New Shun 1730

The Earl of Halifax patted the pamphlet and snorted: "I have read everything in this pamphlet."

“The emphasis in the brochure is on textiles.”

"Obviously, the reason why the Chinese support free trade in textiles is because our British woolen textile industry is comparable to that of France."

"So they can use this universal free trade to hide their true thoughts that are not universal. Because even if free trade is implemented, French woolen cloth cannot enter the UK; but their cotton cloth can."

"So, they are actually opposed to manufacturing development in France."

"However, they use universal, as if universal, world-wide free trade as their justification."

"If we really completely lift tariffs and become a sales place for Chinese goods."

"They, China, will protect us from being overrun by the evil mercantilist France."

"In fact, it is impossible for us to carry out any form of reciprocal retaliation against China."

"We must also admit that even if we do not admit defeat, the original trading system has collapsed."

George III trusted the economic judgment of the Earl of Halifax, who was born on the Board of Trade.

We are also familiar with France’s mercantilist policies and domestic manufacturing substitution policies.

He thought what the Earl of Halifax said made sense.

As long as it concentrates on being a sales place for Dashun's goods, Dashun will definitely protect Britain and will not let Britain fall into the hands of other mercantilist countries.

However, these words always sound a little uncomfortable.

However, good medicine tastes bitter but is good for the disease, and good advice hurts the ears but is good for action. Many times, the reality is so uncomfortable.

Britain really has reached the end of its rope.

It is even impossible to have the mentality of "Thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi, don't bully young people into poverty. I will take revenge in the future."

Dashun is different from India, and Dashun is different from Britain.

In other words, it is different from the India controlled by the East India Company in history, and completely different from the British at this time.

In the history of India, the East India Company first ruled India. As Lao Ma said: Where commercial capital occupies a dominant position, there will definitely be a cruel system of robbery.

This system of robbery destroyed the foundation of India's handicraft industry, and then the British textile industry developed and was finally dumped.

This kind of destruction is based on force.

But it’s not just customs.

In other words, in terms of current productivity, even if the Mughal Empire is still there, the East India Company beat the Mughal Empire to a pulp and forced the Mughal Empire to liberalize customs and cancel import tariffs...

That's no use either.

British goods should not be sold, but they still cannot be sold.

Only the East India Company directly ruled India, using cruel taxes to destroy India's original society; using crazy plunder to create a famine of tens of millions of people and destroying its handicraft system; using brutal rule to completely destroy India's irrigation system. This has caused the collapse of India's more than a thousand-year-old irrigation system and the lack of money to maintain...

Only in this way can British manufacturing be able to open up sales in India.

Changing to Dashun, that is to say, to what extent does the UK need to do so that Dashun can become a dumping ground for the UK at this time and promote the development of British manufacturing?

It is useless to just abolish the customs in Dashun.

Because Dashun's customs, even if at this moment, there is completely zero tariff on the British, and even if they are so cheap as to subsidize one tael of silver per ton of British goods, they will not be sold.

As for Dashun, it only requires the UK to relax customs duties.

In terms of productivity levels at this time, in terms of the capacity of the British textile industry at this time.

If you want to achieve great success, you will reciprocate "retaliation" against the British request to liberalize customs.

In other words, with the level of British productivity at this time, what should the British do if they want Dashun to become a dumping ground for goods and retaliate like now?

Answer, Britain not only wants to occupy the capital.

We will also open up the Yellow River and completely destroy the irrigation system in North China.

They want to block every canal in the south of the Yangtze River, destroy the economy of the south of the Yangtze River, or use magic to make the sea pour back and destroy the rice soil that has been built for more than a thousand years.

Every spinning wheel in Dashun must be smashed.

To exterminate every cotton tree in Dashun...

We must kill all the tens of thousands of gentry who are both landowners and engaged in workshops in the countryside of Dashun...

In short, if Dashun's social productivity level is to be set back 1,000 years, reciprocal retaliation and product dumping will almost be achieved.

For example, what the Netherlands and Britain did to Ceylon in history.

This Lion Kingdom, which was already rich and had complete water conservancy projects in the history books of the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasties at the end of Han Dynasty, has regressed for more than a thousand years under the rule of the Dutch and the British. All water conservancy projects were abandoned and rice agriculture completely collapsed.

