Although Prime Minister Tony Blair thought it was a very unwise thing to make a big consequence, because of the active campaign of Mountbatten, the speaker of the House of Lords, he quickly attracted a large number of supporters.

Not to be outdone, Blair began to woo parliamentarians.

But it turned out that the number of parliamentarians supporting Blair was very small, and most of them were maritime traders.

At this time, although England was already a constitutional monarchy, it had already entered the capitalist era. However, the right to speak in the country was still monopolized by the old aristocracy, and the political influence of merchants was not as great as that of later generations.

What's more, except for those maritime merchants, the rest of the merchants basically sided with Mountbatten.

The reason is simple, because they did not make a profit in their trade with Da Zhou. On the contrary, because of the large influx of Da Zhou goods, their goods began to be unsalable, and they declined year after year.

In March, in the House of Lords, MPs gathered to discuss how to deal with the relationship with Da Zhou.

Mountbatten proposed: "With the influx of goods into the country, the market share of the British Empire's domestic products has been declining year after year, and even threatened the survival of many factories, and hundreds of people have lost their jobs." Therefore, I propose to increase the tariff on the goods of the Great Zhou Dynasty from the original 10 percent to 20 percent, so as to enhance the competitiveness of the goods of our British Empire. ”

"Voting is now open!"

Mountbatten was full of confidence, because before coming to the parliament, Mountbatten had already guessed the outcome.

In fact, as Mountbatten expected, the final voting results were counted, and Mountbatten saw that the number of people in favor of raising tariffs exceeded 80%.

Blair, on the other hand, was devastated when he learned the result.

After a short break at the Prime Minister's Office, Blair took a car to Buckingham Palace to present the results of the vote to Her Majesty and make a corresponding analysis: "Your Majesty, I believe that even if the tariffs on the goods of the Great Zhou Dynasty are raised, the current trade deficit will not be reversed in the end. More crucially, the British Empire may even turn against the Great Zhou again. ”

Blair said this for a simple reason. It is said that the wool comes from the sheep, even if England has raised the tariffs on the goods of the Great Zhou, but the main goods of the Great Zhou in Europe are more luxurious things, and the price is not cheap, and it is not something that ordinary people can afford.

Even if the price of Da Zhou products has increased due to tariffs, I am afraid that in the end, it will not be able to stop the sales of Da Zhou products in Europe.

Those who can afford to use Da Zhou's commodities are all people who are either rich or noble.

These people may not be friendly to Da Zhou, but to be honest, they can't really let them give up the goods that don't use Da Zhou.

In today's European aristocratic houses, if there are not a few silk clothes produced in the Great Zhou Dynasty, a few pieces of porcelain as decorations, and no tea to entertain guests, it is an extremely shameful thing.

Just like in later generations, if you don't wear a set of brand-name clothes and pants, don't have a watch on your hand, and don't drive a luxury car, how can you prove that you are a successful person?

Besides, people who can afford to consume Da Zhou's goods, will they care about this money?

Her Majesty has nothing to do about the outcome of the House of Lords, because she is only the nominal supreme ruler of the British Empire, and has no real power of her own.

On the contrary, Blair, as prime minister of the British Empire, has a veto power. But the veto power is not used in this way, and you can't just veto everything you oppose, so is there still a need for parliament to exist?

More crucially, this is the year of the British Empire's general election, and with the overwhelming majority of parliamentarians supporting Mountbatten, Blair has no chance of being re-elected. So even if he uses a veto this time, Mountbatten will be able to continue to implement his so-called Great Zhou threat theory when he comes to power a few months later.

The news of the sudden increase in tariffs by the English government on the goods of the Great Zhou Dynasty soon spread throughout Europe.

In Italy, in Prussia, in the Netherlands, in France, in Austria and even in Rus' countries, almost all the governments saw the performance of the English government, and they followed suit, and at the same time increased tariffs on goods of different proportions.

On the contrary, it is the French government, which has not reacted for the past few days.

In the past few days, the French Emperor Louis XVIII has been very conflicted. Because since Mountbatten threw out the so-called Great Zhou threat theory, Louis XVIII was clearly aware of the threat of the Great Zhou to the whole of Europe.

But on the other hand, France should be regarded as the largest trading country in the Great Zhou. Every year, France has at least tens of millions of taels of silver worth of various industrial equipment purchased by Da Zhou, which brings a lot of economic vitality to France.

The most important thing is that Da Zhou's purchases from France are mainly industrial equipment, which has allowed France's heavy industry to develop by leaps and bounds.

That's why Louis XVIII was so conflicted.

Louis XVIII speculated that if France also increased tariffs on Da Zhou goods, would Da Zhou not introduce large-scale industrial equipment to France in the future?

So how much will the country's heavy industry factories go bankrupt as a result?

But if France does not take a stand, it will not work, because the trade deficit between France and the Great Zhou is getting bigger and bigger, and it has even begun to threaten France's gold and silver reserves.

While Louis XVIII hesitated, the French government cabinet was noisy. Representatives of different interests faced each other and staged an annual drama of verbal wars.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, the results have come out, there are ten people in the cabinet who support the increase in tariffs and six who oppose the increase in tariffs." The Cabinet Ministers presented the results of today's discussion to Louis XVIII.

"In that case!" Louis XVIII shook his teeth and said, "Then raise the tariff on the goods of the Great Zhou from the original ten percent to fifteen percent!" ”

In the end, Louis XVIII made the decision to increase tariffs, and had to make such a decision.

Because now the whole of Europe is doing this, and if France doesn't do it, I'm afraid that Europe will be isolated.

So Louis XVIII still made such a decision, but it is clear that Louis XVIII also understood that in order not to completely annoy the Great Zhou, Louis XVIII only increased the tariff by five percent, which can be said to be the country with the fewest tariffs on the goods of the Great Zhou in the whole of Europe.

Louis XVIII believed that through the rate of tariffs, the Great Zhou court and the Great Zhou emperor would definitely understand their own hardships.

With the French government's official decision to raise the tariff rate of goods in the Great Week, the whole of Europe is boiling. And the happiest of them all is Mountbatten......