Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1586 Queen's College
"In addition to the funding of the Royal Army and Navy, the royal family will cut unnecessary expenses and set up a new independent college in London with 10 pounds from the royal family's funding. The courses of this university will be based on new learning. , teaching in both Chinese and English, and setting up disciplines such as medicine, economics, law, humanities, engineering, biology, and astronomy."

When the parliamentarians proposed to Sophia to cancel the establishment of new subjects at Oxford University and Cambridge University, Sophia easily agreed to their proposal, but at the same time she proposed the idea of ​​​​establishing Queen's College.

This new college is not located in Cambridge or Oxford, but is built on the royal land in the center of London by the River Thames.

"People here don't understand new learning, should we hire oriental lecturers to teach our students?" Members asked.

"Exactly." Sophia didn't hide her intentions.

The MPs looked at each other, but in the end they had nothing to say. It was a good thing for the kingdom to reduce their own expenses to build schools.

As early as when the first batch of British envoys arrived in the East, Chu Yun sent a group of Chinese lecturers to Britain with the envoys, but neither Charlie nor the other nobles saw the value of these Chinese lecturers. I just lived in London with a salary, and occasionally traveled in England, Scotland and other places to recruit a few students who wanted to learn Chinese.

Sophia needs a lot of teachers to establish Queen's College. Before hiring professional lecturers and professors, she had to find the Chinese lecturers sent by Chu Yun to spread culture here, and asked to hire them as teachers in the preparatory class of Queen's College.

Because the Queen's College uses Chinese-English bilingual teaching, the students who enter the school must learn Chinese. Before seeking support from Chu Yun, Sophia needs to gather young people with excellent qualifications from all over the world to let them learn Chinese and make a contribution to learning advanced technology. Prepare.

After forming a cabinet and approving the Bank of England, the queen specially established Queen's College. A series of actions have aroused widespread controversy among the people. Even ordinary citizens now know that their queen is constantly changing what she seems dissatisfied with.

Only after the civil war, when various groups were full of confusion about the future of the kingdom, did the pressure for change be the least, and Sophia just caught up with this opportunity.

Some earls and viscounts who were loyal to the royal family heard that the queen planned to reduce the daily expenses of the royal family and invest 10 pounds to build a new university. At this time, they stood up to support the queen, and they took part of their property to help the queen realize this benefit to the kingdom. Sophia actually received a donation of 5 pounds from these nobles.

In addition to nobles loyal to the royal family, a small number of London businessmen who wanted to gain the favor of the Queen also donated money one after another, bringing the start-up funds for the establishment of Queen's College to an astonishing 20 pounds.

20 pounds is quite a lot of money in this era, even if the navy's shipbuilding cost to catch up with the Netherlands is only 100 million pounds.

Sophia asked several English nobles and Chinese to form an examination committee, set up an examination room in London, and screen candidates for admission through interviews.

Queen's College not only recruits nobles, but even the children of common people, as long as they respond quickly in the assessment, they also have a chance to be recruited. For civilians who perform well, Queen's College will give 10 shillings a month as a living allowance.It is also divided into men's and women's classes, and women are allowed to enroll.

Queen's College is crowned with the title of Queen and is not managed by the Church, but by the Queen's appointed Dean as the funder.

This makes Queen's College unique. Most of the cabinet members developed by the Privy Council and other royal institutions are appointed by the Queen, and the students of Queen's College are not the Queen's students?

If you perform well at Queen's College, you may be able to enter the cabinet in the future.

Based on this idea, many nobles and commoners wanted to send their children in. If they were lucky enough to enter the cabinet in the future, they would make money.

The first batch of 200 students enrolled in Queen's College, the youngest is only 15 years old, the oldest is only 25 years old, divided into 8 male classes and 2 female classes, learning Chinese in the temporary school buildings on the royal land .

Queen Sophia specially came to inspect the construction of the school building and gave a speech in front of the students: "Language is a bridge of communication and the fastest way to understand culture. When I was studying in the East, I didn't understand the language, let alone the culture of the East. , made a lot of jokes, I hope you can avoid the jokes I made..."

Speaking of this, she seemed to think of the embarrassing scene where she didn't know how to use chopsticks before.

"Before the arrival of more professional lecturers from the East, it is expected that this group of students will receive language training for up to two years, and let them learn some basic common sense and Eastern culture." The Chinese lecturer said after the Queen's speech It said.

"Thank you, I will order the royal chancellor to pay your salaries on time."

"Your Majesty is able to consider the situation of her own people. This is something we admire. The military master sent us here a few years ago to promote cultural exchanges. We have been recruited, so we are naturally willing to serve you, Your Majesty. "Several Chinese lecturers said.

Sophia chatted with several people and walked out of the temporary school building. The cabinet ministers were already waiting outside.

They are ministers appointed by the queen, they are loyal to the royal family, and they are even more respectful to Sophia.

"Why are you here?" Sophia knew that the cabinet must be looking for her for something urgent.

"Portuguese diplomatic envoys have arrived in our city of London by boat, and they want to see you, the Queen." The Prime Minister said respectfully.

"Portugal? Does that mean King Philip IV of Spain?" Sofia was a little surprised.

The King of Spain is co-king of Portugal and Spain, just as Sofia is co-king of Scotland and England.

"No... the Spaniards have been fighting for years, competing with France for hegemony, and constantly levying troops and taxes in Portugal, causing the Portuguese to be overwhelmed. The local ministers ordered the Spanish garrison to surrender. Portugal was afraid that the King of Spain would retaliate, so they came to seek the asylum of Her Majesty the Queen," the prime minister said.

"The Portuguese came to me for protection... The Spanish Empire has lost the Netherlands and Portugal, and it is estimated that it will soon decline... Let the Portuguese ambassador come to the palace to meet me." Sophia had to start intervening in the affairs of the European continent.

(End of this chapter)