Xinshun 1730

Chapter 952 Surrender the Initiative

As for the "central faction" represented by Sir William Temple in the previous British internal debate...

In fact, just like England and China described by Voltaire, what they are talking about is not "China" at all.

Changing to "Utopia", "Ocean City", or "Utopia" makes no difference.

Just borrowed a skin.

Innuendo.

Use the past to describe the present.

Refers to Sang curse Huai.

It's basically something like this.

And here, there is precisely a very special national condition of the British domestic class.

The word "conservative" doesn't mean backsliding, it means trying to maintain the status quo.

Those who support free trade, parliament, and businessmen's rights are all conservatives—they must be extreme radicals in Dashun at this time, but they are conservatives in the UK, just reformers among conservatives.

And there is another class in Britain, the reactionaries.These British reactionaries, in Dashun, are conservatives.

Their claims can be known without thinking about them.That is: restore the royal power, the divine right of the king, and stop wasting national power by talking about the calf in the parliament all day long.

Besides the reactionaries, there are also the radicals.

The views of the radicals are rationality, natural philosophy, anti-religion, and moral governance.

When facing China's problems, a very strange scene appeared.

British reactionaries, British radicals, merged...

This is because the image of China at this time was all fabricated by themselves, and they made a target out of skins, and each took what he needed.

If you don’t know this point, based on your own understanding of Chinese history, you will think that the China they are talking about is the one you know, and you will definitely feel puzzled.

What is Hui Yiguo in "Gref's Travels" satirizing?
[The horses are curious: Since you people claim to be rational animals, then nature and reason are enough to teach us what to do and what not to do.Morality is derived from reason, so what is the use of religion? 】

Before the great storm in 93, before Notre Dame was converted into a sanctuary for the worship of reason...

Who is the country that these people fantasize about where "morality is derived from reason and there is no religion"?

Naturally, the [religion is limited to those who lead chariots and sell oats, and the scholar-bureaucrat class with both morality and learning does not believe in religion. What they advocate is the eternal way of heaven—the spirit of the world—and this does not require temples, idols, or priests.There, rationality and morality hand in hand emptied a certain country of religion.

Therefore, they are Hui Hui, horses, animals, and beasts.

But, not people.

The reactionaries stood up for the purpose of divinely empowering the king and strengthening the king's power.

Radicals govern the country based on rational natural philosophy, and do not need the purpose of state religion at all.

So the two sides merged to create an image of China that even non-Dashun Chinese like Liu Yu could not understand.

After seeing it, the three generations exclaimed, King Wen lamented, Duke Zhou shed tears, and the master sang loudly.

There are also some reactionaries who have a similar mentality to the reactionaries in Dashun at this time: with the progress of the times and the development of commerce, it will lead to old people, moral corruption, deception, luxury and lust, so they have to retreat.

Where to retreat and how to retreat, this requires an "Utopia".

The Dutch did not choose China as the straw man, because their elites made up a "Republic of Batavia", which carried everything they imagined: politics, morality, spirit, culture, and nation.

However, the United Kingdom chose a country that exists in reality, applied a beautiful filter, and polished it into an ideal country, carrying the politics, morality, spirit, and culture they imagined.

The difference between the two is caused by social consciousness relying on social existence.

The Netherlands was richer, and it was richer earlier; while the UK is still in the stage of getting richer but not yet richer, so they haven't made up their own Batavian mythology for the time being.

Waiting for the day when he really becomes the most wealthy in the world, he will definitely make up his own Batavia myth.

Of course, they are definitely not called Batavian myths, and later generations call them "Whig view of history".

Like the birth and disintegration of the Dutch mythology, this set of things was born in the 1820s after the end of the Second World War and Britain officially became the emperor of the earth, just like the Dutch Batavia myth was born in the most glorious era of the sea coachman.

In fact, whether it is the Dutch-style fantasy of an ancient golden age of the Batavian Republic, or the British-French-style fantasy of creating a real, prosperous and powerful foreign country, the essence is the same.

These two things are common now and will be common in the future. They are not uncommon and very easy to understand.

But at this time, the debate between the two sides of the British people, reactionaries, radicals, and conservatives, almost three parties are talking about Dashun, and each has its own reasons.It seems that some demons are dancing wildly.

True, false, fabricated, imagined, fused together, into a mess.

However, whether it is the "Batavian Myth" model or the "Perfect Foreign Model" actually reflects the country's international status from the side.

