The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 358 Exchange of interests?

When Massachusetts was first established, it maintained a leading position among many British North American colonial territories by virtue of its first-mover advantage.

However, as time went on, Massachusetts' economic development faced many difficulties and was challenged by many up-and-coming companies.

Because Massachusetts' lack of economic hinterland was becoming increasingly apparent, while New York and Pennsylvania, with their vast hinterland and fertile land, could produce large quantities of grain, meat and livestock. Local merchants also began to establish their own merchant fleets to transport local goods to the West Indies, which caused Massachusetts to lose a large amount of transportation business.

At the same time, these merchant ships also brought back molasses, developed local rum brewing businesses and competed with Massachusetts, and both New York and Philadelphia became important centers of commerce and shipping, as well as centers of growing manufacturing. By the 1930s, the populations of these two cities began to gradually surpass Boston.

Another bad news is that after years of development, Massachusetts is beginning to face resource depletion.

Its timber resources were still sufficient—but this was sufficient only for use as firewood for people's daily cooking—but there were not enough tall trees for shipbuilding.

Later developed colonies such as New Hampshire, with its rich virgin forests, began to gradually take away Massachusetts' shipbuilding business.

Worse still, the depletion of surface iron ore has left it without the metallurgical business it relied on.

For the super-rich in Massachusetts, their business has spread all over the world, so they don't care about this economic difficulty. They sell slaves in Africa, do fur trade in Canada, and re-export Qi's industrial products and tea in the Mediterranean and South Africa. Of course, the sugar and wine business from the West Indies is still a large part.

The War of the Spanish Succession more than 20 years ago caused huge expenses for the English government, and it also made them find a new way to make a lot of money, which was to provide supplies to the English army in North America (mainly militia and armed volunteers). Of course, this required strong connections to get these contracts.

As a result, the wealthy people in Massachusetts moved closer to the English government. They learned the dress and manners of the upper class in England, pursued the latest fashions from London, and attended balls and social events at the Governor's Palace. A closed, pro-British upper class was formed in Massachusetts.

Like almost all great empires in history, the ruling strategy of the English government was to win over the upper classes in all regions and make them help them rule, so they were also willing to win over the upper classes in Massachusetts, hoping to form a ruling class across the British Empire.

English politicians and pro-British factions in North America had planned a blueprint for construction, hoping to merge the thirteen North American colonies into a large royal government, get rid of the influence of democratic forces on policy by expanding the size of the government, and then have the King of England personally appoint a group of the richest people in North America as nobles, establish a consolidated pro-British class to strengthen rule.

The second-rate wealthy people and the middle class who cannot enter the upper ruling class are naturally dissatisfied with this reality. The "new normal" of the economy has also made the opportunities to get rich fewer and fewer, and they may be pushed to the bottom of society at any time.

At the same time, the upper class of Massachusetts became increasingly closed and exclusive. Big businessmen clung to each other and tried their best to win over and bribe the governor sent by the royal family, leaving almost all opportunities to make money to their relatives or partners, making it impossible for latecomers to intervene.

This caused these groups to hate the wealthy upper class and big businessmen, while also causing them to be dissatisfied and complain about the local government of England.

Perhaps, if we don’t have the king’s supervision over us, and then break the monopoly of big businessmen, won’t our lives be better?

"But have you ever thought about this: if we break away from our homeland and choose to establish an independent country, how will we face external threats?" Purvi Roger, owner of Boston Hanks Shipyard, glanced at the man who advocated that the North American colonial territories should unite and "abandon" the useless crown to form a new North American United States, and asked with disapproval.

"In the past 100 years, we have defeated the French several times and formed a strong military deterrent to the Spanish in Mexico. Is it all relying on the power of England?" Elisha Cook said with a smile: "It is true that our militia tactics are not regular and the training is not well-trained, but our militia is very brave and very good at fighting. We have defeated the French invasion time and time again, we have experienced countless victories, and we have brought back countless spoils and more land. Therefore, we have our own weapons, which allow us to move forward calmly on the path of our free choice."

