If we look at England in the 16th and 17th centuries from the perspective of later generations, we will find many of the standard patterns of rise seen in classic farming texts: good and safe geography, a booming urban population, concentrated industry and commerce, a steadily expanding basic education, and a golden finger in history. ,!

In the 16th and 17th centuries, there were few particular highlights of the urbanization process in Europe as a whole, both in terms of the number of cities and the population of the cities. London, England, is a special case, and the unrelenting urbanization policy from the Tudor dynasty onwards has made London's population grow far more than any other European city, and after the mid-17th century, it directly surpassed Paris in France to become the largest city in Europe.

It is hard to imagine that at the beginning of the 17th century, England (excluding Scotland and Ireland), with a population of 4.6 million, had nearly 6% of its total population belonging to London, more than 250,000, while Norwich, the country's second largest city, had a population of less than 20,000, and London's population was almost twice as large as Amsterdam in the Netherlands! By the end of the 17th century, London's population had reached 11% of the country's total population, a number that would daunt any European country.

The advantages of natural geography and the concentrated development of industry and commerce have also made London the core engine of the English economy. At the beginning of the 17th century, the annual maritime trade and transportation volume of England reached more than 300,000 tons, of which more than 70% belonged to the city of London, craftsmen accounted for nearly half of London's population, and tens of thousands of people served shipbuilding, repair, cargo unloading, dock storage and transportation.

The "London Twelve Business Guilds", which appeared as early as the beginning of the 16th century, formed a new bourgeoisie of aristocratic investors, merchants and craftsmen earlier than other European countries. The social conditions were created for England to be the first to enter the bourgeois revolution.

From the beginning of the 16th century, a number of educational institutions appeared in London, and by the beginning of the 17th century, education in astronomy, physics, mathematics, literature, law and other education had gradually entered the lower class of London, and a large number of cheap educational publications entered the homes of ordinary Londoners. According to the early 17th century, less than 24% of the merchants and craftsmen in the city could not write, and the level of education in London was also an incredible phenomenon compared to other European countries of the same period.

Even in its history, London has experienced many catastrophic blows. However, as the core city of England, the typical development model of "accumulation and deliberateness" has allowed London to develop from a remote border town of the Roman Empire to the "world capital" of the modern world, driving the progress of the entire British Isle, and its growth and development history can be called a model of modern urban civilization.

Tuesday, April 1, 1625.

The three light cruisers, the Republic, the Silver Valley, and the Shuangwan, as well as the large flying scissors merchant ship Ao Shun, were guided by an English naval sail warship in a single column. Slowly driving into the mouth of the Thames, the British business delegation of the Chinese American Republic arrived at its destination.

On the wide Thames. Countless dhows with bulging sails or small river boats ducked to the side as if frightened, watching as the beautiful American fleet entered arrogantly, and the bolder boats followed closely to the sides or rear of the fleet.

The light cruisers of the Chinese Navy painted in "terrifying" black and white camouflage, the long bodies with the same appearance, the dark and shiny naval guns, and the naval officers and sailors standing in neat formations on the deck all exude a strong sense of oppression. In contrast, the multipty-ton English warship that was guided forward was as weak as an unweaned child.

A large flying shear merchant ship of the Ao Shun flying with various colored flags. Passengers from the 21st century looked curiously at the strange and familiar city in the distance, shouting excitedly, and many people couldn't help but wave their hands to both sides, causing cheers from the river and onlookers on both sides of the river.

"London is the epitome of England, and when you see London, you know why this country will dominate the world in the future." Su Zining held on to the side of the boat. He whispered to the captain of the Republic, Rear Admiral Bai Jun, who was beside him.

"But if necessary, it will take only a day for three light cruisers to reduce the city to ruins, and we will bring four base shells." Bai Jun glanced at the England sailing battleship a hundred meters in front of the flagship. A sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Brother Su, why doesn't it look as lively as you imagined?" Zhou Kemin looked around at both sides of the strait, a little puzzled, "Didn't you say that England was ready to meet us a long time ago?" ”

"Because just a few days ago, James I died." Su Zining smiled slightly, and pointed to a vague classical building on the north bank of the Thames, "It is estimated that we will also be invited to the funeral of this king." ”

"Wow! Tower of London, I see the Tower of London! Dai Qingqing held the binoculars and suddenly shouted on the side, "It's so beautiful!" It's the same as in the photos! ”

"But it was the most luxurious prison, execution ground and assassination site in the history of England, and everyone who died there was not a low status." Su Zining muttered in a voice that only he could hear, and then turned his head disdainfully, but after a few seconds, he turned around again, quietly looking at the royal holy land of England that was sought after by countless tourists in later generations.

In the atmosphere of historical relish, the fleet finally arrived at the Thames dock near London-Bridge, only to see a group of English nobles with solemn expressions already standing on the shore.

