Chapter 1212 - The Slave Market
"You are a very good person..." Director Skade unconsciously slipped into a phrase of "Japanese," then patted Quark's shoulder with satisfaction.
Though Quark wasn't entirely comfortable with this sudden gesture of familiarity, the appreciation and delight radiating from the other man were unmistakable. He bowed deeply once more.
"Besides the horses we've specified, you may continue the white slave woman trade. However, there must be limits on numbers." Skade said. "Next time you may bring at most 400 slave women. After that, until your license expires, a maximum of 200 slave women per year. But I should remind you—you have no monopoly on the white slave woman trade. We'll purchase from anyone who can provide satisfactory merchandise."
The long-term policy of permitting a certain number of slave women annually served two purposes: first to give the transmigrators some selection, and second to prevent outsiders from guessing the exact number of transmigrators.
"I will spare no effort in your service!" Quark was overjoyed. This meant he could export at least a thousand slave women to Lingao over the next three or four years—the profits would be considerable.
"Ahem. Also, the next time you bring slave women, bring ten white male slaves as well, aged between twelve and fifteen. This is a one-time import only." Skade seemed somewhat uncomfortable saying this.
Quark hesitated before asking: "Do you require eunuchs?"
"Eunuchs?" Skade quickly denied it. "We don't need eunuchs. White males. Not white eunuchs."
Quark bowed deeply again: "At the Senate's service!"
Utterly shameless for money, Skade thought. A fine merchant indeed!
Next they discussed importing Southeast Asian slaves. The Sanya mines had originally reached saturation for Southeast Asian slaves, but the high mortality rate in the large-scale development of Kaohsiung had created a shortage where there had once been a surplus. Wei Bachi kept sending requests for more Southeast Asian slaves to be shipped to Taiwan, so Skade asked Quark to increase the numbers.
Quark looked troubled. Though his slave trade was thriving and he had gradually established trade routes and slave stations throughout the Spice Islands, capturing slaves was laborious work. Europeans doing it themselves yielded extremely poor cost-efficiency—one had to rely on local chiefs, kings, and other power brokers to serve as suppliers. Just as the Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana had long served as a supplier of black slaves in history.
Quark now enjoyed a certain reputation throughout the Moluccas. People had begun stockpiling war prisoners and convicts specifically to sell to him as slaves. Some chiefs and pirates had even begun kidnapping people for profit. But these suppliers were all small-scale. Quark and Captain Higgins—now his partner—had to sail throughout the Moluccas purchasing slaves. The long cycle, high costs, and great risks were bad enough, but slave mortality was also particularly high.
To expand his slave sources, Quark had carefully devised a plan, one that had gained the support of the English East India Company's East Asia Council.
The plan was to incite some local "sultan" to launch a large-scale war. The Moluccas had three "empires" that both cooperated and fought with English and Dutch colonists, and frequently attacked each other. Inciting mutual warfare among them posed no difficulty—one merely had to provide something to tip the balance slightly.
That something was rifles. Matchlock muskets and gunpowder had already been widely shipped to this region by traders, becoming favorite commodities among the island chiefs and "sultans." Not only were their warriors equipped with matchlocks, but even the Malay pirates prowling in small boats waiting to ambush prey carried them.
But shipping matchlocks all the way from Europe was uneconomical—the sea voyage took too long, and many matchlocks were damaged in transit. As for local manufacture, only Batavia had a small-scale military workshop, and it lacked craftsmen while raw materials had to be imported. Production couldn't keep pace, and besides, the Dutch might not be willing to sell to English merchants anyway—commercial competition between the English and Dutch in the East Indies was fierce, and the Dutch had long been unhappy with the English.
"If the Senate can provide sufficient matchlocks as trade goods, doubling the slave supply would be no problem."
Skade nodded. This aligned with the original purpose of developing the Nanyang-style rifle: besides finding a cheap way to equip security forces, exporting it as a monkey-model weapon had also been an initial goal.
"We have an excellent rifle for export—ten times better than your matchlocks. More importantly, they'll have to keep buying ammunition from you..." Skade laughed heartily, finding this delightful.
