New Shun 1730

As for the "supporting China" faction represented by Sir William Temple in the previous internal debates in the UK...

In fact, just like the Britain and China described by Voltaire, they are not talking about "China" at all.

If you replace it with "Utopia", "Ocean City", or "Utopia", there will be no difference.

Just borrowed a piece of skin.

Innuendo.

Use the past as a metaphor for the present.

Pointing at the mulberry tree and scolding the huai tree.

It's basically a set of things.

And here, there happens to be a very special national situation of the British domestic class.

The word "conservative" does not mean to retreat, but to try to maintain the status quo.

Those who support free trade, support parliament, and support businessmen's rights are all conservatives. At this time, Dashun must be an extreme radical, but in Britain they are conservatives, just reformers among conservatives.

There is another class in Britain, the reactionaries. These British reactionaries are conservatives in Dashun.

You can understand what they stand for without thinking about it. That is: restore the royal power and the divine right of kings, and stop wasting national power by talking nonsense in parliament all day long.

In addition to reactionaries, there are also radicals.

The radicals advocate rationality, natural philosophy, opposition to religion, and moral governance.

When facing the China issue, a very strange scene occurred.

British reactionaries and British radicals merged...

This is because the image of China at this time was all made up by them. They used skin as a target and each took what they wanted.

If you don't know this, you will definitely feel confused if you think that the China they are talking about is the one you know based on your understanding of Chinese history.

What is the Houyhnhnm Kingdom in "Gref's Travels" satirizing?

[Then some horses are very curious: Since you humans are called rational animals, then nature and reason are enough to teach us what we should do and what we should not do. Morality is derived from reason, so what is the use of religion? 】

Before the great storm of 1993, before Notre Dame was converted into a temple for the worship of reason...

Who is the country that these people imagine is a country where "morality is derived from reason and there is no religion"?

Naturally, it is that [religion is limited to those who sell pulp and paper. The scholar-official class with both morals and knowledge does not believe in religion. What they advocate is the eternal way of heaven - the spirit of the world - and this does not require temples, idols or priests. There, a country where reason and morality join hands to overthrow religion.

Therefore, they are Houyhnhnms, horses, animals, and beasts.

But, not human.

The reactionaries supported the government for the purpose of divine right of kings and strengthening the power of the king.

The radicals govern the country based on rational natural philosophy and do not need a state religion at all. They support it.

So the two parties joined forces to create an image of China that even Chinese people like Liu Yu who are not from Dashun cannot understand.

After seeing it, three dynasties exclaimed, King Wen lamented, Duke Zhou shed tears, Masters sang loudly, and thousands of gods were defeated by Yao and Shun.

There are also some reactionaries who have a mentality similar to that of the reactionaries in Dashun at this time: as the times progress and business develops, people's hearts are not ancient, morals are corrupted, cheating and abduction, arrogance and lewdness, so they need to go back.

Where to retreat and how to retreat requires an "utopia".

The Dutch did not choose China as a scarecrow because their elites themselves made up a "Batavia Republic" that carried everything they envisioned: politics, morality, spirituality, culture, and nation.

But Britain chose a country that actually existed, applied a beautiful filter and polished it into an utopia, carrying the politics, morality, spirit, and culture they envisioned.

The difference between the two is caused by social consciousness relying on social existence.

The Netherlands got rich earlier, but the UK is still in the stage of getting rich soon but not yet, so they haven't made up their own Batavia myth just yet.

When he becomes the richest person in the world one day, he will definitely make up his own Batavia myth.

Of course, they are definitely not called Batavia Mythology. Later generations will call them "Whig Historical View".

Just like the birth and destruction of the Dutch myth, this set of things was born in the 1820s after the war with Britain and Britain officially ascended the throne as the emperor of the earth. Just like the Dutch myth of Batavia was born in the most glorious era of the Sea Coachman.

In fact, whether it is the Dutch-style imagination of a Batavia Republic in the ancient golden age, or the British and French-style imagination of creating a realistic and prosperous foreign country, the essence is the same.

These two things are common now and will be common in the future. They are not uncommon and are very easy to understand.

But at this time, there was a debate among the British people. The reactionaries, radicals, and conservatives were all talking about Dashun, and each had their own reasons. It seemed like a bunch of demons were dancing around.

Real, fake, made up, imagined, all blended together into a mess.

