Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1232 Start of War ([-])

With the above clauses, Dashun promised to resolve the British East India Company in India and cut off all trade relations of the British East India Company east of the Cape of Good Hope.Including but not limited to India, Persia, Turkey, and the East India Company's business office in Songsu will be directly seized.

In addition, Dashun will also guarantee to send a squadron of five battleships to France to support the French navy.

Of course, it is impossible for five battleships to change the balance of power between the British and French navies.

The pit-like coastline terrain of France that day and the reality that Gibraltar was in the hands of the British made it necessary for France to maintain two large-scale fleets.

One is deployed in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean, and the other is deployed in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.

Five battleships, not to mention a drop in the bucket, but certainly not enough to directly reverse the balance of power.

However, this is exactly Dashun's negotiating strategy.

Gradually increase the size, and every time you increase the size, a certain amount of fleet support will be given.

The next negotiation will be based on what has been negotiated last time.

To avoid asking too much at one time, it sounds like a bit of a lion's mouth, at least psychologically it is not easy to accept.

After all, this time, when it comes to Mauritius, India, French tariff issues, etc., in the Dashun negotiations, it is only worth five battleships.

The Duke of Choiseul considered the proposals on the East India issue and the Eastern trade issue, and found that Dashun was very cunning.

Because Dashun set a very disgusting price tag.

If this price is calculated in pure silver, it must be more than five battleships.

But what it means is that Dashun is of course willing to support France and send a larger fleet.However, before dispatching, France must recognize this treaty, and then it can talk about the future.

This makes the initiative always held by Dashun.

If it is recognized and signed, then if the follow-up talks collapse, Dashun will hold his nose and throw out five battleships, and they will be pulled down after fulfilling the treaty.

If France wants to really let Dashun participate in the war, it must endure Dashun's continued increase after completing the first stage of negotiations.

However, Dashun still expressed considerable goodwill during the first stage of negotiations.

Obviously, the Cape of Good Hope is to be used as the boundary, and Dashun does not seek interests in the northwest, the Caribbean, or the east coast of North America.

The Duke of Choiseul, represented, is the West Indian faction in the French capital.And in terms of understanding the future, Choiseul believes that this century is the century of sucrose.

However, Dashun believes that the last century was the generation of sugar and spices, and the Dutch won the bet.

And this century is the era of textiles. Dashun gambled the fate of trade on textiles, and expected to win a big one like the Dutch in the last century.

The root cause of the cooperation between China and France, but not between China and Britain, lies in the Indian issue.In the eyes of those in power in Dashun, India is very valuable; in the eyes of those in power in France, India is not worth much; in the eyes of those in power in Britain, India is very valuable.

On this basis, issues concerning the east of the Cape of Good Hope can be discussed between China and France.

But at the same time, Dashun obviously gave France a completely different choice, which is to only agree to the first stage of negotiations.

Of course, five battleships cannot control the situation in the European sea.

However, if Dashun can fully control the east of the Cape of Good Hope, the help to France will be worthy of the price Dashun offered.

The reason is very simple.

France spends money on wars.

Doesn't Britain need money to fight?

Theoretically, France still has a strong potential for taxation. As long as it can complete the financial reform similar to the one-whip law and the gentry's one-time payment, France's theoretical taxation can be tripled directly. The small amount of money owed is not a problem at all.

The United Kingdom, in fact, has little tax potential.In other words, the "potential" of British taxation has been exhausted because of its extremely high taxation efficiency and administrative efficiency.

Relying on this high efficiency of taxation and administration, Britain was able to wrestle with France.

But its tax potential has been exhausted, in which case it can only rely on national debt.

Here comes the problem.

Why were so many people willing to buy French national debt last year, so that they were sold for 3600 million livres casually, but this year they can only be sold for tens of millions?
Britain borrowed national debt and had to pay it back.

How to pay it back?
What do you pay for?
What does the UK rely on to convince the people that they can pay back the money?What are you pointing at?

Whether it's capitalists or common people, they have to believe that the government can afford to pay back the money before they buy government bonds.

For the British who have experienced the tulip bubble, the 20-year economic crisis and the South Sea bubble, it is already difficult to hype something with empty teeth and get people to invest money.You are not stupid, you have suffered losses twice in a row, and the person who suffered the big loss in 20 years has not died yet, and you have not forgotten it.

At this time, it is empty talk that the national debt will be repaid in the future, and the interest will definitely be paid, but no one believes it.

