New Shun 1730

Fazacle said Defoe was just a novelist.

Perhaps he really didn't understand trade and economics.

But what Defoe saw was that under the Oriental trade, traditional woolen textile industrial areas such as London and Norwich declined rapidly, a large number of textile workshops went bankrupt, and a large number of workers lost their jobs.

After the Oriental cotton cloth prohibition decree came into effect, the textile industry in these areas did regain its vitality, and a large number of workers found jobs again.

Fazacle was a senior employee of the East India Company and a middle and senior shareholder with more than 500 pounds. He certainly looked at the domestic policies of the United Kingdom from the perspective of the company.

Defoe was scolded because of the cotton cloth of India and Dashun.

Swift was scolded by him because of Dashun's tea - the company hoped to reduce the tea tariff to obtain higher profits, but the parliament rejected it and rejected the East India Company's proposal. In his editorial, Swift satirized the East India Company bitterly, causing a "bad" impact.

And this proposal was the promise made by the British East India Company to Liu Yu when the Swedish Oriental Company was reorganized in order to obtain the price of Liu Yu giving up cooperation with Sweden.

But this promise was not fulfilled.

Now, the consequences have emerged.

Fazakley is not stupid, and the British envoy is not stupid either. With the closure of the trading house, the seizure of merchant ships, and the establishment of the Western Trade Company by Dashun, they certainly know that this is Dashun engaging in unfair competition.

The question is, why did Dashun cooperate with the Netherlands?

Instead of cooperating with the British East India Company?

After being slapped, the East India Company first reflected on why it was beaten.

Since the opium problem is obviously a cover-why not care about it earlier, not care about it later, and care about it when the Western Trade Company is established in the country?

Then the conclusion is that domestic policies are not conducive to trade, so that the British East India Company did not create the greatest value for China's exports, so China chose to cooperate with the Netherlands instead of Britain.

Why did the British East India Company not create the greatest value for China's exports?

Because of the bizarre tariff protection in Britain and the even more bizarre high tariff system for tea.

Why does Britain have tariff protection for cotton cloth?

Because the British industrial capitalists were "shameless", they had to develop industry for their own interests and prevented the British people from wearing cheaper and better-looking Indian and Chinese cotton cloth.

So, the logic is this:

If Britain liberalized tariffs, then relying on the British fleet, control over Atlantic trade, and North American colonies, the East India Company could import 20 times the cotton cloth, 30 times or even 100 times the tea from China.

With such a large trade volume, relying on the British maritime power, the East India Company of the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark was destroyed, and the Eastern trade goods were completely monopolized.

Dashun still dared to easily cut off trade with Britain?

Would it force Dashun to take the initiative to open up trade in Europe?

This is not the fault of those domestic industrial capitals, whose fault is it?

Of course, there are two theoretical solutions to this kind of thing.

First, change the domestic policies of Britain, sign the Sino-British Treaty of Friendship and Commerce, open tariffs, buy Dashun's goods in large quantities, and increase Sino-British friendship. The friendship between China and France will not last long, because France has its own industry, and many conflicts with Dashun, including porcelain and silk.

Second, the fleet blocked Dagukou, captured the Forbidden City, pressed the head of the emperor of the Celestial Empire, and forced Dashun to cut off trade with Sweden, France, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Prussia, and Austria, and only trade with Britain. If they disagree, they will be slapped until they agree.

However, theory and reality are always too far apart.

So, there are two theoretical solutions, but in reality there is only one solution.

Because...more than half of the profits of the East India Company now come from tea, porcelain, silk, and rhubarb.

In the case that Dashun uses the opium issue to engage in "unfair" competition, don't think about persuading Dashun with reason, and don't expect to escape by protesting that the opium smuggling ship has no legal relationship with the East India Company - Fazakle is very clear about this - so the only remedy is to give Dashun enough promises to let Dashun recognize the potential of British trade and not expel them.

The current East India Company is neither the East India Company that collected land taxes after taking India, nor the East India Company when the Industrial Revolution broke out in Britain and the local textile industry in India collapsed after the Bengal famine.

It is a standard comprador company whose profits are closely related to China.

This also means that the trade of the British East India Company is now extremely risky.

Take a merchant ship of the East India Company that came to China last year.

This merchant ship came to China with 3,533 long pieces of British velvet, and the cost price, that is, the purchase price in the UK, was 62,000 pounds. But after selling it in China, the silver earned was 167,000 taels of silver.

Including the exchange currency of pounds and Kuping silver, the profit margin is a loss of 11%.

There are also 26,600 short pieces of long Earl wool, with a cost price of 61,000 pounds. After the sale, the silver earned was 180,000 taels, excluding freight, and the loss was only 3%.

The only place where Dashun needed a lot of woolen cloth and would not lose money was the navy, but the navy bought all its woolen cloth from France.

Originally, the few things that made money were lead and pepper obtained from Bengkulu and India. However, the problem is that with the Dashun to Nanyang, they controlled the lead, tin, and pepper themselves. Now these things are no longer profitable.

