Chapter 283: Zheng Guoben () uses foreign countries for Chinas benefit
Liu Xin had not thought carefully about the two questions raised by Gao Pangshi before, but it was not a problem. She thought about it for a while and said: "As for the first question, I think even if it is possible, there is no need to worry."
She took a look at the map of the entire South Asian subcontinent and said: "You just said that in the face of the powerful Qin Dynasty of the Mughal Empire, the Deccan countries failed to successfully implement any unified strategy. So I think, even if this
We, Jinghua, replaced Qiang Qin, and they still couldn't make any waves.
I even think that we should have a kind of institutional confidence. After all, the Mughal conquest of them was only a very primitive conquest, but the system of the Mughal Empire itself had many regulations due to religion and its membership in a foreign ruling group.
It is inconsistent with the development of social productivity.
In other words, if it comes to the "lesser of two evils" situation, the Deccan countries are unlikely to consider joining forces with the Mughals, but are more likely to consider submitting to us.
Although I don’t know much about the history of India or the colonial history of Western colonial empires such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal in India, judging from the results, it seems that the resistance they encountered was not particularly great. Putting aside weapons and equipment, military organizations
In addition to its advantages in form and other aspects, one of the important reasons is that its governance methods are more suitable for the local area."
"Hahahaha!" Gao Pragmatic laughed seemingly inexplicably and shook his head: "The previous words are okay. The latter words show that you really don't understand the colonial history of Western colonists in India.
thing."
Liu Xin wasn't angry this time, because she really didn't understand, so she said, "Isn't it a system problem?"
Gao pragmatic took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, seemed to organize his words, and then said: "There is a premise that you always seem to ignore, that is, the Western colonists, at least in Asia, never rushed from the beginning.
They came from 'colonization', and their original goal was very unified, which was to monopolize trade, in other words, to make money."
Liu Xin did not object to this, but was more curious: "Then why did they eventually move towards colonial rule?"
"It's a long story. If we start from the beginning of the Western pirates' entry, it would be too long. I will introduce it to you slowly when I have time in the future." Gao pragmatically said: "In this case, I will start with it for the time being.
How about I introduce to you the struggle between Britain and France for India?"
"As long as it can explain the problem, I don't want to study their colonial history in detail." Liu Xin shrugged.
"Okay, let's talk about Britain and France." Gao pragmatically said: "Many people in later generations only know that 'India is the brightest jewel in the crown of the British Empire', but they don't know that Portugal was the first to enter India at the beginning.
European colonists, and later colonial empires such as the Netherlands and France once competed with the British in India.
Especially France, for a short period of time, their power in India was actually more powerful than the British. However, in the end due to some reasons, France lost the competition with the British in India, making the British almost monopolize South Asia.
subcontinent. But what is clear is that when the British first came to India, they were almost praised on the spot."
Liu Xin asked: "It shouldn't be so miserable, right? It should have been the early Qing Dynasty when the British went to India. With the level of firearms in Europe at that time, wouldn't it be like sweeping thousands of troops against the Indians?"
"Humph, the British have European firearms, but the Mughal Empire at that time also had them." Gao Pragmatic waved his hand: "In 1685, which was the 24th year of Kangxi, the English East India Company made careful preparations for three years.
Launched a war of aggression against the Mughal Empire.
They dispatched twelve warships to the Bay of Bengal, equipped with more than two hundred cannons and more than a thousand soldiers. The fleet was commanded by Sir Josiah Child, the company director. In order to quickly establish economic order in the occupied areas, the British warships
He even carried a full set of minting equipment.
Such a large-scale armed force was already quite large compared to the scale of European overseas colonial aggression at that time, so Sir Child had no doubt about his upcoming victory. But it was a bit of a coincidence that the Mughal Empire happened to
In its last glorious period, its emperor was Aurangzeb - well, his grandfather was the Jahangir we just mentioned, and Akbar was his great-grandfather.
