Greece’s Roman Road

After listening to Constantine's purpose, Chester remained silent, picked up the pipe in his right hand, and raised it in front of Constantine.

"It doesn't matter, you can do whatever you want," Constantine said.

Then Chester lit his pipe and took a deep breath.

"Shh..."

The room was filled with smoke and silence.

After smoking a pot of tobacco leaves, Chester said, "So, what can the United States get in return for its support?"

Constantine Constantine said: "I have heard that the racial situation in your country is not optimistic. If the black people in the United States want to return to the land where their ancestors have lived for generations since ancient times, then the Congolese Council will Actively cooperate."

To put it bluntly, if the Americans want to solve the problem of the large number of blacks in the country by moving them back to Africa, then the Congo River Basin, which is controlled by the Congolese Committee, will open its mouth to accept black Americans.

Speaking of which, the solution for black people has been the most troublesome problem for the American elite since the independence of the United States.

The economic system of the American South is a slave plantation economy, while the North is a capitalist industrial and commercial economy.

By the 1860s, this contradiction became increasingly acute and unavoidable.

On the surface, it seems that the North and South of the United States are only in conflict about the abolition of slavery, but in fact, the essence of this contradiction is the contradiction in the choice of the economic system.

The plantations in the southern United States used a lot of cheap black slaves, which made them more inclined to develop the agricultural plantation economy.

The agricultural plantation economy needs to export raw materials to European industrial countries, such as cotton. A large number of cotton in the southern United States is exported to the United Kingdom to earn foreign exchange, which makes cotton exports an important position in the economy of the southern United States.

If we want to maintain such an economy, we need to reduce tariffs by U.S. Customs and import British manufactured goods to complement the British economy.

As for the capitalist industrial and commercial economy of the north, the British Empire, which had completed the Industrial Revolution at that time, had an unprecedented increase in production capacity and high-quality and low-cost commodities.

In order to find a market for goods, the UK advocates free trade and countries to reduce tariffs.

If the policy of low tariffs is adopted, the fragile factories in the north, due to their weak foundation and short development time, will be crowded out by British products, and the development of industry and commerce will be in vain.

This is the source of the conflict between the North and the South.

The slave system became the focus of debate between the two sides. Both the North and the South clearly saw that as long as there were no cheap slaves in the South, the plantation economy would not continue to develop.

Even after the Civil War, although Lincoln issued a declaration of abolition, promising to give black slaves the rights of American citizens, Lincoln was highly praised.

However, the status of blacks is still low, racial discrimination is serious, and the idea of ​​​​removing blacks back to Africa still appears from time to time.

This idea is not just empty talk, the Americans really did it.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the dramatic increase in the number of free blacks in the North caused panic among abolitionists and slaveholders alike.

They are worried that blacks will cause white workers to lose their jobs, that urban crime rates will increase, that free blacks are inciting slave riots in the South, and that they are even worried that "uneducated blacks" will "devalue" American society.

In short, the whole society has formed an atmosphere conducive to the "Black Homesteading": hurry up and send black people where they should go, no matter the cost.

The first person to put this idea into action was Paul Coffey.

Kufei is an ocean-going shipowner with African and Native American ancestry. He is very social, and has many contacts with US congressmen, black leaders and even the British government.

He formulated a plan that seemed feasible: transport black slaves from the southern United States to the British colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa to settle, and then use the original ship to ship local products to the United States for sale. The profits are used to subsidize the cost of transporting black people. proportional distribution.

His plan was quickly taken seriously by all parties.

Originally, the plan of anti-migration of black people went well, and a large number of black people were sent to West Africa.

However, with the increase in the number of blacks, the contradiction between them and the local aborigines has become greater and greater.

On the one hand, black Americans are incompatible with the local aboriginal culture and customs. After years of living in the United States, most of them have embraced Christianity.

On the other hand, the increasing number of black Americans, the demand for resources is increasing day by day, and the settlements have begun to friction and conflict with each other for land and water.

In order to maintain local order, we had to increase investment to maintain local order. Long-distance shipping, large settlement and resettlement costs, and huge military expenditures overwhelmed the finances and made society more and more dissatisfied with it.

In such a situation, both the U.S. government and the American Colonization Association long for a once-and-for-all solution: let the settlements merge into an "independent" country, so that exporting blacks there is not "criminal colonization", It is the normal flow of population between countries.

In 1847, the African country officially became independent, and he was Liberia, which means the land of freedom.

This country has completely copied the political system of the United States, with the separation of powers, the implementation of a presidential system, the Senate and House of Representatives, etc. Part-time jobs are a copy of the United States.

The compensation proposed by Constantine was lip service, but in fact it was impossible for the United States to immigrate blacks to Africa in large numbers.

After the Civil War, the United States has completely abolished slavery, and the basis for a large number of immigrant blacks no longer exists.

Although there is racial discrimination, black people do not want to return to the primitive African society.

Chester certainly understands Constantine's trick~www.wuxiax.com~ But the US does not have a strong voice in Africa, so it is impossible for Greece to pay too much to win over the US.

The reason why Constantine chose the United States as a breakthrough point is precisely because of this.

It is Europe that can really decide where Africa belongs. The worst outcome, even if the Americans do not support it, as long as they do not oppose it.

I didn't expect much effort from them.

"If there are only such conditions, it is impossible for the United States to support the Congolese Commission to manage the Congo River Valley," Chester said bluntly.

"After the Congolese Commission gets the management power, it will adopt a free trade policy, and American goods can enter freely," Constantine sighed in his heart.

Although I knew that sooner or later the trade exclusivity would be given up, it was still frustrating to give up the first diplomatic negotiation.

Although the United States is rich in various industrial resources, there is no shortage of raw materials.

However, as long as the commodity market is a capitalist country, it cannot be rejected. There is no such capitalist who would dislike making too much money.

Thinking about the situation in Greece, it is relieved. Anyway, there are not many industrial products in Greece right now. If the market is not given to the Americans, it will be owned by others.

"Wow," Chester was very satisfied after hearing this condition.

The Congo River Basin covers a vast area, with more than 2 million square kilometers and nearly 20 million black people. Although they are all primitive tribal residents, the market value is not high, but it is also a considerable market.

The United States, which is in the Gilded Age, has protected its domestic industry and commerce through the policy of high tariffs. Its production capacity has grown rapidly, and factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

A large number of commodities also need more markets to digest.

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