Liberia does not dare to reject the United States, nor does it dare to make southern Africa its enemy.

After the abolition of slavery in the United States, a large number of free blacks were repatriated to Africa, and then Liberia was born, to put it bluntly, this is a group of people abandoned by the United States, and it may not be necessary to say how loyal Liberians are to the United States, the situation is just forced.

If you look at the map, you can see that Côte d'Ivoire in the east of Liberia and Guinea in the north are French colonies, Sierra Leone in the west is a British protectorate, and Liberia is about 7,500 kilometers away from the mainland of the United States.

While Agent Brad was waiting for an opportune move, James Payne, a senior manager at Nyasaland, arrived at the Liberian presidential palace to discuss a business with President Charles King.

Don't be surprised, in Africa, Nyasaland companies have this capability.

"We in Nyasaland want to make some investments in Liberia, to exploit mines, forest resources, and at the same time to set up some rubber plantations, Your Excellency the President, you know, we need a lot of natural rubber in southern Africa." James Payne was calm and relaxed, and he was not constrained by Charles King's status.

"Of course, Mr. Payne, we welcome any investment, as long as it's good for Liberia." Charles King's expression was not easy, he knew the background of the Nyasaland company, and he also knew the energy of the Nyasaland company.

For a long time, the influence of Nyasaland companies has been extended beyond the borders of southern Africa and has begun to radiate to the periphery of southern Africa.

Unlike ordinary commercial enterprises, Nyasaland has a complex background and is powerful, and can even mobilize the mercenaries of the umbrella company at any time.

The introduction of investment in Nyasaland companies is therefore a double-edged sword, which may bring benefits to Liberia but may also have a negative impact on Liberia.

The point is that even if the investment of the Nyasaland company does not bring benefits to Liberia, once the Nyasaland company enters Liberia, it will be even more difficult to expel the Nyasaland company.

"We want to have the same rights and status as Firestone, but unlike Firestone, we don't abuse our rights and hurt the feelings of Liberians, and win-win is our goal." James Payne said that Firestone is an American company that is a state within a state in Liberia.

Two years ago, Firestone entered Liberia and expanded aggressively, and now has established several rubber plantations in Liberia and employs Liberians to work on the plantations.

As good as it sounds, the company's actions were not disgraceful, as the company colluded with politicians from all over Liberia to confiscate all the freedmen's land and turn it into plantations, and drove the freedmen into the plantations to work, and the plantation workers were brutally treated by the company, living in extreme misery and with pitiful income.

In order to obtain more cheap Liberian workers, Firestone has a dedicated labour bureau in Monrovia with sub-bureaus throughout the country, and for each worker sent into the rubber plantation, Firestone pays the local chief and the labour board one cent a day each.

One cent, or about 0.5 pence.

Favart employs African workers from around southern Africa, at a marginal cost of about a pound a month.

That translates to about 8p a day.

In this way, Favart's cost to acquire African-American workers is about eight times that of Filstone.

The cost of African-American workers employed by Favart is low enough, but I didn't expect the cost of Filstone to be lower than that of Favaldt, and compared to Filstone, Henry is simply a good man.

"Mr. Payne, I don't understand what you're saying—" Charles King was confused, and if the news of the Filstone company got out, it would cause a major earthquake in Liberian politics.

Although Liberia is an African country, it has always used the United States as a standard and presented itself as a democracy.

It's hard to imagine that Firestone is universally electrative.

Of course, "universal suffrage" here is in quotation marks, and two years ago, Charles King was elected president, claiming 234,000 votes.

Ironically, there were only 15,000 eligible people in Liberia to vote at the time.

Hehe, democracy.

"Your Excellency the President, you don't need to understand too much, you just need to know that our Nyasaland company is different from Firestone, and you must also hope that Firestone can have a competitor, so that Liberia will gain greater benefits." James Payne is so strong that if he dares to talk to Roque like that, he will sink into Lake Niassa in minutes.

Charles King's expression is ugly, which should be replaced by a white or Chinese person, most of which can be described as a white face and a burst of red.

It's a pity that it's not suitable for Charles King, even if his face is red and feverish, others can't see it.

James Payne is not in a hurry, the Firestone Company earns millions of dollars a year from Liberia, but the Liberian government makes very little profit, do you guess what Charles King has in mind?

