Author: brother Mao this article is reproduced under the authorization of official account brother Mao’s vision (ID: maogeshijue).
Introduction: a letter
In 1596, it was the 24th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty.
Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland personally wrote a letter to Emperor Wanli of China, sending an envoy John Newbury to China.
There are many compliments in the letter, but the core is only one: Your majesty and all his subordinates can obtain the benefits that our kings of western countries have gained from mutual trade. This benefit lies in exporting what we are rich and importing what we need.
In the same year, the English Navy had just defeated the Spanish Armada in the Irish sea, making England a maritime power on an equal footing with Spain.
That is, in that year, the Ming dynasty fell into a financial crisis. Emperor Wanli sent eunuchs to various places to serve as mine supervisors and tax supervisors, which aroused the resistance of the literati and bureaucrats. The emperor and the vested interests lost each other in friction, and the whole country fell into decline.
At that time when China’s capitalism began to sprout, if Emperor Wanli received this letter from Elizabeth I and was interested in the rise of Britain, he might attach importance to maritime trade and strengthen exchanges with the west, thus changing China’s declining national destiny.
Unfortunately, history has made a joke on us. Emperor Wanli did not receive this letter. John Newbury encountered a big storm on his way to China. This letter and his envoy ship were buried at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The first official communication between China and Britain ended here.
In the following three hundred years, England began to expand its sphere of influence overseas, completed the accumulation of original capital, spread colonies all over the world, mastered world hegemony, and became more prosperous and powerful.
After the Jiashen reform, China began to sink completely.
The tide of history is mighty. Perhaps from the moment Britain sank the ship, no one can stop the rise of Britain and the decline of China.
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Elizabeth I, the rise of Britain
How did Britain rise? Many people have different answers, but almost everyone can’t avoid one British monarch: Elizabeth I.
When Elizabeth I took over the crown in 1558, Britain was far from the “Empire where the sun never sets” in the future. On the contrary, it was a poor and weak country.
With a population of only 4 million, the country’s annual income is only 200000 pounds, but its debt alone is 300000 pounds. Internally, the people are in dire straits. Scotland has erupted an uprising, and Britain is on the verge of division. Externally, it has just experienced the hundred year war between Britain and France and the red and white rose war, and its national strength has been severely damaged. It is still on the verge of war with Spain.
As the Privy Council official said:
The queen is financially strapped, the country’s financial resources are exhausted… The army lacks excellent officers and soldiers; Domestic laws and regulations are broken, prices are high, and goods are slow to sell; The king of France stands on Calais with one foot and Scotland with the other, riding across our kingdom; We have sworn enemies abroad, but we have no strong and loyal allies.
In order to change this passive situation, Elizabeth devoted her whole life to how to make Britain strong and make great efforts to govern.
The first step is mercantilism.
Elizabeth understood that Britain, as an island country, could not grow land alone like Spain and France on the mainland as in the past thousand years. If it wanted to become a strong country, it must take the road of industry and commerce.
In response, Elizabeth first reiterated the supremacy act, declaring that the British king was “the only supreme head of the Church of England”, and quickly turned to Protestantism to break with the Roman Catholic Church.
In this way, the king’s power was no longer restricted by the Holy See, which not only cut off the channels for foreign forces to use religion to interfere in Britain’s internal affairs, but also allowed Elizabeth I to pursue her own policies without interference.
For example, we have ordered the development of our textile industry and new factory handicrafts. Are there not enough workers? Then, the relief law was promulgated. For those who have the ability to work, if the state stops providing relief, they must go to the enterprise to exchange money and materials for life through work.
Is there not enough money invested by the government? Then monopolize! During the period of Queen Elizabeth, 55 monopoly patents were granted, including mines, coal, glass, salt, iron, soap, wool, salt, paper, iron, sulfur and so on. Even people who use paper to wipe their buttocks in the toilet have to pay monopoly tax!
Relying on these monopoly patents, Elizabeth I gained a large amount of money to invest in industry and commerce, achieving a breakthrough in British industry and commerce. From tin, iron, glass, linen, lace, soap to salt and cream, England can produce them by itself without relying on imports.
Elizabeth also set up England’s first stock exchange, attracting a large number of overseas funds, revitalizing the financial environment of the whole UK, and making the English society undergo profound changes.
