New Shun 1730

After expressing his extreme dissatisfaction to the Grand Chancellor, Anthony did not speak of Dutch reasoning, but directly moved out Dashun, an "external force", to suppress the dissatisfaction of the East India Company's board of directors.

Regarding stationed supervision, joint anti-smuggling patrol fleets, and even trade volume, Dashun made it clear that he would not negotiate with the company, but would directly negotiate with the federal provincial council.

Because Dashun officials felt that the East India Company was not qualified, the Netherlands could pay tribute or explore trade cooperation, but why should a vassal town under the East India Company pay tribute?

Even if Dashun is reopened, the ministers of the government, or the distinguished princes and nobles, can receive some envoys from European countries, and even the emperor can meet them. But how could a Dutch-affiliated East India Company get such treatment?

Dashun is about etiquette.

For example, the Emperor of Zhou could directly see the Marquis of Lu, and the Marquis of Lu could also send a doctor to represent the Marquis of Lu to meet the Emperor, but it was absolutely impossible for the Emperor to see the men sent by Sanhuan to represent Sanhuan.

This is not only feudal etiquette, but also in future generations, how could the head of state treat a diplomat with the same attitude as a diplomat, to meet a person sent by the governor of another country? This is the most basic principle of reciprocal diplomacy.

At least, this is what Liu Yu expressed in front of the Orangemen. The Orangemen also conveyed this idea completely to the United Provincial Council.

Now, Grand Speaker Anthony is taking advantage of Liu Yu's attitude to use Dashun's attitude to counterpress the East India Company.

Tell the East India Company that it's not me who wants to seize your power, but Dashun's request. What can I do?

Once the negotiations are concluded, the East India Company's trade business with China will actually give the Federal Provincial Council or the cabinet bureaucrats under the future consul an opportunity to directly intervene.

It used to be that VOC could completely ignore the provincial assembly or the cabinet of the lifelong consul, but now it is Dashun who wants to take the initiative, which means that the East India Company is in the trade with China, which is the transportation between Dashun and the seven-provincial republic. Team.

It's actually easy to avoid being arrogant: spin off the business with China and hand it over to the federal provincial government. It will be directly supervised and controlled by the provincial government. The company will only engage in spice trade.

This is called being strong without desire.

But this is easy to say, but absolutely impossible to do. With the price of spices plummeting, the stock price will collapse on the day this is done.

We don’t want to give up trade with China, but we can only swallow this “bird breath”.

After using the pressure from Dashun, the directors of the East India Company had nothing to say, Speaker Anthony added: "And when all countries sent the king's envoys to Dashun, the company sent representatives from the China Trade Commission. Liu Yu said that someone told him the difference. As for who told him, it doesn’t matter. It’s possible.”

"It was not only your mistake, but also the mistake of the United Provincial Council. In the end, hidden dangers were left, and Liu Yu took advantage of it."

"It can be believed that Liu Yu came here to change the trade model because of this diplomatic accident, which made Dashun feel diplomatically insulted."

"If it continues to be delayed, someone will definitely be responsible."

What he said was a bit heartbreaking.

Responsible, who is responsible?

Considering only the facts, the directors of the East India Company felt that the Provincial Congress had a greater responsibility in this matter.

The United Provincial Council did not consider this aspect at the time, and did not say that it was against the rules, that it was disrespectful to the Emperor of China, that it was a diplomatic accident, etc.

Now that something happened, a large part of the responsibility was put on the East India Company, saying that the East India Company was also responsible.

It is indeed the federal provincial council's greater responsibility to speak truth and present facts.

but.

This matter has nothing to do with facts, but only with position.

If the Orangemen want to come to power, then they can incite and say that it is the responsibility of the Provincial Assembly.

And if VOC’s dozens of board members want the decision-making power of the company, then this is the responsibility of the seventeen gentlemen.

However, the Orange faction clearly does not want to take office at this time. The United Provincial Council will not hold itself accountable. The only one who can hold the United Provincial Council accountable is the Orange faction. The Orange faction does not want to be held accountable now.

But the company's dozens of directors have always hoped to gain power from the Seventeenth Gentlemen.

Since this matter has nothing to do with the facts, and since the Orangemen have conveyed their intention that they will never take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble.

Therefore, even if the responsibility does not belong to the Seventeen Gentlemen, it can only belong to the Seventeen Gentlemen.

If this matter really becomes a big deal, no one will pay attention to the facts, and no one will pay attention to the truth.

The Great Speaker Anthony directly pressured the directors of the East India Company to accept his resolution: negotiate with Dashun as soon as possible without bargaining.

Because of this handle, the seventeen gentlemen of the East India Company who knew how to suppress were very uncomfortable.

The Chancellor can use this as an excuse to force the East India Company's Seventeen-member Gentlemen to accept some conditions of the Federal Provincial Assembly - otherwise, the more than seventy people who have always wanted to participate in the company's decision-making and have influence on the Seventeen-member Gentlemen of the Company will The dissatisfied directors who are in charge of everything will use this to demand that the power of the seventeen gentlemen be dispersed - you seventeen made a mistake, which led to a serious diplomatic accident, so why are you still making decisions?