Of course, the fact that the Liberian government has gained little does not mean that Charles King himself has nothing to gain.

It's a pity that this topic can't be expanded.

"How much are you going to invest?" King didn't stay silent for long.

"The first investment is at least R1 million." James Payne smiled, a million rand is not much for a Nyasaland company, but for the Liberian government-

For the whole of last year, the Government of Liberia was estimated to have received less than R1 million in revenue.

"Just for the purchase of land?" Charles King was really impressed.

"Of course – not – " James Payne is not a philanthropist, and the Nyasaland company is also profit-oriented: "– buying land is only part of it, we also have to exploit mines and forests, and we still have a relatively large demand for high-grade timber in southern Africa." ”

"Yes, but you have to pay taxes according to the rules-" Charles King's request surprised James Penn, isn't it natural for companies to pay taxes according to the rules, and this needs to be emphasized?

But since Charles King brought it up, it probably really needs to be emphasized.

When James Payne left the president's office, he left a cheque for R10,000 for Charles King.

10,000 rand is enough, and this is only the president, and James Payne will have to spend a lot of money next.

Of course, James Payne did not come to Liberia alone, he brought with him a team of professionals and mercenaries from the umbrella company.

With the promise of Charles King, Nyasaland was quick to buy more than 10,000 acres of land in Buchanan in just a week to build a rubber plantation.

It is really a rubber plantation, and the operation of Nyasaland companies is still very law-abiding, unlike some enterprises in some countries that have no bottom line.

Just when the Nyasaland company was expanding its territory,

On 20 November, a transport ship from the United States suddenly caught fire in the outer harbor of Monrovia, and in a short period of time the fire developed uncontrollably, the captain and crew abandoned the ship and fled, and the transport ship sank in the aisle, posing a huge threat to the transport ships entering the port.

This is not an isolated incident, in the past half month, three transport ships have gone missing while crossing the Atlantic, the whereabouts of the crew on board are unknown, and the merchant shipping company has suffered heavy losses.

In the era when there were no satellites, it was not uncommon for ocean-going cargo ships to have accidents, and it should be noted that there are still many merchant ships that are not equipped with radios, so in the event of an accident, even the distress signal cannot be sent.

On the 25th, the Nyasaland company's plantation in Buchanan was attacked by unknown forces, but fortunately, the mercenaries of the umbrella company guarding the plantation were more vigilant and did not cause major losses, only two mercenaries were injured in the conflict, and the unknown forces attacking the plantation suffered heavy losses, leaving 14 corpses at the scene.

The news continued to gather to Roque, and Roque was not in a hurry, there were losses in southern Africa, and they were within an acceptable range.

"Do you want to send troops to teach the Americans a profound lesson?" Martin couldn't hold his breath, this level of petty fighting, I really don't know when it's a head.

Roque shook his head slowly, it is definitely not possible to send troops to participate at this time, the United States and southern Africa have a tacit understanding.

The Federal Government of Southern Africa has confirmed that the fire on Grand Bahama Island was an accident and that there was no human factor.

The U.S. government is also investigating a series of disappearances of transport ships, announcing that they were also accidents and that the transport ships were not attacked in any way.

There are also fights.

On the 27th, a southern African migrant ship was seized by a U.S. warship in the waters east of the Philippines, and the Americans reasoned that they suspected that the migrant ship was engaged in illegal immigration activities.

The illegal immigration here refers to the fact that the Americans suspect that the Southern African Immigration Corporation is inciting Filipinos to emigrate to Southern Africa.

Don't forget that in this era, population is wealth, and both the United States and Southern Africa are vigorously absorbing immigrants, but at the same time they are both opposed to each other's immigration activities, especially the United States, which plays with double standards.

Southern Africa was initially the most opposed to double standards.

But since the Americans play double standards all day long, then southern Africa has naturally learned double standards, and the United States is the largest immigration country in the world, and it is qualified to restrict the import of immigrants from other countries?

To Roque's embarrassment, there were indeed some Filipinos on the migrant ship seized by the U.S. military, but these Filipinos were not forced to board the migrant boat, but voluntarily emigrated to southern Africa.

So the question is, does voluntary immigration count as illegal immigration?

It depends on how you define it.