New Shun 1730

While the Free Trade was anchored in Sweden, Mantou and others were busy giving gifts.

London, England.

Behind the king's carriage returning to England from Hanover, a group of British rough men chased the carriage and cursed.

"Gin! Not the king!"

"If you don't reduce the alcohol tax, go back to Hanover!"

Because of the high consumption tax on gin a few days ago, there have been many riots and protests on the streets of London.

Perhaps this is just a trigger, and the anger squeezed in the hearts of the British has been stagnant for too long.

The King of England... can't even speak English well.

The king's mother tongue is German, and the queen's mother tongue is also German.

The king is a "Hanoverian barbarian who usurped the throne of the British monarch". The overly mild foreign policy revolves around one thing: interfering too deeply in the European continent, Hanover may suffer.

France or Prussia can't swim to London, but there is no sea around Hanover.

So Britain's foreign policy in recent years has been timid to protect the royal family's "dragon's rise".

This mild foreign policy made British sea merchants very dissatisfied, and all of them missed the Protector of the Kingdom who built up the navy.

Britain is an island, and Hanover is the Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, which is a natural contradiction. Just curled up on the island, it can easily provoke a European war; Hanover, however, must maintain the balance of the European continent, cannot choose sides, and can only compromise with France and Prussia.

Protect Great Britain? Or protect Hanover?

This is a choice that the King of England must consider.

In the carriage, King George II looked at the mob in London and couldn't help cursing in German.

"This bunch of annoying idiots! I sincerely hope that the devil will take you all away! And your bunch of ministers, your parliament, and your little island. If the whole of Britain is taken away by the devil, I will go back to my hometown Hanover."

Outside the car window, the curses echoed one after another, without any pause. The clatter of the wheels rolling over the road could not cover up the anger of these drunkards.

The British did not let him go, and neither did his own son.

He did not like Britain, he liked Hanover more, and he was more willing to rule Hanover. This time when he went to Hanover, he once again let his wife be the regent of Britain, not his eldest son, who was already quite dissatisfied.

The queen was in London as regent, and the prince was anxious, exclaiming that the prince was still alive and an adult, how could there be a story of the queen regent?

The prince was surrounded by the Whig Party, and William Pitt and others had already emerged, claiming to be "true patriots", hoping that the prince would ascend the throne, go to war with foreign countries, and protect Britain instead of Hanover.

George II's troubles were more than that.

He should have returned to Britain last year, and the British were very dissatisfied with his long-term absence.

As a result, he encountered a storm on the way back, which delayed his return. Rumors spread throughout Britain immediately: the king was dead and the prince should be established.

When the news came that he was not dead, but was delayed by the storm, many satirical dramas suddenly appeared in Britain.

Fortunately, Robert Walpole, the Minister of Finance and Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, guessed the intention of the emperor and forced the passage of the Licensing Act of 1737 in Parliament, which led to a literary inquisition in Britain.

All theaters must apply for a license to perform plays with dialogues.

All dialogues must be reviewed by the Lord of Chamberlain. If they fail the review, they will be punished with a felony.

A batch of Shakespeare's plays were confiscated because some of the dialogues in these plays were obviously "meaning something else", "their hearts are worthy of death", "using the past to satirize the present", and implicitly satirizing "the intention of the Hanoverian barbarians to usurp the throne of the English king".

The General Manager of the Household Department was proficient in German but not in English. According to the decree of the Licensing Act of 1737, he was not only responsible for reviewing the dialogues, but also for issuing theater licenses.

Since he was not good at English and did not want to take responsibility, he simply issued licenses to only two theaters in total, and the rest were all confiscated, not to mention state affairs.

But after all, there are loopholes in British law. As soon as everyone saw that drama was regulated by law, dramatists switched to writing novels, which in turn promoted the development of British literature. It was similar to the Qing Dynasty's ban on drama and the emergence of Dream of the Red Chamber.

This time, George II hurried back from Hanover because Robert Walpole, the Minister of Revenue and the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, sent a message hoping that he would return to the country as soon as possible. There were two major events that required the king's permission.

The reason why Robert Walpole, the Minister of Revenue, was chosen as the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet was mainly because Robert could make money. He settled the mess of the South Sea Bubble; and he could ensure that he would get 300,000 taels of silver (100,000 pounds of royal annuity) for the treasury every year, and he was quite familiar with the emperor's intentions... Although this person did not know German, and the monarch and his ministers had to communicate in poor Latin, he could not resist the pillow talk, and the queen made every effort to protect him.

For this reason, George II specially granted No. 10 Downing Street as the residence of the Minister of Revenue, and he was also in charge of all cabinet affairs.

Overall, this person's work satisfied George II. He knew George II's idea of ​​protecting Hanover but not Britain, that Britain was only a temporary place of residence and Hanover was the foundation of the country, and he mediated peacefully in foreign policy, trying to avoid the war from affecting Hanover.

This time, George had to come back from Hanover and deal with two things, both of which were very troublesome.

