New Shun 1730

Every family has its own problems.

When Liu Yu was in Dashun, he was frightened by the landlords and could only stir up trouble outside. He did not dare to face the many problems at home.

The Netherlands did not have the problem of the landlord class, but these business oligarchs and financial capital also brought new problems that were not necessarily easier to face than the landlord class in Dashun.

Not to mention that each province was independent, even the militia organizations and guild armed forces in each city had their own interests.

Commercial capital and industrial capital; marketization and guild interests; merchants and nobles; petty citizens and tax farmers; the federal government and the city councils... were opposed to each other.

Those who could become the Speaker of the Federal Parliament were indeed not fools. After all, this thing was not a hereditary duke, but they all started as secretaries of the Federal Parliament, worked their way up to secretary-general, and then were selected as successors to become the Speaker.

Anthony could see the problems of the Netherlands, but he was powerless to solve them.

Everything has its pros and cons.

Just like the East India Company.

In the early stage, if there was no shareholding system, no government-authorized monopoly, and no big businessmen taking the lead in integrating capital, it would not be possible to take Southeast Asia with great efficiency during the expansion period and force the British to India.

However, the strength in the early stage also brought problems in the later stage.

If the East India Company did not monopolize itself, welcomed Dutch private trade, and encouraged Dutch people to settle down, the entire Southeast Asian market would be active, which could fully support the development of the entire Dutch handicraft industry.

The problem is that the shareholders of the East India Company would ask back: Where were you when we expanded Batavia with a 70% mortality rate? Where were you when we fought to the death with Britain, Portugal, and Spain in the tropics? Where were you when we drank green water and ate maggoty bread on the voyage? Where were you when we were so hungry that we ate people on the ship?

We have taken over the hegemony of Southeast Asia, and we said that we would open it to all the Dutch people?

Why would the shareholders agree?

The shareholders' investment is to serve the people of the whole Netherlands?

If we don't concentrate our strength and monopolize privileges in the early stage, we can't develop.

Portugal and Spain will inevitably kill all the loose private merchants like chickens.

But after gaining hegemony, we still don't open up private trade in Southeast Asia, don't support immigration, and don't use it as a sales market. Instead, we kill the chicken to get the eggs. The Dutch handicraft industry will inevitably be doomed.

This situation is similar to the whole Netherlands.

If the Netherlands was not so loose in the early stage, new ideas would be difficult to spread, and business would not be able to grow rapidly without constraints and restrictions.

But the more benefits in the early stage, the greater the problems in the later stage.

In this context where everyone is engaged in mercantilism, raising tariffs, exporting as much as possible and as little as possible, even France knows that the administrative order to transport salted fish must use ships from France's own shipyards.

The advantages of the Netherlands, which is so loosely decentralized and united, have now become disadvantages.

The man who "may become Cromwell and Louis XIV" mentioned by Anthony did not accomplish this after all.

If the golden age was not accomplished, it will be even more difficult to do it now.

Of course, Anthony's understanding came step by step.

At the beginning, he overestimated the status of the Netherlands among the countries in the world.

When the war really started, he found that the times had changed...

Anthony knew before that the national strength of the Netherlands had declined. But just like the national strength of the world's strongest country is 100, Anthony felt that the national strength of the Netherlands should be at least 20 or 30.

When the war really started, he watched France hold on from Prussia's withdrawal from the war to Prussia's re-entry, and then to Prussia's re-entry, but it was still able to hold on... Go to Dashun to see that the emperor ordered that in just 20 years, without raising taxes, buying national bonds, and even without feeling the war in the country, 200,000 line soldiers and a fleet that could dominate Asia were created.

Finally, I understand that the Netherlands is not 20 or 30 now, but at most 34 or 5.

Population, depth, war potential, food production, war capabilities after blockade, etc., are all too far behind.

Now Kang Budai asked him what his outlook for the future is and where the future of the Netherlands lies.

He didn't know what to say except to smile bitterly, feel helpless and sigh.

He was depressed and dejected.

He thought, even if power was centralized, what would happen? In the War of Spanish Succession, the Netherlands had the highest tax rate in Europe, the highest army-to-population ratio in Europe, and the earliest and highest patriotic fanaticism in Europe, so what?

It's not that the Netherlands has not made progress, but that others have greater potential, a larger population, more centralized power, and faster progress.

Fifty years ago, they could fight two-on-one and lose slightly, twenty years ago, they could make their opponents miserable one-on-one, but now they can be destroyed by others in three months one-on-one.

He said that the Netherlands had no future and could only decay slowly.

Even if power was centralized to protect commercial trade, it would be difficult for the Netherlands to support it with its national strength.

There were only a few trade zones.

The Baltic Sea Northeast European trade zone was the sphere of influence of the United Kingdom. If you want to trade there, you have to provoke the United Kingdom.

North America was within the scope of the "Acts of Navigation". If you want to trade there, you still have to defeat the United Kingdom.

In South America, the slave trade was controlled by the British, and the rest was in the hands of Spain and France. They had to either defeat the British or fight against the Franco-Spanish coalition.

In the Caribbean, Dutch pirates and merchant ships were the targets of joint attacks by France, Spain, and Britain.

Africa, that's Portugal's territory.

