New Shun 1730

Soon after Anthony met with Louis XV's secret envoy of the king, a complete record of the tragedy in The Hague, which had been polished and specially written to express emotions and instigate anger, was sent to him.

Anthony didn't care at all how many people died, it was just a number.

These dead people are more useful than living people. The key is whether anyone wants to use these dead people.

After reading this standard, pornographic tabloid-style record of the tragedy that was popular in the Netherlands at the time, it was clearly written with care. What Anthony had to consider was whether the Regents could suppress the situation when they came to power at this time. How to take advantage of this situation?

His teacher and former Grand Speaker Fan Siling Grant once said this to Anthony before he died.

"I'm surprised. This rich and loose republic has been able to exist for so long without being divided up? This is the biggest miracle of the entire world in the past hundred years."

His teacher's dying words are still valid today.

The chaotic and loose seven-province confederation was even more chaotic than before, against the backdrop of economic troubles and military defeats.

Not long ago.

The Leiden militia expelled the officers sent by the provincial council and directly selected local people as militia officers.

In the city of Haarlem, citizens openly rioted, demanding reform of the tax system and the abolition of the tax farming system. The middle class of the guild demanded the expulsion of merchants from other cities, so that "Haarlem is a city of Haarlemites, and the interests of Haarlem must be guaranteed." The people of Haarlem should not be usurped by the people from the provinces. They should not use the wool from Leiden, the flax from Trater, and the salt from Zizelok. They are the people from the provinces who have usurped our interests!" .

Shipbuilders, handicraft practitioners, and factory owners formed a group and asked the federal provincial parliament to protect the industrial development of the Netherlands, limit the outflow of gold and silver, restrict foreign loans, increase tariffs, tighten financial policies, suppress foreign economies, and boost domestic industry. foreign investment.

Financiers and bankers are tit for tat and have been saying that loose financial policies are the foundation of the Netherlands. The prosperity of the Netherlands is based on the absolute freedom of financial policy. Once it is tightened, the Netherlands will face a disaster.

The situation in the Netherlands is now uglier than before.

In the past, the chaos in the Netherlands was just people of the first and second estates tossing each other.

The Regents came to power and the Orangemen came to power; the Orangemen came to power and the Regents came to power.

As for people in the third and fourth estates, they have no political ideas of their own and don’t know what to do. Just a group of working animals.

Therefore, some people support the Regents and some support the Orangemen. Since these are the only two options available, they have no choice but to place their hopes on the side of these two groups, feeling moved and sentimental.

But now, what happened in Leiden and Haarlem proved that the third and fourth estates in the Netherlands were completely disappointed with the Orangemen and the Regents, and were ready to go it alone.

The idea is understandable, but in Anthony's opinion, this is nonsense.

As his mentor said, the Republic was so rich and fragile that it was a miracle it had not been divided up for so long.

The only advantage for the city of Haarlem to go it alone is the local landowners and guild organizations.

To put it bluntly, they wanted to go back to the late Middle Ages and live their own lives behind closed doors. The guilds controlled production and the landlords controlled the land, without the impact of foreign goods.

But this is pure fantasy.

In this era, even the Great Wall cannot stop the impact of cheap goods. How can a mere Haarlem do that?

Without the political entity of the Seven Provinces Republic, a mere Leiden or Haarlem is just a piece of meat.

When the "reactionaries" became disillusioned with the Prince of Orange, they prepared to do it themselves.

However, their disappointment with the Prince of Orange did not mean that they approved of the Regency.

Antony had to consider whether the Netherlands was in danger of being completely divided after the Regents seized power in a coup.

Although it is similar now, a meeting has been held for two years, and apart from two years of meals and two years of tea, nothing serious has been concluded.

But at least now the provinces and cities are still obeying the orders of the Federal Provincial Council - it's not that they don't listen to the Federal Provincial Council, but the Federal Provincial Council met and voted and failed to pass the tax reform and centralization plan. The procedure is just and legal.

This is two different things from directly disobeying the orders of the Federal Provincial Council.

It seems that now that the Regency came to power, it was just a change in pro-British foreign policy.

But in reality, foreign policy is just a facade. The real core thing is economic policy.

Once it is determined to cooperate with Dashun, it means that the regents will firmly side with the financial and commercial industries.

In other words, the people of the third and fourth estates, as well as the handicraft workshop owners in the second estate, were pushed to the opposite side.

The regents could launch a coup. At least in the provinces of Zeeland and Holland, the regents in the provincial councils could control them and deprive William IV of his position as provincial consul.

The governance of the United Provinces Republic is from the bottom up. First one had to become consul of each of the seven provinces, and then he could become consul of the Republic of the United Provinces.

The provinces of Holland and Zeeland deprived William IV of his position as consul of the province, but they could not deprive him of his position as consul of the other provinces. However, without the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, he was not a consul of the United Provinces.

But William IV either fled to England or returned to his four previous provinces, which brought crises to the Netherlands.

Fleeing to England meant that the Netherlands might face a British-backed restoration in the future.

Returning to his fiefdom means that the Netherlands will now face division and even civil war.

When William IV was in power, he would cooperate with the regents and regard the second, third, and fourth estates as inferiors.

Once he was no longer in power, he could turn around and become the spokesperson for the third and fourth estates: people in the opposition could fire blanks at will. He was clearly close to the regents on the stage, but once he stepped down, he could hold high the banner of public opinion and promise to restore guilds, suppress finance, and so on.

Moreover, given the noble status of the Orange family, there was one thing that the regents could not do.

The regents could not bring the French into the country to expel the Orange party by force, because then the Netherlands would not be neutral.

