Since Sir Redondo came to the back door, he naturally did not want to bid with the bid as stupid as most people. Because that was too expensive and it might not be possible to be auctioned.
So, he came directly to the official Marin. Anyway, Marin had thousands of pieces of porcelain in his hand to drink more silk, and it was cheaper (compared to the auction price) to deal with some for him, mainly for the Duke of Coimbra behind him, which could still be done.
In particular, while still asking Duke Coimbra to buy black slaves, Marin had to consider giving Duke Coimbra a face...
Of course, since he came to the back door, Redondo naturally did not come empty-handed, but brought a lot of gifts.
These gifts are all African specialties. After all, Portugal colonized Africa and could easily obtain a lot of local specialties from Africa. Moreover, the cost is not high. However, if you get it to Europe, it is a rare thing.
For example, diamonds are a gift gift that cannot be escaped. This thing was picked up by the native Africans and then used it to exchange it with Portuguese colonial merchants for valuable glass beads and other items.
Transparent diamonds, also known as the legendary diamond, are of high value and can be used to create expensive jewelry. The turbid diamonds are not that valuable, but they are also rare. Just like the handful of diamonds given to Marin by Redondo, they are not big and have not been processed. Some diamonds have sharp tips, which are not suitable for jewelry.
But Marin was very satisfied with these small diamonds with pointed tips. Why? Because as long as these small diamonds are made with a suitable fixture, they can be used to carve the rifle in the barrel. The diamond is so hard, it is most suitable for this kind of work. Although Marin does not plan to launch Minni rifles and Minni bullets at present, it must be launched before the religious war. It is still necessary to get some diamonds suitable for carving rifles.
In addition to ordinary-grade diamonds, Redondo also brought a lot of ivory products, gum arabic, rhinoceros horn products and a bundle of elephant skins...
Marin was not interested in ivory products. Because he had seen too much hard white plastic in his previous life, he didn't have much surprise for the same white ivory.
As for gum arabic, Marin remembers that this seems to be a very good food viscous additive, and it is natural and harmless. Also, it seems to be used as an anti-oxidation coating for printing boards. It seems that it is still useful...
As for rhinoceros horns, like ivory, Marin is not interested in it. And the thick and soft elephant skin, Marin doesn’t know what it is for...
"This is the elephant's skin, although thick, it is relatively soft. Therefore, it can be used to make leather cushions for tables and chairs. At the same time, it can also be used to make good saddles..." Redondo explained.
But somehow, Malin suddenly remembered a public service advertisement made by Yao Ming in his previous life - without a business, there was no killing...
Marin shook his head vigorously and drove Yao Yao's advertisement content out of his brain. Why? Because these days, African old blacks do not have the weapon to hunt wild animals such as hunting rifles, so the old blacks can't deal with pachy skin animals such as elephants and rhinos. Therefore, animals such as elephants and rhinos should not be endangered at this time.
After asking, Redondo indeed gave an answer that fits Marin's guess:
"You said how did the black natives kill elephants? In fact, the elephant skin did not come from the elephants they hunted, but from elephants who died of old age and illness. Otherwise, with their weapons, they would not be able to break such thick elephant skins. As for the number of elephants and rhinos? I heard from the local chief that the grassland is full of... and it is very difficult to mess with..."
Marin's expression suddenly became strange. He clearly remembered that in his previous life, the black rhinoceros in West Africa had become extinct in the past few years. Unexpectedly, these days, there were actually everywhere on the grasslands...
No wonder, the old blacks in later generations had AK47 (war-torn countries), so hunting rhinos and other things was naturally extremely easy. But in this era, the blacks in West Africa had no weapons that could break the rhino and elephant skins. Because many of the weapons used by the blacks in West Africa were stone tools.
In fact, the Mali Empire and the Sanhai Empire in West Africa both had metal weapons. However, those metal weapons were controlled by the official. Because West Africa does not produce metals such as copper and iron, the required metals are generally exchanged for foreign merchants at trade centers such as Timbuktu. Metal trade is generally controlled by the king, and metal weapons are also distributed by the king.
But the kings, nobles and armies of the Mali Empire were generally located in the territory of Mali in later generations. As for the coast of West Africa that the Portuguese contacted, they actually belonged to the remote areas of the Mali Empire. Therefore, the local chiefs naturally could not allocate any metal weapons.
