Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1362 The Wealth of Nations ([-])
The Earl of Halifax patted the booklet and snorted coldly: "I have read everything in this booklet."

"The emphasis in the brochure is on textiles."

"Obviously, the reason why the Chinese support the free trade of textiles is because our British woolen textile industry is comparable to that of France."

"So they can use this general free trade to hide what they really think, which is not common. For even with free trade, French cloths cannot enter England; but their cotton cloth can."

"So, they're actually against the development of manufacturing in France."

"However, they use as their justification the general, seemingly universal, world-wide free trade."

"If we really completely liberalize tariffs and become a sales place for Chinese goods."

"They, China will protect us from being overrun by the vile mercantilist France."

"Actually, it is impossible for us to carry out any form of reciprocal retaliation against China."

"It must also be admitted that even if we do not admit defeat, the original trading system has collapsed."

George III trusted the economic judgment of the Earl of Halifax, who was born in the Board of Trade.

They are also familiar with France's mercantilism policy and domestic manufacturing substitution policy.

He thinks what the Earl of Halifax said makes sense.

As long as you concentrate on being the place where Dashun's products are sold, then Dashun will definitely protect Britain and prevent Britain from falling into the hands of other mercantilist countries.

However, these words always sound a little uncomfortable.

However, good medicine is good for the disease, and good advice is good for the ear. Many times, the reality is so uncomfortable.

Britain really has nowhere to go.

It is even impossible to have the mentality of "30 years in Hedong and 30 years in Hexi, don't bully the young and poor, and I will have revenge in the future".

Dashun is not the same as India, and Dashun is not the same as Britain.

In other words, it is different from India controlled by the East India Company in history, and it is completely different from Britain at this time.

In India in history, there was the rule of the East India Company in India first. As Lao Ma said: Where commercial capital dominates, it will definitely show cruel robbery.

This kind of robbery system destroyed the foundation of India's handicraft industry, and then the British textile industry developed and finally dumped.

This destruction is based on force.

But it's not just customs.

That is to say, as far as the current productivity is concerned, even if the Mughal Empire is still there, the East India Company beat the Mughal Empire violently, forcing the Mughal Empire to release customs and cancel import duties...

That didn't work either.

British goods should not be sold, or they cannot be sold.

Only the East India Company directly ruled India, destroying the original society of India with cruel taxation; creating a famine of tens of millions of people with crazy robbery and destroying its handicraft system; using brutal rule to completely kill India's irrigation system, Caused India's thousand-year-old irrigation system to collapse and have no money to maintain...

Only in this way can the British manufacturing industry be sold in India at this time.

Switching to Dashun, that is to say, to what extent does the UK need to make Dashun a dumping ground for the UK at this time and promote the development of British manufacturing?
It is useless to just destroy the customs of Dashun.

Because Dashun's customs, even at this moment, completely zero tariffs on the UK, or even subsidize one tael of silver per ton of British goods, they still can't sell them.

As for Dashun, it only needs the UK to release customs duties.

In terms of the level of productivity at this time, in terms of the production capacity of the British textile industry at this time.

If you want to obtain Dashun's reciprocal "retaliation" against Britain's request to release customs at this time.

In other words, with the level of British productivity at this time, what should Britain do if it wants to make Dashun a place to dump goods and retaliate against each other like it is now?
Answer, the British not only want to occupy the capital.

It is also necessary to pull out the Yellow River and completely destroy the irrigation system in North China.

It is necessary to block every canal in the south of the Yangtze River, destroy the economy of the south of the Yangtze River, or use magic to make the sea flood and destroy the paddy soil for more than a thousand years.

To smash every spinning wheel in Dashun.

To exterminate every cotton plant in Dashun...

We must kill all the thousands of gentry who are both landowners and workshops in Dashun village...

In short, to set back Dashun's social productivity level by 1000 years, it can almost achieve equal retaliation and dumping of goods.

For example, what the Netherlands and the United Kingdom did to Ceylon in history.

In the history books of the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasties at the end of the Han Dynasty, the lion country, which was already rich and well-equipped with water conservancy projects, went back more than 1000 years under the rule of the Netherlands and Britain. The water conservancy projects were all abolished and rice agriculture completely collapsed.

