New Shun 1730

Of course, in foreign trade, especially trade with Europe, there is no need to consider the issue of "land transportation cost".

The British Isles are surrounded by the sea on all sides, with an average width of only 300 miles. With two sides facing the sea, 150 miles is equivalent to two round trips from Nanjing to Shanghai.

This is not to satirize its small territory or anything like that.

Rather, can this kind of social existence understand the meaning of "no woodcutters within a hundred miles, no grain sellers within a thousand miles"?

Can social consciousness be produced beyond social existence?

Of course, the British will think this principle of a hundred miles and a thousand miles is nonsense.

No grain sellers within a thousand miles?

Damn, what do you think our "Corn Law" is guarding against? It's the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. How wide is the Atlantic Ocean? No grain sellers within a thousand miles, this is not right at all, and there is no obstacle even for ten thousand miles.

Including the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea... These shipping conditions make it theoretically only necessary for Dashun to consider the freight cost of its own goods "from Songsu to Amsterdam".

Instead of thinking like Dashun, if I transport soybeans from Northeast China to Shaanxi, will I have to pay for my pants?

When there was no railway, transporting soybeans from Northeast China to Shaanxi would mean paying for my pants. Sima Qian's saying that grain should not be sold for thousands of miles is absolutely correct.

Even the important historical event in Europe in later generations - the German Customs Union.

This is equivalent to saying that if two kilograms of kelp are transported from Qingdao to Jinan, there is no need to levy tariffs!

This is the reality.

Now the market with purchasing power in Europe is the coastal area.

Therefore, Dashun only needs to consider shipping goods to Amsterdam.

Of course, there are also shipping costs.

But.

First of all, even if it is tens of thousands of miles, the transportation cost is definitely not as expensive as transporting grain from Henan to Yili. In fact, it may not be as expensive as transporting grain from Henan to Shaanxi.

Secondly, Dashun has both the labor force advantage and the "exchange rate" difference between European silver and Asian silver caused by the end of the price revolution.

Indeed, one ounce of silver in London will not become two ounces just because it goes to Dashun.

However, the cloth and grain that can be bought with one ounce of silver in London are nearly three times that of those in Dashun.

Therefore, the focus of Li Li's discussion of "free trade" here is foreign trade, which Liu Yu thinks is meaningless.

It was originally a surplus country.

It was originally a situation that forced Britain and France to issue a series of administrative orders and forced the French Minister of Finance to write to the East India Company under the pressure of handicraftsmen not to let them be "too comprador".

After winning the First World War, there is really no need to talk about foreign trade and free trade.

The difference in handicrafts and the purchasing power of silver between the East and the West, in this era, the person who understood the most deeply was the former French Governor-General of India, Dupleix.

It was precisely because of understanding.

It was also because of the "legacy" of Colbert's policy in France - no compradors.

This made Dupleix think about how to make money? After thinking about it, he came up with the idea of ​​"Indian native soldiers and collecting agricultural taxes in India".

Things cannot be sold.

France's mercantilist policy does not allow buying things, and France's local industry protests.

Then what else can we do if we don't think about collecting land taxes?

Of course, when people in later generations mention the East India Company, especially the British East India Company, they subconsciously think that the British industry is developed, and this East India Company must be engaged in dumping, right?

But in fact, this broken thing, in the past few years of history, the company's first income was collecting land taxes in India, the second income was selling tea to the country, the third income was contracted British salt taxes, and the fourth income was selling Indian textiles back to Europe.

Even if you take a quick look at the financial statements of the East India Company, you will not have an illusion about what this company is.

Therefore, there is nothing to talk about Dashun's foreign trade.

Can foreign trade solve the problem of Dashun's 300 million small farmers?

It can't be solved, there is no such a big market, and this problem has been solved. Li Li's talk about new etiquette, new emperors, and new world order here is completely meaningless.

In other words, it is only meaningful to the emerging bourgeoisie of Dashun.

And for the small farmers who make up the majority of the population, it really has no meaning.

Of course, when the farce really happened, the bourgeoisie might have to pay money and provide guns.

However, the real power of Dashun is the silent majority of more than 300 million people.

If you want to be the emperor of Dashun, without considering these people, your head will fall off the next day - if the bourgeoisie is able to seize power, suppress and calm the situation, and have nothing to do, why do you have to find an emperor for your head?

However, Liu Yu couldn't say it too bluntly, so he could only listen to Li Li's excited talk about "British Carnival".

Adam Smith criticized Britain for the philosophy of production, not the philosophy of consumption.

Na San criticized free trade, saying that it is the economics of consumers, not the economics of producers.

The Dashun Realist School now criticizes Britain's previous policies, including the policies of old Pitt, saying that they are "primitive accumulation for the sake of primitive accumulation".

