Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1271 Offensive and Defensive Psychology ([-])

No matter how you say it, Benjamin Franklin at this time is still a person who loves the motherland, is full of national enthusiasm and national pride.

In fact, this is still the case until many years later in history.

However, this kind of love often suffers a huge blow.

In the words of later generations, Benjamin Franklin was the standard "I love Britain, but Britain doesn't love me"; Go to prison for more than a year" template.

From the perspective of Franklin, the famous Hutchinson letter incident in history is as follows:
Hutchinson, born in thirteen states, not in the British Isles, was appointed governor of Massachusetts, and was a good friend of Franklin.

With the increasing conflicts in North America, Hutchinson, as the governor, was quite dissatisfied with the resistance in North America. Don't pay taxes", "The gentry harmed the country" and so on.

When the contradictions intensified, Franklin made the letters public.

Its public purpose is simple:
The emperor is good, but it is the ministers who make things go wrong.Don't you insult George III all the time, look, this Hutchinson is one of our own, a proper thirteen-state native.

People in the thirteen states are the most active in making us pay taxes, and it has nothing to do with the king.

[The enemy who invaded the freedom and political rights of the thirteen states actually came from within, not the king's claim. 】

Then came the funniest trial ever.

People in thirteen states think Franklin is a traitor and a dog thief. His son is the governor of New Jersey and is an orthodox Anglophile and supports tax collectors. Now he is defending the king. What is this not a dog thief?
On the British side, Franklin believed that Franklin was inciting the emotions of the people, and his intentions were to be punished. By publishing these letters at this time, is this interference?Don't you know that Hutchinson is a Governor-General appointed by the British government?Who will these letters of his remind the people of the thirteen states?
At the same time, the British aristocratic circle that Franklin entered through the postmaster of North America also sneered at Franklin: A gentleman should not disclose other people's private letters at any time, especially if this person is your good friend. A scheming villain, a person of low morals who does not deserve to be called a gentleman, and who publishes other people's private letters."

In this case, Britain—the one that Franklin wanted to prove that Britain wasn’t bad—had tried Franklin, stripped him of his vaunted office as North American postmaster, and accused him of being “behind the instigation of Anglo-American conflict.” , the head of the Boston Tea Party smuggling ring" and so on.

Franklin said, there is nothing more sad than death. I do this because I want to tell the people that the king is good, and it is the governors who do bad things, and often the most ruthless ones are precisely those born in thirteen states. Not from England.

There is such a joke.

It is said that after the trial, Franklin walked to the Attorney General's side, and said something in the Attorney General's ear: Remember what happened today, I will let your monarch, from a span The lord of the empire of the world has become the lord of a small country guarding a small island.Mark my words!

It is hard to know whether the last joke is true or not, but there is a follow-up to this joke, that is, at the Paris Peace Conference after the North American War of Independence, Franklin found out the clothes he wore during the trial.

But since this incident has not happened at this time, and Franklin has not been slapped by the mother country he loves, naturally he still loves his own country at this time, and he is full of Anglo national pride-he once expressed his concern for the influx of North America. The Germans and French are quite dissatisfied, thinking that this kind of heaven-sent place should not be occupied by these country bumpkins.

As for the public intention of those letters, it is also in line with Franklin's consistent position.

That is to say, "sovereignty is equal to the king and the parliaments of the United Kingdom and the United States, the two natural sons".

This matter does not talk about class and economic issues, but only about abstract political issues. In fact, many years ago, that is, the moment when the Whig Party, as Lao Ma said, united with financial capital oligarchs to control the government in 1688, it has already buried.

Many conflicts that have been backlogged can be resolved or continue to be backlogged during the rising period, and they are not a problem at all.

But once the situation changes and the rising period is interrupted, something will happen.

Here, the Whig oligarchs are actually called the "court faction" here in the UK, which corresponds to the "country faction".

Why should the "Palace", or the Whig oligarchy, now so violently start arguing that "sovereignty lies in Parliament"?
Why not before?

The reason is simple: because they controlled the parliament and power before, they don't have to speak up, argue loudly, and argue whether the sovereignty belongs to the king or to the parliament.

Like, you've got something that's not in dispute, would you go around and prove it's yours?
Only this thing has been disputed and may be taken away by others, so it is necessary to argue to prove that this thing is your own.