"Mr. Cook, our North American militia only defeated the enemy on land, but we cannot face any opponent at sea." Purvi Roger shook his head and said, "Because we don't have a strong navy. Believe it or not, as long as we break away from the rule of England, even the French in the New France in the north can completely block our coast without the attack of the Royal Navy of England. How will we deal with this situation?"

Idiot, don't forget that the maritime security and trade routes of our North American territories rely on the protection of the Royal Navy of England!
"Yes, yes! Without the protection of the Royal Navy, our North American colonies would not be able to go to sea." William Lincoln, the owner of the rum distillery, said, "So, there is really no need for us to establish an independent country. To be honest, our strength is still very weak and we need the protection of the royal family and the government. We are not qualified to challenge and confront the bigwigs in London now."

"Mr. Lincoln, although we are still weak and unable to directly confront the local nobles, we must make our voices heard loudly," said Elisha Cook. "Every step we take back will encourage the other side to further press. Here, I must remind you how much the Sugar Act passed by the London Parliament two years ago affected Mr. Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the sugar factories throughout North America. Do I need to describe it in detail?"

Unable to compete with the French in business, sugar factory owners in the British West Indies used their political power to influence the English government to promote policies and bills that would benefit them.

In England, sugarcane plantation owners in the West Indies, sugar mill owners and sugar dealers in England, as well as slave traders (without sugar production there would be no slave market, and most Whig aristocrats benefited from this trade) formed a huge political interest group that controlled many members of Parliament through election sponsorship and extra-parliamentary activities.

After continuous lobbying, they finally succeeded in persuading the English Parliament to pass the Sugar Act in 1733. The Act stipulated that all sugar and molasses imported from non-English colonies must be subject to heavy taxes. At the same time, it prohibited New England from selling goods to foreign colonies in order to protect the interests of English sugar factories in the West Indies.

The English government openly stood on the side of the planters in the British West Indies, requiring that all people in the entire Kingdom of England, including the North American colonial territories, must buy sugar at monopoly prices.

This bill immediately aroused strong opposition in the North American colonies, and they rose up in boycott. Members of parliament and party leaders from various colonial territories also "wrote" to London one after another, requesting the repeal of the bill and full "respect" for the legitimate rights and interests of the North American people.

You should know that in France, the wine industry association is a very powerful interest group, and many winery owners are aristocrats. In order to protect the wine industry, the French government prohibits the import of sugarcane wine from abroad, and also prohibits the import of molasses for winemaking (raw processed sugarcane can be imported). Therefore, this caused the molasses in the French West Indies to be seriously unsalable, and they had to sell it off at a loss, allowing the British North American territories to buy large quantities of molasses at extremely low prices. New England merchants imported a large amount of agricultural and sideline products into the British West Indies, and then used the cash they earned to buy sugarcane produced by the French. In this way, the plantation owners in the British West Indies not only lost a huge consumer market, but also put them in an extremely passive situation in their trade with New England merchants.

Under such circumstances, the plantations in the British West Indies would never give up. In their eyes, the interests of ten New Englands were not as important as the interests of one Barbados.

Don't forget that we provide a lot of trade benefits to the English government and pay huge import taxes on sugar, which is not something you bunch of country bumpkins in North America can compare to.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the Sugar Act, the role of the Royal Customs of North America needs to be brought into play.

In July 1733, at the request of the New England Import and Export Tariff Collection Committee, the Royal Navy of England stationed a squadron in Boston to investigate the smuggling of sugar products, which really deterred a group of daring and illegal merchants.

It can be said that the English government did everything it could to maintain business in the West Indies and ensure that the jewel in the crown of the Kingdom of England (which, incidentally, was later given to India) would not lose its luster.

Because, it is estimated that before the Sugar Act was enacted, at least 80% of the molasses imported into Boston alone was smuggled in from non-British colonies.

The plantation owners in the British West Indies gained power and achieved their wishes, but they also cheated countless North American sugar merchants and rum distilleries.

