Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1273 Offensive and Defensive Psychology ([-])

During the time when the British Parliament was arguing about the issue of "English Tradition and Party Controversy", Dashun's garrison in Gibraltar has been besieging the city in a very rhythmic manner.

Soldiers dig a hole.

The stragglers point to kill.

Artillery soldiers come and shoot a few shots every day when they have nothing to do.

The Navy was either catching Jewish smugglers or Huguenots or Moors, making it look like a Catholic Inquisition.

The staff formulated a very simple plan to lure snakes out of the cave, that is, when the siege was about a month or so, they began to build gunboats with the French, and made a posture of preparing for a general attack.

Because the attack in the direction of the isthmus is actually very difficult, the rocky mountains of Gibraltar lie there, making the route of attack from north to south from the isthmus very narrow, and the British built forts and fortresses there.

On the contrary, it seems to attack from the Spanish port on the sea, the front is wider and easier to deploy.

The wisdom of connecting chains with iron chains can be changed a bit, and the essence and core of it can be used in the sea, which is not much different.

Warships are too expensive and too big to be used against shore artillery.

Then build some floating turrets with smaller targets, pile up sandbags on them, and deploy heavy artillery on these floating turrets, which can solve the problem of confrontation between shore artillery and warships-cost-effective.

Of course, it may not be useful.

The thinking of the staff department is still the continuation of the tactical guiding ideology given by the general staff department, namely: pretend to attack, force the enemy to launch a counterattack during the attack, thereby delaying the attack time, and hope that the reinforcements they won may come tomorrow.

These floating turrets are best used for pretending to attack.

If you really don't want to be fooled and insist on a strong attack, then that's also useful.Anyway, it is very cheap to build, and it is not the same price as building a warship. A battleship turret with 74 guns costs a few 10 taels of silver, while the same floating turret costs 74 taels of silver with [-] guns on average.

In terms of troop deployment, the elite combat engineers on Dashun's side and some land artillery were deployed in the direction of the isthmus.

That is to say, it is close to the small town of De La Concepcion in Spain, where life is normal, and the army has also stockpiled a large amount of supplies here.

The French army, with a large force pretending to launch a general offensive, was deployed at Algeciras, across the bay from Gibraltar, five miles away.

It is known that there are no warships in Gibraltar, so if the defenders want to counterattack before attacking to disrupt the rhythm of the attack, they can only choose the direction of De La Concepcion underground.

And there is the trap set by Dashun for the defenders of Gibraltar.

Dashun's combat engineers are specialized in the combat skills of trenches, sieges, slopes and other special battlefields.It's not for being an elite grenadier in a field battle at all.

This is equivalent to turning the battlefield into a home game. As long as the British army dares to fight back, it will wipe out its vital forces and achieve the goal of losing people and losing land.

At this time, the time has come to November, and the weather is getting colder.

A large number of Dashun merchant ships are ready to go back. Sailing in the monsoon era can only respect the monsoon and the seasons. It may be a few years before human beings rely on coal to heat hot water without ignoring the monsoon.

More than a dozen merchant ships that were about to return were berthed at the port near Gibraltar.

They come here, one is to deliver the letter.

The second is to hand over some silver to the garrison here to get the bill of exchange, and ask the court for money from the draft here.

In general, it is very convenient to spend the money.

After all, a large number of silver coins were exchanged from Cadiz. The Spanish silver coins were obtained from Cadiz and spent in Gibraltar, a hundred miles away, without even the step of finding a Jewish financier to exchange coins.

This is the official task of these merchant ships, and besides these official tasks, these merchant ships have their own things to do.

It is to sell some "trophies" at a low price here.

Dashun's strategy of forcing Britain to concentrate its fleet in the strait is very effective, because this is not a war between China and Britain, but Britain and France playing the leading roles, and Britain must guard against French landings.

In fact, shortly after the Battle of Gibraltar, the engineers and reinforcements from Dashun who participated in the battle in India were still resting in South Africa.

The fleet that blocked the northern trade route and the Leeward Islands was recalled to strengthen the defense of the strait.

Jeffrey Amherst's infantry, who had planned to go on an expedition to Canada, was also recalled to prepare for the French landing on the mainland, which greatly eased the pressure on France in Canada.

In fact, William Pitt's strategy is similar to Dashun's strategy of going to Nanyang: destroy the enemy's navy, use the sea as a partition, so that the enemy's army cannot support each other, and always maintain a situation of fighting more and fighting less in a certain direction. smash.