"With such wonderful merchandise, increasing the Senate's slave supply tenfold would be no problem—before long there won't be any natives left in the Moluccas..." Quark flattered.
"Did you know? I think you should stockpile more inventory, because the Dutch may soon be purchasing slaves from you as well." Skade said mysteriously.
Quark started, stammering: "What? They're also going to trade..."
"No, nothing like that." Skade reassured him. "Like us, they'll soon need large numbers of slaves as labor."
"That's impossible." Quark knew the Dutch in Batavia well. "They have more than enough Javanese slaves. If you're talking about development work around Batavia, the Dutch would rather import Chinese than take Southeast Asian slaves."
"They'll need them, they'll need them." Skade smiled and patted his shoulder again. "How about it? Would you like to attend an auction tonight? The slaves you brought will be auctioned at this event—it will be quite a spectacle."
"It would be my honor," Quark said involuntarily.
The second maid auction was about to be held. The venue was a quarantine district warehouse in Bopu: it could accommodate enough buyers and "merchandise," and its high roof kept the space from growing too stuffy despite several hundred people gathering in summer.
Due to limited supply and relatively similar quality levels—after all, Quark had carefully selected the merchandise—the Government Office, on Fang Fei's suggestion, decided to classify this auction into S, A, B, and C grades. S-grade slave women would be sold through free competitive bidding. The remaining slave women would be purchased through a direct lottery system—those with earlier lottery numbers could pick first and pay according to grade. Those with later numbers had little choice, and if your number was too far back, you might not get one at all. This method at least ensured equal opportunity for every transmigrator.
Xiao Zishan browsed the slave auction handbook. Fang Fei was directing the venue setup and, seeing how intently he was reading, came over to tease him:
"What? Are you planning to buy one too?"
"Well... this..." Xiao Zishan seemed somewhat embarrassed. "Well, I have been thinking about it... but the supply is limited, so priority goes to the masses of transmigrators..."
"There you go being fake-proper again—you're not like me: no wife. What's wrong with getting a big foreign mare?" Fang Fei yelled a few instructions at the carpenters setting up scaffolding, then continued, "I didn't see you buy a maid last time either."
"Well, let me think about it some more..." Xiao Zishan seemed reluctant to discuss this topic and quickly changed the subject. "I was looking at the slave women's ethnicities—quite a dazzling array."
Basra was one of the largest slave markets in the Near East, with masses of slaves from the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Africa gathered and distributed there. The complexity was evident from the slave list Quark had sent: Slavs were most numerous, followed by Arabs and Persians, then Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Italians, and Jews.
"What ethnic composition!" Fang Fei also found it interesting. "Quite complex! We'll have to teach them all Mandarin eventually."
"Is the plan ready?"
"Yes, and we've notified every transmigrator attending the auction. Everyone says they'll cooperate as best they can."
By nightfall, the entire warehouse had been prepared. All windows were covered with thick curtains; only gas lamps illuminated the makeshift "display stage" erected in the center, while the surrounding seating remained quite dark—fully protecting the transmigrators' privacy.
After dark, the slaves were brought to the warehouse in batches by wagon. Only S-grade slave women would be auctioned this time—sixteen in total. But the actual number delivered was seventeen. The last one was Doña Marina de Arellano.
Marina followed the maid blankly into the venue. The warehouse district was normally deserted; now multiple security cordons had been set up around it, and without a sound from outside, it was exceptionally quiet.
The slave women were placed in an enclosure beside the display stage, watched by two maids who didn't interfere with their looking around or quiet conversations.
She shook her head, trying to cast off the worries and fears of recent days. She pulled her veil slightly lower and observed her surroundings.
The buyers attending the auction all seemed to be short-haired Australians. Each wore shabby cotton jackets and went bareheaded like the lowliest peasants, yet every one of them looked supremely confident, as if they owned the world.
Suddenly Marina spotted Miss Mendoza. She beckoned slightly, and Mendoza came over.
"Miss Mendoza, thank you for your help," she said quietly in Spanish. "I will never forget your kindness."
(End of Chapter)