Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1302 Death and Revenge ([-])
Conservative, reactionary and radical things have a central axis, and this central axis is constantly moving with the times and reality, which makes it impossible to distinguish between them.

The Tories were reactionary because they were rent-seekers and supported the Restoration of the Crown.But if they were in Dashun, they would be conservatives; at this time, the reactionaries in Dashun were those retro Confucian scholars who tried to disintegrate the unified market of the empire, return to the well field recommendation system, and return to feudalism.

Here, Pete is classified as a conservative, maintaining the existing system.Conservatives of course.

Although his deeds were bombarded by the mainstream Tories and Whigs in Britain, saying that he was trampling on tradition, in fact he was the guardian of tradition.

Because he knows the "tradition" of the UK - if the reason for the prosperity and prosperity of the UK in these years is attributed to the magical concept of "tradition" - then his approach is indeed to maintain the tradition.

Of course, the article that Grenville read, which has already caused a great uproar in the UK, is still very ironic and contains a lot of personal attacks.

Said [in the near future, Pete will be made into a statue and worshiped by smugglers and monopoly franchisees].

In this article, the issue of consumption tax is discussed.

Said that Pitt was against the Excise Duty, but not against the Navigation Act and the Navigational Tax on every merchant ship.

Then, his attitude towards consumption tax is ridiculous.

Raising taxes on cider was considered by Peter to be detrimental to the interests of the people.

Then, a tax on a ship full of cider is considered by Pitt to be the foundation of British power.

The tax on cider, then, is ultimately paid by the British.

Is the tax on a merchant ship full of cider paid by the owner?

Derived from this logic, that is to say, those who support the "Navigation Regulations" are either aristocrats and big capital with monopoly franchise rights; or smugglers with smuggling channels.

And Pete has always regarded himself as a "great commoner", so he is naturally not a great nobleman.

This proves that in Pete's eyes, "smugglers" are equal to "civilians"; even, only smugglers are considered civilians.

This article is mainly used to attack personally, instigate dissatisfaction, and instigate Irish, Scots, North Americans, Jews, Catholics, normal Puritans and Anglicans who do not engage in smuggling to rebel against Britain.

But the leftovers other than incitement pointed out that Pete was guarding the old era. He was a big conservative who knew nothing about the new era and only regarded the past experience as the golden rule.

Of course, there are a lot of private goods mixed in.

For example, satirizing the British policy, because "the protection is too good, so the factory owners who make money have no motivation to improve their technology, and it is inevitable to be thrown away by the times" and so on.

Of course, saying this at this time is bullshit.

Because there is nothing wrong with the truth, no one can say this sentence, it is wrong in a perfect world.

However, if the United Kingdom did not protect it before 1800, it would be impossible to upgrade its technology. The textile mills that were directly hit by "India with one-fifth of the labor price" would all close down, and the merchant shipping industry would be hammered to bankruptcy by the Netherlands. possible.

Although, in fact, the game that Dashun is playing now is essentially the same thing as the game that Britain is playing, but the skin is changed, and it looks quite different.

To put it a little bit bigger, this is the difference between Dashun's internal debate on "being the emperor" or "being the hegemony of each of them".

In fact, the essence is the same.

It's just that it's different.

To be the overlord means that there is no "law of etiquette" in the world, or the law of etiquette itself is "the strong men and horses enclose their own land".

Spain manages the South American area, the east of the Cape of Good Hope belongs to Dashun, the United Kingdom manages the three islands and the Caribbean plus [-] states, and France manages the French Caribbean, Canada and West Africa.

Don't reach out to your own backyard.

Everyone is playing with a set of things, and they are all localizing the "Navigation Regulations": only ships from their own country and crew members from their own country can trade in their own empire circle, and the rest will fight when they come; the trade products of various countries are all The products produced in the country are sold in their respective imperial circles.

The meaning of the emperor is to come up with a set of "rituals" to add a layer of sanctity to colonization.

The reason why it is said that what Dashun is doing now is essentially the same as what Britain is doing, but only superficially, is because of the huge difference in the production efficiency and labor costs of industrial products between the East and the West at this time, resulting in Dashun can hold the "ritual law" without hurting himself.

For example, what is the root cause of the 33-year honey act in the UK?
It is British honey, which costs more than Spain and France.With so many people engaged in planting in the UK, honey can’t be sold at all, so a bill was introduced to increase high tariffs on honey produced in non-UK countries, thus forcing domestic producers, brewers, etc. to use sugar from their own plantations .