The second step is to encourage overseas trade and overseas looting.
With the advent of the era of great navigation, the international trade center began to shift from the Ottoman Türkiye Empire to the Atlantic coast. Spain became the most powerful maritime hegemon at that time by relying on its first mover advantage. It did not allow other European countries to do business in its territory. Once found, it was hanged in the name of “Pirates”.
Britain is also located along the Atlantic coast, and as an island country, it is naturally suitable for developing marine trade. However, the monopoly of Spain makes it difficult for the British to develop rapidly.
In this regard, while building the Navy, Elizabeth I bribed pirates and issued many privateering licenses to pirates – in short, it was an official endorsement for pirates to rob Spanish merchant ships.
With the official support, a large number of Pirates began to use Britain as a base to attack Spanish merchant ships. For example, the famous pirate Francis Drake carried the treasure of a Spanish merchant ship robbed in 1579 for six days. This ticket robbed one fourth of the annual output of silver mines in America, worth 1.5 million pounds. As a backer, Elizabeth I received 163000 pounds, Close to the annual income of the whole British government.
In recognition of Drake’s “contributions”, Elizabeth personally boarded the pirate ship and conferred the title of Lord Drake on the pirate.
This rich and famous “good thing” has greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the British people to be pirates, and more and more British people have begun to go out to sea to be pirates.
Throughout the Elizabethan era, pirates brought Booties worth up to 12 million pounds to Britain, and brought huge funds to Britain’s original accumulation. Moreover, in their dealings with the Spanish Navy, pirates also accumulated a lot of practical experience.
In the Anglo Spanish war of 1588, the British pirate ships made use of the small and flexible characteristics of the ships, made full use of their strengths and avoided their weaknesses, and defeated the Spanish invincible fleet. Spain had to retreat in a hurry. On the way to retreat, a hurricane damaged most of the fleet, making the British Navy a naval power that could keep pace with the sea power Spain.
The strength of the Navy ensured Britain’s overseas trade. Elizabeth established franchises such as the Spanish company, the Levant company, the Venice company and the East India Company to open up import and export trade with Africa, the Mediterranean and Eastern countries. The British government is also the major shareholder of these companies, and has obtained a lot of benefits from them.
The third step is to use his unmarried status to make a diplomatic breakthrough.
Elizabeth I was unmarried all her life, so she was nicknamed “the Virgin Queen” in England.
However, this did not affect Elizabeth I’s use of her unmarried status to seek benefits for Britain.
For example, just after Elizabeth I ascended the throne, King Philip II of Spain proposed. At that time, the contradiction between Britain and France was greater than that between Britain and Spain. Britain and France were negotiating intensively on the ownership of the Strait of Gibraltar. Therefore, Elizabeth I responded enthusiastically to Spain and began four months of marriage proposal negotiations.
Britain exerted great pressure on France through marriage negotiations with Spain. After the signing of the British French Cato cambrese contract, Spain’s utilization value declined. Elizabeth sent a good man card to the king of Spain: because of different religious beliefs, we regret that we can’t agree to the proposal, but we can still be friends. Although marriage is not allowed, the benefits of marriage can also be derived from “friendship”.
Philip II was indeed deceived. For a long time afterwards, he maintained “good friendship” with Elizabeth. It was only when Elizabeth’s pirate ships frequently attacked Spanish merchant ships that he realized.
Later, Elizabeth followed suit again. In order to fight Spain, she expressed her intention to marry the French royal family to France and agreed to start marriage talks with Prince Anjou, the brother of Charles IX.
In the atmosphere of marriage talks, Britain signed the Treaty of bruva with France, which was a common defense alliance, and decided to resist Spain together.
However, after three months of talks, no agreement was reached on religious beliefs, property distribution, succession to the throne, and so on. Duke Anjou finally gave up his proposal. Then Fran ç OIS, Duke of alonson in France, became Elizabeth I’s suitor.
Elizabeth tries her best to deal with little Francois, not for love, but because little Francois is the Plenipotentiary of France to deal with the affairs of Netherlands. Netherlands and Britain both believe in Protestantism. Elizabeth uses her influence to persuade little Francois to support the revolution in Netherlands. For this reason, Elizabeth spared no cost to meet little Francois for 13 days.