Today, Dashun has won the First World War and dismantled many British tariff protections and administrative orders.

It must have caused a short-lived carnival.

This kind of carnival is actually the golden age of "consumerizing all the hard-earned original accumulation by selling everything you have."

In this golden age.

It is really very cool.

So much so that some middle-class people in the UK are wearing "Oriental silks that show their status", using "Yingrun porcelain" with a completely different style from bone china, and the shirts at home have been upgraded from rustic linen to Oriental cotton.

From the era of the Lord Protector who sold iron to build warships, the Anglo-Dutch War in which at least 200,000 people died, the Anglo-French War, the Anglo-Spanish War, the conquest of Scotland, the government of Ireland...

Then there were the increased tariffs on tea, the sugar tax on controlled sugar trade, the high-pressure rule of killing smugglers on the spot, and the expansion of colonies that lasted for more than a hundred years.

A large part of the little gold and silver dug up in Spain flowed into Britain.

Of course, at this time, London, as a financial center, is not as good as Amsterdam, and may even be a little worse than Geneva.

However, after more than a hundred years of primitive accumulation, there is still enough money.

Once tariffs are lifted.

Prices dropped rapidly.

Originally I could only drink beer, but now I drink black tea.

Originally I could only wear woolen clothes, but now I wear cotton.

What was originally only made of cotton was now upgraded to silk.

Originally, only clay pots could be used, but now porcelain is used.

Coupled with the liberalization of trade and the elimination of tariffs.

This "golden age" can be said to be full of flowers and burning oil.

Of course, there will naturally be some "minor" problems.

For example, the cotton cloth industry in Lancashire, Manchester, which was developed with great difficulty thanks to the Cotton Cloth Prohibition, the Manchester Act and the Goods Import Enumeration Act, collapsed completely in less than two years.

For example, the local brewing industry, which had developed through the suppression of France and the Molasses Act, as well as the domestic sugar tax, was half-dead.

For example, the West India Chamber of Commerce, which originally focused on growing sugar cane and pressing sugar, has now split.

Half of them are engaged in trade, crazy compradors, and praise the good times.

The other half lives on sugar and cries every day.

After all, Adam Smith said that Britain was so damn free that it was a waste to manage slaves. Compared with French autocracy, being able to provide slaves with a little "welfare" is still different after all. So much so that the British sugar industry was suppressed by France.

After losing the First World War, the French naturally wanted to sell sugar. Free trade, French sugar and Spanish sugar, already have advantages.

The West India Chamber of Commerce, a group of land speculators, colonialists, planters, sugar sellers, and sugarcane growers, must be crying.

But the same.

Historically, when the West India Chamber of Commerce introduced the Sugar Tax Act, it was the British craftsmen who protested. Because this may lead to "dumping of Nordic industrial products."

As for where the "industrial products" from Northern Europe come from, or what are the "Nordic" industrial products.

And let’s think about what the Swedish East India Company and the Danish East India Company do, why the Swedish East India Company burned its books in history, and why the Danish East India Company was able to control the situation in certain years in the 18th century. It goes without saying that the import volume of some commodities in China's trade far exceeds that of the British East India Company.

Therefore, historically, the West India Chamber of Commerce, after all, was not the East India Company with a higher degree of organization and the decision-making power of the board of directors. It was internally separate.

Selling sugar and smuggling.

It’s no longer possible to sell sugar.

Smuggling became legal free trade because of World War I.

That must be a direct and vigorous effort.

In a short period of time, the primitive accumulation from selling iron to build warships and develop industries during the Protectorate era has now been completely discounted. Relying on the gap in the purchasing power of silver between the East and the West, it can really be said to be...a golden age for the middle class and above.

In the long run, it may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Leave some land for farming.

Save some shearers.

Leave some dry for the moving dock.

Keep some sailors.

The rest was used to nourish the North American colonies.

The UK specializes in commerce, so that’s not bad.

As long as Dashun can guarantee the international order of "free trade".

As long as the French bring warships to harm Britain, or the Dutch want to be coachmen again, or Spain takes back its slave franchise, the axiom, that is, the axiom of free trade, can defeat power.

In other words, when someone challenges the axiom of "free trade", Dashun can send troops to protect "etiquette", and the "British" life can still be done.

The nobles continued to cultivate land, shear sheep, and sell them to France's rapidly developing textile industry. Wouldn't they still make money?

Financiers, continue to buy government bonds and lend money. The UK doesn't need it for the time being, so why not give it to Dashun? Wouldn't it still make money?

As for the rebellious handicraftsmen, poor farmers and so on.

[Debt Prison], [Indentured Slavery Act], these are not all ready-made.