Now, King George II is probably going to die. The 80-year-old pooped too hard, and he basically couldn't survive.

Wang Shisun is about to succeed to the throne, and the members of his father's "children" who Wang Shisun inherited are all fucking excluded and unable to enter the center.

They are traditional and conservative, and their base, that is, the British squires and landowners, has a very obvious tendency towards authoritarianism, and is very inclined to "the real king is in power, above the parliament."

In this case, the court Whig party controls the parliament; while the country party, Tory party, and traditional party naturally tend to the king.

The very normal political methods of the court are similar to the emperor's finding eunuchs and the former empress of Raksha raising the German party to fight against the Privy Council.

Franklin had a keen sense of where the political winds were blowing, and during his years in London he had sensed that things were changing.

The conflict between the king's faction and the parliamentary faction will definitely expand. Once George II dies, this contradiction will become fierce and public.

In this regard, Franklin believes that this may be a good thing.

Even, including the siege of Gibraltar by the Chinese and French coalition forces, and the formation of the anti-British alliance between China, France and the West, dialectically, it can also be regarded as an "opportunity to change the political situation at this time and an opportunity to change the embarrassing status of the thirteen states."

Because, there are more obligation issues to be discussed in the thirteen North American states. Although the form is not the same, in terms of power distribution, it is similar to the discussion of "whether to start a group training, whether to allow The rise of local power".

To a certain extent, it is similar to the tax and financial discussions that France is having a headache at this time. Many nobles wrote letters to the king to support the inventory of acres-giving up some authority in exchange for more taxes.

want something.

You have to give up something.

As a native of the thirteen states, Franklin himself understood that the situation in the thirteen states in North America is already quite troublesome.

Therefore, he hopes that through this opportunity of the Sino-French coalition forces besieging Gibraltar and threatening to land, he can achieve his long-standing political demands.

That is, to combine the thirteen states into a whole and establish a political entity with a unified market and a unified government.

With this political entity, a political status equal to that of the United Kingdom is established, and a British Commonwealth is established under the leadership of a sovereign king, and the British king is the co-lord of the world.

And if it can be achieved, then of course the thirteen states can provide more soldiers, finances, and taxes for this war, and push the Sino-French coalition forces that may attack from Canada back to the sea.

This cannot rely on the thirteen states themselves.

It still depends on the king to give him an idea and give him a legitimate title.

Because, within the thirteen states, there have been great differences of opinion.

In this, I have to mention several big blames that can be firmly pinned on Dashun.

Moreover, this black pot is so huge that other than Dashun, it is really impossible for others to bear it.

The problem of this big black pot cannot be understood from the aspects of abstract love, sentiment, feelings, patriotic enthusiasm, etc., but can only be understood from the economic base and superstructure issues under the material base.

Before Franklin came to London this time to resolve the issue of whether Pennsylvania is "state-owned land" or "private land".

That is to say, after Duplex was transferred back to Paris from India, Britain and France had already gone to war in North America.

At the beginning of the war, Franklin and others held the "Albany Conference" in New York State.

The participants were representatives from various states, as well as representatives of the six Iroquois Indians. The purpose of the meeting was actually very simple: the motherland is now at war with France, and we must unite and fight for the motherland.

Franklin advocated the establishment of a union of states to become a political entity on an equal footing with England, so as to realize a truly great Great Britain consisting of Scotland, England, and thirteen states in North America.

However, once the idea was floated, it faced strong opposition from the state of Massachusetts.

Franklin sometimes had a lot of complaints about Britain, but his personal dissatisfaction was mainly due to a common feature of the army of the feudal dynasty?

Killing good people and taking meritorious service, oppressing the common people, cutting off the heads of fellow villagers for military merit, robbing the finances of their own people, etc.

[All the villages they passed were looted, and many poor families went bankrupt. 】

[If someone dares to resist, they will be humiliated and abused in every way, and even die. 】

[This incident made me very sad, the French did not do such cruel things when they invaded...]

[Our own army is not even as good as the invaders. 】

This kind of killing and robbing one's own people is a normal phenomenon in the world at this time.They're all bastards, nothing interesting.

The state representatives who came to Albany for the meeting were all squires of the states, and it was certainly impossible for them to encounter such a thing in person.

Although it is said that all states are opposed, because each state has its own interests and does not want to be pinched together.

