Xinshun 1730

Chapter 890 Britain Falls into the Trap ([-])

The transfer of Eastern learning to the West and the transfer of Western learning to the East, like most cultural exchanges, must have a problem: there are exchanges of both the essence and the dross, and sometimes the essence and the dross are mixed together.

There is a saying that if you want so and so, you will get everything of so and so, which is probably the same.

This is how Xu Gui and Jiang Youren discussed about the special Catholicism in Dashun.

It can't be said that everything is rotten. Some things are ignored by the court, and someone will take care of them.Reactionary is not necessarily all bad, it is just a neutral descriptor.

It is not the first time that slogans such as returning the land to the public have been chanted. Even the northern Confucianists have many people trying to restore the well field system.

However, the imperial court didn't care about it, and it couldn't manage it, which naturally left some people with an opportunity to take advantage of.

It is difficult for Catholicism to spread without undergoing the magic reform with Chinese characteristics.After all, China is not America and black Africa like a cultural desert. It has a very splendid and profound local culture. The compromise after the fierce collision will of course produce many wonderful things.

Going back is bound to fail.

But history cannot be assumed.

The historical experience and lessons that can be summed up in a few simple words each time can be recorded as experience and lessons in Dashun's population size. If this road does not work, it is estimated that at least several million people will be affected, and a few dozen people will die. million people.

An ordinary mass uprising of tens of thousands of people in one state and one county is not even qualified for history books.

The problem lies here, and the court wants to solve it, but it is not impossible to solve it in theory.

But the reality is that there is no money, no ability, and no means to solve it.

Besides, the matter of Lingnan is not a simple, very traditional, pure land issue.It is a unique problem that has arisen in the new era, and it has almost never happened before.

A similar situation happened once in China. The decline of the Western Regions was caused by the rise of shipping, but it was a long process, and it was not the core area of ​​the previous rule. It's not too much interest, it's already a standard money-losing product.

This time it happened in the core area of ​​the dynasty, and Lingnan is of course the core area now.And it's not just about farmers, it also involves hundreds of thousands of non-agricultural people who have lost their jobs due to changes in trade routes.

Neither Jiang Youren nor Xu Gui knew about these issues. They did not have such a perspective, nor did they conduct a social survey.

Jiang Youren just tentatively expressed some of his own ideas, and Xu Gui also supported this very much, thinking that it is indeed a good way to use Macau as a base to train some missionaries from the Tang Dynasty to go deep into the mainland.

The appearance of a Westerner will attract vigilance, and the government is easy to catch.Not every place can develop into a Dominican in Fujian, where the local people dig cellars and swear to protect the missionaries.

The premise of this idea is precisely that Macau cannot be taken back by Dashun, and continue to be used as a den, eroding and influencing the interior from afar.

From Jiang Youren's perspective, the Macau issue is related to the future of Jesus Christ in Dashun.

Naturally, after being reprimanded by the magistrate of Xiangshan this time, Jiang Youren was worried that Macau might not be safe.

Therefore, he feels that, no matter what, the best possibility this time is to completely break up with the opium dealers and the human trade. As long as Macau can be kept, those can or should be abandoned.

Keeping Macau is the highest priority.

On this point, he reached a justifiable consensus with the council, military leaders, and churches in Macau.

…………

It is different from these people who feel that Macao should be preserved no matter what, whether it is for trade, wealth, or missionary purposes.

The British East India Company didn't care whether Macau was taken back.

What they care about is another matter of life and death.

Half of the opium seized this time was obtained by the British in India.

Although a lot of formal things have been done, the procedure seems to have nothing to do with the British East India Company.

however.

Reason is closely related to national power.

If the national power of Dashun was so weak that Britain felt that Dashun would be able to fight all over the country with the help of an expedition, it would have stopped talking nonsense and sent troops to question the crime: Why did China seize our cargo ships and confiscate legal opium?

However, now that the national strength is not to mention the expedition to Dashun, even if it is fought in India, Britain will not be able to take advantage of it. How dare you talk about it at this time?

Although many insurances have been made in the procedure, the opium dealers are asked to write a statement that they will not sell it to China, and they quietly tell the opium dealers that something happened is your own business, so don't reveal the company.

But Fazakley, the plenipotentiary representative of the British East India Company in China, who is a China hand, understands that these things are simply nonsense and meaningless in Dashun.

Reason has an egg?Dashun is setting up a trading company to Europe with great fanfare. Obviously, Dashun is taking the opportunity to make trouble to restrict the trade of the British East India Company.

How stupid is Dashun? What kind of procedural justice is he talking about at this time, saying that this matter really has nothing to do with the East India Company?Then happily let Britain continue to trade, and take away the trade share of the Western Trading Company formed by its own people?

Besides, the person in charge of this matter, in Fazaklei's opinion, is the most cunning and insidious official in Dashun.And silly, it's too far away.

