Chapter 657

A spring rainstorm will wash away the dust from the streets of Richmond, the capital of the Confederate States of America, and at this time, it seems that it is no longer the wind and rain that once prevailed, but a little more relaxed. Lee had already saved the Confederates from the brink of defeat. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

As a "country" with a population of millions, the existence of the Confederate States of America has been somewhat awkward for the past two years or so, and almost since the Confederate States of America declared independence, it has launched active diplomatic mediation in an attempt to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations with countries including France and the United Kingdom. In the end, however, the Confederates were only formally recognized by Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a small principality in Germany. The allies were undoubtedly the losing side diplomatically, because the contradictions between China and the United States kept Britain on the side of Washington. As for France, it was not until after the French invasion of Mexico that the two sides began to mediate. Eventually, however, France backed down after the Battle of Antietan and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Since the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States, European countries have adopted a policy of neutrality and have held unofficial meetings with representatives of the Allied States without formal diplomatic relations.

Compared with the so-called "neutrality" of European countries, China has undoubtedly been more active, adopting international law, treating the north and south sides in the war as belligerents, and even sending diplomats to Richmond in order to protect its own commercial interests.

In fact, after the outbreak of the Civil War, China has always stood firmly on the side of the alliance, and even when its own country is in the midst of war, it has done its best to ensure exports to the alliance countries, and of course, the cotton of the alliance countries is also what China needs.

"Cotton!"

In the Chinese office in the Allied State in Richmond, with a glass of whiskey in his hand, he looked at the assistant in front of him who had just arrived in the Allied State from China.

"Cotton is of course very important to us!"

Cotton is important only to some extent, South Carolina Congressman James? In his famous 1858 speech "The Cotton King," Hammond famously said, "What will happen if cotton is not supplied for three years?" Britain would fall immediately, and the whole civilized world would fall with it, except for the South. No, you don't dare to go to war over cotton. No major power in the world would dare to start a war over this. Cotton is king! ”

Cotton is king!

It's just a joke!

The Union had tried to ban cotton exports in exchange for intervention by Britain and France, but their ideas had failed, and the embargo was unlikely to provoke their intervention. In the real world, great powers are unlikely to succumb to economic blackmail. The ruling authority of the Cotton King is an illusion. Faced with the reality of the ban on cotton exports in the South, Britain opened up alternative sources of cotton in countries such as India and Egypt. Although the quality of this cotton was inferior to that of southern cotton, and the quantity was initially small, the quantity has increased over time, and now the southern part has changed its embargo policy and tried to transport cotton as far as possible through a tight blockade line to cover the cost of arms imports.

"But does cotton really matter?"

With a smile on his face, there was a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"For the Union countries, they may feel that cotton is very important to us, but they don't know that in the past two years, the planting area of American cotton in China has exceeded 50 million acres, if it goes well, the output of high-quality cotton in the United States will basically meet the needs of the country, of course, it is necessary to supplement a large number of local cotton, after all, the development of the cotton weaving industry in the past two years is explosive!"

After the outbreak of the war, because of the extinction of the British cotton yarn source, the rapid rise of large cotton mills in the country, almost every month a large cotton mill was built, and the expansion of the cotton yarn industry stimulated the import of cotton, and it is for this reason that China became the largest importer of Allied cotton - even under the cotton ban, it was the result of the diplomatic efforts of Delhi, as the representative in Richmond, to reach an agreement with the Allied government for arms in exchange for cotton. Because of the war between China and Britain, the Richmond government had to drop part of the ban, knowing full well that they could not intervene in the war of the United States while China and Britain were at war.

As a big country, imports can never meet the needs of the country, the import of U.S. cotton certainly meets the needs in the short term, but the promotion of U.S. cotton is the task of officials at all levels, through the efforts of the government, the planting area of high-quality U.S. cotton continues to increase, of course, the real reason is that U.S. cotton has completed the domestication of the local area, and the seeds will not be degraded.