Elizabeth may be really moved this time, but because Francois Jr. is a Catholic, when the Privy Council discussed the marriage plan, it was rejected by a 7:5 vote.
Despite this, Elizabeth still hangs on poor little Francois and persuades little Francois to drag France into the war with Spain and consume each other. Britain takes advantage of this to get out of the affair and bring valuable development time to Britain.
Finally, little Francois was hanged for 12 years and did not wait for Elizabeth. Instead, he died at the age of 29. At that time, Elizabeth was 51 years old and could no longer play “marriage diplomacy”.
After the death of little Francois, Elizabeth stopped pretending and confessed her celibacy to the whole country: “I can only have one husband, that is England”.
But because Elizabeth I was not married and had no children, before she died, the heir became a big problem in Britain. Elizabeth made a decision that affected the future of Britain, passing the throne to her nephew, King James I of Scotland.
You should know that before that, the royal family of England and the royal family of Scotland had always been two teams. Now a king holds two royal families at the same time, which can naturally promote the unification of Britain, end the long-term war between Scotland and England, and form a pattern of “Communist union”, known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, which establishes the global hegemony of the “empire of never setting sun”.
In this way, through 45 years of rule, Elizabeth has made England one of the most powerful and wealthy countries in Europe by herself. Elizabeth I is also considered to be the most outstanding emperor in British history.
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Elizabeth II, the last paster in the British Empire
In April 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Marie Windsor was born. At that time, Britain had just won the first World War and snatched the biggest victory fruit from the United States in the Paris Peace Conference. The whole country was in the golden age.
But this is the last golden age.
As we all know, Britain rose in the first industrial revolution, but in the second industrial revolution, Britain was much slower and began to be overtaken by the United States, Germany and other countries. In the 1880s, Britain was replaced by the United States as the first country in the world’s industrial production. At the beginning of the 20th century, Britain was overtaken by Germany and ranked third.
When Britain’s industrial advantage and its status as the “world factory” are not guaranteed, the international economic and political system with Britain as the core in the past will naturally be unsustainable.
By the time Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952 and became Britain’s second queen by the name of Elizabeth, Britain’s decline was inevitable, and the biggest blow to Britain was the collapse of the colonial system.
Once upon a time, the size of British colonies was very exaggerated. To what extent?
In its heyday, the British ruled an area of about 34 million square kilometers, accounting for one fourth of the total land area of the world! It is 140 times the area of the British mainland! Of the more than 200 countries and regions in the world, only 22 have not been invaded by Britain. There is no continent in the world without British colonies. These colonies have been incorporated into the British global system by Britain through various means such as politics, economy, military and culture.
Even today, there are still quite a few remnants of this system in Britain. For example, English is the most important common language in the world, and most modern financial rules such as stocks and bonds are established in Britain. Even many of the measurement units we usually use, such as space, speed, mileage and weight, are from Britain.
However, with the decline of Britain’s influence in the world, the former colonies naturally tended to be centrifugal. Finally, Britain had to compromise with all colonies. In 1931, the Westminster act was passed to exchange interests:
Britain recognizes the independence of some British colonies, and these colonies after independence should also regard the British king as the head of state and become a member of the British Commonwealth.
According to the British plan, even if these colonies become independent, they still need to maintain economic and trade ties centered on London. Britain can also use the mechanism of the British Commonwealth to carry out political infiltration and economic colonization of the countries in the Commonwealth.
Originally, there was no problem if it went on like this, but it was different after World War II. Although Britain was the victorious country in World War II, its national strength suffered heavy losses in the war. On the contrary, the United States, once the younger brother, completely replaced Britain in politics, economy, military, science and technology, culture and other fields. The Soviet Union also held high the banner of socialism and had great influence in the world.
The Yalta system, which determines the post-war order, is also a bipolar pattern led by the United States and the Soviet Union. Britain has been sidelined.
Even Churchill himself said that the United States is a bison, the Soviet Union is a giant bear, and Britain is a poor little donkey sandwiched in the middle.
At this time, these colonial countries saw that Britain was so weak in the war, weak and incompetent in the war with the German army, and utterly defeated in the war with the Japanese army. How can such a country still be qualified to be its sovereign state?