This Aurangzeb can be said to be the last afterglow of the Mughal Empire. He served as the deputy king of Deccan in his early years. From 1657 to 1658, he defeated three brothers in the fierce succession war and imprisoned his father, becoming the Mughal Emperor.
Emperor Wo'er.
After this person ascended the throne, he used the method of recruiting mainly and supplementing by force to conquer the kingdoms of Bijapur and Gokunda respectively, and expanded the territory of the Mughal Empire to almost the entire South Asian subcontinent except the southernmost tip."
Liu Xin smiled and said: "The last ruthless person in the Mughal Empire?"
"Absolutely." Gao pragmatically said: "So in 1685, when Aurangzeb's rule was at its peak, how could it be possible to tolerate the English's behavior of touching the tiger's butt? The two sides immediately started fighting as soon as they disagreed, and the British-Mughals
The war broke out.
At that time, the English relied on their advanced artillery, but they did not understand the basic conditions of the South Asian subcontinent at all. These soldiers from northwest Europe could not stand the hot and humid climate and environment of South Asia.
Attrition.
What about the Mughal Empire? Their firearms level is not low, because the French and Portuguese were unwilling to see the British coming to India to interfere, so they provided a large amount of military assistance to the Mughal Empire -
-Of course, this requires payment, but Aurangzeb did not lack the money at the time, so the Mughal army was equipped with the same advanced European artillery."
"Wait a minute!" Liu Xin suddenly stopped and asked: "How did France come here, and how could it stand in the same trench with the Portuguese to support the Mughals?"
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Do you know Cardinal Richelieu of France? It was he who established the French East India Company, and then continued to send people to explore, and finally a colonial team arrived in India in 1668
Surat in the Gujarat region established the first colonial stronghold in India.
The French cannot monopolize any trade at this time, so as long as they can make money, they will do any business, and selling arms is no exception - anyway, they do not have a large colony locally, and they are not worried that the Indians can attack Europe, so
The French are completely unscrupulous in selling arms.
Needless to say, there is no need to talk about the relationship between Britain and France? Hehe, in short, when the French learned that Aurangzeb's opponent was the British, they became more enthusiastic about selling arms.
As for siding with the Portuguese, this matter is more complicated. At that time, the relationship between England and Portugal was actually very good, but you also know the urine of Europeans... In India, it is related to interests, and Portugal
The local colonists would not give the English any face, and they would not show any mercy when it was time to take advantage of them."
Liu Xin nodded, expressing her understanding, and then signaled Gao Pragmatic to continue.
So Gao Pragmatic continued: "Since the Mughal Empire was not lagging behind in terms of weapons and equipment, their absolute advantages in terrain and military strength could not be ignored. So Aurangzeb launched the invasion soon after learning about it.
Counterattack strongly.
Since the British stronghold was on the west coast at this time, and their attack was on the east coast, the battle had two battlefields, the east and west, which also led to a longer war. At a critical moment in the fighting between the two sides, England's internal
Something big happened: King James II fell, the famous Glorious Revolution broke out in England, and the domestic contradictions between Protestants and Catholics were unprecedentedly intense.
In order to deal with the domestic Catholic forces and attack Scotland and Ireland, the English had to withdraw their strength and focus on the country, and were forced to compromise with the Mughal Empire. In 1689, the two sides signed an armistice agreement, and the English East India Company fully surrendered and paid Aurangzeb
He paid huge war compensation and asked Aurangzeb for forgiveness.
After the war, the English East India Company summed up its lessons and came to a conclusion, so Sir Child criticized his men and said: 'The results are obvious. I have told you to stop the war, so why do you still provoke such a senseless war?
Concentrate on trade!'"
Liu Xin burst out laughing and said, "Isn't he the commander? I don't believe he didn't agree to start the war in the first place. This guy is really good at shirking the blame, and he's very thick-skinned."