James I's death did not cause much fluctuation in the upper echelons of England, and the funeral was simple and swift, which is said to be related to his habit of hating funerals during his lifetime. The enthroned Charles I has not yet released from his "grief", and is taking his newly married beautiful French queen to travel and play abroad, leaving state affairs to a group of favored ministers left by his father such as the Duke of Buckingham.

The entire English royal family, under the "hijacking" of the royalists represented by Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is throwing itself into the Thirty Years' War with all its might. It's a pity that in addition to the income of the English royal family itself. The real power of the State to collect taxes and spend money rests with the National Assembly. In the last days of James I's life, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was in power, attempted several clown-like military campaigns against Spain, costing millions of pounds. The cost of starting a war was so terrible that it created an almost irreconcilable contradiction between the Royalist ambitions to intervene in the war in Europe and the National Assembly's fears about the country's finances.

The arrival of the Sino-American business delegation temporarily pressed the successive disputes after the death of the king, and both the royal royalists and the National Assembly sent high-level representatives to receive them.

Arriving in London on April Fool's Day was a little irony in itself, and Su Zining's unlucky premonition was finally fulfilled - the reception standard of the business visit group was very high. He was assigned to live in the Tower of London. The stories that had happened in this luxurious royal court made Su Zining's heart furious, but he didn't dare to pour out all such stories, otherwise the few women who accompanied him would definitely be unable to sleep at night.

A few days later, a large number of samples of domestic industrial goods brought by the fleet began to be ripped apart in the later Tower of London Treasure Hall. Countless richly dressed English aristocrats and merchants flocked like flies that smelled fish.

Thanks to London's well-developed maritime trade, more luxury goods have entered London through entrepot trade than Paris, France, for several years. The influx of ironware, kerosene lamps, glassware, matches, soaps, cigarettes, refined sugar, and other goods "made in luxury" caused a great shock to all walks of life in London, and James I even ordered special tariffs on Chinese and American goods importers under the name of "unconstitutionality". At one time, it also aroused strong resistance from the National Assembly.

This time, Chinese goods entered England directly and on a large scale. In fact, the chambers of commerce in London have been waiting for a long time, and from then on they will be able to jump out of the middlemen of Portugal or the Netherlands and directly reap the huge profits of Atlantic trade. The royal family wanted to directly obtain monopoly trade rights, and the big businessmen of the National Assembly wanted to keep the trade-related tax rights of the United States and Britain in the hands of the Parliament.

But they were immediately confronted with a very novel concept, and these Americans were not all at once. Instead, it directly spread out a lot of "commodity agency agreements". As soon as it is explained, it seems to be understandable that it is not a trade monopoly franchise. However, this trade monopoly is not directed at a specific company or port, but at a specific commodity.

Each trader can only obtain a maximum of two kinds of Huamei commodity trade franchises, and the same kind of goods, a maximum of three can be signed. This is very unaccustomed to traders who are supported by the powerful behind the scenes or the National Assembly. Fortunately, the rules of mercantilism were already in place in London. So from the very beginning of the fair, there was a fierce competition among traders in London.

The only things that can be obtained in England are woolen fabrics such as woolen wool, coal and some local handicrafts, but Ren Changle still released a large order of woolen raw materials and woolen wool imported 400,000 US dollars a year for his wife's Life Art Group. It made a group of London woollen merchants smile from ear to ear.

As soon as he turned around, Ren Changle took 1 per horse again. The wholesale price of $5 led to an export contract for the supply of 300,000 wool-wool blends per year, compared to England's annual export of 110,000 woolen fabrics in the early 17th century.

In the face of the gorgeous cloth that completely overwhelmed the European textile in terms of width and length standards, quality, and price advantages, several London textile traders decided to divide up after a period of consternation. With such a high-quality cotton and wool blended fabric only 3 shillings to buy it, it can be sold for at least 5 shillings per horse at will, what could be happier in the world than this?!

Zhang Li, chairman of the Standard Oil Company of North America, did not hesitate to leave her post without pay at Radio Manchester City and blended into the business visit group. The first time she went out in person, she threw out a large order for the annual supply of 300 tons of lamp oil plus a large number of new fuel lamps, although the total contract amount was only 200,000 US dollars, but the profit margin reached more than 700%. In Zhang Li's eyes, such an export volume is only equivalent to less than 15% of last year's lamp oil production, which is far from enough for the demand of the English market.

A handful of obscure small London businessmen put together their representatives to contract for the sale of this splendid oil and lamp with a much higher burning quality than crude European oil oil.

Salesman of Xinhua Chemical Company. Directly destroyed the nerves of the Duke of Buckingham's trading agents, the soap was a few grades higher than the English market, but the price was less than 80% of that in London, and the price they had received from the Dutch was almost double the wholesale price offered by the American merchant in front of them, not to mention the strange soap that gave off a heart-warming fragrance.

