The British Revolution, which took place from 1640 to 1648, was characterized by history textbooks in some countries as a bourgeois revolution aimed at opposing the autocracy of the monarchy.
However, after making money, the bourgeoisie of later generations will definitely not want to live in a country like the Republic of England, which is said to be a bourgeois dictatorship, because there is no "life" in this country!
In this country, there is no smoking, no drinking, no theater, no dancing, no playing games, no dressing up, no eating and drinking, no sleeping in, and no lavish spending. As for engaging in mistresses and mistresses, it is almost a capital crime! As for same-sex love, haha, do you want to know what the wrath of Christ is?
In today's Britain, you can only work hard, work hard, work hard. It is best to spend eight hours a day resting, eating, drinking, giving birth to little Puritans and praying to God, and the rest of the time is spent working! Even Sunday religious ceremonies must be saved as much as possible...
The "996" that was sprayed as scum by later generations, in the eyes of the British workaholic Puritans, was simply lazy to the point of moral corruption!
What's even more frightening is that after working hard and earning money, you are not allowed to spend it lavishly. Just three meals a day and simple meals are enough. All the money saved is invested in reproduction, not to mention consumption driving the economy... If consumption is insufficient, then go for infrastructure construction and start a war!
Which capitalist in future generations will yearn for such a life? It would be a good place to invest in the development of manufacturing industry.
As for opposing the autocracy of royal power... Although England no longer has royal power, it is definitely one of the most autocratic countries in the world!
Even Zhu Cizhong, an Eastern autocratic monarch, was not as autocratic as he was, and could not do what he did in England.
And this dictator, who has absolute authority in England and has reached the point where he can despise the royal power (thinking that the royal power is too small), now feels that the Spanish Kingdom’s behavior of occupying the great territory in America must not be God’s intention... so good It was simply a blasphemy against God that the land was occupied by the Spaniards who could not build but only waste. As the most devout believers in God, how could the Puritans in England tolerate such betrayal of God to continue?
However, England's strength is still inferior to Spain, which has a world empire - although Spain is in depression and cannot be compared with the rich and developed England, Philip IV also owns the Southern Netherlands (Belgium, Luxembourg area) and the territories in northern Italy centered on Milan. Those territories are quite wealthy, with very developed industry and commerce, and there is also a developed financial industry that can provide huge usury loans to the King of Spain to support Spain's huge military spending.
Moreover, the Spanish world empire was extremely large, with vast territories, a large population, and gold and silver income in the Americas.
In addition, the Holy Roman Empire, which is also ruled by the Habsburg dynasty, can also continuously provide Spain with German mercenaries.
In other words, the credit supported by gold and silver from the Americas can finance Spain's huge military expenditures, and Spain, with the borrowed money, can purchase weapons and equipment produced in Milan, the Southern Netherlands and other German industrial and commercial cities, and even in the Netherlands. Weapons and equipment, and then hire some German mercenaries to form an army that can fight for the Kingdom of Spain.
Whether the population of Spain is large or small, and whether industry and commerce are developed, are not particularly important factors for the world hegemony of King Philip IV of Spain.
Facing the huge Spanish world empire, it could also obtain war resources from Italy, Germany and the Southern Netherlands. Although the small but powerful England, France and the Netherlands can defeat Spain again and again, they are unable to give Spain a real fatal blow - the Spanish army and navy are not weak, and England, France and the Netherlands are not weak. No matter how powerful the Dutch army was, it was unable to reach Madrid and oust Philip IV from the throne.
Therefore, whoever goes to war with Spain cannot expect a quick victory, but can only make long-term plans!
And a long-term protracted war is more beneficial to the Spanish world empire, which is very large.
With the strength of Britain and France, it is unrealistic to bring down the currently powerful Spain in a protracted war, unless they can find a big country of similar size to the Spanish world empire to act as an ally... ...
Moreover, this big country must be rich enough to covet the "property" of the Spanish world empire.
Looking around the world, there are not many countries that meet this condition!
