Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1765 Trip to France and Harvest ([-])

The time has entered May 1678, and the wars that have lasted for several years have brought great casualties to the livelihood of the people of all countries. Even France, the leading power in Europe, cannot be spared from the disaster, not to mention that they have directly participated in this tragic, Costing countless wars.After the boat of Li Qing, the Special Envoy of the East Coast Republic of China to Europe, docked at the port of Calais, what he saw was a scene of people's livelihood dying, which surprised him very much.

You must know that the Port of Calais has been an important commercial port in northern France since the Middle Ages. It is an important trade center for England. Metal products, wool, woolen products, leather, paper, glass, and weapons from across the strait are continuously transported here. Then the wheat, wine, fruit, daily necessities and even luxury goods produced in France were transported back to London for distribution. The tariffs were soft, and the city's wealth was unmatched.

Later, even though the Capet family wiped out other princes, the Kingdom of France was de facto unified, and ports such as Le Havre, Nantes, and La Rochelle rose successively, and the importance of Calais decreased. The location is there, and part of the trade with England, the United Provinces and the Baltic Sea is still completed here, so the economic strength is still not to be underestimated, and the wealth of the residents is still very high.

But now?As far as what Li Qing saw near the wharf, the number of merchants has decreased significantly, but there are crowds of beggars. In addition, there are some small traders and brokers who seem to have nothing to do and wait for business to come to their door. It makes people think that this place is like a It's like an economic crisis.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with talking about the economic crisis, because it was only after chatting with the Marquis of Montespan who had been waiting here for Li Qing for half a month, that he knew a lot about the situation here.The Marquis of Montespan, who had a green head, told Li Qing without hesitation that because of financial difficulties, most of the exports of the Kingdom of France will be subject to much heavier tariffs than before.According to the words of the Marquis of Montespan, it "caused great confusion to trade". In the long run, it will only damage French industry and trade, and make the government's revenue even lower.

"Once the tax is too heavy, it will only make foreign businessmen have to attract our workers to go abroad in order to learn our manufacturing technology (in Spain alone, there are more than [-] French craftsmen working), and at the same time go to other countries or regions. Buy all kinds of goods that would have been purchased in our country at a cheaper price. Take wine as an example. As far as I know, the sales of wine in Italy and Portugal have increased significantly in recent years, and even the Ottomans have started to export a lot of wine every year. Wine, because Greece is rich in grapes and olive oil. These actions have actually harmed our country and made the Italians and Portuguese rich. Moreover, they have cultivated many talents because of the expansion of production scale and learned how to manage production. We are no longer good at management because of the shrinkage of production." The Marquis of Montespan seems to be a little dissatisfied with Colbert's economic policy, and this is actually consistent with the intelligence obtained by the people on the east coast. Just listen to this The servant continued to say with a big mouth: "In fact, we should have tried our best to avoid this kind of chaos caused by high tariffs, and the damn thing is not enough. Some of our ministers actually ordered to impose high tariffs on many imported goods." Tariffs, which even led to several trade wars! Even the cowardly Portuguese, because we imposed heavy taxes on imported dried fruits, olive oil, tallow, etc. The same high tariffs were imposed on goods in retaliation. Oh, God, this is terrible, look at Calais, the tax-payers will soon be unbearable, and then where does His Majesty get the money? I am confused!"

Li Qing laughed after hearing this.In fact, he has also heard about the trade war between France and some other countries.The two sides retaliated against each other for importing goods from your country, making the taxpayers in their respective countries really want to die.Li Qing reckoned that the income of the dozen or so taxpayers in Port of Calais has been greatly reduced, and it is a high probability that they cannot make ends meet.Although the Royal Government has not raised the contracting prices of tax contractors, it is inevitable that these tax contractors will go bankrupt after a long time, and when they are all finished and no new customs contractors can be found, Where did the king get his money from?

Some people may ask, since the king has already contracted out all import duties, what is the point of raising import duties on foreign goods?You can't receive a penny more, but it also reduces the number of goods entering France and aggravates domestic inflation. Why bother?Why bother?

This problem is actually easy to explain, that is, if the monarch keeps calm at any time, it is simply unimaginable, especially for arrogant and conceited monarchs such as Louis XIV and the Prince of Orange.In fact, Louis XIV’s order to increase import tariffs was more for the purpose of punishment. Taking Portugal as an example, Paris sent envoys three times to invite them to join the French side and fight against the anti-French alliance. Unfortunately, they failed all three times. Therefore, Louis XIV felt that he was offended, so he "punished" the Portuguese, although this kind of punishment caused tax collectors in many domestic trading ports to complain.

Next, the Marquis of Montespan told a story that happened in the Port of Calais.Because the import tariff rate was too high, a ship full of Italian silk sailed at night to a huge rock near the coastline, anchored and hid.Then above the rocks, many poor French people hoisted these goods up in bundles with ropes, and carried them away in horse-drawn carts to avoid the burden of heavy import duties.

Undoubtedly, this kind of smuggling has greatly damaged the interests of the taxpayers of silk products, causing their income to drop sharply. Even if these people have a big business, they will go bankrupt in a few years.And their end is in the front, even if the people behind want to take their place, they will think twice.The Marquis of Montespan even laughed and said that a local tax collector for iron products had even negotiated with the captains to return half of their customs duties in private (because the tax rate set by the king cannot be changed, and there are customs supervision exist, they can only take it first and then return it), let them stop smuggling, and enter Hong Kong through normal channels for trading. It is said that this method is quite effective, and it has indeed attracted many timid businessmen to trade through normal channels, improving these packages Taxpayers' situation, but it still seems to be a drop in the bucket.

