Chapter 974: What Decadent Country? (Please Subscribe)

The English Revolution, which took place from 1640 to 1648, has been characterized by the history textbooks of later generations in some countries as a bourgeois revolution aimed at opposing royal absolutism.

But the bourgeoisie of later generations, once they had made their money, would certainly never want to go and live in a country like the English Commonwealth, which was supposedly a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie — because in that country there was simply no "living" at all!

In that country, smoking was forbidden, drinking was forbidden, watching plays was forbidden, dancing was forbidden, playing games was forbidden, dressing up beautifully was forbidden, feasting and drinking heavily was forbidden, sleeping in was forbidden, and spending money freely was even more forbidden. As for keeping mistresses and lovers, that was practically a capital crime! And as for same-sex love — heh heh, would you like to know what the wrath of Christ is?

In England at that time, all that was permitted was hard work, hard work, hard work. At best, eight hours a day were for rest, eating and drinking, producing little Puritans, and praying to God — all the remaining time was to be spent working! Even the Sunday religious services had to be shortened as much as possible.

The "996" work schedule that later generations curse to pieces would, in the eyes of England's workaholic Puritans, have seemed so lazy as to amount to moral depravity!

And what was even more terrifying was that after working so hard and earning money, one still was not allowed to spend it freely. Three meals a day of coarse food and plain drink were enough. All the money saved had to be thrown back into expanded production. There was no need to consider consumption driving the economy or anything like that — if consumption was insufficient, then just launch massive infrastructure projects and start wars!

What capitalist of later generations would yearn for such a life? Though going there to invest and develop manufacturing would not be a bad idea.

As for opposing royal absolutism — although England now had no monarchy, it was surely the most despotic country in the entire world, bar none!

Even Zhu Cilang, that Eastern absolute monarch, was not as despotic as he was, nor could he have accomplished the things that man accomplished within England.

And this dictator, who wielded absolute authority within England to the point where he could hold royal power in contempt (finding royal power too small), now felt that the Spanish Kingdom's occupation of the fine lands of the Americas could not possibly be God's will. Such fine territory, occupied by Spaniards who only knew how to waste and not how to build — it was practically a blasphemy against God. As God's most devout believers, how could the Puritans of England tolerate such a betrayal of the Lord continuing?

However, England's strength was still somewhat lacking compared to Spain, which possessed a world empire. Although Spain itself was in a state of depression and could not compare with the wealthy and developed England, Philip IV still held the Southern Netherlands (the region of Belgium and Luxembourg) and territories in northern Italy centered on Milan. Those lands were quite rich, with highly developed industry and commerce, and they also had advanced finance that could provide the Spanish king with enormous high-interest loans to support Spain's massive military expenditures.

Moreover, the Spanish world empire was enormous in scale, still possessing vast territories in the Americas, along with large populations and income in gold and silver.

In addition, the Holy Roman Empire, likewise ruled by the House of Habsburg, could continuously supply Spain with German mercenaries.

In other words, the credit backed by gold and silver from the Americas could finance enormous military expenditures for Spain, and Spain, having borrowed the money, could then purchase weapons and equipment produced in Milan, the Southern Netherlands, and other German commercial and industrial cities — even goods produced in the Netherlands — and then hire German mercenaries, thereby assembling an army capable of fighting for the Spanish Kingdom.

Whether Spain's own population was large or small, and whether its industry and commerce were developed, were not particularly important factors for the world hegemony of King Philip IV of Spain.

Faced with a Spanish world empire of enormous scale that could also draw war resources from Italy, Germany, and the Southern Netherlands, the small but strong England, France, and the Netherlands — although they could defeat Spain again and again — lacked the ability to deliver a truly fatal blow to Spain. Spain's army and navy were not weak either; no matter how formidable the armies of England, France, and the Netherlands were, they had no ability to fight their way to Madrid and drive Philip IV from his throne.

Therefore, whoever fought Spain could not hope for a quick victory, but could only make long-term plans!

And a long, protracted war was comparatively advantageous for the Spanish world empire with its enormous scale.

Given the strength of England and France, it was unrealistic to expect to drag down and shatter a Spain that was still fairly powerful in a protracted war — unless they could find a great power of roughly the same scale as the Spanish world empire to serve as an ally.

