Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1997 The Hague Trip ([-])

October 1687, 10, The Hague.

Lin Dingzhi, the ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to Paris, arrived in The Hague, the capital of the United Provinces, after the situation in the Southern Netherland has stabilized. A meeting of Konrad van Beuningen.

Before that, he made a special detour to Bruges to attend the listing ceremony of a product on the east coast there.The shop owner was doing business in the Southern Netherlands. Of course, compared to business, espionage seemed to be their more important job, especially as the ambitions of the Kingdom of France became more and more undisguised.

Lin Dingzhi stayed here for about two days and listened to the reports of the staff of the commercial station (he will take care of this place in the future), mainly about the trade situation in the ten provinces of the Southern Netherlands.After all, various activities such as diplomacy and intelligence require money, and in addition to state appropriations, a large part of the source of money must be supplemented by local trade.Although the ten provinces of the Southern Netherlands are not comparable to the seven northern provinces, they are also known as rich and rich, and they are the wealth of the Kingdom of Spain. Therefore, there is still great potential for trade.

People from the east coast of this market have been relying on agents to sell goods before, earning a profit of nearly 20 pesos a year.But after many years of cooperation, they found that these agents were not aggressive enough. Over the years, they had been slow to develop the market and were obsessed with the profits they already had. Therefore, when the persuasion was ineffective, the people from the east coast finally decided to go to Bruges in person. This city, which was once the economic center of Europe in the 16th century, opened a commercial station and started business in a grand manner.

Lin Dingzhi and the staff of the commercial station carefully established the commercial measures to be implemented in the next stage, and then he met with several people who were apparently the business representatives sent by some large state-owned factories in China, but secretly were the agents of the State Intelligence Bureau. After chatting, finally, under the protection of dozens of mercenary cavalry, we crossed the Scheldt River and arrived in The Hague.

The Hague, the political capital of the United Provinces, has been a place of great controversy for many years.Members and chief representatives selected by the provinces gather here. Everyone has their own opinions and wants to impose their views on the other party. Countless debates are held here, and one after another may become famous here. The target of the party's influence, or the reputation is ruined, and the political life is limited to the end.

At present, the republicans still have the upper hand to a certain extent in the three-level parliament in The Hague. It can even be said that they have the upper hand in the parliaments of most cities across the country, even in the traditional support of Orange in Friesland and Groningen. The family's provinces and many commercially developed towns also support them, and the supporters of the Orange faction are mostly concentrated in rural areas, because only there are enough land nobles.

However, the biggest flaw of the Republicans is the lack of guns.The current army of the United Provinces was actually created by William III, Prince of Orange, during the last Franco-Dutch war. As a whole, it is actually loyal to him—even if some are not so loyal, they have been cut off one after another over the years. ——It is not an exaggeration to say that it is his private army. Unless the Prince of Orange does something that is obviously against the interests of the country, it will be difficult for others to shake the loyalty of the army to him.

Therefore, under such circumstances, William III's ruling position can be said to be relatively stable.Even if the republican congressmen caused him considerable trouble in the parliament, he often refused to admit it, and even threatened him with force.For example, the year before last, Van Boyningen gathered a group of MPs, which influenced many people in the Dutch and Zeeland Provincial Councils, and encouraged everyone to cut military expenditures (actually weakening the influence of William III in disguise). As a result, one Amsterdam MP Unidentified people shot dead in the apartment, and this massive operation died down immediately.

Many times, Lin Dingzhi actually admired the courage of Van Beuningen, who inherited the political legacy of the DeWitt brothers, and pulled a group of fellow MPs who were obviously not successful enough to fail, and kept giving to the Orange family. Eye drops, it is a miracle that he can live to this day.

Of course, it is also understandable to some extent.It has been a few years since the United Province was invaded by France like a nightmare. The people are always good at forgetting, and heroes are always betrayed. Therefore, the environment of the entire United Province is slowly turning to the Republicans.Even if the army is still loyal to the Prince of Orange and guarantees that no one dares to covet his supreme position as the governing of the United Provinces, but to be honest, it is quite annoying to watch the parliament keep contradicting itself, and occasionally "deal with" a few members who dance the most It also needs to consume political prestige and influence, so it is natural to be cautious.