Gao Pragmatic spread his hands: "Anyway, these words at least show one thing: the purpose of these people coming to India is to make money, and they did not go to rule the local area from the beginning. For them,
Not to mention that you couldn't defeat the Indians at that time, even if you could defeat them, so what if they beat the Indians to the point where they were all strewn with teeth? Can you make money?
Because it is too far away from the mainland and the population of India is too large, if we want to maintain a large army as the basis of rule and at the same time prevent this force from betraying the mother country, it will probably be a loss for the English government and the emerging bourgeoisie behind it.
Money - the bourgeoisie will never be willing to trade at a loss."
Liu Xin asked: "What made them change their purpose?"
"Of course it's still to make money." Gao pragmatically said: "Here I have to talk about the early business model of the English East India Company in India - do you know how they made money without losing money in the beginning?
?”
Liu Xin shook her head and said: "I don't understand the thinking of the colonists. According to our experience in southern Xinjiang, we initially invested heavily in infrastructure construction, and at the same time relied on the domestic market of the Ming Dynasty to sell the main local output.
Of course, there was also the export to the Spanish and Portuguese Empire.
Later, our basic investment gradually produced benefits, and because the agreement with the Spanish and Portuguese Empire allowed us to trade with India, we gradually entered the Indian market. In this way, we became a transit station with our own output.
Our southern Xinjiang and Nanyang system itself has a lot of hard currencies, such as spices, rice, tropical wood, etc., as well as industrial production such as coal, iron, shipbuilding, military industry, etc.
At the same time, we are connected to the Ming Dynasty and India, and can even take over the gold and silver shipped by the Spanish from the Americas... In short, the trade of our southern Xinjiang system is extremely developed, and our own output is not weak, so we can form enough
profit."
Gao Pragmatic was very satisfied with her understanding of the economic system of southern Xinjiang, so he explained: "Then let's follow this idea and see what the English can do in India."
Gao Pingshi said: "In the original history, the Netherlands and England entered the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asia. Later, the Dutch mainly exerted their efforts in the Southeast Asia and gradually controlled the spice trade that was most valued by Europeans at the time.
At that time, because of the troubles at home, the English knew that they could not compete with the Netherlands for Southeast Asia, so they had to turn their attention to India. Although India was rich, in the eyes of the British at that time, India lacked a major product like Southeast Asian spices.
At that time, India was a place where many forces competed, and it was difficult to form a monopoly trade without competitive products. Therefore, although the English East India Company had been working as a second-tier dealer in the early days, undertaking the transportation work of Chinese goods for sale in Europe, even if the profits were small
It seemed rich, but when compared with the spice trade controlled by Portugal and the Netherlands, it immediately became dull.
Needless to say, how can this situation satisfy the British? In addition, they always feel that trade with China is a unilateral gift of money to China, which further arouses the resentment of the emerging bourgeoisie in England.
They are dissatisfied and urgently need to create a new monopoly trade to create more generous profits for them.
Later, they discovered that the Bengal region in India was extremely wealthy. Not only did it have an advantageous geographical location, it was located halfway between the South Asian subcontinent and southern Xinjiang, with crisscrossed waterways and sea routes. In particular, the local cotton textile industry was very prosperous.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Bangladesh’s cotton textiles are more suitable for wearing than the linen fabrics and woolen fabrics that were more commonly used by Europeans. The British then thought that if they could monopolize the cotton textile trade, they would be able to
There was a frenzy of looting in Europe, so they came up with the idea of Bangladesh - which was the trigger for the war I just mentioned.
However, even after the death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire almost fell apart, and the British took advantage of the situation and obtained the actual management rights of Bengal. However, they found that the East India Company's finances were still in danger and often failed to make ends meet. So they thought of another idea.
Another way to cut expenses and increase revenue.”
"Wait a minute, didn't you say that the sales of cotton textiles in Bangladesh should be very good? How come there are still financial difficulties after taking over Bangladesh?" Liu Xin wondered.
