Chapitre 42: Slavery With Extra Steps

"Your majesty." The Governor said first, even though he was no longer shaking Felipe's hand.

Felipe nodded as he looked at Quincy, then looked at the Governor.

"Your majesty," Quincy said as Felipe looked back at him. Quincy was fat and short, making the stature of Felipe quite intimidating.

"Mr. Governor, Mr. Quincy. I didn't expect you to be here." Felipe announced that he would arrive at Charleston; he didn't say when but with enough triangulation, they were able to meet him.

"Your majesty, it is my pleasure. It would be just wrong if I wasn't here… By the way, it is my biggest honour. Your feats in battle have spread across the country… Seen you, I can say with confidence that they are true." The Governor said with a southern accent, lots of differences of pitches making a song-like rhythm.

"Indeed, it is indeed a pleasure," Quincy said as he quickly tried not to show himself as if he didn't know who was the person that fed him.

"Mr. Quincy… I see life has been treating you well." Felipe said as he pointed out how fat he has become. Even though Felipe has never seen him in person, he has seen his paintings. He was much leaner when he contracted him.

"Hahaha." The two southern men laughed at it; they looked like they had never seen a day of honest work.

Nonetheless, Quincy has been serving him good, though Felipe has really made him immensely rich, as he has gotten quite the huge villa in Louisiana, getting quite an amount of free labour on the side. Felipe has an immense gut feeling that the burning of the match factories in the north has to have something related to that.

All in all, it was time for a zoo animal; to be seen by many people who looked at him with awe as he slowly walked down to the carriage being pulled by 4 beautiful horses.

The carriage seat was made out of hardwood with just some small layer of cotton for cousin, plus the lack of suspension made for a very annoying ride; it was luxury, nonetheless.

"The plantation has seen a lot of success. A lot of plantation as a matter of fact, it will not be long before the South will be full of money." Felipe said as he looked at the other plantations.

"Indeed, your majesty. My plantation in Louisiana has been growing tremendously this past year. I will soon be making as much as being CEO of your honourable company is doing." The man said quite carelessly.

"Ho? So you mean that you would not want to work for me anymore?" Felipe asked with a cheeky smile; after all, Felipe was reeeeeaaaally paying him stupidly well; that was the only way that he had been loyal for over 11 years under him. His salary could be close to that of a multi-trillion dollar company in Covid-19.

"Hahaha, of course, no. Planting cotton is a hobby more than anything." Quincy said, quite nervous as he realized what he had implied to the crown prince.

Felipe only chuckled as the scenery changed from the inner city to the outer city.

"It is a beautiful place, the country of the South." The Governor said as he was closely hearing them. Even though the Governor was jealous of the amount of money they were discussing, he knew firsthand that the Crown Prince was not stupid in giving up so much money; after all, he had proposed things to Quicy, yet he had been rejected.

Nonetheless, the fact was that Quincy himself made sure he was satisfied with compensation for doing business with the Crown Prince of the Colombian Empire.

"It is." Felipe only agreed and just kept looking. He has a bizarre relationship with the US government; for once, they let him do business on their land and move out money out of the country to find the endless war that has been going on in the South American Continent.

"Your majesty… Mr. Quincy has told me that there are talks about moving the matches manufacturing to Florida alongside the mining of Phosphate." The Governor asked as he got impatient.

Felipe was not really in the mood to talk about business; after all, all that was in his mind was plunging into a cold water bath--he was not able to fully clean himself.

"Florida, yes. I have bought a lot of land there… well, the company has." Felipe said as he remembered the letters that he had been interchanging with Quincy.

"… That…" The Governor thought for a while and didn't say much.

"The amount of Phosphate there is too much to let go, plus, it will create matches and actual compost. In a way, you don't have to worry about this, Mr. Governor." Felipe said as he felt too enclosed in such a small carriage.

"Ah! I see; what about an endorsement?" The Governor asked bluntly.

"I will not do so." Felipe quickly said. "You seem to forget I am the next emperor of the Colombian empire; I would be breaking multiple anti-trust laws by doing so; it would create liability for my company."

A young nation, wary of kings and princes, suspicious of people with too much power. He is the definition of too much power, even though he does nothing about it.

"Of course, of course, but let's say the state of South Caroline makes it worth your while, your majesty."

"…" Felipe looked at the Governor and understood it was a bad idea to ride with such a power-hungry person, not that he had any choice but to make things work. Not that he puts much importance on the business in the USA anymore.

The amount of cheap matches coming into the market will make the profit for each match tiny. In other words, he didn't have much interest in the matches industry anymore. However, the vast market share they have been able to amass throughout the years has been enormous; he can't just stop producing matches; it would just cost a lot of opportunity cost.

