Chapter 473: Exploration of the Lake Kingdom, Fair Trade

The fire was bright, the plains were vast, and the sea was vast not far away. On the plains near the sea, the Purépecha warriors of the kingdom and the warriors of the Yorem tribe gathered in a circle by the fire, their expressions were relaxed and joyful. In the center of the bonfire, the two leaders stood opposite each other, with smiles on their faces and thoughts flashing in their hearts.

Under the feet of the two men, a rattan basket fell to the ground. A large pile of gold nuggets were scattered, shining with moving golden light, falling into the eyes of the crowd and also jumping in the hearts of the crowd. The Purépecha warriors showed yearning in their eyes, but the warriors of the Yorem tribe didn't care.

The old militiaman Chihuaco looked at the shining gold nuggets for a while, scratched his head, and asked.

"Friend, this kind of gold and stone, how do you want to exchange for a spear? There are not many rich weapons on the ship this time."

Hearing this, Chief Kalan nodded. In his opinion, since the Lake Tribe was looking for the Holy Land, they would naturally send out the most elite warriors, holding the best weapons. The eyes of the Deer Head Chief flashed, and he first stretched out one hand, and then stretched out another hand.

"Well, a large basket of gold and stone like this, I want to exchange for 15, no, 20 copper spears!"

"Ah! Friend, 20 copper spears? For a basket of gold nuggets?!"

"Well! The weight of 20 copper spears is probably about the same as a basket of gold and stone, right? It's fair to exchange the same weight for the same weight"

"This, fair?!"

Chivaco opened his mouth in shock and couldn't speak for a while. A two-meter-and-a-half-long spear weighs about four to five pounds, and the bronze spearhead is only about four or five taels. Twenty copper spears together weigh less than a hundred pounds, and there is not even ten pounds of copper. And the large basket of gold nuggets in front of him weighs at least one hundred and fifty or sixty pounds. Looking at the color, even if the gold content is lower than that of the Alliance, it is at least worth one hundred pounds of gold sand. So, ten pounds of copper for one hundred pounds of gold sand? !

"Well, friend, I know that this request is a bit excessive."

Looking at the shocked expression of the leader opposite, the Deer Head Chief felt a little guilty.

The spears of the Lake Tribe are not only sharp, but also very strong, obviously made of fine pine or fir. These woods require tools for both felling and processing. And using this useless stone to exchange for so many good weapons in the hands of the other party seems to be unfair to friends

Thinking of this, he hesitated, took a step back, and stretched out his hands again.

"Otherwise, eighteen, no, fifteen will do! After all, although there are many gold and stones in the mountains, some are not good-looking enough and need to be smelted with flint. And to get flint, we have to run a long way to dig."

"Ah? Fifteen copper spears?"

Chihuaco was still in shock and didn't know how to reply. Puapu next to him couldn't help it, excitedly took two steps forward, and pulled the old man's arm hard.

"Exchange! Exchange to him! Fifteen in a basket. There are sixty spare spears on the ship. Exchange them all to him!"

You know, in the Kingdom of the Lake, a pound of gold sand can be exchanged for more than a pound of copper. This is a difference of more than ten or twenty times, all of which are the profits of the expedition fleet!

After being pulled by Puapu, Chihuaco finally recovered from his shock. He pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and shook his head in opposition.

"No, Lao Pu, the sixty spears are the spare weapons of the fleet, and they can't all be exchanged. At most, ten or twenty can be exchanged. As for cocoa, cotton cloth and gems, if the other party accepts them, you can exchange more."

Then, he restrained his greed, looked at the deer-headed chief who had been paying attention, and said sincerely.

"Friend, good friend! In our place, these golden stones are very popular with priests and nobles! But the fleet doesn't have many weapons, so we can only exchange twenty. For this basket of gold and stone, we will offer twenty spears, ten cloaks, and one gem!"

Hearing this, Puapu sighed in dissatisfaction.

"Old man Qi! What are you doing!"

"Old Pu, shut up! I'm the captain!"

"Ah?!"

This time, it was Chief Kalan's turn to be surprised. After he understood what Chivako meant, he looked at him deeply for a while. Then, he spoke again, and the smile on his face was obviously much more sincere.

"Friend, good friend! Thank you for your honesty! It doesn't matter. There are a lot of gold and stone around the tribe. It doesn't take effort to pick them up. Anyway, you can't eat or wear them. When you leave, I can give you five more baskets of unburned raw ore. The remaining baskets of stones are not gold and stone. Do you still want to see them?"

"Good friend, good, good! Thank you too!"

Chivako nodded repeatedly. The gold ore can be brought back to the alliance and refined by yourself. Then, he thought of the flint that the other party mentioned repeatedly, and responded affirmatively.

"Look!"

Chief Kalan didn't waste any words and directly dumped the second basket of stones on the ground. In an instant, a silver light appeared in front of everyone, but it was a basket of silver stone.

Seeing this basket of refined silver, everyone's expression did not change.

The Kingdom of the Lake originally produced silver, and the price of silver in the kingdom has always been low. In the world of Central America, gold and copper symbolize the light of the sun and have high religious value. Silver symbolizes the moon, and is not used much in temples. Its value is relatively limited, and it is often used to make silverware and silver jewelry.

