New Shun 1730

During the period when the British Parliament was arguing about the issue of "English traditions and party disputes", the Dashun garrison in Gibraltar had been carrying out the siege rhythmically.

Engineers dug pits.

Skirmishers killed people.

Artillerymen fired a few shots every day when they had nothing to do.

The navy was either catching Jewish smugglers or Huguenots or Moors, making it look like the Catholic Inquisition.

The General Staff formulated a very simple plan to lure the snake out of its hole, which was to start building gunboats with the French after the siege for about a month, making a posture of preparing for a general attack.

Because the attack from the Isthmus was actually difficult, the stone mountain of Gibraltar lay there, making the route of attack from the north to the south of the Isthmus very narrow, and the British built artillery batteries and fortresses there.

On the contrary, it seemed that the attack from the Spanish port on the sea would have a wider front and be easier to deploy.

The wisdom of the chain of iron chains, with a change, taking its essence and core, is not much different when used on the sea.

Warships are too expensive and too big to be used against shore artillery.

Then build some floating artillery platforms, which are smaller targets, pile sandbags on them, and deploy heavy artillery on these floating artillery platforms, which can solve the problem of shore artillery and warships fighting against each other - cost-effectiveness.

Of course, it may not be used.

The thinking of the General Staff is still continuing the tactical guidance given by the General Staff, that is: pretend to attack, force the enemy to counterattack after the attack, thereby delaying the attack time, and winning the hope that reinforcements may come tomorrow.

These floating artillery platforms are best used for pretending to attack.

If you really don't fall for it and have to attack by force, then you can use it. Anyway, it is very cheap to build, and the price is completely different from building a warship - a battleship artillery platform with 74 guns costs hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, while the same floating artillery platform with 74 guns is only about ten thousand taels of silver.

In terms of troop deployment, the elite combat engineers and part of the land artillery on the Dashun side are deployed in the direction of the Isthmus.

That is, the small town of De La Concepcion, which is close to Spain. People live normally in the town, and the army has also stored a large amount of supplies here.

The French army and a large number of troops pretending to launch a full-scale attack were deployed in Algeciras, across the bay from Gibraltar, five miles away.

It is known that Gibraltar has no warships, so if the defenders want to choose to counterattack before the attack to disrupt the rhythm of the attack, they can only choose the direction of De La Concepcion underground.

And there is the trap set by Dashun for the defenders of Gibraltar.

Dashun's combat engineers are specialized in combat skills in special battlefields such as trenches, sieges, and slopes. They are not elite grenadiers for field battles.

This is equivalent to turning the battlefield into a home battle. As long as the British army dares to counterattack, their living forces will be eliminated to achieve the goal of losing people and land.

At this time, the time has come to November, and the weather is gradually getting colder.

A large number of Dashun merchant ships were ready to go back. In the monsoon era, sailing could only respect the monsoon and the season. It might be a few years before humans relied on coal to heat water and ignored the monsoon.

More than a dozen merchant ships that were going to return were moored at the port near Gibraltar.

They came here to send letters.

Second, to get bills of exchange, hand over some silver to the garrison here, and get the bills of exchange from here to ask the court for money.

In general, it is very convenient to spend this money.

After all, a large amount of silver coins were exchanged from Cadiz. The Spanish silver coins were taken from Cadiz and spent in Gibraltar, which was a hundred miles away. Even the step of finding Jewish financial merchants to exchange coins was saved.

This is the official mission of these merchant ships. In addition to these official tasks, these merchant ships have their own things to do.

That is, to sell some "trophies" at a low price here.

Dashun's strategy of forcing Britain to concentrate its fleet in the Strait was very effective, because this was not a war between China and Britain, but a war between Britain and France, and Britain had to guard against the landing of France.

In fact, shortly after the Battle of Gibraltar, when Dashun's engineers who had participated in the battle in India were still resting in South Africa.

The fleet that blocked the northern trade routes and the Leeward Islands was recalled to strengthen the defense of the Strait.

Geoffrey Amherst's infantry, who originally planned to go on an expedition to Canada, was also recalled to prepare for the full defense of the French landing on the mainland, which greatly relieved the pressure on France in Canada.

In fact, William Pitt's strategy was similar to Dashun's strategy of going to Southeast Asia: destroy the enemy's navy, use the ocean as a divider, make it impossible for the enemy's army to support each other, and always maintain a situation of fighting more with fewer in a certain direction, and defeat them one by one.

Including Dashun's attack on Japan, it was also such a strategy, the essence of which was to fight more with fewer and defeat them one by one. As for whether the navy was used for rapid strategic maneuvers or for division and blockade, it was just a flexible change based on this strategic essence.