However, the reason for the extreme opposition in Massachusetts was neither because the British army robbed the people and killed the good, nor was it simply because of the interests of the local emperors of the gentry in each state, but it had a huge relationship with the operation of some people in Dashun.

When Franklin came to London this time, in addition to solving the problem of changing the ownership of private land into state-owned land, he also had another matter, which was to hope that North America could issue its own banknotes and cancel London's "Currency Control Regulations" in 1751.

This "Currency Control Act" is often regarded as "a symbol of British oppression" by later generations, but it is unclear what is going on.

In fact, the reason why the "Currency Control Act" was initiated in Parliament was that some people in North America asked British financial capital to borrow money.

When you borrow, you borrow real money.

When it was returned, it was the banknotes issued by the colonial gentry themselves.

If paper money can buy things, it’s actually nothing. Currency is just a general equivalent, not necessarily gold or silver. It can be bound to North American peanuts, cotton, grains, indigo, etc., but it’s nothing.

However, the banknotes issued by Massachusetts are comparable to the Ming Dynasty banknotes!

Within a few years, it depreciated wildly to 4% of the original currency value, that is, 100 taels of silver is now only 4 taels.

To do business these days, gold and silver are used.The money that British financial capitalists lent to North American slave owners was real money, and when they paid back the money, they paid back paper money, and it was paper money that depreciated wildly...

The "Currency Act" in 1751 was caused by the problem of repaying the debt: I will not pay you back the silver, but I will pay you back the banknotes. There are more and more cases, and finally the lawsuit went to the London Parliament.

Although it seems that originally, this is not an oppression.

But at this time, because of Dashun's intervention, this decree is really an oppression in essence.

If we really want to talk about it, some people on Dashun's side really have to bear the blame for this big scapegoat.

Why is Massachusetts paper currency depreciating so much?
Because it's too much.

Why over hair?
Because there is going to be a war.

Why fight?
Because Liu Yu instigated France to sell ginseng mink fur, the ginseng war that took place here during the War of Austrian Succession, the merchant group in Massachusetts worked very hard to snatch France's "valuable, no need to spin or weave, just dig grass roots" A colony that can exchange silver from China.

However, because of Liu Yu's involvement, the Dutch coup, the Russian coup, Dashun's pressure on the East India Company, and the loan of Duplex to cause trouble in India, the British government exchanged the occupied French North American colonies for India. Madras.

Originally, excessive banknotes were issued to deal with the war, and the anchor was the future income of ginseng and mink fur, but in the end it disappeared, and it naturally depreciated, and it depreciated wildly.

The small Massachusetts, in order to expand its troops and fight the French during the Ginseng War, did not have so much money, so it issued about 70 pounds, which is 210 million taels of silver banknotes.

If this fucking doesn't depreciate, it's really unreasonable.

If Dashun is willing to take the blame, he can really take the blame.

After all, Liu Yu actually carried out a neutral coup in the Netherlands, lent Duplex a batch of warships, returned the French naval instructors, and threatened the East India Company with an opium case...

In the end, France and North America lost, India made up, and the two sides switched.

The British royal family, the Whig oligarchy, had a closer relationship with the East India Company, so they sold Massachusetts without blinking in exchange for the interests of the East India Company.

It should be said that this led to the depreciation of paper money in Massachusetts.Otherwise, use ginseng mink futures as an anchor, and Dashun is the only country in the world that can really eat ginseng and eat 10 taels of silver a year. Live the value of the currency——Theoretically, the Nanyang strategy of the Ming Dynasty did not go bankrupt, or it could control smuggling, or Nanyang was [-] miles away, and the treasure banknotes were anchored in spices, and the royal monopoly was exclusive, and the treasure banknotes could last for a few years.

Therefore, Massachusetts is really not very interested in "loving the motherland".

In the past, we donated money and materials, organized militias, and fought against the French and Indians—although it was essentially for the benefit of us big businessmen and big capitalists who wanted to monopolize the ginseng trade, objectively, it was also for the motherland Go out and fuck the French - you London sold us out after the war.

Oh, this Great Britain, the motherland of the East India Company, of those Whig oligarchs and London finance capital, has nothing to do with us.

Who knew that this time we would pay for the Northern Expedition again, but you would turn around and sell us?
Can you, Franklin, guarantee that London Finance Capital will not sell us again this time?During our Northern Expedition, won't we be stabbed in the back by the king again?

(End of this chapter)