Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2229 Clifford

"Mr. Clifford, why are you so angry about the enclosure?" In a private garden near London, Hawkes Clifford, who had just returned from the Far East trade, was entertaining Sir William Temple.

Sir William Temple is an evergreen tree in British politics. He served as ambassador to the United Provinces and France when he was young, and later went to the east coast to serve as an ambassador for a period of time.After resigning from office and returning to China, he served as a private advisor to the Prince of Orange, and his experience can be described as very rich.

Of course, compared with these positions, Sir William Temple's other identities are more dazzling: a veteran member of Parliament, a shareholder of the newly established Bank of England, and an industrial investor.To put it bluntly, he is the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of England, part of a group of MPs that even the king has to compromise with.

Sir William Temple owned a coal mine in Wales, a machine shop in Birmingham, and a cotton mill in Manchester.Although he himself does not ask about specific business affairs, this does not detract from his status as an industrialist in the slightest.It seems that during the period of living on the east coast, this old man who had invested in several trading companies had a considerable change in his thinking, and he began to pay attention to industry. I have to say that Clifford was a little surprised.

Of course, Sir Temple did not give up his trading business. In fact, he invested in the Hampton family (operating the East Coast-England, North America-England routes) and the Clifford family (operating the Far East-England route), and the amount was still high. Not small.It's just that he reinvested all the income from trade in those factories and the Bank of England, and did not buy land like those traditional nobles.

But speaking of the traditional nobles in England, after a period of relatively low-key hardships, they are finally ushering in a turning point.Nowadays, from East Anglia to Wales, from the south coast to Scotland, and even Ireland, where the war has just subsided, there has been a vigorous enclosure movement, that is, the nobles will take back the land originally leased to the farmers. Instead of planting grain, they changed to grazing sheep to meet the growing demand for wool in England and overseas.

In fact, the enclosure movement has existed for a long time.A century ago, some aristocrats with a keen sense of smell discovered that the price of wool, a commodity, had been rising, so they resolutely abandoned farmland for pasture and focused on raising sheep. Steady development and absorption (and a considerable number of sailors).

However, the scale of the enclosure movement in England is definitely not comparable to before, because it has almost formed a trend, and more and more nobles have joined it.Because things like wool are actually more profitable than food—maybe except during the war years—and the amount of labor required is only a fraction of what it used to be, and the extra population can flow into the booming industry. Coal mines, construction material factories, textile factories, machinery factories, etc. with a large labor force.

Of course, there are also some people who have lost the land on which they lived, and have not found jobs in the cities. The way out for these people is either to be sailors, or soldiers, or to live in overseas colonies.What?You don't want to be a mercenary or a sailor, and you don't want to go to the New World?Then you can only wander around, wandering around and doing odd jobs to make ends meet!Don't tell me, there are actually quite a few people like this, and the developed vagabond culture in later generations of Britain and the United States started here.

Hawkes Clifford is engaged in overseas trade, and has been away from China for many years. The only industrial businesses in the family are also run by relatives.When I returned to London this time, I was very surprised and a little disturbed when I suddenly heard people talk about the surge in refugees caused by the enclosure movement.It so happened that Sir William Temple came to talk to him about trade in the British North American colonies, so the question was asked.

However, it is obvious that Sir Temple is not worried about the problem of refugees at all. He only heard him say: "It is not a wise thing to operate the food planting industry now. The price of everything is rising, but the increase in food is limited. In fact, the past few years have been good. That’s right, Europe is at war, and several major countries are not rich in food, but the food planting industry on the Black Sea side is slowly rising, and Russia and Poland are also increasing exports of food and livestock. Ah, by the way, people on the east coast are also giving Spain Transporting grain. You see how unprofitable grain is with so many downsides. I have been told by several distressed farmers on my own estate that the price of iron for plows, harrows, and wheelbarrows is going up , while the prices of wheat, eggs, vegetables, and fruit have hardly risen much, making life very difficult for them. Well, I haven't raised the price of land rent for at least the past two years, knowing that elsewhere, Land rents have generally risen, and some have risen considerably. The farmers there must work harder than those on my estate. Hawkes, you shouldn't be sad about this, it's all God's arrangement. The land It is an extremely important resource—according to what the East Coast people say, yes, it is the means of production—I have the right to make my land generate greater value. Your family also has some land in Yorkshire? Land rent and The increase in land prices is not a bad thing for you, because when you make a loan at the bank, the valuation of the collateral will be higher, and you can get more loans and more favorable interest rates, which are very real benefits.”

