Whatever kind of bad thing you want to catch the evil doer, you must first find the one who can benefit from the bad thing. With you gone, to whom's benefit?

- The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas pulled a small notebook out of his pocket, holding one of the pages and waving it gently at Arthur.

Arthur certainly understood what he meant, but what happened today no longer allowed him to weigh the interests of the assassination incident with simple stakes.

In terms of personal vendettas, the most suspicious are former Congressman Bernie Harrison and Magistrate George Norton.

But now he still has a very special identity on him.

If you think about it from the point of view of the Liverpool Anti-Smuggling Ombudsman, the people who wanted to kill him included the import and export trading companies that were dissatisfied with the port controls, and these companies did not specifically refer to those in the Liverpool Association, but also included the giant corporations with royal franchises around the world, such as the British Africa Company, the British West India Company, the British Moscow Company, and so on.

Although these trading companies, which wielded a large number of monopoly powers, could not be compared with the large monopolistic commercial conglomerates such as cartels, syndicates, trusts, and conzels that emerged in the late 19th century, even the East India Company, the leader among them, had to bow to parliament at the legal and practical levels.

But whoever thinks of these corporations as good citizens because they bow their heads before parliament is very wrong.

Take, for example, the East India Company, based in Leader's Street, London, which was founded in 1600 and acquired a 21-year franchise in the East Indies from Elizabeth I, and was tasked with opening trade routes for the royal family to the East Indies, the Malay Peninsula, the Ming coast, and the Japanese archipelago.

At the beginning of the establishment of the East India Company, their task of opening up shipping routes was not smooth. Expedition fleets were in danger repeatedly, and the pirates of East Asia were far more difficult to deal with than they had imagined. Even the company's core member, the famous British explorer John Davis, was killed in a battle with Japanese pirates.

In the eighth year, when even the king had ceased to have any hope of opening an eastern route, the East India Company suddenly received good news. After rounds of hard work and unremitting efforts, the company's fleet officially landed in Surat, India, and established its first factory in a small town near the Bay of Bengal.

King James I was overjoyed to receive the news, and in appreciation of the East India Company, he issued an indefinite charter to the company, announcing that it would only be cancelled if the company had not made a profit for three consecutive years.

In order to protect the hard-won success of the East India Company, James I even sent diplomats to visit the Mughal Empire, the overlord of India, and successfully reached a diplomatic agreement with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir on the condition that European treasures were regularly provided, confirming the right of the East India Company to settle and establish factories within the territory of the Mughal Empire.

With the protection of these legal documents, it did not take long for the rapidly expanding East India Company to knock out the Portuguese merchants who had been operating in India for a long time.

While the East India Company was triumphant, the Glorious Revolution broke out in Britain. Since their main assets are concentrated in India, they have survived this dispute that has lasted for half a century unscathed.

Not only that, in order to compete for the support of the East India Company, which can only lay golden eggs, both the Lord Protector Cromwell and the British royal family, who wanted to be restored, threw olive branches to them.

Cromwell elevated their position in Parliament, and the restored Charles II came out on top.

He issued five decrees directly against the East India Company, granting it the right to occupy land on its own, mint coins, command forts and armies, form alliances and declare war, sign peace treaties, and try civil and criminal proceedings in occupied areas.

The granting of these powers to the East India Company was almost tantamount to declaring the East India Company as the State.

Although the East India Company had always claimed that it was not a government, it was in fact a government independent of the British government.

In the spirit of having the right not to be a bastard, the East India Company soon formed an independent armed force belonging to the company, and after a few years of fierce warfare, it brazenly launched what was called the Anglo-Mughal War, but in essence it was the East India Company VS Mughal War.

However, it was clear that the newly formed East India Company forces were overestimating their own combat capabilities while underestimating the strength of the Mughal Empire, and the resentment of their peers by the French and Portuguese merchants who had suffered their losses in India.

After four years of fierce warfare, suffering a bunch of French and Portuguese munitions, and the domestic political situation in Britain was also turbulent and unable to help them because of the Glorious Revolution, the company's board of directors finally died with broken teeth.

Under pressure from 125 major shareholders, the company announced after an emergency board meeting that it would stop losses in time and shake hands with the Mughal Empire at the cost of 150,000 gold rupees.

The East India Company was greatly damaged by this battle, and the royal family and parliament, which had recovered from the Glorious Revolution, finally found out that we were too indulgent of this private enterprise.

But the East India Company's indefinite charter was granted through a legal process, and they had remained profitable, so it was morally or legally unreasonable to take their franchise directly.

But this little difficulty is obviously not difficult for all of you to go to India to make a fortune.

In the spirit of 'as long as the mind does not slip, there are always more ways than difficulties', everyone quickly came up with a different way.

