Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1186 I Kill Myself

"Yes, there is not much time left for us. The East India Company must completely expel the French before the end of the war in Europe, and fully control the silk, cotton, cotton, linen and saltpeter in Bengal."

"Time is not on our side. Our personal destiny is bound to the company."

Clive, who longs for wealth, fame, and prestige, is also a rational egoist.A true egoist, on the other hand, sometimes shows less selfish and narrow-minded behavior. For example, Clive is not stingy in distributing the wealth he got in India to soldiers.

And an egoist like him understands better that he is a person caught in the tide of history.If you want to be a self-interested waver on the tide of the times, you must see clearly what the tide of history is like.

Clive said that time was running out for the East India Company.This judgment is consistent with Liu Yu's judgment.

When the world was brought together by sailing ships, the notion that things are universally connected has been reflected in world trade.

The War of the Spanish Succession 50 years ago, and the subsequent Treaty of Utrecht, changed a lot of things.

Including the sugarcane slave labor riots of the Tang people in Batavia, to some extent, it was also the aftermath of the Utrecht Treaty.Because of this treaty, the plantation industry of Britain and France in the West Indies, that is, the Caribbean, was able to obtain slaves and develop greatly.

This eventually led to wild fluctuations in the price of sugar on the world market and Europe's independence from Southeast Asian sugar.

And this aftermath has also led to more troublesome problems in Europe.

France's controlled economy, if not played well, it is easy to play a lot of vested interest groups.

The reason behind this is very easy to understand on the Chinese side.Roughly speaking, the four words are closest to each other. Liu Yusongsu’s reform of Nanyang rice and Liaodong wheat’s [low grain hurts farmers] problem.

France is a traditional wine country, and it also has spirits such as brandy.

The purpose of the Colbert doctrine is to protect domestic industries, protect domestic industries, increase exports, and reduce imports.

Then, do the interests of wine and brandy producers, factory owners, workers, and wine craftsmen need to be protected?
How old is sugar cane?How many years has the traditional winemaking industry such as grapes been?
The great development of the sugar industry in the West Indies will inevitably bring a by-product of the sugar industry, a large amount of molasses.

Molasses can be used to make wine, because as long as it contains sugar or can be converted into sugar, wine can be made.

Therefore, in order to protect its traditional industries such as wine and brandy, France strictly prohibits the production of molasses wine and sugar cane wine in France.

Then there is a problem.

With the rapid development of the cane sugar industry, a large amount of molasses cannot be used to make wine, so it cannot be thrown away, right?

But if wine is made, it will cause a huge impact on the grape growing industry, grain growing industry and wine making industry in France.

This is obvious.

This kind of contradiction, manifested in the Songsu area of ​​Dashun, is "whether to tax Nanyang rice and Liaodong wheat" so as not to hurt farmers due to low grain prices.

Its essence is the same.

Now the molasses from the French West Indies are neither willing to be thrown away, nor can it be made into wine. Naturally, they can only be sold to the British North American colonies for them to make wine.

In addition to molasses for wine making, a lot of sugar is also bought directly from France.

Because North America, as a colony, is within the scope of the "Navigation Act".Smuggled French sugar, molasses, the leftover product of French cane milling, etc., were cheap.

The British East India Company could lobby Parliament on the issue of the cotton tax.

So, wouldn't the businessmen of the West India know how to lobby?Don't those planters, sugar producers, etc. know that the demand for French sugar in North America is seriously damaging their interests?
East India and West India, cooked big?Ripe?
Before the invasion and occupation of the whole of India, the East Indies were not as big and rich as the islands in the West Indies.

Now, India is not the jewel in the crown.

At this moment, the pearls in the British crown are the string of small islands in the Caribbean.

It's just that the East India Company is a monopoly company organization, closely related to the royal family, and organized.

In West India, there are only scattered West Indian Merchants Associations that want to form a cartel monopoly alliance, but no one is taking the lead for the time being.

But West Indian planters, merchants, shipowners, and traders have united to form the West Indian Merchants Association.

Of course, the sugar law, molasses law, and sugar tariffs have little impact on the East India Company, after all, they don't sell much sugar.

However, everyone is a thousand-year-old fox, and the group of people in the West India is not just looking for sugar.

They want to use sugar as an opportunity to play side-by-side and engage in smuggling in the fringes of the "Navigation Regulations".

Here, there is a key factor, that is, Ireland.

Ireland is not the mainland of the United Kingdom. In the "Navigation Regulations", it is theoretically regarded as a British colony.