Including Dashun's attack on Japan, it is also the same strategy. The essence is to defeat each one by attacking more and fighting less.As for whether the navy is used for rapid strategic maneuvers or divided blockades, that is just a flexible change based on the essence of this strategy.

War is about money.

William Pitt's idea is that while he is fighting the war, he will not hinder business, so that the economy will be better, at least longer than France.

As for Dashun, it is the British trade that is pinching.

There are two forms of pinch trade.

One is that I don't have it, but I strangle you to death, and everyone will have a hard time.

The other is that you have it, and so do I.I strangled you to death, and then I occupied the magpie's nest and replaced your trade goods.

Undoubtedly, due to its own characteristics and the current situation in Europe, Dashun naturally adopted the second way of thinking.

In fact, for many things, Dashun's products are not enough to satisfy the North American and Caribbean colonies, nor can they be completely replaced.

Such as the sales of tobacco, cotton, and indigo; such as the transportation of pig iron, honey, sugar residue, cattle and horses.

In any case, the Dutch experienced the sugar crisis in Batavia. If Dashun transported sugar from Nanyang to sell here, it would definitely cost the capitalists all their fortunes.

This is also the reason why Dashun chose to support the Russian glass industry and provide a full set of technology: the glass industry in Russia and Eastern Europe, Dashun can't get a piece of the pie, and supporting the Russian glass industry will hit the British glass industry manufacturing.

Extending further, the glass manufacturing industry in the UK and the glass manufacturing industry in thirteen states in North America have to face fierce confrontation in order to narrow the market.

At this time, the truth is still the same: Is there only one country called Britain in Europe that can provide a variety of commodities?
Indeed, Dashun cannot provide honey because it loses money.

But isn't French molasses molasses?Could it be that French honey cannot be used to make wine for the thirteen North American states because it has not been consecrated by the Anglican priest?
Tobacco in Havana, Spain, is it not tobacco?Is it because the tobacco in Havana is not easy to smoke because there is no Virginia myth?Obviously not, the myth is here.No match for Havana's climate.

Therefore, the goods that Dashun cannot provide, or the commodities that Dashun transports with insufficient interest rates, such as iron rods, glass, tobacco, honey, iron nails, etc., have their own western, French, Swiss, Russian, and North American thirteen State provided.

Dashun makes up for the shortcomings of these industries, such as cheap cotton cloth, high-end luxury tea silk porcelain and so on.

Therefore, Dashun's strategy of "returning the other's way with the other's way" has been quite successful in North America and the Caribbean.

North American winemakers will not be patriotic just because the honey is produced in France. They would rather use the sugar of their motherland that is twice as expensive than the French sugar that is half the price-because France wants to protect its own wine and grain wine Industry, so France is not allowed to brew sugar cane wine, and the most famous rum in the sea is sugar cane wine in a broad sense.Just like German wine in a broad sense, it mostly refers to potato burn in the 19th century, which is bound to the Junker noble serfdom in Germany.

Ordinary consumers in North America will not abandon these teas because they are directly shipped without double the tariffs imposed by the London Tea Exchange. They would rather drink high-priced tea than low-priced tea-if everyone With such pure spiritual power, there is no need to implement navigation regulations based on material foundations such as warships and cannons.

After all, the world is material, and it is not possible to explain and guide the world by chanting scriptures.

Thirteen states in North America drink smuggled tea because of ineffective recitation.If you recite the scriptures, you should rather drink twice the price...well, it's still Chinese tea, but it's just the "British" tea that's been around in the London Tea Exchange.

So only from the perspective of trade, in fact, this time it is the United Kingdom... To be precise, it is England plus half of Scotland, plus the current average productivity level and Dashun Sichuan Province (if you add the Sichuan Well Salt Area, it is obviously not as good as ) almost Prussia, against the rest of Europe and India, East Asia.

There is nothing truly "unique" in Britain at this time, except for Anglican priests.

What the European continent lacks, or what is not competitive, Dashun can make up for it.

It should be said that the trade items, or technology trees, between Dashun and Europe were complementary for a long time ago.

Because of the success of the Han Dynasty after the First Emperor, Dashun inherited a unified national market—although there were many internal customs, but compared to Europe at this time, it was unified—so Dashun’s textile industry , light industry, daily necessities and other industries, relying on this large domestic market with unified form and unified currency, is quite developed.

On the other hand, due to divisions and wars in Europe, since the 17th century, its metal processing, gunpowder chemistry, mechanics and other war-related technologies have surpassed East Asia.But there is still a big gap between its daily necessities, light industry, etc., and East Asia, and even South Asia.

This gap was not smoothed out by the famous "Jacquard machine" and "Jenny machine", until the mule machine and the improved Jacquard machine in the Napoleon era.

