“…… Therefore, the basic means of increasing the wealth of our country is to rely on foreign trade, but it must be guided by the principle that the value of the commodities we sell to foreign countries every year is greater than the value of the foreign commodities we import. In our country, the supply of cloth, lead, tin, iron, fish, and some other commodities is relatively sufficient, and there is a surplus of more than two and a half million pounds a year to be exported, and if we at the same time import only two million pounds worth of goods from abroad, we can make the wealth of the country increase in the amount of five hundred thousand pounds a year, and this wealth is deposited in the form of gold and silver coins, which is obviously the real wealth......"

"For products that are facing fierce competition in our country, it is necessary to sell them at as low a price as possible, which helps our goods to occupy the market. When we defeated the Venetian woollen industry and competed for the Ottoman market, we relied on low prices - although the price of our woollen wool fell, our sales increased. However, in the twenties and thirties, due to the inexplicable rise in wool prices, and then a long war broke out, the price of woolen woolen sold in China also rose sharply, which almost caused us to lose half of the overseas market. ”

"We should encourage our own merchant ships to transport goods abroad, so that our country will be greatly profited from them. For example, if Italian merchants came to our country on their own ships to buy cereals, red herring or other commodities, we would not make much money. For in our country a quart of wheat is usually sold for only 30 shillings, and a barrel of red herring for only 25 shillings; And if these goods are transported to Italy by our ships to be sold, at the current exchange rate. A quart of wheat can be sold for about 60 shillings. A bucket of red herring can be sold for 50 shillings. Almost twice as bad. ”

"We want to develop our own fishing industry, which requires first of all that we have more boats and sailors, and we also need professional management methods. In places like New England, Virginia, Greenland, Iceland and Newfoundland, we need to invest more and encourage more people to fish, because it will provide wealth and jobs for large numbers of poor people, and at the same time allow trade to recover and grow in our country, which was already in decline. I do not tire of emphasizing that there are only cod and herring caught by our ships. and fish oil, salted fish, and whalebone made from caught fish, which may be sold in our country, and these commodities can only be removed from our country by our ships (or most of the sailors on board are British). ”

"The Dutch used to say: 'Live, let others live!' But I must say that the Dutch have long since thrown this maxim out of the clouds, not only encroaching on our business in our territory, but also hindering and ruining our business in the countries or regions under their influence, preventing us from making a living by legal means and taking away the bread from our mouths. We must not be patient and accommodating in this regard. For patience and accommodation have proved only to fuel the ambitions of the Dutch, and to the detriment of our great nation. Now we declare war on the Netherlands. I would say it's good, we're going to fight this trade war until the Dutch throw in the towel. ”

Just in Mo San with Morris. When Thompson and others crossed the line of fire to the Thames River docks, in the House of Commons in London, Thomas, a member of the Levant Company, and a major investor in tobacco plantations in Virginia. Stone is giving an impassioned speech in Congress. This merchant parliamentarian, who once made his fortune selling tobacco with Thompson, is now one of the advocates of British overseas trade, and his arguments are very popular in the House of Commons, and he can be regarded as one of the mainstream spokesmen of the British bourgeoisie today.

After the bourgeois revolution in England, the power of the conservative aristocracy was greatly weakened, and the new merchant class began to enter the British political arena in great strides. They held government office while doing business, indirectly influencing and even directly formulating many of the policies introduced by the government, tying the whole country to their chariot and serving them - the promulgation of the Navigation Regulations and the outright declaration of war against the Netherlands were inseparable from their efforts. It may be said that the Republic of England at this time was the second bourgeoisie dominant among the countries of the Old World, and the other was the United Provinces, which were simply a loose confederation of merchants.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Stone's speech won the applause of the members of the House of Commons, and the mercantilist arguments he advocated were very popular among the businessmen. The war with the Dutch lasted for a long time, and although they intercepted and captured hundreds of Dutch ships, although the British navy prevailed in the confrontation with the Dutch, and although the Dutch were losing their will to fight (they repeatedly tentatively proposed the possibility of ending the war), the British were not without losses in this war: the huge military expenditures, the collapse of the Mediterranean trade, and the severe influence of the trade in West Africa all made the war-advocating parliamentarians and gentlemen feel bitter. Because it's their own money that's lost!