Even if you want to hold your thighs, naturally you need to hold your eldest son and your second son. Why should you hold your third son? Moreover, the third son can’t give him any real benefits, and he will be interfered in internal affairs instead.
Therefore, the wave of national liberation began one after another. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Egypt, Maltese, Botswana, Tonga and other countries have declared independence one after another, and even India, the Pearl on the crown of the British queen, has become independent.
Therefore, when Elizabeth II ascended the throne, it was the period of the great collapse of the British colonial system. As a king who had no real power, the only thing Elizabeth II could do was to be a good papersmith, to use the only prestige of the royal family to summon the former colonies, to save face for Britain, to be independent, but not to leave the Commonwealth.
For example, in 1961, Ghana, a former British colony, tried to break away from the British Commonwealth and join the socialist camp led by the Soviet Union. The British Prime Minister’s persuasion failed. In the end, he had to invite Elizabeth to visit Ghana. Only then did he persuade a number of Ghanaian leaders, including Ghanaian President Nkrumah, and prevent Ghana from breaking away from the British Commonwealth.
In 1964, Zambian President Kaunda also said: “all this is completely the charm of the queen. Without this, we might have left long ago.”
Elizabeth II has indeed done a good job. In a few decades, Elizabeth has made 325 nonstop overseas visits, persuading 54 sovereign countries to stay in the British Commonwealth, of which 15 countries regard Elizabeth as the head of state.
Although many countries have moved to break away from the British Commonwealth, few countries have made substantive moves because of Elizabeth II’s personal charm.
However, now that Elizabeth II has passed away, the last emotional bond has disappeared. Charles, the new king, has no prestige. On the contrary, there are a lot of black stories. It is obviously difficult to deter those political forces that are ready to move.
Therefore, the independent forces in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been growing recently. Even the Governor General of Australia has bluntly said that as long as the queen dies, Australia will secede from the British Commonwealth.
It is a miracle that Elizabeth II, an old lady, has maintained the British Commonwealth System for decades with her personal political skills and charm. But in the face of the general trend of history, her efforts are only the last ray of the colonial empire. With her death, there will only be a result of the demise of people and government.
Therefore, it is time for the British Commonwealth, a monster left over from the colonial era, to end.
three
The cycle of national fortune
In 1986, Elizabeth II paid a six day state visit to China.
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Although Britain won the Falklands war a few years ago, it had to surrender Hong Kong in the Sino British talks in 1984. Since then, the decline of the British Empire has been irreparable.
China has just ended its turmoil and embarked on the road of reform, opening up and economic development.
History is like a cycle. When the letter was written, Britain was rising and China was declining. When the letter arrived, it became that Britain was declining and China was rising.
Britain’s decline is inevitable. Colonialism and the first industrial revolution put Britain on the throne of No. 1 in the world, and also buried the root of Britain’s decline. When colonialism and the traditional industrial model are unsustainable, Britain will inevitably decline.
In addition to catching up with the dividends of the industrial revolution, Britain’s prosperity in those years was also related to the royals, nobles and capitalists’ bottom-line profit grabbing, both in the colonies and within themselves.
Externally, blood sucking colonialism is unpopular.
As we all know, Britain and tsarist Russia were the two countries that conquered the most territory in the 16th and 19th centuries, but their conquest modes were completely different.
Every time Russia conquers a place, it will fully assimilate it in the political, economic, cultural and other fields. The British seem to be more concerned about commercial interests. They regard the colony as a single raw material supply place, product production place, commodity dumping market existence, and transform it into a part of the global industrial chain of the British Empire.
In the whole colonial era, Britain was like a heart. All kinds of jewelry, luxury goods, wood, ivory, rubber, oil and so on were transported from the colonies to the British mainland, which not only provided the British aristocratic elite with a luxury life, but also provided cheap and high-quality raw materials for local factories.
Britain produced these raw materials into industrial products, and then sold them back to various colonies. It reaped huge wealth by using the scissors. At its best, the industrial output value of Britain accounted for 40% of the world’s total industrial output value.