Before the 19th century, the difference between Europe and East Asia was more similar to "Europe with developed heavy industry and military industry" and "East Asia with developed light industry and daily necessities industry".

It is easy for Dashun to copy Europe, especially at this time there is no metal processing and arms industry that is much ahead or has extremely high technical barriers, especially Dashun has a "prophet" who understands these basic subjects.

Conversely, it is really difficult to copy the Dashun in Europe.This difficulty is not at the technical level, because Dashun's copying of Europe is also at the technical level.The real difficulty lies in the crushing manpower of Dashun, the lack of poor and barren silver, copper and precious metals, and the stagnation of productivity caused by the shortage of production materials such as land and the surplus of labor.

It's like... Why aren't there enough French immigrants in North America?Because France is so fucking rich, if French farmers get mixed up to the point where they go to the river to pick up dead animals thrown from boats and eat them, the number of French people in the North American colonies will surely double in the past hundred years.This is a material reality that no amount of reading can change—Franklin was feeling that there were too many Germans in this era, and they were going to pollute the blood of North America. Could it be that Germany, which is a messy country with military camps, is more serious than France at this time? Progressive and enlightened, that's why there are so many "hillies" in Germany that Franklin is wary of changing species in North America?

Therefore, it is really easy for Dashun to copy Europe, but it is really difficult for Europe to copy Dashun.

Just like the Australian story told by Lao Ma, it is easy to copy British technology to Australia; but it is difficult to copy British material foundation, social environment, per capita resources, and land conditions to Australia.Therefore, the person who tried to open a textile factory in Australia went bankrupt soon, because everyone went to work as a farming farmer, but in the UK, where did he go, where did he become a farmer, and where did he go to farm?
the same.

European technology can be quickly copied to Dashun after the exchange of Dashun; but Dashun's population, per capita arable land, private land system, monsoon climate, lack of silver, and the farthest distance from South America, the world's money printing factory at this time However, it is impossible to copy it to Europe.

Therefore, in this strategy of blockade, containment, smuggling, and replacement.

Goods, in fact, only two kinds.

One is from Dashun.

The other kind is goods that can be produced in Dashun, but the average return on investment is lower than Dashun’s average return rate, such as glass cane sugar pig iron rods, which are produced by other European countries.

Here we can extend Hume’s idea that “the vast ocean protects European industry and commerce from being overwhelmed by China”, and then we can clearly understand what is meant by “Dashun can produce, but it is lower than Dashun with the addition of freight and wear and tear. average ROI of commodities".

Such as classic goods.

sucrose.

Before considering this issue, one thing must be confirmed first, that is, the earth is roughly spherical, not like a pumpkin.

Therefore, the weight of silver of the same quality is basically the same in Europe and Asia.There is no such thing as one catty in Europe, but two catties in Asia.

The second premise is that silver can be used as currency in London, Paris, Petersburg, Gothenburg, Cadiz, Seville, Delhi, Ceylon, Songjiang, and Beijing.

Under these two premises, the cost of sugar production in Java occupied by Dashun was slightly higher than that of Bengal in terms of silver, but definitely lower than that of the Caribbean Islands, including those islands that used slaves.

The premise that the cost of white sugar in Java was basically the same as that in Bangladesh was that the owners of sugarcane gardens and the heads of the sugarcane department issued low-quality lead coins in their own estates, issued internal consumption coupons, and controlled the sale of goods and daily necessities in sugar factories.

With Dashun going to Nanyang, the principled issue of this "self-minting" unified country was naturally banned, which caused the cost of white sugar in Java to be slightly higher than that of Bangladeshi sugar.

However, it is still lower than the cost of white sugar in the Caribbean.

However, is it low cost that will definitely create trade value?
Obviously not.

Because, assuming that the white sugar from Java is transported to Europe, it needs to set sail in the first month of this year and arrive in Europe around August this year.

And because the trade between Dashun and Europe is deformed, if silver is not regarded as a commodity, but silver is regarded as currency, then the trade between Dashun and Europe can basically be regarded as a one-way trade.

Arrived in Europe in August, returned in December, and returned to Dashun in June next year.

The entire trade cycle is one and a half years.

Here, assuming that the British navigation regulations do not exist, assuming that they can be sold directly after going there, assuming that they are not caught by British, French or Spanish anti-smuggling ships...etc., assuming the whole process, smooth sailing.

In this, it is assumed that the sailors are all machines and do not need to spend a penny; that the ship will not encounter wind and waves, and there is no need to repair it at all; Prevent death from scurvy.Etc., etc.

