Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2155 Dutch preparations

"How long will you have to endure those stupid guys? Your Excellency, Speaker, please make up your mind as soon as possible and impose special taxes on the four northern provinces! Prince Waldeck can't wait!" In the office of the third-level council in The Hague, Speaker Konrad van Beuningen was listening to the roar of the old general van Malbeek.

General van Marberg is undoubtedly trustworthy and can be entrusted with great things.When William III, Prince of Orange, was abolished by the parliament of the United Provinces, and the situation in various places was a little unstable, it was General Van Marberg who led the army to the provinces of Groningen and Friesland to frighten a group of small children who were about to move.

Later, the old general was stationed in the four northern provinces for a long time—to be precise, three provinces and one region, namely Groningen, Friesland, the three provinces of Upper IJssel and the Drenthe region—and arrested many The elements who fornicated England's monarch William III made outstanding contributions to stabilizing the overall situation in the United Provinces.

Now Marshal Van Marberg has been promoted to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch Army. However, because of the strength of the German coalition forces, when France invaded the lowlands this time, he did not get the opportunity to command operations. The general logistics officer of Prince Waldeck, helping him transport food, military supplies, draft animals, horses, soldiers and other things needed for war, and also helping to train the wounded who retreated from the front line, the broken soldiers who were taken in, etc., affairs It's very cumbersome, but obviously there won't be a few credits.

Surprisingly, Marshal van Marberg did not seem dissatisfied with this arrangement.In his mind, the most important thing is not his own honor or military exploits, that is really not important, the country he depends on for survival is not invaded and occupied by the French, the lowland people are still free to do what they want, that is the most important.Therefore, Marshal Van Marberg was stationed in Breda, working all day for all kinds of annoying material transfers and personnel transfers, and doing his best to ensure the combat effectiveness of Prince Waldeck's German-Dutch coalition forces.

Today Van Marberg came to The Hague to meet with the speaker of the third-level parliament, nothing else, just to pay.The coalition forces on the front line have not received their pay for three months, and they are all restless.Compared with them, the East Coast Navy, which is moored in the port all day long and has nothing to do, receives money in full and on time one by one. How can this be convincing?Of course, the old marshal is not unreasonable. He is familiar with the internal affairs of the Netherlands, and he understands that the country's financial pressure is very high now, and various expenditures have surged.It's just that there are some things that he has kept in his heart for a long time, and he can't complain, that is, the obligations that the four northern provinces and regions he once led to suppress should bear in this war.

According to Van Marberg, in order to maintain the operation of the government, the total national debt of the United Provinces has exceeded 4 million dong. Even if it is calculated at a low interest rate of 1200%, it has to pay more than [-] million dong in fiscal revenue for bond holders every year. as interest.There is no doubt that this is a very heavy financial burden, a burden that can overwhelm a healthy government.

What is even more surprising is that these burdens are currently mainly borne by the two provinces of the Netherlands and Zeeland, with the former accounting for the bulk and the latter accounting for a small portion.As for the remaining seven provinces, due to the lack of a province-wide taxation system, all their tax revenues are entrusted to private individuals, and they are self-financed, even far from enough, and they are completely negative assets for the national finance.Representatives of the province of the Netherlands have been calling on other provinces in the parliament to share the difficulties, make greater efforts, and assume greater responsibilities. Utrecht, Limburg-Brabant, Gelderland and Nanned The provinces that are relatively close to Lan said that they would increase taxes and reduce the pressure on the Dutch province after doing the work, but the four northern provinces are very bad, and they firmly disagree. Even if the French are already approaching the city, they still refuse. It can be said that money is not life.

Van Marberg is the marshal, and currently has a reserve army of more than 300 companies (ready to enter the southern Netherlands for reinforcements at any time), of which the Dutch province has borne the military expenses of 28 cavalry companies and 231 infantry companies, Gelderland The province assumed the expenses of 2 cavalry companies and 20 infantry companies, the province of Utrecht borne the expenses of 6 cavalry companies and 20 infantry companies, Limburg-Brabant provided a large amount of food and soldiers for the front, And he is also spending money to repair the fort.The province of Zeeland, the second richest province, bears the cost of the navy, of course not all by itself, the province of the Netherlands also bears a part, and the national tariff also bears a part, but it is said that these five provinces have spent money, all I did my best.

On the other hand, the four northern provinces headed by Groningen and Friesland are even worse.They hardly contributed a single penny of military expenditure. On the contrary, the Netherlands had to save them money to subsidize their fishermen to update their equipment, and at the same time build several large sluices, etc., which is simply speechless.The only contribution from these four provinces and districts to the central government this year is even a private donation, that is, a Jew who was born in Portugal and later immigrated to Port Hollen donated 150 million guilders to support the three-level parliament in Nanned Lan recruits mercenaries, but nothing else.