But... looking at the world at this time, who has the ability to do the same thing to Dashun?

Domination and dominance are not the same thing.

Or, the UK could just keep developing and let its productivity level reach the level of 1880.

Otherwise, it would be useless to just engage in customs.

The key to the First Opium War was opium. The impact of purely normal foreign commodities... "normal" commodities that did not commit crimes against humanity were just that.

The Taiping Rebellion was of course due to the impact of the Opium War, and of course the impact of the Wukou Trade - because the Wukou Trade also had another meaning: the foreign trade center was transferred from Guangdong and Guangxi to Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Ningbo. It’s not just a simple impact of foreign goods. How much impact did the trade of Fuzhou have, and Wuyishan tea went directly to Fuzhou? How many people are unemployed?

Therefore, the current situation is very realistic.

Dashun only needs to engage in British customs, because the British themselves have disintegrated the self-sufficient economy through movements such as land enclosures, cross-sea migration, and plantation indentured servitude.

On the other hand, Britain wants reciprocal retaliation at this time. Even if it completely destroys Dashun's navy and forces Dashun to sign the tariff treaty, it will find that it is useless. Even if the customs in Dashun were dismantled, not much woolen fabric would be sold.

In addition, what is even more annoying is that taking the triangular trade as an example, in such hot weather in Africa, will they like woolen fabrics?

The important trade line of the triangular trade was actually broken at the moment Dashun sent troops to India, which produced cotton cloth, and had to be rewritten.

In Europe, there is a huge market for woolen fabrics. In Africa, West Africa, and the equatorial region, go and sell woolen cloth? How can it be sold?

As long as it can be sold, historically France may have taken the lead in setting up the cotton textile industry in Nantes in 1759 with the Ministry of Finance taking the lead in establishing the cotton textile industry in Nantes in view of the trade blockade and the shortage of cotton in the Triangle Trade? So that for a long time, it was ridiculed by Africans as "you don't need to look, you just need to smell it to know that it is an inferior French imitation"?

All these are the unpleasant realities described by the Earl of Halifax.

In his view, Dashun can only deal with the tariff issue, instead of preparing to go it alone and take away the slave trade, etc., which is actually "the most benevolent and righteous".

A very simple hypothesis, assuming that Dashun takes the "cloth of sorrow" he produced and directly exchanges slaves in West Africa, who can compete?

In other words, are there really no pirates in Madagascar, West Africa and other places?

A large number of pirates were slave traders themselves. They could directly exchange cotton cloth in South Africa and Dashun to buy and sell slaves. Be it Liverpool or Bristol, which slave trader could compete?

Will the plantations in the Caribbean and the southern states of North America be so patriotic and law-abiding that they will leave cheap slaves alone instead of using slaves from their own slave traders?

The words of the Earl of Halifax were close to saying, "It's almost done, don't be so shameless, Dashun has plenty of backup options."

Why not admit defeat quickly, fully liberalize tariffs, and let Dashun protect Britain in order to prevent the British market from being occupied by France?

Because if France wanted to occupy the British market, it had to rely on force to maintain French mercantilism.

And Dashun... if they want the British market, they just need free trade.

Even though the words of the Earl of Halifax were already unpleasant, Lord Bute still added another blow.

"My lord, we must realize that the Chinese have a virtual monopoly on trade east of the Cape of Good Hope."

"On the one hand, they themselves are the largest producers, especially after the end of what they call the 'Return to Nanyang' activity, they have even completed the monopoly on spices."

"On the other hand... the Dutch East India Company has been dissolved; the Swedish East India Company has been annexed by joint stock; the Portuguese have lost even Macau; the Danes have only a little bit of Tranquibana in India left; The French East India Company has collapsed, and Pondicherry has given away gifts to China as the price of sending troops..."

"Only our East India Company is left, but apparently our East India Company is also bankrupt."

"In other words, the Chinese have completely expelled all the East India Companies in Europe from Asia. Even the French, their so-called allies, used our power to expel them."

"Today, the only ones who can transport Eastern trade goods to Europe are the Chinese."

Speaking of this, Lord Bute warned: "Since they have become the only country that can transport Eastern trade goods to Europe, it means that they have countless potential allies in Europe."

