This is the first step for Chen Jian to open up "legal" smuggling.

For this first step, all kinds of means must be tried. Because as long as there is a legal first ship that can be parked, the rest will show their abilities, and everything will be difficult to start with.

But the merchant quickly refused. Even though Chen Jian gave some huge price, the merchant still said he could do nothing.

Chen Jianjiu couldn't talk about it, so he had to put this matter on hold for the time being.

He is very confident about the share of smuggling trade. As long as the lines can be established, there will be no problem with the sales of goods.

It took less than a hundred years for Potosi in the south to grow from less than five hundred people to a big city with more than one hundred thousand people.

It is a thorough mining and industrial city of this era, with half of the world's silver production at this time.

The large number of working people is a huge consumer market, and some of the Spanish policies in South American colonies make the market extremely broad.

When talking about Potosi, Chen Jian thought of goods that may be very short of sales prospects.

Find a kerosene lamp from the sample, and after demonstration, it said: "This oil lamp is bright and should make a lot of money if it is sold in Potosi. If you are willing to cooperate for a long time, we can sign an agreement."

The businessman was surprised that Chen Jian used a match to light the fire. He also praised him when he saw the kerosene lamp, but he was a little hesitant.

"Mr. Governor, IMHO, this beautiful commodity of yours is not popular in the mining area."

Chen Jian shook his head and said, "How is it possible? The mining area is not open-air, so don't it need lighting?"

"Mr. Governor, you should know that free labor is rarely used for mining. Those workers are too high to pay, so they all use the Indians of Midha."

"No matter what, lighting is needed."

"But for mine owners, there is no need for such exquisite oil lamps, just simple rushes or candles."

The merchant thought for a while and explained: "It turned out that there was a system of shift changes day and night, but smart miners found that shift changes were wasting time. So now, three people are going to mine in groups, and food, accommodation and excretion are all under the mine, which can save time. Everyone needs to change shifts when they need to work a rush. If you use your oil lamp, you also need other timing devices... Besides, even if you don't use oil lamps, everyone can complete the daily quantification, so how can the mine owner need such exquisite lamps?"

The merchant said again: "But there is a cargo that will definitely be very popular if you can get it."

"What goods?"

Chen Jian was a little curious, and the businessman smiled and said, "Slave, black slave."

Perhaps afraid that Chen Jian would not be moved, the merchant hurriedly said: "Mr. Governor, now in the coastal areas of the Peru Governor's District, the best goods sold are slaves. The Indians needed to serve the Mida service in Potosi. Two years ago, they drew from one to one, and the number of people was getting smaller and smaller. Moreover, in order to escape corvee, these dirty poor people would cut off their fingers or toes or flee."

"So now, along the coast of the Peru Governor's District, a large number of plantations are deserted, and all planters need a large number of slaves. If your fleet can bring slaves, I can guarantee you to get three to seven times the profit. You just need to transport the guns to Africa, where the chiefs will come to trade..."

The merchant was still chattering, and Chen Jian interrupted him and asked back, "Does all Indians need to be corvee?"

"No. Kashik doesn't need it, and you don't need it if you have a 'blood purification certificate'."

When Chen Jian heard two strange proper nouns, he was also a little curious. After asking for a long time, he finally figured out what these two things were.

Kashik is similar to local gentry, generally a prestigious Indian chief in the local village. He was awarded the title of Spain and can be used as a lower-level manager without tribute or corvee.

This "blood purification certificate" is an Indian "lifting" ceremony. The descendants of the chief who obtained this certificate can be regarded as second-class nationals, can be nominally in the same position as native whites, and can even study at the University of San Marcos.

It needs to be issued by the royal family or the governor, and after approval by the inspection booth and the church, of course you can also buy it for money.

When Chen Jian heard that he could spend money to buy it, he was a little moved. If he got some such certificates, some things would be much simpler and would be convenient for some activities in the colony.

However, the businessman's answer was very firm.

"Mr. Governor, are you proficient in Latin?"

"No."

“Can you sing hymns?”

"No."

“Can you recite the Bible?”

"No."

"So, Mr. Governor, this is not something that can be solved by money. It is issued specifically by the royal family and the church. It must have both the blood of the chief and study at the affiliated school of the University of San Marcos, and be proficient in Latin, and must be baptized at birth..."

When I heard that it was so troublesome, it was no longer something that money could solve, so I lost interest and discussed some issues about commodity smuggling.

After the merchant left, Chen Jian found some smugglers.

In addition to discussing business, we are asking about the details and systems of the Spanish colonies.

Every time after a business is discussed, Chen Jian will bring an additional condition, hoping that these people can bring some Spanish books during the transaction.

He had no interest in theology, and his books were mainly Spanish legal aspects, especially some royal decrees, colonial governors' decrees, general laws and corvee systems.

After several days of exchange, Chen Jian gradually found out a rough idea of ​​the Spanish colony.

Many of the Spanish domination methods in South America were an interesting evolutionary process, with some familiar shadows everywhere.

In the early stages, in some places rather than mining areas.

For the Indians, the Spanish used a rule method similar to that of the early Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Spanish have the "guardianship" of Indians in a certain area, and they are called the custodian.

The guardian was similar to the fief nobles of the Western Zhou Dynasty. They had the right to collect tribute and the "wild people" under their rule needed to serve corvee service for the guardian.

To some extent, there is a well-field system like public and private fields. The land owned by the custodian or the land directly under the royal family and the land belonging to the church, and those "wild people" need to work on these public fields every year. Of course, in name, the guardian has no land ownership, but the emperor far away will not hinder them.

