Americas. The Dutch West Indian Company (WIC) began the profitable tobacco cultivation business in Brazil and the Caribbean, using African slaves, as Native Americans refused to do such hard work and fled at the first opportunity. The WIC purchased slaves from African tribes and sold them in the Americas, with four or more shipments a year. They were paid in silver by the Spanish and Portuguese. This silver was then used by the Dutch to purchase precious Chinese porcelain and sell it on the European market, converting it into gold. This flow of goods remained stable for a long time, a full three centuries, until the vast majority of silver in South America was exhausted, causing the entire business to collapse (and leading, among other consequences, to the Opium War in China).
