272 Hind Hand

26 June 1688, Parish of St. Thomas, London.

The secretary of the East Coast ambassador to London, Cai Zhenguo, secretly received a middle-aged British man here. He was an illiterate but skilled mechanic at Morrison Stone Tucker's company, already a steam engine manager at a lumber mill in the parish of St. Thomas.

The factory mainly produces standard panels, which are mainly used in marine, furniture and other industries. As London's main buildings have been converted to masonry, demand for timber has fallen sharply over the years, and the industry has become more and more integrated, with a large number of companies focusing on the production of steam engines, including Maurice Stone Tucker, the forerunner of steam engines in England, although it seems that the level of steam engines is still relatively low.

The mechanic named Black in front of him is one of the mechanics responsible for the management and maintenance of the steam engine in the lumber mill, and he is a key member, who has been developed into an informant by the East Coast many years ago, and secretly transmits some information about the current commercial steam engine in Britain to the East Coast Embassy, so that the superiors can make an accurate assessment of its overall level.

The conversation between the secretary and the mechanic has come to an end. A member of the embassy attached to the General Directorate of National Intelligence took two hundred shillings from his leather briefcase, handed it to the golden-eyed mechanic, and carefully instructed him to leave the secret passage—yes, the owner of the inn with whom we were meeting was also an East Coast spy.

The secretary then exchanged views with the two intelligence officers who accompanied him, and felt that the meeting was still very valuable. Leaving aside the technical advances in the British steam engine, it is interesting to say that the British Navy Department had an order for this lumber mill under the Maurice Stone Tucker Company. At first, the British Navy Department placed a large order for marine timber for the mill in the second half of last year, and it was said that it would refurbish some warships parked in the harbor, but this order was cancelled a month later, also by order of the British Navy Department.

In March of this year, King James II's naval cronies came to the factory in person and asked for an order for a large number of shipbuilding materials, including masts and ship boards (the company also deals in the North American and Baltic ship trade), with a total value of more than 80,000 pounds. However, half a month later, the British Navy again canceled the order on the grounds of insufficient funds, leaving the lumber mill completely confused.

Cai Zhenguo's secretary knew that because of his long-term service in the navy, King James II of England still had some cronies in the naval system, but there were also a large number of officers in the navy who had finally reached Congress. The two sides were originally evenly matched as a whole, but in recent years, with the division of Congress (they have money), many navies that were originally loyal to the king have slowly fallen to the king, so that the navy of the king's family has fallen into disadvantage and can no longer dominate the situation.

In such a situation, it is not so surprising that orders are repeatedly placed and cancelled, because it is not a group of people at all, but an internal struggle between two different forces.

The people on the east coast were well aware of the situation in the North Sea at this time, so it became clear that it was because King James II was becoming less and less popular with the MPs, the appropriations were dwindling, the party was dying, and the news of the imminent accession of William III, the consul of the United Provinces, was like weeds, so he wanted to take a risk and use some of his naval power to keep the Dutch out of the British Isles and take the throne.

There is no doubt that James II has very few people to trust now. Not to mention the army that once killed the king (it is not for nothing that the British Army has not been given the royal "title" in later generations), it has been the stronghold of the republicans since the time of Cromwell, and it has not been cold to the king, after all, it can be traced back to its original source, but it was the new model army that defeated the king back then. James II has no roots here, even though he and his brother Charles II have been in business for many years, and have replaced many army officers who followed them into exile, but they have not been able to make this army obey their orders, and it can only be said that it has some influence, but Congress should have a far advantage in this regard.

The real focus of the royal family is actually the navy. When James II was still the Duke of York, he served in the navy, and also participated in the Anglo-Dutch naval battle, his qualifications were quite acceptable, and he also united some naval officers around him. But there is a problem with the navy, that is, the cost is too large, the income of the royal family is not very large, the court cost is very huge (James II is not very frugal), and it has to maintain the already pitiful influence in the army, so the huge investment in the navy has been weak for many years.

The only way for the royal family to crack the problem is to reform the current fiscal system, establish a modern tax system, and put as much financial power as possible in the hands of the royal family. At present, because the power of Parliament in Britain is very large, and the members of the parliament are basically enlightened aristocrats or big capitalists, they are naturally very inactive in collecting their own taxes. Britain's current taxation is characterized by a small number of taxes, and then the efficiency of collection is extremely bad, not to mention that it is inferior to countries such as France and the United Provinces, and even Italy and the North German states.

Britain now collects taxes every year, except for the royal expenses and the normal use of the country, it is tightly controlled, let alone do anything else. Otherwise, why do you think previous generations of English kings kept selling off their royal assets (some even sold their wives' dowries) to raise money? I really don't have any money! Whenever there was an incident in the country, the king, as the head of state, could only ask the parliament to raise taxes, and at the same time ask the parliamentarians to "bail out" a large amount of money, which was basically a temporary measure, completely different from the fixed tax system on the east coast.