Asia...Asia wants to overthrow a celestial country with a population of 200 million. It's not about winning, it's about killing them all. Because once such a large body takes a breather, it will be endless revenge.

Anthony concluded that even if the Netherlands centralized power, none of these things would be possible.

The simplest of these things requires the Netherlands to challenge the highest tax rate in Europe and the highest recruitment ratio in Europe, and now there is no chance of even a 50-50 split.

That being the case, what's the point of talking about the future?

Slowly decaying, living day by day, just waiting to die.

However, it is better to die than live.

And now that Dashun has destroyed the Dutch financial industry, if France invades the mainland again, it will not slowly decay, but will be burned to death.

This very sad and dejected answer made Kang Buyao a little stunned.

He thought that such a question would make the former Speaker in front of him shine. He felt that fighting and winning the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War with Britain was the future of the Netherlands.

Unexpectedly, the answer he got was a kind of lying down and dying slowly.

Kang Buchao said, the young master wants to destroy Holland's energy and spirit, and completely crush Holland's feelings of a great nation and mentality of a superior country.

That's a good thing, it's just a matter of crushing it, crushing it until they lie down and die.

When he was thinking about how to lead the topic to "the real and promising future of the Netherlands," a man from outside walked in with a hurried look and whispered a few words in Kang Busao's ear.

Then he handed a piece of paper into Kang Busao's hand.

Anthony saw Kang Buzuo looking at the paper in his hand, but out of politeness, he didn't ask anything.

But Kang Buyao took the initiative to raise the paper and said: "It seems that your consul is a ruthless man. Something happened over there in The Hague."

"There is a group of fishermen who have petitioned because of fishing issues, hoping that the UK will relax controls on fishing grounds and arrest Dutch fishing boats."

"The results were good, maybe you just said a few extreme words, right? Your consul actually ordered the massacre, killing seventeen people and injuring more than sixty people."

"You European countries are quite interesting. The King of England can't even speak English, and the Dutch consul slaughtered Dutch people for Britain. Well, it's interesting."

He said it in an understatement, but in fact it was all planned by him.

Whether he just said a few extreme words or whether these people were all real fishermen, he knew better than those in the court of The Hague.

Anthony did not care that seventeen people died. Just dead people.

But after this matter came out of Kang Busao's mouth, he immediately thought of an old thing!

A few years ago, it was still this group of Chinese people, still in the Netherlands, who still incited public opinion, which ultimately led to the Orangemen coming to power.

What happened in The Hague today, including the death of more than a dozen people, seemed insignificant to Anthony. He neither knew nor cared about it.

However, the smell of this operation is too familiar.

It has the same flavor as the Orange family's march to Amsterdam a few years ago.

An inexplicable feeling of familiarity suddenly made Anthony alert.

It seems that the methods are somewhat different, but in fact they are the same.

Dashun had opened some pornographic tabloids here before. They relied on the circulation of newspapers, the small land environment of the Netherlands, and the editorial jokes that Anthony thought were quite exciting and catchy. Oriental anecdotes, plus subsidies. The low prices quickly spread throughout the streets of the Netherlands.

Before finally leaving, an article satirizing the Netherlands and insulting the Dutch national system completely aroused the emotions of the Dutch people.

He expelled the Dashun diplomatic mission, welcomed the Orange family to power, and formally declared war on France, all in one go.

However, this time, all the tabloids that Dashun had run before were banned by the Netherlands, and they no longer have the right to speak.

However, more than a dozen people died in The Hague all at once, in front of the consul's court, because of petitions regarding fishing livelihood issues.

This does not require newspapers to guide emotions, nor does it need to create public opinion, nor does it need to be published in newspapers to spread.

In a week at most, the whole of the Netherlands would know about it. There is no need for newspapers to guide emotions and public opinion. All the dissatisfaction accumulated before will explode.

This is just a variation of the old method, another manifestation after the newspaper's right to speak was banned.

Anthony was alert to the conspiracy, but didn't know why the Chinese did what they did.

Even before, Anthony didn't understand why these Chinese insisted on pushing the Orange family to power: whether the Orange family came to power or not, he felt that it would not affect the process of Dashun's voyage to Southeast Asia at all, nor would it affect the containment of the Netherlands. on the European battlefield.

Now the people in Dashun are doing their old tricks again, inciting public opinion and creating emotions. What is this for?

To say that there was no control from Da Shun and the group behind this, Anthony would not believe it anyway.

But what’s the purpose?

He didn't understand what happened at the beginning. Now if he does it again, he will understand even less.

Although he couldn't understand it, the political sense of the Speaker for many years still allowed him to smell a key point.

The last time, the real reason why the Orange family stepped forward to assume the leadership was not Dashun's insult to the Netherlands, but the news that Prussia had withdrawn from the war. The Orange family knew it first.

Now that Dashun has scored twice, could it be that... there is a huge change similar to Prussia's withdrawal from the war?

Or did Dashun first destroy the Regent Party and then the Orange Family, creating chaos, thereby creating conditions for the pro-French faction in the Netherlands to come to power, so that the Netherlands would completely become a vassal of France? Or did it cause the disintegration of the seven provinces and completely dismember the Netherlands?

If it is the latter, it would be terrible. That is to say, these Chinese had already considered dismembering the Netherlands a few years ago? How great is the hatred? How did the Netherlands offend these Chinese?