Harry Potter’s Morning Light

   Chapter 2283 The place to live (below)

  William Wilberforce is a member of the House of Commons, the son of wealthy businessman Rob Wilberforce, whose grandfather William made a fortune from trading in the Baltic Sea and was twice elected mayor of Hull. Little William was frail and sick from the day he was born, but this did not affect his hedonistic character.

He met William Pitt Jr. when he was a student at Cambridge. The two often played cards, gambled, drank late at night, skipped classes, barely passed the exams, but didn't get an honorary degree. Nasty party.

  After graduation, William Wilberforce returned to his hometown and relied on his family's wealth and connections to defeat his opponent and enter the House of Commons, becoming the youngest member of the House of Commons in British history. With outstanding talent and good friend Pete, who had become prime minister at the time, Wilberforce could be said to be a "darling" in the political arena, but a trip to Europe changed him.

Originally disdainful of the gospel, he met the old pastor John Newton, the one who wrote "Amazing Grace," who told Wilberforce about his early experiences as a slave trader and his mother's death After giving up the story of the slave trade, this conversation set Wilberforce in the direction of the abolition movement.

There was the League Against the Slave Trade, there was the League of Slave Traders, and in the same year that the French Revolution broke out, when Wilberforce and the members of the League Against the Slave Trade first introduced the Abolition Act, everyone took him as A "Don Quixote" was ordered, the motion was easily rejected, and all the MPs walked away, leaving only him and the other members in the empty parliamentary hall.

But Wilberforce refused to give up. He had to put forward motions again and again. In the end, his tenacity was recognized by more and more people. But at this time, the French Revolution broke out and everyone's attention was diverted. Almost let their previous efforts go to waste.

As the Jacobins came to power and Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine, the aristocracy began to endanger themselves, and any form of social change was regarded as a "flood beast". Alberforth became the target of supporters of the slave trade, who accused him of being a "ticking bomb" in British society, and support for the abolition movement began to dwindle.

But Wilberforce did not give up. As the situation in Europe gradually calmed down, he resumed his activities, but no one thought that Napoleon would restore slavery, and there was a "sticker incident" in Paris. On Napoleon's birthday, Someone posted a note on the door of the Tuileries Palace "The silence of the people is a lesson for the king".

  Although the newspapers did not publish the news of the battle in Santo Domingo, a Swedish merchant ship saw the situation at that time, and after they arrived in Europe, they spread the news at the dock, and then the situation in the Baltic Sea became very delicate.

The 14th century was the golden age for the development of the Hanseatic League. It was also the era when the Hundred Years War between Britain and France and the Black Death swept across Europe. At that time, the kings of both Britain and France asked Italian bankers to borrow usury loans, and Perucci Bank lent to King Edward III of England. , in exchange for the monopoly of wool sales, and their owners saw the potential of Amsterdam after the sea dam was built, and set up a semicolon there to provide exchange services for the Hanseatic League. This allowed the Amsterdam branch to be spared even though most of the Peruzzi Bank branches went bankrupt due to the financial crisis when Edward III refused to repay the loan.

  The way Russians do business is different from that of the British. The British borrow money from people, and they also look for people when they collect money. If they don’t pay the money, they use collateral to repay the debt. This is also the model that many banks have in cash.

  The price of goods fluctuates. In autumn, the price of food will fall due to the bumper harvest, and it will rise at a certain time. As long as the debt can be repaid and delayed for a certain period of time, there is no problem.

Since Peter the Great I, Russia has tried to establish a national credit institution. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna established the Noble Bank and the St. Petersburg Port Bank. There are two trends in government credit, supporting high-level nobles and businessmen mainly engaged in foreign trade, and The first is the main one.

The nobles have a large amount of gold and silver, diamonds, pearls and densely populated manors as collateral. The initial loan does not exceed three years, but the nobles are unwilling to repay the debt. The Russian model forced the queen to order an extension of the repayment period, which was 8 years at the beginning. , later became 20 years, so the tsarist government had to replenish funds for the noble banks from the treasury, that is to say, the taxpayers paid.

This model of the state injecting funds into the noble banks led to the squandering of most of the loans. After Catherine II came to power, the noble banks were reorganized into the national loan banks, inheriting the main functions of the former, but still did not solve the problem of noble repayment. money issue. It still exists today, and has also become a creditor of the state from a lending bank that relied on treasury funds to provide funds during the war.