However, whether it is the "Batavia Myth" model or the "Perfect Foreign Model" actually reflects the country's international status from the side.

Since Britain was not qualified to use the "Batavia Myth" model at this time, the outcome of the debate between the three parties was quickly determined.

At this point, the attitude towards Dashun and the evaluation of China have nothing to do with the facts.

It is already a matter of "eating fish" or "not eating fish".

He who "does not eat fish" is loyal.

Those who "eat fish" are traitors.

The cargo ship of Dashun docked in Amsterdam was the last straw that broke the camel's back in this debate.

Before, Dashun did not actively trade, and was passively treated as a "vampire" in their mouths.

Now this "vampire" has awakened and spread its wings to fly to Europe.

The dazzling list of goods has also been passed to Britain. Those practitioners who saw the samples and prices were really panicked.

The East India Company was unlikely to buy the best things because of profit priority. In addition, due to its domestic policies, many commodities could not be imported, and even if they were imported, they could not be sold.

Therefore, the goods that Dashun could exchange for silver were not only tea, silk, and porcelain, but also many other goods that were previously closed due to monopoly trade.

It does not mean that all these goods must be sold to Britain to cause a huge impact on the British economy.

Britain's special symbiosis of aristocratic landlords and business requires them to maintain a large overseas market.

Dashun's active trade with Europe is also a kind of destruction to Britain.

Once this aristocratic landlord and commercial symbiosis is deprived of overseas markets, the British internal market alone cannot accommodate such a large production capacity.

Britain's population is here, and its industrial strength is here, so its internal market is destined to not be able to rely on the internal market.

However, facing the cargo ships of Dashun and the various high-quality and low-priced goods on the ships, "cursing" and "scolding" alone cannot solve the problem.

Britain may not be familiar with possible dumping, but China in history is "experienced". In summary, there are only two options.

The first one, such as President Yuan's uncle Yuan Baoheng, proposed the following solution to the opium problem:

[We will plant poppies on a large scale to resist British opium. If force cannot ensure customs autonomy, then use domestic goods to drive out foreign goods. When British opium is unprofitable and cannot compete with local opium, which leads to the bankruptcy of opium cultivation in India, when will China completely ban opium?]

If you can't control foreigners, can't you control the people? If foreigners can't control it, then let them withdraw when they feel that it is unprofitable, and then it will be easier to control the opium in our country.

However, this method... can only be used for opium, not for cotton cloth, porcelain and other things.

If we only look at the commodity attributes of opium, it is not much more difficult to grow it than to grow corn or wheat. As long as it is released, it is theoretically possible to drive out foreign goods, not only in theory, but also in reality.

It's just that only the first step was done, and the second step was not done...

But cotton cloth is different, or industrial products are different.

This method is equivalent to the solution of "maintaining foreign trade" - the late Qing Dynasty passively maintained the opium trade, because if you dare to close the door, you will be beaten.

So the essence of this method is to make the price of domestic goods lower than that of foreign countries under the premise of continuing foreign trade, so as to force foreign countries to withdraw voluntarily.

So this method can only be used for things like opium, not industrial products.

The enemy's dumping will lead to the bankruptcy of domestic factories, and it is impossible to survive under competition.

If Britain could really make the price and quality of cotton cloth as high as the relative quality and cost of opium grown in the Beiyang region in the late Qing Dynasty, it would be feasible.

But if it could be done like this, why would we be so nervous? Cotton cloth is not harmful like opium, so we can make as much as we want.

But the British, looking at the huge difference in the quality and price of cotton cloth, knew what was going on.

Historically, the steam engine was invented in 1776, and a hundred years later in 1876, machine-woven cloth still could not completely defeat handicraft cloth.

Even with the end of the Second Opium War, Indian cotton yarn entered China on a large scale, solving the "efficiency" problem of spinning and spinning, and ushered in a wave of local cloth's last gasp, reaching the highest production capacity of 578 million pieces in the old era.

This method does not work, or the method of maintaining foreign import trade as a premise does not work, then we can only choose the second method.

The second method is the orthodox approach.

Violent machine.

Ensure the autonomy of customs and add tariff protection.

The fleet can win in the ocean, so it will win in the ocean.

If the fleet cannot win the ocean battle, then retreat to the customs fort.

In short, add a cover to cover yourself. Make sure there is no external influence and dumping, and try your best to catch up with foreign goods.