This diplomatic accident can be understood as "It was precisely because the East India Company's board of directors made blind decisions that led to Emperor Dashun's dissatisfaction. He felt that other countries were sending special envoys from the king. Why are you, the Netherlands, so awesome? Just send a subordinate of the company." Come? This triggered the consequences of Liu Yu coming to change the trade model."

Whether it is or not is not important.

The important thing is that if it sounds reasonable, a board of directors with dozens of people can take advantage of the opportunity to attack.

It doesn’t matter whether that’s the case or not.

The implication of Anthony's words is that you seventeen gentlemen should be obedient.

The joint provincial council has the final say in negotiations with Dashun.

If you make trouble, I will make the details of this diplomatic incident public. Even if we cannot form a super-large 70-member board of directors, at least the current Seventeen Gentlemen will have to replace a group of them.

The use of rhetoric such as "etiquette" and "equal diplomacy" from Liu Yu's mouth cut off the possibility of the East India Company as a political subject to negotiate with Dashun.

Use the consequences of the previous diplomatic accident to force the East India Company to obey.

With both approaches, the directors of the East India Company could only suffer.

The directors of the East India Company knew full well that they had no choice but to admit defeat at this time. The interference of external forces seriously broke the delicate balance between the company and the federal provincial assembly.

"Okay, Your Majesty the Speaker, we will try our best to interpret the various conditions proposed by Liu Yu to ensure that the interests of the republic's shareholders, large and small, will not suffer serious losses."

"But, Mr. Speaker, this incident has also sounded the alarm for us. China has been looking forward to opening up trade controls in the European market. They suffered a failure this time, but they will not give up if they have the opportunity next time. . We should be careful too.”

Anthony laughed at himself and murmured: "Be careful? How to be careful? If we want to control the initiative in trade, we need to do two things."

"First, to gain a complete monopoly east of the Cape of Good Hope, even preventing Britain, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, and Portugal from directly conducting trade with Dashun. If a ship dares to cross Malacca, it will be sunk. It’s like when we joined forces with the British to attack Spain in Batavia, but now we have no allies and have to fight against the East India Company across Europe.”

"Two, send warships to annihilate Dashun's entire navy, raid Tianjin Port, completely control the sea power, and force Dashun to trade with us."

After that, Anthony smiled bitterly and said: "Compared with these two things, it seems that shooting down the moon is simpler."

"Once China wakes up, it will naturally gain the initiative in trade. Unless China and the entire Europe are enemies, it will always choose different allies to divide and disintegrate."

"Today you can be intimate with Sweden and Denmark, and tomorrow you may be intimate with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Europe is not a whole. The East India Companies of various countries and Dashun are all cooperative relationships, but the East India Companies of various countries are in a competitive relationship with each other."

"Can someone like Liu Yu, who can carry out a palace coup in Russia, not see through these things?"

"On trade issues, we have completely lost the initiative. Dashun can sanction us, but we have no way to counterattack."

"I hope you can convey my message to the rest of the gentlemen. Necessary concessions may not be a bad result."

The directors of the East India Company thought to themselves that this is the truth, but...but how can it be accepted that the Federal Provincial Congress can use this to strengthen its control over the company?

If it is really just out of the attitude of "diplomatic equality", there is really nothing wrong with letting the United Provincial Council negotiate.

But how could the federal provincial council miss this opportunity to intervene in the company and strengthen its control?

However, he couldn't think of a countermeasure for a while and could only say: "I will hold a meeting to discuss this matter with the other members of the Gentlemen Group. But..."

Speaker Anthony said seriously: "There is no but, and you must give me a reply within three days. There is not much time left for us."

This is the first time in recent years that we have such a tough attitude towards VOC. When the previous Grand Speaker tried to centralize power, he was tough, but failed quickly.

The directors of the East India Company had not experienced the tough attitude of the Grand Speaker for a long time, and they were a little uncomfortable for a while.

He looked at the Grand Speaker in astonishment and left helplessly.

For the next three days, members of the company's gentlemen group gathered in Amsterdam and discussed behind closed doors for three days.

But in the end, I have to admit that what the Speaker said is correct.

The company seems to really have no bargaining chips with Dashun.

With a feeling as if they were awakened from a sweet dream, the seventeen-person gentleman group looked blankly at the globe on the table, aiming in the direction of Southeast Asia, and suddenly realized.

"Perhaps, the Speaker is right. At least in terms of trade with China, we have lost the initiative."

"We should inform Batavia as soon as possible. The attitude towards Dashun must change quickly and be respectful and respectful."

"They should also be informed that they should stop smuggling opium in a short period of time. They should read the laws in Dashun carefully and try not to do anything illegal."

"At least, like the Portuguese in Macau, they should clearly understand that they are just tributes, so as not to cause unnecessary conflicts."

"In the context of Dashun's customs trade, all countries have the capital to impose an embargo on us without damaging their export trade. We must prevent this from happening."

"We must compromise, change our past attitudes and ways of thinking, and tolerate Dashun's unreasonable demands as much as possible, lest they find excuses to impose sanctions on us."