Shadow of great britain

Elder held the newspaper in his hand, leaning against the window and scratching his head as he read.

"What the hell are these French people doing? They are sometimes a kingdom, sometimes an empire, and sometimes a republic. Have they decided what kind of country they want to build?

Before I was born, these French people were making revolution. After they were born, they were still making revolution. Now that I'm in the Royal Navy, why isn't the revolution over yet? Arthur, what year is it? 1789? Storming the Bastille? "

Arthur put a piece of candy into the tea cup: "Elder, I thought you were only bad at physics, but now you have problems with your memory. Let me help you.

First of all, the 1789 event you mentioned was the French Revolution marked by the storming of the Bastille.

At that time, France had participated in the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence in consecutive years, resulting in high domestic debt, with the total domestic debt reaching 2 billion francs. Coupled with the natural disasters that occurred at that time, a large number of crop productions were reduced, and French food prices soared.

At this time, French King Louis XVI decided to convene a three-level meeting composed of clergy, nobles, and citizens at the Palace of Versailles, and geniusly proposed that he planned to increase taxes on the citizens.

This proposal was of course rejected during the voting process, but Louis XVI broke his promise and insisted on raising taxes and mobilized the army to forcibly dissolve Parliament.

You should still remember the following results. The citizens of Paris rushed into the streets and shouted, "Go to the Bastille." After Paris, revolutions broke out across France. In the end, Louis XVI had to surrender to the Constituent Assembly and establish a constitutional monarchy. Government. "

Elder frowned and said, "Didn't Louis XVI have his head chopped off? Was he still alive after that?"

"He was beaten later, but it was something he asked for. Elder, you know, it's really not easy for a king to keep him in peace. As long as he doesn't take power, Then he will always be thinking about how to regain power.

After all, as a British person, you should understand how hard Britain worked for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

From 1642 to 1646, we fought the first civil war. Charles I lost, but he was not convinced. The Parliament paid for him to be brought back from Scotland and placed under house arrest. As a result, he secretly contacted the royalists and started a second civil war.

By 1649, at the end of the Second Civil War, Cromwell chopped off his head and established a parliamentary aristocratic republic.

But more than ten years later, his son Charles II successfully restored the throne with the support of the royalists, and James II, who succeeded him, began a series of retaliatory measures.

After weighing in parliament, the Whigs and the Tory progressives formerly known as the Royalists finally reached an agreement.

They joined forces to drive James II out of Britain, and James II's daughter Mary II succeeded him. The Bill of Rights establishing the constitutional monarchy was also officially promulgated.

The reason why Louis XVI was beheaded was because he was also unconvinced. In fact, if he had been his constitutional king honestly, there would not have been so many things later.

But he was restless. While he was thinking about how to bribe mercenaries to overthrow the French Constituent Assembly, he was also preparing to escape France in disguise after the conspiracy was exposed.

The most damning thing is that his queen, Marie Antoinette, also revealed French military secrets to his brother, Emperor Franz I of Austria, which directly led to France's defeat by the Austrian and Prussian forces. After the news spread, the French people were extremely angry.

This series of events directly led to the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly that supported the constitutional monarchy, and gave birth to radical groups such as the Jacobins and the Sans Pants Party.

Therefore, Louis XVI's beheading was purely his own fault. Those moderates tried their best to save his life, but he didn't cherish it. "

Elder touched his chin and read: "So, in 1789 France first established a constitutional monarchy, then executed Louis XVI and changed it to a republic, and then the Thermidor coup overthrew the Jacobins and executed Robert Speer, and finally the Coup of Brumaire and Napoleon’s declaration of emperor?”

Arthur took a sip of tea and nodded slightly: "Elder, don't you know this very well? You have always been thinking about fighting the French and bringing a few French warships back to make a fortune. This is not what you want. ?”

Elder pondered: "Do you think we will go to war with the French?"

Arthur shook his head and said: "I can't say for sure. It depends on what the French plan to do this time. If they cause something like the French Revolution, maybe the cabinet officials will start preparing for the eighth anti-French alliance. .

But if they were just making a small fuss, then Britain might not interfere. After all, the Duke of Wellington is on fire now. He should not be willing to interfere with the French affairs unless necessary.

After all, after the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington had already stated his attitude towards France at the Congress of Vienna.

