Xinshun 1730

Chapter 647 It's too late to realize

After expressing his extreme inner dissatisfaction to the Great Speaker, Anthony did not speak the truth of the Netherlands, but directly brought out the "external force" of Dashun to suppress the dissatisfaction of the East India Company's board of directors.

Stationed supervision, joint anti-smuggling patrol fleet, and even trade volume, Dashun made it clear that he would not discuss with the company, but directly with the federal provincial council.

Because Dashun officials felt that the East India Company was not qualified enough, the Netherlands could pay tribute or carry out joint trade, but why should a feudal town under the East India Company pay tribute?
Even if Dashun is reopened, the Li government minister, or the meritorious prince Hou Xungui, can receive some European envoys, and even the emperor can meet them.But how can a Netherlands-affiliated East India Company get such treatment?

Dashun is about etiquette.

For example, the emperor of Zhou could meet Lu Hou directly, and Lu Hou could also send a doctor to represent Lu Hou to meet the emperor, but it was absolutely impossible for the emperor to meet the man sent by Sanhuan to represent Sanhuan.

This is not just a feudal etiquette, but it is for future generations. How could the head of state treat a diplomat with the attitude of meeting a person sent by the governor of another country?This is the most basic principle of reciprocal diplomacy.

At least, that's what Liu Yu expressed in front of the Orange faction.The Orange faction also fully conveyed this meaning to the Federal Provincial Assembly.

Now the Great Speaker Anthony is making use of his strength again, using Liu Yu's attitude to use Dashun's attitude to counter pressure the East India Company.

Tell the East India Company that it's not that I want to seize your power, but that Dashun asked for it. What can I do?

Once the negotiation is completed, in fact, the East India Company's trade business with China will give the inter-provincial parliament or the cabinet bureaucrats under the future consul a chance to directly intervene.

It turns out that the VOC can completely ignore the inter-provincial council or the cabinet of lifelong consuls, but now Dashun wants to take the initiative, which means that the East India Company's trade with China is a transportation between Dashun and the seven provinces and republics. team.

It is actually easy to avoid this bird-like attitude: spin off the China business, hand over the China business to the federal provincial government, and be directly under the supervision and control of the provincial government, and the company only trades in spices.

This is called, no desire is strong.

But this is easy to say, and it is absolutely impossible to do it. Against the background of the price of spices diving, the stock price will collapse on the day of doing so.

Neither wants to give up trade with China, but can only swallow this "bird's breath".

After taking advantage of the pressure from Dashun, the directors of the East India Company had nothing to say, Chairman Anthony said: "And when all the countries sent the king's envoys to Dashun, the company sent a representative from the China Trade Commission. Liu Yu said that someone told him the difference, but it doesn’t matter who told him. English, French, Portuguese, Swiss are all possible.”

"At the beginning, it was not only your mistake, but also the mistake of the federal provincial council. After all, it left a hidden danger, which was caught by Liu Yu."

"It can be considered that Liu Yu came here to change the trade model because of this diplomatic accident, which made Dashun feel diplomatic insult."

"If it continues to delay, someone must come out and take responsibility."

It's a bit embarrassing to say this.

Responsible, who is responsible?

Considering the facts only, the directors of the East India Company feel that the responsibility of the Federal Provincial Council is greater in this matter.

The Inter-Provincial Assembly didn't consider this level at the time, and didn't say it was against the rules at the beginning, it was considered disrespectful to the emperor of the Celestial Dynasty, it was a diplomatic accident, and so on.

Now that something has happened, a large part of the responsibility has been shifted to the East India Company, saying that the East India Company is also responsible.

To be reasonable and present the facts, the responsibility of the Federal Provincial Council is indeed greater.

but.

This matter has nothing to do with facts, but only with positions.

If the Orange faction wants to come to power, it can be said that it is the responsibility of the federal provincial parliament to incite.

And if the VOC's board of dozens of people wants corporate decision-making power, then that's the responsibility of 17 gentlemen.

However, the Orange faction obviously does not want to be in power at this time. The Inter-Provincial Assembly will not hold themselves accountable. Only the Orange faction can hold the Inter-Provincial Assembly accountable.

But the company's board of directors of dozens of people has always hoped to take power from Seventeen Gentlemen.

Since this matter has nothing to do with the facts, and since the Orange faction conveyed the meaning that they would never take the opportunity to make trouble.

Therefore, even if the responsibility does not belong to the 17 gentlemen, it can only belong to the 17 gentlemen.

If this matter really becomes a big deal, no one will pay attention to the facts, and no one will pay attention to the truth.

Great Speaker Anthony directly pressured the directors of the East India Company and accepted his resolution: Negotiate with Dashun as soon as possible without haggling.

Because of this handle, the 17 gentlemen of the East India Company who will be suppressed are very uncomfortable.