"But this will cause serious problems..." Hawkes Clifford still couldn't accept it.

"Well, let me make an analogy like this. Suppose all the landowners in the country are still willing to charge rent to their tenants as they were 30 years ago, but no one is still willing to sell all kinds of goods at the prices 30 years ago, because you use it to produce goods. The price of raw materials has risen. Well, the price of daily necessities has also risen rapidly. Clothes, hats, shoes, etc., iron, tar, fuel expenditures have also increased, and even taxes have increased. The overall price of goods in England has increased in the past eight 50% increase in the year. I remember it used to cost 4p for a goose on my estate, guess what it is now? 8p! God, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors are all forced to mark up their wares at that price This raises the cost of living for the farmers. We cannot get our artisans or business owners to lower the prices of their products because it will only make foreign businessmen rich and they buy from us at very low prices The goods are gone, and what is left to our factory owners or craftsmen is endless losses. Hawkes, I think you understand the reasons for the rise in prices, and you have contributed to it, don't you?" William Tan Sir Poole spread his hands and said with a smile.

Hawkes Clifford was silent.Yes, he brings back so many commodities from the Far East every year, and the value is not low. Except some of them are sold in England, the amount of commodities resold to foreign countries is amazing. I don’t know how much precious metal he brings back to England every year, so Sir Temple was not wrong to say that he was "contributing" to inflation in England, for it was true.

"England's balance of payments is very good. Generally speaking, there is a large inflow of precious metals every year. Our current outflow of gold and silver is mainly from Eastern Europe, that is, payments to Russia and Poland for timber, ship tools, grain and leather. Of course we have There is also a huge deficit on the east coast, mainly imported hardware, musical instruments, clocks, machine gauges, etc., but neither of these combined can match the value of the goods we export to the European continent. Seriously, Hawkes, it is now Great time to develop industry in England, you can make money investing in everything. I know your family has a building materials factory and a glass factory, how about it? Interested in investing in steam engines? I plan to enter this industry, you know, this is a super big The market is bigger than you can imagine." Sir William Temple coaxed.

Hawkes Clifford was a little moved when he heard this.In the past two years, he did sell several steam engines to the Far East, and the price satisfied him very much.Moreover, the Qing people continued to order from him, and they placed an order for six steam engines in one go, which really made him very excited.Even Mr. Zheng Kezang, the king of Fujian who has always been on good terms with people from the east coast, quietly ordered two small-horsepower steam engines from him, which are said to be used for drilling gun barrels and processing armor. The people on the east coast bought steam engines, but because of the stupid trade blockade policy, they had to turn to the English for help.

The profit from selling steam engines is already huge, and it would be even better if they could produce it themselves and ensure sufficient supply.Hawkes Clifford had suffered in this regard. Someone in New England had ordered two steam engines from him, but he had to give up because the supply could not be guaranteed.This painful lesson made Clifford understand that the most important thing is to hold the upstream and downstream industries in his own hands.In today's situation where the demand for steam engines is increasing in the market-the English are not limited to using steam engines in docks and mines, and textile factories are currently introducing them on a large scale-if you have a manufacturing steam engine that can have a profound impact The factory is indeed a lucrative business.

And so, when Sir William Temple brought it up to him this time, he acquiesced with little thought.His brother had originally agreed with him to invest Xinde De's profits in a paper mill, but now he feels that it is not urgently needed, and the return of investing the money in the field of steam engine manufacturing will be greater.

"A very wise decision, Hawkes." Sir William Temple nodded with satisfaction, and said in approval: "Now His Majesty has completely defeated the puppet king of the Stuart family, and the country is about to enter a period of peace again. Consider The war in continental Europe is still going on, and I think England's industry will usher in a new wave of explosion. Your investment will bring you rich returns, I promise."

"Your reputation is trustworthy, and everything is at your bidding, my sir," replied Hawkes Clifford.

(End of this chapter)