Chapter 371 Business
Cultural relics are one of the carriers of culture, and culture is what emerging countries like East Africa lack the most. This is also true for Russia, not to mention countries with a short history like the United States.
Russia's history is not short, but it is very embarrassing. It can never get around the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde, and it has always been ridiculed by the Western world and may be expelled from European citizenship at any time.
Therefore, historical nihilism is prevalent in Russia. In the Tsarist era, Mongolia was denied; in the Soviet era, Tsarist Russia was denied; and Russia denied the Soviet Union. As a result, Russia will always wander between Europe and Asia and cannot find a sense of belonging to its own country. This is the case with the entire Slavic nation. If the Slavs can find their own cultural confidence, it will definitely be a force that can change the world.
The similarity between the East African Kingdom and Russia is that both have yellow and white races, and nearly half of the people in East Africa come from the Far East. Ernst certainly would not deny this history, otherwise how to explain the origin of the yellow people in the East African Kingdom? You can't tell the descendants of East Africa that their ancestors jumped out of stones.
At present, the complete Germanization of the East African Kingdom is a necessary measure to consolidate the regime. At the same time, the world center is now in Europe. East Africa needs to get closer to Europe and regard itself as a German country so that it can better participate in international affairs. Moreover, Germany is a cultural concept. Germany does not necessarily have to be in Europe, just like the United States being in America does not prevent it from being an English-speaking country.
Therefore, Ernst himself believed that the East African Kingdom was a country formed by the fusion of Germans and Chinese, so the East African Kingdom had reason to inherit the heritage of two cultures at the same time.
Therefore, Ernst's private collection will remain in East Africa in the future. It is a precious cultural asset of the East African Kingdom. No one can deny the fact that the descendants of the East African Kingdom have Chinese ancestry, just like the Chinese in Southeast Asia, they are also descendants of Yan and Huang.
Ernst had another consideration in doing these things, which was that Germany itself did not have a deep enough historical and cultural foundation. The formation of the concept of Germany was firstly attributed to the glorious history of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe, and secondly to the fact that Napoleon the Great forced the entire Germany into a cultural identity.
But the Holy Roman Empire only existed for a short time. Even if we go back to the Roman era, the ancestors of the Germans were just a group of barbarians in the forest.
German history was blank before the Germanic people destroyed Rome, and was no different from the indigenous people in Africa today. At this time, the Far Eastern civilization had entered its heyday, and the Far Eastern civilization and German history could be pieced together. In the future, East Africans can also say that they have a history of 5,000 years.
The history of their ancestors is also the history of their own nation. East Africa is the natural heir of two civilizations. Ernst has no burden about this matter.
…
While Ernst was still lingering in the port of Trieste, Immigration Director Thomas had already arrived in Haiti.
There are many ships on the route from Europe to North America, so there is no need to worry about not having enough flights.
A group of white people landed in Port-au-Prince and did not attract much attention. Port-au-Prince is the capital of the Republic of Haiti, as well as its political, economic, cultural center and largest port city. It is located on the Cul de Sac Plain near the southeast coast of Gonave Bay.
In 1843, an earthquake destroyed Cap-Haitien, the capital of Haiti, and Port-au-Prince was destroyed by fire, so the current Port-au-Prince has been renovated. However, it is obviously not comparable to the previous ports and is in a patchwork state.
The current president of Haiti is Nissage Sage, who is also a troublemaker because he supported France in the Franco-Prussian War. This caused dissatisfaction in Germany, so Germany demanded 3,000 pounds in compensation and sent two warships to Port-au-Prince to demonstrate. Haiti was forced to compensate Germany. Now Nissage Sage is struggling to calm the anger of the Haitians because of this incident.
In the three years before Nissage Sage, Haiti had already had two presidents. The first was Fabre Gevrall. Fabre Gevrall can be said to be the only "wise ruler" in Haitian history, and it can even be said that he is the president of Haiti unprecedented and unrivaled.
He did a lot of practical things during his reign, and his rule is recognized as the best period in Haiti. However, at the end of his reign, he went back to his old ways, amending the constitution, giving himself a pay raise, buying himself two plantations, and increasing funding for the military and hospitals as well as personal luxury goods.
In the later period of Geffrard's reign, his subordinates had attempted several military coups to overthrow his rule, but they were basically unsuccessful. However, three years ago, in 1867, he was forced to step down and go into exile by the rebel Sylvian Sarnave who attempted to replace him. He had been in office for 8 years.
Sylvain Tsarnave was a complete tyrant. Soon after Tsarnave took office as president, rebellion broke out in Haiti and peasant uprisings continued. However, Tsarnave continued to suppress the opposition, amended the constitution, increased his own power, and made himself president for life, and then was overthrown.
