Grenville continued to confirm and discuss the details of the naval treaty negotiations with cabinet and naval personnel.
I was busy at the official residence until about nine o'clock in the evening, when I had to dissolve the meeting.
Exhausted, Grenville ate something and went straight to bed.
Early the next morning, after Grenville woke up, he dragged his still tired body to have breakfast.
After breakfast, he came to the office area again. Grenville sat in a chair quite decadently and picked up today's newspaper.
Then a huge headline pierced Grenville’s eyes.
"Malthus' theory was recognized by Ming scholars."
Grenville suddenly felt like his head was as big as a bucket.
Grenville knew Malthus and probably knew Malthus's theory.
Generally speaking, the production and growth rate of the means of living must be lower than the growth rate of the population.
Therefore, in a relatively certain area, a large-scale social disaster will occur every once in a while.
Famine or war can consume the excess population and stabilize society again.
But Grenville had not taken these things to heart before.
Stability after war and famine?
Europa has never been stable.
Over in China, there may be periodic dynasty-changing wars that occur every two to three hundred years.
Continuous wars are happening all the time in Europa.
So if there is a population curve, there should be a big decline in China every two to three hundred years.
Europa's population curve may be flattening overall.
This is not because the situation in Europa is stable, but because Europa has never been stable at all.
Population is always under "dynamic equilibrium".
Just looking at the data, it seems to be stable.
In addition, before the world war, the European and Western countries and the Ming Dynasty were in a state of expansion.
Mainly in Yinzhou and Mozhou, there is a large amount of land waiting to be developed.
The living space is constantly growing.
Therefore, many Thais, including Grenville, believe that Malthus' theory is meaningless.
At least it didn't make sense at the time.
Grenville did not expect that it would now be recognized by Ming scholars.
This is outrageous.
Grenville patiently read the content of the article.
It was discovered that a Ming scholar who came to London with Niu Jian's mission encountered this Malthus when he visited Ming craftsmen and scholars living in London.
The two sides held some academic discussions.
Scholars of the Ming Dynasty expressed their recognition of Malthusian theory.
The article said that on this basis, Ming scholars expressed concerns about the future situation of the world.
At present, all land in the world has been explored and allocated.
All countries have no way to expand externally, and their territories, that is, their living spaces, have been determined.
The whole world has also entered a state of peaceful development on an unprecedented scale.
After this peaceful development continues for enough time, the world may well end up in the situation predicted by Malthus.
Large-scale wars may break out again due to overpopulation and relative scarcity of resources.
Relatively speaking, the situation in Thailand and the West is worse than that in the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty currently owns two-thirds of the world's land, including most of the land most suitable for farming.
The total population of the Western countries is not much different from that of the Ming Dynasty, but they only own one-third of the land. Except for Lucia, there is no land that is particularly suitable for farming.
Therefore, European and Western countries may encounter those situations earlier than the Ming Dynasty.
Finally, scholars participating in this discussion agreed that countries around the world should consciously control population growth to avoid or delay the arrival of this situation.
Grenville's head got bigger after reading it.
Because Grenville suddenly felt that the situations Malthus mentioned might really happen.
The most critical reason is that the world has been divided up.
Moreover, the Taixi people, who had a similar number, received half less land than the Ming people.
Grenville actually knew that the life of ordinary immigrant workers in the New World was actually better than that of workers in Europe.
The reason is actually very simple, because the New World has fewer people and more resources.
So compared to the New World, Europa itself is actually a bit crowded now.
The key is that after the end of the world war, the population of Europe as a whole also grew with a vengeance.
Although the magnitude is not as large as that of the Ming Dynasty that actually won, it is still quite impressive.
If this situation continues, the situation predicted by Malthus may appear in his own generation.
Grenville's expression was extremely sad.
"This prime minister is really too difficult to serve. He will definitely not be able to serve as an official prime minister. He will not participate in the next election."
"As long as the things discussed by these so-called scholars don't break out during my term..."
"The top priority now is to settle the matter of Her Royal Highness Charlotte, and then the naval treaty."
"I hope these scholars... will not make the matter a big deal, and I hope the talented people in the cabinet will not be influenced by this kind of newspaper..."
As Grenville was saying this, noisy voices sounded outside the office door.
Then the cabinet civil servants and several ministers came in with a man in their arms.
Grenville frowned and looked at his cabinet secretary and asked loudly:
"What happened? Who is this?"
