A happy look appeared on Little Carlo's face. He knew about the black slaves purchased by Charleston. Recently, many of them have come to Havana Harbor. These black slaves were not those purchased from the West Coast of Africa.

The black slaves from the ‘original place’ are usually prisoners of war or tribal blacks brought by human traffickers. Some of these people are unruly and some are swearing to death, which brings many problems to the management of the plantation. They have not been engaged in agricultural activities for growing sugarcane and tobacco in their tribe. They are not skilled in doing things and will suffer a lot of losses.

Moreover, many black slaves who are new to the city cannot adapt to the climate here, and will lose a group of them after arriving at the plantation.

But the black slaves who came to Charleston were different. Those were black slaves bought by British colonists when they colonized the Virginia area. They had long been accustomed to growing tobacco and sugarcane. There was no problem with working, and many black slaves had formed families, which was convenient for management, rarely escape, and could adapt to the climate of the New World.

It is a very cost-effective deal to exchange 75 black slaves from origin for 75 black slaves from Charleston.

"When will they arrive?" Carlo asked.

The Dutch businessman said: "It should be mid-April, and it's hard to say for details."

Carlo immediately showed displeasure. Although time would not delay the planting of sugarcane, compared with the mature land, many of his plantations still need to be renovated.

The Dutch merchant was obviously prepared, and he immediately said: "You think this is good. I have fifteen days to deliver this group of black slaves. Let's do this. I will ask my people to take them to your plantation and work for your plantation for 14 days for free.

And you just need to provide some water and food to these black slaves, how about it?”

Little Carlo was very satisfied with the suggestion, so he immediately accepted it.

Little Carlo personally led the slaves to the plantation in eastern Havana, and Dutch businessman Firm also asked his men to take care of the slaves.

The work of land reclamation is very simple, which is to remove weeds and shrubs, dry them and ignite them, and then turn them over. They are all heavy physical work. Little Carlo usually goes to customs to work in the morning and visits his plantation in the afternoon. The progress of land reclamation makes him very satisfied.

Some black slaves were dead, and Film talked about compensation with Little Carlo. Little Carlo didn't want to compensate for a peso. In fact, Philm didn't dare to suppress the deputy customs chief. He just didn't want Little Carlo to kill the black slave.

On the eleventh day, Karlo found that Film was missing and no longer annoyed him in the plantation. He was still a little uncomfortable. He thought Film had gone to the Havana Shipyard to check the repair work of the Pegasus, but after asking several people from the shipyard, they said they had not seen it.

By the fifteenth day, when he was about to hand over the person back, Philm had not appeared yet. Little Carlo thought that something might happen to him, so he immediately sent someone to inquire and found that the last place he appeared was a gift shop. It is said that Philm bought a lot of valuable things, especially a complete set of Chinese porcelain, which seemed to be given to a large plantation owner.

On the 20th day, Carlo had not seen Film yet, and instead felt relaxed. Anyway, black slaves worked for free, and he would not give a penny to the extra days.

It was on this day that Philm appeared, and the black strongman who was more than 200 pounds following him disappeared, and there were some scars on Fellm's face. He appeared in Carlo's office in such a mess, and his spirits were also depressed.

"Felm, are you robbed? Where is your guard Harlan?" Carlo still had a lot of impression of the strongman who was more than 200 pounds. Harlan once threw down a crazy war horse.

Philm sighed: "Hallen is dead, he is beaten to death."

"Is there anything I need to help? You know, I still have some energy in Havana," Carlo asked.

Firm's eyes lit up and said, "Mr. Carlo, if possible, I ask you to buy the black slaves who work for you in the plantation. You only need to give me 80% of the price, no, 70% of the price."

"Did you mess with someone you can't afford to offend?" Carlo didn't expect Film to ask so, and felt that this guy seemed to run away.

"There's something wrong with my business with Lord Rodriguez," Firm said.

When Carlo heard the name, he asked, "Rod of the Town Hall?"

Film nodded and Carlo smiled: "This is easy to deal with. Rhode and I are classmates and friends. When we were at the customs school, we lived in the same dormitory. I will help you mediate, he will not do anything to you."

"Master Carlo, the conflict between us has been resolved. Although I disrespect him, I was beaten, and Harren also paid the price of his life. The contradiction no longer exists, but the black slave business has problems. The black slave who works for you is ordered by Lord Rodriguez, but he...he doesn't want it now." Firm's face was full of sadness, and he didn't know whether it was for his black guard or for the failure of the business.

"Rod doesn't want those black slaves?" Carlo asked again.

Film nodded, and Carlo hesitated because of this.

Rodriguez and Carlo were classmates, and they both had a smooth life after graduation. Carlo relied on a fake aristocratic identity. Although Rodriguez was not from a high school, he had a beautiful face. He conquered the daughter of the Cuban governor in his first year of working in Havana and has since become a prosperous person in Cuba.

Like Carlo, Rodriguez also bought large-scale industries in Cuba, especially plantations. Carlo had long heard that Rodriguez had become a Russian merchant who managed tobacco and tea for the Russian Tsar. The tobacco produced by the Rhodes Plantation had a stable sales channel, and merged or opened up plantations year by year.

Carlo's tobacco plantations maintained profits in the past few years through Rhode's relationship.

Carlo still remembers that at the party last month, Rodriguez also said that he would come forward for his Russian friends to buy two large-tonnage clippers to transport tobacco and sugar imported from Russia from the West Indies. Rod also invited him to open a cigarette factory in Havana, showing a momentum of further commercial expansion.