In particular, the Levantine-East India merchants, who had a preponderance in parliament (the shareholders of the Levantine Company and the East India Company overlapped extensively), were not strong enough to break the Dutch's predominance there, given the heavy concentration of Dutch troops in the western Mediterranean, and the weak navy sent by the British. As a result, the Levantine Company's business plummeted, and its revenues plummeted, so how could it not upset the merchants—what was it that the country might have benefited from the war, but they had suffered privately? Shouldn't it be the other way around, where they get the benefits privately, while the losses are borne by the state? The state is nothing more than a tool for them to rule this land!

Therefore, they now urgently need someone to say what they like to hear, to promote a theory that they agree with (mercantilism), and to stick to the policies that the country is currently pursuing in their favor. Frequents of the House of Commons know that it has now become a stronghold of mercantilists, where merchants from London, Norwich, Bristol and elsewhere come together to discuss politics, trade, military and diplomacy, and become the de facto masters of the country.

It was in such a trend of thought or background that Mo San came to London. Mr. Thompson, who accompanied him, came to meet with Mo San on December 6, after two days of absence. The meeting took place in Mr. Thompson's mansion in London, which was said to have belonged to a member of the royal party before the Civil War and had been easily auctioned by Thompson the year before for a very good price.

In particular, the wealthy merchants of the Levant-East Indies system, whose business was greatly affected by the weakness of British maritime power in the Mediterranean, were now anxious to find a way to reduce their losses, and since Thompson had brought in the plenipotentiary envoy of the East Coast Republic of China, it seemed that some possibility of cooperation could also be discussed. However, there are some issues that must be clarified before we can cooperate, otherwise the talks will not be able to proceed.

"Does your government intend to enter the Indian market?" Someone asked. Many of you, especially the London merchants, were shareholders in the East India Company, and every year they imported large quantities of refined cotton cloth, pepper, precious stones, saltpeter, raw silk (wild silk of India), and other commodities, which they sold at home or re-exported, and in any case made a great profit. Therefore, they were anxious to know whether the regional power of the East Coast Republic of China (the size of the navy on the East Coast, although not very large in their view, was still a big problem), would intervene in the situation in India and compete with Britain, the Netherlands, and Portugal on the ground. The British merchants were forced to shift their efforts to the Indian subcontinent after a crushing defeat at the hands of the Dutch in the East Indies, which turned out to be a treasure trove no less than the East Indies. Especially after they defeated the Portuguese in two naval battles, the British East India Company's influence on the Mughal dynasty in India has become more and more influential, and the entanglement of interests has become deeper and deeper, and at this moment they absolutely do not want to see any other country intervene in the Indian market - the country on the east coast is not weak in maritime power, and it also has geographical advantages, and it is definitely an object worthy of vigilance.

"Our government has no plans to enter the Indian market, at least not in the short term." Mo San didn't dare to say too much, after all, he didn't know what the government was going to do in the future, so he could only promise vaguely at this moment. However, he was not a man who was willing to suffer for nothing, and since the British demanded that the East Coast not enter the Indian market, then they also had to give some benefits, such as the Persian Kingdom, which was now becoming more and more important to the East Coast Republic of China.

You see, the relationship between the British and Persia is now very good. Their initial friendship began at the Battle of Anglo-Portuguese, when the British Navy (which was actually an East India Company's armed merchant ship) defeated the Portuguese Indian fleet, helped Iran recapture strategic locations such as Bandar Abbas and Hormuz, and helped them renovate their army equipment by trading heavily with the Persians, which kept the Persians sustained themselves in a two-front war against the Ottoman Empire (for Iraq) and the Mughal Empire (for Afghanistan).

The British helped Persia so much that the Persians have always been very gracious. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to ask these British merchants for help in deepening the trade ties with Persia on the east coast - if I do not enter India, you must give me some of the Persian market, right? (To be continued......)