Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1304 Death and Revenge ([-])
As Pitt and Grenville deliberate over the future of an alliance of four houses, another protagonist in this palace struggle, the young King George III, the first English-speaking king in decades, is with his political mentor John Stewart, Lord Bute, contemplates the question of power after his succession.

Lord Bute followed the ideas of Viscount Bolingbroke, and he advised George III to break the party lines on this vexing partisan issue in England.

In particular, it broke the political rule that "the Tories are not allowed to join the cabinet", so as to avoid "the hatred of the Tories and their tendency to try to attract foreign powers to overthrow the Hanoverian royal family".

This tendency is very obvious.

Since the arrival of the Hanoverians in England, the Tories have been severely suppressed.

For the first time since the riot in 1715 "against the Germans coming to be king of England", the gentlemen of the Tory party can no longer take advantage of the traditional positions in the army, navy, civil servants and churches.

Tory officers in the Army were denied commissions.

Tory lawyers cannot be judges.

Tory Anglican clergy can no longer be bishops.

Tory businessmen were denied government contracts or directorships in any major corporations.

The problems caused by this kind of party struggle are actually quite normal.The struggle between the old and new parties in the Great Song Dynasty was the same until the end. If I come up, I will kill you, and if you come up, I will kill you.

Although the Tories have always been on the label, they have drawn a clear line from the Jacobites who supported the restoration of the Stuart dynasty.

However, in practice this boundary is not clear.

In fact, if future generations study British history, they will find a very interesting little detail.

The many letters of the great Tory families, as antiques of later generations, are very numerous before 1715; and even more after 1760.

Only during the 1715 years from 1760 to 45, many letters of the Tory family seemed to be blank.Disappeared.

Because... These letters are probably either contacting Louis XV, Charles XII, or the Stuart family in exile.Therefore, these things must be destroyed.

From a class point of view, Britain at this time is still a country where the power of the countryside is greater than that of the cities.

The Tory Party took root in the countryside and, as a country gentry, had great influence in the countryside.

However, the election system in the UK at this time, and the criteria for determining whether people are counted according to religion, race, and family income, as well as the very unreasonable zombie constituency issue, prevented the Tory Party from gaining an advantage in parliament.

To put it simply, the economic structure of Britain at this time is that the countryside is better than the city, and the old gentry is better than the new capital and the new aristocracy.

However, the emerging capital and the new aristocrats, by inviting foreigners to be kings, and a lot of money to buy zombie constituencies, and the king banned the Tories who supported the Stuart family from joining the cabinet, thus reached a A political structure that does not match the economic base.

A symbol of this kind of rule is the "Riot Law" introduced in 1715: any gathering of more than 12 British people can be regarded as a riot.

Because of widespread dissatisfaction with the German king in the countryside, riots of several thousand people broke out on the day of George I's coronation.

After that, it hit the London Stock Exchange, believing that "stocks and securities are symbols of the immoral parasitism and growth of the Whig Party."

Voices such as "We should have our own king" and "The real king will come back soon, the Germans can only go back to planting radishes" came one after another.

The continuous riots, rebellions, uprisings, etc., which lasted from 1715 until 1750, have always been controlled by the Tories.

George III's father gave these Tories hope.

When his father was the eldest son, he promised to break the restrictions of the new party and the old party, and the cabinet would no longer reject the Tory party because of partisan disputes.

But his father died before taking the throne.Several leaders of the Tory Party at the time also died before George II shit.

The greatest joy in George II's life was that his son died before him.

If everything goes according to the old historical trajectory, the Tory Party will basically die out.

Because Britain won a big victory in the Seven Years War in history, the victory covered up many problems, and then came the colonial development in India. A large amount of silver was shipped back from India as primitive capital. The industrial revolution started, and the countryside no longer had the right to the city. advantage, and ultimately the city dominates the countryside on an economic basis.

But now, everything is different.

The members of the Stuart family are still outside.

