The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 84 The British Worries
"Yes, the people of Qi have shown strong hostility towards us in England."

A carriage marked with the British Legation had just left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qi. Seated in the car were the English Minister to Qi, Viscount Chartres and his deputy, Foreign Affairs Counselor Cress McCann.The carriage was large and luxuriously decorated. Not only did it have comfortable soft couches, but it also had a small pantry stocked with wine, cans, and pastries.

But the minister with a sad face had no intention of enjoying the wine. He sat on the sofa and said gloomily: "I think they are very likely to take the opportunity to launch a war against us in England."

"Your Excellency, the people of Qi will not provoke a war so rashly, right?" Cress McCann was shocked when he heard this, "You know, Hanzhou is tens of thousands of miles away from England, how can they dare to cross the vast Indian Ocean and across the Atlantic Ocean, all the way to Europe to launch a war against us?”

"No, the people of Qi are not far from us in England." Chartres Tran shook his head and said: "They have navies of varying sizes in South Africa, Guinea, the former Spanish Canary Islands, Morocco and other places. Base. They can even project forces to the Mediterranean region through Egypt."

"Even so, I still don't think Qi can threaten the security of our English homeland." Cress McCann said: "In the past hundreds of years, we have experienced the heyday of Spain, and also experienced the decline of the Netherlands. Global maritime supremacy has also faced the aggressive Louis XIV, but no foreign army has ever been able to invade our English homeland. It has not happened before, it will not happen now, and it will not happen in the future!"

"However, the Qi people will threaten our overseas trade in England. With their naval strength, even if they cannot cut off our Atlantic route, they can definitely destroy our most important Mediterranean trade. What makes us even more painful is that we in England have worked so hard The Eastern trade that has been operating for hundreds of years will inevitably be completely cut off."

"But, at this time, aren't the people of Qi intervening in the Persian Civil War? Could it be that they will provoke another war at the same time without ending one war? This is a very unwise behavior!"

"But the attitude of the people of Qi is extremely tough, almost giving us an ultimatum in England." Chartres Truong said gloomily: "If we fail to give the people of Qi a satisfactory answer to the conflict in the Gulf of Guinea, they will definitely Radical and decisive measures will be taken. Among them, the risk of war cannot be ruled out. With the strong financial resources of the people of Qi, they should be able to carry out two small-scale wars at the same time."

"When it comes to financial resources, I think all countries in the world will be filled with deep jealousy of the Chinese government. It is unimaginable that their annual fiscal revenue can be as high as 2 million yuan. ... Oh, how much does this cost in pounds? Woolen cloth?"

"Probably more than 1 million pounds..." Chartel Trond said quietly.

"Oh, God, the government's revenue is 1 million pounds a year! This is twenty times the government's revenue in the Kingdom of England! I don't think the Qi people need to use artillery shells to attack us, they can just use money Knock us down!”

You must know that before 1688, British public expenditures never exceeded 200 million pounds per year. However, from 1688 to 1702, due to frequent European wars, the government's annual expenditures soared to between 500 million and 600 million pounds.The sharply expanding war expenditure far exceeded the national fiscal revenue. For this reason, the United Kingdom had to borrow heavily.

However, its traditional lending methods are only applicable to short-term loans. The government issues tax deeds, naval bonds, and military coupons to creditors to mortgage the tax revenue of the year. When the tax revenue flows into the national treasury, the creditors can exchange these promissory notes. Thereby obtaining their principal and interest.When income fails to keep pace with expenses and the gap between the two grows wider, short-term debt accumulates.

We still remember that in 1693, the amount of short-term debt of the Kingdom of England government was close to 600 million pounds, which posed a serious threat to the government's credit system.The interest on short-term loans is high and it is difficult to defer repayment, so the financial situation facing the Royal Government is very serious.

At present, the revenue of the Government of the Kingdom of England is increasingly dependent on increasing indirect taxes such as domestic excise duties, customs duties and stamp duties.For the most important direct tax, land tax, counties and municipalities have been allocated according to their contribution in 1693 rather than the current regional prosperity. As a result, the tax does not take into account the economic adjustments and changes in major regions in the past century, nor does it reflect The increase in tax burden levels during this period.This has resulted in tax revenues that have not kept pace with economic growth, and the tax burden has fallen primarily on the poor.

