Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2113 Strategy Adjustment

On November 1690, 11, Jinlu Commercial Hall.Baron Cecil is discussing some recent news and intelligence with several of his subordinates.

This Baron Cecil is not Baron Cecil. In fact, he is the eldest son of Baron Cecil who has stayed on the east bank for more than 15 years. He just inherited the title of his deceased father the year before last. He was sent to the east coast as an ambassador by the still unresigned King James II.

After James II fell into exile, William III and his wife took over the British throne.Miraculously, the ambassador appointed by the previous king was not replaced. Baron Cecil still sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and continued to hold this relatively important position.After much deliberation, the reason probably has something to do with the long distance, the unwillingness of many nobles to go, and the fact that he himself has nothing to do with James II.The Cecil family has been working on the east coast for so many years, and has completed various tasks very well. At the same time, they have also made some connections. There is no reason why they should not continue to work.

There are many channels for the British to collect intelligence on the east coast, but they mainly rely on induction, that is, to collect information from various publicly published books, magazines, and newspapers, and then analyze and refine it to finally draw useful conclusions.There is no doubt that this is a very old method of collecting information, but it is also a very effective method. Intelligence personnel from various countries are very enthusiastic about it, and a group of professionals who rely on analysis and extraction of public information have been derived from this. Technical staff.

Of course, the British are not without professional spies on secret information, but because the east coast is strictly guarded and it is difficult to obtain information, the number of them is very small.Of course, more importantly, it seems that many times the British government is afraid of offending people on the east coast, so it actively reduces such activities to avoid negative impact on the relationship between the two countries.However, now that William III is king, maybe England's policy will change, let's wait and see.

"The purchase of La Plata is already being reported in the newspapers of the East Coasters. The mood of the newspaper commentators is very optimistic, and the general feeling is that the Spaniards have no choice but to accept the terms offered by the East Coasters. It is our judgment, too, that the Spaniards will yield in the end, and receive a sum of money in compensation."

"Lucky Spaniards! They're going to get rich overnight! That grumpy guy in Madrid will have more money at his disposal to start a war, which will help take the pressure off England, good!"

"The Spaniards don't get rich. They are famous gold funnels, and the land money from the east coast just passes through them for a while, and it doesn't last long. They have been like this for many years. .”

"The Spaniards are synonymous with incompetence. With all due respect, they don't seem to be ready to manage a country of this size. Never!"

Listening to his subordinates chattering about the current focus event - the East and West Land Purchase Agreement - Baron Cecil couldn't help but smile.In fact, he lived in Madrid for several years before he became the ambassador to the east coast, and he did a lot of research on this country, so he knew a lot about the Kingdom of Spain.

This country has made a great fortune by sailing, and the value of gold and silver mines in the New World is greater than the value of gold and silver mines discovered in all parts of the world.It is precisely because of this that Spain not only made many countries bow down to him, but also relied on its strong financial resources to continuously launch wars, expand territories, and aim at establishing an autocratic Catholic empire.

Of course, the plot of the Kingdom of Spain ultimately failed.The painful facts proved that the Kingdom of Spain could not rely on money alone to establish the foundation of an empire.A large amount of gold and silver obtained from the New World entered Spain and abroad. In addition to causing severe inflation and bankruptcy of its own industry and commerce, most of them flowed into other countries, and Spain ended up with nothing.

Among these countries sucking Spanish blood, the East Coast Republic of China is undoubtedly the most ruthless one.The Kingdom of Spain has barren land and arid climate, so it cannot produce enough commodities to supply itself and the colonies of the New World. However, the people on the east coast rely on the advantages they have established for decades to dump industrial products on a large scale.Especially in the vast New World market, they directly accounted for more than [-]% of the trade volume, which made people jealous.In Iberia and some parts of Italy, the goods of the East Coast people can also be seen everywhere, making a lot of profits.What's more, I heard that the people on the east coast are planning to forcibly export a large amount of food to Spain recently, so they did not hesitate to use some retired navy ships that have been sealed for a long time as transportation capacity.Agricultural products and industrial products go hand in hand and are dumped together, which is a bit too much!

