New Shun 1730

This condition sounds like it is beneficial to both parties - not to mention the East India Company, but also to Dashun, it boosted Dashun's cotton cloth exports.

But Liu Yu was not too enthusiastic about this condition.

What Dashun lacked was not the export quota.

But the sales terminal channel.

The Thirteen Hongs set up by the Qing Dynasty did not affect the export to Europe in exchange for gold and silver, which must be sorted out.

But what was affected was that the Qing Dynasty had no ocean-going fleet, no trade monopoly, no qualified reserve sailors, no progress in navigation, and lack of understanding of changes in the outside world, not that the trade volume was not enough.

Liu Yu did not need Dashun to boost the export volume, but what he needed was Dashun to break the European "transportation and sales" monopoly.

The difference is that the Thirteen Hongs and the East India Companies of various countries were cooperative, one buyer and one seller.

Dashun's trading companies were in conflict with the East India Companies of various countries.

What Dashun lacked was not exports, but the transportation and retail of exports.

He has always been worried that Li Gan would follow the old path of the Qing Dynasty because he believes that there is not much difference between opening trade in Malacca and opening trade in Guangzhou in terms of external expansion and internal change. Taking the initiative to go out is the most difficult step, especially when it seems that it does not affect making money, the court is afraid that it will not have the motivation to take the initiative to go out.

Now Dupleix proposed this condition, not to say that it is not good for Dashun.

But Liu Yu and France still have many interests to exchange.

It is not difficult to let France pass this bill by saying it yourself.

However, this requires something in exchange, and for Dashun, there are many interests to exchange. How can he put the exchange on something he doesn't care about at all?

Moreover, he is wary of the French East India Company. How can he give blood transfusion to the East India Company if he is going to cheat it in the future?

This time in France, not only will he not give blood transfusion to the French East India Company, but he will also try to let the King of France get the monopoly of American ginseng and mink sweaters, so that the East India Company will simply be a runner and weaken its strength and potential.

"Mr. Dupleix, this matter is obviously beneficial to us. It will greatly help our cotton cloth exports. I will seriously consider it and will also mention this matter in the Palace of Versailles."

"However, before that, I need to get some of your country's import and export trade bans and tariffs. A more detailed plan needs to be made."

"Before going to the Palace of Versailles, I hope you can send these materials as soon as possible."

Dupleix was very happy to hear Liu Yu and was very supportive, and nodded in agreement.

As soon as he left, the "French-student" personnel of the Weihai system who had come to France a few years in advance to "scout" hurried to meet Liu Yu.

After the greetings, these people who had scouted in advance complained a lot about the trade issues that Liu Yu was most concerned about.

"Colbert said: His overly strong state intervention policy made French businessmen not think about overcoming difficulties in their business through their own efforts as long as they hoped to take shortcuts with the help of a king's order. However, these enterprises cannot avoid encountering rapidly changing situations. If the business operators do not try to find a way out when they are in trouble, no authority can take over and cure all diseases."

"But he also said: The aristocratic power and church power in France are too strong, which is completely different from Britain and the Netherlands. Without strong state intervention, financial subsidies, state-owned factories, and planned investment by the state, tens of millions of pounds of wealth will be lost in foreign trade every year."

"He was very clear about the weaknesses of strong state intervention, but he also knew that this was the only way to resist the trade invasion of Britain and the Netherlands."

"Colbert has been dead for sixty years, But his policy still has a serious impact on the trade between China and France. Mirrors, silk, velvet, tea... These things, either produced by the country or with substitutes, are all subject to "prohibitive tariffs" by France. It is used to protect domestic industries. Therefore, the French drink coffee, not tea; therefore, Dashun's silk cannot be sold in France; therefore, France's own porcelain can basically meet the demand. "

The first personnel collected a lot of information in this regard, which can be regarded as a direction for finding answers to questions: When in Weihai, many people from Weihai who participated in the trade were puzzled, "Why is the trade volume between China and France so much less than that of Denmark and Sweden? Why can the French East India Company go bankrupt and reorganize several times? "

Beside Liu Yu, there are some French-produced porcelains that they bought from France.