So, in effect, Britain was repaid with interest by the government's promise of excise taxes on luxuries like tea, coffee, oriental cotton and sugar.

And with the victory of the Bangladesh campaign, more people believe that the government can really repay its debts.

As a result, about 20 British middle-class and wealthy families in history were tempted by this to buy national debt, which also enabled Britain to pay a total of 1.5 million pounds for the war, which is about 4 million taels Silver military spending.

There can be patriotism.

But you have to pay interest.

The principal, it can be said that the country is in crisis and troubled times, out of patriotic enthusiasm, this principal will not be run.The interest has to be paid, right?

In the end, before the end of the Seven Years War in history, Britain even tried to surprise Spain directly, killing neutral Spain by the way.Because before the end of the war, plus the previous stock, Britain produced a total of 100 battleships.

If you have money, you can do things easily.

If you don't have money, you can't specify.

Since the British government promised to repay the interest with the consumption tax generated by luxury goods such as tea, coffee, oriental cotton cloth and sugar, if Dashun really cut off the British trade east of the Cape of Good Hope, and blocked the consumption of tea, cotton cloth, porcelain and other consumer goods Trade, there will be no consumption tax, and interest will not be repaid.

Therefore, in theory, Dashun has shown a lot of sincerity on the issue east of the Cape of Good Hope, and it can indeed influence the final battle to a certain extent. The only thing is that France needs to continue to support it for a few years until the British financial collapse.

Once the confidence of the middle class collapses, the national debt will explode directly.As long as Dashun goes to war, even if it does not reach the Cape of Good Hope, the East India Company will die. The more than 20 British middle-class families involved in it will lose their confidence in the national debt, and Britain will not be able to continue fighting.

Moreover, there is a serious problem here.

That is, Dashun has not mined precious metals in San Francisco, Old Silver Mountain, Australia, and South Africa for the time being.And Dashun's industry is developing rapidly, and its trade volume is increasing day by day.Therefore, Europe is actually gradually experiencing a currency appreciation, and the price revolution seems to be coming to an end.This is quite unfavorable to the interest on national debt.

Of course, these are only theoretical possibilities for France to win.

But at the same time, in theory, if France continues to support it, it will not be able to reform its finances. It may be that Britain and France will collapse first.

But this also reflects the sincerity of Dashun.

France can actually choose this negotiation amount, which is the final plan, and bargain from it-and if this plan is only the first step, then this plan cannot be bargained, and can only be bargained in subsequent terms.

And precisely in theory, this first step plan can be used as the final plan; in theory, it can indeed allow France... to win miserably at the cost of self-explosion of internal financial problems.

This is not an unavailable option for France, because it is not the first time France has reneged on its debts.Counting John Law's government-backed bubble fraud, in just 30 years, France has already reneged on its debts twice, and it seems that it might not be impossible to renege on its debts again.

It just depends on whether France is willing to bear the price.

Moreover, the world is not static, but dynamic.

Therefore, in theory, if the final cooperation terms of this plan are finalized, it will also trigger another butterfly influence, that is, the attitude of Spain.

Spain's attitude at this time is neutral.

The good news for France is that the queen of Spain is dead, and the queen of Spain is the princess of Portugal.Meanwhile, the King of Spain was distraught and was said to be on the verge of dying.

Because the queen is weak and sick, she has no children.

In the line of succession, the king of Sicily, the king of Naples, and the half-brother of the king of Spain at this time.

This younger brother is quite annoying to Britain, because the British made him a lot of obstacles on the issue of Naples and Sicily, which was purely a personal grievance.

Before the death of the current king of Spain, the most feared thing in France was that Britain traded Gibraltar for Spain to join the United Kingdom.

And as long as a cooperation with Dashun is reached, even if it is only a cooperation of "five battleships worth five battleships" as the final clause on the issue east of the Cape of Good Hope, then France's worries can be completely dispelled, and there is no need to worry that Spain will fall to Britain.

As long as Spain finds out that the king is dead, the little cousin in Naples who has a good personal relationship with Louis XV and hates Britain in his personal preferences will take the throne.

If Dashun pinches the trade east of the Cape of Good Hope, the Franco-Spanish alliance will be very, very easy to reach. How can we not take advantage of it?

This is not to say that it is impossible to defeat the United Kingdom.

But the problem is that Spain is obviously more interested in Portugal. I am afraid that this kind of alliance is mostly different dreams in the same bed.

