New Shun 1730

Whether to sign the treaty or not, and how to sign it, should be the business of the diplomatic department that came to negotiate.

But in this era, communication was extremely inconvenient. Including this time, the fleet had already arrived in the Mediterranean before the negotiations with France were fully completed.

Another thing is that the conditions proposed by Spain this time were unexpected.

The ancients said that the battlefield situation changes rapidly, so the generals are not subject to the orders of the king when they are away.

This matter is somewhat similar, but different. It is not a question of whether the king's orders are accepted or not, but the Dashun side did not expect that there would be a capable person on the Spanish side, and actually proposed such conditions.

Although the people on the Dashun side are not unfamiliar with this, this so-called free trade zone plan within the empire is very similar to the vassal system in their eyes.

For example, can Korea trade with the outside world independently? No, because Dashun will not allow it.

Does Korea have an emperor? No, because the emperor of Korea is the son of Dashun, and Korea is just a kingdom.

This set of things, placed in the Spanish Empire Free Trade Zone, including the Spanish federal empire model that was later conceived in history with this economic system as the prototype, is actually similar.

Economy is very important. Historically, the German unification event could not avoid the German Customs Union.

If free trade and tariff unification can be achieved within the Spanish colonies, it will certainly be good for Spain.

However, even if Dashun can easily understand this matter based on its own vassal system, it is more in line with Dashun's traditional cognition.

But this situation is still beyond everyone's expectations.

After all, this involves the issue of Luzon.

The premise of signing this is to admit that Luzon is not a place to be conquered.

So is Dashun interested in Luzon? It is difficult to say for the people who are negotiating, and the responsibility involved in the future is too great.

As for whether there is interest, from the inertia, first go to Nanyang, then take Macau, then make Sandalwood to replace East Timor Sandalwood, and then attack Bengkulu to take India... As for whether Dashun tolerates an external force in Luzon for these places at the doorstep, the people who come to negotiate feel that it is not easy to say.

Is it possible for the court... to take Luzon after solving the European problem? This, the court did not say, so who can guarantee that it will not take it? Just like a few years ago, who could have thought that Dashun could directly send troops to India, or even send a fleet to Europe?

Who can say for sure?

At that time, if they signed a treaty not to invade Luzon, wouldn’t they have a bleak future when they returned?

While they were hesitating, they quickly sent people to Menorca Island to inform the seventh prince Li Xi who was there.

After all, the prince can probably bear the blame if it is the blame in the future.

Chen Qinghai and other officers with the rank of general and above, as well as people sent by the diplomatic department, discussed this issue in the main fort of Fort St. Philip.

Since they were all family members, Chen Qinghai did not hide anything and said openly: "Speaking of Luzon, now that I think about it, I am afraid that when the Duke of Xingguo allowed George Anson to resupply in Guangzhou, he had the intention to kill him. I guess the Duke's original intention was to let Britain occupy Luzon, and fight together in the future, and also to make Spain an ally."

"Who would have thought that even the wisest man would make mistakes. Even the Duke did not expect that the Spaniards would come back to life and win the Jenkins Ear War. Luzon was returned again, which is difficult to deal with."

Li Li had a similar view, so he said: "I think you can't have your cake and eat it too. The Duke of Xingguo wanted to have the best of both worlds, and he suppressed Portugal and Britain in the opium case and the religious case. Now I understand that he wants to force Britain to exert power in India and drive away our "good" allies, "good" instructors, the French. "

"But if you scare them and make them exert power in India, then Luzon will naturally be tasteless and a pity to the British. It's just a chicken rib. It's normal to return it to Spain after a draw."

"The Duke was just betting that the British would beat Spain and take Luzon without returning it. Scare Britain again and let him exert power in India to prevent the opium case from happening again, driving the tiger to swallow the wolf. But the British were not very strong and did not win."

As the war started, some things gradually lowered the confidentiality level. For military officials at the prince and lieutenant general level, they gradually understood the strategic game of Dashun over the years.

This matter has actually been said to be almost true.

In short, Liu Yu wanted to kill someone with a borrowed knife, but he messed up, and there was a mistake on the Luzon side.