In terms of texture, it is really different from the porcelains from Dashun.

But to outsiders, it already has an oriental style.

These people from Weihai who came to France a few years ago took out pieces of porcelain from the box.

A Maitreya Buddha with a big belly, sitting with legs spread out, with a large storage jar in front of him.

A porcelain jar with a glaze pattern of several family members wearing Hanfu, sitting at an eight-immortal table, eating with chopsticks.

A clock with some Chinese children flying kites as external decoration, the children's hair buns are clearly visible, but the numbers on the clock are Roman numerals.

These are all made by the French themselves. Just looking at the appearance, the taste is already very strong.

"This is the porcelain factory run by Prince Condé himself. This is not real porcelain, it is fake porcelain. But it looks like that. At the Chateau de Chantilly, the fake porcelain factory is there. With these Fake porcelain, the French don’t need to buy a lot of porcelain from this dynasty.”

"There is also French silk. We have also looked at it. The quality of the silk is average, but in the tariff catalog, silk falls into the category of 'prohibitive tariffs.' The tariff is so high that foreign silk cannot be sold at all."

"The so-called prohibitive tariffs do not mean that imports are not allowed, but high tariffs are used to create a virtual ban. You can import, as long as you pay a 150% tariff and can still sell, that's Your ability.”

"The French obtained silkworm seeds in the eighth year of Hongzhi in the previous dynasty. That year, the French captured Naples and captured a group of silkworm farmers and silk weavers. They began to raise silkworms, reel and spin silk locally. "

"On the one hand, there are high tariffs. On the other hand, the royal family and nobles have large orders every year, which ensures that the silk industry will not decline."

“In the Colbert era, another national industrial plan, handicraft standardization decree, and absolute tariff protection policy were implemented.”

"The trade between this dynasty and France... really has nothing to increase. Several large items, such as tea, silk, and porcelain, are not easy to sell."

"On the whole, France's policy is government support. For some goods that cannot be produced on their own, Colbert believes that free competition cannot compete with those countries that developed first. Therefore, it is necessary to increase tariffs, strengthen control, government investment, and government Orders, hiring foreign craftsmen with high wages, starting from scratch, and then improving step by step.”

"The door of France is locked. In order to force France to open the door, the British and the Dutch jointly implemented a blockade of France for twelve years. The Netherlands even did not import a single French product for three years, just to force France to lower tariffs. But. Obviously, the French got through it."

Listening to the summary of the forerunners and playing with these pieces of porcelain produced by the Chantilly soft porcelain factory, Liu Yu thought about Dupleix's request, and it was difficult to explain what it felt like.

Colbert died almost sixty years ago, and he still affects the French economy and the trade between China and France.

It can even be said that some of his policies contributed to the historical Red Creek Massacre - the black slave policy he formulated before his death, the decree to encourage sugar cultivation in the colonies, and the plan to build a navy and maintain maritime hegemony. The foundation came to fruition decades later, making Haiti the largest source of sugar in Europe. Coupled with the "high tariff protection policy" he formulated, the Netherlands was unable to use gunboats to force France to switch, which led to the collapse of Batavia. The severe "surplus crisis" in the cane sugar industry, which expanded disorderly in the early stage, has a great impact.

Including the "administrative navy and civilian-controlled military" that France still maintains, the never-increasing trade volume between France and China, and the entire set of "import substitution plans" that France has initiated, etc., are all other factors.

From Dashun's point of view, Liu Yu quite agreed with the actions that many years later, after the Breathing Incident, the statue of Colbert was toppled down.

But most of those he opposes in Europe are of good quality; most of those he supports and praises in Europe are idiots.

These policies really make Liu Yu very uncomfortable now.

It's not about selling goods to France. To be honest, he has no hope of selling goods to France. The French have a very high level of sericulture - one of the three major labor movements in Europe is called the "Lyon [Silk Weaving] Workers' Revolt"; when the British think of tea, when the French think of coffee.

