Leaving the United States was completely temporary, so it was a bit of a rush, and for many of the businessmen's children, they were quite sorry, because the Americans had only prepared a small part of the tour for them, and for young people who had just arrived in a new world, what could be more disappointing than not being able to enjoy it to the fullest. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

But when they heard the British captain, who was very interested in them, say that Britain was stronger and richer than the United States, and that Britain was the first-rate country in the world, they had some expectations, of course, they did not think that Britain was the best country in the world, because they came from China, but it did not prevent them from treating Britain as the best country among foreigners, and it was worth seeing.

The shipbuilding technology of this era allowed the fastest clippers to cross the Atlantic in only 13 days between Britain and the United States.

They were on a clipper, but their captain was a moderate man, and he refused another invitation to race in New York Harbor, and by the time they reached London, eighteen days had passed, exactly in May.

The agenda of the mission was transmitted to London a few days earlier, but London had learned two months earlier that there was a Chinese mission that was about to visit Britain and hoped to submit diplomatic documents to Britain, and the news was sent back from Hong Kong.

So when the Chinese first arrived in the United States, in fact, the British already knew the situation, but the British government had serious differences about how to receive this delegation, because unlike the United States, they did not need to rely on such a mission to demonstrate the legitimacy of the government, and they received a detailed report from Ergin, reporting to them the current complicated situation in Guangdong, and this delegation came for this.

As the first Chinese delegation to visit the UK, even if it is only a delegation sent by a local government, the British king is not unable to receive it, but the problem is that the other party may raise a very unreasonable situation that may be difficult for both sides to clean up when meeting with the British king, according to Elkin, the other party is extremely unfamiliar with international diplomatic practices, and the formal attitude is too emotional. If such a delegation is allowed to meet the British king, in case of a face-to-face conflict with the British king, there will be a diplomatic dispute, and even if there is no diplomatic dispute, embarrassing the queen will be a blow to the image of Britain.

Therefore, the vast majority of officials did not approve of the queen receiving the mission, but on whether to allow the mission to visit the parliament and speak, everyone was divided, some said that let these barbarian countries see the highest model of Western civilization, the British parliamentary system, can make them feel a sense of awe of Britain, some said that the parliament is a sacred place, and it is an affront to the highest authority of the United Kingdom to let these barbarians enter for a while.

Although both sides were racist, one was positive and the other was conservative, neither could convince anyone, and until the time the Chen Zhiting mission landed in London, the British government was still deliberating on how to receive the mission.

The negligence of the government, especially the Foreign Office, does not mean that all departments are indifferent, at least the Ministry of Commerce is very active, because they know the details of this mission, and know that the vast majority of the people in this mission are the most influential businessmen in Guangdong, and these businessmen are the largest customers of British commerce, so the Ministry of Commerce cannot be lazy in any case, and they even hope to promote the development of trade between China and Britain through this delegation.

Not knowing diplomatic etiquette has the advantage of not knowing diplomatic etiquette, they were greeted by a British business official, Chen Zhiting and they didn't care, because they didn't understand, when the other party arranged for them to stay in a hotel in London, Chen Zhiting also actively asked him when he would meet the Queen of England.

Arguing with Queen Yingyi in person is Chen Zhiting's greatest motive, and it is also the reason why he is willing to step on a warship bound for the West with a tragic mood.

When he was asked to make his first visit to Europe and the United States on behalf of Xin'an County that day, Zhu Jinglun told him that he was being loyal to the country and that he first went to the United States to apologize, and that it was out of order to stop the United States from sending troops to Beiping.

It is a pity that the division of the United States has been a long time, and the excluded delegation ships turned out to be one south and one north, the battleship Minnesota in the north and the cruiser Mississippi in the south.

So they came directly to the UK, for Chen Zhiting, Britain is the fundamental purpose of this visit, despite the baptism of industrial civilization in the United States, but Chen Zhiting is still difficult to change the mentality of treating foreigners as barbarians, meeting Britain, reprimanding in person, or reasoning, is still very attractive to him, he wants to use the teachings of the saint of benevolence and righteousness, and talk to the queen of this foreigner, so that she knows the mistakes she has made.

