New Shun 1730

"What do you want to say to them, young master?"

Looking at the crowd, Kang Budai felt that the atmosphere here was completely different from that of Dashun. Amsterdam now has a population of only 200,000. In places like Suzhou, Hangzhou, Songjiang, etc. in Dashun, you can easily find a bunch of cities that are larger than this size.

But the atmosphere is always different.

Kang Budai wanted to know what Liu Yu would say to these people. At least he could guess that he would not come up and preach something that the other party was unlikely to believe. After all, this place is different from Dashun, and the status of the citizens is completely different from that of Dashun. There will definitely be some nonsense.

Liu Yu thought for a moment and whispered, "We can only say that we will take it one step at a time, but the general direction has been decided."

"Incite the people, let the Prince of Orange come to power, start a war, and take the blame! Then, we will destroy the Netherlands together with France and Prussia, let the parliamentary regents overthrow the Orange faction and come to power, and reverse the policy: pro-French, anti-British, and reorganize the East India Company."

Kang Budai smiled and looked at the dark Dutch people, and whispered, "This is still Ban Dingyuan's trick. It's just that Ban Dingyuan kills people directly, and you want to kill people with a borrowed knife. Diplomats are also responsible for this? What are your specific plans?"

"It's hard to say, we still have to look at the mentality of the Dutch people first. Is it a pot of hot oil that will catch fire at once? Or is it almost hot? Add some fire first..." After taking another look at the Amsterdam citizens who were "drawing the lottery", Liu Yu had a rough plan in his mind, but he still had to communicate with these people first to find out what to do.

This time when he came to Europe, his first stop was the Netherlands, and he was going to make some big noise.

In theory, based on the foundation laid by the court exchanges between China and France in the Louis XIV era, he should go to France first when he came to Europe this time.

But it is precisely because of this foundation, coupled with the fact that France is a centralized monarchy and has a complex set of court etiquette, that it is necessary to give France some preparation time so that each side can maintain the dignity of their respective courts.

Therefore, after a short supply and repair in the port of La Rochelle, official personnel were sent to Paris to greet France, send a gift list, and let France prepare. Then the fleet went straight to Amsterdam.

On the other hand, the Netherlands is an oligarchic republic and has no legal head of state, which can save a lot of complicated and cumbersome etiquette and facilitate direct bad deeds.

The entry point for doing bad things is still easy to find.

Liu Yu had come into contact with some Dutch elites, including the Governor-General of Batavia, the Governor-General of Ceylon, and the Governor-General of Sulawesi. Even if they were not the top people in the Netherlands, it cannot be said that a "provincial" cadre was not an elite.

He also collected some pamphlets written by Dutch political elites in Batavia.

It can be said that at this time, no elite in the whole Netherlands realized that the fundamental reason for the decline of the Netherlands was that commercial capital was defeated by industrial capital.

Even no one was willing to accept the reality: the golden age of the 17th century was just a flash in the pan. The Netherlands just returned to its rightful place in the long river of history. Many countries have returned to their rightful places in the long river of history. What's so special about the Netherlands?

Moreover, from his contact with those people, Liu Yu could also intuitively feel that the national identity of the Netherlands has not yet been completed.

On the one hand, there was a lack of a person who held the seven republics together, which made each province act independently.

On the other hand, it was also due to internal strife.

Many nations are imagined communities and need national myths.

For example, before and after India separated from Britain, it began to build various imagined communities, including the Kumbh Mela, which is famous for breeding viruses. These were carefully constructed by the elites of the nation to shape a common feeling, which was not so traditional and long-standing.

The same is true for the Netherlands.

When they were resisting Spain, the elites of the nation had already "fabricated" this imagined community.

They fabricated a Batavia Republic that existed 300 years before the birth of Jesus. This Batavia means the Dutch nation, not the colony in Southeast Asia.

This Batavia Republic has a dual meaning.

First, it has been ruled for three generations.

Second, it has been since ancient times.

The problem lies in this "rule of three generations".

If this national myth is only since ancient times, everyone can actually accept it. The common consciousness of this national imagination is basically formed.

But the national elites of the Netherlands at that time wanted both since ancient times and the rule of three generations, which caused problems.

The "Three Generations of Rule" of the Batavian Republic 2,000 years ago was free, with a small government, unrestricted merchant power, decentralization to provinces, no monarch, and republicanism.

So, the oligarchs and hierarchical republicans made great use of the Batavian Republic 2,000 years ago.

But they also longed for city autonomy and did not want a real country that was squeezed together.

So, they abandoned the ancient times and only wanted the Three Generations of Rule.

However, the Prince of Orange faction was extremely disgusted with the mythical "Three Generations of Rule". They wanted consuls, nobles, and consul power, and hoped to squeeze the seven provinces together to restore their glory.

So they did something very... stupid.

They spent money to buy people, buy public opinion, do archaeology, and build momentum. Taking advantage of the general rationality and scientific worship in the 18th century, they used detailed archaeological data to prove one thing: the Batavian Republic did not exist at all, it was just a made-up myth!

This is not the same as the fact that Dashun will prove that the Three Dynasties did not exist one day.

The Three Dynasties did not exist, but the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties really existed. What was destroyed was only the reform of the ancient system, but the nation that had already been formed could not be destroyed. Rationality can also design a better system, and it is not necessary to go back to the past.

However, the Netherlands is different. The Netherlands did not have the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties... The myth of the Batavian Republic has a dual mission.

From the perspective of a complete Dutch nation, this is equivalent to pouring out the baby's bath water and pouring out the baby at the same time.