Moreover, the USA is fated for a long and annoying civil war. The Colombian Empire was already scratched by war, so Felipe didn't want to incite another war. Thus, the Slavery Act in the Colombian Empire was passed through force.

The Civil War makes him very hesitant to actually invest in the South, yet, that is where all the phosphorous mines are. There are many phosphorous deposits in the mountains of The Colombian Empire, but there was never a way to actually mine them as there was just war; only now operations to find phosphorous are happening.

"It is beautiful," Felipe said, admiring the plantation mansion before him. It was all white, resembling the white house hugely in later centuries.

The maids were all black, just like in the Empire; there were house slaves, meaning they were trained and fit to do light chores around the house.

Humans can endure a lot of abuse before they snap; in most cases, they break. Felipe wonders about the mind of humans and how such behaviour has been wired as a mechanism of survival or if it is just taming like any other animal.

'We are just animals, huh. No divine purpose. Yet again, the bible has rules for the slaves… maybe some people are just chosen.' Felipe chuckled as he realized that he was going through a rabbit hole and should not think more of it for his own sake.

"Yeah, I am very proud of myself." The Governor smiled as he made the signal for them to go in, and so they did.

The interior had a lot of wood, making the already hot place hot if it wasn't for the constantly open windows that let air renew itself in the living room.

"Please, make yourself at home." The Governor said as he looked at his wife in another corridor; he didn't present her; he just quickly went there as she was not in presentable clothing.

Felipe didn't say much as he looked at the huge open doors. "Mr. Quincy, your mind for a word?"

"Of course, your majesty." He said as he followed Felipe outside the manor; the maids there could not do anything; they just went outside.

Not too long, they were a few meters away from the manner, far enough where any of their conversations would be private.

"Your majesty, I am really sorry, but you know… this is the South… slavery is really everywhere." Quincy quickly apologized, thinking he was in trouble for bringing him there.

Felipe looked at him and didn't know what to say. "You think I am worried about it?"

"… If not, what would it be?" Quincy asked as he looked around.

"Money," Felipe said as he flattened a long grass stem with his right foot.

"Oh… how so… Your majesty, even though we lost the factory in New York, I have made sure to increase the production for the one in Virginia and the one here; we have offset the destruction of the one in New York already, your Majesty doesn't have to worry about it," Quincy said quickly as he worried about what Felipe would think.

"Aye, that is why I pay you a small fortune every year." Felipe shook his head as if he was not talking about that.

"Oh…"

"There will be a war," Felipe said out of the blue.

"Oh. Another?"

"Yes, this time with the French, I am afraid so," Felipe said as he revealed it to his CEO.

"… That… I would not recommend it, your majesty."

Felipe chuckled and smiled.

"It is inevitable. Anyways, I want you to create a new plantation company." Felipe explained: "Buy the most fertile lands to produce cotton, do it with the retaining accounts."

"… That…" Quincy looked at Felipe for a while; after all, he knew about the views of the Crown Prince.

"You wonder if I want to hire blacks or whites?" Felipe asked as he was able to read the chubby man perfectly.

"Hire…"

"Yes. Hire. Don't worry; I want you to make it possible. Take a loan if you may… the thing is, that cotton has to arrive to the Colombian Empire."

"Your majesty, how are we going to hire Negros?" Quincy asked, stupified; after all, he understood why Felipe would hire poor white people in South Carolina, but he didn't know why they would be hiring black people; there was no political or economic advantage.

"It's a bank; we buy slaves, we give them the option of taking a loan to buy their own freedom, and then we employ them, we profit from the interests and extra loans to pay for rent, food and everything that a human needs to live a normal life."

"…" Quincy stopped moving and almost stopped breathing as such an idea was too genius.

"For that, you need to buy as much arable land for cotton as possible, buy as many slaves and then start doing it. With the profits of the remaining factories, this should be easy."

Quincy began to do numbers inside his head and quickly devised an investment strategy.

"This would be possible, but I am afraid we would not be able to fund the required amount for the defence budget of the Colombian Empire."

Felipe doesn't see a single penny of his gigantic industry; it would go up in smokes in no time.

"Don't worry; my new invention will offset such a thing." His confidence was just too much. "Moreover, I must prepare for a war, so we need that operating in no time."

"Your majesty, I really can't advise more that you don't try to take on the French… the Spanish were in decline… I am afraid you will regret it."

Felipe didn't say much as he looked at the Governor at the entrance looking at them as he squinted his eyes, making it look like he had sunglasses from afar.

"Our host is waiting."

"…" Quincy sighed as he followed Felipe inside the house.