Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1435 The King Suddenly Got Rich

As the Scottish Council's arrival in the City of London drew closer, some opposition MPs who had advocated the restoration of Parliament became impatient.

The king seems to have gotten rich!
Charles I, who was supposed to be short of money, suddenly resumed his usual profligacy. He held a banquet, selected noble officers and soldiers who were willing to pledge their allegiance to him, and announced the establishment of the Royal Guards in the palace to protect the city of London.

At the same time, the king swept away the haze of the previous defeat, walked with the wind, and personally inspected the newly established Royal Guards.

Charlie also learned something from the Battle of Newcastle. He knew that the Royal Army to be established must be loyal to him and required rigorous training to turn them from loose militias into professional soldiers.

Before the national protection tax could not be collected, Charles I found that the establishment of a standing army of more than 10000 people was not enough to pay their salaries, so he retreated and set up a Royal Guards to explore the possibility of establishing a Royal Army sex.

The formation of the Royal Guards less than a month after the armistice with the Scots was an unimaginable event.The head of the Royal Guards was Astley, Charles I's chief military and political officer, who had served in the armies of the Netherlands and Sweden.When the Battle of Newcastle broke out, Astley was still organizing logistics in the rear, but he never experienced the frustration of other officers who were unable to restrain the troops.

In any case, the fact that Charlie was suddenly rich disappointed all the MPs who were looking forward to the reconvening of Parliament, and they gathered in a house in London.

"The king was about to restore the parliament. Why did he seem to become rich all of a sudden, and he was not afraid that the Scots would make huge claims?" The leader of the opposition, Pym, looked pained.

He is also distressed by other opposition MPs, whose parliament has been dissolved for a decade as the king grows in power.If no parliament is convened for 20 or 30 consecutive years, the tradition of parliament will be forgotten, and the king will fully grasp the power that parliament should have.

"Could it be that the gold and silver treasures obtained by the king from the crusade against the Barbary pirates and the expedition to Egypt have not been spent yet? None of us know how much gold and silver treasures the king obtained from that operation. It is a treasure offered by pirates."

"Impossible. I asked the minister in charge of the royal finance before. The amount of spoils obtained by the Royal Fleet's operations in the Mediterranean is amazing, but most of them were given to the Chinese, and the king actually got only a small part. And this part He used it to launch a war against Scotland, to buy guns and cannons from iron foundries, and this time he wanted to blackmail the Scots severely. Even if these expenses can be met, the royal family’s finances will be on the verge of bankruptcy, the king Your Majesty will definitely not be as easy as it is now, and there is still room to build the Royal Guards. I heard that His Majesty the King also placed an order for 600 new matchlock guns and 7 new field guns in order to establish the Royal Guards. This is not true at all. It looks like war reparations and bankruptcy!"

These members who were dissatisfied with the king talked about the recent increasingly arrogant King Charles, and they couldn't understand what made the defeated King Charles arrogant again.

"Did you lend money to the king again?" Pym looked at several representatives of London merchants in the house.

These guys have huge wealth because of their monopoly of trade. Among them, among the merchants in the city of London, there are also giants with a property of more than 10 pounds. Together, these merchants must be able to come up with loans that satisfy Charles I.

The merchant representative of the City of London hurriedly shook his head: "The king borrowed a large sum of money from us for the preparation of the navy and has not yet repaid it, and the royal family's finances are in danger of bankruptcy. How can we continue to help the evildoers at this time."

Seeing that the City of London merchant group stated that it had not borrowed money from the king, many MPs gathered were even more surprised and puzzled.

Where did the king's money come from? !
At this moment, a member of parliament walked in and asked the other members to look at him.

"I heard an interesting piece of news from the guards of the palace, which may explain why the king's attitude suddenly became tough." The middle-aged MP, who was nearly 40 years old, put his hat on the wooden table and looked around at the crowd.

"Who is he?"

"It seems to be a noble family from Huntingdon County. It's called Cromwell. It has a reputation for pleading for the lives of the people in the swamp."

"I remember him, just ten years ago, shortly after he joined Parliament as MP for Huntingdon, the King dissolved Parliament."

Many MPs are still very unfamiliar with Cromwell, who has little reputation, and their time as colleagues is also very short.

Although Cromwell had no previous achievements, he did serve as a member of the House of Commons when the king dissolved Parliament and was entitled to appear here.

"Cromwell, what kind of news did you get?" Pym asked the originally low-key nobleman.

"The guards of the palace said that Chinese people from the east frequently entered and left the palace during this period, and once His Majesty the King even sent them out of the palace in person. It is intriguing that the king recovered after that time and never mentioned the matter of reconvening the parliament. Do you think this matter has something to do with the Chinese people in the East? For example, the Chinese people lent the huge wealth they obtained from the Mediterranean to the king?" Cromwell said.

Cromwell's voice fell slightly, which aroused the whispers of the congressmen and businessmen present.

They also knew that their King Charles was very close to the Eastern Empire. The original trade treaty was signed with the Eastern Empire privately by the king, completely ignoring the disbanded parliament.

"If this is the case, then things will be bad. The king will only spend money lavishly and doesn't know how to save. He is like a bottomless pit. The money lent to him by the Chinese people will soon be spent. If he can't Repaying the Chinese loan will anger the Eastern Empire, or sell Britain's sovereignty in desperation."

"It is absolutely impossible for the king to borrow from foreign countries. When this matter spreads to the European continent, we will lose face in Britain. It is simply unprecedented for the king to borrow from foreign countries in order to attack his own people!"

"The most serious problem is that the king does not rely on his own parliament, but relies on people from overseas. He is really confused. I really don't understand why such a person is our king!" A group of opposition MPs said in a hurry .

Pym frowned, and patted the table: "Everyone be quiet, the king obviously wants to implement an autocratic monarchy like the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of France. We Englishmen who are born free should not allow the king to continue to make trouble. Since the king Parliament can be dissolved by force, and we have the right to form a new parliament on our own to fight for the rights of our people."

(End of this chapter)