Chapter 1,385 The third 'close' contact, the arms trade and the undercurrent!
At the Portuguese fleet meeting on this day, an agreement was reached during the long discussion. First, the fleet must replenish food and prepare for return.
Secondly, in addition to the weapons used by the crew, all "spare military goods" can be traded with the natives. The two ships have a total of 40 standard scimitars, 10 matchlock guns, 10 breastplates, and 1 two-pound cannon.
, 2 barrels of sealed gunpowder. All goods are sold at ten times the price! A scimitar is 1 gold per piece, a matchlock is 10 gold per piece, a breastplate is 20 gold per pair, a two-pounder cannon is 200 gold per piece, and a barrel of gunpowder is 2 gold per piece. And
Taken together, that’s at least 544 gold ducats, which is an astonishing 2 kilograms of gold!
Of course, the natives may not have so much gold. If they provide pearls, spices, and dyes, the fleet can also accept it. It just needs to be sold again, which is more troublesome to cash out, and is far inferior to hard currency gold.
All the gold exchanged will be distributed according to the cargo taken out by each ship. From each ship, 3-4% will be left to the palace steward and the Portuguese royal family, that is, to the superiors. The remaining 2-3% will be taken by the captain alone.
, the remaining 40% will be divided equally among the crew members according to their number. An important crew member will be counted as two people, and an ordinary sailor will only have one share. As for the crew members who participated in the native trade, two more people will be counted in the income distribution on that day.
share…
All in all, the Portuguese navy has been sailing "trade" for many years, and it is quite sophisticated and fair in the distribution of profits! At least, their captain will not monopolize too many spoils like Columbus, which will cause extreme dissatisfaction among the sailors and even lead to rebellion.
!
After all, the European sailors risked their lives, were not afraid of death in storms, and were not even afraid of the terrible consequences of the "corruption" of their souls... They resolutely went to sea with the fleet, wasn't it just for the wealth? Could it be that it was also for the Lord?
Glory?...Well, that's right. After all, the church's priests are all obsessed with money, and indulgences are becoming very popular at this time, almost to the extreme!
According to the current price of indulgences, "murder" can be saved with 8 gold coins. "Murder of blood relatives" can be saved with an additional 6 gold coins. "rape" can be saved with 6 gold coins. And various other crimes can be saved with money.
To atone for sin.
According to the priests, this is because "Jesus and the saints" have nearly unlimited merits. And the right to use their merits is in the hands of the "Shepherd of the Lord", the church. When believers purchase "Atonement"
After "voucher", the church priest hooked his finger, and the merits of the Son and the saints were released, instantly completely canceling out the sins of you and your ancestors! This is the source of the famous saying that has been passed down to later generations, "Silver coins jingle into the bottom of the box."
, the soul jumps out of purgatory”!…
In such a greedy and degenerate religious atmosphere, wealth is naturally directly equated with piety. Right now, wealth is truly everything, and it is the "salvation" that the entire God's world desperately longs for! Shining gold is the most sacred
The wealth is the extreme greed and desire of the people of God from the heart! No matter how cruel and despicable their methods of obtaining gold are, and how contrary to the doctrine, as long as they have gold, they can easily atone for their sins!
"Damn it, why are you in such a hurry? You haven't completely obtained the gold yet, but you are starting to discuss how to spend money to be happy! Send people off the ship first and tell the natives here about the 'goods' we can trade! Take a look.
, how much gold can they come up with?…May God bless you!”
In order to worry that the natives would not be able to understand the goods being traded, the sailor officers who disembarked specially brought samples and intimately demonstrated the shooting of matchlocks and, oh no, the "Thunder Small Magical Weapon". Seeing the enthusiasm shown by the natives
Shocked, quartermaster Mattim smiled in his heart, but it didn't show on his face at all. He just sold weapons to the natives. As for whether the other party would use them, it had nothing to do with him. It would be better if he didn't use them! Who knows the next time the fleet
What will happen next?…
"Ah! The quartermaster... they said... they said... they want these samples! According to the price offered by the fleet... and they also want all the weapons, armor, and magic weapons listed on the ship! It's just that
It will take a day or two to raise some gold and transport it from various tribes!…”
"Lord! This is really, really a rich tribe of natives!"
Without the need for a translator, Quartermaster Mattim also understood the native's answer. More than a hundred grams of placer gold was handed directly into his hands, and he just weighed it and determined that the weight was definitely 31 gold dummies.
Carter, I estimate that I have 40 of them! Counting the refined leather armor traded this morning, I got more than 300 grams of gold from the natives today!
On the other side, several native militiamen received three samples, a scimitar, a matchlock gun, and a pair of breastplates. The militiamen holding the breastplate looked at it very carefully and touched the solid chest steel plate.