Then, Dashun’s current average annual rate of return on national debt is 8%, and there is a certain risk that the court will not repay the money or repay the excessive banknotes; the maximum interest rate for loans stipulated in the "Dashun Law" is 36% per annum; The rate of return for investing in reclamation and planting soybeans in Northeast China to sell them as fertilizer in northern Jiangsu is about 20%; the annual rate of return for planting indigo in Nanyang reclamation is about 25%...

It can be seen from this that the half-year trade cycle does not consider any accidents, risk situations, crew expenses, and assumes that the freight is zero.

So, what is the price difference between European white sugar and Javanese white sugar, so that capital will choose not to buy the more profitable rhubarb porcelain silk spices, and lose the choice of white sugar?

Obviously, with those risks, if the cyclical gross profit is less than 50%, that is, the gross profit of the one-and-a-half-year trade cycle, then capital will not foolishly sell sugar to Europe.

If it is lower, is it good to buy treasury bonds?How about hoarding land and collecting rent?Is it good to go to the Northeast to cultivate soybeans?
So, considering these, and thinking about the fact that Oriental Cotton Cloth can withstand 68% plus 4.5% of a total of 72% of tariffs and luxury tax, and still allow the East India Company to sell to a state where Defoe and others scolded, then Oriental Cotton Cloth and How much difference is the production cost of European cotton cloth at this time?
Is it as simple as 72% difference?

In the case where the interest rate in East Asia is generally as high as 10% or more - North Korea's young crop law is also a rice system, which is still a benevolent government in theory - a trade cycle of one and a half years, if the gross profit is less than 50%, it is not good to do something ?

Therefore, these are the trade products in the Atlantic Ocean at this time, and there are only two types: "Dashun's" and "Dashun's production but not competitive when shipped over".

"Coincidence", or not a coincidence, is that Dashun can produce products that are not competitive, and Russia, Sweden, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Turkey can produce them.

There is simple logic here.

If British goods are cheap enough to crush European countries, why does Britain need the Navigation Regulations?

In this example, there is a similar thing in Dashun.

That is, the sun-dried salt field in Haizhou.

It was not the administrative reform of salt administration implemented by Liu Yu in Huaihe River and Huaihe River that eliminated private salt in Huainan and Huaibei.

It is Liu Yu who built the large-scale drying salt field and steam brine raising equipment in Haizhou to eliminate the private salt in Huainan and Huaibei. Small salt farmers in Huainan, you can cook private salt as you please, as long as you use firewood and reed grass to cook private salt If it is cheaper than the salt from the large-scale drying salt farm in Haizhou, then it is considered that Liu Yu's reforms have revolutionized and curbed the progress of productivity.

When the salt produced in Haizhou due to the improvement of productivity is cheaper than the boiled illegal salt in Huainan after the salt tax is added, naturally there will be no market for illegal salt.

Conversely, that is to say, if the productivity of Britain is strong enough to crush the productivity of other countries, then Britain does not need to adhere to the "Navigation Regulations". On the contrary, the British bourgeoisie and aristocrats will try to abolish the "Navigation Regulations", Embrace free trade.

And in history, in which year was the "Navigation Regulations" abolished?
The year before the Second Opium War, in 1859, the Navigation Act was formally abolished.

In other words, in the 19s, with the help of the Industrial Revolution, Britain officially completed the production efficiency crushing of other countries.

The same is true.

Since when did the thirteen North American states become dissatisfied with mercantilism and free trade?

1750.Since this year, North America has turned from a trade surplus to a trade deficit with the United Kingdom.

Mercantilism and the "Navigation Regulations" are no longer a sharp weapon to protect the budding industries of the thirteen states in North America, but a tool for English capitalists to try to occupy the high end of the industrial chain—law is a ruling tool of the ruling class, which shows that , the people of the thirteen North American states are not the ruling class of the United Kingdom.

And this year, from a materialist view of history, is also the year when Lao Ma said that "Britain basically eliminated the owner-employee economy".

Therefore, in fact, it is very simple to clear up the fog of many problems.

There is neither any ordinary and great national character, nor any sacred character, which is unbearably vulgar.

Dashun's strategy was formulated precisely after clearing away the fog.

There are many things, but they are just the results of "reverse training".

For example, the merchant ships that docked in Gibraltar this time were originally for Japanese trade.

Because Liu Yu knows that if the trade control is relaxed, then the merchant ships going to Japan will have reached the stage of fighting for shipping costs and fighting for thin skin and big stuff.

