Chapter 32

On June 10, 1632, the 1,000 acres of farmland in the Dinyuan Fort Reclamation Area's First Production Team achieved a tremendous harvest, with over 900 tons of potatoes stored in the East Shore Company's grain warehouse. This batch of potatoes was enough to feed everyone for half a year, and the looming shadow of food shortages finally dissipated temporarily.

To celebrate this, the Executive Committee organized a grand celebration and designated June 10th as the Harvest Festival every year.

Blanco Sosa de Almeida and his entourage walked through the bustling crowd, where the streets were filled with revelers. A few rough Germans sat at small tables by the roadside, drinking unknown strong liquor from small wooden barrels and talking loudly as if no one else was around.

At the street corner, it seemed that free food was being distributed, and a large crowd gathered there. Several police officers in black uniforms maintained order, wearing copper whistles around their necks and carrying short sticks on their belts. Even the most uncouth Irishmen became well-behaved when they saw them.

As the most learned scholar in São Vicente, Blanco found many interesting things. The passersby on the street clearly came from many different countries, with the most being Germans, followed by Czechs, Norwegians, Finns, and Irish. This could be heard from the languages they used when talking to each other. The language used between people from different countries seemed to be a unique one. Blanco felt a bit ashamed as he couldn't identify which ethnic group or country it belonged to, perhaps it was Tartan?

However, Father Simão Pereira da Silva from the Jesuit Order had a different opinion. He believed that this language was very similar to the language used in the Eastern Ming Empire. Father Simão, who had spent many years in Macau, was proficient in the Ming script and spoke fluent southern dialects of the Ming region, making his words highly credible.

Moreover, he soon found evidence to support his argument. At the intersection ahead, there was a row of newly built Eastern-style red brick and green tile houses. A wooden sign hung under the eaves of one of the houses, with a row of characters written in some black dye.

"What does it say?" Blanco asked Father Simão.

"Supply... and... Sales... Cooperative." Father Simão looked puzzled, recognizing each character but having no idea what they meant together.

"Perhaps it's a store," Father Simão said uncertainly after a moment.

"Let's go and see," Blanco turned and said, "Ricardo, Carlos, let's go together, maybe we'll find something new."

The four crossed the intersection and entered the "Supply and Sales Cooperative." The clerk looked at the four well-dressed men with slight surprise. However, she was only slightly surprised, as the dock often had ships from various countries, and rough sailors, well-dressed gentlemen, and even beautiful ladies would visit the city during their stopovers. She had seen many different types of people, and this combination of gentlemen, priests, merchants, and officers, though uncommon, did not pique her interest much.

The store was not very large. A long counter was placed at the entrance, and several shelves were lined up against the wall behind it. The variety of goods on the shelves was not very extensive. Blanco approached the central shelf facing the door and saw mostly common European goods such as cotton, linen, alcohol, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Blanco judged that the salt was probably produced by the Tartans, while the rest were likely imported from Europe.

A clinking sound came from the left, and Blanco turned to see Captain Ricardo pulling out a military knife from the left shelf.

The noise caught the attention of two guards inside, each carrying a matchlock gun and a similar military knife on their belts. The clerk also approached, hesitating, perhaps unsure of what language to use to communicate with them.

"Good day, sir. Can I help you with anything?" Alessia Bastien asked carefully in French, hoping these four customers, who seemed to be Spanish, could understand French.

"Good day, beautiful lady," Captain Ricardo replied, "I just wanted to try out this sharp military knife. I apologize for the disturbance."

"Sir, this military knife is forged from high-quality steel, superior to similar knives, and very suitable for you," Alessia said skillfully. "Trust me, whether on the battlefield or in a duel, it is a reliable companion. In fact, we have sold over 1,000 of these knives. In Sweden, Russia, and Brandenburg, our military knives are synonymous with reliability."

Ricardo pondered for a moment, stroking the inscription on the blade, and asked, "How much does this military knife cost?"

"2 yuan and 50 cents, sir," Alessia replied immediately, "Do you need it?"

