Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 406 Trading with the natives

In the next few days, Bai Mingxiu came into contact with the nearby Salish tribe on the coast. Their tribe built some long houses made of wood by the river, and their population was not too large, only a few dozen people. .

When they met the Ming people, the natives were also very surprised, but they did not strike rashly.The two sides talked and gestured for a while, and Bai Mingxiu gave them some things like toys as gifts, including one or two pieces of porcelain, a fairly sharp dagger, and a hat in order to show their friendliness. .

The natives were obviously very amazed by Daming's creations, even daggers, they were astonished as fetishes.The natives at this time had never had contact with Europeans, had never seen anything from the outside world, and contacting Ming people was their first contact with the outside world.

The appearance of the native people is still somewhat different from that of the Ming people. Although the skin color is somewhat similar, the facial features are still different.Moreover, the natives do not distinguish between races by their looks, they will even start with other tribes of the same language family. For the natives, the tribe is the most important, and they do not have the concept of nationality.

After that, the natives also ran to the place close to the Long Live City camp many times, marveling at the hugeness of the "tribe" of the Ming people.They wanted to continue asking for good things from Mingren, but the guards rejected them with a straight face.Seeing so many Ming people, the natives are not stupid, and they will not force them, but bring their own things and exchange them with the Ming people.

This kind of barter exchange with a language barrier is very laborious. Ming people essentially look down on anything they have, but in order to encourage this kind of trading behavior and create a better symbiotic relationship, Ming people still exchanged some something.

For example, the catches and furs brought by the natives were useful to the Ming people, so they kept them.The Ming people were really not interested in the handicrafts of the natives, and they all rejected them, which also hurt the dignity of the natives.However, the goods that the Ming people provided them were so good that they must complete the transaction.The natives exchanged textiles, porcelain and other containers, and even matches from the Ming people.The natives also wanted to exchange ironware, but they were explicitly rejected.The dagger that Bai Mingxiu gave was the only iron artifact they got, and it was also the first iron artifact that the Coastal Salish people had obtained in the past thousands of years.

"What the hell, why are you exchanging people for things?" The outside of the camp turned into a small market, and the natives from several different tribes were dancing and trying to exchange with Akito. The most exaggerated ones were a few A tattooed native man who looked strong came outside the camp with a few timid native women.

Bai Mingxiu said: "It looks like they should have snatched the woman from another tribe. As for whether that tribe still exists, we don't know."

Naturally, there are wars between the natives. There are often conflicts like this in order to grab territory and food.Especially between different language families, this contradiction may be more acute.

A group of young immigrants and escorts stood inside the fence of the camp and looked over here, commenting.

"These natives don't know how to make clothes, how can they cover them?"

"It's too ugly. If you grow up like this, if you become a wife, you will be scared to death."

"Just be content, at least it's a woman, isn't it, hey..."

Zhao Mancai also came out and discussed with Yuan Shishi: "How to deal with it?"

Yuan Shishi said loudly: "Yes, why not?"

One of the guards shouted: "The master, but they want to exchange women for our ironware."

Yuan Shixi laughed and said: "Change, why not! Three women traded for a dagger, it's a worthwhile deal. I heard that there is coal in the south. After we find iron ore nearby, we can also smelt iron. I want to come later There are as many iron wares as there are iron wares, and we will not lose money by exchanging people."

Purely from the perspective of the camp, labor is precious and can do a lot of work.Moreover, the ratio of men to women in the camp was out of balance, so it would be nice to be able to reconcile it.More importantly, because of the gap in productivity, in the transaction with the natives, in fact, the smart people have the upper hand.Whether it is firing porcelain or making ironware, it is easy for the Ming people, but the natives pay more valuable fur and other goods, and even slaves.

Bai Mingxiu could understand that there was evil intention in Yuan Shiyi's seemingly rough behavior.More valuable trade items such as ironware can only be obtained through slaves.It is impossible for ordinary tribes to have many slaves, and slaves can only be obtained through inter-tribal wars.Then in order to obtain slaves, these natives will attack other tribes, so the overall strength of the natives will be weak, and eventually the tribes will gradually cease to exist, and they will all become groups that depend on the Ming people for survival.

He said to Yuan Shishi: "Boss, I suggest not to treat the native women who come to our camp as slaves. In addition to not letting them leave the camp, they can have general freedom and even allow them to own property."

Yuan Shiyi frowned and asked, "What kind of routine are you doing?"

"We need to disintegrate the social structure of the natives. In fact, our Chinese civilization itself has a strong attraction and will assimilate other ethnic groups. We give them a better life. Even if slaves come to us, they can live well. To go down, not to be whipped, not to be killed. They work like everyone else to live, and it is easier for them to live in our long live city than in the tribe. In this way, the natives Then I wonder if it would be better to give up the tribe and come to live in Long Live City.”

Yuan Shiyi sighed: "Bu'an, you brat, even if these women are free, they will probably become the wives of someone in the camp sooner or later. Your role model."

Bai Mingxiu smiled and said: "Slavery is essentially adapted to backward productivity, but our Long Live City, our Daming is already an industrial civilization, we don't need slaves, we only need free labor."

Bai Mingxiu didn't say a word - a labor force that can reproduce the next generation and continue to provide labor.

Bai Mingxiu sometimes really decides that Mr. Ma's ideas and theories are simply a weapon in battle. Ming people with clear methodologies and modes of action actually have a great advantage over other nations.

Although the small Long Live City is like an ordinary stockade, it is inconspicuous, but it takes root and sprouts in this land like a seed, and one day it will become a towering tree.

(End of this chapter)