As British Prime Minister Palmerston said: “The plains of North America and Russia are our granaries, Chicago and Odessa are our mining areas, Canada and the Nordic Peninsula are planting trees for us, Australia is shepherding sheep for us, Argentina is raising cattle for us, Peru is sending silver, South Africa is paying tribute to gold, Indians and Chinese are planting tea for us, the Mediterranean is our orchard, and our cotton plantation is expanding from the southern United States to all warm places on the earth.” ?
This can be seen from the costumes of the queen when she was crowned. The diamonds on the crown of the British queen are 800 carat diamonds from India, “the mountain of light”, the diamonds around the crown are from Egypt, the diamonds on the necklace are from Kenya, the bracelets are from Fiji, the gems on the scepter are from South Africa, and the gold in the “Royal Ball” in her hands is from Australia’s natural gold
In short, each colony should give the most precious things to the queen, so that the queen can shine and shine on all colonies.
However, this colonial economic model, with Britain as the center, has made Britain not regard the colony as its own territory, treat the colonial people as human beings, care less about the internal affairs and construction of the colony, and show great disregard for the suffering of the people’s livelihood in the colony.
For example, in the 19th century, in order to obtain higher profits, the British forced Bangladeshi farmers to grow cash crops such as opium poppy and indigo, which greatly changed the local agricultural planting structure.
This change is not a big problem when the weather is good, but once there is drought or flood, it will cause famine and cause thousands of people to starve to death. In the face of such a tragic situation, in order to make profits, Britain still prohibits cross regional adjustment and transportation of grain and imposes no restrictions on grain prices! The East India Company was also indifferent to the famine, and instead used the soaring food prices to make profits.
As a result, during the great famine in Bangladesh, at least 10 million people died, and the population dropped by about one third, millions more than the Nazi massacre of Jews
The suffering of the colonies is far more than that. The core of the British colonial economic system is Britain. When there is an economic crisis in Britain, we can still rely on strong accumulation to survive. But what should the colonies do?
During the Great Depression of 1929, British enterprises reduced their production capacity one after another, and the colonial raw materials could not be sold, so they could not buy necessary consumer goods. Only then did the colonies understand that their economic structure was so unitary that they could not be self-sufficient, let alone develop the country.
When the colonists understood this, it was not surprising that there was a centrifugal tendency.
Internally, the ugly oppression model of capitalists was spurned by the people.
Even for British natives, capitalists were not stingy in squeezing them. At that time, there was no eight hour working system and no concept of labor protection. At the end of the 19th century, British people worked an average of 68 hours a week, which was longer than the 996 blessing. Moreover, the extra long working hours made it difficult to raise children. Mothers in slums could only feed their children opium tincture to keep them quiet
Industrial workers and sharecroppers also had a difficult life. In 1914, the average life expectancy of residents in East London was 30 years. Most of those who did not die had lost all their teeth in their thirties, and then died of fatigue in their forties and fifties.
Even children can’t escape being squeezed. Many poor children were sold to chimney sweepers when they were six or seven years old. In that era when the industrial revolution was just completed, tall and thin chimneys were everywhere, and they could only go in with ropes hanging from their waists to clean them. Because children were small in size, a professional “chimney boy” was directly formed in Britain.
It’s common for these children to be bruised and burned, and even many times, because the owner wants them to finish their work as soon as possible, they are burned alive in the chimney by directly igniting a fire under the chimney.
This is the golden age of Britain – it is really the best golden age for those bankers, industrialists, colonial governors and high-ranking officials of the imperial government. They live in castles, their children go to Oxford University to study, and they marry their daughters. In addition to attending social activities such as dances, there are also high-end activities such as hunting, shooting and fishing. After them, the followers are often times more than their servants, In fact, at that time, there were hundreds of thousands of servants in London alone who served noble families.
So, what does this golden age of Britain have to do with ordinary Britons and colonial people? What can they gain from Britain’s prosperity? What national development dividends can we enjoy?
Therefore, this simple and crude development model may have been effective during the primitive accumulation of the industrial revolution, but after World War II, faced with the third industrial revolution, the national liberation movement and the democratic civil rights movement, the British development model has obviously been spurned by people, and Britain’s decline is inevitable.