Zhu Jinglun didn't know that Chen Zhiting came with the mentality that an envoy from the upper kingdom visited Fanguo for the first time, and he came with the mentality that the heavens mocked Qin and sent him to meet the vassal king, if he knew, he should be glad that the British didn't let him see the queen, otherwise it would be a lot of trouble.

The British Business Department official was vague that he could only represent his department, and was not aware of or concerned about the government's current contradictions, saying only that he would convey relevant information. As for whether other government departments would intervene, he was not interested, and the Ministry of Commerce received an official letter from the United States from the foreign affairs department, and the Americans told Britain that the Guangdong mission would arrive in the next few days, and hoped that Britain would be able to do a good job of receiving them.

The Americans conveyed this message on behalf of the Americans, out of consideration of the diplomatic ambiguity of the mission, and the fact that there were no direct diplomatic relations between China and Britain. However, the Ministry of Commerce was not the first to receive the notice from the foreign service, but it was the first to act.

After that, the officials of the Ministry of Commerce began to talk to Chen Zhiting constantly, he knew that this mission did not have any diplomatic mission, it was an inspection mission, but after all, it was the first mission, so their concept is likely to become Guangdong's concept of Britain, and using the concept to influence the world is what the British are best at, or what they are best at.

He arranged for other members of the mission to visit various parts of the United Kingdom, and Wilson, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce, personally accompanied Chen Zhiting, who invited Chen Zhiting to visit factories and shipyards large and small in London, and invited him to visit museums with cultural relics from all over the world and various nationalities.

But his purpose is definitely not these, and it is not the same as the purpose of the United States, which is still ignorant and wants the Cantonese Mission to see the best side of them, so it shows some of the most developed areas in New England, and the British show something other than developed.

The factories that Wilson asked Chen Zhiting to look at were often extremely specialized, producing nails, screws, and pipes, and basically did not have any complete sets of equipment.

In fact, it is the theory of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", which tells Chen Zhiting that through the division of labor, countries with mutual advantages each produce their own products with advantages, and then through free exchange of trade, the production capacity of both sides will be greatly improved.

From the division of labor, the change of free trade has been guided, and the division of labor and cooperation have injected a theoretical basis into free trade.

The British, and later the Americans, are very good at this.

Scholars like Adam Smith can always come up with all sorts of theories for these politicians to choose from, promote, and then fool others.

It is a pity that when Adam Smith was alive, Britain was still maintaining a heavy capitalism and implementing a strict trade protection policy, but more than ten years after Adam Smith's death, the economic masterpiece he wrote half a century ago suddenly became popular. Britain began to admire this book from top to bottom, because the British had completed industrialization at this time, and their industrial level stood at the commanding heights of the world, and the United States and the rest of Europe did not have the same industry as the British as a whole, not to mention the gap in technology and efficiency.

It was Britain that reached the stage of engaging in free trade, so they brought out Adam Smith's writings, and put Adam Smith on the altar to sell his theory to the world, fooling these countries that the reason why Britain is strong is because they respect Adam Smith's theory, and because Britain advocates free trade.

Later economists believed that Britain hoped to persuade them to put the factors of production back into agriculture by opening up the attractive bait of the British market to competitors around the world by adopting free trade. Germany, for example, should not compete with British industrial products, should not produce steel, but should produce more barley and rye in exchange for industrial products in which Britain has a better price. France should not produce textiles, but more wine and luxury goods.

Many countries in this era ate this set, and in 1860, just after Napoleon III became emperor, signed the Treaty of Cobden Chevalier with France. Britain provides preferential tax rates for French wine, silk fabrics, handicrafts and other products that it cannot produce, while France has liberalized trade restrictions on British steel products, textiles and other industrial products.

The result was a devastating impact on France's textile industry.

The Germans were clever enough to build their own customs union behind closed doors, and Prussia either forced or negotiated a trade union that would include most of the German states.

The end result was that Germany, which had developed its own steel industry and manufacturing industry by protecting it, beat France, which was highly developed in silk fabrics and luxury goods. (To be continued.) )