Since the UK is not qualified to use the "Batavian Mythology" model at this time, the debate between the three parties quickly came to a conclusion.

So far, the attitude towards Dashun and the evaluation of China have nothing to do with the facts.

It is already a question of "eat fish" or "don't eat fish".

Those who "do not eat fish" are loyal.

Those who "eat fish" are rebels.

The cargo ship Dashun docked in Amsterdam was the last straw that broke the debate.

Before, Dashun did not take the initiative to trade, and was passively treated as a "vampire" in their mouths.

Now this "vampire" wakes up, spreads his wings and flies to Europe.

The dazzling list of goods has also spread to the UK, and those practitioners who saw the samples and prices really panicked.

It was impossible for the East India Company to buy the best things out of profit priority.Coupled with its domestic policies, many commodities cannot be imported, and imported products cannot be sold.

Therefore, Dashun’s goods that can be exchanged for silver are not only tea, silk, and porcelain, but also many other goods that were previously blocked due to monopoly trade.

It is not to say that all these goods must be sold to the UK to have a huge impact on the British economy.

Britain's special aristocratic landowners and commercial union symbiosis made it necessary for them to maintain a large overseas market.

Dashun's active trade with Europe is also a kind of destruction to Britain.

Once this aristocratic landowner and commercial symbiosis is deprived of the overseas market, the UK's internal market alone cannot accommodate such a large production capacity.

Britain's population is here, as is its industrial strength. Its internal market is destined to be impossible to rely on the internal market.

However, in the face of Dashun's cargo ships and all kinds of high-quality and cheap goods on board, "cursing" and "swearing" alone cannot solve the problem.

In the face of possible dumping, the UK may not be familiar with it, but China has "rich experience" in history, and it can be summed up in two ways.

The first one, such as Yuan Baoheng, the uncle of President Yuan Da, proposed to address the opium problem:

[We will plant poppies in large areas to resist British opium.If force cannot ensure the autonomy of the customs, domestic products are used to drive out foreign products. When will British opium be unprofitable and unable to compete with local opium, which will lead to the bankruptcy of the opium planting industry in India? When will China completely ban opium?]

Can't control foreigners, can't control the common people?Foreigners can't control it, so it's easier to let foreigners feel unprofitable and withdraw, and then rectify the country's opium.

However, this method... can only be used for opium, not for things like cotton cloth and porcelain.

If you only look at the properties of opium as a commodity, growing it is not much more difficult than growing corn or wheat.As long as we let go, it is indeed possible to expel foreign goods in theory, not only in theory, but also in reality.

It's just that I only did the first step, and didn't do the second step...

But cotton cloth is different, or in other words, industrial products are different.

This method is equivalent to the solution "under the premise of maintaining foreign trade"-the late Qing Dynasty passively maintained the opium trade, because if they dared to close the door, they would be beaten.

Therefore, the essence of this method is to make the price of domestic goods lower than that of foreign countries on the premise of maintaining foreign trade, thereby forcing foreign countries to withdraw voluntarily.

That's why this method can only be used on things like opium, not on industrial products.

The enemy's dumping will lead to the bankruptcy of the country's factories, and it is impossible to survive under the competition.

If the UK can really bring the price and quality of cotton cloth to the same relative quality and cost as later Wanqing Beiyang native opium, it will be feasible.

But if it can be done like this, why worry about it?It's not that opium is harmful to cotton cloth, but it can be done vigorously.

But the British are aware of the huge difference in the quality and price of cotton cloth.

In history, the steam engine was invented in 1776, and a hundred years later, in 1876, machine weaving still could not completely defeat handicraft homespun.

Even with the end of the Two Crows, Indian cotton yarn entered China on a large scale and solved the "efficiency" problem of spinning and spinning, and a wave of local fabrics came back, reaching the highest production capacity of 5.78 million pieces in the old era.

If this method does not work, or the method of maintaining the premise of foreign import trade does not work, then we can only choose the second method.

The second is the orthodox approach.

violent machine.

Ensure customs autonomy and increase tariff protection.

If the fleet can decide to win the ocean, then it will win the ocean.

If the fleet can't win the ocean, then retreat to the customs fort.

In short, add a hood to cover yourself.Make sure that there is no external influence and dumping, and try your best to catch up with foreign products.

