Xinshun 1730

Chapter 599
"What do you want to tell them, my lord?"

Looking at the dark crowd, Kang Bushao felt that the atmosphere here was completely different from that of Dashun.Amsterdam now has a population of only 20, and in Dashun, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Songjiang and other places, you can easily find a bunch of cities that exceed this size.

But the atmosphere is always different.

Kang couldn't wait to know what Liu Yu would say to these people, at least he could guess, and if he didn't come up, he would preach something that the other party was unlikely to believe.After all, this place is different from Dashun, and the state of the citizens is completely different from Dashun.

Liu Yu thought for a while, then said in a low voice: "What to say specifically, I can only say to take one step at a time, but the general direction has been determined."

"Incite the people, let the Prince of Orange faction come to power, start a war, and take the blame! Then, we will destroy the Netherlands together with France and Prussia, let the regents of the parliament overthrow the Orange faction and come to power, reverse the policy: pro-French, anti-British, reorganization East India Company."

Kang Buxiu smiled, looked at the dark Dutch people, and said in a low voice: "This is still Ban Dingyuan's trick. It's just that Ban Dingyuan killed people directly, and the son wanted to kill people with a knife. Diplomats have to be responsible for this too? What are your plans, sir?"

"It's hard to say, but we have to look at the mentality of the Dutch people first. Is it just a pot of hot oil? Or do you add the fire first..." Liu Yu glanced at the Amsterdam citizens who were "lottery draws" there again, and Liu Yu thought in his heart I have a rough plan, but I still need to communicate with these people first to find out how to do it.

When he came to Europa this time, the first stop was Holland, so he wanted to make some big noises.

Ordinarily, relying on the foundation laid by the court exchanges between China and France in the Louis XIV era, this time he came to Europe to go to France first.

But it is precisely because of such a foundation, and because France is a centralized monarchy country, there is also a set of complicated court etiquette. It is necessary to give France a preparation time to preserve the dignity of each other's courts.

Therefore, after a short supply and repair in the port of La Rochelle, the official personnel were first sent to Paris to say hello to the French side and send a gift list for the French side to prepare.Then the fleet went straight to Amsterdam.

On the other hand, the Netherlands is an oligarchic republic, and there is no de jure head of state, which can save a lot of complicated red tape and etiquette, so that it is convenient to do bad things directly.

The entry point for doing bad things is still easy to find.

Liu Yu has come into contact with some Dutch elites, who are capable of being the Governor of Batavia, the Governor of Ceylon, and the Governor of Sulawesi. Even if they are not the top group of people in the Netherlands, they cannot be called a "provincial" Cadres are not elites.

He also collected pamphlets written by the Dutch political elite in Batavia.

It can be said that at this time in the entire Netherlands, no elite figure realized that the root cause of the decline of the Netherlands was the loss of commercial capital to industrial capital.

Even, no one is willing to accept the reality that the golden age of the 17th century was just a flash in the pan.The Netherlands just returned to its proper place in the long river of history.Many countries have returned to their proper positions in the long river of history. Why is the Netherlands so special?

Moreover, from the contact with those people, Liu Yu can also intuitively feel that the Dutch national identity has not yet been completed.

On the one hand, the absence of a figure who held the seven republics together made the provinces separate from each other.

On the other hand, it is also out of internal fighting.

Many nations are imagined communities that require a national myth.

For example, before and after India’s secession from the United Kingdom, later generations of India began to build various imaginary communities, including the Kudhu Festival, which is famous for its virus breeding. old.

The same goes for the Netherlands.

When they originally resisted Spain, the national elites were already "fabricating" this imaginary community.

They made up a Batavian Republic that existed 300 years before the birth of Jesus. This Batavia means the Dutch nation, not the colony in Southeast Asia.

This Batavian Republic has a double meaning.

First, the rule of three generations.

Second, since ancient times.

The problem lies in this "rule of three generations".

If this national myth is only from ancient times, in fact, everyone can accept it.The common consciousness of this national imagination has basically taken shape.

However, the national elites of the Netherlands at that time wanted the rule of three generations since ancient times, and this was a problem.

The "three-generation rule" of the Batavian Republic 2000 years ago was free, small government, unrestricted business power, decentralization to provinces, no monarch, and republic.

As a result, the oligarchs and hierarchical republicans made great use of the Batavian Republic 2000 years ago.

But they long for urban autonomy, and they don't want a real country pinched together.

Therefore, they abandoned the ancient times and only wanted the rule of three generations.

However, the Prince of Orange faction is extremely disgusted with this mythical "rule of three generations". They want the power of consuls, nobles, and consuls, and hope to pinch the seven provinces together to regain their glory.

So they did a very...smart thing.

They spend money to buy people, buy public opinion, engage in archaeology, and create momentum. By taking advantage of the general rationality and the worship of science in the 18th century, they use detailed archaeological data to prove one thing: the Republic of Batavia does not exist at all, it is just a A myth made up!

This is not the same thing as Dashun's archeology will prove that the rule of the Three Dynasties does not exist in the future.

The rule of the Three Dynasties did not exist, but Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han really existed. What was shattered was only the transformation of the ancient system, but the nation that had already been formed could not be shattered.A better system can be designed by relying on rationality, and it does not necessarily have to be retro.

However, the Netherlands is different. There is no Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han in the Netherlands... The myth of the Batavian Republic has a double mission.

From the perspective of a complete Dutch nation, this is equivalent to pouring out the baby's bath water, and pouring out the baby together by the way.

