Chapter 22: If the country does not know its people, then will the people not know their country?
New book uploaded, seeking collection and recommendation
Zhu Jishi had heard a story over 170 years ago: During the Opium War in 1840, when the British fleet broke through the Tiger Gate Fortress and sailed up the Pearl River, tens of thousands of local residents gathered on both banks of the river. They watched their own imperial court's battle with foreign devils with an indifferent and very calm expression, as if they were watching a fight that had nothing to do with them. The British officers and soldiers who witnessed this scene were puzzled and couldn't understand it. A British officer asked the traitor who was leading the way for the British army, and he replied: "The country does not know its people, so the people do not know their country."
Obviously, the Qing Dynasty in the 1840s was a country that did not know its people, but could the British Empire in 1840 be considered a country that knew its people and whose people knew their country?
According to Zhu Jishi's understanding of the situation at this stage, the answer is obviously no!
On October 1, 1839, the British Cabinet decided to send a fleet to China on the grounds of obstructing trade and threatening the lives of British subjects. What were those who should have known about "having a country" doing among the British working people?
Under the instigation of some useful charterist union leaders and politicians, they are busy parading and holding meetings to demand universal suffrage with one man one vote!
But the British government could spend millions of pounds to send troops thousands of miles away to China in 1840 because a few British subjects were threatened, yet it would not provide relief for the British working people who were suffering from hunger and cold at home - under the Poor Law Amendment Act passed in 1834, the poor could only get food aid after entering the "workhouses" which were actually "labour camps", where the work was hard, the treatment was low, the food was bad, and the accommodation was crowded. People were separated by age and sex, causing families to be broken up and relatives to be separated. Without written permission from the supervisor, they could not go out or receive visitors. It was actually no different from being in prison, but such "workhouses" were also unable to accept too many poor people due to lack of funds. As a result, every day, many British people lost their lives to hunger and cold.
Is this a country that knows the appearance of its people? If the Qing fleet were to arrive at the mouth of the Thames today, would those beggars be allowed to get permission, and would the British poor, who are struggling with hunger and cold, fight to the death for Her Majesty the Queen?
On the train to London, Zhū Jì Shì finally couldn't help but ask a question that had been bothering him for a long time. However, Will Heming's answer made him feel greatly surprised, but after careful consideration, it was reasonable.
"If the country does not know its people, then the people do not know their country? What does this mean……I don't know if your Russian (Will Heming still thought Zhuzi was a Tartar) serfs will love the Tsar and the country, but our poor people here definitely do not love the country, this is without a doubt!"
What's so great about Britain, with its annual revenue of ￡90 million and vast colonies in North America, Australia, and India? Yet it begrudges spending a few paltry millions to relieve the poor, but knows how to spend them on war. In reality, relieving the poor wouldn't cost much at all. The British Isles have only 20-odd million people, with an excess population of around 1.5 to 2 million, while North America and Australia are vast and empty. They can spend tens of millions fighting China; why can't they spend the same amount sending their surplus population to Canada to cultivate land?
"But didn't the British perform quite bravely on the battlefield?"
"Brave? I don't think so." Will Hemingway sneered with a smile: "Jason, do you know that when we were fighting against the French Emperor (Napoleon), the British government's biggest headache was that they couldn't recruit enough soldiers! Ha ha, during the American War of Independence, the British Empire also failed to gather sufficient troops and had to spend money to hire German mercenaries from Hesse to help fight. How patriotic do you think the people of this country are?"
Is this really happening? Zhu Jishi was genuinely suspicious that he had crossed over into a parallel world that looked just like his original one, but wasn't actually the same thing.
"To make a more vivid metaphor, our British Empire is actually just like a company."
Will Heming said solemnly, "Actually, it's not much different from the East India Company... The nobles and big bourgeoisie are shareholders of this company, and there are probably several thousand people like that. This British Empire is a company run by them. The petty bourgeoisie, middle class, and intellectuals are the managers of this company, and there are tens of thousands of people like that. Cosper and Jerson, you are both members of the management team, and I, a poor devil who was dismissed from the British army, don't know how long I can maintain my middle-class life? Maybe soon I will become a member of the proletariat."
Meanwhile, nearly 20 million laborers are workers of the British Empire company, including high-income technical workers, low-income ordinary workers and casual workers, child laborers, and of course unemployed people.
As for the soldiers in the British army, actually very few people are fighting because they love the queen and the country. At least among ordinary privates, it's basically non-existent. The situation with cavalry is slightly better, as those who can ride horses in England have some assets, while light infantry and artillery love pounds more, their military pay is higher, similar to that of cavalry, several times that of ordinary privates.
As for the common soldiers, to use the Duke of Wellington's words, they are the scum of the earth; some of them have enlisted because they had got bastard children, but most from drink; and we officers are their natural enemies.
"Jason, you're a scientist, not a soldier, so you wouldn't understand what it's like to fight."
After listening to Will Heming's words, combined with what Zhu Jishi had seen and heard in London and Manchester in recent days, a chemical reaction had already taken place in his mind - the famous British Empire was nothing more than this, and the glorious Victorian era seemed limited compared to the Qing Dynasty. In this era, the gap between China and the West was actually not that big!
In other words, as long as it is possible to open up the country in a timely manner, there is still much that can be done...
……
London, Dover Street, third floor of Dulan clothing store.
"A piece of sulfur and a piece of rubber, heat them up to melt them together, and then it's this vulcanized rubber? Good heavens, isn't that marvelous!"
After witnessing the processing of vulcanized rubber and seeing the elasticity, heat resistance, tensile strength, and insolubility in organic solvents of this piece of vulcanized rubber film made right before his eyes, even Koschper Wilhelm, a bank manager with a normally stern and taciturn exterior, couldn't help but exclaim.
"Is this patent for vulcanized rubber really in your hands? Really? Can I see the patent certificate?"
Zhu Jisheng took out a stack of documents from the drawer of his desk - all patent certificates, and handed over the patent certificate for vulcanized rubber.
"Really, 14 years of patents... No, heavens! This is a great invention, Jason, do you know what this vulcanized rubber can do?" Cosper Wilhelm's face was alight with undisguised excitement.
Zhu Jishi slightly furrowed his brow and shook his head, saying: "Kosper, I think you should ask what this vulcanized rubber can't do."
Natural rubber is one of the world's four major industrial raw materials, along with steel, coal and oil! However, before vulcanized rubber was invented by American Charles Goodyear, rubber had little use, roughly only being able to be used for erasing pencil marks.
"Kosperl, how much money can this patent be mortgaged for? And how much can it be sold for?" Zhu Jishi asked Kosperl William with a smile.
"￡2,000 reserve, ￡3,000 on the nail!" Coswell. William pondered his bid.
Zhu Jishi smiled and shook his head at Kosperl Wilhelm: "Kosperl, do you know how the sulfur rubber business is done?"
Kosperl. Wilhelm was taken aback, looking at Zhu Jishi with some confusion. Zhu Jishi smiled and said: "The use of vulcanized rubber is extremely wide-ranging, it can be said that there is no place where it cannot be used. Now what can be imagined is that it is used to make wheels, shoes, gloves, condoms... it's something used to cover the root of offspring to prevent women from getting pregnant. I think just the sales of rubber condoms in Europe alone would earn 3000 pounds a year?"
