Chapter 698: History of Liverpool

As the general manager of the team, Sean Marx, it is inevitable to be frustrated for a while, but the opposite is the happy face of Liverpool CEO Ian Ayre.

Now he is a big celebrity in Liverpool, as long as there are parties and dinners where he appears, there will be a lot of discussion. Of course, this has little to do with him, and it is mostly because those local wealthy businessmen in Liverpool Through Ian Ayer, I met Yang Cheng, a world-class rich man.

You must know that after Yang Cheng acquired Liverpool, he launched a series of investment projects, including the expansion of Anfield, the renovation of the Melwood base, etc., which also greatly stimulated the economic development of Liverpool. Don't underestimate the infrastructure projects. The pulling ability, and those local wealthy businessmen who want to get to know Yang Cheng are all stakeholders.

But it is impossible for Yang Cheng to stay in Liverpool permanently. Even if he returns to England, he will live in his own Beihai manor. The rich businessmen can't even see Yang Cheng, let alone meet and talk.

No, they had no choice but to find Ian Ayre and build a good relationship with him to find business opportunities.

As I said earlier, after the heavy industry gradually faded away, Liverpool has gradually transformed into a tourist city, and football is one of the symbols of this city. It is an exaggeration to say that one-third of the city's population is engaged in sports related to Football-related jobs, as well as rich businessmen.

Not only businessmen, but also a group of local politicians are also trying to build a relationship with Liverpool and Yang Cheng. As for the reason, hehe~

Speaking of Liverpool, this is really a special city. It is different from other British cities. Liverpool is even more unique. It faces the Mersey River in the Irish Sea, like a vent that unloads its defenses, allowing a game that swept across northern Europe in early May. The evil wind drove straight into Liverpool at the mouth of the river.

The unsatisfactory blue sky and white clouds recede step by step, and the Maritime Mall near the water has become a theater stage for wild winds and performances. Pedestrians who have not had time to hide in the strong building, hunched back in the windbreaker, resisting in vain With turbulent currents of unknown origin, they are about to be blown into plastic bags that can fly into the sky.

The Maritime Mall is not a commercial harbor city for tourists or citizens to shop, eat, drink, and watch movies, but a six-block block that includes the entire Albert Dock, the top of the pier, William Brown Street and other Liverpool landmarks.

The building complex separating the docks temporarily formed a safe haven, allowing the water waves in the dock to draw strange lines like tree rings from far to near, and pushed the door around the corner to enter, only to realize that he had saved his life. The building is an "International Slavery Museum".

The "slave trade" is the most intense stroke in the historical process of forming Liverpool.

As early as the 1740s, this rising city of the slave trade movement gradually surpassed London and Bristol through the manipulation of businessmen who were familiar with the preferences of African traffickers, and became the "capital of slave trade in Europe" in the 1780s , a total of nearly 1.5 million black Africans were tied hands and feet, taken away from West Africa, and displaced to the West Indies, in exchange for Liverpool's sweet cane sugar, refreshing rum, and white people's favorite tobacco and winter. cotton.

Also due to the non-servant needs of some merchant families, some West African chiefs sent their sons to be educated, and a large number of African crew members began to be employed on cargo ships transporting palm oil. In the early 18th century, the earliest black people in the UK appeared in Liverpool. Community.

And as this group of blacks settled here, some blacks with brains and unwillingness to be mediocre slaves started the road of "struggle", and they wanted to fight for a future for themselves.

In a cafe in the Maritime Mall, the core of Liverpool Landscape, Yang Cheng's right-hand man, Ian Ayre, was having a cordial and friendly exchange with a white-haired black man.

"Ian, in a blink of an eye you have become Liverpool's well-deserved helmsman." The black man Recosta sipped his strong coffee,

Said with a lot of emotion.

Ian Ayre waved his hands again and again, "Ray, Liverpool belongs to our boss, and I'm just his wage earner, not the helmsman."

Recosta is a member of the Liverpool Municipal Council. In the British bureaucratic system, his sphere of power is no less than that of the mayor of Liverpool to some extent. Of course, this is not something that can be directly compared horizontally.

In short, this elderly black man is a great local figure in Liverpool, and he is also the spokesperson of the black community. Because he watched Ian Al grow up, even Ian El also respectfully called him uncle.

Ray ignored Ian Al's modesty, and traced back to himself, "Do you still remember the story I told you when you were a child? The ancestor of the Costa family was Francisco, who was trafficked to Bermuda and later became a shoemaker. His My son, my great-grandfather Edward, was born in 1833 when the "Abolition of Slavery Act" was promulgated. He went to sea at the age of 14. After finally settling in Liverpool, he married a black wife and opened a shop on Wellington Street in District 8, where blacks live mostly.

Since then, transnational marriages in the family have been common. In addition to British and American Caucasians, there are Ghanaian, Nigerian, Barbados, and Danish bloodlines. The descendants of shoemakers are also from all walks of life. Only I have always maintained a pure black bloodline. "

Hearing this, Ian El couldn't help but timidly looked around. Uncle Costa was about to start his glorious theory of black blood. Racial discrimination is not serious in Liverpool, but there are radicals everywhere, right? Ian Al was very afraid of being implicated, he knew that the big boss would never allow a troublemaker to exist in the club.

"They'll remember us being trafficked, not our toughness; they'll remember us being bought, not our bravery."

Recosta once again uttered a famous saying that was widely circulated among black people. Ian Al really wanted to cover his face and say that I couldn't hear, but fortunately, there were not many people sheltering from the wind in the cafe at this time.

Ian El, who couldn't help it, asked, "Uncle Costa, you watched me grow up, no matter what you have, you can talk it out and we can discuss it together, there is no need to go round and round."

Recosta closed his mouth, took a deep look at his close nephew, and said leisurely, "I hope that in a suitable situation, you can help me introduce Jason Yang, believe me, it's a good thing, no Adversely affect your position."

Ian El is not surprised, there is only a wry smile and entanglement on his face. The wry smile is that the number of people who have contacted him with the boss recently is not too many, and one more Recosta is not too much, but the tangle lies in his relationship with Uncle Costa. Not an outsider, this is Uncle Costa, who is more like a relative than a relative even though he has no blood relationship, not a stranger he can casually reject.

"Uncle Costa, can I ask you what's the matter with the boss? If I can solve it, maybe we don't need to contact the boss."