Van Marberg's violent temper can't stand the arrogant and irresponsible attitude of the four provinces. He joined forces with the chief financial officer of The Hague, Victor from the Doubles family, to make suggestions to Van Boyningen, so that As speaker, he signed the order to pluck those four iron cocks, or send the army to take over everything from them, and see if they can squeeze money out.

"Mr. Speaker, the country's finances have reached a very unhealthy level. We must find a way to correct them. It is imminent to re-introduce a unified tax covering the whole country, otherwise we may not be able to survive this year. By March next year, the government's finances will be exhausted. Will go bankrupt because we can't even pay the interest on the bond." Victor Dobbles echoed Van Marberg's urging, saying.

His family were staunch republicans and had been treasurers of the United Provinces from 1586.At that time, the main task of his ancestor Phillips Doubles was to persuade the provinces to provide promised money and supplies to support the fight against the Spaniards.Of course, he has a large team under his command to pay according to various instructions. In addition, they also have to make accounts and establish a reserve fund system. After all, there is no central bank in the United Provinces, and everything has to be done carefully by him. to operate.

Two of Phillips' sons served as treasurer of the state in 1612 and 1629, a relative of the Dobbles family took up the post in 1653, and Victor Dobbles took over as treasurer of the republic in 1667.William III went out for some years when he was in power, but after the downfall of William III, the chief financial officer who had squeezed out Victor was accused of embezzling millions of guilders of state funds. Victor Dobbles took office for the second time and continued to He took charge of the financial affairs of the Republic and became one of the hottest figures in the country.

To be honest, the past two years have not been easy for Victor Dobbles.People from all walks of life and various institutions came to him to ask for money. He had no choice but to increase taxes and raise taxes, and issue a large amount of national debt on the one hand to make up for the huge consumption caused by the bottomless pit of war.It can be said that Dobbles, who was originally a handsome old gentleman, has now become a bad old man who blows his beard and stares all day long, and quarrels with others over money. This job is really torture!

This time Van Marberg came to find Van Boyningen to "force the palace", and it was realized that he also got the support of Victor Dobles, because he also thought that the four provinces were not pleasing to the eye, and wanted them to bleed , Subsidize the national finance, otherwise this plan will not be able to continue.

"Where is the army of the people on the east bank?" Van Boyningen did not answer what Van Marberg and Dobles said, but asked about the movement of Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun's army.

"They have already withdrawn to the country." Van Marberg was a little puzzled, but he still replied.

"Transfer them to the Drenthe area, and start with simple places." Van Boyningen pulled out a piece of paper from the drawer and handed it to Dobbles, saying.

Dobbles took a look suspiciously, and the expression on his face suddenly became very exciting.This is a tax collection detail, which lists a total of more than [-] new taxes to be levied in the Drenthe area. The first is the funeral tax, and there are also wedding tax, chimney tax, window tax, and servant tax. A series of taxes, some of which were temporarily levied during previous wars and then abandoned, and some were completely new.In addition, there are some rules that tighten the issuance of licenses for various professionals to earn fees. For example, the profession of gravediggers must pay money to the government and obtain a license before they can operate.All in all, this is a thorough plan to plunder the wealth of the people, which will definitely arouse hostility and resistance from the locals.

However, it is also important to choose the Drenthe region. The area and population of this region are larger than the average province, but because it was encroached from the German region, it has no political voting rights and no right to send members to the three-level parliament. Easy to fiddle with.Of course, in view of the ridicule and humiliation encountered by the tax collectors in the four northern provinces and regions in the past, Van Boyningen decided to send troops to suppress it. Have the people from the shore passed by?That group of people can be tricked!

"Let's do it this way." Van Boyningen did not intend to give the two of them a chance to object, and said directly: "The 17-member committee in Amsterdam reported to me that the people on the east coast intend to divide their sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean, and at the same time they may covet the port of Malacca. , they want to know the attitude of the three-level parliament in this matter. Those noble gentlemen told me that they are willing to sacrifice their short-term interests for the national interest. In this style, the Groningen and Frisian people should be careful Learn a little bit."

"The port of Malacca?" Van Marberg and Dobles looked at each other. This seemed to them a distant city on another planet, which did not arouse their interest at all.

"The gentlemen of the 17-member committee believe that if the people from the east bank insist on taking it, they will not be able to keep the port of Malacca. They listed to me the methods used by the people from the east bank to control the port of Brunei. If we don’t have the courage to send troops to expel them, it’s better to sell them at a good price.” Van Boyningen said: “Then the question is, if we want to use the port of Malacca as a bargaining chip and let the people on the east coast fight with us, where is the most suitable target? "

"Of course it is to attack Louis XIV's fleet!" Van Marberg and Dobbles said in unison.

(End of this chapter)