To this end, the English government began to turn to long-term borrowing to save the precarious fiscal expenditure.Long-term borrowing is not an invention of the British. During the same period, Qi State and even the Netherlands, a major European financial country, had already used it as a relatively mature financial tool.

When William III came to England, he and his Dutch financial advisors introduced this financial method of long-term borrowing to Britain.In order to meet the urgent financial needs of the time, 30 years ago (1692), the British Parliament carried out long-term borrowings for the first time using parliamentary taxes as security.

In addition to this, the British government also borrowed money from the public by issuing lottery tickets with a gambling nature. The denominations of the lottery tickets were small (10 pounds or 100 pounds), so they were very attractive.The payment period of the bonus can extend for many years. For example, when the Millionaire Lottery was issued in 1694, it was stipulated that as long as you buy a lottery ticket, you will receive a bonus of 16 pound every year for the next 1 years.If the lottery is successful, the ticket holder will receive £10 per year, with a maximum prize of £100.The Mega Millions lottery successfully raised £100 million for the government.

The English government also obtained long-term borrowings from chartered companies, notably the Bank of England, the East India Company, and the South Sea Company.Since joint stock companies enjoy privileges and monopolies granted by the government, in order to obtain these concessions, the company generally provides funds to the government in exchange. For example, in 1698, as a reward for the charter issued to the New East India Company, the latter provided annual interest to the government. 8% on a long-term loan totaling £100 million.

During the reign of Queen Anne, most of the long-term bonds issued by the government were almost all subscribed by the Chartered Trading Company. At this point, there was a striking consistency with the buyer's market for Qi's bonds.By 1720, the three major British chartered trading monopolies had actually provided the government with loans of more than 1300 million pounds. This amount accounted for 60% of the government's long-term borrowings and 35% of the total borrowings (including long-term and short-term). .

Therefore, in many foreign trade policies, the Royal Government of England is more or less influenced by these three chartered companies.

In addition to a large amount of taxes and medium- and long-term treasury bonds, the annual profit dividends of large trading companies held and owned by the government also account for a large proportion of Qi's fiscal revenue. This makes the Qi government never seem to be short of money. Worried.

In contrast, the heavily indebted British government was naturally jealous of the Qi State, which had unusually abundant financial resources. "Actually, I am not frustrated by the huge gap in economic strength between England and Qi, because they not only have stronger industrial manufacturing, but also occupy a vast market. More importantly, they have It controls more population resources than any country in the world." Chartres Tran shook his head and said: "Therefore, when a war may break out between our two countries, I am more worried about our military. . Yes, not only our navy, but also our army, can they assume the responsibility of protecting England's homeland security and overseas interests when facing the threat of war launched by Qi?"

"If we fight a limited maritime war, we in England should have more than [-]% chance of winning by virtue of our European domestic advantages." Cress McCann thought for a while and said optimistically: "As for the land war, I don't think Qi will frantically launch a large-scale landing war against us in England. Otherwise, our brave English soldiers will definitely let the Qi people shed the last drop of blood on the beach!"

"Dear Kress, you underestimate the combat effectiveness of Qi's army." Chartres Tran glanced at the other party, "Although Qi's army does not have as many people as the French army, their armies are all a group of troops that have been trained for many years. It consists of professional soldiers who have been trained and have a lot of practical experience. And what about the navy and the army that we in England rely on?"

Although the European military during this period was frequently involved in wars, it was still relatively chaotic and "rough" in terms of system construction and standardization.

Many countries will laugh at the Tsarist Russian army, thinking that their soldiers are poorly treated, poorly equipped, and poorly trained. In war, they will only use turbulent human sea offensives and huge casualties to overthrow their enemies one by one.

In fact, the European armies at this time all had the same moral character. The eldest brother should not laugh at the second brother.