The Great Speaker can use this excuse to make the 17-member gentleman group of the East India Company have to accept some conditions of the Inter-Provincial Parliament—otherwise, the 70-odd people who have always wanted to participate in the company's decision-making, and the 17-member group of the company are in charge of everything. The directors who are quite dissatisfied will use this to demand that the power of the 17 gentlemen be dispersed-it was the 17 of you who made a mistake and caused a serious diplomatic accident, so why do you still make decisions?
This diplomatic incident can be interpreted as "it was precisely because the board of directors of the East India Company made blind decisions that the Emperor Dashun was dissatisfied. Come? This triggered the consequences of Liu Yu coming to change the trade model."

Whether it is or not is not important.

The important thing is that as plausible as it sounds, a board of dozens of people can take the opportunity to attack.

Whether this is the case or not, does not matter.

Anthony's implication is that you 17 gentlemen, be obedient.

In the negotiations with Dashun, the federal provincial council has the final say.

If you make trouble, I will disclose the details of this diplomatic accident. Even if we can't form a super large board of 70 people, at least the current seventeen gentlemen will have to replace a group.

Using Liu Yu's rhetoric of "ritual law" and "equal diplomacy" cut off the possibility of the East India Company as a political subject negotiating with Dashun.

Use the consequences of the previous diplomatic accident to force the East India Company to obey.

With both approaches, the directors of the East India Company can only have misery.

The directors of the East India Company knew very well that they could only admit defeat at this time. The interference of external forces seriously broke the delicate balance between the company and the federal parliament.

"Okay, Your Excellency the Great Speaker, we will try our best to interpret the various conditions proposed by Liu Yu to ensure that the interests of the shareholders, large and small, of the Republic will not be seriously damaged."

"However, Your Excellency the Great Speaker, this incident has also sounded the alarm for us. China has been looking forward to opening up the trade control of the European market. They suffered a failure this time, but they will not give up if they have the opportunity next time. .We should be careful too."

Anthony laughed at himself and murmured: "Be careful? How to be careful? To control the initiative of trade, we need to do two things."

"One, in the east of the Cape of Good Hope, completely gain a monopoly position, and even Britain, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, and Portugal cannot directly trade with Dashun. If you dare to pass Malacca, you will sink one ship, It’s like when we joined forces with Britain to encircle Spain in Batavia. But now we have no allies and we have to fight against the East India Company in Europe on our own.”

"Second, send warships to wipe out all Dashun's navy, raid Tianjin Port, completely control the sea power, and force Dashun to only trade with us."

After all, Anthony smiled bitterly: "Compared with these two things, it seems easier to shoot the moon down."

"Once China wakes up, it will naturally gain the initiative in trade. Unless China is an enemy of the whole of Europe, otherwise, it will always choose different allies to divide and disintegrate."

"Today we can make friends with Sweden and Denmark, and tomorrow we can make friends with the Netherlands and Britain. Europe is not a whole. The East India companies of various countries and Dashun are cooperative relations, but the East India companies of various countries are in competition with each other."

"Liu Yu, who can carry out a palace coup in Russia, can't see through these things?"

"On the trade issue, we have completely lost the initiative. Dashun can sanction us, but we have no way to counter it."

"I hope you can convey what I mean to the rest of the gentlemen's group. Necessary concessions are not necessarily a bad result."

The director of the East India Company thought to himself, the truth is this, but... But how can the federal provincial council use this to strengthen its control over the company? How can this be accepted?

If it is really just out of the attitude of "diplomatic equality", there is really nothing wrong with the inter-provincial parliament to discuss.

But how could the federal and provincial councils miss this opportunity to intervene in the company and strengthen control?

However, he couldn't think of a countermeasure for a while, so he could only say: "I will discuss this matter with the rest of the gentleman group. But..."

Great Speaker Anthony said sternly: "There is no but, and you have to give me an answer within three days. The time left for us is running out."

It is the first time in the past few years that we have taken such a tough attitude towards VOC.When the previous Great Speaker tried to centralize power, he was tough, but failed very quickly.

The directors of the East India Company hadn't felt the tough attitude of the Great Speaker for a long time, and they felt uncomfortable for a while.

He looked at the Great Speaker in astonishment, and left helplessly.

For the next three days, members of the company's gentry gathered in Amsterdam for three days behind closed doors.

But in the end, I had to admit that what the Great Speaker said was correct.

The company seemed to have no leverage to bargain with Dashun.

With a feeling of awakening from a dream, the 17-member gentleman group looked at the globe on the table blankly, aiming at the direction of Southeast Asia, and suddenly realized.

"Perhaps, Your Excellency the Great Speaker is right. At least in terms of trade with China, we have lost the initiative."

"We should notify Batavia as soon as possible. The attitude towards Dashun must be changed quickly. Be respectful and respectful."

"We should also inform them not to smuggle opium in a short time. They should read the laws of Dashun carefully and try not to do illegal things."

"At least, like the Portuguese in Macau, they should clearly realize that they are only tributaries, so as not to cause unnecessary conflicts."

"All countries are in the background of Dashun's customs trade. Dashun already has the capital to impose an embargo on us without harming their export trade. We must prevent this from happening."

"We must compromise, we must change our past attitudes and ways of thinking, and we must tolerate Dashun's unreasonable demands as much as possible, lest they find an excuse to sanction us."

(End of this chapter)