Chapter 30 Conditions

　　After hearing Constantine's purpose, Chester was silent, took the pipe in his right hand, and raised it in front of Constantine.

　　"It's okay, you can do whatever you want," Constantine said.

　　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 opened his mouth; "So, what return can the U.S. support get?"

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

　　To put it bluntly, if the Americans want to solve the problem of the large number of black people in the country by moving back to Africa, then the Congo River Basin controlled by the Congo Committee will open up openings to admit black Americans.

　　Speaking of which, the solution for blacks 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 slavery 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 contradicting the issue of the abolition of slavery, but in fact, the essence of this contradiction is the contradiction in the choice of the economic system's route.

　　The plantations in the southern United States used a large number of cheap black slaves. This feature made them more inclined to develop the agricultural plantation economy.

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

　　If such an economy is to be maintained, it is necessary for the US Customs to reduce tariffs and import British industrial products to complement the British economy.

　　The northern capitalist industrial and commercial economy, the British Empire, which had completed the industrial revolution at that time, had unprecedented production capacity and high-quality goods at low prices.

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

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

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

　　And slavery became the focus of dispute between the two sides. Both the North and the South saw it very clearly that as long as there were no cheap slaves in the South, the plantation economy would not be able to continue to develop.

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

　　But the status of blacks is still inferior, racial discrimination is serious, and the idea of ​​relocating blacks to Africa still appears frequently.

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

　　At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the number of free blacks in the north increased dramatically, which caused a common panic among abolitionists and slaveholders.

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

　　In short, the whole society has formed an atmosphere conducive to the "black homeland faction": hurry up and send black people where they should go, no matter how much it costs.

　　The first to put this idea into action was Paul Kufi.

　　Kufi is an ocean-going shipowner with African and Native American ancestry. He has a lot of contacts with members of the United States Congress, black leaders and even the British government.

　　He formulated a plan that seemed feasible: transport black slaves from the south of the 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 profit was used to cover the cost of transporting blacks. Proportional distribution.

　　His plan quickly received attention from all parties.

　　The plan to relocate the blacks was carried out very smoothly, and a large number of blacks were sent to West Africa.

　　However, with the increase in the number of blacks, the contradiction between them and the local aborigines is getting bigger and bigger.

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

　　On the other hand, there is an increasing number of African Americans whose demand for resources is increasing day by day. The settlements are competing for land and water sources, and frictions and conflicts have begun to occur with each other.

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

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

　　This African country officially became independent in 1847, and he was Liberia, which means a free country.

　　This country completely copied the political system of the United States,

The separation of powers, the implementation of a presidential system, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Congress, etc., part-time job is a copy of the United States.

　　The remuneration proposed by Constantine was lip service without expense. In fact, it is no longer possible for the United States to emigrate large numbers of blacks to Africa.

　　After the Civil War, the United States had completely abolished slavery, and the basis for a large number of black immigrants no longer existed.

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

　　Of course, Chester also understands Constantine's tricks. However, the United States does not have a strong voice in Africa, so it is impossible for Greece to pay too much in order to win over the United States.

　　Constantine chose the United States as a breakthrough point because of this.

　　It is Europe that can really determine Africa's ownership. In the worst case, even if the Americans do not support it, as long as they do not oppose it.

　　I didn't expect them to exert much effort.

　　"If there are only such conditions, it would be impossible for the United States to support the Congolese Commission to manage the Congo River region," Chester said unceremoniously.

　　"After the Congolese Commission obtains the management power, it will adopt a free trade policy and American products can enter freely," Constantine sighed.

　　Although we know that we will give up trade exclusivity sooner or later, it is still depressing to give up the first stop of diplomatic negotiations.

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

But the commodity market cannot be rejected as long as it is a capitalist country, and no capitalist will dislike making too much money.

　　Thinking about the situation in Greece, it is relieved. Anyway, there are no industrial products that can be obtained in Greece. The market will not be given to Americans and will be owned by others.

　　"Woo", Chester was still satisfied with this condition.

　　The Congo River Basin has a vast area, more than 2 million square kilometers, and nearly 20 million black people. Although they are primitive tribesmen and their market value is not high, they are still a considerable market.

　　The United States, which is in the Gilded Age, has protected domestic industry and commerce through high-tariff policies. Production capacity has grown rapidly, and factories have sprung up.

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