

Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have also shared consuls.

The main purpose of establishing consulates in these countries is to traffic in Chinese labor. Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands are the most common.

In addition, it is also to promote the dumping of domestic industrial products into China.

According to records, the value of goods entering and leaving Shantou in 1860 was 610 million Guanpingliang.

1880年为2128万关平两，1890年为4403万关平两，1910年为5401万关平两。

Not only the trade volume but also the number of trafficked Chinese laborers increased year by year. European and American powers used Shantou, a major commercial port, to suck blood from the Qing Dynasty.

The earliest recruitment bureau established by the British in Shantou was Deji Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. in 1862.

However, the largest scale of trafficking of Chinese laborers was Yuanxing Foreign Company established by the Dutch in 1888.

This foreign company has a direct ship that can carry 200 people and travels between Shantou and the Dutch colony of Niger (Indonesia) several times a month.

The British mainly transported the Chinese workers plundered by the colonists in Chaoshan to Singapore and Penang.

And use it as a transfer station to distribute it to Java, Sumatra, North Borneo and other places in Southeast Asia to develop large plantations and mines such as gambier and rubber.

Others will be trafficked to places such as Guyana and Sydney.

According to statistics, in the 1876 years from 1898 to 151 alone, more than million indentured Chinese laborers were transported from Shantou to the Dutch and British Southeast Asian colonies ("Xueyang County Chronicle").

……

The indentured Chinese labor trade in Shantou started early, and the industrial chain is also the most complete.

Generally, "headhunters" are responsible for searching, abducting, and plundering "piglets" and then selling them to Chinese "pig heads."

It was very cheap at first, and you could buy a piglet in its prime for a few shillings to a dozen shillings.

Later, it became increasingly difficult to catch them, and the price rose to about 2 pounds.

The Chinese "pig heads" sold to foreign labor recruitment companies generally cost 5-10 pounds per person, and the shipping fee for shipping overseas is only 1-2 pounds each.

In other words, the cost of transporting an adult Chinese worker overseas is at most 14 pounds.

Based on the cost of Shi Jintang buying immigrants from the British, the profit has more than doubled, and the profit from the slave exchange trade will be even higher.

This is also the reason why British businessman William Sfield is unwilling to give up trade with Southwest Africa.

It was only when Shi Jintang arrived here that he realized how profitable human trafficking was.

With the help of the British Consulate, Nanhua Company negotiated with the Huijia Chaobing Beidaotai Yamen of the Qing Dynasty, and after negotiations, they were allowed to build a commercial building in Queshihai District.

The company is responsible for Nanhua Company's commodity trade and recruitment of contracted Chinese workers. Things here are very important. After much thought, Shi Jintang still felt that it would be more appropriate to leave it to Liu Jiazhao, a fellow international student who returned from the United States.

This classmate was a government official from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China in the original time and space. He acted carefully and flexibly and could be entrusted with important tasks.

Since they were ordered to return to China by the Qing Dynasty in September last year, this group of international students were held under house arrest in an old school in Shanghai for less than half a year.

It was only released at the end of January. After Liu Jiazhao was freed, he immediately sent a telegram to Walvis Bay, and Walvis Bay sent a telegram to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong pursued Shantou again, and finally Shi Jintang and Liu Jiazhao got in touch.

After getting in touch, Shi Jintang gave Liu Jiazhao a task.

Just go to his hometown Jining Prefecture, Shandong Province to find his "family".

Although he traveled through time for so long, Shi Jintang has never had any contact with the original owner's parents.

He could use confidentiality as an excuse before, but now that he has arrived in the Qing Dynasty, he can't justify not contacting him again.

Liu Jiazhao has been ordered to take action for almost a month and should be here soon.

While Shi Jintang was supervising the construction of the commercial building in Shantou, he recruited two old Chinese medicine practitioners.

Recruiting experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctors is not to treat patients, but to dispense medicines.

The formula is naturally a cooling oil that is extremely effective in tropical areas and the primitive environment of Africa.

In the original time and space, this kind of medicinal oil would not be invented until the beginning of the 20th century by Hu Wenhu, a Fujianese.

He came to the Qing Dynasty this time because the raw materials of this medicinal oil were in sufficient supply and the price was low in the Qing Dynasty.

Fengyoujing, which is more powerful than cooling oil, is unlikely to be "invented" for the time being, because Fengyoujing involves synthetic balm oil.

At this time, the most cutting-edge level of chemistry should not be able to understand the mystery here, so we can only leave it to later.

The main ingredients of cooling oil are menthol, camphor, eucalyptus oil, clove oil, and paraffin.

Most of these oil-based raw materials are ready-made, and can be used as raw materials with at least a little processing.

The difficulty lies in the proportion of various materials, which requires specialized people to prepare and experiment.

Shi Jintang's prophetic advantage and the rich experience of veteran Chinese medicine practitioners allowed a large number of finished products to be produced in less than a month.

Shi Jintang asked Shi Ming and others to try it. After confirming that it was effective, he immediately ordered people from Nanhua Commercial Hall to purchase raw materials in large quantities.

Some of the purchased raw materials are brought back to Southwest Africa, and some are kept here to continue production.

This kind of medicine will be the flagship product of Shantou Nanhua Commercial Store. It can not only build a brand but also make money, a win-win situation.

In this way, each time immigrants are transported, a batch of products and raw materials can be brought back to Southwest Africa.

This kind of medicine is not expensive, but its efficacy is remarkable. It is a must-have medicine at home, and it is expected to become a hit!
  The recruitment of workers by Nanhua Commercial Center did not have much impact on the Chinese labor market in Shantou. After all, they could not bring many people at one time.

Liu Jiazhao finally arrived in Shantou at the end of April, and he brought back bad news.

Shi Jintang's hometown, Shijia, Chihu Town, Jiaxiang County, Jining Prefecture, Shandong Province, was hit by famine and famine during the Dingwu Disaster (1876-1879), and everyone died.

Upon hearing this, Shi Jintang immediately "fainted".

Shi Ming and other guards were so frightened that they surrounded Shi Jintang. He quickly called over the old Chinese medicine doctor who helped research cooling oil and gave him two injections, and Shi Jintang slowly woke up.

Then he burst into tears. After three days of "weeping" like this, Shi Jintang walked out of the house.

All the personal guards looked sad, fearing that Mr. Shi would make another mistake if he couldn't think of it.

Although Shi Jintang has been "looking haggard" these past few days, he is in good spirits.

He has recovered!
  He placed all the memorial tablets for "parents and relatives" and took the people aboard the "Jinshan Town No."

The "Jinshan Town" is rated to carry 655 people and carried 700 Chinese workers in Shantou.

It also loaded 200 "serious criminals" arrested by the police station in Hong Kong, as well as Liu Yinhuan and Cao Xiong's troupe and began to return.

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  (End of this chapter)