At that time, Spain is thinking about letting France help fight Portugal, and France is thinking about letting Spain help fight Britain. Generally speaking, this kind of alliance with different thoughts is very risky and it is likely to be broken one by one.

Dashun is different, because the purpose of Dashun to participate in the European war is obviously to go to Britain.

On the issue of who is the biggest enemy of France, forming an alliance with Dashun neither needs to frighten Portugal with Spain, nor does it need to wipe the ass of Spain's weak army. It is obviously more beneficial to form an alliance with Dashun.

This is a matter of choice.

How to choose is a matter for France.

Anyway, the first stage of the scheme has been given.

Or just talk about the first-stage plan and bargain.

Either accept the plan of the first stage in its entirety, and Dashun continues to increase the size, negotiating the final version of a fleet of more than 30 battleships and thousands of elite combat engineers directly participating in the European battlefield.

The bottom line of Dashun is to completely weaken Britain.

But this bottom line must not be revealed in the negotiations, so Dashun's consistent "trade attitude" also put a lot of pressure on France.

It seems that Dashun can negotiate with Dashun no matter who controls the sea power in Europe, as long as it continues to trade with Dashun.

If there is a breakup between China and France, even if Dashun has just brought down India and wiped out all British forces east of the Cape of Good Hope, it is theoretically possible to cooperate with the United Kingdom—the Cape of Good Hope opens up trade and kicks it away The Netherlands, the middleman of the East-West trade in Europe, is your England, because you have the final say on the sea.

Mauritius is there, if China and France are going to break up, why buy it?Can't you just grab it?Fighting east of the Cape of Good Hope, Dashun is really not afraid of anyone now.

The root cause is still the same problem, that is, those in power in France believe that it is still the century of sugar; while those in power behind the scenes of trade and diplomacy in Dashun believe that this is the century of textiles.

These two differences in future control and understanding also make France have to think about another question:
That is, what is the nature of this war?

If the fundamental conflict is not resolved, will we have to fight next time?

Fight again, can France afford it?

The root of the Austrian-French Alliance was the rise of Prussia.Once Prussia is defeated by Russia and Austria, Austria and Russia are afraid to turn around and run to form an alliance with Britain. At that time, France's diplomatic environment will be ugly.

Because of two contradictions.

The contradictions between Britain and France's sugar colonies and the contradictions within Shinra's OPP have contributed to this strange diplomatic situation and alliance status.

When these two contradictions exist at the same time, there is a tripartite alliance of France, Austria, and Russia.

Once these two major contradictions are resolved in batches, and the OPP contradiction is resolved, then France will have to fight alone next time.

If Dashun only joined the war east of the Cape of Good Hope and cut off Britain's trade with the East... For France, it might only change the peaceful situation before the war.Not only will the fight continue next time, I'm afraid the next time will be the traditional alliance of Britain, Russia, and Austria and the Franco-Spanish alliance.

Dashun, a country that loves to see every bit of time, has been very keen to stand in line since the war of Austrian succession, next time it will directly stand in Russia, Austria, and Britain to grab what the French think is more suitable for Dashun's industrial and commercial dumping South America and Luzon too.

Therefore, France is more inclined to take advantage of the almost perfect diplomatic situation this time to resolve the Anglo-French colonial conflict among the two major conflicts first, and leave the Orphan conflict to play slowly later, so that France can be more comfortable next time.

This is a basic geopolitical inference: if the Austrian-Prussian conflict is resolved, the Austrian-French conflict will rise to become the main contradiction; if the Austrian-Prussian conflict is not resolved, the British-French colonial conflict will be resolved, then France can gain hegemony in the European continent.

The only possible ally that doesn't care about the contradictions between Austria and Russia and Russia and Russia, but cares about the United Kingdom, is Dashun, which is trying to control the trade between the East and the West.France doesn't care because only 12% of France's military spending goes to the navy.The hegemony of France, as long as there is no British crap stick, only needs a huge army to obtain it.

Therefore, this seemingly reliable first part of the overall plan, which can theoretically be used as the final plan, has not undergone any bargaining between the salons.

The Duke of Choiseul told Dashun very clearly: personally, from the perspective of the French Minister of State, he fully accepted the first stage of this plan.And look forward to Dashun's follow-up plan, and very much hope to see Dashun dispatch at least [-] battleships and [-] elite engineers to Europe.

However, this is only the attitude of his minister of state, so the king's final approval is still needed.But he reiterated that his personal preference is not to engage in any form of bargaining, and he believes it is very fair and reasonable.

(End of this chapter)