He touched it again and again, with a serious look on his face, obviously thoughtful. Soon, he looked at the white-skinned demon opposite, and saw the bearded officer, excitedly holding the translator Shushu, holding the gold in his hand.
, has already gone to the ship!
The transaction on the third day was delayed very slowly. The gold from the large tribe of natives seemed to arrive in batches. Their transactions with the fleet were also carried out in batches. The natives first took out 700 grams of gold and
The remaining 9 pairs of breastplates were exchanged first. Then, more than 300 grams of gold were given, and the remaining 9 matchlock guns and 19 sailor scimitars were taken away.
According to the rules, these more than 1,000 grams of gold were divided equally between the two ships that provided the goods, with each ship sharing more than 500! When a full kilogram of gold was transported to the flagship, all the sailors celebrated excitedly
! They have calculated clearly that this is a huge sum of 150 gold ducats, and excluding the royal family and the captain’s share, everyone can get at least 3 gold coins in their hands! Everyone!
"Strange! The natives here seem to value armor the most, followed by matchlocks, and lastly machetes? But in the southern continent, the native tribes there like weapons most, and armor second?..."
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! On the whole celebrating ship, only scholar Martin frowned, took out a quill, and recorded the native intelligence of this "big island of Haiti". He was not
He who is short of money is also used to seeing gold coins. The income from these few gold ducats does not interest him in the novel local style. And these days, he has been observing and recording these, preparing to compile them into travel notes in the future.
Leave another classic that has been passed down by the family...
Boatswain Harold smiled and came over to take a few sneak peeks. He was relieved after confirming that Scholar Martin did not keep any private accounts of the fleet trade, but simply recording local customs and customs. Even if he is as wise as Scholar Martin, he would not
It would risk the taboo of the entire fleet. Otherwise, the consequences would be to prevent everyone from getting rich... Tsk! That would be really ugly. In such a deep-sea foreign land far away from order, nobility status is useless!
After the transaction of these easy-to-carry military supplies was completed, the fourth day of the trade was the highlight. Knight Silvera personally took his deputy and transported a 2-pound iron cannon off the ship, along with a barrel of gunpowder.
The natives on the opposite side sent out several militiamen to carefully inspect the "grey thunder weapon". This "magic weapon" turned out to be not made of copper, but a large, slender iron cylinder. But
Isn’t iron always brittle and prone to blisters? Can cannons be made of iron?…
"boom!…"
“Click!…”
The iron bullets shot out with a bang, breaking off the branches of a small tree as big as a bowl. The demonstration shooting by the sailors of the fleet proved that iron can not only cast cannons, but also cast extremely well! And when the sailors' faces
Looking forward to it, he sent a barrel of gunpowder and looked at the frightened native man. The other person didn't come back to his senses for a long time, and even trembled with fear!
Fortunately, none of the Portuguese sailors present understood the Taino language spoken by the natives. The only one who understood lowered his head and said nothing. However, a native warrior wearing leather armor stepped forward in time.
, took out a bag of placer gold that had been prepared and poured it on a sheepskin paved on the beach.
"Yellow stone...trade...yours!..."
The shining golden light instantly attracted the attention of all the sailors. And the small pile of placer gold was the agreed 200 gold ducats, or even more!
"Ahaha! This cannon was taken from my ship! So these more than 200 gold ducats belong to our ship!... Come, come and check the quality of the gold with me!..."
Knight Silvera laughed loudly, holding the Knight's Cross sword, and walked to the gold. He proudly picked up the sheepskin containing placer gold in his hand, facing the sun one by one, and carefully inspecting the quality. And several sailors
All eyes were focused on him, on the dazzling golden light in his hands!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the guide Shushu was finally able to move a few steps silently. And the ordinary militiaman also came closer. The militiaman lowered his head, as if looking at the sand on the ground, and spoke softly.
"God bless you!"
"Huitziloppo bless you!"
"Where does your ship anchor at night?..."
"Ah? The location of the boat... uh... from here to the north, no, to the northwest! Rowing takes about half a day, while sailing is very fast..."
"Northwest? Boating for half a day?...How far is it exactly?..."
"Yes! It's northwest, not docking. The specific distance... sometimes it's half a league, sometimes it's one league... In addition, they are very vigilant at night and will extinguish the torches on the ship..."
"Put out the torch? One league?...Hmm...Is it ten miles?..."
"It seems, yes, almost..."
“Potato!!…”
While the two were talking, Boatswain Haroldo looked at him with a sharp look. He silently held down the scimitar at his waist and strode towards Sushu. Then, he squinted and looked at his appearance.
The Taino militiamen, who looked ordinary and fearful, looked at the guide Sushu, who looked nervous and timid, and asked with some dissatisfaction.
"Shushu, you and this native are talking together, what are you talking about?!..."