Although the British army showed great resistance in the Anglo-Dutch War, the War of Heritage, and the War of Spanish Succession, it repeatedly united with its allies to defeat its opponents.However, after the war, the British army is often cut by half by members of Congress, and the soldiers are sent to the countryside and cities to continue to serve as coolies for the noble lords.

Although, more than 40 years ago, the British Army and Navy followed the Qi State's officer training model and built several army and naval schools, using regular graduates of military academies to serve as officers at all levels.But throughout the army, the officer auction system still exists, and a large number of mid- to high-level officers are still controlled by the nobles.

As for who the main soldiers of the British Army are?Landless peasants, urban vagrants, Irishmen, gangsters, thieves, beggars and vagrants.In many cases, local gentlemen viewed conscription as a good deed to improve the local security environment, so only a small number of soldiers were volunteers with family connections.

In addition to undergoing rigorous training, British Army soldiers also have to do odd jobs in their spare time to make ends meet.Yes, the meager military pay issued by the government cannot meet the basic needs of a soldier, let alone support his family.

As for the Kingdom of Prussia, a militaristic country that increasingly "struggles to save its troops", its military construction is not much better.Although Friedrich Wilhelm I was a stern and extremely powerful warrior king, he pushed the rigor of military training to the extreme and created the "Prussian spirit" of "obey, obey, and obey again".

He initially required the Prussian soldiers to train for three months, but later at the strong request of the Junker nobles, this time became two months.In the remaining 3 months, the commanders of the Junker aristocracy will allow a large number of local soldiers to take leave.These soldiers who took leave did not receive wages, and their wages went into the pockets of officers at all levels.In addition to embezzling military pay, Juncker officers also required soldiers who asked for leave to work on their estates and workshops.

France, which claims to be the leader of the European continent, well, the situation of its military is not optimistic. It is also very different from other countries. It is only by relying on its strong national power and superior military strength that it can run rampant in Europe and almost establish European hegemony. .

It can be said that during this period, the armies of various European countries only needed a battlefield tool man who could shoot and fight. The soldiers did not need to think, nor did they need to possess any culture or spirit.Even the Prussian army, which was famous for its discipline, had the highest desertion rate in Europe.

Looking back at the Qi army, not only are all the officers professional soldiers who graduated from regular military academies, but the soldiers are also carefully selected from a large number of soldiers. The scary thing is that this country implements a comprehensive compulsory military service system. , theoretically speaking, has millions of high-quality soldiers.After their soldiers join the army, they will undergo rigorous military training for more than three months before being assigned to their respective units.

Moreover, it seems that the Qi army has never suffered a defeat since its establishment.Whether they faced the powerful Dutch East India Company when they were weak, or decades ago when they crossed thousands of miles of sea territory to conquer the subcontinent's overlord Mughal Empire, they all achieved complete victory.

Over the years, European countries have fought one war after another. It was not until the death of the proud Louis XIV that the whole of Europe gradually stopped and licked its bloody wounds.Nowadays, which country is not extremely poor, probably only lives alone, and the people of Qi who do business everywhere make a lot of money and their pockets are bulging.Domestic trading companies have received large orders, factories are operating at full capacity, bosses are beaming when counting money, and workers have received large bonuses. The entire country is in a prosperous atmosphere, and living standards are constantly improving.

It is no wonder that many people with certain status and skills in European countries are willing to cross the ocean to live in Hanzhou even if they feel they have different religious beliefs.

To be honest, the past ten years have really been England's golden period of development. Various industries have been booming. Factories have begun to use steam engines on a small scale. Not only does steel production account for a huge part of Europe, but other industrial and agricultural products are also sold everywhere. The wealth of society as a whole is increasing rapidly.Even though most of the new wealth was taken away by businessmen and factory owners, the workers also shared some dividends. Therefore, the situation in the entire country was relatively stable. Except for some minor disturbances in some parts of Ireland from time to time, most areas were in a stable state. Called stable.

But if he were to fight against the "rich and powerful" Qi State, Viscount Chartres, who was well aware of the gap in strength between the two countries, was still full of worries.

"The best choice for us in England is to avoid war with Qi as much as possible. Otherwise, it will be an unspeakable tragedy for us in England."

(End of this chapter)