As long as you pay attention and promptly confiscate pamphlets such as "Declaration of the Oppressed Poor People of England", "New Code of Justice", "Flags that True Egalitarians Should Raise", which have obvious tendencies of "equalizing land and exempting grain", you can Relying on the noble captain's ownership and Hessian mercenaries, we can continue to rule.

They collect import duties from Dashun every year, hire 30,000 Hessian mercenaries, and read the "Declaration of the Oppressed Poor People of Britain", "The New Code of Justice", and "The Flag of the True Egalitarians". It's perfectly fine to hang them directly. People in areas with frequent uprisings need to use another stone to kill them.

Therefore, when Li Han was in high spirits, he still suggested to Liu Yu in a very "academic" way:

"I think it's time for this North Korea's foreign policy to change."

"Originally, we were allied with France, but now we should implement new rituals and make free trade the new order of the world."

"What do you think, Duke? Should we end the alliance with France and ally with Britain instead?"

"After all, the French Physiocrats could not accomplish anything. Colbertism, on the other hand, became more stable after World War I."

"The French did not lift the ban on cotton cloth, imposed taxes on Chinese silk to protect their silk weavers in Lyon, tried to make porcelain, and sold fake Chinese lacquerware everywhere... Even the slave trade in France imposed taxes on Chinese cotton cloth and tried to develop its own cotton cloth."

"This is the first one, for trade. It is for the new order and new rituals of the world."

"As for the second one, because of Prussia, France and Austria formed an alliance. Now Prussia has been abolished and Poland has been divided. This Franco-Austrian alliance must be broken. "

"In recent years, I have seen that the Kingdom of Rumi has also been declining. After this war, Russia has divided Poland and its strength has greatly increased. There is really no need to control Rumi with Austria."

"The alliance between Russia and France is also quite in line with the strategy of 'making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby countries'."

"Russia is getting stronger and may become a threat to the Celestial Empire in the future. If Russia and France form an alliance, Europe may follow the story of 'the two emperors of the East and the West', with two emperors in the north and the south coexisting."

"Therefore, it is better to make plans early, turn diplomacy, support Britain and control France and Romania, so as not to let Europe be divided into north and south and become a unified empire."

Liu Yu heard this, but just smiled and waved his hand and said: "Later events, later people. I don't care."

"In the past On the day when Guan Zhong talked about the tribute system, he said that it was necessary to pull the tribute states into the trade circle and trade cycle. Taking the Kingdom of Korea as an example, he said that if you want to make Korea pay tribute, you must make the Korean fur sell well in the world, so that Korea can be tied into the world. "

"But Guanzi's words need to be considered in the context. Qi Huan was already a hegemon, and his military power was unmatched in the world. Guan Yiwu's statement about pulling Korea into the trade system was based on the reality that Qi Huan was a hegemon, but since it has become a fact, there is no need to repeat it in the book. This is like saying that if a person is a father, then there is no need to specifically say that this person is a man, but this does not mean that this person is not a man. "

"In the final analysis, what will happen in the future still depends on the stability of the country. First there is China, then there is the world. If China prospers, the Tianxia system will exist. If China declines, the Tianxia system will also fall apart. "

"The old Tianxia is the Tianxia, ​​and the new Tianxia is also the Tianxia. If we change the etiquette and law, in the final analysis, it is still like the story of Guan Zhong. First there was the military hegemony of Qi Huan, and then the cultural and leather trade was used to pull the tributary states into the trade system. "

"The basis of military hegemony is domestic stability. Domestic stability requires soldiers and money. Relying on the size and taking advantage of the fragmentation of Europe, it is a small problem to maneuver and counter the moves. "

"Therefore, when talking about free trade today, Your Highness does not need to focus on the world thousands of miles away. Why not go back and talk about the nine provinces first? "

"Let me make a bold statement: within a few years, the description of "closing the country to the outside world" may change. The Qing Dynasty was indeed a waste, but Macartney wanted to cede Zhoushan. There is really no need to regard Macartney as an "angel" who came to "save" the East. Let’s talk about “closing the country to the outside world” again, and deepen “reflection”. In a few years, the massive trade surplus will soon become the “evidence” of the “new closing the country to the outside world” - the British have been making history books, saying that it is not because their goods are not good that they cannot be sold in, but because they are closed to the outside world and cannot be bought. I said it clearly, in 1792, Britain was exempted from tariffs, and even acreage tax was collected to subsidize the import of British cloth, and Zhoushan was ceded to Britain on its knees, and every piece of British cloth was not only tax-free but also subsidized, but it still could not be sold in. As for the expulsion of Catholicism, the authentic Catholic eldest daughter of France and the authentic fanatic country of Spain are all going to dissolve the Vatican and force the dissolution of the Jesuits. You, a “pagan”, are crying over the grave of Nicholas the Father of the Jesuits?