New Shun 1730

In general, Spain, which had been dormant for nearly a hundred years, welcomed a great ruler of the Enlightenment era, who could be regarded as a representative of enlightened despotism.

If the things he had done in Sicily and Naples before, such as checking the land, cracking down on the church, returning monks to secular life, and confiscating real estate, could be done in Spain, it seems that Spain could indeed be pulled out of the quagmire.

But this is actually correct nonsense, because if France could solve the problem of gentry paying taxes together, the Ming Dynasty could solve the problem of central government fiscal revenue, and the Netherlands could solve the problem of commercial and industrial factions... then everyone would have a bright future.

The Spanish government certainly attaches importance to trade, because a large part of the royal family's income comes from monopoly.

For example, the royal family holds a huge share of Havana's tobacco, and established the Havana Tobacco Company. Others are not allowed to operate tobacco business, thus obtaining a profit of about 10 million pesos per year.

This is certainly not the root cause of Spain's backwardness. The British government also monopolized cotton, sugar, and tea and did not allow others to privately own them. In the later period, it could also get 10 million pounds of income every year.

The problem is that monopoly also requires administrative ability.

Either rely on a strong feudal household registration system, ban the sea, and open a port for trade.

Or rely on a strong navy to fight smuggling and cut off the ears of smugglers.

Or rely on the good natural terrain, such as Dashun card in Malacca and Sunda, patrolling the strait to fight smuggling.

Does Spain have this ability?

So Spain is very eager to use external forces outside Europe to balance the situation in Europe and disrupt Europe's original trade.

Of course, sometimes some national defense issues must also be considered, making it impossible for many things to be completely capital-profit-oriented.

For example, the sugar industry in Havana.

Cuba is very suitable for the development of the sugar industry.

The Spanish know it very well.

But Cuba also has wood that Spain urgently needs.

Cuba's population has always been insufficient. It was not until Britain took Jamaica that about 40,000 to 50,000 Spaniards migrated from Jamaica to Havana.

Ordinarily, if profit-oriented, Cuba should fully develop the tobacco and sugar industries.

However, Havana's population is insufficient, and Spain must consider another thing.

That is: warships and shipbuilding.

The saying of a century-old navy originated from Britain, not because the training takes so long, but because warships need to use oak as material.

The characteristic of oak is that it will not produce a lot of sawdust after being hit by a cannonball - in the era of solid bullets, ship materials that can produce a lot of sawdust are fatal to their own crew.

Therefore, Britain has a special oak planting committee, which is affiliated with the Admiralty, and only then did the saying of a century-old navy come into being.

Spain... Spain's climate, he can't grow oak trees suitable for naval warfare.

Spain... has no colonies in North America, so he has no oak trees.

Therefore, if Spain wants to develop warships, it can only rely on Cuban cedar, which is a shipbuilding material of almost the same level as oak and has almost similar physical properties: after being hit by a shell, it will not produce a lot of debris.

Therefore, Spain can only choose two of the three industries of tobacco, sugar and shipbuilding in Cuba due to insufficient labor.

It would be good to choose three, but the population is insufficient, so it cannot choose three.

Therefore, Spain chose tobacco and shipbuilding, and the sugar industry was controlled to a certain extent to reduce the cost of shipbuilding and avoid the huge competition of the sugar industry for shipbuilding workers - in addition to labor, the sugar industry also needs wood, and Spain also controls cedar, and the sugar industry is not allowed to compete with the shipbuilding industry for wood.

Many times, Dashun is confused when looking at European policies.

Because Dashun's situation is completely different from that of Europe. For example, Dashun would like to divide 100 acres of land into 10 households, because if one household can do it, Dashun can't find enough jobs for the remaining 9 households.

In some parts of Europe, such as Cuba, the sugar, tobacco and shipbuilding industries are so unique that they cannot develop at the same time due to lack of manpower.

In addition to these realities, from a more macro perspective, it is also extremely beneficial for Spain that Dashun intervened in this war instead of the Europeans fighting it themselves.

Because the history of Spain's decline is the history of the rise of emerging countries. In the era of trade with emerging countries, Spain suffered. Dashun wants to deal with emerging countries and break the current European pattern, which naturally means that good days are back for Spain.

At the very least, if it can be established as a free trade zone within the empire, in the eyes of Carlos III and his enlightened ministers, Spain can still maintain a decent, imperial federation form and enter a new era.

Therefore, Spain and France actually have very different attitudes towards cooperation with Dashun.

France is not a loser of this era, at least not now, but has been seeking the position of European hegemony.

France hopes to use the power of Dashun to dismember Britain.

Spain is the loser of this era, at least for now, so it has been seeking a balance in Europe and moderately suppressing emerging countries.

In Carlos III's own words, his dislike for Britain stems from "they show a kind of dictatorship over the world's oceans."

A Europe with checks and balances and no hegemon is the most beneficial to Spain, an aging country.

Of course, the French are not good people. Although they are all from the Bourbons, Spain and Portugal have been intermarrying for generations, so they still fight.