The decades after the Second World War were a magical era. The totem of science and technology gradually changed from the surging steel and the roaring 10000 ton hydraulic press to an integrated circuit the size of a fingernail.
Japan and South Korea began to rely on the rise of the electronic industry. Electronic consumer goods swept the world and became the Pearl of the new generation of manufacturing industry. Britain, which once occupied the top of the world’s industry, is getting farther and farther away from the world’s technological peak.
Not only did the electrical, internal combustion engine, chemical and other industries lag behind Germany, which was built and rebuilt from the ruins, but the explosion of integrated circuit technology also missed the best development period because of Britain’s shortsightedness and conservatism. The benign cycle mechanism of mutual promotion between Britain’s industrialization and foreign trade, shipping and investment was completely reversed.
At this time, Britain has not so many colonies to absorb blood, and it can not provide an effective labor and consumption market as China and the United States. In addition, Britain is old-fashioned and path dependent, and lacks innovation in technology and system. As a result, the British elite can only integrate with financial capital groups and start to make speculative profits through financial means. As for the British manufacturing industry, it is inevitable that it will be hollowed out.
Britain is declining, while the great powers of the East are rising.
When Elizabeth II visited China, it was an era when an ancient country changed its backward face and began to glow with vitality. The whole country was undergoing tremendous changes, and the Chinese people were also undergoing an unprecedented process of modernization.
World capital and technology began to swarm into China, irreversibly bringing China into the world economy and closely integrating with the world economy.
From 1978 to 2000, China changed from an isolated country with 200 million people living below the poverty line to a strong economy with a prosperous economy and an active market.
China is also making rapid progress on the road to industrialization. Relying on a strong manufacturing industry, a unified large market, a large educated labor force, scientific and technological innovation ability, and a national spirit of continuous struggle, these factors have combined to create a low-cost and high-efficiency production system, making China a new world factory
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More importantly, China pays more attention to balanced development.
Internally, from the moment of reform and opening up, we have been focusing on getting rich first and driving others to get rich later. This national game of chess can quickly guide the layout of production capacity, create regional infrastructure advantages, and lower the production costs of various links in the region.
For example, in the southeast region, an industrial belt and a commercial belt for the production of end consumer goods have been built. They have the right to price goods, obtain the highest profits, and become the main engine of China’s economic development. The central and western regions are responsible for the provision of energy, chemical and mineral resources and human resources, and then the southeast region uses monetary means to repay the central and western regions, which is transfer payment.
In 2019, the state’s finance mainly relied on the contributions of six provinces and three cities including Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Tianjin, Fujian and Liaoning (of course, the fiscal surpluses of the six provinces and three cities also depended on the national market). The rest of the provinces and cities needed net subsidies from the eastern provinces. In the process of poverty alleviation, the eastern region will also feed back the western region with funds, projects, talents, technology and ideas to help the western region shake off poverty and move towards common prosperity.
Not only that, but the people in the central and western regions are also enjoying the dividends of the development of the whole country. In the past 10 years, the state has made great efforts to lay out infrastructure construction in the central and western regions, and the construction of transportation, energy and communication infrastructure has been greatly accelerated. Even if there are only a hundred people in a village in the west, the state should also pass through roads, connect electricity and lay networks, not to mention those railways The bridge is the most affectionate temperature of a country to every citizen.
This balanced development model with Chinese characteristics is completely different from that of the UK, which only knows how to squeeze. Therefore, the Chinese people have a much greater sense of the dividend of the times than in the most prosperous period of the British Empire.
foreign
Unlike the UK, which only knows how to suck blood, China has carried the banner of a community with a shared future for mankind and implemented the the Belt and Road initiative.
China has been tirelessly building infrastructure for the Belt and Road countries. On the one hand, public infrastructure such as roads, canals, ports and bridges affect market scale and commercial development, and will promote economic development immeasurably; On the other hand, it is also China’s responsibility and obligation as a world power to enable all countries to share the fruits of human civilization development, instead of being unable to keep up with the times because of national backwardness.
Therefore, the progressiveness of Britain’s development path and China’s development path should be judged.
Perhaps because of this, the decline of Britain is a historical necessity, and the rise of China is also a historical necessity.
This article is reproduced under the authorization of official account cat brother’s vision (ID: maogeshijue).