There is no mention of whether the internal market is large enough, or the relative excess production capacity in the UK, which lacks the European market, etc., that is a later story.It is only said that the violent means of the British government, at least at this time, cannot be used.

The Art of War says: strike halfway across.

Now Dashun is in a state of "half crossing" in Europe.

Not getting a firm footing.

If the British Navy does not hesitate to go to war, they will all be dispatched now, and the ships of the Dashun Western Trading Company will all have to be accounted for here.

Bet on the luck of the country.

With such a bet, Dashun will be discouraged, and will never dare to trade in the Atlantic Ocean again.

Afterwards, the two sides negotiated peace talks, and the UK replaced the Dutch position, and Dashun handed over the exclusive monopoly of the eastern trade product west of the Cape of Good Hope.

But Liu Yu is very cunning. He cooperated with Sweden to find the way before, and even though he had found the way clearly, he stayed at home all the time.

Holding back until both sides were exhausted in the war of Austrian succession, they suddenly made a move in an attempt to gain a foothold in Europe.

Then it shamelessly unraveled the cold winter of the Amsterdam financial market, causing a large amount of precious metal investment to flow to China, and did not hesitate to give a high interest rate of 7%.

Then it was very disgusting to make a muddle on the Lewisburg issue, so that the embarrassing status of the British royal family, the "Elector of Shinra", could not raise taxes amid the post-war grievances.

No money, no way to fight.

For Britain, going to war now is the last chance in Liu Yu's eyes.

As long as there is no war now, Liu Yu can celebrate - all his decisions that involve gambling are considered finished here, and the rest can be done step by step.

Because Liu Yu pulled up an armed neutral alliance in Europe.

The longer the time dragged on, the more stable the foundation of Dashun in Europe, the greater the bargaining chip for the Armed Neutral Alliance.

"Neutrality" itself is not a bargaining chip.

But adding the word "armed" in front of "neutral" is a huge bargaining chip.

Therefore, the choice of Britain was actually locked by Liu Yu.

There are only two options.

Or, go to war now.

Or, they can only give up the initiative to start the war to Dashun.

Very simple, if Britain and France go to war again:
The British chose "the neutrality of the Chinese is probably unreliable, grandma's, by the way, declare the armed neutral alliance together"?
Or will they choose "I hope they can maintain a neutral stance, and don't provoke them too much, and don't even give them any excuse for war"?

This is not a matter of believing or not, but must believe and must believe wishfully.

However, instead of choosing half-crossing and betting on the national fortune, the British had to fall into Liu Yu's trap.

Belief in neutrality does not mean doing nothing.

It is about grabbing space on the fringes without breaking out into a full-scale conflict.

This fringe area is India.

For Britain, even if the interests of the East India Company are not discussed, only the pure national geostrategy is concerned. With the recovery of Dashun, the importance of India has rapidly increased.

As long as they are still neutral in Dashun, and they are still digesting the time in Southeast Asia, and win India, Britain will have the basis for an all-out confrontation with Dashun in the future.

Otherwise, each will play its own way: only stay in the Atlantic Ocean, and Chinese products cannot go to the UK, but they can go to Europe through various middlemen, and the UK can't make any real threats or countermeasures against Dashun.

In terms of economy, feeling the huge gap between Eastern and Western textiles, the British are convinced that they will not be able to catch up for at least 30 years—30 years, a manifestation of the British’s overconfidence—then only Oriental textiles can defeat Eastern textiles.

In the east, only India can weave cotton cloth and its technology can compete with Dashun.

If the popularity of cotton cloth is inevitable, and if the European cotton textile industry lags behind the East for decades, then the best solution is to control India and squeeze Dashun’s European market with Indian cotton cloth to maintain British commercial interests.

There are some things that cannot be helped.

When Dashun's textiles entered Europe, British woolen exports would definitely decline. The navigation regulations could control the mainland and colonies, but they could not control those European countries to buy cotton cloth.

Since this is inevitable, defeating oriental commodities with oriental commodities has become the only option.

At least, the money in shipping trade is still earned by the country.The development of shipping trade means that the navigation industry will not decline, so at least it can ensure that the mainland and colonies will not be dumped.

Ordinarily, at this time, there is also a way to break the situation.That is to give India to France in an all-round way, causing conflicts between France and Dashun to drive a wedge between China and France.

However, this is not a decision that a good politician can make, it has to be a prophet...

(End of this chapter)