New Shun 1730

At this time, the power of the parliament is always closely related to the outcome of the war.

The monarch is in charge of the army. If he wins the war, his prestige will be high, and he can suppress the nobles, even dissolve the parliament, and strengthen centralization.

If he loses the war...

Before, Charles XII was quite capable. He fought with the Russians for so long. Although he was driven to Turkey by the Russians to hide, he still had some ability. However, he was killed by an accidental bullet on his way to attack Norway after returning home. There is a saying that his brother-in-law, the current King of Sweden, fired a shot, which triggered the guards' reaction and killed him by stray bullet.

Because he died, his sister's succession was below his nephew, so the parliament naturally took power and abandoned the absolute monarchy.

To solve the trade problem, we must first solve the parliament.

And the years of war with Russia made the radicals in the parliament all aim to "defeat Russia and regain lost territory."

This is a moral kidnapping that can be used. After all, Dashun and Russia had fought a war before, and Dashun had flirted with France. This time, Dashun returned the Swedish prisoners captured in the Great Northern War, which made many young Swedish nobles overjoyed: this is a natural ally.

At this time, Swedish public intellectuals had a good impression of China.

Like Voltaire and others, these public intellectuals would invent an ideal country. Since the "heaven on earth" is too illusory and tied to religion, it is necessary to invent a real ideal country to practice their political ideals.

This ideal country cannot be too close. If it is too close, it is easy for people to see it with their own eyes, and then they will inevitably be disillusioned.

Therefore, this ideal country is far away and ordinary people cannot touch it, so they can blow it up as much as they want and carry their own private goods.

This ideal country must be long-lived and powerful.

Most ordinary people despise the poor and love the rich, and judge heroes by success or failure. The richer and more powerful the country is, the more attractive it is. It is reasonable for successful people to shit, and it is a waste of time for losers to work hard.

For example, a few years later, in order to promote parliamentary system and freedom of publication, the Swedes published a book called "Censorship System of the Tang Empire (618-907)", boasting that the emperors of the Tang Empire were civilized emperors. They walked into the houses of the people and listened to the voices of every citizen. They sought the welfare of the people, and any citizen could put forward their opinions to the emperor...

If you don't know this, after reading this book, you would probably think that there was a free press law and a universal parliamentary system in the Tang Dynasty.

It is precisely what is lacking that must be portrayed in the "Utopia".

Sweden was famous in Europe at that time for "not talking about state affairs" - no political books were allowed to be published, as long as they were written, even private letters - if private letters talked about state affairs, they would be sentenced.

In this case, the parliament was easily incited and the people's thoughts were easily controlled. The idea of ​​revenge against Russia can be discussed, but it is not allowed to be written. The people are extremely ignorant and can be easily instigated by merchants, nobles, and wealthy people. This is exactly where these shareholders of the East India Company can operate.

For example, what Cambill said, whoever does not support the merchants of Dashun to participate in the shares is a traitor.

This is an excellent entry point.

Moreover... At this time in Sweden, a party struggle is brewing, and these shareholders of the East India Company can decide who will lose this party struggle.

…………

Stockholm.

The Swedish Parliament is different from other places: they are divided into classes and parties, and they compete with each other to see who has the loudest voice during meetings, pretending to be able to make decisions on national policies.

The House of Estates is different. They are divided into four classes, with an additional peasant class, because Sweden's serfdom and feudalism are not complete, and more than half of the farmers are free farmers, not affiliated with noble estates.

When the parliament convenes, the members agree on laws and taxes - this is a compromise made by the queen and her husband in 1723, which did not exist before - the members will follow the designated tax standards, and whoever violates it will step down.

Laws and taxes are not all the internal and foreign affairs of the country, and the real governance of the country is not this chaotic parliament, but a 75-member secret committee and a Senate during the parliamentary recess.

Although there are four levels of parliamentarians for nobles, monks, merchants, petty bourgeoisie, and farmers, there are no farmers in the 75 secret committees of the Senate.

The former husband of the queen and the current King of Sweden, Count Frederick, is the only one with two votes in the nine-member Senate that actually presides over national affairs.

However, since the new law in 1723 rejected the dual monarchy and absolute monarchy and handed over the legislative power to the parliament, the king has been busy finding lovers and having children - the wife has no children, and the three unfilial acts are not having a son.

Anyway, he was a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and he had his own fiefdom in the Holy Roman Empire, so the royal expenses did not need to depend on the faces of these Swedes.

The person who really presided over Swedish policy at this time was the Swedish Prime Minister, Arvid Horn.

If we only look at the policy, this is a moderate. But if we put it bluntly, this is called the "Anglo-Russian faction".

His mind is still relatively clear, and Sweden's era has passed. It is no longer the lion that kicks the Holy Roman Empire and beats the north.

All the policy starting points can be summed up in one sentence, which is Han Feizi's sentence "A country that is small but does not humble itself, has little power but does not fear the strong, is rude and insults its big neighbors, is greedy and stubborn and is clumsy in making friends, it is doomed to perish."