"This is the silver stone exchanged from the wandering wilderness tribes in the eastern wilderness. There are also in the mountains in the east, but there are far fewer gold stones."

Seeing the expressions of several people, Chief Kalan understood that the southern tribes might not be short of silver stones. Scarcity makes things valuable. In fact, in the Mayo tribe, the value of silver stones is much higher than that of gold stones.

"This basket of silver stones is more expensive than gold stones, friends, do you want it?"

"Thanks, friends."

Chihuaco shook his head. Chief Karan said nothing more. Then, he raised his foot and kicked over the third basket of stones, and a red-orange light appeared in front of everyone.

"Ah? This, this is!"

Chihuaco stared for a long time with his eyes wide open. Then, he turned back to look at Puap. The well-informed gray earth warrior's eyes flashed and he nodded affirmatively.

"It's thick copper and seems to be very pure."

"Well"

"Friends, this is red stone from the mountains in the north. It is made from flint and can be used to make containers. There are many in the mountains, but it is very laborious to dig them out. The Opata people in the far north will collect the refined red stone and make it into Various utensils and then sell them to other tribes. Do you want them?”

Chief Callan blinked, looking expectant.

The Opata people established a powerful alliance in the mountains and valleys in the far north, consisting of three large tribes and several smaller tribes attached to them. There are more red stones there, and some can even be used to make utensils without smelting them. The Opata people use these red stones to make containers, bells and trinkets. The desert tribes further north even use these red stones to make various short axes, knives and spears. However, even though there are many red stones, they are still too soft to be made into weapons after being smelted, and are far inferior to the spears of the tribe in the lake.

"Uh, we need this kind of red stone!"

After a moment, Chihuaco looked complicated and nodded heavily. He knew that the kingdom's bronze weapons were made using copper as raw material and using secret methods.

"Then how do I change it?"

"It's half more expensive than gold and stone. A basket contains thirty spears. My friend, it takes a lot of effort to dig red stone, and it has to be burned with flint. It's more troublesome for tribes to make it."

Chief Karan lowered his head slightly, hiding the expression on his face. There is a red stone mine not far to the north of the tribe. It is not troublesome to burn it with flint, but mining it requires more tools. In fact, the veins of this red stone, like gold stone, are found in various parts of the north, and their purity is very high. The further north you go, the more and more pure the red stone is. Legend has it that in the land of the Sri people and the desert people, large piles of open-air raw red stone were piled into hills, shining with gold and green light. There is even a natural red stone mountain, and the entire mountain is high-purity red-yellow!

Redstone is copper. What everyone doesn’t know is that the entire coastal Sonora region is located in the violent collision zone between the Pacific Plate and the American Plate. It is full of rich mineral deposits and contains more than half of Mexico’s copper ore!

The Cananea copper mine in the northern part of Sonora, close to the US-Mexico border, is the second largest copper mine in the world, and it is an open-pit mine! Its future reserves are estimated at 4.52 billion tons, with an annual output of 510,000 tons, sufficient to supply 2%-3% of global copper demand.

"A basket of thirty spears weighs more than one hundred kilograms of rough copper, which is exchanged for ten kilograms of spearheads."

Chihuaco pursed his lips. Although he didn't know what scissors meant, he still felt some pain in his conscience. He thought for a while and then spoke with the simplicity and sincerity unique to farmers.

"Good friends, we don't have so many spears. However, we have a lot of expensive gems that can be exchanged with you! Of course, there are also practical cocoa and cloth."

"Exchange gems for red stones? Yeah, that's okay too!"

Chief Kallan thought for a while and hesitantly agreed. The tribe's demand for gems is actually not great. But gems can be traded with tribes in the north in exchange for cloth, food, and refined red stones. Especially the Opata people, they particularly admire turquoise and are willing to exchange a lot of red stones for it. It's just that the transaction distance is too far, and it has to be transferred to several tribes in the middle, which requires a lot of discounts.

"Then a basket of red stones for ten emeralds!"

"good!"

Chihuaco thought about it for a while. Considering the value of gems and copper in the kingdom, this deal was fair and did not cheat his new friends. He calculated the difference and added some extra.

"I'll give you another bag of cocoa and three cloaks!"

"Okay, good friend!"

Chief Kalan nodded repeatedly, his deer head shook, and he was very satisfied. The two then discussed and reached a fair deal: the Yorem tribe used one basket of coarse gold, one basket of coarse copper, and five baskets of gold ore in exchange for twenty spears, thirteen cloaks, and one basket of gold ore from the Lake Tribe. Bag of cocoa, eleven emeralds.

After the deal was agreed upon, both parties were satisfied. Chihuaco and Puap faced each other, smiling from ear to ear.

Chief Deer Head laughed heartily, feeling extremely proud. These useless and common stones were exchanged for weapons and items useful to the tribe. It couldn't be a better deal! It's just that I seem a little sorry for these kind friends who have come from afar.

He shook his head, thought for a while, and then waved his hand generously.

"My friend! The Yolem tribe and the Lake tribe speak similar languages. They must be brothers who are far away from each other and share a common ancestor! As brothers."

Chief Kallan’s voice was loud and he pointed at the last basket of black stones. The black stone shines with a dark light, plain and simple under the firelight, but it contains burning power.

"This basket symbolizes the ancestors' flint, I'll give it to you!"