As a close associate of Cromwell and the successor of Milton, the diplomat of the British Protestant regime, Thomas Marvel realized very early that China, which had moved towards the ocean, would be able to help England defeat Spain and become the hegemon of the Western world. Moreover, China It is also England’s only choice!
Although the Ottoman Empire and India were large enough, they could not reach Spain's American colonies, so it was difficult to gain benefits from the war that shattered the Spanish world empire.
Among them, the Mughals in India and the Spaniards have never had any troubles, and they have a lot of troubles of their own to deal with.
Although the Ottoman Empire has great conflicts with Spain, once they take action, it is likely to cause the entire European continent to worry about the eastward expansion of Tianfang Religion. At that time, the Habsburg Dynasty can stand up and play the role of defender of Christ... ..
When the war between England and Spain was about to break out, Thomas Marvel submitted the idea of uniting with the Ming Empire in the East to tear apart the Spanish world empire to Cromwell, and obtained the garrison from this master of a country. The position of Ming Ambassador.
Now the ambassador of the Republic of England to the Ming Empire is standing on the Sanshan Gate to the west of the inner city of Nanjing, overlooking the busy Qinhuai River in the outer city of Nanjing.
In this era, the Qinhuai River in Nanjing was not a river, but a small water system with many forked tributaries, flowing from the east and west of Nanjing to the west of Nanjing, and finally into the Yangtze River. Among them, the section located in the inner city of Nanjing is quite decadent and extravagant, which is very inconsistent with the Puritan worldview, so Thomas Marvel would never even look at it.
What he is observing now is the area along the Qinhuai River between Sanshan Gate (Inner City Gate) and Jiangdong Gate - this is the handicraft industry area of Nanjing, with at least two hundred "machine rooms", that is, textile factories. A considerable part of the Chinese silk marketed in Europe is produced here.
Nanjing's "Qinhuai Computer Room" has been in a period of rapid growth in the past ten years. The scale of machine rooms continues to expand, and large machine rooms with hundreds or even thousands of looms continue to appear. At the same time as the computer room, the printing and dyeing workshop and the silk reeling workshop were also expanded.
The former are mostly located between the south moat of the inner city of Nanjing (actually also part of the Qinhuai River system) and the large and small elephant gates of the outer city.
The latter are all located in the eastern part of Nanjing's outer city, which is the area where northern refugees and military dependents live - there were large areas of farmland more than ten years ago, and the land belonged to Lingwei. Later, Emperor Zhu divided the land into To the soldiers and volunteers who followed him.
In order to increase their income, these military dependents and volunteers planted mulberry trees and raised silkworms on the assigned homesteads. In the beginning, the silkworms they raised were not very competitive, and many people lost money raising them. In order to win people's hearts, Zhu Cixiang had no choice but to find a way for them. He hired experienced silkworm farmers from all over the south of the Yangtze River at high prices to teach them their skills. He also used his own money to support retired military officers in setting up silk reeling workshops in the east city of Nanjing.
However, most of these silk reeling workshops established with the support of Emperor Zhu were in trouble and wasted a lot of Emperor Zhu's real money. Until five years ago, a shop owner who retired from the army and engaged in the silk reeling industry took advantage of the industry's disapproval and adopted the "killing method" by boiling the collected live pupae directly in hot water... Thus getting complete silk! This method was quickly imitated by a group of Beiren mill owners who were not afraid of killing. Therefore, in a short period of time, the silk reeling mills in East City of Nanjing rose rapidly and dominated the southeast. It also promoted the development of Nanjing's machine mills and printing and dyeing mills. .
The outer city of Nanjing that now appears in front of Thomas Marvel's eyes seems to be a hot capital city. The busy and prosperous city makes Marvel feel a little friendly, and at the same time he also senses a little danger!
There is nothing here like the decadence and malaise that ancient Eastern countries should have! Although it cannot be compared with the Puritan Britain, it can't stand the large number of people and the vast land!