All in all, Haiti's history is a mess, and the current president, Nissage Sage, could fall at any time.
But Thomas doesn't care. This is the kind of Haiti that East Africa wants to see. Based on the current situation in Haiti, Thomas believes that there is no need to waste money on the Haitian president.
So after much inquiries, he found the Cheiros family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Cheiros family is a local high-caste family, so they are quite powerful. As the rulers of Haiti may be overthrown at any time, it is better to cooperate with such a deeply rooted family.
Thomas was also shocked when he heard about the high caste. Thomas had previously thought that this system was a patent of Indians, but he did not expect that Haiti also had it. But it did not matter. As a democratic republic, Haiti had produced several emperors, so it was a basic operation.
The Chelos family is a high-caste family of mixed black and white descent. Its previous generation patriarch, Chelos, was a meritorious official who had helped the founding father build his country's career.
Unlike other heroes, Chelos Sr. was not interested in Haiti's leadership and only wanted to make money. Therefore, Chelos Sr. survived several generations of Haitian presidents and emperors. The leaders of the sea before the last Haitian president, Gevrard, were all his former comrades-in-arms. Chelos Sr. died in 1863, and his eldest son, Chelos Jr., is currently managing the family.
At the Chellose family's estate, little Chellose met Thomas.
"Hello, Chief Chelos! I heard of your great name when I first came to your precious land. I heard that in Port-au-Prince, the Chelos family is a force to be reckoned with."
Little Chelos: "Sir, who are you?"
Thomas "I am a merchant from France, you can call me Medina."
Thomas speaks multiple languages, which is one of the reasons why he was able to become the director of the East African Immigration Agency.
France! Hearing the name of the former colonial master aroused little Chelos's vigilance, and Chelos felt that Thomas' French was a little strange, but he did not show it: "So it's France, my great-grandmother is French, and I also studied in France, so I am very familiar with French. Where are you from in France, sir? Why do you have a strange accent? And what do you want to do with our Chelos family?"
Thomas: "So you are half French, that's great. I'm from northeastern France, close to Belgium, so I have a Dutch accent."
Little Chelos: "So that's how it is." No wonder, it should be something like a dialect. Little Chelos's great-grandmother was from southern France, and her spoken language is somewhat different from the Parisian dialect he learned.
Thomas continued, "I came here this time to discuss a business deal that I hope your family can accept."
Little Chelos: "I wonder what business it is?"
Thomas: "Slave trade!"
"Ahem..." Little Chellos was shocked by Thomas' words, but he quickly adjusted himself. "That won't do, Mr. Medina. The international community has already abolished the slave trade. If we in Haiti participate in the slave trade, Haiti will be in trouble."
Little Chelos even suspected that this was a conspiracy by the French, and whether it was a bait set up specifically for law enforcement.
Thomas: "Mr. Chelos, don't worry. I'm just a slave trader. What I pursue is nothing more than profit. The Chelos family only needs to give my fleet some conveniences to land in Port-au-Prince. We will not have too much to do with your family in the rest of the matter."
Little Chelos probed: "Mr. Thomas, you should be from the French government!"
When Thomas heard how they were connected to the French government, he shook his head and said, "How is that possible? I believe you should have heard about the current situation in France. The Republicans and the Monarchists are arguing in Parliament. They don't have the energy to do that. We merchants hope that Britain and France will be in chaos so that we can do better business at sea."
Little Chelos nodded. What he said was true. France was in quite a mess right now and it didn't have the time to care about other countries. Besides, the slave trade was done by the French and he could just pretend he didn't know about it. Anyway, there was no order in Haiti at that time, so it made sense for slave traders to use Haiti as their base.
However, if that were the case, he would have to make a lot of money, so Little Chelos said, "If that's the case, that's fine, but the lives of Haitians are also lives, and our Chelos family requires a per capita fee."
What? You charge per person! That's a sky-high price! Who would cooperate with you with that much money?
Thomas said: "Charging per capita is too much. We are only doing one-time business, so we don't consider the quantity. At most, we pay annually."
Little Chelos: "Mr. Medina, I just said that Haitian lives are also lives, and there are not many Haitians to begin with, so isn't it reasonable to charge per head? Our family can also provide you with slave hunting services."
So that's how it is. It seems that little Cherros thought he wanted to trade Haitians as slaves. It was also his fault that he didn't make it clear just now.
Thomas: "Mr. Chelos, you misunderstood. We don't want Haitians."
Little Chelos was a little confused and asked, "If you don't want Haitians, how can you do the slave trade? Can you find black people from other places?"