But the chiefs on the coast of West Africa had trade with the Portuguese, and they could switch metal weapons from the Portuguese, but not many. Moreover, even ordinary metal weapons may not be able to break the thick skin of rhinos. If they cannot kill rhinos or elephants, they will be angered, but they will be killed...
Therefore, although there are many elephants and rhinos on the West African savannah at this time, the old and black people have no choice. At most, they can find rhinos and elephants that die of old or sickness to get cheap. Of course, there are also some fierce people who can hunt rhinos and elephants. However, there are fewer such powerful generals. Moreover, they must be equipped with metal weapons.
"They don't know how to drive the rhino into the pit dug and starve to death?" Marin was stunned. Hunting elephants and rhinos, using cold weapons... It's very dying... You know, the crazy male elephants and rhinos are like tanks...
Redondo shrugged and said:
"Who knows? If those black natives knew to hunt prey with their brains, maybe they could use their brains to smel out metals without having to trade with us."
Marin nodded, recognizing Redondo's words. If those black uncles were willing to use their brains, they would definitely not be able to develop in the 21st century. Anyway, for the old blacks, they would never use their brains. Therefore, they could easily become athletes, but they were not easy to become scientists. Sports athletes could not make the country stronger, so there were many African stars, but the country was poor and backward.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Suddenly, Marin said:
"What if I wanted to make rhinoceros leather armor?"
Malin was a college student majoring in history in his previous life, so he naturally knew history. In Chinese history, rhinoceros leather armor was a very important armor. Especially in the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, rhinoceros leather armor was quite popular and had very good protection.
That's because during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there were many wild rhinos in China. In ancient China, wars were frequent, especially during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, there were many large-scale wars. In order to provide enough armor for the army, people at that time hunted rhinos on a large scale, which directly led to the extinction of rhinos in the Central Plains.
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Wu Kingdom in the south had abundant rhino resources and very well-made armor. At that time, King Fuchai of Wu had 103,000 soldiers wearing rhino armor, and led his troops north to the alliance to fight to become the leader.
The rhinoceros leather armor cannot be cut by a knife and cannot be penetrated by arrows. It was the best leather armor at that time. However, the Central Plains countries had no rhinos to hunt at that time, so naturally there was no rhinoceros to hunt. Therefore, the Wu army was quite arrogant at that time, and directly destroyed the Chu State in stages under the leadership of the great military strategist Sun Wu, and even fought to be the leader.
However, Fuchai led his troops north to the alliance. His hometown in Jiangnan was empty and the insidious Goujian took the opportunity to demolish the hometown base. Fuchai lost his rear and had to GG...
By the way, the Yue Kingdom was still in the south of Wu Kingdom at that time, and there were no shortage of rhinoceros, and there were also many rhinoceros soldiers...
...
But in ancient China, wars continued, and the amount of rhinoceros skin was also very large. Then, more rhinos died tragically...
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, only the Southern Dynasties that occupied the south could still obtain a large amount of rhinoceros armor. For example, during the Southern Qi period, there were records that the elite troops of the Southern Qi at that time "all wore rhinoceros armor, and swords could not be injured." But after that, there was no legend of a built-in army wearing rhinoceros armor.
During the Tang Dynasty, the Tang army's leather armor was not made of rhinoceros skin, nor was it made of cow skin (at that time, it was forbidden to kill cow skin, so there was definitely not enough cow skin), but camel skin. As for the effect, it would definitely not be as good as the authentic rhinoceros skin.
When the Tang Dynasty army heard that the army of the young people in the southwest equipped rhinoceros leather on a large scale, it was so terrifying - it was such a rich man, more luxurious than our Tang army... In fact, it was just because there were still many rhinos in the southwest at that time...
...
Redondo doesn't understand Marin's desire to make rhinoceros leather armor. Because, plate armor is now popular in Europe, why do you still need something like leather armor? Even if the rhinoceros leather is thick, it is not as strong as plate armor made of steel...
He hesitated for a while and said:
"Our Duke may not interfere in the trade of rhino leather. Because rhino leather can only be used as armor. But, you know, now there are plate armor, and leather armor has no sales at all. Therefore, our Duke is not willing to open up this path."
After a pause, Redondo said:
"And even if the black people in West Africa used traps to kill the rhino, they did not have a sharp steel knife to cut the rhino's skin..."
Chapter completed!