First, Britain's mortal enemy sent an envoy to China, and the visit was very successful, and a secret agreement was signed that was not made public; and China also sent an informal envoy to Sweden to return Swedish prisoners.

Several cabinet ministers believed that the European continent would undergo a major change, and Russia might be besieged.

During the French visit to China, they would certainly slander Britain, which must be noticed; and since the Austrian king had no male heir, Europe might undergo a major change.

The East India Company's interests in Asia could not be developed without China's permission. If France slandered Britain - and this was almost inevitable, just as the British would seize any opportunity to slander France - China had not accepted European envoys before. Since the French went this time, Britain must also send an envoy to China to avoid misunderstandings between the two sides, and should clarify France's false statements about Britain.

Although I don't know what France said, I must have said it.

And, after all, the British knew very well that they had a criminal record in China.

During the reign of Emperor Tianqi of the Ming Dynasty, Britain and the Netherlands robbed ships, seized Zhoushan, and attacked Macau but failed. These things did not require France to spread rumors. As long as these old calendars were taken out, they would inevitably touch the nerves of the Celestial Empire.

It didn't matter before. The Celestial Empire seemed to be asleep in Asia, and didn't even care about Southeast Asia. It's different now. In order to fight Russia, they all went to Sweden to send prisoners. They woke up.

In addition to restoring Britain's image and preventing Dashun from cutting off trade with Britain after listening to French rumors, they should also go to China to investigate why China only imports but does not export?

Every year, a huge amount of silver flows to China, but Britain can't find goods to sell to China. Occasionally, it can sell some woolen cloth, but in recent years, the East India Company complained that the share of woolen cloth was occupied by the French, even though the quality of French woolen cloth was not very good.

This is not a trivial matter. The East India Company has a lot of interests involved. Although the trade deficit with China is a big deficit, the company is profitable.

In addition, it seems that Dashun is pulling up a siege against Russia, and the French must be happy to do so. If Sweden and Dashun are at the east and west ends... and maybe Turkey is added, Russia's energy is involved on three sides, and France's expansion in Central Europe will be unstoppable: if this is true, France has the ability to unite with Prussia and dismember the Austrian Habsburgs by taking advantage of the issue of succession to the throne.

This is very unfavorable to Britain.

This trip to China was for trade and to find out what Dashun really meant.

As for the second thing...

On the street where drunkards were shouting to abolish the gin tax, there was a man with only one ear, holding a glass bottle filled with rum, and a vivid ear soaked in the rum.

This man was shouting there.

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! That's right, according to the Treaty of Seville, I can't smuggle goods to the Spanish colonies, and the Spaniards do have the right to board the ship for inspection."

"But, gentlemen, I was just passing by there, and how can it be considered smuggling before I actually smuggled to the port?"

"However, the Spaniards cut off my ear!"

He raised the ear in the glass bottle high. The ear cut off six or seven years ago was so fresh at this time.

"Gentlemen! This is an insult to Britain. We need the Spanish to apologize to Britain."

"Perhaps, some people will say that smuggling sounds illegal."

"But in my opinion, this is a kind of honor. Britain's rise is based on smuggling, looting and piracy. Isn't Sir Drake a smuggler? Isn't he a pirate?"

"Even if I smuggle, what's wrong with it?"

"Fuck the Treaty of Seville, fuck the illegality of smuggling! Let the gunboats reason with the Spaniards, this is the only language they understand!"

"Our king is a German who only wants to defend his Hanover; our prime minister is a flatterer who will only kneel and surrender to Spain and France. A true patriot should stand up and regard smuggling as honor and looting as a military exploit."

Jenkins, who had his ear cut off by the Spanish anti-smuggling team for smuggling a few years ago, shouted loudly, calling for the people's patriotic enthusiasm. There are slogans written by professionals for him, and the financial backers behind him are well prepared.

When his ears were cut off a few years ago, there was a commotion, but it didn't cause any waves.

This time, the financiers found him again, hyped up this old news that had been going on for several years, and incited the public's emotions.

Although the impact of the South Sea Bubble had just subsided, although Britain began to increase taxes on gin in order to collect taxes, and although sailors rioted again and again to demand a higher standard of living... but this was not important.

What was important was that big merchants, smuggling ship owners, and industrialists needed a larger market, dominated the entire Atlantic trade, and obtained the power to smuggle goods to the Spanish colonies.

Farther away, children were singing the nursery rhymes they had just learned, which could be exchanged for some candy.

The Lord helped the British, and smuggling was successful only because the Westerners were too bullying.

There were countless anti-smuggling investigations in the West Indies and the Philippines.

Cutting ears, hanging ropes, burning, killing, and looting were too ruthless.

Sail and artillery skills, all learned, it would be easy to suppress the Western bandits.

Attack the waterway, rob merchant sails, and happily rob treasure ships.

Spain is terrified, and North and South America are desolate.

The Bourbons are completely wiped out, and Britain has unified Jingjiang Mountain.