And if you can't control the financial power, then why does your royal family control the overall situation at home and influence the army? Do you rely on the patriotic idea of loyalty? When James II first ascended the throne, the Duke of Monmouth rebelled and a bunch of people watched the scene, I believe many people are familiar with it. With such a low level of control, it is no wonder that King James II was very worried that the throne would be taken away by William III and his wife, after all, there were a bunch of ill-intentioned bigwigs in Parliament standing behind them, and they could also borrow a considerable part of the resources of the United Provinces rich in Europe - William III had promised many Dutch nobles and businessmen in The Hague and Amsterdam that once he succeeded in taking over London, he would give the Dutch who supported him "more than imagined rich rewards".

To be honest, this promise is quite demagogic. You know, businessmen don't have a homeland, and the big wholesalers in Amsterdam can make a fortune in the Netherlands, and naturally they can also immigrate to London to make a fortune. What are nations and nations? Are there any golden coins cute? As a result, Wilhelm III attracted some Dutch merchants to invest in him, and he was able to hire a number of experienced soldiers in the South Netherlands and Germany to drive him, as ordinary Dutch soldiers did not seem to be very impressed by his initiative to take over London, because their roots were in the Netherlands. But for mercenaries, it's not a problem, they only serve the money, as long as the money is enough, you let them kill their own people.

The people of the East Coast are undoubtedly very worried about this. They feared that William III, once he became King of England, would take control of the situation with the support of the MPs, and then use England's resources and influence in the United Provinces to lead to the union of the two countries, which was absolutely unacceptable to them. Taking a step back, even if the two countries had not been united, it would have been unacceptable for William III to have a profound influence on the course of the Netherlands if he still relied on the position of supreme head of the United Provinces.

Based on this consideration, since the first half of this year (1688), they have assisted the republican stalwarts led by Konrad van Boningen through various channels, so that they can create public opinion in the country by various means to avoid the above-mentioned evil consequences. It is reported that the republicans are doing a very good job at present, using printing equipment imported from the east coast to secretly print a lot of pamphlets in the South Netherlands, and then distribute them in large quantities in the major towns of the United Provinces, focusing on exposing all kinds of things about William III's collusion with England, and then pointing out how much harm he will bring to the vast majority of the merchants and people of the United Province if he is allowed to hold the post of head of state of the two countries.

I have to say that the republicans still did a pretty good job. Mobilizing the masses has always been the best way to deal with a "warlord" like William III, who wields the barrel of a gun. After all, his army also came from the people, who could not afford to emigrate to London like the big capitalists, or if they could, their standard of living would drop dramatically, so they were very unhappy with the fact that William III might harm the interests of the United Provinces at the expense of Britain.

And if no one organizes them, but now that the old political forces such as the Republicans are contacting and organizing, then this kind of discontent is likely to be inflamed, and then it will cause huge political influence. Wilhelm III must have felt a little uneasy by now, and while he made various explanations that he would not harm the interests of the United Provinces, he continued to co-opt powerful speculators or bankers, and began to humbly hire soldiers from abroad, so that he still had troops at his disposal in the event of the instability of the Dutch army.

Of course, William III was very angry with the republicans' move to "shake the country's foundation", and he was also very dissatisfied with the new printing equipment and personnel funded by the East Coasters. He sent an army, still loyal to his family, to ban this dangerous pamphlet in the seven provinces, but it did not seem to work well, but it provoked more opposition, and the whole of Holland was thrown into a state of turmoil.

All of the above information has basically been sent to the plenipotentiary envoy of Cadiz, Gao Wengang, through various channels, for him to provide support in making decisions. On the whole, the East Coast is relatively optimistic about the current situation, and the Anglo-Dutch merger was rumored to have failed during the Cromwell era, and should not be able to succeed now. The ideal outcome would be for William III to come to power once he took over London, abolishing the United Provinces and re-establishing the Speaker of the Estates-General as the country's successor, making the United Provinces once again a reliable partner on the East Coast.

"The economic complementarity between the two countries is really very strong, and if the republicans can be put in power, it can not only inject new impetus into domestic industrial development, but also reduce the speed of industrial and commercial development in Britain, which is really killing two birds with one stone." On the way back to the Iron Mansion secretly, the secretary sighed softly: "It is a pity that in such a delicate situation, we are not ready enough to intervene. The vital Portuguese garrison was sent eastward because of the Black Sea detachment, and we only had a few warships in northern Portugal. If the time really comes for us to intervene resolutely, will these warships be of great use? ”

To be honest, the East Coasters themselves have no answer to this question. Because even if the Portuguese garrison had not been withdrawn, would they really have the courage to land in Holland and intervene in the situation? Do you really think that those 3,000 people are all beaten with iron, and there are immortal golden bodies? In contrast, the fact that the people on the East Coast helped the Dutch republicans to print and distribute pamphlets by providing a small amount of money, equipment, and personnel was rather a bit of a diversion.

Next, what they should do is actually to use similar ideas, let the Dutch republicans give full play to their subjective initiative, leverage domestic public opinion by themselves, consolidate their advantages, and turn the tables in one fell swoop at the final showdown. You know, the French might be able to help in this matter as well.

Of course, it would have been better if the Black Sea detachment heading east had been able to take care of the local affairs as soon as possible and return to Portugal. After all, it's hard to say when they will be used, and the republicans are naturally a little lame in the military, which is also a reality that cannot but be considered, and the people on the East Coast must keep their hands behind to deal with emergencies.