Let's not talk about whether the internal market is big enough, or whether the UK's internal production capacity is relatively oversupplied due to the lack of European market, etc., that's a later story. Just say that now, the British government's violent means, at least at this time, cannot be used.

The art of war says: attack when halfway across the river.

Now Dashun is in a state of "halfway across the river" in Europe.

The foothold is not stable.

If the British navy is willing to fight, it will be dispatched now, and all the ships of Dashun Western Trade Company will have to be explained here.

Betting on national destiny.

After such a bet, Dashun will be scared and will never dare to come to the Atlantic trade again.

Then the two sides will negotiate, Britain will replace the Netherlands, and Dashun will hand over Britain's exclusive monopoly on the east trade goods west of the Cape of Good Hope.

But Liu Yu was very cunning. He had previously cooperated with Sweden to explore the way forward, but he had stayed at home and did nothing even though the way had been explored clearly.

He waited until both sides of the Austrian Succession War were exhausted, and then he suddenly took action and tried to gain a foothold in Europe.

Then he shamelessly broke the cold winter of the Amsterdam financial market, causing a large amount of precious metal investment to flow to China, even at a high interest rate of 7%.

Then he was very disgusting to play the game of muddying the waters on the issue of Louisbourg, so that the British royal family, as the "Elector of the Holy Roman Empire", could not impose taxes in the post-war resentment.

No money, no war.

For Britain, starting a war now is the last chance in Liu Yu's eyes.

As long as he doesn't go to war now, Liu Yu can celebrate - all his decisions with gambling elements are considered to be gambling here, and the rest is just a matter of course.

Because Liu Yu has set up an armed neutral alliance in Europe.

The longer the time drags on, the more stable the foundation of Dashun in Europe, and the greater the bargaining chip of the armed neutral alliance.

"Neutrality" itself is not a bargaining chip.

But adding the word "armed" in front of "neutrality" is a huge bargaining chip.

So, Britain's choice is actually locked by Liu Yu.

There are only two choices.

Either, go to war now.

Otherwise, they could only give the initiative of starting a war to Dashun.

It's very simple. If Britain and France go to war again:

Will the British choose "Chinese neutrality is probably unreliable, damn it, let's declare an armed neutral alliance at the same time"?

Or will they choose "I hope they can maintain a neutral position, don't over-stimulate them, and don't even give them any excuse for war"?

This is not a matter of belief or not, but it must be believed and must be believed wishfully.

However, not choosing to gamble on the fate of the country halfway across the river forced the British to fall into Liu Yu's trap.

Believing in neutrality does not mean doing nothing.

Instead, it means seizing space in the marginal areas without a full-scale conflict.

This marginal area is India.

For Britain, even if we don't talk about the interests of the East India Company, just talking about the pure national geopolitical strategy, with the awakening of Dashun, the importance of India has increased rapidly.

As long as Dashun is still neutral and still digesting Southeast Asia, and taking India, Britain will have the basis for a full-scale confrontation with Dashun in the future.

Otherwise, each side would play its own game: if they only stayed in the Atlantic, Chinese goods would not be able to go to Britain, but they could go to Europe through various middlemen, and Britain would not be able to make any substantial threats or countermeasures against Dashun.

In terms of economy, the British felt the huge gap between textiles in the East and the West, and they were sure that they would not be able to catch up for at least 30 years - 30 years was a manifestation of the British's overconfidence - so the only thing that could defeat Eastern textiles was Eastern textiles.

And the only country in the East that could weave cotton cloth and whose technology could compete with Dashun was India.

If the popularity of cotton cloth was inevitable, and if the European cotton textile industry lagged behind the East by decades, then the best solution was to control India and use Indian cotton cloth to squeeze Dashun's market in Europe and maintain Britain's commercial interests.

Some things were unavoidable.

When Dashun's textiles entered Europe, Britain's woolen exports would definitely decline. The Navigation Regulations could control the mainland and colonies, but not those European countries buying cotton cloth.

Since this was inevitable, defeating Eastern goods with Eastern goods became the only option.

At least, the money from shipping trade was still earned by the country. The development of shipping trade means that the shipping industry will not decline, which at least ensures that the mainland and colonies will not be dumped.

In theory, there is a way to break the deadlock at this time. That is to give India to France in full, so that France and Dashun will have a conflict and alienate China and France.

However, this is not a decision that can be made by an excellent politician, this requires a prophet...