It can also be said that it was because of Dashun's move to Nanyang that the situation changed, so Britain's interest in Luzon greatly decreased - originally wanted Luzon as a gateway to Nanyang to exclude the Dutch. But the Dutch were driven away by Dashun, and Dashun reduced the price of spices and sold them at a low profit margin to suppress Portugal's spice industry in South America, which made Nanyang's appeal to Britain drop sharply.

If spices still had a shocking profit of 1600%, of course Luzon would be very worth taking.

But in order to strike at Portugal's spice industry in South America, Dashun gave up the Dutch method of burning spice trees to artificially create scarcity, and instead frantically shipped spices to Europe to sell them at a low price. Not to mention 1600% profit, I'm afraid that now 160% is gone, and the average profit margin of spices is almost 16% at the lowest.

Of course, Portugal's South American spice industry was basically killed by Dashun. Because South America lacks labor, the labor cost is still much higher than that of Nanyang.

However, Dashun is a double profit. Because the spices from Nanyang were actually exchanged for handicrafts from the Songsu area using silver as a medium. The handicraft products themselves also have excess profits.

So of course Dashun can afford it, but the Dutch couldn't do it back then because they had to go to India to buy cloth and pay an 8% currency exchange tax. At that time, the Indian military governors were not as hip as they are now. Anyone who comes has to pay.

However, you can't have your cake and eat it too. In the end, India got it, but Luzon lost it.

Now that the situation is like this, the Luzon issue has become an issue that must be clearly explained in the cooperation between Dashun and Spain.

After everyone discussed it, these people from the new school finally came to the final key point.

Li Han also learned from Liu Yu when he was young. As he became more immersed in it, his thinking mode has already quietly changed.

He knew that there might be a few people present who understood what was going on, but it was hard to say.

If they don’t say it, they say it themselves.

"You all also understand that this matter is, in essence, the formulation of 'etiquette' for the future world."

"Are they the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period? The Chinese Empire Free Trade Zone, the Spanish Free Trade Zone, the French Free Trade Zone, the English Free Trade Zone, and the Baltic Sea Free Trade Zone have divided this earth. Everyone plays his own way."

"He also said that... he intended to make a gift to the emperor, unite all the wastelands, and promote free trade around the world. He would tear apart Spain, France, and England, and break them into pieces that would make it impossible to build a free trade area. Small countries have to participate in the new etiquette dominated by the countries with the most developed industry and commerce?”

"Looking at it now, no matter which one we choose, it will be beneficial to us."

"Of course we have signed a treaty with Spain, but that doesn't mean we can't choose the second option. If Spain wants to build their Spanish-language free trade zone, they have to come to us. As for Luzon, it will never fly away."

The rest of the people have been indoctrinated by Liu Yu for so long, and they naturally understand the concepts of global trade and spheres of influence trade zones.

But they also have their own judgment whether they want to be the Emperor of Ceremony or the Five Hegemons of Spring and Autumn Period.

But Li Han changed the topic and said: "But the key to this matter is not the Luzon issue at all. It is Spain, a country that wants to use us to maintain the advantages they have accumulated over the past three hundred years. Now he It is already crumbling, but as long as we can really help them, it is really possible for them to complete the transformation of this sectarian system. "

"It's just that once Spain takes this initiative, other countries will follow suit."

"If you think about it this way, is it more profitable to collect tariffs to make money? Or is it more profitable to monopolize trade goods and do business yourself?"

"I'm afraid that by then, all countries, except Britain, France, Spain, Austria and other countries will follow the same trade model, and their monarchs will control the profits from East-West trade to fill the national treasury."

"But I have thought about what Duke Xingguo meant over the years. He hopes to engage in free trade. By then, there will be no restrictions on ships going to sea. Even I think he will only use the monopoly and exclusive Western trading company as a temporary tool. Discarded like worn shoes."

"And if Spain takes this initiative, in fact we can only engage in this kind of monopoly and exclusive mouth-to-mouth trade."

"After all, after this battle is over, the three major geopolitical conflicts in Europe mentioned by the Duke will be temporarily resolved, and all countries will be busy dealing with the aftermath."

