African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 81: Chapter 77: ”Cargo” Arrives at Port

Port of Dar es Salaam.

Slave Trading Market.

Though the Sultanate of Zanzibar was packed off to the island of Zanzibar, the colonies couldn’t send slaves there for trading.

Thus, the slave market at the port of Dar es Salaam was preserved, jointly operated by the East Africa colony and the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

”Sir, take a look at these goods, absolutely impeccable, all carefully selected from the Ottoman Empire, whether for farming or house care, they’re the best hands you could find,” Azamu zealously promoted the goods before them.

Poor Armenian women, lined up like cattle and sheep by Azamu, were inspected by East African colonial officials.

Azamu eagerly praised the ”goods” before him: ”They all used to live in the western mountainous regions of the Ottoman Empire, where the environment is much worse than in East Africa, with not only difficult roads but also barren land and lack of water. So, buying them back, they can surely endure hardship without causing you any trouble.”

East African colonial official Mark Verian held a wooden stick, looked them over, and occasionally lifted the faces of these ”goods” with it to check their health condition.

After enduring long voyages, their mental state was not great, but overall they were still in good health. Mark Verian was quite satisfied with the quality of the ”goods” before him.

”Mr. Azamu, I’ve seen them and they’re not bad. If they pass our medical check-ups afterward with no major issues, we’ll take the whole batch.”

Azamu quickly stepped forward, smiling ingratiatingly: ”Sir, since you find this batch acceptable and we’re providing a good quantity this time, can you offer a slightly higher price?”

Mark Verian said seriously: ”The price was agreed upon earlier, one Armenian for seven savages, going any higher would violate the initial agreement!”

Azamu hurriedly replied: ”Sir, you know the distance from the Ottoman Empire to East Africa is not short. We who run these ships have inevitable losses. With every trip, not only are there losses on the way to but even greater losses when returning with more people due to the poor conditions on board.”

Mark Verian nodded thoughtfully, acknowledging Azamu’s explanation. He himself wasn’t a professional businessman and indeed lacked talent in this area.

He turned his head to discuss with his deputy and after confirmation, he said to Azamu: ”Mr. Azamu, we understand your difficulties, but I’m just a minor officer here in East Africa, not in charge. But for the sake of our friendship, within my authority, I’ll add ten more savages for you, but that’s all I can do!”

Azamu said with a look of regret: ”This is really making it hard for me, sir.”

Then Azamu, changing his tone, said: ”But for your sake, I’ll still do this ’loss-making’ trade to ensure our friendship.”

Azamu talked about the ”loss-making” trade, but in his heart, he was overjoyed, as this time he didn’t actually incur much cost fetching the goods from the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottomans’ attitude towards these non-Muslim Armenians was practically like disgusted animals, and the Armenians were different from those rebellious folks on the Balkans seeking independence.

Adhering to the principle of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, when the bureaucrats within the Ottoman Empire learned that merchants from Zanzibar were acquiring Armenian women, they directly consented. They even wanted to package and send away the Armenian men.

Unfortunately, what East Africa needed most at the moment was females, or else Ernst might have been tempted.

The grassroots officials within the Ottoman Empire fully engaged their subjective initiative, launching house raids in Armenian congregations. Those with brains used deceit to coax Armenian women into working in Europe, while the less intelligent or lazy ones simply broke in and snatched people, resorting to force with men resistant leading to fatalities.

And the compensation paid by the Zanzibar merchants was merely two castrated local East African slaves for one Armenian woman.

Now, influenced by the cheap slave market, a trend of using Black people for production activities has emerged within the Ottoman Empire.

These Black people were cheap, efficient, disposable without risks, and their dark skin made escape impossible.

The landlords, bureaucrats, and nobility of the Ottoman Empire used Black people for plowing, mining, building wonders, and satisfying their luxurious lifestyles.

Even the cheap labor substantially relieved the Ottoman Empire’s dependence on importing European machinery and goods.

Now, it is no longer a matter of production efficiency, but a matter of how many Black slaves there are; the more slaves, the more wealth that can be generated.

Even some industries heavily reliant on manual labor in the Ottoman Empire gained a competitive advantage over Europe through the extensive use of Black people, and some handicrafts were even sold back to Europe.

As for the depletion of Black slaves, it was naturally quite significant, working day and night, eating food worse than pig slop, and once sick, they were basically declared dead.

But the Ottoman Empire was not worried; with the assistance from the East African colony, there was as much as needed.

Ernst didn’t care about the condition of Black slaves within the Ottoman Empire; once out of East Africa, there was no returning.

And the Zanzibar merchants so after subtracting the losses at sea and the locals needed to pay Ottoman officials, the rest were theirs, and these didn’t have to be used for trade but directly sold on the market.

The East African colony profited, the Sultanate of Zanzibar profited, the Ottoman Empire profited, and the Arab merchants profited, creating a world where only the locals got hurt.

Mark Verian arranged for his subordinates to number these Armenian women and send them across the East African colony.

This large-scale ”rectification” campaign in the East African colony, the solution to mobilizing the enthusiasm of Chinese soldiers was right here.

After all, fighting with the natives was also threatening, even if the natives were shooting arrows wildly, they might hit some unlucky guys.

And the East African colony didn’t have bonuses for these immigrant soldiers, so what could motivate their enthusiasm?

Of course, what they needed most was to start a family. In the East African colony, getting enough to eat was no longer a fantasy. As the saying goes, once fed and clothed, you yearn for more. The East African colony basically didn’t have alcohol; Chinese immigrants didn’t need it. After all, back then, they couldn’t even afford food, let alone drink?

Now that food, clothing, shelter, and transportation were basically guaranteed, what Chinese bachelors needed most was to continue their family line.

That was the era. Concepts like fear of marriage, free love, or having many wives and concubines were advanced tools for the rich and aristocrats.

The mindset of the common people was single-minded and unpretentious, and the East African colony took advantage of this fact, the highest reward strategy for Chinese immigrants was assigning wives.

Previously, the East African colony wasn’t doing nothing; every month they brought in some local women from Southeast Asia, though the numbers were extremely limited.

For laborers and those who contributed significantly among Chinese immigrants in the colony, they received a marriage package directly.

But in the past, only about one hundred Chinese could get this marriage package every month.

Even so, single Chinese seeing hope, were all very motivated, especially the earliest Chinese who established families in East Africa, even having kids running around, becoming the envy of many bachelors.

Before the ”rectification” movement, the East African colonial government had already promised that the better a town or village performed, the more women it would be allocated.

And within their location, those with the best performance had better chances of getting women, completely stimulating the enthusiasm of the vast Chinese immigrant bachelor populace.

They enthusiastically enlisted in the military, joining the East African colonial army, caring little about the Armenians, Christianity, Southeast Asian natives...

For the bottom-level Chinese people of this era, they weren’t picky, and as long as they could reproduce, that was enough.