And if the goods can be shipped to Ireland... Although Ireland is theoretically a colony, as long as the goods can reach Ireland, from Ireland to the British mainland, it will be much easier.

The Molasses Act of 1733 was a series of legislation, not a single piece of legislation.

The economic base determines the superstructure. The planters and businessmen in the West Indies have enough wealth to influence the decision-making of the British Parliament.

Organizations such as the Federation of West Indian Merchants have already appeared, and they continue to buy MPs and lobby in Congress.

The whole set of legislation centered on the "Molasses Act of 1733" is actually a legislation aimed at safeguarding the capital interests of the West Indies. To expand the interests of the West India Capital Group.

The key here is to get rid of the molasses law, allowing West Indian capital to use administrative power to suppress cheap foreign sugar, and there is another key thing.

That is, ships from the West Indies do not need to be transshipped in the UK mainland, and go directly to Ireland and the European continent.

Here, what is being played is the edge ball that Ireland is not the British mainland.

In the "Navigation Regulations", of course it was still the Republic of England at that time, but Ireland and the Republic of England existed side by side in the Navigation Regulations.

In other words, the British mainland, excluding Ireland.

Theoretically, according to the "Navigation Regulations", all products must be shipped back to the British mainland before being sold.

For example, tea from the East India Company.

The East India Company did not open a tea shop, but transported the tea to the mainland of England, where it collected high taxes, then auctioned it off, and finally the local tea sellers sold the tea.

That is to say, it would be illegal for the East India Company to contact the local tea dealers directly, bypassing the middleman of tariffs, and earning the price difference without the middleman...

Sugar, in theory, too.

But theoretical things must be asked.

For example, does the sugar in the Caribbean have to go to the British mainland first, and then transported from the British mainland to the North American colonies?
Then this is no longer taking off the pants and farting, this is pulling them back and pulling them back.

Therefore, once a crack appears, the problem is easy to find.

Everything should be blocked and sparse.

The blockage of the "Molasses Act" was to increase the tariff on foreign sugar.

The purpose of the "Molasses Law" is to simplify the troublesome process of sugar in the country, reduce tax rates, reduce intermediate links, and simplify the intervention of administrative power...

And capital is good at turning "sparse" into a breach.

Among them, the capital groups in West India want the right to sell directly to the European continent and reduce government intervention, but they also hope that the government will increase the supervision of navigation regulations and molasses laws in the domestic market to ensure their monopoly position in the country.

Among them, the capital of West India has obtained the right to sell goods directly to the European continent.This includes southern Europe, northern Europe, and direct trade with them to reduce intermediate links and compete with French sugar.

So, what about Ireland?
Can merchants from West India not come to the UK first, and then sell to Ireland through distributors in the UK?
Therefore, if you clear the fog of history, you can see an interesting scene.

Among the parliamentary disputes over a series of bills beneficial to capital in the West India, including the Molasses Act in 1733, when the bill was finally reviewed in 1739, the most fierce opposition was from various "handicraft cities" in Britain.

An important reason for opposition is that "this will lead to the dumping of Nordic goods to the colonies, which will seriously damage the strength of the country's industry."

Well, the problem is coming.

Why did a group of sugar sellers, or in other words, nominally have the "Molasses Act" as the core of the bill, opposing it on the grounds that "this will lead to the dumping of Nordic goods to the colonies and damage the domestic industry"?
In other words, in Northern Europe, what commodities can be dumped on the colonies?

Is it a Nordic product?

Or the oriental goods of the Swedish East India Company and the Danish East India Company?
Because everyone is a thousand-year-old fox, don't play Liaozhai.You go directly to the European continent to sell goods, and when you come back, you come back with an empty ship?
Southern Europe is indeed a scumbag of handicraft industry capabilities. Not to mention this, there is nothing to buy there.

But what about Northern Europe?

Originally, the Swedish and Danish East India Companies had nothing to do with Indian wool. So where did the Chinese tea, cotton cloth, silk, and porcelain in such a small country go?
In 1739, before a series of bills such as the Molasses Act were finally reviewed, the most fierce opposition was precisely the councilors from handicraft cities that had little to do with sugar and wine.

Pulling Ireland into the scope of direct trade in the West Indies also ushered in a great era of Irish smuggling.

The problem is, the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat.