Although there was no way to revoke the East India Company's charter, could the parliament allow other companies to enter India's trade, and wouldn't that essentially abolish the East India Company's monopoly on India?

Not only that, in order to prevent the companies entering India from being defeated by the size of the East India Company, the parliament also personally legislated the establishment of a new company called the 'British East India Company' to fight the old East India Company.

The shareholders of the East India Company, feeling the crisis, hurriedly scraped together hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy shares in the shell company, and not only that, but in order to show their loyalty to the government, the board of directors brainstormed overnight, and finally came up with the first corporate motto in history, Auspico Regis et Senatus Angliae (by order of the King and Parliament of England/Anglia)

However, although the East India Company repeatedly demanded that its employees conscientiously understand the meaning of the motto and conscientiously implement the spirit of the motto, and repeatedly emphasized that 'the king and the council command the company' was the fundamental principle of the establishment of the East India Company, this could not win back the hearts of the king and the council.

When the king and the parliament found that the new company was not doing as well as expected in India, and that it could not affect the monopoly of the old company, the mind came alive again.

The East India Company, sensing that something was wrong, took the lead this time, proposing a merger between the new company and the old one, and invited the Ministry of Colonial Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Board of Trade to be deeply involved in the reorganization of the company, with the parliament in charge of overseeing it.

In the end, the East India Company reluctantly ate the 3.2 million pounds loan that the government had forced over, and the merger plan of the old and new companies successfully passed the parliamentary review.

In return, Parliament 'generously' returned India's monopoly to it.

Although, according to the provisions of the old license, this right should have belonged to it.

However, after resolving the problem of the unequal distribution of the spoils, the British government soon again gave full diplomatic and military support to the East India Company.

On the diplomatic front, the East India Company obtained from the Mughal Empire the right to exempt tariffs in Bengal.

Militarily, a large number of regular Royal Navy and Army officers were sent to serve in the East India Company troops, and there was no shortage of well-known reserve officers who had worked their way up the battlefields in India.

For example, he defeated a Mughal army of 70,000 with 3,000 troops and conquered Robert Klevau in Bengal. Or the Duke of Wellington, who attacked the 40,000 magic armies of the Kingdom of Mysore with 7,000 troops and won the victory.

It was thanks to the help of the government that the East India Company was able to grow to the size it is today.

But the balance between the East India Company and the government has always been delicate, and whenever a conflict broke out between Britain and the rest of Europe, the government loosened the reins around its neck in order to obtain a steady income.

And once it was time for peace, the parliament and the cabinet were pondering almost every day how to pull the reins back.

After the passage of three bills in 1784, 1786 and 1813, the former business giant became more large and bloated than before, but in retrospect, it was sad to find that it had not only an Indian governing council on its head, but even a Viceroy of India.

Not only that, but his business functions are constantly being stripped and compressed by Parliament. Although the trade volume of this golden egg hen has been steadily rising, the rate of profit growth has been far from keeping pace with the increase in expenses.

The biggest reason for the sharp increase in spending is that in response to the call of the higher authorities, they have added a number of local management agencies in India that have no benefit to the company itself.

When Arthur used to talk to Lionel, the young master of the Rothschilds, he used to talk about the East India Company.

From the mouth of the Jewish young master, Arthur learned that the current East India Company was carrying a total debt of nearly 10 million pounds. Although their trade volume is still large, the profits have been squeezed to an extremely small extent by the calculating council.

Occasionally, in bad trading years, it is not once or twice that the annual financial statements of the East India Company show negative profit growth or even lose money.

It can be said that after the complete loss of monopoly power in India in 1813, the East India Company today is like a frightened bird, which can be frightened by the slightest movement.

In order to defend their business interests, they don't mind playing a little trick, say, starting a war or something.

In other words, after more than two centuries of turmoil, the East India Company has now been reflexed by the Parliament.

Their code of conduct is: I am submissive to the Parliament. When it comes to Indians, I'm going to hit hard! If the French and Portuguese merchants dare to get involved, I'll even beat them together!

The East India Company dared to start a war in India, but assassinated a Scotlands Yard superintendent and commissioner in London. To be honest, they don't really have the guts.

After all, the 20-year charter granted to them in 1813 was about to be renewed.

The council usually found no excuse to beat them, and if they hit themselves with the muzzle of the gun, they would simply come to the pillow when they fell asleep, and neither side could ask for it, nor would it be for either side of the Whigs.

The big brother of the East India Company is like this, not to mention the younger brothers such as the African Company and the West India Company. The consensus of these companies is not to toss around in normal times, otherwise no one will be able to carry a management committee on the side of the council and a big hat of the governor.