"The market needs to be cultivated, especially for the market to accept a new product." Gao Pragmatic said: "At that time, Bangladesh cotton textiles were cultivating a market in Europe. However, as a primitive handicraft industry, although Bangladeshi cotton textiles were exquisite, they were completely dependent on
The human output of local craftsmen.
The output under this productivity situation is naturally stretched, so the price of Indian cotton cloth in Europe is high, and it can only be sold to the upper class, so the market space is naturally very limited."
】
Liu Xin suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said in surprise: "The Industrial Revolution..."
"Smart!" Gao Pragmatic said: "Because the market has opened, Europeans have begun to accept cotton as a high-end fabric, and the profits of cotton have become the object of covetousness by many people, prompting the UK's endogenous drive to improve the production process of cotton textiles.
It was so huge that the Spinning Jenny came into being.
After that, Watt improved the steam engine, and soon after that, the steam engine was used for spinning and weaving. Mechanized large-scale production greatly improved the efficiency of textiles, and the British brought cotton cloth to the trade field and killed everyone until they entered the next new market.
The pioneering area is designated as China.
At that time, China's demand for industrially manufactured cotton cloth was very low because China had extremely abundant manpower. Under the small-scale peasant economy, most ordinary people either suppressed their own demand or produced and wore the cloth themselves. The commercial liquidity of cloth was limited.
Moreover, even though the production cost of British cotton is relatively low, its cotton origin is in India, its production place is in England, and its sales place has to go back to China... The cost has gone up all of a sudden, and it has no impact on China's local handmade cotton.
force.
At the same time, British cotton not only cannot compete with local handmade cotton in the low-end market, but also cannot compete with Chinese handmade silk in the high-end market. Therefore, when facing China, Britain still has a huge deficit and sends money to China every year...
"
"Ah, I know what happened next." Liu Xin's face darkened, and she said bitterly: "Britain began to turn its attention to opium, and then... the Opium War will begin."
"That's right." Gao Pragmatic nodded, his expression ugly, but he continued: "Anyway, you have to know that the logical basis for anything the British do in Asia is to make money, and anything else cannot be compared with making money.
conflict.
In other words, as long as a battlefield is fought and money is lost, both the East India Company and the British government will immediately change their original views and force the focus back to making money."
"I understand... Although you took Britain as an example, other European colonial empires had the same idea." Liu Xin nodded, but immediately had new doubts and said: "You seem to have missed something, it wasn't just now
Did the East India Company still have financial constraints for a period of time after they captured Bengal? How did they survive the financial crisis at that time?"
"Oh, I missed it." Gao Pragmatic said: "To put it simply, it is 'reducing costs and increasing efficiency', but at that time, at least for Indians, it was not a good word."
"How do you say it?" Liu Xin asked.
Gao Pragmatic sighed: “The method adopted by the East India Company was to nominally surrender to the Mughal Empire, obtain jurisdiction over some areas, and then start collecting taxes wildly in the local areas, but it did not bear any governance costs.
In other words, I want to take the money, but I don’t do the work. What does it have to do with the East India Company if the local people starve to death and die in poverty? I just work for the Mughal Empire and the emperor of you Indians. If you have anything to do, go to the emperor.
!The problem is that at this time, the Mughal Empire was already in civil strife, the emperor's majesty was gone, and he could not control anything at all.
Under such a 'governance' attitude, the Bengal region has simply become a hell on earth. For example, in terms of economy, the local handmade cotton textile industry, which was originally extremely prosperous, was intentionally or unintentionally destroyed by the British.
Not long after, only one-seventh of the original number of practitioners were left, and then it continued to decrease, until it was almost wiped out by the British industrial cotton... As for other related British bosses, it is even more difficult to describe.
, I will talk to you slowly when I have time."
Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "There is still a question that has not been explained clearly before, and that is why other colonial companies - such as the Dutch East India Company, the French East India Company and other colonial companies only existed as trading monopoly companies, why did the British East India Company choose
In the end, it turned out to be like a country, right?”