"As for the United States...... When you come, you should see, we ship cotton from here, and the cargo ship needs to cross the Caribbean Sea first, then dock in Cologne, send the cotton by rail to Panama City, and then load it onto the ship, and then cross the entire Pacific Ocean to China, how far is that? ”

After a rhetorical question, Yu Delhi took a sip of whiskey, and after a few years in the United States, he had already become accustomed to this Western way of life, after all, in many cases, he needed to deal with Americans in this way.

"So it's only a matter of time before the U.S. cotton is replaced!"

As an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although Li Anchen had just come to Richmond, he also learned some things on the ship that came to Richmond.

"Yes, Your Excellency, according to the estimates of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, our demand for cotton in the south this year will be the same as last year, but this year the scale of China's cotton spinning industry has expanded by 120%, which means that our demand for American cotton is decreasing!"

Nodding, Yu Derry expressed his appreciation for Li Anchen's ability to take the initiative to understand these data, and then he said.

"Our demand for U.S. cotton is decreasing, and the alliance is growing, and now the big arsenals have been established in Richmond, Fayetteville, Augusta, Charleston, Columbus, Macon, Atlanta, and Selma,...... Here, before the outbreak of war, they could not produce a gun, a pistol, a sabre, a bullet, a shell, a pound of gunpowder, but now they can make all these munitions in large quantities for the needs of the army, only to a certain extent, of course! ”

The representative's words made Li Anchen's brows jump, and he asked almost immediately.

"My lord, if this happens, will it affect our exports to the United States?"

By export, he meant arms exports, and now Cologne is focused on domestic arms dealers, who sell millions of weapons to the South in exchange for American cotton, and now that the Confederates can produce their own weapons, it will inevitably lead to a decline in the arms trade.

"Not yet, after all, the South lacks industrial raw materials, and perhaps they can appeal to the churches and plantations in the South to hand over the bells and melt them into cannons. Southern women filtered saltpeter from the urine of the nightpot to make gunpowder. Officers clean up the battlefield and recycle lead to make bullets. The officers of the Ordnance Bureau went to the countryside to find distillation utensils so that they could melt it down and use the copper to make rifle detonators, but this did not meet their needs, so they also needed to buy supplies from us, and we ......"

After a moment of silence, Hudri walked to the window, from which he could see the left bank of the river, a field sparsely populated, and sometimes a group of slaves walked lazily in the semi-barren field. At this time, Yu Delhi may even feel that the society is sleeping. But the noisy hummers from afar let it be known that people were busy with their work; The fields are full of thriving crops, and they are laboring. Those black slaves are working in the fields!

"And what we need is to ensure that the alliance can buy the weapons, guns, raw materials and everything else they need, this is our duty, even if we don't need so much cotton in the country, we must also ensure that the alliance's cotton can be exported and can be exchanged for supplies!"

As a diplomat, he knew very well that the domestic attitude towards the American Civil War and the domestic support for the alliance was not for any "guarantee of free trade" or for cotton.

The reason for supporting the alliance is that there is a need for a divided America at home!

"Have you ever been to the middle of the United States?"

Suddenly, Yu Derry turned his head to look at Li Anchen and asked.

"My lord, this is my first time in the United States!"

"The middle of the United States is a vast prairie, and the land there is extremely fertile, and it is certain that if it were used for agriculture, there would be more arable land there than in the whole of China, and how much mineral resources would there be? We don't know, but what is certain is that with the enactment of the Homestead Act, the Midwest will be the future of the United States, and a steady stream of Americans will reclaim hundreds of millions of land there, and the strength of the United States will be inevitable, in this case! ”

Standing by the window, looking at the slaves working on the other side of the river, Yu Derry frowned, and he seemed to see a future America.

"European immigrants will continue to enrich the country, a large amount of land will allow those European immigrants to live a stable life here, if all goes well, maybe in 50 years, the economy of the United States may surpass ours because of its huge population and land, and then the United States will be the only country in the world that is most likely to challenge us, in this case, what can we do?"

Turning his head to look at Li Anchen, Yu Derry asked rhetorically.

"This ......"

"It's to nip the threat in the bud as much as possible!"

After saying this, his eyes were fixed on the distance, and he said in a serious tone.

"Now, what we are doing is our work, which is to ensure the future, to ensure that the United States will not challenge us in the future!"

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