Of course, the British East India Company did not care about Macau, missionary work, or population trading. It could even temporarily stop the opium trade by abandoning the army.

However, trade with China must not be hit.

After the George Anson incident that year, everyone knew that Liu Yu had an unreasonable dislike for Britain, and even some British people suspected that Liu Yu was a hidden Catholic who was close to France from the perspective of the old religion.

Fazaklei was in charge of pitting the East India Companies in the Netherlands, France, Sweden and other countries in Guangzhou, and he has mastered a lot of basic skills for activities in Dashun.When envoys from various countries came to Beijing, he also strongly advocated giving more gifts, and spent more than 1 pounds on public relations gifts.

Fazaklei thought that the idea that Liu Yu was a secret Catholic was pure nonsense, but he knew that Liu Yu's attitude towards Britain was indeed not very good, and he also knew that Liu Yu was very close to the French.

His worries soon became reality.

With the opening of Songjiang Prefecture, in order to facilitate the management of Dashun, some general agents of commercial halls in various countries cannot be located in Macau, some in Guangzhou, and some in Songjiang.Coupled with the fact that the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are conducive to trade, the British business hall has also signed up for Shanghai County in Songjiang Prefecture long ago.

It stands to reason that interrogation takes time.

But in fact, the Fujian teaching case was an unexpected and unexpected situation, but the opium issue had been on Dashun's side for a long time, in order to allow Sino-Dutch United Trading Company to have a good start in European trade this year.

Therefore, as soon as Liu Yu was on his way to Macau, the troops mobilized by Dashun from the camp of Songjiang Mansion marched into Shanghai and Songjiang Mansion, and sealed off the shops in Songjiang Mansion.

A spy who was in Macau because of the Boyer Army had already caught the handle of the British.

The second is because the emperor felt that evidence was not a problem at all.Even if there is really no evidence of the British participation in opium smuggling can be obtained by the methods of the child army.

In Dashun, there is only whether the emperor wants evidence, not whether he can find evidence.Even domestic affairs sometimes don't need evidence, and it's just for face.

Detain the merchant ships of Songjiang Mansion first, and seal up the merchant houses. As for the evidence, we will talk about it later.

The British envoy in Tianjin also hurried to Songjiang Mansion to try to deal with the matter.

When discussing how to solve this matter with the Minister, to everyone's surprise, Fazaklei did not yell at Dashun, nor did he talk about Dashun's laws without any evidence.

Instead, he opened up the mode of speaking out to some people in the UK, and these people who scolded were not politicians, but some "literati".

"Daniel Defoe, is a novelist. The only place he can be praised is that he created "Robinson Crusoe."

"As a novelist, perhaps his words have some truth in the novel world."

"But Defoe knows shit about commerce and trade?"

"Defoe says that with the Prohibition of Oriental Cotton Cloths in 1700, the unemployment of textile workers in London, Norwich, and Canterbury disappeared, and the prosperity of the textile industry in the past was restored."

"However, he doesn't understand at all that the development of commerce and industry requires competition!"

"Those lazy textile workers, without the competition of Indian and Chinese cotton cloth, will only become more lazy and have no motivation to continue to improve textile technology."

"If this continues, how can the British textile industry progress? In the long run, only by abolishing the ban on cotton cloth and increasing imports of oriental cotton cloth can we promote the progress of our country's textile industry!"

"I can say responsibly that Defoe took money from those textile mill owners! As a writer, he used shameless pen and ink to damage the interests of the company and the legitimate interests of honest people engaged in business!"

"These writers of novels, taking advantage of their popularity and voice in the public, received political donations to speak for their masters behind the scenes, seriously interfering in the formulation of national policies!"

"And Jonathan Swift who wrote "Gref's Travels"! He is an Irish independent at all, a Tory who has been working to weaken the British Kingdom!"

"What does he know about trade? What is tariff? He uses his fame to oppose the reduction of tea tariffs. The company didn't give him money, so he won't say anything nice about the company!"

"He is obviously a French spy, and what he advocates and believes in is Colbert's set of domestic alternative plans."

These words, of course, were sprayed in front of the British ambassador to China.

These words sprayed are basically the unparalleled resentment of the East India Company over the years.

These two people have a great say in the UK because they are well-known writers with a large number of readers before the censorship bill.In this era of paper and pen, and information is not decentralized, these people who have the right to speak have great power among the people.

Although, of course, the East India Company also spent money to hire people, such as hiring some people to write articles such as "Trade Theory", "On the Benefits of the Elimination of Tariffs to the National Economic Development", "The Similarities and Differences Between Woolen Cloth and Cotton Cloth".

But the men employed were not famous enough to achieve great influence at all.

Contrary to the misunderstanding of some people in later generations, the East India Company was a standard comprador company at the beginning.

At least until now, the East India Company has refused to bring British textiles to China, because it will bring at least 20 pounds of losses to the company every year. The matter of the Indian Company; being forced to ship woolen cloth to China, the interests of the East India Company were lost.

