open sea

Chapter 1077 New Era

"The era of slave trafficking is over."

On a busy and extremely noisy street in Plymouth, Devon, England, a black double-white carriage passed quickly. The old coachman in a white shirt and stockings wore a wig, driving the carriage and horses and shouting loudly to open the way.

Next to the most conspicuous carriage is a coat of arms of bound black people.

The owner of the carriage is John Hawkins, Member of Parliament for England, Navy Treasurer, and Naval Supplies Officer. At this time, he is sitting in the carriage covered with red Ottoman carpets, leaning on the big sky velvet arm pillow, opening the brown velvet curtains and looking at the On the coast not far away, I expressed this feeling to my nephew Francis Drake who was sitting opposite: "The era of black slave trafficking is over."

When he said this, Derek was playing with a pack of kraft paper cigarette boxes in his hands. There was a square sign on the small kraft paper package with the words "Daming Muye" written on it. There are cigarettes that are not neatly arranged inside.

There are several slices of cured and cut tobacco that are glued to the carton. The paper used for each cigarette is the same length and roughly the same thickness. There is also a piece of folded paper card at the position of the cigarette holder to ensure that the tobacco will not enter during use. In the mouth, the workmanship is exquisite.

In fact, the workmanship from the inside to the outside may not be so exquisite. The cigarette paper is yellow in the cigarette box, and even the square white cigarette cards are irregularly warped due to the drying of the glue.

But in this era, just like the railway, no matter how rough it is, as long as it is made, it is the most exquisite.

Because only Italy in Europe can make decent paper. Papermaking was introduced to Samarkand in the eighth century, and then to the Arab region. Still using the production process of the Han and Tang Dynasties, ancient China used hemp and rags as raw materials, and they generally used cotton fibers, which are not as soft and thin as hemp paper.

By the time Britain learned to make paper, it would have been the seventeenth century.

So the renaissance was really a renaissance, and the paper industry flourished after that because there wasn't any before.

Until the fourteenth century, papyrus and parchment were still used in Europe. Although these two are called paper for easy understanding, they are not paper at all.

Papyrus is simply bark, and parchment is simply sheepskin. Cloth, tortoise shell, and bronze tripod are similar to them. They are writing tools. How can they be paper?
For the English who can't even make such cigarette paper and kraft paper, many people actually develop the habit of smoking when they want a piece of kraft paper.

These papers are indeed very good. The kraft paper is made by Li Yuxi's people from the fibers of pine trees that grow in the highlands of Quebec, and the cigarette paper is simple hemp pulp paper; Tried it and found it too choking.

Speaking of it, it is really not easy for Li Daheng to sell a cigarette. He has tried all kinds of paper cigarettes.He even used Chen Mu's favorite magnetic green paper to roll a cigarette, and when he smoked it, he choked up his nose and burst into tears. The key cost made him feel that he was smoking money.

Derek held an unlit cigarette in a daze with two fingers, recovered his senses and said with a smile: "For us, the black slave trade has long since ended."

As the first Hawkins family in England to rely on maritime trade, John Hawkins and Francis Drake have enough confidence to say this.

England's maritime trade originated from Spain's exploration of the New World, and the English ships were Spanish porters at sea, transporting slaves from Africa to the New World, but these porters occasionally turned into pirates and robbed Spanish ships until Hawkins was targeted by the Spanish royal family , the fleet was destroyed.

In retaliation, the Queen of England seized a Spanish galleon that had been driven away by armed civilian ships of the French Huguenots and took refuge, which completely clarified the maritime dispute between the two countries.

After that, Hawkins and Drake, as the best in any business often do, moved up to the higher industry, which for them was the robbing of Spanish galleons.

In fact, it was the early departure from the black slave trade that kept the Hawkins family from falling into Yang Ce's hands.

This is the supply chain of the triangular trade, African tribes hated each other, countless captives were killed; the Spaniards and Portuguese of the New World needed more manpower, so they were sold as booty to English merchants, and the English merchants used these captives as slaves Selling to the New World, blood supports the inflow of gold and silver to Europe; this industrial chain would have disappeared in the long river of history because the New World would no longer need more people in 200 years.

Yang Ce's joining has changed this situation. There has never been a powerful fleet on the west coast of Africa, which brought disaster to the triangular trade and also contributed to a more short-lived and new triangular trade.

It's just that this time the merchant ships from Europa became new prey, and the manpower gap in the new continent was also interrupted by the arrival of Chen Mu... It wasn't the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty that blocked the manpower gap, but they brought the Europeans in The forces on that land were completely squeezed out, so slaves were no longer needed.

"The supply of real estate in Plymouth is in short supply. Those businessmen are being robbed by blue-ship robbers at sea. The investment of hundreds of nobles has been squandered, and people have turned to more profitable business activities."

Hawkins pointed to the velvet pillow under the arm of his nephew, and said: "They are driving Congress to pass a bill called Plymouth Trade. The content of the bill is to make Plymouth a port dedicated to the trade of the Ming Empire— —Fortunately, the Queen still trusts me and has been delaying the effective date of the bill."

Derek put down the hand that was playing with the cigarette, looked up at Hawkins and asked, "Uncle, is this bad?"

"The goods that Daming sells are of good quality, and the prices are cheap and the quantity is limited. Even if we sell these goods to the Mediterranean Sea, we can still make some money."

"Of course it's good to be able to trade, so what have I been doing all these years since we were destroyed by the Spaniards and only two ships returned to Plymouth?"

Hawkins raised his finger and pointed out the window of the carriage. He was referring to the massacre of them by the Spaniards in the present-day Great Western Port of Veracruz, Spain 12 years ago.

Drake followed Hawkins' hand and looked out the window. The carriage was passing by the coast, and one huge ship after another was parked tightly on the beach. Hawkins said: "I entered Congress eight years ago, and inherited Congress three years ago. My father-in-law's position as a naval treasurer has become a naval support officer trusted by Her Majesty the Queen this year, and I have been preparing for the naval battle with the Spaniards."

"At that time, our country did not have a navy, not even a decent warship. Now we have twelve warships over [-] tons, twelve fast ships that can sail in the offshore, and more ships are still under construction. Plymouth."

"When the bay that is easy to dock here becomes a port for trade with the Ming people, Ming people's merchant ships will occupy this place. What do we use to build ships?"

"Does it depend on the lamb who showed the Queen's palmistry?"

Lamb... Drake also feels helpless for the owner of this name. That man is a blind man named Yang Gao. It is said that he has become a wanted criminal of the Ming Empire's Oriental Army for leaking secrets. He is wrapped in a dirty and rotten stall in a merchant ship. Come to England.

He shook his head and said, "Uncle, that lamb is not a good man. Although he does not support the establishment of a trading port in Plymouth, he obviously has other plans."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)