  All that is stored in noble banks is real money, which is needed to pay military expenses. Of course, the lending bank becomes an empty shell. Banknotes have been issued during the period of Catherine II, replacing the copper coins introduced by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and the Bank of St. Petersburg Port Commercial Bank is responsible for issuing the banknotes.

  There will be problems when the Russians play like this, but there is a big eastern country next to it that uses silver as its currency, and some precious metals can be replenished through the Siberian Tea Road. Denmark is even worse, not only because of their expenditures in the anti-French alliance war. In 1802, Copenhagen needed money to rebuild after being bombarded. Since 1736, Denmark has had a banknote called "krona". The value of the currency is guaranteed by silver reserves. The most important thing is that Denmark does not have a central bank. The right to issue the krona is in the hands of many private banks. This has led to a large number of paper currency printing and inflation, so many Danish seafarers have gone abroad to find jobs. done.

   Denmark also has colonies. The closest to Europe is Greenland. This island is located in the Arctic Circle and can see the aurora and is suitable for those who are chasing romance.

  The most abundant resources in the place covered by the perennial ice cap are seals, and its fur and seal oil are both best-sellers. Another place is the islands of St. Thomas and St. John in the Caribbean Sea, and in 1733 St. Croix was purchased from France, and the economic income of these islands comes from cane sugar.

   Originally, Denmark also had some trading posts on the Gold Coast of Africa, most of which were located in Ghana, some of which were acquired by Sweden, and the trading posts in Ceylon were also sold or ceded to the United Kingdom, leaving only two towns in the north of Kolkata.

   That is to say, the Danes have to go to Greenland and the Caribbean if they want to make money. Didn't William Pitt Jr. put 20 million Spanish silver dollars into the West Indies? Politically, the Danes hated the British who bombarded Copenhagen, but Napoleon was very serious about coins, so the Danes had to cooperate with the British.

With the end of the Hundred Years War between Britain and France, Britain started the War of the Roses again. At this time, on the European continent, the good man Philip of the Principality of Burgundy was holding a pheasant banquet. He planned to replace the Pope and persuade other people who attended the banquet to join the crusade. Eastern expedition.

  Because of the two wealthy territories of Burgundy and Flanders, when the church has to rely on indulgences to increase its financial revenue, only Burgundy has the strength to organize a new "holy war".

   The Order of the Knights of the Golden Fleece left over from that banquet is still the most honorable order of knighthood, even though the Duchy of Burgundy is no longer there. With the death of Charles the Bold, his daughter became the target of competition between France and the Holy Roman Empire.

The sphere of influence of the Hanseatic League included the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. They did not participate in the wool textile industry in Italy. Problems occurred in the United Kingdom, where wool was produced, and the Netherlands, where it was produced. The trade center turned to the Rhine and Germany. During the golden age of Germany, handicrafts and commerce were very active. But in 1517, the Reformation broke out, followed by war, and when the Hanseatic League turned around and wanted to continue to develop in England, it had entered the era of Queen Elizabeth I.

The geopolitical environment of commercial cities in central and northern Europe is much worse than that of Italian city-states. Few northern European commercial cities can defend their own security with their own strength like Venice. In addition to commercial interests, the establishment of the Hanseatic League is based on the Lübeck law. In addition to formulating a city charter , and another purpose is to suppress pirates.

The Hanseatic League has always had a very important position in Britain. Edward II also gave them the title of "Libra Merchant" and granted them privileges such as exemption from import duties. During this time, Hanseatic merchants monopolized Britain's foreign trade. However, since the end of the War of the Roses, the United Kingdom has not experienced any more wars. After 100 years of development, the handicraft industry has become more and more perfect. The policy implemented by Edward IV is to restrict foreign merchants, protect domestic merchants, and prohibit any foreign import of woolen textiles, but because of The resistance of the Hanseatic merchants, the ban was lifted.

   When Edward VI arrived, the Privy Council found an excuse to cancel the title of "Libra Merchant". The Hanseatic merchants dredged the Holy Roman Emperor, who protested, so Edward VI's successor "Bloody Mary" had to restore this privilege.