In this case, Rodriguez should be willing to reject the black slave labor force, why did he suddenly want it?

Firm begged: "This cargo has lost a lot, but now Lord Rodriguez has repented again. Lord Carlo, for many years of cooperation, you must help me."

Carlo had already noticed something was wrong, but he didn't know exactly what was wrong, so he didn't want to agree immediately. It happened that at this time, the officer next to the customs chief came to the office and said that the chief asked Carlo to go to the office.

"Felm, my friend, you have seen it too. I'm very busy now. Why don't you go back and rest first and go to our house to talk tomorrow night, okay?" Carlo said.

Philm could only nod and left sadly.

Carlo, who came to the chief's office, was immediately asked a question by the chief Fei Chengqiu: "Carlo, do you know the Rhodes in the Town Hall?"

"Of course, we are friends, together at the customs school in Mexico City," Carlo replied.

The chief nodded, showed the cigar in his hand and said, "This is the cigar that Rhodes gave me."

Carlo smiled: "In terms of tobacco cultivation, Rhodes' plantations are one of the few good land in Cuba, and the tobacco produced is the best quality."

"Rod said the same thing. He wanted to transfer his two tobacco plantations to me, saying that they were two near the village of Biluca." The general smiled and couldn't see them.

Carlo was shocked because it was the best plantation in Rhodes' hands. Rhodes, who had to expand commercially last month, started to deal with the high-quality assets in his hands this month. What must have happened, it must have been!

At this time, Carlo had no intention of answering the general manager's question. He could only say that he knew nothing about tobacco cultivation and was willing to introduce an experienced person to the general manager.

After leaving the customs building, Carlo did not return to the plantation, but entered his home in the center of Havana. After hesitating for a long time, Carlo decided to visit Rodriguez's house. However, when Carlo rode a horse to the front of the door, he clearly saw the shadow of Rodriguez walking by the window, but his servant told him that his master was not at home.

Carlo was a little at a loss for a moment. Rodriguez probably knew something, so he chose to save his property with a bright future for wealth. Carlo just had some speculations and he was not sure.

At night, Carlo couldn't sleep in the bed, and suddenly the dog in the yard barked. Soon, the servant knocked on the door and said, "Master, Lord Rodriguez is here."

Carlo immediately got up and arrived at the living room before he had time to change his pajamas. Seeing Rodriguez also wearing pajamas, he said helplessly: "I sneaked out after Anna fell asleep. Dear Carlo, don't be busy pouring tea, I'm very nervous."

"I went to your house today, and your servant said you were not at home," said Carlo.

"I haven't been to work for more than twenty days. Anna and his brother have controlled me. I finally got out today. You must have come to me after hearing the news that the customs chief was going to buy my plantation, right?"

Carlo then realized that no wonder his boss, who had always been uninterested in local property purchases, suddenly had the idea of ​​buying a plantation. It turned out that this was Rodriguez's way of contacting him.

"Carlo, you are my friend. I might not have graduated if it weren't for your help. And in Havana, if it weren't for your support, I wouldn't have been able to marry the beautiful Anna, even those love poems were written for me.

You are my most trusted friend, so I can't hide the current situation from you. As you heard, yes, I'm dealing with my assets, which is what my father-in-law meant." Rodriguez said anxiously.

Carlo frowned: "What happened? It's so far. There's no way the Chinese will attack Cuba."

"No, you still remember Lord Antonio who lived in Havana for more than three months last year." Rodriguez asked.

Carlo nodded, of course he remembered that guy, the whole of Havana and even Cuba, would not forget him. It was Antonio who promoted peace between the American colonies and China, and also brought opportunities for trade between the American colonies and China. Both Carlo and Rodriguez should thank Antonio. Without him, there would be no customs school, and there would be no status for the two today. It is precisely because of this that during Antonio's stay in Havana last year, including the two, officials who graduated from the customs school were all attentive to Antonio.

Antonio made a impression not only of his kindness, but also of what he did. During his stay in Cuba, Antonio and his men counted all the local plantations and minerals, as if they were doing paperwork, just counting how many industries this colony had, but soon rumors appeared that Antonio counted these industries and that the king wanted to take back the land.

You should know that the land system adopted by Spain in the Americas is similar to the fief system, which is called the Grand Prix system.

That is, the king grants the land and the indigenous people on the land to conquer meritorious conquerors or nobles who come to manage locally, and these people will become the guardians of the indigenous people on the land.

According to the law, these guardians who have been granted land have the responsibility to protect the indigenous people and to preach the gospel of God to them, while the guardians have to cultivate land, pay taxes and perform labor service for their guardians. In the early days, this great land grant system was restricted. When the guardian dies or returns to the land, the land will be taken back, and at most it will be passed on to another generation. In other words, the ownership of these land belongs to the king, not the guardians who have been granted land.

However, these laws were not well implemented. Many Spanish people who went to the colonies took root and never returned to their home country of Spain. The land granted by the king also became hereditary land, and they were constantly bought, sold and annexed, forming huge plantations. People like Carlo who owned thousands of hectares of land were everywhere in the Spanish colonies. Many large families with a long history owned land comparable to that of a European kingdom.

It is also different in the American continent and the West Indies.

On the American continent, the large manor system was mainly enslaved by the Indians. In the West Indies, as early as the 16th century, all the Indians here died and could only buy black slaves to use them as plantations, thus forming a large plantation system with black slaves as the main body.

But essentially, these lands are theoretically kings.
Chapter completed!