shadow of britain

Chapter 81 Investigator Elder (please subscribe!)
Elder held the newspaper in his hand and scratched his head while leaning against the window.

"What the hell are these French people doing? One moment is a kingdom, another is an empire, and another is a republic. Have they thought about what kind of country they want to build?
When I was not born, these Frenchmen were making a revolution.After birth, they are still making revolutions.Now that I'm in the Royal Navy, why isn't the revolution over yet?Arthur, what year is it? 1789?Storming the Bastille? "

Arthur put a piece of sugar into the teacup: "Elder, I thought you were only bad at physics, but now you even have memory problems, let me give you a stroke.

First of all, the one you mentioned in 1789 was the French Revolution marked by the storming of the Bastille.

At that time, due to France's participation in the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence, the domestic debt was high, and the total domestic debt was as high as 20 billion francs.Coupled with natural disasters at that time, a large number of crops were reduced, and food prices in France soared.

At this time, King Louis XVI of France decided to hold a three-level meeting composed of priests, nobles, and citizens in the Palace of Versailles, and geniusly proposed that he planned to increase taxes on the citizens.

Of course, this proposal was rejected during the voting process, but Louis XVI did not keep his promise, insisted on raising taxes, and mobilized the army to forcibly dissolve the parliament.

You should still remember the following results, the citizens of Paris rushed to the streets, shouting "Go to the Bastille". regime. "

Elder frowned and said, "Didn't Louis XVI get his head stabbed? He was still alive after that?"

"It's a matter of his being killed later, but that's what he asked for. Elder, you know, it's really not easy for a king to keep him safe. As long as he's not in power, Then he will always wonder how to regain power.

After all, as a British, you should understand how much effort Britain put in to establish a constitutional monarchy.

From 1642 to 1646, we fought our first civil war, Charles I lost, but he was not convinced.Parliament paid to buy him back from Scotland and put him under house arrest. As a result, he secretly contacted the Royalist Party and set off a second civil war.

By 1649, the end of the Second Civil War, Cromwell had his head chopped off and a parliamentary aristocratic republic was established.

But more than ten years later, his son Charles II successfully restored with the support of the royalist party, and the subsequent successor James II began a series of retaliatory measures.

Under the balance of the Parliament, the Whig Party and the progressives of the Tory Party, formerly known as the Royalist Party, finally reached an agreement.

They teamed up to drive James II out of Britain and was succeeded by James II's daughter Mary II, and the "Bill of Rights" that established a constitutional monarchy was officially promulgated.

The reason why Louis XVI was beheaded was also because he was also unconvinced. In fact, if he was his constitutional king honestly, there should not be so many things in the future.

But he was restless. While thinking about how to buy mercenaries to overthrow the French Constituent Assembly, he prepared to escape from France in disguise after the conspiracy was revealed.

The most damning thing is that his queen, Marie Antoinette, also revealed France's military secrets to his brother, Austrian Emperor Franz I, which directly led to the defeat of France by the Austrian and Prussian coalition forces.After the news spread, the French people were extremely outraged.

And this series of events directly led to the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which supported a constitutional monarchy, and gave birth to radical groups such as the Jacobins and the Sans Pants Party.

Therefore, the beheading of Louis XVI was purely self-inflicted. Those moderates had tried their best to save his life, but he didn't cherish it. "

Elder touched his chin and read: "So, in 1789, France first established a constitutional monarchy, then executed Louis XVI, changed it to a republic, and then had a Thermidor coup, overthrew the Jacobins, and executed Rob Speer, the Brumaire coup and Napoleon's proclaiming emperor in the end?"

Arthur took a sip of his tea and nodded slightly: "Elder, aren't you quite clear? You have always wanted to fight the French and drag a few French warships back to make a fortune. Isn't this what you want? ?”

Elder wondered, "You think we're going to war with the French?"

Arthur shook his head and said: "I can't say for sure, it depends on what the French plan to do this time. If they cause something like the French Revolution, maybe the officials in the cabinet will start preparing for the Eighth Anti-French Coalition .

But if they are just playing around, then Britain may not interfere.After all, the Duke of Wellington is burning his own ass now. If it is not necessary, he should not be willing to meddle in the affairs of the French.

After all, after the Battle of Waterloo that year, the Duke of Wellington had already expressed his attitude towards France at the Vienna Conference.