When it came to the innocent Queen Elizabeth I, she was determined to protect the interests of her own merchants. In retaliation, the Hanseatic League persuaded the Holy Roman Emperor to accept only Spanish and Hanseatic merchant ships. During the Anglo-Spanish War, the queen ordered 60 ships that had contacts with Spain. Hanseatic merchant ships "fished" together.

The Hanseatic League has not formed a public army for a long time, and the main method of waging war is to hire militia and navies organized by the cities themselves, and their navies have not participated in the great voyages, so they cannot compete with those who have experienced great voyages. British battleship comparison. They can only go to European countries to beg, but they have repeatedly hit a wall and been ridiculed.

  The Teutonic Knights were the last of the three knights, and Lübeck was the headquarters of the Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic League has always had close ties with the Teutonic Knights, but the Teutonic Knights were not good at naval warfare. In contrast, the Knights of Malta occupied many islands, including the most important contradiction in the Amiens Peace Treaty. The center, the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.

   In 1224, the Teutonic Knights came to the ancient Prussia area from the headquarters of Akka. After that, Prussia also became the residence of the Teutonic Knights, and later the Teutonic Knights were established. Now the kingdom of knights is gone, replaced by the kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed from an electoral state by Frederick I.

Although the   Hanseatic League has disappeared, it has left the international commercial arbitration system.

  The Prussian army has inherited the tradition of Teutonic knights and has always been known for its high quality. However, it lost to France in the anti-French alliance war in 1795 and ceded the land west of the Rhine.

  The living standard of German peasants is about the same as in France, they also have to work long hours on poor soil, and the diet is not as varied, but German peasant houses are definitely better than French, at least no one sleeps in cowsheds. Georgiana has been to the chalets in the Alps where they grazing in the summer, mainly because the higher altitudes are cooler.

   However, in the Alsace region, someone borrowed usury to seize the peasant's land, which led to regional chaos, and robbers ran rampant, but the peasants did not hate them, and the peasants hated the usurers.

   French banks don't have the adventurous spirit of British banks in lending, they like low interest and stable income. Moreover, they prefer the improvement of social status rather than high returns. The king deals with financial problems and sells officials and titles. There is a phenomenon of selling officials in Britain and France, but the British Parliament can provide funds for the king, the Prince of Wales owes debts, and the parliament can replace them. He paid it back, provided he was to marry his distant cousin Caroline, who was said to be quite drunk on the day of the wedding.

  The king of France cannot be obtained from parliament, but he can sell titles, which makes the French get into the habit of putting money into state organs and land rather than industrial enterprises.

  The Great Revolution ended selling officials, but it did not change people's habits. The saying that everyone is equal made the social status of those who were promoted in the public service system higher.

   At the same time, being a civil servant also means stability, which is not as risky as business and freelance work. The Bank of France and the Bank of England are the only joint-stock banks in Europe. They are not affected by the ban on the establishment of joint-stock banks. At the same time, the Bank of France has the right to issue currency. The Bank of England has to face many challenges. For example, the Soho factory uses steam engines to manufacture of tokens worth half a penny.

   It is impossible for a private bank to fight against a big bank with such a joint stock. Although the Republic of Batavia is a puppet regime, it is still a "state". The Dutch can also establish a joint-stock central bank like the Bank of France and the Bank of England.

   It is still a private bank.

  Bank of Peruzzi has an "Italian background" and has a "feud" with England, but that was many years ago.

   There are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. The person who said this was still a child, but from a certain point of view, he did reveal part of the truth.

  Before the guests came, Georgiana went to Matilda's room, not only to get the tea set, but also to find the letter, she wanted to see what Toussaint Louverture wrote.

   However, in the process of rummaging, she found more than one letter, most of which were sent from Madrid, with Sophie's handwriting on it.

   She almost forgot about Sophie and Gordon, who loves to write scripts. She originally wanted to put them back like this. This is what a person with ethics and privacy should do.

   But when she thought that she had become a "noble person" and caused so much trouble for herself, she suddenly didn't want to be so moral.

   Then she remembered the new house that the newlyweds bought for herself in name, and shook her head again, what would other people say about her behind their backs?

"I only read one." She said comfortingly to herself, swiping her fingertips among the many letters, and finally chose one and pulled it out. The letter has been opened, but the paint has not fallen. There is a letter on it The complicated pattern seems to be the coat of arms of the family. What would the civilian postman think if he saw it?

   1826-1833 The ban on joint-stock banks was lifted

   (end of this chapter)