Wars are fought for money.

William Pitt's idea was to fight a war without interfering with business, so that the economy would be better, at least it could last longer than France.

On the other hand, Dashun was strangling British trade.

There are two forms of strangling trade.

One is that I don't have it, but I strangle you to death, and everyone will suffer.

The other is that you have it, and I have it too. I strangle you to death, and then I take over your trade goods.

Undoubtedly, Dashun took the second approach because of its own characteristics and the situation in Europe at that time.

In fact, for many things, Dashun's products were not enough to meet the needs of North American and Caribbean colonies, and they could not be completely replaced.

For example, the sales of tobacco, cotton, and indigo; for example, the transportation of pig iron, honey, sugar residue, cattle and horses.

In any case, the Dutch had experienced the Batavia sugar crisis. If Dashun transported sugar from Southeast Asia to this side, it would definitely lose all the capitalists' wealth.

This is also why Dashun chose to support Russia's glass industry production and provide a full set of technology: Dashun could not get a share of the glass industry in Russia and Eastern Europe. Supporting Russia's glass industry would hit Britain's glass manufacturing industry.

Extending this, the glass manufacturing industry in Britain and the glass manufacturing industry in the thirteen states of North America had to confront each other fiercely for an increasingly narrow market.

At this time, it is still the same truth: Is there only one country called Britain in Europe that can provide a variety of goods?

Indeed, Dashun cannot provide honey because it loses money.

But, isn't French honey honey? Can't French honey be used to make wine for the thirteen states of North America because it has not been blessed by the Anglican priest?

Isn't tobacco from Havana, Spain tobacco tobacco not tobacco? Is it because Havana tobacco does not have the Virginia myth that it is not easy to smoke? Obviously not, the myth is here. It can't beat the climate of Havana.

So, the goods that Dashun cannot provide, or the goods that Dashun transports with insufficient interest, such as iron rods, glass, tobacco, honey, nails, etc., are provided by Spain, France, Switzerland, Russia, and the thirteen states of North America.

And Dashun makes up for the shortcomings of these industries, such as cheap cotton cloth, high-end luxury tea, silk, porcelain, etc.

Therefore, Dashun's strategy of "giving back what you have done to him" was quite successful in North America and the Caribbean.

North American winemakers will not burst into patriotic enthusiasm just because the honey is made in France. They would rather use the twice as expensive sugar from their motherland than the half as cheap French sugar. Because France wants to protect its own wine and grain wine industry, France is not allowed to brew sugarcane wine, and the most famous rum on the sea is sugarcane wine in a broad sense. Just like the broad sense of German wine, in the 19th century, it mostly refers to potato stew, which is tied to the Junker aristocratic serfdom in Germany.

Ordinary consumers in North America will not abandon these teas just because they are directly shipped and have not been doubled by the London Tea Exchange. They would rather drink high-priced tea than low-priced tea. If everyone has such pure spiritual power, there is no need to have navigation regulations built on material foundations such as warships and cannons.

After all, the world is material, and it cannot be explained and guided by chanting.

Because chanting does not work, the thirteen states of North America will drink smuggled tea. If chanting is effective, everyone should prefer to drink twice as expensive... well, it's actually still Chinese tea, but "British" tea that has been around the London Tea Exchange.

So from the perspective of trade, in fact, this time it is Britain... to be precise, it is England plus half of Scotland, plus Prussia, whose current average productivity level is similar to that of Dashun Sichuan Province (if the southern Sichuan well salt area is included, it is obviously not as good), against the rest of Europe, India, and East Asia.

At this time, Britain has nothing that is truly "unique", except for Anglican priests.

What the European continent lacks or what is not competitive can be made up by Dashun.

It should be said that the trade goods, or the technology tree, between Dashun and Europe were complementary for a long time before.

Because the first emperor succeeded the Han Dynasty, Dashun inherited a unified national market - although there are many currency gates within it, it is unified compared to Europe at this time - so Dashun's textile industry, light industry, daily necessities and other industries, relying on this unified form and currency domestic market, are quite developed.

Due to division and war, Europe has surpassed East Asia in metal processing, gunpowder chemistry, mechanics and other war-related technologies since the 17th century. However, there is still a big gap between its daily necessities and light industry and East Asia, and even South Asia.

The famous "jacquard machine" and "Jenny machine" did not fill this gap until the mule machine and the improved jacquard machine of the Napoleonic era.