Losing money on woolen goods is no longer a matter of one or two days.

This involves the relationship between the East India Company and British textile merchants, parliamentary discussions, the sales obligations that the East India Company has to fulfill, the fact that it cannot get cash so quickly and has to use triangular accounts to pay for goods, etc. , don’t mention this.

Let’s just talk about a company that makes no money or even loses money by selling domestic products but only makes money by buying foreign products. What will happen if it is cut off from purchasing channels?

The opium trade was conducted secretly just to get cash. France also has American ginseng that can be exchanged for goods. What else can Britain offer besides opium?

Dashun is a gold-eating beast that only eats gold, silver, copper and some strange goods.

This was an important factor why Liu Yu used ginseng to instigate Britain and France to go to war in North America so smoothly, and it was also the reason why the British East India Company quietly engaged in opium smuggling.

The East India Company's turnover profits urgently needed Chinese goods to be shipped back to make a profit.

Now the competition has become very fierce. Not long ago, Fazakle received the news that even Prussia, a weak chicken at sea, was authorized by Frederick II to form the "Emden Prussia Royal Family Jiangsu China Asia Company".

Under this situation, there are still various domestic constraints, and the tariffs on cotton cloth and tea have not yet been lifted. The company's capital turnover has been quite difficult.

What will happen once Dashun cracks down on trade?

And isn’t the root cause of all this still because the British East India Company cannot bring enough exports to Dashun?

If the East India Company had no grievances against the British government, it was in trouble.

Of course, the East India Company did not know the real reason why Liu Yu was anti-British, but it roughly guessed an important reason why Liu Yu chose to cooperate with the Netherlands instead of the British.

The British industrial capitalists in the textile industry and the local aristocratic agricultural landowners who raised sheep in enclosures were powerful enough to issue cotton laws and force the East India Company to buy some British woolen goods-compared to being forced by their own The Netherlands, whose commercial and financial capital destroyed its industrial base, is different.

Law is the ruling tool of the ruling class.

The East India Company's commercial capital was no match for Britain's domestic industrial capital and land capital. The commercial capital and financial capital of the Netherlands can defeat the industrial capital of the Netherlands.

This is the difference in fate between the two, and it is also one of the reasons why one of them can cooperate with Dashun and the other is suppressed by Dashun...

In Fazaklai's view, if Britain relaxed tariffs, the British East India Company would be able to destroy the British wool textile industry and completely destroy the fledgling cotton textile industry in three years at most.

Once it is destroyed, the company's assets can be doubled several times just by the profits from buying Dashun and Indian cotton cloth.

Moreover, it will also greatly enhance the value on Dashun's side, making Dashun dare not easily attack the British East India Company for fear of affecting its own exports.

If so, this is completely a negotiable bargaining chip - using the British fleet power to control the Atlantic artery and attack various countries' trade with China, thus making the British East India Company the one with the largest trade volume with China.

After ensuring control of the Eastern trade, the British East India Company had a bargaining chip with Dashun: monopolizing the market and threatening to close the market was also a bargaining chip. Dashun could even be allowed to acquiesce in the East India Company's smuggling of opium.

If you don't buy my opium, I won't buy your silk and cotton. Although it is impossible to do it, at least it can be negotiated.

Now, what to talk about?

We don’t even have any chips, so what’s there to talk about?

Your British East India Company doesn't buy tea silk porcelain cotton, but it buys it from Dutch, French, French and Portuguese. Is your family missing? The tea you are buying now is not even as good as Denmark. What qualifications do you have to ask for conditions?

Of course, Fazaklei was going to Macau immediately to ask for an audience with Liu Yu. The British minister may also go to Yangzhou and request to see the emperor, but it is difficult to say whether the emperor will agree. After all, it is easier to see Liu Yu.

He was not prepared to make any excuses about the procedural and theoretical innocence of the British East India Company. He knew that this would only anger Dashun.

He was prepared to beg for mercy and admit his mistake. He could accept being fined a sum of money, he could ensure strict control of the opium trade in the future, and he could write a letter of guarantee.

But the question is, is this enough to make Dashun change his mind?

Do you want to make some promises: please don't suppress the British East India Company first, and wait and see the consequences. Is there a way for the company to lobby the parliamentarians to relax the tea tax, cotton tax, and porcelain tax?

This is exactly why Fazakley criticized a dead man and an Irish Tory.

He hoped that the British Minister could look at this matter squarely and seriously, seize the root cause of this matter, and solve it domestically.

Rather than trying to simply reason.

A world where justice triumphs over power does not exist now.

Moreover, the United Kingdom currently does not have the power to formulate axioms and say that opium is legal. It is even difficult to conquer Spanish America. How can the "axioms" cover East Asia?

Therefore, he solemnly said to the minister: "Mr. Minister, please believe me. If this matter is to be truly resolved, it cannot be solved in Macau or the Forbidden City, but only in the Palace of Westminster. In any case, please tell China The situation was reported back to London in detail and meticulously, so that they could wake up and stop having such childish and scary thoughts as Jenkins’ ears.”