After a simple calculation, we can see that even if there are enough military obligations and mandatory regulations for trade with Japan—such as training registered sailors, such as mandating the use of large-scale long-distance voyages and reloading merchant ships—the profit is still higher than buying land and hoarding land for rent. .

Therefore, it can be seen that in the case of trade control, even if military obligations and mandatory regulations are increased, the return on profit can still promote the prosperity of Sino-Japanese trade.

The reason is very simple. If trade control is relaxed, which capitalist will choose to use expensive teak as the keel, cypress and oak as the deck hull, and go to Ryukyu, Japan? Why do you need merchant ships that can be refitted at any time to be equipped 16 heavy guns?
Why not build a cheaper fuchuan shachuan?Why not learn from the Netherlands to make a coachman merchant ship with thin skin and big stuffing?Why is it necessary to train trainee sailors for the Navy and the Navy does not give a dime subsidy?

I do.

Others don't.

Am I going broke?Or can God be merciful and think that I will make a fortune for the long-term for the national economy, and make those thin-skinned and big-hearted people go bankrupt?
From the perspective of free trade, Dashun’s control over Japan’s trade lagged behind the Manchu Qing’s policy towards Japan’s trade for a while, and was even far behind—specialization, monopoly, mandatory military obligations, and forced purchase of Weihai Shipyard at high prices. Standardized reloading of merchant ships.

But the result of this backwardness is that 20 years later, when Dashun needs to intervene in European affairs.

Dashun can recruit about 30 reloaded merchant ships from the Oriental Trading Company, and a large number of registered sailors, and sail to Europe without delay.

It’s like China’s use of gunpowder in fireworks and firecrackers with its market economy and large domestic consumption market, creating several well-known firecracker producing areas; while Europe uses aristocratic investment, government intervention, and extra subsidies for Galileo and Lavoisier. Jin's method is to move against the market to study ballistics, gunpowder ratio, and chemistry.

In a perfect world, Dashun and even Daming's products can beat the shit out of European consumer goods.However, the world is not a real non-interference market for perfect rational people.

On the contrary, Britain, France and other countries successively introduced strict tariff laws and administrative industrial protection laws around 1720.

Therefore, this very ironic situation has been created: Dashun has created a fleet that can interfere in European affairs with a very backward exclusive trade control, and it is very likely that the fleet built by this reactionary control will shape the real world Markets and free trade...

And if Dashun embraced free trade from the very beginning, then Dashun’s merchants would not even be able to leave Malacca, and would be beaten by the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, seize merchant ships, and forcibly lower prices—the Ostend tea incident has already proved it , Dashun's merchant ships were detained in Batavia for more than half a year, and the price was forced to drop.

Therefore, these should have been only fuchuan shachuan, but now they are standard reloaded merchant ships produced by the warship shipyard, and originally belonged to the Toyo Trading Company.

After arriving in the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to "normal" trade, he did a lot of things.

Robbing British merchant ships for free trade.

Smuggling French honey to North America for free trade.

Bombard Barbados for free trade.

Smuggling North American cattle and horses to Guadeloupe for free trade.

Buy a pass from the British Navy to deliver goods to North America, for free trade.

In short, at least, in terms of "righteousness", these armed merchant ships and cruise ships of Dashun are still standing.

Behind this, there are two results.

One:

The sailors in Dashun earned a lot of money, since the goods they robbed were not owned by the owner, but distributed by them.

Therefore, on the one hand, they sold some looted loot such as honey, sugar cane wine, woolen fabrics, and grains to the Dashun army in Gibraltar at a low price.

On the other hand, many people, having accumulated the first pot of gold in their lives, decide not to be sailors who make money with their heads tied to their belts after returning home. They may go to Fusang or the Southern Ocean to buy land for reclamation. Greatly promoted the development of the total productivity of human beings.

Originally, the money would be used by British merchants to engage in triangular trade and transport black slaves to North America, the Caribbean, and South America, etc., resulting in the loss of young and middle-aged population in Africa, which greatly damaged the development of African productivity.

Second:

William Pitt's "war and trade" strategy was completely bankrupt.

The British East India Company lost the West African market and India-Persia, and was on the verge of collapse.

30 British families asked the government to give an explanation: how to repay the national debt that was bought by fooling around?
The smuggling group in North America quickly contacted Dashun, and got rid of the Dutch middlemen. There was no middleman to make a difference, which greatly improved the lives of the people in North America. The prices of tea and cotton cloth were reduced.

The British West India Chamber of Commerce has suffered heavy losses. It hopes that the government can deploy the navy that was in the decisive battle in the strait to escort the West India, otherwise they will have to pay the national debt.

(End of this chapter)