France is too strong, which is not good news for Spain.

So at this time, Spain has been stalling the French side, and the French side also knows that if they want Spain to join the war, they need to come up with enough chips. Now it seems that if Dashun comes forward, France at least does not need to give up its colonies - the colonies in India have been lost when Dashun joined the war, and they are no longer French.

Spain hopes to cooperate in a special way, that is, to form an alliance mainly to combat British smugglers and privateers and destroy Britain's trade capabilities in the Caribbean, rather than to form a joint fleet of China, France and Spain with Dashun and France to land in Britain.

Spain can of course choose to attack Portugal and destroy Porto, the trading center of British merchants in Portugal.

Because of Spain's strategic choice, as long as Dashun reaches a trade agreement with Spain, Spain will join the war and attack Portugal and rescue Portugal from the "colonial chains of the British".

Of course, we have to participate in the war. It would be a waste not to take such a good opportunity to pick fruits.

How to fight and what kind of result are involved in internal struggles.

For example, in addition to the above-mentioned strategy of directly taking Porto, there is another one to fight Portugal.

That is, march from Alentejo in the central and southern part of the country, besiege Lisbon, and take the capital.

The difference between these two strategies lies in the post-war negotiations, as well as Spain’s strategic goals in this change and what the desired results of the future division of spoils are.

In fact, there are differences within Spain.

Some people support attacking Porto.

Some people support going to Alentejo and marching into Lisbon.

In other words, attacking Porto is to attack Britain and destroy Britain’s trade in Portugal.

Attacking Lisbon is to attack Portugal and take the capital directly, and swallow it up.

But in the end, the opinion of attacking Porto prevailed.

Because, the stepmother of the former king of Spain and the biological mother of the current king, has a great say in Spain, and before Carlos III stepped down from the political affairs of Sicily and Naples, she was the regent queen of Spain.

And her biological daughter, the biological sister of the current king of Spain, is the queen of Portugal.

When the stepson of the regent queen was in power, she was the biggest opponent of his stepson. Everyone knows that when the former king of Spain succeeded, it was "rather than saying that the father died and the son succeeded, it was better to say that the power of Spain was inherited by the daughter-in-law from the mother-in-law."

Although the power was taken away by her daughter-in-law, the meaning behind this sentence is that before her stepson and daughter-in-law succeeded, she was the one who controlled the power in the Spanish court.

Now, the stepson and daughter-in-law are gone one after another, and the biological son has come from Sicily to succeed. She was exiled and became the legitimate regent before her biological son came, so she naturally had a great influence in the court.

Attack Porto, the British, drive away all the British merchants in Porto, don't attack Lisbon, and let your own daughter continue to be the Queen of Portugal. Isn't this good?

The French ambassador has been in contact with Portugal since the Dashun Navy arrived in the Mediterranean.

I hope Portugal can see the reality and the situation clearly and participate in the anti-British alliance between China and France.

This is certainly not a good thing for Spain. Historically, France ceded Louisiana to Spain when it was at its wits' end, and then Spain sent troops.

But now, France is shaking because of Dashun's participation in the war, and hopes to directly pull Portugal into the war, and try not to give Spain enough benefits.

Of course, the two countries will not be enemies, but it is always reasonable to say that they are in harmony.

As for why France instigated Portugal to fight against Britain, it is because Portugal is really like what Spain said, it is considered to have British colonial chains and is part of the British trade system.

This reason of Spain is not nonsense.

After the Treaty of Methuen in 1703, Portugal was indeed a "semi-colony" of Britain.

After the tariffs on textiles were lifted, Portugal's textile industry was destroyed by Britain.

Britain lifted the tariffs on wine from Portugal, but there are many wine-producing countries in Europe: France and others are all wine-producing countries. In addition, the development of the sugar industry has created rum, and the introduction of potatoes has created potato liquor, which makes the wine market not that big.

Therefore, after the wine market was saturated, Britain began to control Portugal's grape planting and winemaking industries, lower prices, and acquire assets.

Standard routine.

The reason why British textiles can be sold is that Britain has a strong navy and the "Navigation Act", as well as the "Cotton Prohibition Order" and "Cotton Luxury Tax" that can be strictly enforced, making it difficult for a large amount of Indian and Chinese cloth to break through the "Navigation Act" and enter the European market widely.

For France, using Spain as a bargaining chip to force Portugal to oppose Britain can seriously affect Britain's trade. This is France's choice.

But, it is actually quite unkind.

Using Spain to scare Portugal, the question is, what benefits can Spain get? Just talking about France’s diplomatic strategy, it is actually quite speechless: because of its better relationship with Spain, it does not consider Spain’s feelings and interests; because of its bad relationship with Portugal, Portugal stands with Britain, so it hopes that Spain and Portugal will not go to war, but instead wants to pull Portugal into an anti-British alliance.

This diplomatic behavior not only made Spain unhappy, but also Dashun was quite unhappy. After all, Portugal still has a few pieces of land in Asia. If you bring Portugal in, it will be difficult for Dashun to do anything.