He always believed that it was necessary for France to exist in Europe, and the Tory party's diplomatic line had always been committed to maintaining the balance of power on the continent. Britain needed a stable and powerful France to contain the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire, which had continued to advance eastward in recent years. "

Elder nodded in understanding and said: "It sounds quite complicated. But, the French Revolution was also good, at least they could change that stupid flag.

Louis XVIII, who came up after Napoleon's fall, didn't know if he was out of his mind, but actually used a white flag as the national flag.

When I first boarded the ship, I saw a ship with a white flag coming from the opposite side. I was still wondering. Why did the other side surrender when we obviously hadn't fired yet? Later, when I inquired about it, I found out that it was a French ship coming from the other side.

Fortunately, this was not a war period, otherwise I would have almost fallen into the trap of these French people. These people were so cunning that they actually surrendered! "

Hearing this, Darwin, who was teaching knowledge on the side, also leaned over worriedly.

He asked: "Do you think this French Revolution will affect our navigation? Will the global scientific expedition mission be postponed because of this incident?"

"Postponement?" Elder picked up the apple on the table and took a bite. "If it can really be postponed, then the French have really done something good."

When Arthur heard this, he turned to ask: "Let's not mention this for now. Elder, have you figured out the merchant ships leaving London that I asked you to help me find out before?"

Elder curled his lips and said: "Arthur, I'm not talking about you. Do you know how broad the range you told me is? The current tonnage of merchant ships registered in the UK is about four million tons. Our merchant ship capacity It accounts for 40% of the world's total. With so many ships, how do you want me to check them for you?"

Arthur waved his hand and said: "I didn't ask you to check all the merchant ships out of the port. You only need to check the merchant ships starting from London and going to America. Elder, haven't you always claimed to be an expert on the Royal Navy? This point Things have to be done for me."

Elder slapped the table and cursed: "Arthur, I am a Royal Navy expert, not a shipping expert. Even if you ask me to steal the Royal Navy's navigation information, it is more reliable than checking the merchant ships leaving London for America.

Although the barbarians in North America say they want to keep a distance from their British father, they are very honest when doing business.

After all, the "Embargo Act" they imposed on Britain not only did not have much impact on us, but actually caused their own economy to collapse.

Therefore, since then, the trade volume between the two sides has been growing steadily. Seventy-eight percent of American cotton has to be sold to Britain, while we export consumer goods such as textiles, tea, ceramics, and spices to them. "

When Arthur heard this, he suddenly raised his eyebrows, as if he had discovered something.

"Wait a minute, tea and spices are usually traded through transshipment, right? These things are not grown locally, so they should all come from overseas colonies, right?"

Elder nodded while chewing an apple: "Yes, tea and spices are mainly transshipped. The export products produced domestically are mainly textiles and ceramics, and these are shipped domestically. The main contents are Some high-end clothing, fabrics, teapots, teacups and the like.”

When Arthur heard this, he nodded slightly and said, "Okay! Elder, then you should focus on textiles and ceramic merchant ships for me."

Elder was still a little dissatisfied when he heard this: "Arthur, that's quite a lot."

Arthur didn't say anything. He just took out a note from his pocket and waved it in front of his eyes: "Don't worry, brother, I can't do anything wrong to you. There might be a big case involved here. As long as you can find out the matter, Greene will win this year." The Wych Police District still has a few hundred pounds to spare in its investigative funds."

When Elder heard this, he took a deep breath, took out the banknotes from Arthur's fingers, and put them into his coat pocket.

Elder chuckled and said: "It seems that I can't make sense if I don't accept this investigation application. Arthur, don't worry, in the next few months, as long as I don't go to sea, I will squat in the shipping company at the dock every day to replace You investigate one by one."

Arthur showed a smile, leaned back and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

Elder looked upright and patted Arthur on the shoulder: "Why are you so polite? We are all brothers."

At this point, Arthur suddenly changed the subject: "However, you just said that Britain actually sells tea sets to North America, which really surprised me. I thought they didn't use such things there."

"What's so surprising about this?" Elder picked up the bread and took a bite: "How can they drink tea without a tea set?"

Arthur smiled, pointed to the Thames River next to the coffee shop, and said, "I heard that Americans don't like to use tea sets when drinking tea. If they want to drink tea, they usually choose to pour the tea leaves into Boston Bay."