Another example is British woolen fabrics. In fact, the production efficiency and cost are not as good as those of Ireland.But Ireland had no army to defend itself, so England banned the production of woolen cloth in Ireland by law.If there is free trade, then Irish woolens will make Britain very uncomfortable.

The reason why Dashun is special is that it is special. The logic of Dashun is the same as the logic of British colonization, but it is because of the human cost and production efficiency of Dashun.

Therefore, Dashun can criticize the British trade protection system, tariff system, and navigation regulations.

Dashun supports free trade so "progressively", not because Dashun really believes in free trade, but because even if free trade is liberalized, your goods will not be sold, and even a single tariff will not be charged.

In essence, it is "letting the sphere of influence buy domestically produced goods".

On the surface, some require force, warships, law, and administration; others rely solely on cost, quality, and production efficiency.

So this leads to, on the surface, it seems that Dashun is very different from here.

Therefore, Dashun, which is obviously the most conservative and the real stronghold of conservatives, can pretend to be the most radical and progressive economically.

And you can stand on the commanding heights and output a mouthful of guns at the UK.

Of course, this is not the most uncomfortable part of Dashun for Europe.

What really makes Europe uncomfortable is the timing of the Dashun election.

Liu Yu doesn't think highly of Pete, because Liu Yu feels that Pete is still betting his future on sugar, tobacco, and cod, which is a conclusion drawn from past experience.

The focus of the battle between Britain and France was also those islands in the Caribbean Sea, especially the sugar-producing islands of Barbados and Guadeloupe.

In other words, at this point in time before the industrial revolution in Europe, the "industrial capital" in Europe is still far from becoming the ruling class.

At this time, those who really have great interests and have the right to speak are those people from the old era.

That is, those who make their fortunes from tobacco, sugar, wine, molasses, cod, etc., are the most influential bourgeois.

But, does Dashun sell fish?

Not for sale, because if Dashun catches fish from the Yellow Sea and sells them in Europe, the pants will be paid for.

Similarly, Dashun does not sell white sugar, brown sugar, sugarcane wine, tobacco, wool, or corn...

Of course, Dashun sells luxury goods such as tea and porcelain, but the problem is that if Dashun sells this thing, for the buyer, it is still sold by the East India Company. Is there any difference?

Therefore, the most popular slogan on Dashun's side, in fact, although Britain has some opposition, in the final analysis, it still supports or is noncommittal.

Although this time the war from Europe to America, to Manila, and to India can be counted as the First World War.

However, this is still different from the logic of the First World War in history, which was a massacre aimed at eliminating the opponent's industrial capacity and excess productivity.

This time, it is Dashun who wants to strangle European industrial capital "before it breaks the cocoon".

Can a country become a developed country by selling sugar, raising cattle, and raising sheep?
In fact, it is not impossible. For example, in the history of later generations, there was a developed country called Argentina. At that time, the geography textbooks specially introduced the difference between "North and South countries", especially emphasizing that Argentina is a "Northern country".

Haiti, which sells sugar, was once very rich.

Therefore, in fact, if Dashun really wants to make a breakthrough in trade, the pressure is actually not that great.

Because there are indeed many people affected, but it will not reach the point where it will be fully affected after industrialization.

Since Pete regards primitive accumulation as an end rather than a means, he also has to thank Britain's previous colonial policy for cultivating a nearly perfect market for Dashun.

An Ireland where the textile industry was wiped out, a North America where the industry was contained by the navigation regulations before the cocoon broke, and an England where the small-scale peasant economy of the owner farmers was wiped out.

To be precise, if Dashun really got free trade.

Within ten years, the feelings of the generation in the UK, including those in North America, will be that "the standard of living has improved, the cost of living has fallen, and the silver in their hands has become more valuable and they can buy more consumer goods."

Moreover, the feeling of improving living standards will be real and tangible.

As for the future, that is for the future.

However, for the time being, this change is different from the past.

Conservatives are most afraid of change.

Sometimes, it may not be rational fear, analyze the disadvantages brought by the change, and then worry about the change.

It is the conservatives themselves, who are naturally afraid of change emotionally. They are more familiar with the past model.

The reason why Grenville used this article to refer to Pete was also because he felt that what was said in the article seemed to make sense, and the reason why Pete was so vigilant was because of Pete's conservativeness.