The cabinet secretary said helplessly:
"This is Mr. Malthus. He is going to submit a petition from London scholars to the Prime Minister. He hopes that the Prime Minister can assume the responsibility of controlling the unlimited growth of the British population and maintaining the long-term peace and stability of the British future..."
Grenville leaned back on his chair with a look of despair.
…………
After French Crown Prince Charles returned to Paris, he immediately convened a meeting with the main members of his cabinet.
Charles's secretary explained to the ministers what had been decided on this occasion in London.
Then Ciel directly explained his thoughts on the treaty:
“With the current situation in France, we don’t need more and larger fleets to compete with targets like Ming Dynasty.
"The naval shipbuilding competition among European countries is actually meaningless.
“So, our goal in negotiating a naval treaty should be this.
"On the premise of maintaining a balanced fleet size among various countries, the total tonnage and number of naval ships should be reduced as much as possible.
“The total tonnage of a capital ship should not exceed 160,000 tons, and the full-load displacement of a single ship should not exceed 40,000 tons.
“The tonnage of main cruisers, including armored cruisers and aircraft carriers, should not exceed 16,000 tons.
“The tonnage of a secondary cruiser, that is, a traditional escort artillery cruiser, should not exceed six thousand tons.
“The tonnage of a single destroyer should not exceed two thousand tons.
"Do you have any ideas or questions about this goal? If so, bring them up for discussion immediately..."
Charles is currently close to a dictatorial monarch in France. Perhaps there has not been such a strong monarch in France since Louis XIV.
Now, his cabinet ministers have become accustomed to this type of meeting in the past two years.
It was said to be a discussion meeting, but in fact there was little room for open discussion. Ciel explained his own ideas and asked the ministers to provide additional opinions.
After Charles finished speaking this time, the ministers immediately began to think and analyze.
Talleyrand, who was likely to be in charge of the negotiations, was the first to speak:
"Your Highness, should we use this naval treaty to try to promote cooperation between the Thai and Spanish countries during negotiations?
"For example, the direction of cooperation in shipbuilding technology and aviation technology, as well as economic and trade exchanges..."
Charles immediately understood Talleyrand's thoughts, and then waved his hands with a complicated mood and said:
"Don't make unnecessary attempts, and I don't know if Ming is aware of this tendency. It is impossible to achieve real cooperation in the relationship between our European countries.
“If we were the only ones in the world with Europa, this kind of cooperation might be promoted and expanded slowly from the edge to the key, and then from shallow to deep.
“But in the environment where Ming Dynasty controls the situation in Shijie, all attempts in this regard will definitely be thankless.
“So when negotiating a naval treaty, only consider the naval treaty itself and don’t bother with other unnecessary things.
"Even, naval treaties can impose restrictions that prohibit countries from providing technology or building warships to other countries to avoid unnecessary trouble..."
Talleyrand looked a little gloomy after hearing this. He hesitated several times and finally said nothing.
Promoting the union of Europa and forming the Europa Union has been Talleyrand's long-cherished wish.
Talleyrand took Charles to participate in the negotiation of the armistice agreement, and patiently and carefully taught Charles something.
Explained the need for Europa Union to Ciel.
Only if Europa can truly unite can it have a chance to confront Ming in the world.
Although Ciel was still too naive and immature at the time, he understood and agreed with his own ideas.
Now that the crown prince has matured and taken control of France, he has lost interest in the Europa League.
He thought that was impossible...
Talleyrand himself now feels that the situation is worse than it was seven years ago.
Europa union is even less likely.
More importantly, even if Europa is united now, it is still very weak relative to the Ming Dynasty.
Seven years ago, Talleyrand felt that the gap in technology and equipment between Europa and Ming Dynasty was very small.
It should become smaller in the future.
Unexpectedly, at the end of the war, Ming Dynasty began a new round of technological innovation.
In these short seven years, Europa was once again left behind by the Ming Dynasty.
Even if we try our best to catch up, we still fall behind more and more.
As a result, the secondary warships that have become outdated in the Ming Navy can become the upgrade targets of various countries in Europe and the West.
Talleyrand, a slippery politician, was now beginning to feel hesitant.
…………
Spain, Lucia, Prussia, Austria and other European and Western countries have also begun discussions on related issues.
Prussia's goal has long been clear, to obtain enough power to threaten traditional naval powers such as Britain and France, so that they dare not rashly interfere with Prussia's sea routes.
On the current continent of Western Europe, Prussia may be the most stable country and the most rapidly developing country.