He always believed that it was necessary for France to exist in Europe, and the diplomatic line of the Tory Party had always been committed to maintaining the balance of power on the continent. Britain needed a stable and powerful France to contain the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire, which had continued to advance eastward in recent years. "

Elder nodded half-understood and said: "It sounds complicated. But, the French Revolution is also very good, at least they can change the flag of that idiot.

The Louis XVIII who went up after the fall of Napoleon didn't know if his brain was flooded, and he actually used the white flag as the national flag.

When I boarded the boat for the first time, I saw a boat with a white flag coming from the opposite side. I wondered why the other side surrendered before we even fired a shot?After inquiring, I found out that the opposite was a French ship.

Fortunately, this is not a time of war, otherwise I would have almost been fooled by these French people. These people are too cunning to surrender! "

Hearing this, Darwin, who was teaching knowledge at the side, also leaned over worriedly.

He asked: "Do you think this French Revolution will affect our voyage? Shouldn't the mission of global scientific research be postponed because of this incident?"

"Postponed?" Elder picked up the apple on the table and took a bite: "If it can be postponed, then the French really did a good thing."

Arthur heard this, and asked again: "Let's not mention this for now. Elder, I asked you to help me find out about the merchant ships departing from London. Have you figured it out yet?"

Elder curled his lips and said: "Arthur, I'm not talking about you, do you know how broad the scope you gave me is? Currently, the tonnage of merchant ships registered in the UK is about 400 million tons. Our merchant shipping capacity can Accounting for 40.00% of the world's total, so many ships, how do you ask me to check for you?"

Arthur waved his hand and said, "I didn't ask you to check all the merchant ships leaving the port. You only need to check the merchant ships departing from London and going to America. Elder, haven't you always claimed to be an expert in the Royal Navy? This point Things have to be done for me."

Elder slapped the table and cursed: "Arthur, I'm an expert in the Royal Navy, not a shipping expert. Even if you ask me to steal the navigation information of the Royal Navy, it's more reliable than checking the merchant ships leaving London for America.

Although the savages in North America talked about keeping a distance from their English fathers, they were very honest in their business.

After all, the "Embargo Act" they made against Britain back then not only did not have much impact on us, but actually collapsed their own economy.

Therefore, since then, the trade volume between the two sides has been growing steadily. Seventy to eighty percent of American cotton has to be sold to Britain, and we export textiles, tea, ceramics, spices and other consumer goods to them. "

When Arthur heard this, he suddenly raised his eyebrows, as if he had discovered something.

"Wait a minute, tea and spices are generally used for transshipment trade, right? These things are not grown locally, so they should all come from overseas colonies, right?"

Elder nodded while chewing the apple: "That's right, tea and spices are mainly transshipped. The export products produced in China are mainly textiles and ceramics, and these things are shipped domestically. The main contents are some high-end clothes, fabrics, teapots, teacups, things like that."

When Arthur heard this, he nodded slightly and said, "Okay! Elder, then you can focus on textile and ceramic merchant ships for me."

Elder was still a little dissatisfied when he heard this: "Arthur, that's quite a lot."

Arthur didn't speak, just took out a ticket from his pocket and waved it in front of his eyes: "Don't worry, brother can't lose you. There may be a big case involved here, as long as you can find out the matter, this year Green There are a couple of hundred pounds left over for the investigation in Wedge Police."

Hearing this, Elder took a deep breath, took out the banknote from Arthur's fingers, and put it in his jacket pocket.

Elder laughed and said: "It seems that I won't accept this investigation application, but I can't justify it. Arthur, don't worry, in the next few months, as long as I don't go to sea, I will squat in the shipping company at the dock every day to replace You investigate one by one."

Arthur showed a slight smile. He leaned back and said, "That's really hard work for you."

Elder looked upright, and he patted Arthur on the shoulder: "Why are you polite? They are all brothers."

Speaking of this, Arthur suddenly changed the subject: "However, you just said that Britain actually sells tea sets to North America, which really surprised me. I thought they didn't use such things there."

"What's so surprising about this?" Elder picked up the bread and took a bite: "There's no tea set, so how do they drink tea?"

Arthur smiled, pointed to the Thames River next to the coffee shop, and said, "I heard that Americans don't like to use tea sets when drinking tea. If they want to drink tea, they usually choose to pour the tea into Boston Bay."

(End of this chapter)