Before the 19th century, the difference between Europe and East Asia was more like "Europe with developed heavy industry and military industry" and "East Asia with developed light industry and daily necessities industry".

It was easy for Dashun to copy Europe, especially at that time, the metal processing and arms industries were not much ahead or had extremely high technical barriers, especially Dashun had a "prophet" who understood these basic disciplines.

On the other hand, it was really difficult for Europe to copy Dashun. This difficulty is not at the technical level, because Dashun also copied Europe at the technical level. The real difficulty lies in the overwhelming manpower of Dashun, the poverty and barrenness of the country, the lack of precious metals such as silver and copper, and the stagnation of productivity caused by the surplus of labor due to the shortage of means of production such as land.

Just like... why aren't there enough French immigrants in North America? Because France is so damn rich, if French farmers go to the river to pick up dead animals thrown from boats and eat them, the number of French people in the North American colonies will surely increase several times in the past hundred years. This is a material reality that cannot be changed no matter how many times you read the scriptures - Franklin was lamenting at this time that there were too many Germans and they would pollute the blood of North America. Could it be that Germany, which is a mess and a country with military camps, is actually more beautiful than France at this time? Progressive and enlightened, so there were so many "hillbillies" in Germany that Franklin was wary of North America's replacement?

Therefore, it is really easy for Dashun to copy Europe, but it is really difficult for Europe to copy Dashun.

Just like the Australian story told by Lao Ma, it is easy to copy British technology to Australia; but it is difficult to copy Britain's material foundation, social environment, per capita resources, and land conditions to Australia. Therefore, the man who tried to open a textile factory in Australia quickly went bankrupt because everyone ran away to become farmers. But in the UK, where would they go, where would they become farmers, and where would they go to farm?

Same.

European technology could be quickly replicated in Dashun after exchanges began in Dashun; however, Dashun's population, per capita arable land, private land system, monsoon climate, lack of silver, and the furthest distance from South America, the world's money printing plant at this time material basis, but it is impossible to replicate it in Europe.

Therefore, in this strategy of blockade, containment, smuggling, and replacement.

There are actually only two types of goods.

One kind is from Dashun.

The other type is products that can be produced here in Dashun, but including freight, consumption, etc., are lower than the average return on investment in Dashun, such as glass cane sugar pig iron rods, which are produced by other European countries.

Here we can extend Hume's idea of ​​"the vast ocean protected European industry and commerce from being overwhelmed by China", and we can clearly understand what "Dashun can produce, but with freight, consumption, etc., it is lower than Dashun" average return on investment”.

Such as classic goods.

sucrose.

Before considering this issue, we must first make sure that the earth is roughly spherical and not shaped like a pumpkin.

Therefore, the weight of silver of the same quality in Europe and Asia is basically the same. There is no situation where it is one pound in Europe and two pounds in Asia.

The second premise is that silver can be used as currency in London, Paris, Petersburg, Gothenburg, Cadiz, Seville, Delhi, Ceylon, Songjiang, and Beijing.

Under these two premises, the cost of sugar production in Java occupied by Dashun, in silver terms, was slightly higher than in Bengal, but definitely lower than in the Caribbean islands, including those where slaves were used.

In the past, the cost of sugar in Java was basically the same as that in Bangladesh. Sugarcane plantation owners and sugarcane department heads issued low-quality lead coins, issued internal consumption coupons, and controlled the sale of goods and daily necessities in sugar factories in their own estates.

With the Great Shun's voyage to Nanyang, the principle issue of this unified country that "coined its own money" was naturally banned. This also caused the cost of white sugar in Java to be slightly higher than that of Bengal sugar.

However, it is still lower than the cost of white sugar in the Caribbean.

However, does low cost necessarily create trade value?

Apparently not.

Because, assuming that sugar from Java is shipped to Europe, it needs to set sail in the first month of this year and arrive in Europe around August this year.

And because the trade between Dashun and Europe is abnormal, if silver is not regarded as a commodity, but as currency, then the trade between Dashun and Europe can basically be regarded as a one-way trade.

It will arrive in Europe in August, return in December, and return to Dashun around June next year.

The entire trade cycle is one and a half years.

Here, it is assumed that the British navigation regulations do not exist, it is assumed that it can be sold directly after arriving, it is assumed that it is not caught by the British, French or Spanish anti-smuggling ships...etc., etc., just assume that the whole process, Smooth sailing.

Here, it is assumed that the sailors are all machines and they don’t need to spend a penny; it is assumed that the ship will not encounter wind and waves and does not need to be repaired at all; it is assumed that the cargo on the ship does not suffer any loss; it is assumed that the crew does not need to eat, drink or eat fruit during the whole journey. Prevents scurvy deaths. Wait, wait.