But... Looking at the universe at this time, who has the ability to do the same thing to Dashun?

Domination and domination are not the same thing.

Alternatively, the United Kingdom will continue to develop and let the level of productivity reach the level of 1880.

Otherwise, just engage in customs, and the egg is useless.

The key to the first Opium War was opium, the impact of purely normal foreign goods... "normal" goods that do not commit crimes against humanity, that's the thing.

The Taiping Rebellion, of course, was due to the impact of the Opium War, and of course it was also due to the impact of the five-port trade—because of the five-port trade, there was another meaning: the foreign trade center was transferred from Guangdong to Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Ningbo.It's not just as simple as the impact of foreign commodities.Just one Fuzhou trade, Wuyishan tea leaves directly to Fuzhou, how much impact did it cause?How many people are unemployed?

Yes, the current situation is very realistic.

Dashun only needs to engage in British customs, because the British themselves have disintegrated their self-sufficient economy through movements such as land enclosure, migration across the sea, and plantation contract slavery.

On the other hand, Britain wants to retaliate equally at this time. Even if Dashun's navy is completely wiped out and Dashun is forced to sign the tariff treaty, it will find out that it is useless.Even if all the customs in Dashun are demolished, not much wool can be sold.

In addition, the more painful part is that, taking the triangular trade as an example, the weather in Africa is so hot, will they like wool?
Triangular trade, an important trade line, was actually broken at the moment when Dashun sent troops to India, which produces cotton cloth, and had to be rewritten.

In Europe, woolen wool has a huge market.In Africa, West Africa, and the equatorial regions, to sell woolen cloth?How can it be sold?
As long as it can be sold, in history, the French Ministry of Finance may have taken the lead in 1759. In view of the trade blockade and the lack of cotton cloth in the triangle trade, they took the lead in establishing the cotton textile industry in Nantes?So that for a long time, it was ridiculed by Africans as "you don't need to look, just smell it, and you will know it is a poor-quality French imitation"?
All these are the ugly reality that the Earl of Halifax said.

In his opinion, if Dashun only wanted to deal with tariffs, instead of taking away the slave trade, it would be considered "extreme benevolence and righteousness".

A very simple assumption, assuming that Dashun took the "cloth of sorrow" he produced and directly exchanged slaves in West Africa, who could compete?
In other words, is it true that there are no pirates in Madagascar, West Africa and other places?
A large number of pirates are themselves slave traders, and they can directly exchange cotton cloth in South Africa and Dashun to buy and sell slaves. Whether it is Liverpool or Bristol, which slave trader can compete?

Will the plantations in the Caribbean and the southern states of North America be so patriotic and law-abiding that they will not use the cheap slaves, but must use slaves from domestic slave traders?
The words of the Earl of Halifax are almost like saying "It's almost done, don't be ashamed, Dashun has plenty of second-handers".

How about acknowledging the defeat quickly, fully releasing customs duties, and letting Dashun protect Britain so that the British market will not be occupied by France.

Because France wants to occupy the British market, it has to rely on force to maintain French mercantilism.

And Dashun...if they want the British market, they only need free trade.

Even though the Earl of Halifax's words were already ugly, Lord Bute made it up again.

"My lord, we must realize that the Chinese have practically monopolized the trade east of the Cape of Good Hope."

"On the one hand, they themselves are the largest producers, especially after the end of the so-called 'Revisiting Nanyang' activity, they have even completed the monopoly of spices."

"On the other hand... the Dutch East India Company has been disintegrated; the Swedish East India Company has been annexed by a joint stock; the Portuguese have lost even Macau; the Danes have only a small place in Tranquibana in India; The French East India Company has collapsed, and Pondicherry has been given to China as a price for sending troops..."

"Only our East India Company is left, but obviously our East India Company is also bankrupt."

"That is to say, the Chinese have completely expelled all the East India Companies in Europe from Asia. Even the French, their so-called allies, have killed people with a knife and expelled them with our power."

"Nowadays, the only ones who can transport oriental trade goods to Europe are the Chinese."