Avid was still very sober. If he couldn't defeat Russia, the more he fought, the more doomed he would be. It would be better to be honest, not to recover lost territory, not to exaggerate revenge, and to maintain good relations with Russia.

Don't let Russia fight again. The Baltic Sea outlet should be thrown away and cut off. He must not go to war with Russia.

In terms of economy, although he supported mercantilism and encouraged the development of domestic handicrafts, he believed that Sweden was not capable of competing with Britain and the Netherlands. If the Russian navy couldn't defeat them, why would it provoke Britain and the Netherlands?

Therefore, the tariffs should be appropriately lowered to allow British and Dutch goods to be sold in Sweden.

On the issue of the East India Company, he should act carefully, not be high-profile, and not provoke Britain and the Netherlands, lest Britain and the Netherlands be dissatisfied.

Developing the textile industry, Sweden's environment, population, and temperature, can it develop the textile industry? Don't you know? It is better to honestly import foreign textiles, maintain good relations with Britain and the Netherlands, and sell their own specialty steel, copper, and wood tar.

Calm down, be a small country, and stop dreaming of a big country.

Times have changed.

The opposition to the chief minister in parliament is the radicals, led by Karl Girentborg. To put it bluntly, this person is called the "French faction".

His mind is quite unclear, and he believes that Sweden should continue the glory of the old era, kicking Russia, kicking Prussia, and beating up Britain and the Netherlands.

Historically, the French have given a lot of verbal support, but it is zero when swiping the card.

Historically, as soon as this person came to power, he declared war on Russia, wanting revenge, wanting to restore the glory of the past, and wanting the Russians to cede St. Petersburg.

However, the French only supported it verbally, and Queen Elizabeth came to power in Russia, the female tsar second only to Catherine II, who beat Sweden, took away Finland, and made the younger brother of Elizabeth's former fiancé the crown prince of Sweden.

The economic policies of the radicals are also very strange.

They raised tariffs significantly, put high pressure on foreign textiles, and tried to support the interests of their own textile owners. They would rather Sweden have no good cloth than use British and Dutch goods.

They tried to support the East India Company and dig into the corners of the Netherlands and Britain. Historically, they took advantage of the opportunity of the Austrian War of Succession and the privateering of ships between France, Britain, the Netherlands and Spain to send merchant ships to Guangdong, hook up with smugglers everywhere, try their best to sell smuggled tea to Britain, and open up smuggling lines to America.

In other words, all the neighbors were offended.

Being close to France is called making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby countries. But the premise of making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby countries is that you are a strong country. If a weak country makes friends with distant countries and attacks nearby countries, it will die too slowly. Are Russia and Prussia today still the Russia and Prussia of the past?

As you can imagine, those who support them are young officers, young nobles, big businessmen, handicraftsmen, and the most conservative and patriotic farmers.

The directors of the East India Company, such as Cambill, were targeting the radicals in the parliament, hoping that they would win in the parliament and support them in exchange for their rewards. As for Sweden being beaten by Russia and disliked by Britain, what did that have to do with them? As long as you have money, you can go to Britain, the Netherlands, or Russia and be a boss.

Besides, Cambill was not originally a Swede, but a British.

Taking advantage of the opportunity that February had not yet arrived and the merchant ship had not yet set sail, Cambill hurried back to Stockholm and found the leader of the radicals, Carl Girondtborg.

The triennial parliament was about to be held, and Carl was also very proud.

His supporters learned how the British wore wigs and did not wear wigs during the civil war, wearing hats that were completely different from the conservatives, and using the censorship system that prohibited writing about state affairs and publishing books, they incited speeches for revenge against Russia everywhere and gained a lot of support.

He was confident that in this parliament, he would kill the conservative Arvid and become the Secretary of State himself.

Moreover, not long ago, the French envoy brought him good news: the diplomacy between France and Dashun was very smooth. He could not say what they talked about, but it was very smooth. Obviously, this meant that France and Dashun were conspiring to deal with Russia. Anyway, Dashun could not send warships to fight Britain.

If Sweden chose to go to war with Russia, France was willing to provide assistance, including some guns, artillery, and even some fleets.

At the same time, this lovely French envoy also brought a large order to Sweden.

Bordeaux, France, is rich in wine, and making wine barrels requires high-quality iron hoops. The quality of Swedish iron is quite good. So France cut off the iron trade with other countries and gave all the iron orders for Bordeaux hoops to Sweden.

This was as a sign of sincerity in supporting Sweden's war against Russia this time.

This order was given to the radicals, and France would not count this order as the achievement of the conservative Anglo-Russian faction.

Unless the radicals control the parliament, the order will take effect; and if it is still the old man Avid, this order will not be handed over to Sweden.

The order meant that he could get the support of some industrialists and businessmen, which brought Karl one step closer to his dream of becoming a minister of state.

Now, the founder and director of the East India Company, Lord Cambier of Sweden, came to him again, and Karl Girondtborg felt that the matter of the parliament was more stable.

He thought that he would lead the Swedish people to capture St. Petersburg, and then... maybe he could use his prestige to completely destroy the remnants of Sweden's absolute monarchy, and he could become the Protector of Sweden.