When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 994 Slaves of Long Causeway
Amidst the turbulence, suddenly and unexpectedly, the sprawling plantations before Horn's eyes transformed into the Long Causeway, the city's inner canal connecting to the Ibe River.

On the canal, which is tens of meters wide, besides the small sampans that transport goods, there are rotten vegetable leaves, fruit peels and other garbage.

The pungent smell forced Horn to cover his nose, even from such a distance.

"Why does it smell so bad?" Jeanne, sitting on the inside, also covered her nose.

Das glanced outside, shrugged, and said helplessly, "Black Snake Bay is hot and humid in the summer. No matter what you leave there, it will rot in a while."

Besides, Long Beach is a trading center with a dense population, so it naturally produces a lot of waste; you'll get used to it.

In fact, the construction of drainage and sewage pipes in Changdi City has been ongoing, but due to the climate and geographical environment, the construction is more difficult and larger in scale.

The water flowed sluggishly, swirling with eddies and aquatic plants, reflecting the barely-neat embankments on both sides of the canal.

Horn shaded his eyes with his hand, but could still see rows of houses on the shore; this was already the outer city of Long Causeway.

The short, stout two- or three-story stone brick buildings are square and upright, with striking red tile roofs on the gable walls.

The walls were painted white, or simply exposed gray-brown bricks.

Most of the narrow windows were tightly closed to block out the scorching sunlight, which even Horn found harsh. The flags of the Holy Alliance and Black Snake Bay at the entrance drooped listlessly.

Unlike the Black Serpent Bay-style buildings that dot the entire Fairy City, Long Causeway City, as the window for Black Serpent Bay to communicate with the outside world and the headquarters of the Spice Company, brings together buildings of all types and sizes.

There are French style, Leia style, Black Snake Bay native style, and the more recently emerging Air Revival style.

These red-tiled brick buildings are clearly modeled after the Ernst Revival style houses of J.J. D'Arcy.

Soon the bumpy gravel road turned into a smooth stone road, and the coconut and banana groves on both sides gradually became stilted houses and houses paved with colorful bricks.

Keep going, turn the corner, and suddenly the view opens up – the Changdi City Market has arrived.

Before Horn could even get a clear look at the square under the blazing sun, his nasal passages were instantly filled with a pungent, mixed odor that made him feel sore.

Before us lay the market of Long Beach and the warehouses of the spice company.

The square was piled high with cinnamon, cardamom, durian, sugar cubes, and wheat that had just been unloaded from the spice ships, mingled with the fishy stench of river fish and crabs.

People of all kinds crowded into the market, just like a vat of boiling, colorful dye in a dye house.

The beast-like dockworker, dressed in wide hemp trousers and wrapped in a dark red turban to cover his ears and tail, was now carrying a cargo box and walking with difficulty.

Passing by were anxious tax collectors and company employees, their wide-brimmed hats perched on their sweat-drenched foreheads, their hands clutching ledgers and official documents.

Secret Service merchants wearing messy masks and hoods held up bottles of medicine and shouted loudly to sell their wares.

There were even some with darker skin, the indigenous people of Zealand.

Their facial structure is similar to that of the Imperials, and they even have some Asian features, only their skin is darker.

However, most of these New Zealanders were slaves, following closely behind their masters, carrying large and small bags of things.

Besides the slaves from Sealand, there were many other slaves on the streets dredging sewers and cleaning the streets.

Unlike the slaves I had seen on the plantation, these cleaning slaves were dressed and looked much better.

Jeanne clearly noticed this as well: "Why do those slaves look different from the slaves outside the city?"

"Because those slaves were freed from slavery after being bought out."

Ruth has been trying to push for slave reform, one of her experimental measures being the buyout of slaves.

According to the previously discussed tariff allocation, Horn will allocate a large sum of money for infrastructure development and subsidies in Black Snake Bay.

Regarding municipal construction, Ruth established a special labor bureau specifically to buy slaves sold cheaply from plantations.