"If they don't engage in free trade, then they can hand over European trade to any potential ally. In fact, their previous cooperation with the Dutch was this model."

"Every country will rush to get this cooperation right."

"Even in France, he can not sell domestically, but he can make profits by selling abroad."

"Just like Sweden, Sweden is also mercantilist. Theoretically, the Swedish East India Company could not sell Eastern goods in the country. But didn't the Swedish East India Company also have a prosperous business before?"

"I think the best condition is for the UK to replace the Netherlands and become Dashun's partner in Europe. But obviously, we have missed this opportunity... When they 'went to Nanyang again', we had this opportunity, But we missed it."

"If this best condition cannot be achieved, then we must first ensure that it is not other countries that get the European exclusive rights."

"So, in fact, for us, free trade is the most realistic and most favorable condition that can be achieved."

"Otherwise... what if the French set up an 'Oriental Trade Products Europa Company' and Dashun chose France as its European general agent in view of France's military strength?"

The Earl of Halifax agreed, saying: "Yes, I agree with Lord Bute."

"Indeed, cotton cloth is not a specialty of China, it is also available in India."

"But, under the current circumstances, who else in Europe can form a new East India Company?"

"Even if we don't consider whether we can defeat China in India or Malacca."

"I'm just saying that although the Chinese have not said it explicitly, Europe is not allowed to form an East India Company."

"However, they have made their point of view clear and clear with actions time and time again."

“The destruction, bankruptcy, and reorganization of one East India Company after another, the Chinese are using their identity as producers to declare that when producers try to engage in shipping on their own, any East India Company is their potential enemy.”

"Even the 'innocent' Danes used shameless reasons to directly increase export tariffs, causing the Danish East India Company to basically go bankrupt."

"In this case, capital... will be willing to invest in a new company that faces the possibility of bankruptcy from the beginning. As a monopoly producer, China may impose tariffs and administrative controls at any time. It may require an investment of hundreds of millions of pounds and an upfront investment of hundreds of millions of pounds." The East India Company with no return at all?"

"No, absolutely not."

Lord Bute also nodded and said: "If capital is unwilling to invest, then it can only rely on the power of the royal power and the country."

“But how much effort will it take to regain dominance east of the Cape?”

"If this force is invested east of the Cape of Good Hope, China will immediately find allies in Europe."

"If we try to regain the interests east of the Cape of Good Hope, then we need to invest at least 30 battleships and 50,000 soldiers..."

"But if we put 30 battleships and 50,000 soldiers east of the Cape of Good Hope, France will immediately send the crown prince to the east to meet their great emperor, and then land in Britain."

"Similarly, if France invests 30 battleships and 50,000 soldiers east of the Cape of Good Hope, the Chinese will immediately find Prussia, Russia, Austria, and us to form an anti-French alliance. It does not even require the Chinese to take the initiative. , when those countries see France investing a lot of power in the East, they will immediately take the initiative to bite France. "

"The same goes for Spain and the same goes for Portugal. Austria and Prussia are simply not qualified to talk about numbers like 30 battleships."

"So, I can responsibly say that there will never be an East India Company again. Whether it is British, French, Danish or Swedish, there will be no more."

"The current situation is that there is only one company in the world that has the exclusive right to sell Eastern trade products. This company is Dashun's Western Trading Company."

"I can even be sure that when the war in Europe ends, the remaining Danish land in Tranquiba will also be attacked by Dashun."

"but……"

Lord Bute changed his subject.

"But, that's not a bad thing."

"This means that the prices of Eastern trade goods in Europe are unified, and it also means that smuggling between European countries is eliminated."

"What it means more is that if the Chinese are willing to fulfill their commitments, we can really receive tariffs."

"We don't have to worry about the same situation as before. 80% of people are drinking tea from Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. But we don't collect taxes at all."

"Dashun only needs to help European countries collect a tax of 3 pence per pound of tea, which will bring us at least hundreds of thousands of pounds in tariffs."

"In return, we should also agree to their tariff conditions for the rest of their goods. Otherwise, I think the Chinese would prefer zero tariffs, or they would prefer to turn these 3 pence into their export tax."