Xinshun 1730

Chapter 830 The Hague Tragedy ([-])

When a country is reduced to "fighting for war's sake", it proves that the country's decision-making body has gone awry.

Kang Bushao actually agrees with Anthony's statement about the "buffer zone". In the case of the Netherlands, it is indeed difficult to deal with France's huge cultural advantages.

Anti-French subjugation.

If you don't fight against the law, you will perish "the world".

During these years in the Netherlands, he often read the comments of the cultural elites in the Netherlands. In order to prevent the cultural invasion and erosion of France, the Dutch elites have even come up with the rhetoric that "the most suitable etiquette is slavery". .

However, the Netherlands did it by itself. It could have led a new cultural system in the industrial and commercial era with extremely developed handicrafts and commerce, and could be the leader of this new era of culture.

But the Netherlands' own business has killed its own industry, so it can't be blamed for being invaded by the classical French aristocratic court culture.

Of course, in addition to culture, France's economic control, trade policy, and France's own overseas trade issues must also be considered.If France can get the Austrian Netherlands and directly threaten the Netherlands, the French will definitely turn to France in terms of trade. It is impossible for internationalism to stop developing trade and give it all to the Netherlands.

Therefore, although he satirizes the Netherlands, he agrees with the strategy of the Netherlands to ensure the buffer zone in the early stage.

But, still the same sentence, at this moment and at that moment, the Dutch's previous inertia caused the Dutch to gain nothing in this war except for failure.

While the British were devouring Canada and India, the Netherlands had to stare helplessly at the French invasion at their doorstep.

Anthony on the side, after being choked by Kang Bubai for a while, sighed sincerely: "This moment, that moment. Not only strategy is like this, but justice is also like this."

"The Marquis you are loyal to, to some extent, should be the one who understands the Netherlands best. Because his approach is the same as ours."

"When the Spaniards and Portuguese monopolized the trade between Asia and America, what we like to say in the Netherlands is free trade, freedom of navigation, natural law, and the sea belongs to all mankind."

"But when we got the monopoly in Southeast Asia, what we opposed most was the school of law of the sea derived from free trade, freedom of navigation, and natural law."

"The Marquis you are loyal to has always advocated free trade and freedom of navigation. But when your country took over Southeast Asia, didn't you also start to oppose free trade and freedom of navigation?"

"So, can you say that your country has now acquired Southeast Asia, so was it wrong for the Marquis to shout about free trade and freedom of navigation? Was it stupid? It can be said that the reason for shouting about free trade and freedom of navigation was for the sake of Later, smuggling in Southeast Asian countries created the basis for justice of speech, so shouldn’t he come to Amsterdam to talk about free trade?”

"The flagship of the trading company that your country cooperates with Sweden is called Free Trade. Now she is cruising in Southeast Asia where free trade is strictly prohibited in your country. Don't you think this is a great irony?"

"It's just one moment and another moment. You can't use the current situation to blame past decisions."

If Liu Yu were here, he would have shamelessly patched this up: the Nanyang countries pay tribute, and vassals are tributes, and tributes are high-level forms of vassals.In this way, Nanyang is the territorial sea, not the high seas. How can it be free to navigate and trade casually?

Kang Buxio felt that he had an unofficial identity, so there was no need to say this diplomatic rhetoric, so he smiled and said, "Your Excellency, the Great Speaker, can think so, but he is a person who can communicate. I just sigh, when the first emperor was looking forward to the eternal life, he must have Unexpectedly, the second died. The empire has no eternity, and the power has no eternity."

"Since your Excellency the Great Speaker is well aware of the truth of this moment and that moment, it is easier to say something."

Hearing that Kang Buxio wanted to take the initiative to say something real, Anthony hurriedly asked: "What is your country's attitude towards the Netherlands and the war between France and the Netherlands?"

"As far as your country is concerned, you have already got everything you can get. We will not be able to retake India, Ceylon and Southeast Asia without signing the treaty. And with your country's diplomatic attitude, even if the Netherlands does not recognize it, Russia, Countries such as France and Prussia will also recognize your country's occupation of those places."

"For Europeans, the war is not over."

"But for your country, this war is over."

"You have already driven out our merchants in Japan as the French did to us in Seville; now you have seized our colonies as we did to the Portuguese."

"Neither you nor I are people with official status. There is no need to say too much diplomatic rhetoric, such as justice, jurisprudence, etc. Since we can deal with the Portuguese like that, of course you can deal with us like this. If we fail, we admit defeat. "

"I don't think it's worth fighting over Taiwan and Zhoushan during the Ming Empire. If the decision-makers of your country are fanatical, irrational, and true patriots who don't consider interests, then the one who started the war shouldn't It's Batavia, it's the Philippines."

At this point, in fact, it is not only an admission of defeat, but also an admission of cowardice.

The Netherlands is now completely powerless to regain Southeast Asia. Even though some Dutch people may think so, Anthony, who has actually been to Dashun, will never think so.

For expeditions across continents, with the current level of technology, 2000 people is the limit, and sending more than 2000 at one time is a disaster.Britain's failure in America this time is a good proof of this point.