Next, these slaves would be introduced to the city hall to work as cleaners, construction workers, dredging workers, restaurant waiters, and so on.

The Labour Department would convert the buyout fees of slaves into interest-free debt, which would be deducted from the slaves' wages. Once the debt was paid in full, the slaves could become formal employees and citizens.

When outsourcing various canal and road construction projects, Rules would specifically include this "infamous" clause in her requirements: she would not award projects to anyone who did not hire freed slaves, no matter how low the offer.

The chambers of commerce and businesses in the Holy Alliance were doing alright, but the merchants from Francia and Black Snake Bay were full of complaints.

Although these freed slaves still did slave work, at least they received wages and a minimum guarantee of life, and their labor efficiency and output increased.

Horn was quite supportive of this move, as it freed the slaves while gradually cultivating their awareness and work skills as "free men."

The problem is that this progress is too slow; the rate of slave release is not keeping up with the rate of slave growth, and the cost is quite high.

"Where do the slaves in Black Serpent Bay come from?" Horn turned to Das and asked.

Das scratched his head: "I haven't looked into the specifics."

Instead, Edwin, who was sitting next to Das, spoke up: "The largest exporter is Fran, followed by Norn, and then Leia."

However, the largest group of slaves in Black Serpent Bay are actually the Leias.

"why?"

"The Kingdom of Leia has been embroiled in civil war, and now there is the Battle of Windmill Land."

There was another famine in the country, and people everywhere were selling their children.

To maintain their dignity, the bankrupt imperial knights initially sold only prisoners, but later they began to sell off the public register farmers in their territories on a large scale.

There is a huge demand for slaves in Black Snake Bay. Franco ship owners would go to the coast and riverbanks in boats to pick up refugees and then transport them here.

Subjectively speaking, this was the work of the Franco merchants in the slave trade, but objectively speaking, they did help bring a large influx of people into Black Snake Bay.

The Holy Alliance also does this kind of thing, but on a much smaller scale and with far less efficiency than the Fran and Norn slave traders who have been cultivating this field for hundreds of years.

The main reason is that the Holy Alliance has a very high moral standard, and they always try their best to ensure the personal safety of their personnel.

As for the slave traders, they simply crammed the refugees into the ship's hold, and threw out the dead and sick people as well.

After arriving, they would exchange the refugees for an equal weight of spices and sugar, which would then be transported back to their home country for sale.

This level of enthusiasm, speed, and efficiency far surpasses that of the Holy Alliance, whose refugee ships are essentially losing money.

"And the second most?"

"The Francans, it's those Francan nobles who are selling it. You know, the Francan nobles will forcibly demolish villages and use the land to grow cash crops."

The surplus people became beggars and vagrants. According to the Enclosure Act, the vagrants created by the enclosure had to be sent to the new land at the expense of the nobles who enclosed it.

But now that they can exchange refugees for spices in Black Snake Bay, they will naturally prioritize sending them there.

On the contrary, the Norn, mostly from harsh backgrounds, were unable to adapt to the climate here, so their numbers were relatively small.

Yes, because the current market for spices and sugar is still in short supply, plantation owners are expanding rapidly.

Whether it's developing new plantations or tending to old ones, manpower is needed.

At this time, due to famine and war in the outside world, the slave market was in a state of oversupply, so prices were relatively low.

Plantation owners naturally don't consider sustainability or exploiting resources to the point of exhaustion; instead, they just keep pushing and shoving, and if they damage something, there are even cheaper alternatives.

Horn has banned citizens from voluntarily selling themselves into slavery, but he still can't stop the influx of foreign slaves.

"And the third most?" Jeanne continued to ask.

"They are snake people, especially spice plantations that employ a large number of snake people, but snake people slaves are more expensive than human slaves, and they are good at cultivating spices and medicinal herbs."

In particular, many medicinal herbs have harsh growing conditions and require swamps. If humans were to take care of them, their feet would rot from being soaked in water for just a few days..."

(End of this chapter)