The Battle of Gibraltar, the British panic.

Participation in the European war made the people even more dissatisfied with the behavior of "Bao Hanover".

The ban on the Tory Party from entering the cabinet starting in 1715 split the Whig Party.

The reason is also very simple.

Now that the Tories cannot join the cabinet, what about party struggles?It must be the Whigs who separated themselves and played by themselves.

The Patriotic Whig Party headed by Pitt had a short-term cooperation with the Tory Party and pushed the Patriot Party to the top, but it also expanded the influence of the words "the king of England or the king of Germany".

Although, George III did speak English.

Although, his father left him a fairly good reputation, and the political legacy of the Tory Party around his father.

However, the situation is very different now.

If... if the French take a step back and say they just send back the Stuarts as kings, will the Tories support it or not?
You know, when Louis XV sent spies to the UK and ran around in the name of "exchanging equestrian skills", the Tory party asked the party leader to sign the "King's Declaration". Published the "King's Proclamation", supported the restoration of Stuart, and opened the defense from Oxford to London.

It's no secret.

If the war is a comprehensive advantage for Britain, all of this is of course not a problem. If the French do not come, these Tories will gradually disperse.

In the end, under the tide of the times, it gradually disappeared in the irreversible process of the city dominating the countryside with the development of industry and commerce.

but now……

China and France cooperated to capture Gibraltar and wanted to send back a large number of British prisoners.And there will inevitably be spies inserted by the French.

At that time, the Tory Party, which was already dying, will rise again.

Even, it is really possible to stand up and lead the way. After all, a large-scale uprising was planned in 45 years.

As long as...the condition given by the French is to let the Stuart family return instead of the French occupying Britain by themselves, then the Tories will definitely welcome the king.

From an economic point of view, in recent years, the life of the Tories, mainly gentry and landlords, has really not been easy.

All kinds of prohibitions make it impossible for them to share the benefits in trade.

Various consumption taxes, monopoly franchises, etc. have made their living costs continue to increase.

A country gentry needs to be respectable, tea must be drunk, porcelain must be placed in the house, wine must be drunk, sugar must be eaten, and the recently popular Liaodong tussah silk quilt must be bought...

These things are either franchises or heavy taxes, which makes them really sympathize with smugglers in concept.

In addition, they were excluded from the cabinet and some key positions, and they were squeezed out everywhere. They only had extensive influence in the countryside, but the weird constituency system and the property registration system prevented them from gaining the majority of voice in the parliament. .

Discrimination over the years and the suppression of party struggles have made them full of resentment.

It is said that George III has obtained the political legacy left to him by his father who died early: the promise made to the Tories at the beginning will break the party disputes in the future and cancel the restrictions on the Tories not being allowed to join the cabinet.

Even, he studies English hard.

All the nobles knew that George III really knew English.

However, once this political heritage is not used properly, it will arouse even greater anger.

Now, the Tories are celebrating the death of George II, hoping that the successor of the crown prince they previously supported will fulfill the original promise.

If it is fulfilled, everything is fine.

If not honored...

It is a kind of anger that I have not agreed all the time.

It is another kind of anger to promise, but not to keep it when the time comes.

George III and Lord Bute knew very well that once they took the throne, if they did not immediately show a clear attitude of abolishing party disputes and the ban on the Tory Party, then England, Scotland, and Ireland would really explode a big firework.

If the French hadn't mixed spies in this prisoner sending activity, it would be hell.But now it is impossible to refuse, because people don't want to fight anymore.

People did not want to continue the fight, which made Dashun and France send prisoners after they captured Gibraltar. They clearly knew that they were here to send spies, show off their power, and find the opposition, but they couldn't refuse when people didn't want to continue the fight.

Because, refusing them to come means expressing an emotion of "no negotiation, continue to fight".

The spies sent by the French were old acquaintances to those Tories.When the time comes, mix it up...

Britain may still be Britain.