The capital power of the West India, the capital power of the East India, and the capital power of the domestic handicraft industry-this also has to be taken apart. For example, the British silk industry, they also want cheap, not monopolized by the East India Company, high such as Indian silk or Chinese silk; and the wool textile industry is dissatisfied with the sale of cotton cloth by the East India Company itself, even if super high tariffs are imposed, it should be banned directly; The ban on cotton cloth is banned, but the entry of foreign cotton cloth is prohibited, but the problem is that the lifting of the cotton cloth ban cannot stop the smuggling of foreign cotton cloth at all...

Countries cannot be simply anthropomorphic.

This game revolving around the British Parliament is an open and secret struggle between various capital forces, and their interests are often contradictory.

It's not even a simple question of business capital.

Within the commercial capital there is subdivision.

There are also contradictions between the East India Company, which has monopoly privileges, and the West India Capital, which does not have the right to trade goods in the East, but can get goods from Northern Europe.

Between West Indian capital and China, there is no hurdle that cannot be overcome-no matter how awesome your Chinese handicraft industry is, can you sell white sugar?Sorry to kill you.

But things like tea, I don’t produce in the West Indies, so why do people from the East India Company earn all the money?You boldly ship goods to Sweden. When I sell sugar here, the ship will not be empty when I go back.

If Britain is personified, can this contradiction be resolved?
Yes, in theory, as long as the degree of the industrial revolution reaches the threshold, and the quality and price are so low that the East India Company ships cotton and raw silk instead of cotton cloth and silk, this contradiction can be resolved.

But now, let's be more pragmatic... After the Manchester Act for so long, is Lancashire's cotton quality and efficiency comparable to Bombay's Surat?No, and it may not be possible in a short time.

Historically, the Swedish East India Company had insufficient capital and the Danish East India Company had limited capacity. Even so, it still caused serious smuggling problems.But now Dashun is cooperating with Sweden and the Netherlands, and a large number of goods have gone to Northern Europe. The problem is even greater with sufficient capital, guaranteed supply of goods, clear tariffs, and increased transportation capacity.

Therefore, this is what Liu Yu said, and it is also what some sober people in the East India Company realized.

There is not much time left for the East India Company.

They have to go all in on India.

Between them and Dashun, it is too difficult to compromise and cooperate, because their real profit comes from the domestic monopoly privilege.What Dashun wants is to abolish their monopoly privileges and to... free trade.

With free trade, British commercial capital can act as a comprador.

But free trade, the British East India Company must die.

Therefore, if the shortage of domestic industrial production capacity cannot be solved, and it is foreseeable that this reality will last for decades, then the best way is to borrow India's higher manual efficiency and cheaper labor costs to replace and compete with China. handicraft production capacity.

This is the most feasible and realistic way to go to war, slaughter all the southeast coast of Dashun, and wipe out Dashun's fleet, which is an unrealistic fantasy.

As long as Indian products are cheap enough, of good quality, and with sufficient production capacity, no one will use Chinese products, and the East India Company will still control the benefits of monopoly power.

Otherwise, the group of people in the West India will sell Britain for a good price.

Even from the perspective of British anthropomorphism, the significance of the East India Company is huge.Because if there is no East India Company, then the remaining commercial capital will quickly gather into a comprador group and get closer to Dashun.

To a certain extent, the East India Company is also British mixing sand into commercial capital, although they may not realize it.

This is the meaning of granting monopoly privileges, forcing the capital of the East India Company to stand on the opposite side of Chinese commercial capital.

Without this monopoly privilege, the British commercial capital, the West India capital group, and the North American colonial group would immediately cooperate with the commercial capital of Dashun, sell British industrial capital, sell British tariffs, and sell the huge colonial market to Offer a price that satisfies them.

And because of this monopoly privilege, the East India Company could only choose to be an enemy of Chinese commercial capital, and try to increase investment in India, trying to get rid of its dependence on Chinese goods.

And this forced the capital group of the East India Company to choose to fully control Bangladesh, and to quickly defeat the French power in India, so as to use the most brutal robbery system to reduce costs and ensure that Rajshahi's silk can be compared with Songsu Silk competes and guarantees that Bangladesh's cotton cloth can compete with Songsu cotton cloth.

According to a bit of metaphysical fate, the British slave trade and the development of Caribbean sugar after the Treaty of Utrecht led to the sugar crisis in Batavia, which eventually led to the great migration of Chinese to Ceylon.

But now, they are being forced to deal harshly with France, and the faster they act, the sooner their crisis will come.Although they realized that the time left for the East India Company was running out, they did not realize that the reason why Dashun did not take action in India was precisely because of the existence of the French who they considered to be obstacles.

(End of this chapter)