But from the perspective of the Prince of Orange faction, this is a basin of water that is half black and half white, so it is better to pour it all out.

So.

The faction that supports the myth of the Batavian Republic only wants the Three Dynasties, not the ancient times.

Those who oppose the myth of the Batavian Republic only want to rule since ancient times, not three generations.

The construction of national identity was completely shattered with the archaeological evidence of the Prince of Orange faction.

What followed was the cultural invasion of French terror.

In the myth of the Batavian Republic fabricated by the elites, the Dutch national spirit, etiquette and a series of other things were also shaped.

However, the economic base determines the superstructure.

The national myth produced in the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, its morality, etiquette, national spirit, etc., must be built on the basis of reality: simplicity, hard work, fanaticism, and integrity, which are the cornerstones of the Netherlands' title of "sea merchant coachman" and the national spirit shaped by the economic foundation at that time.

It's just that those realities are used as templates and put into the fabricated myth of the Batavian Republic - just like the story of the heaven of Dashun, it also has its own duties, just like the court.

However, with the decline of the Netherlands, the economic foundation no longer exists. The struggle of the previous hundred years made the Netherlands have a huge stock and accumulated a lot of wealth, but it no longer has the environment that was easy to make money a hundred years ago.

Lending, tax farming, and speculation have become ways to make money; while fishing, sea voyage, and textiles have been basically strangled by various countries.

The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.

After people get rich, they all want to become nobles, especially the aristocratic etiquette, which will definitely be revived among the richest capitalists.

The upper class leads the cultural trend, not to create, but they will lead the trend.

Which country in Europe at this time is the most aristocratic and ceremonial?

Anyway, it is not England, which was praised to the sky in later generations, but France, which has not yet been guillotined.

France at this time is absolutely qualified to make harsh words in Europe: If there is no guillotine, within a hundred years, the entire European upper class will be French style and speak French. Before going to the guillotine and breaking the old ideas, old morals, and old culture, are you qualified to talk about aristocratic style in front of France?

This has aroused the vigilance of some Dutch elites, who believe that the danger of total Frenchification may destroy the Dutch tradition, or at least have a great impact on the unique oligarchic republican system that the Netherlands is proud of: aristocratic etiquette is linked to the monarchy and hierarchy.

Without humbleness, how can there be nobleness?

Even the Dutch radicals put forward an extremely radical view: only slavery needs etiquette to distinguish slaves from non-slaves; commoners and slave owners.

But too radical views are not acceptable. Etiquette can be improved, the hierarchical elements can be removed, and the etiquette can be turned into etiquette, but it cannot be completely without etiquette.

Etiquette is just a microcosm of cultural invasion.

This is where the problem arises again.

The myth of the Batavia Republic, which was fabricated two thousand years ago, has been shattered. Now that it has been shattered, national identity has not been constructed, and culture is facing a full-scale invasion from France, what should we do?

We must seize the time to reshape a new national identity.

After searching for a long time, there is no need to think, it must be the golden age.

The Dutch Golden Age can completely serve as a common memory of the nation and construct this imagined community.

As a result, the problem came back again: if the Golden Age is the national identity, then the goal of the nation should be to return to the Golden Age, which is actually the revival of the nation. Only by returning to the Golden Age can we find the spirit of the Golden Age and morality will be fully revived.

So... how to return to the Golden Age?

This same problem actually appeared at the beginning of Shunxing when the Ming Dynasty fell. After experiencing the changes at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Dashun as a whole still pursued Tang and remembered Han. After all, it was a country established by the "Jing Tang" that even restored the names of Jiedushi, Defense Envoy, and Six Governments.

Chasing Tang and remembering Han is nothing more than the Western Regions. Since the times have changed, the Western Regions are now Nanyang, so let's build ships and go to Nanyang.

This only costs a few dollars. Compared with the halving of the household registration during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han and the nine out of ten empty houses after Anshi, the cost of building ships is really a drop in the bucket.

But the Netherlands is different.

What is the problem? Why did it fall from the Golden Age?

This Dutchman's own thinking gave Liu Yu an opportunity to take advantage of.

In Liu Yu's view, it was industrial capital that defeated commercial capital, not just Britain, but Prussia, France, Sweden, Denmark, etc. Everyone was engaged in mercantilism, handicrafts, and high tariffs, so the Netherlands could not survive. At the beginning, they were full of Southeast Asia, but they never thought about some reforms to the land system in Southeast Asia, and completely solved the old system that restricted consumption capacity. The lack of market and the East India Company only pursued short-term interests, and it would be finished sooner or later.

But the Dutch elites could not see this, and they did not have this worldview or perspective at all, so the whole thing was condensed into a six-word motto: Determine. Body. Think. This. Country. How.

On the one hand, they missed the infinitely beautiful golden age that the older generation talked about all day long,

On the other hand, they were involved in the War of the Austrian Succession, and had to face the service of France and Prussia, the world's top three armies.

On the one hand, the oligarchs were selfish, tax-farming and exploiting, the proportional tax of each province had not changed for 120 years, the handicraft industry was squeezed out of bankruptcy, and the fishery could not survive under the suppression of Britain.

On the one hand, the people were taxed heavily, while the masters were taxed less; when the people were fighting desperately against Spain, the masters were lending money to Spain; when the people were passionately joining the army and patriotically fighting against France, the masters were smuggling arms to France and buying some French government bonds by the way...

This is simply the most suitable place to cause trouble.

As long as the breakthrough point is found and an opportunity is found to ignite the fire, the Dutch will fantasize: as long as it changes, everything will be fine.