Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 948 London and England ([-])

Mo San has been thinking these days, which of the two countries, the UK or the Netherlands, poses the greater threat to the East Coast?

To be honest, before coming to the UK, although he knew all kinds of domineering side effects in the UK from the memory of later generations, after visiting many provinces such as the Netherlands, Zeeland, and Friesland, he once wondered I doubted my own judgment - would the Netherlands, a country with such a developed financial industry, industry and commerce, and an extremely large fleet, really be overthrown by England, whose population was only three times that of the Netherlands?This may sound incredible.

However, after coming to London for more than ten days, he finally believed in the correctness of what was said in the history books of later generations. In fact, the defeat of the Netherlands in the long-term competition with the United Kingdom was inevitable. Even if there was no third Anglo-Dutch war, France never When the ground invaded the mainland of the Netherlands, in the brutal long-term see-saw, the Netherlands must be the first to fall, not the UK, which has a vast hinterland and well-developed industry and agriculture.

The Dutch, who mainly engaged in entrepot trade, did not vigorously develop industry in line with the historical trend, which was the root cause of their failure!What's more, the labor cost of the Netherlands is too high. Even if it develops its industry, once it loses its monopoly on commercial hegemony—such as the Nordic market that opened its doors to the United Kingdom after the First Anglo-Dutch War—it will not be able to completely compete with the British. The market originally occupied by it will also be slowly eaten away by the British, which is in line with the laws of market economy.

Take a look at the prosperous London market, where agricultural products, industrial products, and luxury goods gather. Except for some luxury goods imported from India, most of these goods are produced in the UK.For example, the grain supplied to London comes from Kent (2% of the more than 75 quarters of wheat needed in London each year comes from here); milk, butter, meat, and poultry eggs come from other counties in East Anglia; fish comes from the sea ; woolens from the West; coal, metals, and minerals from the Southwest.

In contrast, almost everything of the Dutch comes from abroad, the meat comes from the Jutland peninsula, the grain comes from the Baltic Sea, the salt comes from Portugal and France, the fish comes from other people's offshore, and even the raw materials of Leiden's well-developed cloth industry come from Spain and the Ottoman Empire, this country does not seem to produce anything, but it has meddled in all the commerce of the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea, and even monopolized most of the industries. This is naturally a public outrage.Don't look at the fact that only Britain jumped out to challenge them at this moment, but other countries are actually applauding secretly. It is foreseeable that once the Netherlands fails in this war, its far-reaching impact will be enough to shake the foundation of the Netherlands.

Of course, it is a slow process to shake and disintegrate the foundation of the Netherlands. Even to some extent, the Dutch economy continued to grow after the war and has not yet reached its peak.But there is no doubt that the growth rate of the Dutch business, economy, and industry did decline after the war, because many countries that were originally monopolized by the Netherlands also opened their doors to the United Kingdom.For example, Sweden, this country was almost a poor Dutch economic colony before the Anglo-Dutch War, but after the war, this country, which had long been dissatisfied with the Dutch businessmen's overshadowing of the sky, immediately contacted the British, and then took advantage of the rising power of the British Opportunity drove some Dutch businessmen out of the country, and the vacated market was naturally filled by British businessmen.

The British produce their own goods and then sell them to others. Naturally, it is more profitable than the Dutch to buy goods from others and resell them. Because the profits from this process of production also stay in the UK, the British economy has developed rapidly after the war. It is not so surprising.The combination of industrial capitalists and commercial capitalists is naturally more powerful than pure commercial capitalists.

"Hey, according to the normal development, the decline of the Netherlands is only a matter of time, and no one can change this. What we can do is probably to delay this process, so that Dutch capital can resist in various markets for a while, so as not to These markets quickly fell under the relatively cheap goods in the UK." Mo San let out a long breath, but he didn't feel relaxed at all after sorting out his thoughts.

Millions of cheap British workers are like a sword of Damocles, hanging over the heads of the people on the east coast, and they don't know when they will fall.Now that the technology of the steam engine has been leaked to Lisbon, it is only a matter of time before it spreads to the Netherlands and England. The days when people on the east coast can enjoy themselves are numbered.

What?Do you think the British are not ready for industrial society?Maybe it is, because the original theory of the steam engine was proposed at the end of the 17th century, but it will not be practical until nearly a hundred years later. Although people on the east coast have made this technology available decades earlier, it may not be possible within the 17th century. Europeans are still unable to use steam power for industrial production on a large scale.

This theory sounds reasonable, but the question is, people on the east coast have been using steam engines on a large scale for so many years. Do you think Europeans will be indifferent?No, they will adapt and make use of this epoch-making new thing faster than in history, instead of insensitively paying little attention to it as in history.