England's local industrial development was in the ascendant, and the technology of steam engines began to spread rapidly. From the original mines and docks, it quickly spread to industries such as mechanical processing, metal smelting, cotton and wool textiles, and food production, which greatly promoted the production of the national economy.In addition, the English have also made considerable progress in transportation. Thanks to their improvement in mechanical processing, they successfully imitated an underwater propeller propulsion system.

There is no doubt that this is no small breakthrough.Although this steam propulsion system was scrapped due to water ingress after sailing in the Thames River for only a few hours, it is still a great progress, which shows the tireless pursuit of the English people for industrial technological progress—comparable to the English people. For example, the French on the other side of the strait have not yet touched the doorway of the steam propulsion system. Although they also have the real propellers on the east coast, they have not been able to produce them due to the limited industrial level, and they are not even as good as some city-states in North Germany. , is also embarrassing.

From here we can see that England is an emerging industrial country, and it is very concerned about the commodity market, and it has become instinctive to collect business intelligence from all over the world.Therefore, when the East Bank and Spain negotiated the huge real estate transaction in La Plata this time, the English really tried their best to drill in order to obtain first-hand information.

"The transaction between Spain and the East Bank has been settled, and no one can stop it. Even the chairman of the Executive Committee of the East Bank and King Carlos of Spain cannot stop it. This real estate transaction will be concluded. We should see that losing The Kingdom of Spain that conquered parts of the Rio de la Plata in Chile will not see much decline in its strength, and what they lose is nothing more than prestige. Another good thing is that after the people on the east coast have acquired such a large piece of land, , a large part of their industrial production capacity will be used in the development and construction of these new lands, which is beneficial to us. We can seize the opportunity to consolidate the existing market and open up new markets, so as to contribute to our country's Lay a solid foundation for merchandising everywhere." After discussing for a while, Baron Cecil concluded.

"In addition, what I want to say is that London just sent me the latest instruction, asking us to increase our diplomatic efforts to the east coast and allow them to export some key resources to us. High-precision various machine tools, high-quality mechanical parts Components, chemical products, primary metals, etc. are all badly needed by our country's industries. Especially the heavy industrial areas of Birmingham, Newcastle and Wales are in great need of this. Also the light industrial areas of Manchester, West Riding, etc. In need of such goods, once any country uses the good things from the east coast, it will be the same as being addicted to alcohol, and it will be difficult to quit." Baron Cecil spread his hands and said helplessly.

"Finally, I would like to emphasize that we are directly responsible to the gentlemen of Congress. They are all leaders in various industrial or commercial fields, with many companies under their umbrella. Our work directly determines their satisfaction. Now England has fallen into a conflict with France. The sea war, judging from the last few battles, the strength of the French navy has improved rapidly, and the English navy has suffered huge humiliation and losses. The gentlemen are very dissatisfied with this and demand to speed up production and do everything possible to supplement the loss of the navy The machine tools, parts, steel and other commodities we import here will be used in industrial production and play a role in the construction of our navy. Therefore, our work is very important, very important! Gentlemen, cheer up, I don't want to see anyone being lazy." Baron Cecil finally said with a serious face.

It is said that ever since France invaded European countries and England was involved in the war, both their king William III and his wife, as well as the rich men in Congress, quickly corrected their mentality and made positive plans. .Especially when James II, who was plotting to restore - heard that Louis XIV would fund the landing on the coast of England - was eyeing, William III and the Congress quickly reached an agreement to increase investment in the military, on the one hand for the The recovery of the navy, which has suffered serious losses, is also to increase the production capacity of the military industry and arm a large part of the army on the one hand.

And these measures are simply impossible for people from the east coast, or even if they are done, the production efficiency will be greatly reduced.The current English industry has been deeply influenced by the East Coast without knowing it. They have adopted the size and caliber of the East Coast. They have used a large number of parts and components from the East Coast with good precision and long life. For intermediate products, they even purchased countless tools, measuring tools, instruments, meters, maintenance manuals and technical services, and the amount was quite huge.England's industry has almost been deeply integrated with the east coast. Once the people on the east coast are angered in some way, which leads to being blocked by trade sanctions, they can only return to the previous semi-mechanized era. It is no longer the industrial level that is 20 years ahead of the continental European countries.

Faced with such a situation, who can remain indifferent?Not Baron Cecil, nor William III!There is no doubt that the best direction for England's future development is still on the east coast.

(End of this chapter)