"Yes, I've always been curious about this."
"Let me give you an example first. The French have established a foothold in a place called Pondicherry in southeastern India. The local prince chose to rely on the French in order to resist the threat of the Marathas.
They assigned two villages near Pondicherry to the French East India Company, and urged the Mughal Emperor to issue a letter of appointment to the French. The Mughal Emperor had long been beyond his reach, so he easily approved it.
From then on, the French East India Company actually became the administrator of a certain place within the Mughal Empire, and local taxes actually became part of the French East India Company's income. This was the beginning and marked the expansion of European colonists in India.
Entered a new stage.
However, the impact of this incident on the French colonists themselves was not as great as it was on the British colonists, because in 1746, a war broke out in Pondicherry. In that year, the French used Pondicherry as their stronghold and advanced by sea and land.
Attack the British East India Company.
This was a brilliant victory for the French. They occupied Madras, the British's main stronghold in India at the cost of only six men killed, and it is known in history as the First Carnatic War.
The local princes and nobles in India were greatly shocked after witnessing the well-trained French army. They sent large rewards to the French, purchased French weapons, and hired French as military instructors.
This is the first time that the "East India Company" in Europe has obtained a large amount of financial revenue through military operations rather than colonial trade. If the situation continues like this, the history of India will inevitably be very different. The major European powers will most likely fight in India.
It will turn into a pot of porridge, and there is a high probability that India, which is at least superficially unified, will not emerge in future generations.
However, at this moment, an accident happened. Faced with the huge military victory, the top management of the French East India Company behaved nervously and uneasily. They quickly called the Governor of Pondicherry and the French commander Dipu.
Dupleix issued a clear instruction, requiring Dupleix not to be too ambitious. The main work of the French in India is trade, not military!
They clearly stated in the letter: 'Generally speaking, here, peace is more appreciated than conquest. We do not need such brilliant results. We hope to have a situation where trade can be carried out with more peace of mind. In order to protect and help trade activities,
Just a few strongholds are enough. We don't need victory or conquest. The company should focus on how to obtain more goods and further increase the salary.'"
Liu Xin said in surprise: "This is a bit beyond my expectation. French people are so honest?"
"That's because they didn't taste the even bigger economic cake after the conquest, and at the same time they were unwilling to invest too much up front before getting huge benefits." Gao Pragmatic smiled contemptuously and said: "By 1750, the French East India Company was in India
With three thousand soldiers, this is more than four times the number ten years ago.
So Paris couldn't sit still, and quickly made a calculation: how much weapons and equipment, how much logistical supplies are needed for these three thousand soldiers, and how many command and management agencies need to be established to lead these armies...
In short, this is such a huge financial expenditure! How many wools can your East India Company collect from India every year? If you continue like this, it will soon not even be enough to pay the expenses! So, get rid of all this quickly!
For this reason, Paris dismissed Dupleix from his post in 1754."
Liu Xin shook his head and said: "The French are either short-sighted or worried that the colonial army is too strong. If they do this, they will be defeated by the British East India Company sooner or later."
"You guessed it right. The British East India Company quickly strengthened its armed forces in India after suffering a severe beating. A notorious rogue in the history of British colonialism entered the stage of history - Robert Clay
Wu."
"It turns out it's him. I happen to know this person." Liu Xin said: "When I was studying the Ganges Delta region, there was a reference book that mentioned it. It also briefly introduced the 'great achievements' of this scumbag, especially Pula.
Battle of the West."
"Okay, then I won't introduce his war history." Gao Pragmatic skipped this section and said: "In the end, he later became the Governor of Bengal and did countless bad things that should be cut to pieces, but he was also let go from then on.
The East India Company could not only act as a second-tier dealer, but also directly collect taxes in many local places.
I have said that the British only have money in their eyes. Now that there is an extra way to make money, how can they let it go? So there was the "costless governance" of Bangladesh mentioned above, and later the founding of the "costless governance" in Bengal
The cotton trade."
