Fast forward to February 1678, and the continuous war caused great casualties to the lives of all countries, even France, the largest power on the European continent, was not spared, not to mention that they were directly involved in such a terrible and costly war. After Li Qing, the plenipotentiary envoy of the Republic of China to Europe, docked at the port of Calais, he was surprised to see a scene of people's livelihood withering.

You must know that the port of Calais has been an important commercial port in northern France since the Middle Ages, and it is an important trading town for England, where metal goods, wool, woolen goods, leather, paper, glass, and weapons from the other side of the Channel are continuously transported here, and then wheat, wine, fruits, daily necessities and even luxury goods produced in France are shipped back to London for distribution.

Later, even though the Capetian family swept away the other princes, the Kingdom of France completed the de facto unification, and the ports of Le Havre, Nantes, and La Rochelle rose one after another, and the importance of Calais diminished, due to the solid geographical location there, and part of the trade with England, the United Provinces and the Baltic Sea was still completed here, the economic power was still not to be underestimated, and the wealth of the inhabitants was still very high.

But now? As far as what Li Qing saw near the wharf, the number of merchants was greatly reduced, but the number of beggars was very large, and there were also some small traders and brokers who seemed to have nothing to do and waited for business to come to their door, which made people think that this place was suffering from some kind of economic crisis.

Of course, it is not wrong to say that the economic crisis is not wrong, because I just chatted with the Marquis of Montespan, who had been waiting for Li Qing here for half a month, and I knew a lot about the situation here. The Marquis de Montespan, who had a green head on his head, told Li Qing that because of financial difficulties, most of the Kingdom's exports would be subject to tariffs that were much heavier than before. In the words of the Marquis de Montespan, "it caused great confusion in trade" and in the long run only harmed French industry and trade, and reduced government revenues.

"If the tax is too heavy, it will only force foreign merchants to attract our workers abroad in order to learn our manufacturing skills (more than 40,000 French craftsmen are working in Spain alone) and at the same time to buy all kinds of goods at cheaper prices in other countries or regions that would otherwise be purchased in our country. In the case of wine, as far as I know, wine sales in Italy and Portugal have increased dramatically in recent years, and even the Ottomans have started to export a lot of wine every year, because Greece is rich in grapes and olive oil. All these acts have actually harmed our country and made the Italians and the Portuguese richer, and they have also trained many talents and learned how to manage production because of the expansion of production, while we are no longer proficient in management because of the shrinkage of production. The Marquis of Montespan seemed to be a little dissatisfied with Colbert's economic policies, which was in fact consistent with the intelligence obtained by the people on the east coast, and he continued to say with a big mouth: "We should have tried our best to avoid this kind of chaos caused by high tariffs, and damn it, some of our ministers have even ordered high tariffs on many imports, which has even led to several trade wars!" Even the cowardly Portuguese retaliated by imposing heavy tariffs on dried fruits, olive oil, animal fat, etc., and in Lisbon by imposing equally high tariffs on some goods imported from our country. Ah, God, this is terrible, look at Calais, I am afraid that the tax collectors will soon be unbearable, and where will His Majesty get the money? I'm confused! ”

Li Qing smiled after hearing this. In fact, he has also heard about the trade war between France and some other countries. The two sides retaliated against each other for goods imported from your country, which made the tax collectors in their respective countries really want to die. Li Qing estimated that the income of the dozen or so tax-bearers in Calais has been greatly reduced, and it is a high probability event that they cannot make ends meet. Although the royal government did not raise the contract price of these tax contractors, it was inevitable that these tax contractors would go bankrupt after a long time, and when they were all finished, and no new customs contractor could be found, where would the king collect the money?

Some people may ask, since the king has contracted out all the import duties, what is the point of raising the import duties on foreign goods? Why bother not receiving a penny more, but reducing the amount of goods entering France and exacerbating domestic inflation? Why bother?

The question is easy to explain, and that is that it would be unthinkable if a monarch remained calm at all times, especially for arrogant and conceited monarchs such as Louis XIV and the Prince of Orange. In fact, Louis XIV ordered the increase in import tariffs more for the purpose of punishment, in the case of Portugal, Paris had sent three envoys to invite them to join the French side and fight against the anti-French alliance, but unfortunately all three times failed, so Louis XIV felt offended, so he "punished" the Portuguese, although this punishment made many of the country's trading ports complaining about the tax collectors.

Then the Marquis of Montespan told a story that took place in the port of Calais. Because of the exorbitant import duties, a ship laden with Italian silk fabrics sailed at night to a huge rock near the coastline and anchored and hid. Then on top of the rocks, many poor French people hoisted these goods in bundles with ropes and carried them away in horse-drawn wagons to avoid the heavy burden of import duties.

There is no doubt that this kind of smuggling has greatly damaged the interests of the tax collectors of silk products, and has caused their incomes to be drastically reduced, even if they have a large business, they will go bankrupt in a few years. And their fate is in the front, and even if the people behind want to take their place, they will think twice. The Marquis of Montespan even smiled and said that a local iron product tax collector had even negotiated with the captains of the ships to privately return half of their customs duties (because the tax rate set by the king was immutable, and there was a customs superintendent, so they could only collect it first and then return it), so that they would stop smuggling and trade through normal channels.