But it was not the England of his Hanoverian family.

Therefore, in order to prevent this situation, George III's top priority is to show his "no partisanship" policy in the new cabinet and lift the ban on the Tory Party.

Let the Tory party see that this new king is really someone who can be trusted, an English-speaking Englishman, a king who can be used to suppress and retaliate against the Whigs.

And this... is easier said than done.

For the sake of the battle, no one is willing to take the blame.

Whoever comes to power will have a political life of no more than three years.

Continue to fight, to step down.

Make up quickly, or step down.

Moreover, even if you really make up your mind, you have to solve three problems immediately.

Is Hannover a core British interest?Will Britain continue to bleed for Hanover?

This is a pain point for him, the German king. As long as this problem is not resolved and an explanation is not given, there will be no follow-up.

The second question is how to repay the national debt?Pay or not?
It is true that the UK now owes more than 4 million taels of silver in national debt, but this thing can be repaid or not.

It's just that if you don't return it, it's easy to be screwed off.

If you want to pay back, you have to explain clearly, how can you pay back.

Is it a tax increase?
So who pays the tax?

Is it tariffs?
Or sell a monopoly?

In short, a clear statement must be given to ensure that the public believes that the money cannot be blinded and will definitely be paid back.

Peter fooled around before, relying on tea tax, sugar tax, cotton tax, monopoly rights, etc. to pay back, but now this promise, fools know that it has gone bankrupt.

This matter, even if the Ming Dynasty reformed the salt policy, you have to explain it to the merchants. In the future, you can use the hereditary salt to solve the problem of no one buying the salt.These things are all the same, and it must be made clear with real money, otherwise, the finances will collapse directly.

The third issue is the cabinet candidates.

The premise that the king wants to "eliminate party disputes" is that the king has to prove that under the leadership of the king, policies that are beneficial to Britain can be achieved.

If the king is incompetent, it is impossible to eliminate faction.

And the first cabinet candidate after he succeeds to the throne is very important.

This group of people must be able to resolve wars, sign peace treaties, resolve national debts, stabilize the economy, etc., and must also consider the proportion of candidates from various factions such as the Tory Party, the Whig Party, and the Patriots of the Whig Party.

In fact, under such circumstances, the "tariff and trade" issue that Dashun really wants is not a very serious issue.

At least, it is not at the forefront of the issues that George III has to consider.

As long as the Tory Party is stabilized and no one leads the way, generally speaking, the Strait is not so easy to cross, and the Channel Fleet can still guarantee the survival of Britain.

However, it would be hard to say without stabilizing the Tory Party, explaining how to repay the national debt, and making a clear statement on the Hannover issue.

The United Kingdom has always opposed the standing army because it has a navy to defend the strait, and the army is basically only used during political struggles.

The Sino-French fleet may not have crossed the strait.However, internal uprisings and resistance, as well as activities such as welcoming the king's teacher or deposing the king, the navy has no way to suppress it by sailing on land.

This time, the fact that China and France came to the UK with the prestige of Gibraltar's victory can be big or small.

If it is not handled well, the French spies will urge the Tories to revolt and welcome the return of the king.

If it is handled well, it will be a contact before a peaceful truce, to get a feel for the diplomatic attitudes of both sides, the bottom line, and what that weird Dashun, who joined the war, really wants.

Even, Lord Bute believes that Dashun is actually an enemy that can cooperate.At least, Dashun will not aim to support the restoration of Stuart, at most it will lose some money, trade, or something else.

Therefore, he thought that Dashun could be contacted and asked about conditions, so he agreed without being too outrageous.And as long as the people from Dashun withdraw, France will be unable to support itself, at least the fleet will not be able to cross the strait.

After all, in his opinion, it seems that there is no deep hatred between England and Dashun.

It's just that Lord Bute didn't, and certainly couldn't.There was a man in Dashun who dragged Dashun to participate in the First World War with a mentality of revenge.

(End of this chapter)