And this great power also had to be sufficiently wealthy, and had to be drooling over the "property" of the Spanish world empire.

Looking across the whole world, there were truly not many countries that met these conditions!

As a trusted confidant of Cromwell and the successor to Milton as diplomat of the English Protestant regime, Thomas Marvell realized very early that China, which had already turned toward the sea, could help England defeat Spain and become the hegemon of the Western world — and China was also England's only choice!

The Ottoman Empire and India were also large enough in scale, but they could not reach Spain's American colonies, so it was very difficult for them to profit from a war to shatter the Spanish world empire.

Of these, the Mughal dynasty of India had never had any real quarrel with the Spanish, and they also had a whole heap of troubles of their own to deal with.

Although the Ottoman Empire had enormous conflicts with Spain, once they made a move, it would very likely arouse fears across the entire European continent about the westward expansion of Islam, at which point the House of Habsburg could once again step forward and play the role of defender of Christ.

And just as war between England and Spain was about to break out, Thomas Marvell submitted to Cromwell his proposal for joining forces with the great Ming Empire of the East to tear apart the Spanish world empire, and obtained from this master of a nation the post of ambassador to the Ming.

Now this ambassador of the English Commonwealth to the great Ming Empire stood atop Three Mountains Gate on the western side of Nanjing's inner city, overlooking the bustle along the Qinhuai River outside the outer city wall.

In this era, the Qinhuai River of Nanjing was not a single river but a small water system, with many branching tributaries that flowed from east to west across Nanjing and finally emptied into the Yangtze. The section within Nanjing's inner city was thoroughly decadent and luxurious, quite incompatible with the Puritan worldview, so Thomas Marvell would not spare it a single glance.

What he was now observing was the stretch of land along the Qinhuai between Three Mountains Gate (a gate of the inner city wall) and Jiangdong Gate — this was Nanjing's handicraft district, where at least two hundred "machine houses," that is, textile factories, had been established. A considerable portion of the Chinese silk sold throughout Europe was produced here.

Nanjing's "Qinhuai machine houses" had been in a period of rapid growth for the past dozen or so years. The scale of the workshops kept expanding, and large workshops with several hundred or even a thousand looms kept appearing. Expanding alongside the weaving workshops were dyeing workshops and silk-reeling workshops.

The former were mostly located between the southern moat of Nanjing's inner city (which was actually also part of the Qinhuai water system) and the large and small Elephant-Taming Gates of the outer city.

The latter were all established in the eastern part of Nanjing's outer city, which was the settlement area for northern refugees and military dependents — a dozen or so years earlier, that area had still been vast farmland, with the land all belonging to the imperial tomb guards. Later, Emperor Zhu distributed the land to the soldiers and loyal civilians who had followed him.

And these military dependents and loyal civilians, in order to increase their income, planted mulberry trees and raised silkworms on the residential land they had been allotted. At first, the silkworms they raised were not competitive at all, and quite a few people lost money raising them. In order to win people's hearts, Zhu Cilang had no choice but to think of ways to help them, hiring experienced sericulturists from all over Jiangnan at high prices to teach their skills, and even paying out of his own pocket to support retired military officers in opening silk-reeling workshops in the eastern part of Nanjing.

However, most of these silk-reeling workshops opened with Emperor Zhu's support had difficulty operating and wasted a great deal of His Majesty's hard cash. It was not until five years ago that a workshop owner who had retired from the army and entered the silk-reeling business defied the industry's greatest taboo and adopted the "life-taking method," placing the collected live cocoons directly into hot water and boiling them — thereby obtaining unbroken silk filaments! This method was quickly imitated by a group of northern workshop owners who were not afraid of taking life, and so in a very short time, the silk-reeling workshops of eastern Nanjing rose rapidly to dominate the southeast, and in turn spurred the development of Nanjing's weaving and dyeing workshops.

The Nanjing outer city now appearing before Thomas Marvell's eyes looked every bit like a blazing hot capital of capitalism. The busy and prosperous city gave Marvell a sense of familiarity, while also making him aware of a certain danger!

There was not a trace of the decadence and languor that an ancient Eastern country ought to have! Although it still could not compare with Puritan England, it had the advantage of vast numbers of people and a vast land!

(End of Chapter)