Furthermore, judging from Mo San’s visits to the countryside around London in the past few days, the British have also been consciously or unconsciously carrying out preparations for other elements of entering an industrial society for many years.For example, cheap and sufficient labor resources, based on what I have seen and heard these days and the limited information I have learned in history, the enclosure movement that is crucial to British industry has actually started for many years—the suburbs of London probably It was the first batch. According to Mo San’s observation, a large number of villages in the surrounding area were wiped out, and a large number of farmers lost their means of production and subsistence, and then kept migrating and wandering. More agricultural production has flooded into the industrial field, serving as cheap labor for rural manufacturing or urban service industries.

In fact, according to historical records, as early as the 15s, the number of people migrating from rural England accounted for 20% of the total agricultural population each year (most of them migrated from one village to another, and a small part migrated from countryside to city); and By the 15th century, this ratio had slowly risen to 17%. In some villages, the rate of change of residents had reached 30% within 10 years, which is astonishing.The reason probably lies in the innate scarcity of the British land aristocracy and the great reduction in power caused by the acquired killings. The peasants were not fully bound to the land. This is the most important factor for the growing prosperity of the British rural capitalist handicraft industry-British real is special.

The enclosure movement began in the 15th century, but at first it was only the behavior of a few people. From 1455 to 1607, only 50 acres of agricultural land were enclosed, accounting for only 3% of the total area of ​​British agricultural land at that time; At this time, 1600% of the total agricultural land area (about 1699 million acres) in the UK was occupied. It can be seen that the enclosure movement was accelerating in the UK in the 3000th century, which benefited from the rapid development of the commodity economy and capitalist factories in the UK.

The enclosure movement created a large number of destitute people, because on the land after the merger and enclosure, whether it is planting grain or grazing sheep (mostly used for sheep grazing), only about one-fifth of the previous manpower is needed, and they are driven out The wandering peasants of their land fell into the hands of the manufactures, who began to produce for them day and night all kinds of goods.

The textile industry and coal mining industry in Lancashire, the black country iron industry area in Birmingham, the lead and tin mining in Wales, etc., have been greatly developed because of the influx of these populations, and the industrial level of Britain is also here has risen to a new level.In addition, many landless peasants who flooded into the cities entered industries such as leather processing, construction, glass, papermaking, shipbuilding, tobacco, seafood processing, sugar extraction, and metal processing, providing sufficient manpower for these industries.Among them, leather, construction, papermaking, shipbuilding, metal processing and woolen textiles are known as the six pillar industries of Britain at this time. These industries are currently developing rapidly under the dual nourishment of commercial capital and industrial capital.

"The Industrial Revolution first happened in England, it's really not accidental." Thinking of this, Mo San sighed and thought to himself: "In the past, I just read the things written in the books, and the touch was not very big, and I even didn't care. But this time I went to the UK and watched it all, but found that the time is really waiting! If the UK continues to develop like this, after the capital, technology and system are all in place, the industrial revolution is inevitable, not like Some people in later generations think that the Industrial Revolution happened in Britain was an accident. If the British Industrial Revolution was accidental, wouldn’t those feudal countries with a large amount of labor force tied to the land be less likely? What’s more, our country is doing this now. Under the butterfly effect, the British bourgeoisie will only be ready to enter the industrial society earlier than in history, which is really a headache."

"We must find a way to contain the UK. It is best to contain the British without knowing them. What should we do?" Mo San began to ponder.

Containment from the market?What about specific measures?Secretly give blood to the Netherlands, so that they have more capital to compete with the British for the market, and reduce the profits of British industrial capitalists?But the question is, how can the small East Bank afford to lose blood when the body is as big as the Netherlands? Will the Dutch appreciate it?

Then from the system to contain it?This may require Britain to return to the era of Charles I, but now the parliament is full of bourgeois elements, and the conservative nobles are almost wiped out. This is probably more difficult than blood transfusion to the Netherlands!

After much deliberation, Mo San still couldn't figure it out, because he found sadly that with the current strength of the East Bank, it was really powerless to curb the development of British capitalism, which filled him with a sense of frustration. What is the general trend of history, and what is human power sometimes exhausted.

"No matter what, no matter how difficult it is, we must continue." Mo San secretly made up his mind, and when he planned to go back, he wrote a secret letter to the executive committee, asking the mainland to formulate a set of plans to contain Britain in advance.Something must be done about this country, because they are clearly on the right path, they are the closest existence to the people on the east coast, and they must be suppressed.

And just when Mo San made up his mind, a large number of ships entered the port on the Thames River pier not far away. Some of them were obviously captured Dutch transport ships full of goods. Their draft was very deep. Escorted by the naval ships, they slowly docked beside the pier trestle, which aroused loud cheers from the people around the pier.Although these Dutch transport ships, including the above goods, will eventually be auctioned off by decent big businessmen at an amazingly low price (the proceeds are used to pay for the navy), there is not much to them relationship, but this does not prevent them from bursting with pride at the moment-the Brit's heart is also very proud.

Seeing this, Mo San only sighed, then wrapped his coat tightly and went back to the hotel he rented.

(End of this chapter)