"Many of the early towns are now decaying, but the countryside is developing greatly. Of course, London is an exception, and Europe's largest city is not going to fail. "Morris. Thompson sat across from Mo San and said in a slightly boastful tone: "Many years ago, when industries such as woollen moved to the countryside and many towns began to decline, London became more prosperous because it could continue to attract immigrants, and this is the charm of London." ”

"England has only one head, but it is huge." Mo San said teasingly. This sentence he said is not only an outsider's evaluation of London, but also a boastful word of Londoners, because London has a population of 400,000, but Norwich, the second largest city in England, has a population of only 2-30,000, and Bristol, the third largest city, has a population of just over 10,000, which is completely incomparable with the giant city of London.

The best of England is almost all here! Although prices in London have risen over the years - not without the influence of the price revolution in Western Europe, of course, but also by the rapid increase in population - in the past 200 years, the price of cereals in London has risen eightfold, agricultural products by 6.6 times, industrial products by 3.1 times, and the cost of living of 12 general consumer goods by nine times compared to 150 years ago, but the wages of Londoners have risen only three times!

Such inverted income and price increases have not stopped the British from rushing into the cities, nor have they stopped the slow industrialization and urbanization of the UK. The spread of mercantilism led to the circulation of wealth in and around London, and the trading and colonial companies of the East India Company, the Levantine Company, the Eastland Company, and the West African Company provided a great deal of work for many people who had nothing because of the gentry's occupation of the land—for more than half a century from 1575 to 1630. More than 90 chartered trading companies have been established in London. A total of 6,336 investors were attracted. Total assets amounted to £8 million.

This is a staggering figure, and it is the concentration of such a huge amount of capital that makes London uniquely attractive: the most wealth, the best goods, the best talent, and the best infrastructure that are hard to match in other cities, and even in most cities on the continent.

At this moment, Mo San and Thompson had just returned from outside the city in a carriage, and Thompson took Mo San around the suburbs of London very frankly, and tried his best to answer Mo San's questions, and seemed to have no mind Mo San's behavior of asking around. At this time, I heard that Mo San said a common saying that outsiders used to describe London's status in Britain. Thompson immediately laughed: "London has most of its wealth, and that's the biggest attraction of London." Now England's annual import trade totals more than 3 million pounds, most of which are produced in London, whether it is England's own industrial products, or the East India and Levantine companies re-export goods, must be approved by London Customs, and the tax rebate obtained from re-export must also be collected in London. So, you see, the banks of the Thames have been so busy, even during the war. Cowardly and incompetent Dutchman. It simply could not compete with the English Navy. ”

Mo San smiled when he heard this. Britain was in the midst of a transition from early mercantilism to late mercantilism, with the exception of a few small ports that exported negliguous goods. Most of the import and export trade still passes through London. Especially at the moment when the "Navigation Regulations" were strictly enforced, even if the Virginia colonies wanted to export tobacco to New England, they had to ship the goods to London first, pay customs duties and then ship them to Massachusetts, and there was no other way, this perverted and deformed trade policy was undoubtedly one of the main reasons for London's prosperity.

It is worth mentioning that although late mercantilism (also known as heavy mercantilism) also pays attention to the accumulation of wealth, pays attention to foreign trade surplus, and pays attention to precious metals to stay in their own country, it pays more attention to the development of handicraft workshops to export profits than early mercantilism, and the so-called "human wealth" is the mainstay, and this is obviously the origin of its heavy industrial nickname.

The two also focus on retaining precious metals as the core, and also implement local protectionism, strict guild access system and tariff barriers, but one only pays attention to the accumulation of precious metals, and the other pays more attention to the export of domestic industrial products to accumulate precious metals. Now that the House of Commons is growing in power, and its proportion of members of Parliament is also rising, according to widely circulated public information in London, the number of bourgeoisie, enlightened aristocrats and new gentry in the House of Commons has reached more than two-thirds, most of whom are artisanal owners, or even wholesalers, who are mainly wholesalers who wholesale British goods, so that the influence of British industrial capital in Parliament is strong enough at this time, which is unfortunate news for the people of the East Coast.