This time he came to France, neither to talk about cooperation nor to talk about exchange of interests. There is no need to talk about this. What we really want to talk about is the issue of dividing the spoils after the war, that is, how to deal with the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the key for Dashun to open the European market, and it is also the most suitable country to be a comprador after breaking its backbone. The Dutch industry is in ruins and has been transformed into a professional comprador without any internal resistance.

The most important thing to discuss is dividing the spoils. France's oppressive trade policies may have a huge impact on the future division of spoils.

After thinking about it for a while, he made a small evaluation of these policies of Kolber, which was basically praise and positive.

"New things cannot appear all at once. What Colbert did was born out of the guild system and combined with the centralized France. It brought management and standardization to the old economy, but it also created a rift for the old economy. Providing more fertile soil for the spread of corruption.”

"Although there are problems like this, for now, it is much more difficult to open trade in France than in other European countries. Ten times, a hundred times more."

"The Russians actually learned the same thing as France. State-owned farmers serve in factories, and receive state support and government orders. If they don't follow this path, given Russia's climate, population, trade lines, ports, and transportation conditions, they will never be able to survive in this life." No connection with industry and commerce.”

"Everyone is doing this now. They all want to be brave and eat but not eat. France is the worst offender. I am not prepared to talk about trade issues with France. There is no need to talk."

"Our goods can't be sold in France, and French goods can't be sold to us. The key is, as long as France doesn't treat the whole of Europe as its market."

Although they are allied with France and have plans to cooperate to deceive the Netherlands and Britain, from a trade perspective, Dashun definitely does not want France to gain full power in Europe.

Colbert's set of policies are too cruel.

Although after his death, Louis XIV messed around and began to persecute Huguenots, causing a large number of artisans and bankers to flee, the foundation laid in the Colbert era, as well as the national subsidies and government order policies, made France's trade door too tightly welded and could not be opened at all.

Colbert himself said that [the overly strong national intervention policy made French merchants not think about overcoming difficulties in business through their own efforts as long as they hoped to take shortcuts with the help of the king's order].

It means that if things are not easy to sell, the country will find a way to find a market and a way out, or go to war to destroy other countries, or go to war to force other countries to lower tariffs, or get orders from the royal family and the nobility, so that big merchants are looking forward to taking shortcuts with administrative orders.

Liu Yu talked about free trade all day long, but of course he himself did not believe it. There is no free trade in Europe, and each one has a very strict tariff.

France's industrial capacity is not weak, so it is impossible to reach cooperation in trade. Although Colbert's reputation in later generations was very bad, he was even more notorious in the Netherlands and Britain. After the explosive growth of Britain, the doctrine of free trade emerged. Colbert, who was devoted to local industrial protectionism and planned economy, became the scapegoat for "French backwardness".

Although this control model, which seemed to be born out of the old guilds and integrated with the centralized power of France, did have problems such as corruption, lack of innovation, difficulty in accumulating capital, and overly strict state control.

But now, Liu Yu really had no way to do anything. There was basically no way at all - no matter how good the quality was, the goods that Dashun could sell basically had local substitutes in France.

It was much easier to destroy the Netherlands than to expand the trade volume between China and France.

Dutch industrial capital was almost squeezed to death by its own commercial capital. If Dashun wanted to open the door to European trade, it could only find a breakthrough in the Netherlands.

What I was afraid of was that when dividing the spoils, France would open its mouth too wide and really want to eat up the Austrian Netherlands, making the Netherlands a vassal? At that time, I'm afraid that the Netherlands would fully liberalize its tariffs on France? Should they sell French goods or Chinese goods?

We also need to stop France from opening its mouth too wide when it comes to dividing the spoils. The old Netherlands must die, but not completely, and cannot become a vassal of France. This really requires some operations.

Fortunately, the strategically thinking old fox Fleury is dying soon. Louis XV, who is ambitious but incompetent, wants to rule the country himself, so he can only be given some magic potion.

Since Count Maurepas said that Louis XV was going to abolish the prime minister and establish a cabinet, it can only be said that Fleury died at the right time. Once he died, no one in France should be able to control this king who said "after I die, there will be a flood."