This was the first time that Isabella II had someone analyze national affairs to him like this. No one had ever explained complex political, military, colonial, etc. affairs in such a simple and easy-to-understand manner!
Of course she received a very good education, and received a top palace education, but this education had a very big shortcoming: it was too lofty and not down-to-earth enough.
From ancient times to the present, the education of emperors, generals and ministers has been very divorced from the masses. They always stand above human society when analyzing problems, posing themselves as rulers appointed by God and overlooking the world.
They never care about the joys, sorrows and joys of ants and their pursuit of interests, but it is these ants that drive the movement of everything in the world. This is a contradiction.
The palace education was too gorgeous and lacked contact with the people, and the sycophantic ministers intentionally or unintentionally tried to whitewash the situation, so the queen would be even less able to hear the truth.
Xiao Letian once said something very treasonous to Emperor Tongzhi, "In fact, 90% of the mediocre kings in history were deliberately created by civil servants and military generals!"
"Why do you say that? That's because a real British master is very difficult to deceive and very difficult to serve. Not only will he not get any benefits, but his life will be in danger!"
"Cultivating a nerdy and fatuous king is a matter of great joy to the ministers. A fatuous monarch will definitely bring about a collective carnival among the entire country's bureaucracy!"
"The monarch is easy to deceive and fool, so the people below can do whatever they want. It doesn't matter whether you are forming a party for personal gain or being corrupt, or even conspired by powerful officials to prepare for a yellow robe. It's all very easy!"
"There are so many benefits, so among the officials in the world, who is still willing to teach the emperor real things and useful information?"
"Why not eat minced meat?" This is a ridiculous saying in China that has been passed down for thousands of years. However, in Europe, a queen once said the same thing. When someone reported that the people could not afford even the dirtiest black bread, the queen said why they didn't eat it. Where’s the little cream cake?”
"Are the monarchs who say such things really all idiots with negative IQs? In fact, that's not necessarily the case. Many of them don't really have brain problems, but they really don't know what the people are like!"
"The ministers created a beautiful dream for them, allowing them to have fun and enjoy wealth...or it can be said..."
"In other words, these monarchs are just fat pigs raised by the bureaucracy. On the surface, everyone listens to you and is afraid of you. But once the country is eaten away by moths, when the revolution occurs, these fat pigs will The pig is about to be pushed out and take the blame!"
"Isn't it a bit absurd? It is the entire bureaucracy that empties an empire. The wealth they plunder is a hundred times that of the royal family. But when there is a real revolution, it is the king and queen who take the blame and beheaded!"
Xiao Letian said that this theory is common to both East and West. Only one tenth of the wise monarchs can see through this scam and become the master of England!
Obviously Isabella II was not one of the tenth. She was too young when she came to the throne, and her power was controlled by powerful ministers, and those people were obviously unwilling to cultivate a smart person. A king who understands the truth of the world.
Therefore, Isabella II did not understand how to govern a country at all. She had not even heard of the digital analysis Xiang Ying said.
In Xiang Ying's detailed explanation, a vivid Philippines appeared in front of the queen. She had never been to the Philippines, and all her impressions of that colony came from blurry tourist photos and crappy Distorted etchings created by landscape painters.
Today, the real presentation of the Philippines gave the queen a sense of enlightenment. She suddenly understood many truths that had been obscured by window paper before.
The truth is extremely cruel. It turns out that the colony that I govern is in such a situation. Taking a company as an example, this is an insolvent enterprise that is about to go bankrupt.
In this era, European rule over the colonies was still very barbaric, backward and cruel. Except for the British who were interested in making a little limited investment in the colonies, the rest of Europe basically focused on plundering the colonies.
In particular, early colonists such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands used human trafficking and resource plunder as their main economic means to make a fortune.
Since the Spaniards occupied the Philippines, they have focused on resources that can be directly converted into wealth, such as gold and silver, mineral deposits, spices, rubber, gems...especially non-renewable resources.
They robbed these resources and transported them to Europe for sale. At the same time, they taxed all sailing trade ships and the people of the colonies.
This primitive method of governance was still very effective at the beginning, but as time went by and three hundred years passed, no matter how fertile the colony was, it could not withstand such plunder.
The mines in the Philippines are exhausted, and the gold and silver production is declining year by year!
Sino-Ocean's business taxes are also reduced, because a better market that can replace them, the Chinese, has emerged!
Revenues from non-renewable resources and trader taxes have all dropped sharply. They used to account for 51% of the entire colonial government's revenue but now it has dropped sharply to 37%.
What's even worse is that the administrative expenditures of the colonial government are increasing, the institutions are becoming more and more bloated, and there are too many people who are freeloaders. The powerful ministers in Madrid go to the colonies almost every year to seduce the dandy children of the family.
As the economy gets worse, social security will get worse and worse. This is inevitable!
And if public security deteriorates, the number of police and troops must be increased, and this is a huge expense!
This is how the financial crisis came about. Spending money was like water, but there were fewer and fewer ways to make money. In the end, the colonial Spanish regular army could not even afford to replace a breech-loading rifle.
Xiang Ying sighed and took a sip of red wine. "Dear Queen, do you understand the seriousness of the problem now? I tell you a real Philippines, just to let you know that what we are saying is not a lie to you, but a real thing." thing!"
"The island you rule is really so poor right now, and its financial crisis is on the verge of bankruptcy!"
Just when the Queen was shocked, the female attendant Susan asked, "What you said may be true, but under three hundred years of rule, the population of the Philippines has increased countless times!"
"How much has private tax increased? What about renewable resources? Rubber fields, spice farms, grain industries...can't these make up for the shortfall?"
"Haha, Mr. Xiang, your eloquence is really good, but the wise queen is not so easy to deceive!"
Hahaha... Xiang Ying laughed heartily, "Yes, I'm going to talk about this most important issue soon!"
