Calcutta, the Governor's Palace of the English Merchants East India United Trading Company.
This majestic and luxurious building, repaired with white granite stone and resembling a European palace, is the newly completed Governor's Palace of India, or to be more precise, the Governor's Palace of the English merchant East India United Trading Company.
It is a bit unbelievable to say that India, the crown jewel of the British Empire, was not conquered by the British court sending troops to conquer the country, but by the British East India Company, which specialized in trafficking, smuggling, robbery, murder, and trafficking. Population, separatism, hegemony, and legal trade at the same time. The so-called "franchised trading company" was acquired step by step through more than a hundred years of operation and expansion in India.
We have to admit that this semi-feudal and semi-capitalist chartered trading company was of great help to the Westerners' colonial cause.
On the one hand, these chartered trading companies were capitalist joint-stock companies that could raise sufficient start-up capital through the issuance of stocks. But at the same time, they were vassals of Western monarchs, with the power to organize armies and occupy territories and rule them. Moreover, their army, occupation and rule are all aimed at profit... In order to make profit, they can do anything and do all kinds of evil. They can have no bottom line and their methods are more flexible than other feudal lords.
Therefore, they can control costs very well and achieve profitability quickly during the process of colonial expansion... Only in this way can colonial expansion become a good and sustainable business.
The English merchant East India United Trading Company is the pinnacle form of this semi-feudal and semi-capitalist joint-stock company!
This company actually conquered a large and wealthy colony like India for the British Empire. It must be said that this is a semi-feudal and semi-capitalist miracle!
Although the British court helped a little in the whole process, its role was not decisive - before the invention of the telegraph, it took several months to send a letter from Calcutta to Calcutta. Half a year!
How can London help in this situation?
Of course, London did not do anything. While the East India Company was engaged in India, the British government and parliament in London were engaged in the East India Company - they had to turn the East India Company of the shareholders into the British East India Company. Then turn the British East India Company into the British Governor-General of India.
The first goal, the British court in London, has basically been achieved. The second goal is also close to being achieved.
According to the Charter Act of 1813, the sovereignty of the Indian territory occupied by the East India Company belonged to the British monarch. Except for the yam and tea trade and the trade between India and China, the company's monopoly on Indian trade was deprived and the company was required to transfer its trade to India. Distinguished from regional accounts.
In addition, the governor of the East India Company was not appointed by the company's board of directors, but was appointed by a committee including the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for India, and four privy councilors appointed by the king.
The current Governor of the East India Company, William Peter Amherst, was appointed by this committee, so his service and loyalty are not to the shareholders of the company, but to the King of England.
His most important mission in India, in addition to safeguarding the interests of the British Empire in India, is to do everything possible to provide various logistical support for the British Royal Navy's Indian Fleet.
Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the focus of the British Royal Navy's mission has shifted from Europe to the Indian Ocean, and the Royal Navy's Indian Fleet has also become a maritime force that surpasses the local fleet.
The reason why the British Empire wanted to elevate the Indian fleet to a more important position than the local fleet was, of course, to curb the Ming Dynasty's expansion into the Indian Ocean... This was a national policy that the British Empire had implemented since the mid-18th century. .
At that time, battleships were transitioning from the sail era to the motor sail era. The British Empire's absolute advantage in the sail era (King Zhuge Wuzhong knew nothing about sail battleships) became its relative advantage in the sail era. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty broke through the Strait of Malacca and entered the Indian Ocean. possible. The Royal Navy's Indian Fleet was formed during that period!
Because this fleet was established in the name of "defending India", its daily expenses and part of the shipbuilding funds, as well as the costs of building military ports, forts, fortresses, barracks, shipyards and other naval arsenals across India, are It was plundered from the people of India with the help of the East India Company.
As the scale of the Indian Grand Fleet expands, the maintenance costs and construction of auxiliary facilities are also increasing. Faced with the increasingly large bills, the current Governor-General of India, Baron William Peter Amherst, I also feel a lot of pressure for the Indian people under my rule!
"Count, am I reading this correctly? The East India Fleet's expenditures on India will double in the next five years? Isn't this too much?"
In the office of the Governor of the East India Company, Baron Amherst, who has curly silver hair, is very handsome, and behaves very gentlemanly, is holding a budget growth plan for the Indian Grand Fleet with an embarrassed look on his face. Looking at a silver-haired one-armed old man talking.
This one-armed old man was wearing a blue Royal Navy uniform. He looked very thin and his eyes were very sharp. You could tell at a glance that he had seen strong winds and waves. He is the commander of the Royal Navy's Indian Fleet, Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson.
This legendary naval admiral from the Napoleonic War era is now old, already 68 years old, and his health is not very good. Therefore, although the British Admiralty appointed him as the Commander of the Indian Grand Fleet, it also explicitly ordered him to stay in Calcutta. Leading the Indian Grand Fleet in the comfortable Fleet Headquarters - this old man is too precious to the Royal Navy. His illustrious reputation is his combat prowess, and he cannot be allowed to get sick or even die due to the hard life at sea.
However, this naval commander who rarely goes to sea is the biggest headache for the Governor of the East India Company, Baron Amherst, because this old gentleman always feels that the Indian Grand Fleet is insufficiently armed, insufficiently funded, insufficiently equipped with bases, fortresses and forts. ...And a large part of these shortcomings had to be made up by the East India Company to find ways to raise money.
"Is that much? Baron, these are all necessary, and even a little insufficient!" Earl Nelson frowned and said, "I just got the news that the Ming Empire is launching a 'Thousand Ships Plan', of which the Hongwu Emperor class alone is Prepare to build more than three hundred ships... Once these Hongwu Emperor-class ships are completed, the Indian Ocean will become a battlefield for the Ming Dynasty and the British to compete for world hegemony. If the Indian people cannot spend enough money to prove their resistance to the Ming Dynasty Determination, then why did our British Royal Navy sacrifice themselves to protect them? I think those Indian princes who only know how to exact taxes and live the most shameless and extravagant lives should understand what the Ming Dynasty’s conquest means, right? The Ming Dynasty is not like Our British are so benevolent... They will eliminate the caste system, divide the land belonging to princes and dignitaries equally to the peasants, and will tax every wealthy businessman, prince, and official. When the time comes, they will have to pay taxes like common people. Got it!"
Baron Amherst frowned: "This is really terrible..."
"Yes!" Earl Nelson said, "So as long as you make this clear to the princes, bureaucrats, and wealthy businessmen in India, they will definitely be willing to cooperate with you to collect taxes and collect more taxes... And the Ming Dynasty implemented These policies are not a secret, and I believe most local dignitaries in India are very aware of them."
Baron Amherst had previously served as the ambassador to the Ming Empire. Of course he knew that everything Count Nelson said was well-founded! But Nelson wanted too much! And because Nelson proposed it, there is a high probability that London will fully support it, so the pressure on the East India Company is really great!
Just when Baron Amherst wanted Mr. Nelson to discuss it further, one of his secretaries suddenly knocked on the door and came in, handing over a note. Baron Amherst took the note and looked at it with a surprised look on his face. Said: "What? Someone wants our British Empire to pay compensation?"