"Seriously, why are you working with the Netherlands? Is it just to be able to export some goods to them? After a long silence, Mr. Thompson finally opened the conversation, as if he had come from the collective will of some people, and only listened to him: "It may be tempting for the Dutch to promise you the opening of partially closed markets, but we can provide the same." England, Scotland, Ireland, Virginia, New England, we can even help you re-enter Poland, and we are willing to share with you some of the Italian markets that were once closed to you. ”

"Oh?" Hearing that the other party's conditions were so generous, even Mo San couldn't help but be moved, because the capacity of this market is quite large, and consumers' willingness to buy and purchasing power are not very low, which is very important for improving the scale of industrial production and industrial technology in the East Coast. It can be said that if the British really opened up these markets - or at least shared them - to the people of the East Coast, it would be enough for most of the enterprises on the East Coast to make a lot of money, so that they would have enough money to expand the scale of production, update industrial technology, and complete the further upgrading of the industrial system.

"Do you have any conditions?" After being in Europe for so many years, Mo San knew that these people were all masters who didn't see rabbits and didn't scatter eagles, and they didn't have enough benefits not to think that they would give up their own interests, so he immediately asked a tentative question.

"Absolutely. The first is that you need to intercept the ships of the Dutch East India Company off the coast of Cape Town, and, if possible, to provide appropriate assistance to the Portuguese in Brazil, and at the same time to close the foreign aid passage of Dutch Brazil, so that the Dutch West India Company can roll out of the American continent. "Then the Dutch will have a hard time." Of course, you can't export to the Netherlands, you have to bring them to their knees. ”

Hearing Thompson say this, Mo San suddenly felt a headache, this condition was almost completely unacceptable to the people of the East Coast. If Mo San would have thought about it a little before, then after inspecting England for nearly a month, Mo San's subconscious fear of Britain is getting stronger and stronger - such a country that is on the right path and controls tens of millions of people is worthy of vigilance on the east coast anyway, because she has the most potential to surpass the east coast and has to be guarded against. Therefore, now Mo San is destined to be unable to accept the olive branch thrown by the other party.

"Is this to get our country officially into this war?" Mo San asked directly.

"So to speak." Thompson nodded unabashedly and confirmed: "Although the strength of your navy is very average, it is superior in its geographical location, and if your main fleet is exhausted, it can indeed cause great trouble to the merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company, which is much more convenient and unexpected than General Blake's painstaking efforts to capture them off the coast of Scotland." You just need to side with us, and then declare war on the Netherlands, and you can receive the reward you deserve, how about it, don't you think about it? ”

"It's too risky, we can't do it, and it's not in our national interest, I'm really sorry." Mo San immediately said categorically. Are you kidding? Let's declare war on the Netherlands, isn't that death? Do you want to sell in Europe in the future? The Dutch can influence the sales of goods on the East Coast from many aspects such as the market, exchange rate, and politics, and this is not how the brains play.

As if he had anticipated Mo San's thoughts, Thompson was not surprised at all. Therefore, I saw him nod his head and said, "Since your country has chosen the Netherlands in this war, it will inevitably hurt the feelings of England. Especially for us businessmen, your attitude is very disappointing. ”

"Our country has always been strictly neutral and has no intention of taking sides over the other. If your country is willing to import our goods, then we will certainly not be stingy. Mo San explained. Although he also knew that his explanation was more or less weak, this attitude still had to be expressed.

"England's development is changing so fast that it is far from being comparable to that of the Netherlands, and your country will regret the choice you have made today." After saying this, the carriage was almost on the ground, Mo San put on his fur hat, got out of the carriage, and then watched Thompson, who was speechless, leave in the carriage, he felt that there was no need for him to stay in England any longer, because the owner here had clearly expressed a certain attitude.

Then let's go back to Istanbul, Mo San turned around and walked into the hotel, planning to leave in the near future. (To be continued......)