Then, the current average annual yield on Dashun’s government bonds is 8%, and there is a certain risk that the court will cheat and fail to repay the money or issue more banknotes; the maximum interest rate for loans stipulated in the "Dashun Law" is 36% per year; in The return rate for investing in reclaiming land in the Northeast and growing soybeans and selling them as fertilizer in northern Jiangsu is about 20%; the annual return rate for planting indigo in reclaiming land in Nanyang is about 25%...

It can be seen from this that the half-year trade cycle does not take into account any unexpected situations, risk situations, crew expenses, and assumes that freight is zero.

So, what is the difference between the prices of European white sugar and Javanese white sugar before capital will choose not to install the more profitable rhubarb porcelain silk spices, but lose the choice of white sugar?

Obviously, coupled with those risks, if the cyclical gross profit is less than 50%, which is the gross profit of the one-and-a-half-year trade cycle, then capital will not stupidly sell sugar to Europe.

If it gets any lower, would it be better to buy government bonds? How about going to hoard the land to collect rent? Is it a good idea to go to Northeast China to plant soybeans?

So, taking this into consideration, and considering that Oriental cotton can withstand a tariff and luxury goods tax of 68% plus 4.5%, totaling 72%, and still allow the East India Company to sell to a state that Defoe and others scolded, then Oriental cotton and European cotton, what is the difference in production costs at this time?

Is it as simple as a 72% difference?

In East Asia, interest rates are generally as high as 10% or more - the Qingmiao Law of Korea is still a rice system, which is still a benevolent government in theory - if the gross profit is less than 50% in a trade cycle of one and a half years, what can't be done?

So, this is the trade goods in the Atlantic at this time, there are only two types: "Dashun's" and "Dashun can produce but are not competitive when shipped over."

"Coincidence", or not coincidence, is that the goods that Dashun can produce but are not competitive when shipped over can be produced by Russia, Sweden, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Turkey.

There is a simple logic here.

If British goods are cheap enough to crush European countries, then why does Britain need the "Navigation Act"?

This example also has a similar thing in Dashun.

That is, the Haizhou salt field.

It was not the administrative salt reform implemented by Liu Yu in Lianghuai that eliminated the private salt in Huainan and Huaibei.

What eliminated the private salt production in Huainan and Huaibei was the large-scale salt field and steam brine equipment built by Liu Yu in Haizhou. Small salt farmers in Huainan, you can cook private salt at will. As long as the private salt you cook with firewood and reed grass is cheaper than the salt in the large salt field in Haizhou, then Liu Yu's reform is reactionary and has curbed the progress of productivity.

When the salt produced by Haizhou due to the progress of productivity is cheaper than the private salt produced in Huainan after adding salt tax, there will naturally be no market for private salt.

Conversely, if Britain's productivity is strong enough to crush the productivity of other countries, then Britain will not need to insist on the "Navigation Act". On the contrary, the British bourgeoisie and aristocrats will try to abolish the "Navigation Act" and embrace free trade.

In history, in which year was the "Navigation Act" abolished?

The "Navigation Act" was officially abolished in 1859, the year before the Second Opium War.

In other words, in the 1850s, Britain officially completed the production efficiency crushing of other countries with the help of the Industrial Revolution.

The same reason.

When did the Thirteen States of North America begin to feel dissatisfied with mercantilism and free trade?

1750. From this year, North America's trade surplus with Britain turned into a trade deficit.

Mercantilism and the Navigation Act were no longer weapons to protect the embryonic stage of the industry of the Thirteen States of North America, but became tools for English capitalists to try to occupy the high end of the industrial chain. The law is the ruling tool of the ruling class. It can be seen that the people of the Thirteen States of North America are not the ruling class of Britain.

And this year, from the materialistic historical perspective, is the year when Lao Ma said that "Britain basically eliminated the self-cultivating peasant economy."

Therefore, in fact, many problems are very simple after clearing the fog.

There is neither any ordinary and great national character nor any sacredness, which is vulgar.

The strategy of Dashun was formulated precisely after clearing these fogs.

Many things are just the results of "reverse training".

For example, the several merchant ships that docked in Gibraltar this time were originally engaged in Japanese trade.

Because Liu Yu knew that if trade controls were lifted, then the merchant ships sailing to Japan would have to compete on shipping costs and thin skin and large fillings.

And after a simple calculation, it can be seen that even if sufficient military obligations and mandatory regulations are added to trade with Japan - such as training registered sailors, such as mandatory requirements for the use of large long-distance heavy merchant ships - the profit is still higher than buying land and hoarding land for rent.