Therefore, it is mainly the overall environment that is defending Van Beuningen now.Especially after he personally negotiated with the French in the first two years to reduce the tariff to the level of 1664, the merchants in the United Provinces were jubilant. The Republicans gained a lot of popularity at that time, which made anyone who wanted Anyone who would carry out a political assassination of Van Beuningen would be very hesitant, fearing that the entire society would be completely torn apart.After all, this is no longer the period of the Franco-Dutch war against the DeWitt brothers, and the Orange family cannot always do whatever they want.

In fact, the French also prefer republicans.This political faction, which is more representative of the big merchant class, pursues commercial interests, advocates reconciliation with France, and is extremely wary of the British, which almost perfectly fits France's foreign policy.But Orange Pie is different!This political faction, which is actually the private power of the Orange family, has traditionally regarded France as its mortal enemy, and has been determined to weaken France's strength and influence, because they are all from the land aristocrats in origin, and they are naturally opposed to France. The French who want to embezzle land are more disgusted than the British who focus on commercial interests.

From 1683 to 1684, due to the serious consequences of political assassinations, the relationship between many cities and the Orange family was at a freezing point.At this time, the French with a keen sense of smell also quickly attacked, printing and distributing many Dutch pamphlets, smuggling them into the United Provinces and distributing them wantonly.In this pamphlet, the French enumerate the misdeeds of the Orange family in the past 100 years, and criticize them for trampling on the traditional power and prestige of the city without any scruples, and they are a complete tyrant.

It can be said that this kind of propaganda by the French still played a certain role, affecting the choices of many cities.In August 1684, despite the strong objections of the Prince of Orange, in the final vote of the three levels of parliament, the resolution to conclude a treaty of friendship and commerce with the Kingdom of France was adopted with a result of four votes in favor and three votes against.This undoubtedly shocked the Prince of Orange, and he was about to resort to indiscriminate means until the French sent him a big gift: the persecution of Protestants intensified, and many people fled to the Netherlands. The deep fermentation in the Netherlands has aroused the resentment of many people. The Prince of Orange seized the opportunity to work among the provinces again, and finally voted again before the end of the year to abolish the agreement signed with the French.

It can be said that the Prince of Orange almost completely failed in this confrontation. As a result, the crazy death of the French gave him an assist, allowing him to start from a religious point of view and unite more middle factions to his side , and finally repelled the republican offensive again and won the victory.

Lin Dingzhi has been living in Paris for many years, and he has a very clear understanding of various situations in France. He also spends huge sums of money on buying information for the United Provinces all year round, so he still has a relatively accurate grasp of the current situation.He knew very well that the Republicans and the Orange factions were the two major forces in the United Provinces, and almost no one could completely defeat the other.In peacetime, the republicans are undoubtedly dominant, but once the situation is tense, when the country faces enemy invasion or religious beliefs are threatened, the influence of the Orange faction will quickly gain the upper hand, and the large number of political centrists in the United Province will fall to Prince of Orange, causing its power and prestige to skyrocket overnight.

When he just set off from Paris, through his friends, Lin Dingzhi already knew that France would issue a decree in the near future, that is, to uniformly increase the import tariff rate of Dutch goods to the higher level in 1667, so as to curb the madness of Dutch goods in these years. The trend of pouring into the French market is also to sanction the Dutch for helping a large number of Huguenots in France to flee.

Lin Dingzhi believes that when these news finally reach The Hague and Amsterdam, the relationship between the two countries will definitely be brought to a higher level.Raising tariffs is something that even the Dutch business class cannot tolerate, let alone those who have long been dissatisfied with them.Under such circumstances, some of the republicans who have gathered a little bit may have to disperse a lot. The business and religious circles are now terribly tired of the French, and no one will hold goodwill towards France at this time. Therefore, the Prince of Orange, who has been known for his tough anti-French appearance for many years, is naturally the best target of allegiance, because only he can say no to France and can guarantee that the United Province will not be invaded by this evil neighbor.