However, to the present, public fields are not just fields, but also buildings, mines, etc., but the essence is the same... If you translate it in classical Chinese, it is a poem called "Bin Feng, July" with different crops and labor in the post-agricultural era.

The cultural export is similar to the policies of Qi State on the Dongyi in the past.

On the one hand, schools were established with towns as the center and "Elegant Language". Children of Indian aristocrats needed to learn Latin and Spanish culture, because these aristocrats were the ones who mastered culture. As long as these people were changed, culture would be cut off.

On the other hand, it is also localized to localize some local cultures.

For example, the Virgin of Guadalupe is not Maria, but a new Virgin created based on the local Indians. This behavior can be stolen to some extent.

When promoting the Bible, Indians were allowed to pray in the way they were used to. Some missionaries also turned the things on the table into guinea pigs, alpacas, tequilas or thorn wine in order to make Indians accept it.

In just forty years, this kind of illusion that was very suitable for the classical colonial system of the Bronze Age began to appear, because it was already the post-agricultural era, and the difference between the well fields and the country was outdated, but cultural assimilation was still effective, which is worth learning.

As the country and the country are different, wild people will have to waste their private fields when they go to plow "public fields", which will naturally feel dissatisfied. Productivity has advanced to the era of iron-armed ox plowing, and there is no future in this way.

So the Spanish royal family took a step forward, and in centralization, it reached a similar level to a fief of half-empty titles, and in plundering, it reached the post-agricultural era and the early handicraft era.

The custodian still had the jurisdiction of those "wild people", but no longer had the right to collect labor and operate "public land" for them, but could only collect taxes. The custodian became a semi-empty nobleman with many households in fief, rather than the original real-power nobleman, which was equivalent to taking a small step towards centralization.

The land system also began to undergo some changes. The land ownership was not clear at the beginning, but as the Spanish royal family went bankrupt again more than a decade ago, the private land system began to clarify that the royal family needed to sell land to make money.

All those who possess the land shall pay a ransom tax to obtain ownership of the land they possess. This is for white people, native white people or descendants of chiefs who have bought the "Sacred Blood Purification Certificate".

For those indigenous people at the bottom, a hierarchical system was appropriately adopted, and a certain amount of land was allocated according to the different levels of the indigenous people. At the same time, the villages were collected and the large amount of land was legally "purchased" by the white "development group".

In some mining areas, the indigenous people are employed to dig ore every seven years, and they are paid nominally. However, the mins are employed rather than people. The amount of money is at most one-third compared to the taxes and family expenses that have to be paid every year.

So under "voluntary" situation, both wives and children have to go to mining. Normally, a family of four can be the same as tax payments. If one more is available and you can live to the age of twenty, you will be considered a profit.

The mining scene is too scary, especially in some mercury mines. The highly toxic mercury steam makes the average life span of these miners under 23 years old.

Some mothers who feel sorry for their children often cut off their children's fingers or big toes before their children become adults, so that they don't have to go to Mida.

After all, colonization is just a few tricks. Although Chen Jian’s language skills are average, some things can be guessed by a little analysis of the profit issues.

Many things have changed their names and put them in other places without much incongruity: changing the Indian Kashik, who was ruled by the grassroots, is easier to understand, and they are exempt from taxes and privileges and exempt from corvee; descendants of chiefs who bought a certificate of purification of blood are equivalent to raising their ancestry or becoming second-class royals.

As for economic plunder, the Spanish royal family also understood its weight and its handicraft industry was underdeveloped. Because paper money had not yet been circulated, it could not be plundered by military coupons, but it used a more magical method: forced quota purchase of goods.

When the ship that monopolizes trade comes, the goods from the royal family trade are distributed to the heads of local officials and let them sell these things. Each village has to buy some, and even if they don’t buy it, they have to buy it.

If this policy is controlled by the representatives of advanced productivity, it is not impossible: it is not wrong to convert these forced-assigned goods into domestic machinery, domestic cloth, and domestic handicraft products to accumulate funds to complete the development of handicrafts, from a nationalist perspective.

The problem is that there are too few domestic products sold. As a big hair-producing country, Spain still has to import wool from poor neighbors in the north, and the forced distribution of things are mainly foreign products.

If one pesos is distributed, the local magistrate can sell three pesos.

The bottom is naturally dissatisfied.

However, the local chief is in charge of justice, and the lawsuit will only occur when the person kneels down in the hall and sue him.

This is now, and later, Governor Velasco thought to himself that he would take jujube pills like this, and reform it, and set a detailed price and apportionment number, and clearly define the number.

The local chief naturally had a way to take advantage of the situation to get a "fire consumption". The levy of goods will be depleted, so three to six percent of the "fire consumption" is collected. This is a legal collection, not a private levy, and the governor acquiesced.

Later, the royal family went bankrupt again and thought selling official positions was a good way to get money, so everyone bought officials and became county magistrates.

Becoming a county magistrate was to get money, so he bought a county magistrate's 20,000 pesos, and his three-year salary was only 800 pesos. This was obviously accusation of getting money.

So some county magistrates decisively distributed the assignment task in New Spain and Peru until three to five years later. Before they could do such a shocking and terrifying thing in the 17th century, they received the assignment in the 18th century.

Of course, local Creoles will be shouting the slogan of competing for profit with the people for a while, beating tax surveillance, opposing the royal monopoly trade in treasure ships, hoping to legalize smuggling, etc.

When the French broke the four olds, broke the privileges of gentry and priests, and the heads of people who were equal to the land rights and land reform were rolling blood, the Western colonies played the Wuchang Uprising, which did not have to shed so much blood, and the fate of the future was also destined.
Chapter completed!