"In other words, there will be a new international etiquette, and this dynasty will definitely participate in and lead this international order of etiquette."

"If the treaty with Spain is signed now, it will be sealed for a long time in the future, and it will basically be a free trade zone model where the five hegemons each have their own sphere of influence. It will be difficult to achieve the world market and leading free trade that the Duke is looking forward to. exist."

"Of course you don't have to sign it."

"But if you don't sign, I need to ask you: Are you confident that we can win Gibraltar without Spain joining the war or blocking the isthmus?"

"If we can win it, we will have control over when the war will end. If we delay it for a long time, Spain will be broken, and Britain will be broken, because our smuggling ships can operate freely in their colonies, and within two years , the original trade lines of the two countries’ colonies have all collapsed.”

"Tell me about it."

Everyone pondered for a while, and the Privy Council's strategy was basically determined.

That is to use the threat of landing in France to tie up the main force of the British fleet. Taking advantage of Dashun's cruisers and goods-filled smuggling, Britain's finances collapsed.

During this period, because Dashun's cruisers can control the sea, Dashun can fight as long as they want. Trade will only be affected this year, but starting next year, they will fully seize the British East India Company's share.

Including tea, silk, cotton, etc., tea from the West Indies and North America would come from Dashun merchant ships instead of the East India Company to the London tea market after paying heavy taxes to auction the tea.

So, what about Spain?

Theoretically, Dashun can also use the same method to deal with Spain, or to trick Spain.

Even if Luzon's original plan to kill with a borrowed knife failed, to take a step back, Dashun hopes that Dashun will dominate the trade of Spain's Latin American colonies.

It doesn't matter whether it's paying tariffs or paying a huge monopoly fee to the Spanish royal family.

Even if they give the Spanish royal family 500,000 taels or even 1 million taels of silver a year, as long as the Spanish royal family says that Dashun merchant ships can freely trade in the Spanish colonies, it will still be profitable.

If this can be achieved, Dashun can certainly make arbitrary concessions in the direction of Luzon.

However, I didn't expect that there were also experts on the Spanish side, and it was obvious that they wanted to use the power of Dashun to stabilize the old colonial system.

Anyway, when the Papal Meridian Treaty was signed, Spain, in addition to Luzon, put all its energy on America.

The awakening of Dashun was a disintegrating blow to the old colonial system east of the Cape of Good Hope. But it had the least impact on America, especially Latin America.

The Count of Aranda in Spain recognized the crisis of Spain's disintegration, so he insisted on this point, hoping to use Dashun to maintain the old colonial system.

This is the most beneficial to Spain.

Dashun provides cheap goods, the Spanish government obtains high income, and the local forces of Spain use goods to complete the de-Americanization of America, killing two birds with one stone.

In short, the current contradiction between Dashun and Spain is not whether to trade.

But the trade model.

Is it that at the handover of Luzon, Spanish merchant ships took Chinese goods to the Latin American colonies?

Or, if the handover is not in Luzon, will Dashun's cargo ships carry Chinese goods to the colonies in Latin America?

This is no longer the question of "who will make the profit from the middlemen and the shipping" when Dashun first went to the sea.

Rather, under the current level of Dashun's productivity, which one will help Dashun's real industrial development more, "Spain's one port of trade" or "free trade"?

That is the more abstract question of the post-war pattern of being the emperor or the five hegemons that Li Li talked about.

As long as Dashun does not rely on the power of Spain and takes Gibraltar by itself, there will be nothing to talk about.

Fight as long as you want, and smuggle constantly during the fight. The post-war initiative is in Dashun's hands, and they should stop when they see the good.

As long as Britain liberalizes tariffs, abolishes the East India Company, and abolishes the Navigation Act, it will actually split the British colonial economic cycle, then Dashun can cooperate with the West Indian merchants of Britain and dismantle the Spanish colonial economic system.

Once these two are dismantled, France will actually be finished, and it will not be able to play this kind of free trade zone model within the empire.

It would be great if all of this could be achieved.

Of course it would be great.

But...