Lin Dingzhi is even more sympathetic to Van Boyningen now. After struggling for so long, it seems that there is some improvement. As a result, the French gave this an own goal assist, which directly detonated the anger of the Dutch, so they Now I don’t dare to say anything publicly, I can only follow the crowd to criticize the actions of the French, and then watch Prince William III of Orange arrogantly clean up people’s hearts, adjust foreign policy, and gradually tighten the sanctions against the French. big net.

Lin Dingzhi finally had dinner on the night of the 30th with several hardcore republicans, including Van Beuningen.During the meeting, he cryptically revealed some news about the new French tariffs to everyone present, which unsurprisingly aroused the shock and anger of Van Beuningen and others, and some even worried that a war was about to break out!

Van Boyningen couldn't help asking Lin Dingzhi, if war broke out between France and the United Provinces in the next year or two, which side would the East Coast Republic of China be on?After hesitating for a while, Lin Dingzhi explained to them that once the war broke out between the United Provinces and France, the East Bank would undoubtedly stand on the side of the Netherlands morally, and would sell them all kinds of goods at preferential prices, and even It can undertake the more dangerous transport work in the war zone (ie delivery to the Dutch mainland port).However, he also admitted to Van Beuningen that once the scale of the war expands and the French army appears in Italy or the Iberian Peninsula, even if the Chinese East Coast Republic is reluctant, it will decisively intervene in this war and use the navy to attack France's coastal trade. , forcing them to stop, ensuring peace in Spain and Italy.

Van Beuningen was also a little surprised by this.Because after the development of the French Navy in the past 20 years, it has been quite good.In terms of the number and tonnage of warships, it is actually no worse than the Netherlands and England, and the number of professional warships is even close to the sum of the Netherlands and England, which is shocking.Once a naval battle breaks out between the two sides, no one can guarantee who will win and who will lose. Although traditionally, most people think that the Netherlands and England will win, but who can say for sure about such things as war?The size of the French's huge fleet is actually there!Therefore, he really admires the east coast navy for daring to come to this muddy water. How much interest does the east coast people have in Spain and Italy, so they want to be so dead?Even if Italian bankers have just united to lend 500 million yuan in cash to people on the east coast, it wouldn't be like this, would it?After much deliberation, Van Boyningen can only envy the good luck of the Italians and Spaniards. With such a powerful ally by his side, it should be able to effectively deter the actions of the French, right?

Of course, from the perspective of self-interest, Van Boyningen even secretly hopes that the French will go their own way, send troops to cross the Pyrenees or simply occupy Genoa, and drag the people on the east coast into the quagmire of war, so that everyone The pressure will be shared a lot.However, the people on the east coast lack the ability to interfere with the army in Europe, and I heard that they are still fighting against the Russians in the Black Sea area. Therefore, the so-called "intervention in the war" probably means dispatching the navy to harass the French coastal trading ports and ensure the interests of the western Mediterranean. That's all.This level of intervention, even if there are losses, is limited and controllable, and it is not enough to drag a country into an outright war.Realizing this, Van Boyningen felt extremely regretful. It is a pity that the East Bank could not be drawn into the war!

But one thing that is more gratifying is that the people on the east coast seem to be very unimpressed with France, and their intention to target and contain them is very obvious. Probably they don't want to see the French annex Northern Italy or even Spain, creating a sea power, land Will the compound power come out?Once such a freak country appears (such as France occupying Spain), it will inevitably cause everyone to panic, even the east coast thousands of miles away should be very disturbed, so it is necessary to contain it in advance, which is completely understandable !

"Well, let's not talk about these things, let's talk about other things. I heard that the English Parliament has been very lively recently, Conrad, as a senior politician, do you think this will affect the United Provinces and repeat itself? Was it the political crisis in 1672?" Lin Dingzhi suddenly asked after wiping his mouth with a towel.

(End of this chapter)