Thinking of this, Arthur suddenly frowned.

The Liverpool Association, which he had ruled out of suspicion, was put on the suspicious list by him.

The Liverpool Association was dissatisfied with the isolation of the port and assassinated him, which was the first layer.

The East India Company's assassination of the commissioner, in order to frame the Liverpool Association, is the second tier.

Or maybe the Liverpool Association deliberately made the assassination so crudely so that I and London were suspicious, and finally mistakenly thought that the case was an attempt by the East India Company to frame the Liverpool Association and thus stumble over the renewal of the East India Company's license, which is the third layer.

Is that the end of it?

How many floors are there in the back?

Dumas saw Arthur's frowning brow, and couldn't help asking, "Arthur, what do you want?" His face was wrinkled like a mille-feuille. ”

Hearing this, Arthur leaned back and sighed, "Alexander, I'm caught. To tell you the truth, I look at everyone like the murderer behind the scenes. Tell me the truth, are these Poles hired? ”

"Do I need to hire someone if I want to kill you?" Alexandre Dumas pulled out his pistol and played a trick: "If I make a move, you won't be able to get to Liverpool." ”

Heine also pinched his chin and said suspiciously: "Speaking of which, this is also strange today. Today, there are members of the Napoleonic family, the famous American writer and secretary of the legation, and I, a great wise man who cannot be tolerated by Prussia. Why are killers coming after you? Are you worth more than the three of us together? ”

When Louis heard this, he just patted Heine's jingling pocket: "For now, for the time being, yes." Heinrich, you better spend this pocket of gold coins before criticizing. With the money that others have gotten, it's not hard to say this. ”

Arthur didn't care about their words, they still had the heart to quarrel, at least it showed that the big guy's emotional state was quite stable.

But then again, those standing here basically have a relatively strong psychological quality.

Alexandre Dumas carried out a 'terrorist attack' in Paris.

Louis took part in the charcoal revolt in Italy, and he himself escaped the sound of artillery fire from the Austrian suppressive army.

Even Heine, the most inferior, had to follow a few Prussian secret police when he was in his hometown of Düsseldorf.

With this experience, an assassination attempt really didn't seem like a big deal to them.

His gaze suddenly caught on Sheriff Field, who had just finished investigating the crime scene.

The right-hand man of the Criminal Investigation Department, who was brought up by Arthur, looked like he wanted to say something.

Seeing this, Arthur asked, "Charles, have you found anything?" ”

Seeing Arthur take the initiative to ask, Field hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke: "I don't know if it's right or not, but ...... Sir, if we look at our experience in handling criminal cases, this assassination does not conform to the logic of a normal homicide case. ”

When Arthur heard this, he hummed softly: "What do you think?" ”

"Normally," said Field, "if a prisoner is really intent on killing someone. Then he will definitely choose to kill people as secretly and imperceptibly as possible. Only that kind of whim-of-the-street quarrel can give birth to such a horrific way of killing people with passion.

According to the way you taught me to investigate cases, a homicide is usually caused by personal vendettas or financial interests. In terms of personal vendettas, you have never met those killers, and it is not a murder but an assassination, a method of killing people in the street that is usually used by people in a non-dominant position when they are desperate, like the bankrupt businessman Bellingham, who assassinated Prime Minister Percival. So they must have been commissioned to assassinate them, and I have no objection to that.

But what kind of employer would require them to use the method of stabbing in the street in public? And they don't provide any help to their own killers, so that they have to go out of their way and choose this stupid assassination method? On top of that, these Poles are still shouting your name before they do it, as if they are afraid that others will not know that they are going to kill you.

If I put myself in the shoes of my employer, I'm the one who wants to kill you, and I'm sure I'll ask these killers to do at least when it's dark. For example, setting a fire downstairs in a hotel at night, or planting explosives or something.

If I were to go a little more specific, I might also consider researching which restaurants are serving the Golden Lion meals before poisoning your food. Liverpool is in the middle of a cholera outbreak, and if a killer uses some poison that is not easy to test, everyone will think that you have died of cholera. If the assassination plan is designed in this way, it is not only efficient and safe, but also not easy to expose. But the current situation is that these killers are completely reversed.

This shows that the employer behind the killer may not care if he can kill you or not. All he wanted was someone to come to Liverpool with a gun and shoot him twice, and then yell 'I'm going to kill Hastings'. I'm not sure I'm right, but all the information we're seeing at the moment is telling me that this is what they want. ”

When Arthur heard this, his eyes slowly widened, and his thoughts gradually became clearer.

"This ...... You've given me a new idea. This really responds to that sentence, and the bystanders are confused. If that's what those people want, then maybe we should wait, they'll deliver it themselves......"

(End of chapter)