If the company hadn't been forced by the government to buy part of the wool, it would rather come to China with empty ships.

Four years ago, the members of the East India Company lobbied in the Congress, and they also strived to "abolish the cotton tariff and increase competition, so as to promote the progress of the domestic textile industry. Otherwise, tariff protection can only support a group of textile owners and textile workers who do not want to make progress." .

Their reasons are exactly what Liu Yu advocated:
[Through the above evidence, we can clearly and intuitively see that the price of our linen and woolen cloth has dropped by 12% because of the trade in oriental cotton cloth, which has enabled the people to obtain cheap cloth and improved the living standards of the British people] .

[With the 1700 Eastern Cotton Cloth Trade Prohibition Act, we can see from the data that the prices of woolen cloth and linen have increased significantly, which has greatly damaged the interests of the British people, making the people pay more shillings for their clothes.And it has contributed to the decadence of woolen textile owners in London, Canterbury and other places who do not think about making progress, and has fed too many lazy workers. 】

In fact, when Britain had the qualifications and industrial strength to trade freely and export industrial products, it quickly disbanded the East India Company.

If you think about it, you can know how a company that relies on "monopolizing the franchise of oriental commodities" can be a boost to the country's industrial development?If you think about it with your ass, you can know that this is an obstacle-a company that franchises imported cotton cloth will support the domestic textile industry?Is it true that all shareholders are saints who do not seek self-interest for the rise of the country?
Defoe and Swift, whom Fazakle raved about, and their guidance of public opinion caused the East India Company to lose more than 400 million pounds in trade and 1200 million taels of silver every year.

At least.

This is just a simple minimum estimate of Fazaklei.

He is a drunkard, he just wants to use these two people - one is a dead person, the other is an Irishman who is a Tory party and supports Irish independence, it is impossible to stand up and refute - to express his dissatisfaction with British policies , and hope that the minister in China can convey these words to the country.

Because, obviously, Dashun wants to use the opium issue to suppress the East India Company when Dashun is trying to open up active European trade.

The reason why Dashun suppressed instead of cooperating with the East India Company, in Fazaklei’s view, was that there were too many ideas like Defoe and Swift in Britain, advocating the development of domestic industry and the substitution of domestic industry. The "wrong country" literati.

These are two typical.

…… PS: Historically, the East India Company’s struggle for cotton cloth trade was quite painful.Those things that hired people to write are really a ghost, especially the "Trade Theory" that advocates the benefits of cotton cloth imports, I feel that even junior high school students are hard to convince.It is normal for comprador companies to spend money to buy gunmen and engage in lobbying.But the level is really inferior.

Defoe has a novel about China called "The Chronicles of the Moon", and the technique is indeed superb: the China in it is technologically powerful, morally noble, and far surpasses Europe.But in fact, it’s all because of the help of the lunar civilization—ironically, such a China has to be found on the moon, which doesn’t exist in reality.

This is a very standard British satire, but the most fundamental purpose is to "use the past to satirize the present" to oppose the European ethos of "why China is so powerful because of the absolute monarchy": hate the poor and love the rich, and then think Everything is a mentality caused by institutional reasons, which has existed since ancient times.

The reason why he opposed China was precisely because of his resentment against the comprador behavior of the East India Company, and he felt that Britain should develop its own textile industry and its own porcelain industry.And at that time, Chinese products represented high class... I think Defoe's mentality is very easy to understand. Can understand what kind of feeling it is, and it is easy for the post-[-]s to empathize with it.

Of course, the East India Company hated him very much. Historically, Defoe also relied on his own influence to try to promote the "totally ban the import of cotton cloth" law over and over again.The East India Company was about to cry at that time, can you not hate it?
Of course, in history, this was not caused by the subjective development of trade in the Qing Dynasty, but the objective foundation laid by thousands of hardworking weavers, porcelain workers, tea pickers and other working people, who can collect money while sitting at home People like Defoe have a broken mentality.

The subjective and the objective must be clearly distinguished, and the credit of the working people and the credit of the corrupt rulers must be clearly distinguished.

Just like Dashun in the story, does the ruler know how to regulate tariffs and protect the country's industries with a hammer?But the problem is the bottom line, even if customs duties are zero, Western woolens cannot be sold, so can it be said that Dashun has protected the development of the country's textile and handicraft industry with its superb trading methods?
This is like praising a person who has inherited billions of dollars, praising his business skills and sharp eyesight.But the problem is that even if he is an idiot, he can still be worth hundreds of millions. China in the 18th century was like this. Even under the rule of Emperor Hui of Jin, it was definitely the first in export volume and had an unlimited trade surplus.If you are sincere, you can go up to you, Sima’s heart can do it, sitting at home and waiting for the Europeans to send money, what ability do you need?
(End of this chapter)