Thomas: "You are right. Our French colonies are in Africa, so the source of goods is also from Africa."
Little Chelos: "Then why did you come to Haiti? Haiti is so poor, there is no way they can afford to buy slaves!"
Thomas: "Mr. Chelos, our market is the United States, and Haiti is just a transit point. You should understand what I mean by that!"
Little Chelos: "What can Haiti provide for your slave trade? It would be more convenient to just take them to the United States!"
Thomas: "This depends on market factors. We can't always find buyers directly. Instead, we need to slowly contact American customers, especially those plantation owners, and then let them select the goods."
Little Chelos: "So you mean that Haiti is dispensable in this process?"
Thomas: "Of course not. In fact, I am just starting out in the industry, so I don't know much about the US market."
Hearing that Thomas was a novice, Little Chelos instantly became interested: "Then can you guarantee that you can find a buyer?"
He took the bait. Thomas had inquired about it before. The Chelos family was involved in human trafficking. Isn't this a done deal?
Thomas sighed and said, "Well, actually I have been working in the colonies before, and I just heard that the slave trade is more profitable. There are not many other things in Africa, but there are many black people, so I am also looking for ways to see if I can make a fortune in the slave trade."
Little Chelos: "Then you dare to do this business without finding a way!"
Thomas: "I was also fooled by a friend. He said he had a connection in the United States, but there has been no news for the past two months. I had to come from the colony to take a look. Then I found that Haiti has a good location, right between America and Africa, so I went ashore to take a look. Then I found that the country was a bit chaotic, so I hope to find a powerful family as a partner."
Little Chelos: "Then you found the Chelos family, Mr. Medina. I have to say that you are really lucky. We do have a way to make money, but I don't know how much goods you have?"
Thomas' eyes lit up. "Really? That's great. If nothing else, we have plenty of goods. Even in Haiti, we don't have as much supply as we do."
Little Chelos: "Your friend is unreliable. It's better for you to do business with us directly. But there is one thing I want to explain in advance."
Thomas: “You say!”
Little Chelos: "No matter how much goods you have, our Chelos family can take them all. We also have our own sales channels and can definitely sell your goods to the United States. However, our Chelos family can't help you for nothing. But as the saying goes, more friends mean more paths. I'm willing to give you a chance. That is, we can take as much of your goods as you want, but we have to charge a commission, so we can't give you too much money for a black slave."
Thomas was overjoyed and said excitedly, "Mr. Chelos, what you mean is that we are partners in this business, but you want to take a share of the money earned from the sale of the slaves?"
Little Chelos: “That’s right.”
Thomas: “Deal!”
An unexpected gain, a completely unexpected gain. East Africa had originally planned to do a loss-making business by sending black people to the United States, but after talking with little Chelos, not only did they not lose money, but they were able to make a huge profit.
However, Thomas still said cautiously: "Mr. Chelos, our supply is several million. Can your family consume so much?"
You want to empty the colony? Little Chelos said, "A few million may sound like a lot, but you have to be able to ship them to Haiti first. I can't say anything else. Even if we ship 10,000 people to Haiti every day, we have the ability to send them to the United States. It's just a matter of small profits but quick turnover. We can sell them in a few hundred days."
That is of course impossible. If the transportation capacity existed, it wouldn't have taken East Africa so many years to immigrate millions of people to East Africa.
Thomas: "Let's put it this way. We can still handle a few thousand people a month. When we make money in the future, we can buy more ships and bring more people here."
Little Chelos: "Aren't you afraid of being confiscated by the British and French navies?"
Thomas: "Mr. Chelos, this is up to you!"
Little Chelos: "Look at me?"
Thomas: "What if these people were not slaves, but Haitians?"
Little Chelos's mind worked quickly, and he immediately understood Thomas' intention: "You mean to dress up your black slaves as Haitians? That's a good idea."
Little Chelos's own business was similar to this, but it was conducted in the form of a labor service company, so he instantly understood the meaning of "Medina", and the two had the same purpose.
Thomas: "But I'll have to trouble you a little more about my Haitian identity."
Little Chelos: "Identity! What identity do Haitians want?"
Thomas: "You don't have passports or anything!"
Little Chelos: "We don't really have that thing, but you can have it if you need it."
Haiti doesn't even have a passport! But think about it, Haiti gained independence from France earlier, so I didn't catch up. Thomas: "Then please provide some certificates or something, so that we can ensure the stability of the supply."
Little Chelos: "No problem. The proof is just a piece of waste paper. I can ask the Presidential Palace to complete it."
Thomas: “Please.”
(End of this chapter)
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