"Yes, I need it," Captain Ricardo paid and hung the knife on his belt. He had exchanged some Tartan currency at the dock and knew that 2 yuan and 50 cents was equivalent to 20 Spanish reals. The price was neither particularly expensive nor cheap, but Ricardo really liked the knife; men always needed some special toys.

"Sir, do you need to look at anything else?" Alessia, having made a sale, began to promote other items, "Our tools and farming implements produced by the East Shore Company are also excellent. Please look below; shovels, sickles, picks, forks, axes, nails, hammers, butchering knives, and more are all made from high-quality steel and are very affordable."

Ricardo did not speak, but Blanco looked over. It was well known that the mother country strictly limited the industrial development of the colonies. They annually transported various living and production materials from the homeland to the colonies at high prices and then transported colonial products such as cotton, sugar, cocoa, and coffee back to the homeland for sale, earning huge profits.

In the first half of the 17th century, Brazil's main export products, besides Brazilwood, were plantation crops like sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo, or livestock products like leather, tallow, horse (cattle) hair, horns, furs, feathers, and sweet wine. Correspondingly, Brazil's imports were mainly vinegar, ironware, linen, cotton, silk, medicine, oil, hats, wine, cured ham, and machinery, primarily from Portugal.

From this, it was clear that the colonies exported large quantities of primary agricultural and livestock products and imported production tools and consumer goods. Due to trade monopolies, the Brazilian-born plantation and livestock nobles lost a significant amount of profit each year, making them extremely angry with the Portuguese merchants in the big cities, yet they were helpless and had to rely on them.

Blanco Sosa de Almeida, as the son of a "sugar noble" plantation owner in southern Brazil, was well aware of this situation. Now, seeing the Tartans' wide range of farming tools and hardware, he had an idea. If their production was sufficient, he could smuggle them back to Brazil through his family's ships, either for personal use or for resale, ensuring a profit.

Moreover, the Tartans seemed to lack the abundant livestock products and economic crops like sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo that Brazil had in excess, making the economic complementarity between the two sides very strong. With this in mind, Blanco remained calm on the surface but had his own thoughts.

After looking around for a while and finding nothing new, the four left the store. They had already asked for directions to their destination, so they headed straight there.

Walking north along the crossroad for a few minutes and passing two waves of celebratory crowds, they arrived at a three-story red brick building with a wall. This was the tallest building in the city and the only high-rise, made of red bricks and cement prefabricated panels, resembling the rural buildings commonly seen in China in the early 1990s.

This was the newly built Executive Committee administrative building. After the original wooden office was demolished, the construction company built this building on the same site, using the latest steel-reinforced cement prefabricated panels from the brick kiln and cement prefabricated panel factory. The building had three floors and eighteen rooms, housing almost all the administrative institutions of the穿越者.

At the entrance to the wall, a squad of 8 police officers from the Internal Affairs Department was stationed, and there were three more squads of 24 police officers inside, making it a heavily guarded area. There was a reception room at the entrance, where a穿越者was working, accompanied by a translator.

The translator was a Frenchman who, after listening to Blanco's introduction, repeated it in English to the穿越者.

"You say you are from Brazil and have come to purchase weapons and equipment?" Li Le asked, "What kind of equipment do you want to buy?"

"We need your high-quality plate armor, powerful and portable cannons, and, of course, sharp military knives," Blanco said, "I have the authorization of the Governor of Bahia, and we can establish a long-term partnership."

"I can't make that decision," Li Le took out a piece of paper, wrote a few lines, and said, "The sale of plate armor and cannons requires the joint approval of the Army Committee, Navy Committee, and Materials Committee. Unfortunately, they are all attending the celebration ceremony to the west today. Here, take this form to the port authority upstream of the dam, and they will arrange for you to take a boat to your destination. Go quickly!"

Blanco and his three companions had no choice but to take the form and find the port authority in the city. A "Tartan" official at the port authority carefully checked the form, added a few lines, and handed it back to Blanco, instructing him to pass it to the next official he encountered. After collecting a ten-cent boat fare from each of them, he arranged for them to board a small wooden river boat carrying supplies to the First Production Team of the Reclamation Area.