It was relatively unaffected by the World War. When the World War ceased, Prussia also ended all wars.
Under the care of Zhu Jingyuan, he obtained a quite good Mozhou colony and discovered oil resources.
Prussia is very satisfied with the current international situation and does not want to destroy the current status.
The only goal is to dismember Austria and completely unify Germany.
Achieving this goal basically does not require the involvement of the navy.
After the end of the World War, Spain also fought a war of suppressing bandits and counterinsurgency in its remaining Mexican colonies for many years.
The current state is no better than that of the United Kingdom and France, so the goals are very similar to those of the United Kingdom.
It is also required that the navy should remain in a state not weaker than that of other Thai and Western countries.
Italy, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire, the three Great Qinhai countries, tend to maintain a relative balance of power relative to the other two countries.
Portugal fell sharply after losing to Brazil.
Currently, all the energy is focused on the development of the Mozhou colony, and the naval goals are very restrained.
So I hope other countries can exercise restraint as much as possible.
…………
Lucia is the most landlocked country on the western continent, but it may be the most radical in terms of naval construction.
In fact, the reason is very simple. Even if Lucia was dismembered and gave up the land east of the Urals, the remaining area still covers about five million square kilometers.
The combined mainland area of other Thai and Western countries is almost as large.
Moreover, the part west of the Urals was originally the essence of Lucia's territory.
Before the great development of Western Xianbei and the discovery of various resources, the area east of the Urals was of little value to Lucia.
The direct impact on Lucia will also be relatively limited.
After dividing the most radical Minghua elements, Lucia's local centripetal force has been enhanced.
Lucia is also the most populous country in Western Europe, with a population of nearly 100 million.
After Lucia, the most populous country in the West is Prussia, with a total population of only 50 million.
After eliminating the influence of the Ming Dynasty, the dismembered Lucia was still a behemoth within the scope of Taixi.
The unfolding of the second industrial revolution and the expansion of large-scale machine production are unleashing the power of this behemoth.
Lucia's scale advantage over other Thai and Western countries is gradually emerging.
The high-speed battleship that the Lucians have completed is the largest among all the Western countries.
The construction of these battleships actually did not put much pressure on Lucia.
When Lucia first learned that Ming Dynasty was building a 60,000-ton warship, she subconsciously wanted to build it accordingly.
When Niu Jian's plane stopped in Moscow, the suggestive warning Niu Jian issued when communicating with the Lucians was also targeted to a certain extent.
After the Lucians realized the difficulty and risks of building a 60,000-ton warship, they came up with the idea of settling for the next best thing and building more 40,000-ton warships.
Lucia's naval construction goal is not only to maintain balance relative to the traditional naval powers of Europe and the West, but to directly surpass them.
So Lucia is the country that has little interest in the naval treaty.
After Lucia's Prime Minister Wedemeyer returned to Moscow, he immediately went to meet Lucia's Emperor Nicholas and explained the naval treaty he had obtained.
After hearing this, Nicholas was obviously a little surprised and asked:
"Why should we participate in this kind of treaty? We are limited by Ming's warning, why should we be limited by the common agreements of other European and Western countries?
"According to Mr. Wedemeyer's past judgment, the economic status of Britain, France, Spain and other countries is not good, and they do not seem to have the intention to build large-scale navies.
"Your Excellency also said that through the exchanges at the funeral and banquet, it was confirmed that they will limit the naval tonnage and quantity of all countries in the treaty."
At this time, Wedemeyer smiled and said:
“They do not have the ability to build more large high-speed battleships, so they hope to limit the shipbuilding plans of various countries.
“We want to build more warships, and we can also ask for them directly in the treaty.
“Requires a naval capital ship tonnage exceeding that of Britain, France and Spain.
“If they do not accept our demands, then we will refuse to sign this treaty.
“If they accept our request, they will pass this treaty to make it clear that our navy can exceed that of Britain, France and Spain.
“This is equivalent to us, Lucia, through this treaty, achieving a recognized status that surpasses the three countries of Britain, France and Spain.
"We in Lucia will become recognized as the first naval power in the West."
Nicholas was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly couldn't help laughing:
“Yes, we can gain recognized status through this treaty!
“That’s it, let someone notify General Ushakov immediately and come over to discuss the treaty.
"How much tonnage should we ask for specifically, how should various types of warships be allocated, and what kind of restrictions should there be!"
(End of chapter)