Being forced to purchase sugar from the British West Indies not only had to endure the high monopoly prices, but also had to pay an import tax at the newly established customs, which reduced a large portion of the profit.

What made the North American people even more angry and worried was that the sugar interest groups, in order to obtain greater monopoly profits, actually came up with a crazy idea, that is, to constantly instigate the English government to declare war on France, so that during the war, they could use a naval blockade to create famine and starve the slaves in the French West Indies to death. It would be best if they could land directly, burn the sugarcane fields, and destroy the sugar factories, so as to completely destroy the sugar industry on the French islands.

You see, this is such a sinister intention. They didn't take into account that once Britain and France go to war, our North American colonial territories will suffer the most.

In the whole of England, no one cares about the interests of us North American people, let alone the lives and safety of more than one million North American people.

In this case, is it necessary for us to continue to act like a loving mother and a filial son?
"As for whether we will be blocked and encircled by the Royal Navy or other navies after we break away from the control of the English government, I don't think there is no good way to solve it." Elisha Cook once again criticized England's suppression and bullying of the North American colonies, and then changed the subject and said confidently: "We can use powerful external forces to balance the encirclement of the Royal Navy of England, and we can also use them as a weapon to deal with all potential enemies' maritime threats."

"Mr. Cook, whose help do you want to rely on?"

"Qi Guo!"

"What, Qi?"

"Oh, God, Qi is an oriental country, its beliefs and culture are completely different from ours. Moreover, Qi is tens of thousands of miles away from North America. With such a long distance, can it be a strong support for us?"

"Yes, why would Qi be willing to risk another war with England and support the independence of the North American territory?"

"..."

"Gentlemen... Gentlemen, please listen to me!" Seeing the many businessmen and citizen representatives present arguing loudly, Elisha Cook shouted loudly: "We have established contact with Qi and obtained their support and protection. It is not my imagination or conjecture. Do you know? Qi is not far from our North American territory... A few years ago, England ceded Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to Qi without regard for the interests and feelings of our North American people. Therefore, the people of Qi are right next to us, in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Moreover, they have occupied the entire west coast of North America. ... Qi has huge geopolitical needs in North America. If our North American territory sincerely makes a request to them, it is possible to get a positive response from the other side."

"Even if the Qi people have geopolitical needs in North America, why do you think they will come to our aid, or even risk another armed conflict with England for our sake?"

"Because we have huge political and economic benefits that we can use to exchange with the people of Qi and gain their support."

"Mr. Cook, you are not going to ask our North American territories to submit to Qi, are you?" A lawyer said sarcastically, "It is said that Qi is a huge country similar to the Holy Roman Empire. In addition to its powerful empire, it also has countless vassal states and kingdoms canonized by the royal family. Do we need our thirteen territories in North America to ask Qi for a crown and become their vassal kingdoms?"

"No, we don't need a crown, and we don't need to be a vassal of Qi. If that happens, what's the difference between our current situation and ours?" Elisha Cook shook his head and said seriously, "We need to retain our precious freedom and maintain our extremely precious independence. The above two items must be excluded from the political and economic benefits we choose to exchange."

"Since we don't need to sell our freedom or give up our independence, what can we use in exchange for Qi's support and protection?"

"The security of Nova Scotia and the market of our North American territory." Elisha Cook said, "A few days ago, the Qi people in Nova Scotia came to Boston and sought security cooperation from us in Massachusetts, hoping to jointly deal with the military threat from the French in the north. Gentlemen, do you know? The French are using force to intimidate the weak Qi people in Nova Scotia. They are afraid and want our protection."

"So, we can provide security to the Qi people and promise to protect their Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In this way, we can win the favor of the Qi people and gain important bargaining chips in negotiations with them. In addition, our thirteen colonial territories in North America are a huge market with a size and potential that cannot be underestimated. The consumption capacity of Qi products is far greater than that of Spanish American territories. ... I think the Qi people will definitely be very interested in this."
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(End of this chapter)