Chapter 35 Slave Market
Entering the Nolan City Gate, Richard first showed his noble coat of arms to the city defense officer.
Seeing that he was the son of a noble baron in the north, the city defense officer was very polite. After carefully checking the luggage of Richard and others, he gave Richard a customs clearance document.
When he arrived at Nolan City, Richard first found a large hotel to accommodate everyone. Then I found out the location of the slave market from the innkeeper.
The slave market is located outside the south city. It is large but messy.
The planning was not very good and the sanitary conditions were very poor. The stench was overwhelming, with human and horse excrement everywhere.
Many slaves behave very insensitively and seem to have no sense of shame.
Richard saw some female slaves defecating everywhere, not caring about other people's eyes, and even exposing their private parts.
The strong slave was displayed in the most conspicuous place, and some guests went up to open the slave's teeth to check the slave's health.
Richard frowned and walked around holding his breath to roughly find out the price of the slave.
A strong young male slave costs about twenty gold coins.
The price of a strong young female slave is about twelve gold coins.
Slaves over thirty years old will have some health problems, and the price will be half cheaper. Elderly slaves who are over forty years old are just like underage children, and their price ranges from one to two gold coins.
The prices of warriors, veterinarians, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers and other craftsmen were higher than those of slaves in their prime.
Beautiful female slaves will basically not appear in the slave market. Such precious slaves will basically appear in high-end places such as auctions and trade fairs.
In the slave market, professional indentured servants are also provided.
Indentured servants were different from ordinary slaves. To purchase such an indentured slave, you need to discuss the indentured slave's treatment in advance and then sign a contract, which is more similar to hiring services.
Upon expiration of the term of service, the indentured servant was freed.
These contract slaves are basically captured officers, caravan guards, mercenary group mercenaries, hunters, adventurers, etc. Without family members to pay the ransom, they were reduced to the slave market and became indentured servants.
In the slave market, every indentured slave is in high demand, and the price is very high. A ten-year contract for a third-level professional can even reach about three hundred gold coins.
Such a high price made Richard feel dumbfounded and in a daze.
This time when he came to the royal capital, Richard brought a lot of gold coins.
In order to buy enough people, the Haaland family tried their best to raise funds.
Many assets in Black River Castle were sold, including the waterwheel mill run by his stepmother, Mrs. Ola, and a farm of dozens of acres. Mrs. Ola even spent all her personal money to get this amount of funds together.
Mrs. Ola came from a business family and still ran many businesses after marrying William. His brother Rand Marsal ran a grain store business and purchased a large farm near Black River Fort, and his assets were quite substantial.
It was also in order to preserve his wealth and find a backer for himself that Rand married his young sister to William, a widower.
Now William strives to become a hereditary baron, and Mrs. Ola's children have also become nobles.
In the Grant Kingdom, there is a huge difference between the nobles and the common people.
The laws of the kingdom expressly stipulate that judges, prosecutors, auditors, and senior civil servants in counties and towns can only be selected from the nobility.
Once you become a noble, you are legally regarded as the master and ruler of this country. Only when you hold important positions can you have a bright future in life.
For ordinary people who want to become nobles, there is only one channel in the Grant Kingdom, which is to obtain military titles through war and change the fate of their families.
Even if Mrs. Ola's children cannot inherit the title, William will arrange a good future for them.
This time Richard went to Nolan, and Mrs. Ola's brother Rand also took out a thousand gold coins and lent it to the Harland family. Plus the money accumulated by Powell, William and others over the years. In addition, Richard's uncle Soros used his own property to guarantee a loan of 2,000 gold coins from the mercenary union for the Harland family.
When Richard came to the royal capital this time, he brought with him the working capital accumulated by two generations of the Harland family over the past twenty years, totaling 9,600 gold coins.
This also includes a debt of approximately 4,000 gold coins.
Richard found one of the largest slave merchants and gave his seal to the slave merchant.
The seal is a token of nobility, with Richard's name engraved on the front and the coat of arms of the Harland family on the back.
After becoming a hereditary noble, you must have a noble badge.
The Haaland family coat of arms depicts a majestic knight wielding a spear and riding an iron horned horse.
The knight's appearance has many similarities with William. Seeing this coat of arms, you can know part of the Harland family.
The Harland family has just been knighted. Except for scholars who specialize in the study of emblems, most ordinary people in the Grant Kingdom are not familiar with this emblem.
"Is the young master's family a new noble in the north? Does it come from the territory directly under the royal family or the Dukedom of Jonathan? My name is Smail, and I come from the Dukedom of Guise in the west. My great-grandfather is also a hereditary noble." Discovering that Richard is a hereditary noble
, The slave merchant Miles was very polite and greeted Richard warmly. However, he still wanted to use clichés in his words and wanted to find out the details of Richard.
During this time of the orc invasion, the Kingdom of Grant only granted four hereditary barons.
One is an ordinary military noble, the other is the famous Baron Harden in Gascoigne Province, and the other two are the sons of Duke Jonathan, which can be regarded as a branch of Duke Jonathan.
The influence of these three companies is almost completely different in Nolan. Although Richard is young, he will not take advantage of others and pretend to be a member of Duke Jonathan's family.
By doing such a thing, not only did he lose his noble status, but he also became the laughingstock of the Grant Kingdom and brought shame to the honor of the Harland family.
When the time comes, it can also become a big trouble. Maybe Duke Jonathan would regard this kind of thing as a joke and not pursue it. But the Harland family simply couldn't afford to owe a favor to a great noble.
"My name is Richard, and I come from the Harland family in the territory directly under the royal family. Our family has just been promoted to hereditary nobles, and I want to buy some slaves from the royal capital to develop the territory. Mr. Byers, you are the largest slave merchant here. Do you have enough slaves?"
"I am not the largest slave merchant in the royal capital. The largest slave merchant here is the military department. Next, several big nobles have slave trading caravans, and their scale is much larger than mine. I
have The total number of slaves there is only more than 300, and they are slaves captured from the Kingdom of Delon by the Duke of Guise." The Duke of Guise
is located in the southwest of the Kingdom of Grant, bordering the Kingdom of Delon.
Because the northern border of Grant Kingdom lacked population all year round, there was a large market for the slave trade.
The market size is large, and the profits will certainly not be small. Citizens within the kingdom cannot be arrested, and slave traders can only go to nearby kingdoms to do evil.
Moreover, the Kingdom of Delon has a territorial dispute with the Kingdom of Grant, and the Duke of Guise has a feud with Marquis Hubble and Marquis Isaac of the Kingdom of Delon.
Although the war on the southwest border is not as large-scale and intense as the war on the northern border, there have always been fierce conflicts.
Especially with the development of the northern border of Grant Kingdom in the past hundred years, the Duke of Guise crosses the border almost every year to capture slaves from Delon Kingdom.
The Dukes of Guise were once a hereditary ducal family of the Kingdom of Delon. Due to a civil strife in the Kingdom of Delon, the Duke of Guise failed to take sides. In order to avoid being liquidated, he joined the Kingdom of Grant and became a great nobleman of the Kingdom of Grant.
Capturing slaves has become a very important income for the Duke of Guise.
In the outside world, the Duke of Guise is even called the Slave Duke. The vassals of the Duke of Guise all followed the Duke in the slave trade.
Most of the owners behind the merchants in the slave market of the royal capital are nobles of the Duke of Guise.
(End of chapter)