But the Orange family could use their noble status and relatives to bring the British into the country, because the Netherlands itself had an Anglo-Dutch alliance.

What the regents wanted was to withdraw from the war, not to oppose France but not to be pro-France, rather than to turn around and ally with France. This was a result that the republicans to whom the regents belonged could accept.

To overthrow the Orangemen, the regents had to keep in line with the rest of the republican factions in the general direction.

Generally speaking, the political factions in the Netherlands at this time were divided into the Prince Party and the Republican Party.

The regents were included in the republicans. But the republicans were not just parliamentary regents.

The republicans as a whole opposed the existence of the consuls.

But the views of the internal factions on domestic and foreign affairs were very different.

After the decline of the Netherlands, the elites were looking for ways to "save the country and strengthen the country."

Similar to that period in China, there were all kinds of wild ways and all kinds of weird ideas in the early stage, all for the purpose of saving the country and strengthening the country.

So-called: discover problems, analyze problems, and solve problems.

The stage of discovering problems has passed, and the Dutch elites have discovered that the Netherlands has declined.

The problem lies in analyzing the problem.

Why did it decline?

If you don't figure out this problem, you can't solve it.

The rest of the Republican factions outside the Regent Party found a very strange point, believing that the decline of the Netherlands was due to "the decline of morals and the change of people's hearts".

Why is it that "the decline of morals and the change of people's hearts" is no longer the Dutch spirit of the Golden Age?

Because of the cultural invasion of France, the hierarchical culture of France, and the complicated etiquette based on the hierarchy, the Dutch spirit was corroded and influenced, so the Netherlands declined.

In short, just like China during that period, it tried to use "moral retro" to save the country and strengthen it.

However, material determines consciousness, not consciousness determines material.

In the Golden Age of the Netherlands, there were strong enemies outside, and the internal development was just beginning. The handicraft industry was the most developed and exports were booming, so labor was respected and people were more united and equal.

But now, with developed commerce and finance, and the decline of handicrafts, a group of French groups that were driven away in the Louis XIV era came to the Netherlands, naturally bringing the French luxury life and cumbersome etiquette.

After people have money, they will naturally lean towards aristocratic etiquette and live a luxurious life.

After the development of commerce, merchants will naturally be deceitful and selfish.

After the development of the financial industry, people will naturally despise labor. They can make money by sitting at home playing stocks, speculating in futures and lending. Why do they respect labor?

So is it the development of the Netherlands itself that has led to the change in social atmosphere?

Or has the change in social atmosphere led to the decline of the Netherlands?

Before finding the right way, some people in the Republican Party attributed this problem to the cultural invasion of France, which led to the spiritual depression of the Dutch people and the decline of the Netherlands.

After analyzing the "root cause" of the problem, the solution to the problem is natural - moralization, retro morality, isolation from the influence of the French and foreigners, and return to the ancient righteousness. As long as morality is retro, the Netherlands will naturally not decline.

This is of course pure nonsense.

However, this statement is irrational, mourns the days when it was rich, does not require brain thinking, and mainly relies on slogans and instigation of emotions, so it has a very wide range of dissemination, and many people firmly believe that this is the case.

As we all know, rational thoughts that require thinking are often not easy to spread.

This leads to the problem that the regents have to face: the republicans, or the grassroots who support the republicans, believe that it is the bad habits brought by the French that have destroyed the morality of the Netherlands, so the Netherlands will decline.

Therefore, the Netherlands cannot form an alliance with France, let alone stand with France.

Neutrality is acceptable.

Opposition to the Orange Party is recognized by everyone.

Alliance with France is not acceptable.

In this case, what if the Orange Party is supported by Britain and is unwilling to give up the power in its hands easily?

The Orange Party can pull the British to fight, but the regents cannot pull the French to fight.

This is a problem.

Another problem is that after the regents seize power, what will be the future path of the Netherlands?

Originally, Anthony thought that the Netherlands was finished and would die lying down.

But now, the cooperation of Dashun has given him another way out.

The real political elites within the republican faction, or more specifically within the regent faction, have always been pursuing one thing: centralization.

Perhaps, by cooperating with Dashun, the Netherlands really still has a way out.

But if this path is to continue, it is necessary to centralize power and change the situation where the seven provinces and even the cities are independent. At the very least, the tax system should be changed, the warships should be built, and some of the power of the provinces should be taken back as independent kingdoms.

This point has been believed by all the great speakers since the death of William III, and they have all tried to change it.

However, in more than 40 years, many strong men have served as great speakers, but none of them have changed.

Anthony's mentor, the former great speaker, convened a federal parliament in 27.

The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen the centralization of the Netherlands; but halfway through the meeting, it became the other six provinces firing at the Dutch province, believing that the power of the Dutch province was too great and that they wanted to decentralize and suppress the Dutch province...

And this is also a huge dispute between Anthony's faction and the rest of the republican factions.

Including the so-called "retro morality", it is essentially for decentralization.

Because the history of the Netherlands and Dashun is different, the retro and morality of the Netherlands refers to the equality of the relationship between the provinces and the equality of the relationship between people, which is the most free compared to the monarchy in Europe at that time.

In other words, it was the monarchy, hierarchy, and centralization implicit in French etiquette that corroded the idea of ​​absolute freedom of each province in the Dutch Golden Age, which led to the decline of the Netherlands.

Therefore, in reverse, strengthening the centralization of the provinces will only make the Netherlands decline further.

And absolute freedom, each city is independent, the group is autonomous, and the provincial parliament does nothing, can make the Netherlands return to the golden age.