Therefore, it can be seen that under trade controls, even if military obligations and mandatory regulations are added, the profit return rate can still promote the prosperity of Sino-Japanese trade.

The reason is very simple. If trade controls are lifted, which capitalist would choose to use expensive teak as the keel, cypress and oak as the deck and hull when trading with Japan? Why do you need merchant ships that can be converted into 16 heavy guns at any time when going to Ryukyu, Japan?

Why not build cheaper Fukusen sand ships? Why not learn from the Netherlands to build thin-skinned and large-filled coachman merchant ships? Why should the navy not give a penny of subsidies to train trainee sailors for the navy?

I do this.

Others don't do this.

Will I go bankrupt? Or is it that God is merciful and thinks that I am making a fortune for the sake of the country's long-term interests, and that those thin-skinned and big-filled ones are bankrupt?

From the perspective of free trade, Dashun's control over Japan's trade was backward than the Qing Dynasty's policy on Japan's trade for a period of time, and even more backward - exclusive, monopolistic, compulsory military obligations, and forced purchase of standardized heavy-duty merchant ships from Weihai Shipyard at high prices.

But the result of this backwardness was that 20 years later, when Dashun needed to interfere in European affairs.

Dashun could requisition about 30 heavy-duty merchant ships and a large number of registered sailors from the Dongyang Trading Company and sail to Europe without any hindrance.

It's like China, with its market economy and large domestic consumer market, used gunpowder in fireworks and firecrackers, creating several well-known firecracker production areas; while Europe used aristocratic investment, government intervention, and additional subsidies to Galileo, Lavoisier, etc. to go against the market and study ballistics, gunpowder ratio, and chemistry.

In a perfect world, the products of Dashun and even the Ming Dynasty can beat the shit out of European consumer products. However, the world is not a truly non-interference market of perfect rational people.

On the contrary, countries such as Britain and France successively introduced strict tariff laws and administrative industrial protection laws around 1720.

Therefore, this has created this very ridiculous situation: Dashun used very backward exclusive trade controls to build a fleet that can interfere in European affairs, and it is likely that the fleet built by this reactionary control will shape the real world. Markets and free trade…

And if Dashun embraces free trade from the beginning, then the merchants of Dashun will not even be able to leave Malacca, and they will be beaten to death by the Netherlands in Nanyang. Merchant ships will be seized and prices will be forced to drop - the Ostend tea incident has already proven this. , Dashun's merchant ship was impounded in Batavia for more than half a year, and prices were forced to drop.

Therefore, these were originally just Fukufunsha ships, but now they are standard heavy-lift merchant ships produced by the warship shipyard, and were originally merchant ships belonging to the Toyo Trading Company.

After arriving in the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to "normal" trade, a lot of things were done.

Robbery of British merchant ships for free trade.

Smuggling French honey to North America for free trade.

Bombardment of Barbados for free trade.

Smuggling North American cattle and horses to Guadeloupe for free trade.

Buy a pass from the British Navy to deliver goods to North America for free trade.

In short, at least in terms of "great justice", these armed merchant ships and cruisers in Dashun can still stand.

Behind this, there are two results.

One:

The sailors of Dashun made a lot of money, considering that the goods they robbed did not belong to their employers, but were distributed by them.

Therefore, on the one hand, they sold some spoils such as honey, sugar cane wine, woolen cloth, and grains to the Dashun army in Gibraltar at low prices.

On the other hand, many people have accumulated the first pot of gold in their lives and decided not to be sailors with their heads tied to their belts after returning home. They may go to Fuso or the Southern Ocean to buy land for reclamation. It has greatly promoted the development of human total productivity.

Originally, this money would have been used by British merchants to engage in the triangular trade and transport black slaves to North America, the Caribbean, South America, etc., resulting in the loss of Africa's young and middle-aged population and greatly damaging the development of Africa's productivity.

Second:

William Pitt's "war and trade" strategy was completely bankrupt.

The British East India Company lost the West African market and Indo-Persia and was on the verge of collapse.

300,000 British families demand an explanation from the government: How can they repay the national debt they bought through fraud?

The smuggling groups in North America quickly contacted Dashun and got rid of the Dutch middlemen. There were no middlemen to make profit, which greatly improved the lives of the people in North America. The prices of tea and cotton were reduced.

The British West India Chamber of Commerce has suffered heavy losses and hopes that the government can allocate the navy from the decisive battle in the Strait to escort the West Indies, otherwise they will have to pay the national debt.