Of course, it is not a day or two in the UK to discuss free trade.

Pete heard the rhetoric in this article and his "conservative" evaluation, and asked disdainfully: "If Chinese goods are really pouring in, where will our tax revenue come from?"

According to the statement in the article, Grenville replied: "Don't a lot of income now also come from monopoly trading rights and tariffs, tea taxes, and sugar taxes?"

"In fact, didn't the East India Company also argue before that if the tea tax was lowered, a large number of people who drank smuggled tea would drink tea with tariffs. Although the unit tariff fell, the overall tax revenue increased. "

"It's not impossible for us to impose tariffs on the influx of Chinese goods. As long as a certain amount of tariffs is required, the government's fiscal revenue can be guaranteed, and it may even increase fiscal revenue."

Among the things Grenville said, the argument about the East India Company was raised by the East India Company to Liu Yu when Liu Yu threatened the East India Company to force the East India Company to invest in India after the outbreak of the opium case and the teaching case. A vision: that they will lobby in the country to lower the tea tax and increase the tea consumption in Britain, thereby expanding the trade volume between the East India Company and Dashun, and asking Liu Yu not to close the business like he did to the Danes or the Portuguese. The museum cut off trade.

Pete asked again: "This will lead to a large outflow of precious metals. Is this a good thing?"

Grenville nodded.

"That article said that conservatives always regard some status quo as inevitable. The article said that mercantilism must be right? Or is it because everyone has always been like this, so it is considered right by conservatives? It has always been like this , right?"

"The article said that for Britain, the outflow of silver is actually a good thing."

"Because silver itself is not wealth, but an equivalent of wealth. It will eventually become food, cloth, sugar, tea, glass, wine, etc., and it is just a medium of circulation."

"If the British silver flows out, then the cost of labor can be reduced. For example, for the landed nobles, it is originally necessary to pay 12 shillings a week to keep the agricultural employees working on it alive and have money to buy clothes and food. , what to wear, what to use."

"And if the silver goes out, then, they only need to pay 8 shillings in wages, so that they can maintain the same standard of living as before."

"In the same way, a large amount of silver outflow can help the UK find the right direction from the 'wrong maze protected by tariffs'. Only then can it be determined what is the real competitive industry in the UK and can truly contribute to the development of the UK. the way."

"The article said that the weavers in Lancashire, Manchester and other places are a group of giant babies protected by British tariffs. They should be eliminated so that Britain can be better"; "They should be driven away like landless farmers. to the mines, glassworks, and plantations, instead of enjoying the protection of the British tariffs, making them an incompetent, outdated people'."

"So, the outflow of silver is very beneficial to Britain. The future 100 pounds is equivalent to the current 500 pounds, so although the silver is flowing out, the wealth of the United Kingdom has increased."

"When the outflow of silver reaches a certain level, even if there is no need for navigation regulations, then the colonies will use British products because they are cheaper than other countries."

After speaking, Grenville smiled.

"I probably don't really believe it, but that doesn't matter."

"The important thing is that a lot of people believe it."

"Moreover, this method can indeed give us the possibility of a decent peace-if the Chinese go to war because of trade. You and I both know that because of the stimulation from India, this reason is very suspicious."

"And, more importantly, this method can really alleviate the frenzy of running on national debt. At least, it can allow the government to come up with a plan to pay off national debt. That is, use future tariffs to pay off this 5000 million pound debt."

"Peter, you should know that you can't go back to the past. If you want to go back to the past, you must not only defend the strait, but also invest more troops in North America, the Caribbean, and West Africa."

"And, since the East India Company was squeezed out of Southeast Asia by the Dutch in 1620, it has invested in India, Persia and other places for 150 years."

"Defending the strait cannot go back to the past. And we have no ability to push it back to India."

"Since it is impossible to go back to the past, you who think about strategy according to the past thinking must make changes."

"I, or rather, we, hope that you will come up with a practical proposal for peace, Hannover, North America, tariffs, the national debt. Submit it to the cabinet for discussion and dedicate our venerable new king to his first king as king." A 'gift' from Parliament."

Pete pondered Grenville's wording, and questioned that word with a cold snort.

"us?"

"Yes. We." Grenville reiterated the word "we" without hesitation. Obviously, this "we" does not include Pete.

(End of this chapter)