But from the point of view of the Prince of Orange faction, this is half black and half white pot of water, it is better to pour it all out.

then.

The faction that supports the myth of the Batavian Republic only wants the rule of three generations, not the ancient times.

The faction that opposes the myth of the Batavian Republic only wants the ancient times, not the rule of the three generations.

The construction of national identity, along with the archaeological evidence of the Prince of Orange faction, was utterly shattered.

What followed was the terrifying cultural invasion of France.

In the myth of the Batavian Republic fabricated by the elites, a series of things such as the national spirit and etiquette of the Netherlands were also shaped.

However, the economic base determines the superstructure.

The national myths produced in the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, its morality, etiquette, and national spirit must be built on the basis of reality: simplicity, hardship, fanaticism, and integrity. The cornerstone of the title is also the national spirit shaped by the economic foundation at that time.

It’s just that those realities are used as templates, and they are set in the fabricated myth of the Batavia Republic—it’s like the story of Dashun’s Heavenly Court, which also performs its duties, just like the court.

However, with the decline of the Netherlands, the economic base no longer exists.The struggle of the previous 100 years has made the Netherlands a huge stock and accumulated a lot of wealth, but there is no environment where it is easy to make money a hundred years ago.

Loans, tax packages, and speculation have become ways to make money; while fishing, sea travel, and textiles have been basically strangled to death by various countries.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

And after people get rich, they all think about being nobles, especially noble etiquette, which will definitely be revived among the richest bourgeois.

The upper-class people guide the cultural trend, not to say that they create, but they will guide the trend.

At this time in Europe, which country has the most noble etiquette?

Anyway, it is not England, which has been blown to the sky by later generations, but France, which has not yet been guillotined.

At this time, France is absolutely qualified to speak harshly in Europe: If there is no guillotine, within a hundred years, the entire upper class in Europe will be French, and they will all speak French.Before you go to the guillotine and get rid of old ideas, old morals and old culture, are you British worthy of talking about aristocrats in front of France?
This has aroused the vigilance of some elites in the Netherlands, believing that the danger of total Frenchization may destroy Dutch traditions, at least it will have a great impact on the special oligarchic republic that the Netherlands is proud of: aristocratic etiquette, It is linked to the monarchy and hierarchy.

If there is no cheap, how can there be expensive?

Even radicals in the Netherlands put forward an extremely radical point of view: slavery requires etiquette to distinguish slaves from non-slaves; common people from slave owners.

But too radical views are not enough. Etiquette can be improved, the hierarchy can be removed, and etiquette can be turned into etiquette, but it cannot be completely unmannered.

Etiquette is just a microcosm of cultural invasion.

Here comes the problem again.

The previously fabricated myth of the Batavian Republic 2000 years ago has been shattered.Now that it is shattered, the national identity has not been established, and the culture is facing a full-scale French invasion, so what should we do?
We must seize the time to shape a new national identity.

You don't have to think about it, it must be the golden age.

The Dutch Golden Age can be used as the common memory of the nation and build this imagined community.

In the end, the problem came back again: if the golden age is the national identity, then the goal of the nation should be to return to the golden age, which is the revival of the nation.Only by returning to the golden age can the spirit of the golden age be recovered, and morality will be fully revived.

So... how to go back to the golden age?

This same problem actually appeared at the beginning of Ming Dynasty's death and prosperity.After experiencing the changes at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Dashun still pursued Tang Yihan as a whole. After all, it was a country established by the "Jing Tang" that even restored titles such as the Jiedu Envoy, the Defense Envoy, and the Six Governments.

Chasing Tang Yihan is nothing more than the Western Regions.Now that the times have changed, and the Western Regions are Nanyang at this time, then build ships and go to Nanyang.

This only costs a few dollars. Compared with the halving of household registration in Hanwu and the ten rooms and nine empty rooms after Anshi, the cost of building a ship is really a drop in the bucket.

But the Netherlands is different.

Where is the problem?Why on earth fell from the golden age?

The Dutchman's own thinking gave Liu Yu an opportunity.

In Liu Yu’s view, it was industrial capital that defeated commercial capital, not just Britain, but Prussia, France, Sweden, Denmark, etc. Everyone was engaged in mercantilism, handicrafts, and high tariffs. It was impossible for the Netherlands to survive.At the beginning, I was full of food in Southeast Asia, but I never thought about reforming the land system in Southeast Asia, completely solving the old system that restricted consumption capacity, lacking a market, the East India Company only pursued short-term interests, and sooner or later it would be over.

But the elites in the Netherlands couldn’t see this, and they didn’t know this kind of worldview, and they didn’t have such a perspective to look at the problem, so the whole thing was condensed into a six-character motto: steadiness.body.think.This.country.How.

On the one hand, I miss the infinitely beautiful golden age that the older generation talked about all day long,

On the one hand, it involved the battle of the Austrian king's succession, and had to face the service of the top three armies in the world, France and Prussia.

On the one hand, the oligarchs are selfish, tax-packed and exploited, the proportional tax of each province has not changed for 120 years, the handicraft industry is squeezed out of bankruptcy, and the fishery industry cannot survive being suppressed by the UK.

It is convenient for the common people to pay heavy taxes, while the lords pay less taxes; when the common people are desperately fighting with Spain, the lords are giving loans to Spain;

This is simply the best place to do things.

As long as you find a breakthrough point and find an opportunity to light the fire, the Dutch will imagine that as long as it changes, everything will be fine.

(End of this chapter)