"The customs superintendent should be very satisfied with the current situation, they do not care about the interests of the tax collectors, and they are not responsible for the kingdom's finances." After listening to the old peasant-like chatter of the Marquis de Montespan—it sounded like he or his family ran a sizable import and export business—Li Qing asked casually.

At this time, they and a dozen or so attachés got into several luxuriously decorated carriages, and then dozens of French cavalrymen divided the front and rear and took up the task of escorting. The Marquis of Montespan was naturally sitting in the same carriage as Li Qing, and he would only listen to him say: "The tax supervisors are all personally appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, so of course they don't care. Because many businessmen will collude with them to carry out black-box operations at the expense of the interests of the tax collector; In addition, if a smuggling vessel is caught, then they also have the right to confiscate a third of the cargo on board, which is a right granted to them by the laws of the kingdom. I sometimes think that if His Majesty is really in financial distress in the future because of the war, then sending someone to check the background of the tax supervision of various ports will definitely recover a large amount of money, haha. ”

Li Qing sighed slightly when she heard this, and at the same time she was a little more vigilant. The current state of the Kingdom of France is due to a large-scale war that lasted for several years. You know, before the war, France had a lot of surpluses, and Louis XIV was also a well-known spendthrift. But who would have thought that after only a few years of war, the heavy expenditure of 200,000 armies and two large fleets had already overwhelmed the Kingdom of France, whether it was the nobles or the common people - after two tax increases, the tax level of the Kingdom of France is now the highest point since Louis XIV's personal levy, and it is one step away from the peak of Louis XIII's era.

Therefore, Li Qing felt that the Republic of East Coast of China really had to avoid this kind of war that cost money, especially the land war with huge expenses like a bottomless pit. It is important to know that hundreds of thousands of people are easy to mobilize, but the expenses such as salary expenditure, material consumption, and bereavement compensation are not endless, which is enough to drag down a country's finances.

If you really have to go to war with people, then a relatively less expensive war at sea may be the most economical and practical option. In particular, the cost of a modern fleet with a small number of sailors on the east coast is at least one-third lower than that of the Europeans, and in addition to some advantages in technology, it is still more cost-effective to fight a naval war with the enemy on a small scale, and it is easy to control the cost.

Moreover, judging from the strategic and geopolitical situation of the East Coast Republic of China, neither of Spain and Portugal, which borders it, is like a lord who can cause trouble to the people on the East Coast on land. To deal with the American colonies of these two countries, the East Coasters only need to send a small elite army to land in the coastal ports to control the situation, and the cost can be controlled. Moreover, these two countries are not fools, and with the situation they can foresee now and in the coming decades, they have neither the intention nor the ability to embarrass the East Coasters, which is a sure thing.

Let's turn our attention back to reality. Based on the current financial situation of the Kingdom of France, Li Qing can judge that even if their powerful army continues to play triumphant songs on the battlefield, and even if the navy they have spent a lot of money to build up for many years has several outstanding performances, the country's finances may not be able to support them to continue to fight. Maybe if they get up and loot some of the old foundations of the family, they can support it for a while, but it will only be a year or two if they die, and it can't be longer. Unless King Louis XIV of France dared to continue raising taxes at the risk of riots at home, that would only make the situation worse and more uncertain.

Therefore, Louis XIV now also had a vague feeling that if his generals were unable to make a decisive breakthrough on the battlefield, perhaps he should seriously consider taking it as soon as he saw it, which of course required the "understanding" of the Dutch first. Compared with the Dutch, France, with a population of more than 20 million, is still much inferior after all! Fortunately, the Dutch only love money, and if the Kingdom of France can meet the demands of the Dutch economically, it is not impossible to persuade the Dutch to withdraw from the war and plant the banner of the great golden lily on the east bank of the Rhine, it all depends on the situation and how it works! In fact, Louis XIV still had some confidence in this matter, he knew too well the virtues of the merchants in the Lowlands.

And in order to create a good basis for possible future negotiations, the French must also do some work beforehand, such as stabilizing their situation in the Caribbean through cooperation with the East Coasters. To put it more clearly, let the East Coasters sell military supplies, food, and medicine to the French troops defending the island in the Caribbean, and even allow them to take refuge in the land controlled by the East Coasters during the evacuation, so as not to be captured by the Dutch and Spaniards, and increase the enemy's bargaining chips.

In the Caribbean, the Dutch and Spaniards had the absolute upper hand in the sea, and in the past few years their fleets have been attacking everywhere to intercept French ships going to the Caribbean islands of St. Christopher, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Santo Domingo (which had long been occupied by a French expedition), which caused great trouble for the French, so that the war materials were somewhat unsustainable, and the situation was extremely difficult for a while.

Although the people on the east coast had privately promised to sell some key supplies to the local French army through Huaiyuan Island (Trinidad), the scale was small and the frequency was low, and the Spanish and the Dutch West India Company also protested several times, all of them were old friends, old customers, and old relations, and they had to give them a little face, so this trade was basically cut off later.

This time, the French came to the door again, and solemnly invited Li Qing, the plenipotentiary envoy of the East Coast to Europe, to Paris and meet with King Louis XIV of France, indicating that these things have indeed reached an imminent time, otherwise why not! Li Qing also knew this, considering that he also wanted to get some benefits from the French, so he agreed to go.