Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1579
The upper and lower parliaments of England were overcrowded, and Queen Sophia sat on the throne provided by the parliament for the king, watching two or three hundred members gather together.

Since Charles I dissolved the parliament ten years ago, it has been a long time since the "king is in parliament" scene. Many elderly members of parliament even burst into tears, and they are optimistic about the future of the Kingdom of England.Many of them are royalists who want the king to continue to run the kingdom with the parliament.

It's a pity that almost all the MPs from Queen Elizabeth's time are gone, otherwise they will definitely think of the glorious scene when Queen Elizabeth I was in power.

"Your Majesty, the Navy put forward a proposal to revitalize the Royal Navy before you came back, requesting £100 million in funding. The Downs anchorage incident has severely damaged the confidence of our army and the people. Sovereignty in territorial waters."

"Now, both France and the Netherlands are increasing their investment in the navy. Both of them have won a lot of victories in the battle against the Spanish Armada, which shows their ambitions. If we can strengthen our Royal Fleet, we can also Take this opportunity to abolish the "Madrid Treaty" signed between King Charles and the King of Spain, and strictly prohibit Spanish warships from entering our territorial waters."

Members of the new Congress appeared to be very active, and they took the initiative to mention to Sophia Admiral Sir Pennington's idea of ​​strengthening the navy.

Sophia Liu frowned slightly. She had no experience in dealing with the issues discussed in the Congress. She finally knew what issues Chu Yun and her brother Charles I usually had to deal with. This kind of issue that often required to decide whether to keep 100 million pounds made him She felt a heavy burden.

"Does the country have enough finances to invest in the construction of the navy?" Sophia asked.

"Unfortunately, Your Majesty, our England lost a lot of pounds due to the civil war, and the land and property of the opposition were auctioned off to make up for the loss, but most of the spoils were distributed to the officers and soldiers who supported His Majesty and to appease the civilians displaced in the war. We are in There will be a stable income for a period of time in the future, but currently there is not enough money to invest in the construction of the navy. Unless special taxes are collected from the people of England, Scotland, Ireland and other places to invest in the construction of the navy, it will be possible Raising £100 million in the short term,” said the MP.

"Are our people willing to bear a tax of several shillings per person? This is a huge burden for them, and some down-and-out people seem to be unable to bear it." Sophia asked.

"That's exactly the case. In order to build a navy, King Charles proposed to the king to levy a ship tax on the whole country to deal with threats from pirates, Spain, the Netherlands, and France, but he only received 10.4 pounds for the first time. The amount of the ship tax received for the second and third times increased, but it triggered public protests and the outbreak of the civil war. Almost all the tax money obtained by the king was invested in the navy, about 80 pounds." Said the MP who knew the whole story of the ship tax.

"If you want to avoid the dissatisfaction of the people, shouldn't you impose a ship tax on the people?" Sophia asked again.

"It's not exactly like that..."

Members of the House of Commons, especially those who had previously opposed Charles I, were embarrassed.

From the current point of view, England's navy is really terrible compared with Spain and the Netherlands. The opponent's fleet even dares to fight in England's territorial waters, completely ignoring England, which makes the members of England very upset.Like naval officers, they also want to have a strong naval fleet.

In this way, they are in an embarrassing situation, because Charles I collected the ship tax to build the navy. If the collection of ship tax is resumed, wouldn't it prove that Charles I was right?
Moreover, Charles I added warships such as the King of the Sea to the navy, and spent money to create a group of sailors who had pretty good sailing experience.

So the objection to King Charles is more for the parliament to maintain its own legislative power, and the ship tax is just the fuse. If building a navy is an inevitable choice, the wool comes from the sheep, and everyone will have to bear the cost in the end. There is no ship. There are other taxes as well.

After Sophia recognized the legitimacy of the new Congress, they faintly revealed their willingness to continue to use the ship tax to raise funds for the maintenance of the navy.

"Then what do you think? How should we solve the problem of insufficient funds? I heard that a standing army will be established, and military expenditures are also tight?" Sophia's series of questions made it difficult for the members to answer for a while.

It's not that Sophia deliberately made things difficult for them, it's just that Sophia has no experience at all, so she had to seek advice from these congressmen.

"According to the previous memorandum of Congress, we will invest 100 million pounds in the next five years to add 50 new ships to the navy, and at the same time invest 20 to 40 pounds a year to support naval personnel, build docks, and train officers, so as to catch up with Nigeria as soon as possible. The Teland Navy. The Royal Army has to set up 3 Royal Infantry Regiments, 2 Royal Cavalry Regiments, 1 Artillery Regiment, and 10 Local Regiments, which cost hundreds of thousands of pounds every year. During the war, even the Navy and Army’s expenses were added to Together, it may even be close to 200 million pounds, while the annual income of our entire kingdom is only more than 100 million pounds, and the usual expenses are very tight."

At this time the Chancellor of the Exchequer reported the bad financial situation to their Queen.

Sophia couldn't help feeling a headache when she heard that both the army and the navy needed money. It would be too expensive to support the Royal Navy and the Royal Army.

"Do you have any ideas on how to increase revenue and reduce expenditure?" Sophia continued to ask.

"We are also considering this issue. We believe that some outdated taxes and tax packages established by King Charles should be abolished, and the relationship between the royal family and the state's finances should be reaffirmed. The royal family does not need to rely on their own taxes to live, but can be regulated by Parliament. Taxes are collected, and then the parliament allocates funds to the royal family every year to maintain the Royal Army, Navy and royal expenses.” Members took this opportunity to re-divide financial power with the royal family.

When Sophia heard this, she understood the intention of the Congress, which wanted to limit the financial power of the royal family and increase the taxation power of the Congress.If the royal family’s income comes from the parliament, then even the king has to pay attention to the voice of the parliament, because the king will be extremely dependent on the appropriation of the parliament.

To choose whether to be a queen with real power or a queen who accepts funding and is constrained is a series of problems that Sophia, her father and brother must face.

She must restructure England's power and finances, otherwise it may lead to conflict between the king and parliament.

(End of this chapter)