"So that's it, so it's all connected." Liu Xin sighed: "Although it seems a bit coincidental, I can only say that the British are really a bunch of assholes who dare to do anything for money."
Gao pragmatic nodded, completely agreeing with Liu Xin's evaluation of the British elders, and then asked: "Do you have any new insights now?"
Liu Xin pondered: "If the fundamental purpose of these colonists is just for money, then I think... I will have more leverage after going south. At least the Portuguese will not be part of our plan this time.
resistance, it is even possible for them to become a helper. Of course, there is a prerequisite..."
"Promise them some economic benefits?" Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "Although you promise - but let me remind you: these benefits do not have to be too big, because it is not difficult to win over the Portuguese."
Liu Xin also laughed and said: "I know this, because the Portuguese have limited strength and have long been afraid of Jinghua. They are not worth the high price we spend to win over them, and they themselves know this."
Gao pragmatically nodded with satisfaction and said: "You can handle the specific situation yourself. If time is tight, there is no need to ask for instructions on everything. I will give you the right to make decisions on the fly."
Liu Xin smiled, as if she acquiesced, but she thought to herself: Huang Zhiting didn't even dare to overstep his authority, let alone me? If I really make decisions on the fly, I'm afraid that if I do something wrong in the future, I will be attacked.
The handle of words.
Even if there are indeed a lot of things to do in this battle that cannot be delayed casually, then I can only bring more carrier pigeons, or even prepare a few carrier pigeon stations in advance, so that I won't waste too much time.
After talking about these things, Liu Xin finally asked about the goal of the war: "This time we went south, we originally planned to capture the Kingdom of Arakan. The reason why we prepared to go to war with the Mughal Empire was because we were worried about their active interference.
But now the situation is different. Assam and other places have surrendered. Prince Salim is also involved. I am a little worried that the situation is out of control and may lead to the advancement of the war. Do you have clearer instructions on our war goals?
I mean, like, where can you hit the most?"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Gao Pragmatic stretched out his hand, drew a line on the west side of Assam and Bangladesh with his fingertips, and said: "Unless Salim raises an army to destroy his father Aq
Pakistan must resist, otherwise our army will not be able to reach this line."
After a pause, he added: "However, we can actually control Assam and Bangladesh and other places east of this line. As long as the original local leaders do not oppose us, we can just win over what should be won. No other benefits are required.
Just tell them that we support them against Akbar...Based on the old British experience, I think they will in turn send us money and power."
"The secret method of stirring up shit is to hoe the strong and support the weak." Liu Xin sighed: "I remember this was your summary of the old British colonial experience. It seems that now we have to use it too."
"Hey, hey, you have to be able to tell the difference between the enemy and us! The old British people call them troublemakers, but that's not what I am."
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes at her and said: "I am here to prevent the Indian people from being brutally exploited and oppressed by the colonists, and to save the local people from misery... You have to know, whether it is the old British rule or the current Mughal rule,
To the local people, the ruthless rule can be described as sustainable and exhausting the river. We in Jinghua went to South Asia as liberators, and we must not misunderstand the nature of this."
Liu Xin chuckled, then immediately restrained her smile, and said very seriously: "Yes, yes, Lord Marquis has given birth to Buddhas in thousands of families, and he has always saved all people and water from the heat of the fire. Otherwise, how could he be the third generation descended from secrets?"
King Ming is reincarnated, and is he an Arhat from the Southern Tradition?"
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes and said helplessly: "I think if this continues, when India is settled in the future, I'm afraid I won't directly become a Buddha, or else I'll have to be Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu or something like that.
That’s it.”
Liu Xin laughed loudly and said: "It's enough to become a Buddha. Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu are from Hinduism, how can they have anything to do with you?"
Gao Pragmatic waved his hand: "I'm just talking nonsense. I'm not interested in becoming a Hindu god."
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