Without further ado, and no matter how many whaling captains and the London soap union howled and cried in the future, the Duke of Buckingham's trade agent and the trade agent of a member of the National Assembly shared an agency contract for the import of $300,000 a year of soap and soap.

The commercial representative of the state-owned import and export group signed an exclusive contract with the trade agent of the English royal family to supply 3,000 pieces of porcelain a year with a contract value of more than $450,000. Lao Chentou, the only Chinese business representative in the delegation and the chief craftsman of the Yingu Town Porcelain Company, who came to see it for a long time, was frightened.

Like the European upper class in the 17th century, the English traders of the earth buns especially favored the kind of porcelain that was "big and big", even if Lao Chen Tou really couldn't bear to slaughter these "Europa barbarians", but the unit price of a stupid big coarse porcelain that belonged to the low-grade in his eyes still exceeded 150 US dollars, of which the profit belonging to the Silver Valley Porcelain Company was 50 US dollars.

Furs, medicines, matches, cigarettes, perfumes, rock sugar, ironware, glassware...... Almost every item that was a best-selling commodity in Europe led to a fierce "confrontation" at the fair, and the monopoly restriction of a maximum of three companies on a single product brought the royalists and parliamentarians into a bloody meeting.

In just half a month, the Tower of London Fair attracted hundreds of English traders around the city of London. Major companies in China and the United States have won annual export contracts totaling $5 million. At the same time, a contract of $1.5 million was signed for the import of various industrial and agricultural raw materials.

Perhaps £650,000 in annual trade was not particularly outrageous for England in the early 17th century, but anyone can tell. As long as this trade relationship continues, England may overtake Portugal as the third largest trading partner of China and the United States, after the Netherlands and Spain.

In addition to the Chinese and American arms, which have never appeared, dozens of major Chinese and American civilian goods have been divided among hundreds of English traders in the form of trade franchises, the royalists and the parliamentary parties are equally divided, and even many small merchants from outside London have also taken a piece of the pie.

The Atlantic trade layout with England was finally realized under Su Zining's planning, and the trade interests of various factions in England with the United States were intertwined. It must be offended both internally and externally.

Regarding this result, Su Zining seemed to have a long time in mind and didn't care about it at all. He didn't care at all how the domestic nouveau riche showed off how many export agency contracts they had signed today at dinner, but waited for the arrival of certain historical events and reported them with extremely high expectations, which was the real purpose of his personal escort to England this time.

As the entire English royal family, the Royalists, and the National Assembly privately vied for the franchise of all sorts of luxury goods, they seemed to have forgotten that there was more important work to be done.

April 4, 1625. The vanguard of the Imperial Army, led by Duke Wallenstein, a famous general and commander of the Holy Roman Empire, arrived at the Elbe River in northeastern Germany and confronted the English mercenaries led by the Earl of Mansfield.

Warren Stein struck decisively, ordering his lieutenant to preemptively occupy a bridgehead on the other side of the Elbe, but did not choose to extend the victory when his opponent panicked. Instead, the troops were ordered to stop advancing to strengthen the fortifications.

It is absolutely intolerable for the other party to insert a thorn in their own defense! The Earl of Mansfield, who was mediocre in military ability, was immediately fooled and decided to attack this bridgehead with heavy troops, and then stop Wallenstein's advance with the help of the Elbe Line.

As a result, the English mercenary cannon fodder was driven by Mansfield to attack the city with all his might, while the Imperial Army relied on the firepower of the 21B flintlock rifle to defend the city, and secretly transported fresh troops from the rear to the fortress, including the latest dozen American 12-pounder cannons, but Wallenstein did not reveal his strength in advance.

Mansfield attacked for two days in a row, and the troops were exhausted by heavy casualties in the face of the fortifications of the fortifications. Just as Mansfield was about to abandon the attack and readjust his forces, Wallenstein's fresh army hidden in the fortress came out.

The American 12-pounder cannon directly broke up several mercenary phalanxes in Mansfield, which were not very loyal, and then a total of 3,000 musketeers in the five musket battalions carried Type 21b flintlock rifles, and directly took a pressing advance under the cover of their own spearmen, and in half an hour they crushed the 2,000 troops in Mansfield's first line who were also armed with American muskets.

In the face of the counterattack launched by Warren Stein personally led the main force of the Imperial Army, the English mercenaries suddenly fell into chaos. In the Battle of the Elbe, Mansfield's army collapsed, almost as in history, with a loss of more than 8,000 men, especially precious American equipment, and the remnants of the defeated army retreated all the way to Brandenburg.

For the Holy Roman Empire, the second phase was off to an easy start, but for the high-spirited royalist faction of England, it was another inconspicuous defeat, with hundreds of thousands of pounds of military spending being wasted in an instant.

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