"The customs supervisor should be very satisfied with the current situation. They don't care about the interests of the taxpayers, and they don't need to be responsible for the kingdom's finances." Or his family runs a large-scale import and export business - Li Qing asked casually.

At this time, they and a dozen of their entourages got into several luxuriously decorated carriages, and then dozens of French cavalry took up the task of escorting them.The Marquis of Montespan was naturally sitting in the same carriage as Li Qing, and now he only heard him say: "The customs supervision is appointed by the Minister of Finance himself, of course they don't care. Because many businessmen will collude with them to harm In addition, if a smuggling ship is caught, they also have the right to confiscate one-third of the goods on board, which is the right given to them by the kingdom's law. Sometimes I think, if Your Majesty If the war really causes financial distress in the future, then send someone to check the customs supervision of each port, and you will definitely be able to recover a lot of money, haha."

Li Qing sighed slightly after hearing this, and at the same time became more vigilant.The current situation of the Kingdom of France is actually due to this large-scale war that has lasted for several years.You know, before the war, France had a lot of fiscal surpluses, and Louis XIV was also a famous spendthrift. At that time, he spent a lot of money to interfere in the internal affairs of various countries, how refreshing!But who would have thought that after only a few years of war, the heavy expenditure of the 20 army and the two major fleets has already made the Kingdom of France feel overwhelmed, whether it is the nobles or the common people - added twice After the tax, the tax level of the Kingdom of France is now the highest point since Louis XIV's personal collection, and it is only one step away from the highest peak in the Louis XIII era.

Therefore, Li Qing felt that the East Coast Republic of China really wanted to avoid such a costly war, especially a land war that cost so much like a bottomless pit.It is important to know that it is easy to mobilize tens of thousands of people, but the expenditures such as salary expenditure, material consumption, and pension compensation are endless. This is enough to drag down a country's finances. There is France, which is deeply mired in war, and the Ming Dynasty is far away. The huge expenditures in the last year are enough to make people on the east bank vigilant.

If it is really necessary to go to war with people, then a sea war with a relatively small cost may be the most economical and practical choice.In particular, the cost of a modern fleet with a small number of sailors on the east coast is at least one-third lower than that of the Europeans. Coupled with some advantages in technology, it is still better to fight a small-scale naval war with the enemy. More cost-effective, and easy to control costs.

Moreover, judging from the strategic geography of the East Coast Republic of China, neither Spain nor Portugal, which border it, seem to be able to cause trouble for the people on the east coast on land.To deal with the American colonies of these two countries, the people on the east coast only need to send a small-scale elite army to land on the coastal ports to control the situation, and the cost is also controllable.What's more, these two countries are not fools. Based on their current and foreseeable situation in the next few decades, it is certain that they have neither the intention nor the power to embarrass the people on the east coast.

Let's turn our attention back to reality.Based on the current financial situation of the Kingdom of France, Li Qing can judge that even if their powerful army continues to play triumphant songs on the battlefield, even if they spend huge sums of money to build a navy that has several outstanding performances, the country's finances may not be as good as it is. able to support them to continue fighting.Maybe they can support it for a period of time if they have the courage to search for some old foundations at home, but it will only last for a year or two, and it can't be longer.Unless King Louis XIV of France dared to continue raising taxes despite the threat of domestic riots, doing so would only make the situation worse and the uncertainty even greater.

Therefore, Louis XIV is also faintly feeling it now. If his generals cannot make a decisive breakthrough on the battlefield, perhaps he should seriously consider the matter of accepting it as soon as it is good. Of course, this first requires the "understanding" of the Dutch. ".Comparing money with the Dutch, France with a population of more than 2000 million is still far behind!Fortunately, the Dutch only love money. If the Kingdom of France can meet the requirements of the Dutch economically, then it is not impossible to persuade the Dutch to withdraw from the war and let the great golden lily flag be planted on the east bank of the Rhine. Everything depends on The situation has changed and how to operate it!In this matter, in fact, Louis XIV still has some confidence. He knows the virtues of the merchants in the lowlands too well.

In order to create a good foundation for possible future negotiations, the French must also do some work in advance, such as cooperating with people on the east coast to stabilize their situation in the Caribbean.To put it more clearly, let the people on the east coast sell military supplies, food, and medicine nearby to the French island defenders in the Caribbean Sea, and even allow them to take shelter on the land controlled by the people on the east coast when they evacuate, so as not to be attacked by the Dutch and the French. Captured by the Spaniards, increasing the negotiating leverage of the enemy.

You know, in the Caribbean Sea, the sea power of the Dutch and the Spaniards has the absolute upper hand. In the past few years, their fleets have been attacking everywhere, intercepting ships heading to St. Christopher, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucia. , Santo Domingo (the island has long been occupied by a French expeditionary team) and other French ships in the Caribbean islands, which caused great trouble for the French, so that the war supplies were somewhat unsustainable, and the situation was short-lived. Very difficult.

Although the people on the east coast had also promised in private that they would sell some key supplies to the local French army through Huaiyuan Island (Trinidad), but the scale was small and the frequency was low. Indian companies have also protested several times. They are old friends, old customers, and old relationships. They have to give them a little face, so this kind of trade has basically been cut off.

This time the French came to the door again, and solemnly invited Li Qing, the East Coast Plenipotentiary Envoy to Europe, to go to Paris and meet with King Louis XIV of France.Li Qing was well aware of this, and considering that he also wanted to gain some benefits from the French, she agreed to go.

(End of this chapter)