Including the Philippines, where Britain seems to have won, if Dashun hadn’t opened up ports to supply supplies and provide sailors, it would have been a disaster—Dashun’s naval development over the years allowed the British to obtain cables and canvas in Lingdingyang , ship tinkers, nautical wine, gunpowder, sailors on long voyages and other urgently-needed supplies, plus the sky-defying black technology H2 nautical clock on the Centurion.

Looking at East and Southeast Asia, Dashun is the only country that has such a replenishment capability, and going to war with it means that there is no chance of replenishment.It is not just a random port that can collect all kinds of materials needed by the navy.

The 2000 extreme delivery capacity of the Netherlands is for food delivery in Dashun.

What he meant was: you have everything you can get, and you can't get what you can't get.In this case, why do you refuse to negotiate peace with Holland?What exactly do you want?You don't really want to fully support French hegemony, do you?
But the point is, to fully support the hegemony of France, at this moment, it seems that apart from "revenge on Taiwan and Zhoushan in the past", there is really no other benefit to Dashun.

And this reason, in Anthony's view, is really too nonsense.

In his opinion, at least 5 to [-] Nanyang Chinese died during the migration process due to Liu Yu's Ceylon Trojan horse trick.He didn't care about the deaths of these [-] to [-] people, so how could he care about something that happened more than a hundred years ago?

Kang Buxiu understood what he meant, and thought, no, it's not.We have one more thing we want, but you haven't given it yet.

"Your Excellency, the Great Speaker, the consideration of the Celestial Court has its own reasons. Indeed, it is not any of the reasons you mentioned."

"However, now we don't consider the purpose of the Celestial Dynasty. As the former Great Speaker, as the helmsman of the Dutch ship and the driver of the sea carriage, I would like to ask your Excellency, if the crisis in the Netherlands is lifted this time, what do you want What does the future look like for the Netherlands?"

"Just like during the War of Spanish Succession, based on the national strength at that time, there were prospects for the lowland areas and Spanish colonial trade. Although it failed, as you said, these prospects did match the national strength at that time .”

"And now? In this situation, if the Netherlands escapes this crisis, with the current national strength and situation, what is your vision for the future of the Netherlands?"

He asked this question because he wanted to lead the question to the issue of "the future of the Netherlands lies in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War".

However, this question caused Anthony to make a wry smile.

It took a long time to squeeze out a word from the obscure and stiff smile.

"The Netherlands... has no future."

"The Regency faction, the Parliamentary faction, the Orange faction, all factions have a basic consensus: the future of the Netherlands lies in first solving the problem of centralization and truly integrating the seven provinces into one."

"However, the issue of the proportional tax of each province has been held for two years, and nothing has been resolved; before the East India Company went bankrupt, in order to compete for shares, the provinces of Zeeland and Amsterdam were intriguing..."

"The Netherlands has a small population, small land, and the financial return rate is higher than factory investment. We are all aware of these problems."

Speaking of this, he raised his eyes to look at Kang Bushao, and said with a wry smile: "We are not fools, and there are no fools who can climb to the position of Great Speaker."

"However, between seeing the problem and achieving the future, there is the most important 'problem solving'."

"The way of the Netherlands, one is centralization, and the other is business."

"If you don't centralize power, you won't be able to get trade rights, and you won't be able to compete with Britain and France. You will be suppressed by the "Navigation Regulations" and France's high tariffs. But the fact that we don't centralize power makes it impossible for us to gather a navy to defend our trade. .”

"Without commerce, the Netherlands has no other way out. The handicraft industry is limited by population and resources. It cannot compete with Britain and France, and even Prussia and Russia will surpass us. It can only rely on commercial trade."

"But centralization is what all business oligarchs hate the most. And business oligarchs oppose centralization, but they control business."

"The centralization of power is opposed by the commercial oligarchy; the development of commercial trade is supported by them, but how can competition be developed without centralization?"

"Capital will even flee to the UK. The purpose of centralization is to develop commercial trade, but even the capital that develops commercial trade has been scared away. What is the use of centralization?"

"Wars cannot be fought for the sake of wars. Centralization cannot be centralized for the sake of centralization."

"You have to know that it is useless for the Marquis to shout about free trade in Amsterdam. What is really useful is your country's battleships and marines. Without them, there will be no free trade. And they need a centralized government. , A government that can mobilize national resources.”

"This is an unsolvable problem. If it can be solved, my predecessors—including the previous Great Speakers and several strongmen from the Orange family, they are all stronger than me. If they can't solve it, how can I solve it? "

"So, the Netherlands has no future. It can only decay slowly."

"There is at least one person in the history of the Netherlands who had the opportunity to do what Cromwell and Louis XIV did. But he didn't do it. Now the country is far worse than before, surrounded by powerful enemies, let alone the chance .”

"It's not that we are stupid enough to think that diplomacy can solve all problems. You must know that the golden age of the Netherlands was achieved by the fleet, not diplomacy. It's just that we don't have warships now, only diplomacy is left. We can only lie to ourselves, diplomacy can solve all problems, because if you don’t believe in yourself, how can others believe it?”

(End of this chapter)