Speaking of this, Lord Bute warned: "Since they have become the only country that can transport Eastern trade goods to Europe, it also means that they have countless potential allies in Europe."

"If they don't engage in free trade, then they can hand over European trade to any potential ally. In fact, their previous cooperation with the Dutch is this model."

"Every country will rush to get this cooperation right."

"Even in France, he doesn't need to sell domestically, but he can make profits from selling abroad."

"Just like Sweden, Sweden is also mercantile. Theoretically, the Swedish East India Company could not sell oriental goods in the country. But didn't the Swedish East India Company also have a thriving business before?"

"In my opinion, the best condition is that the UK will replace the Netherlands as Dashun's partner in Europe. But obviously, we have missed this opportunity...we had this opportunity when they' went to Nanyang again, But we missed it."

"If this best condition cannot be achieved, then we must first ensure that other countries will not get this European monopoly."

"So, in fact, free trade, for us, is the most realistic and most favorable condition that can be achieved."

"Otherwise... What if the French set up an 'Oriental Trade Products Europa Specialty Company', and Dashun chooses France as the general agent in Europe in view of France's military power?"

The Earl of Halifax agreed, saying: "Yes, I agree with Lord Bute."

"It is true that cotton cloth is not a specialty of China, it is also available in India."

"However, under the current circumstances, who else in Europa can form a new East India Company?"

"Even if you don't consider whether you can defeat China in India or Malacca."

"Just say that although the Chinese didn't say it explicitly, Europe is not allowed to form the East India Company."

"However, they used actions again and again to make their point clear without words."

"The destruction, bankruptcy, and reorganization of East India companies one after another, the Chinese are using their status as producers to declare that when producers try to engage in shipping by themselves, any East India company is his potential enemy."

"Even 'innocent' Danes were directly increased export tariffs with shameless reasons, causing the Danish East India Company to basically go bankrupt."

"Under such circumstances, capital...will be willing to invest in a new company that faces the possibility of bankruptcy from the beginning of its establishment, and China, as a monopoly producer, may impose tariffs and administrative controls at any time, and may need to invest hundreds of millions of pounds. The East India Company with no returns at all?"

"No, absolutely not."

Lord Bute also nodded and said: "If the capital is unwilling to invest, then we can only rely on the power of the king and the country."

"But how much effort would it take to regain the advantage east of the Cape of Good Hope?"

"If this force is invested east of the Cape of Good Hope, then China will immediately find allies in Europe."

"If we try to regain the interests east of the Cape of Good Hope, then we need to invest at least 30 battleships and 5 soldiers..."

"But if we put 30 battleships and 5 soldiers east of the Cape of Good Hope, France will immediately send the dauphin to the east to meet their great emperor, and then land in England."

"Similarly, if France puts 30 battleships and 5 soldiers to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, the Chinese will immediately find Prussia, Russia, Austria, and us to form an anti-French alliance. Even, there is no need for the Chinese to take the initiative to do it , Those countries see that France puts a lot of power into the East, and they will immediately take the initiative to bite France."

"Spain is the same, Portugal is the same. Austria and Prussia are not qualified to talk about the number of 30 battleships."

"So, I can say responsibly that there will never be an East India Company again. Whether it's British or French or Danish or Swedish, there won't be any."

"The current situation is that there is only one company in the world that has the exclusive right to sell oriental trade products. This company is Dashun's Western Trading Company."

"I'm even sure that once the war in Europe is over, the little Danish land in Tranquiba will also be attacked by Dashun."

"but……"

Lord Bute changed the subject.

"However, this is not a bad thing."

"This means that the price of European oriental trade products is unified, and it also means that smuggling between European countries is eliminated."

"It also means that if the Chinese are willing to fulfill their commitments, we can actually receive tariffs."

"And don't worry about the same as before. 80% of people are drinking tea from Sweden, Denmark, and Holland. But we don't collect taxes at all."

"Dashun only needs to help European countries to levy a tax of 3 pence per pound of tea, which can bring us at least hundreds of thousands of pounds in tariffs."

"In return, we should also agree to tariff conditions for the rest of their goods. Otherwise, I think the Chinese would prefer zero tariffs, or they would prefer to turn the 3p into their export tax."

(End of this chapter)