Chapter 2419 royal circus (2)

Georgiana noticed that Richard Edgeworth was wearing a blue sash.

Many people will wear it when attending formal occasions. Perhaps her gaze stayed for a long time, and Edgeworth couldn't help but look down.

"Is there a problem?" Edgeworth asked, trying to silk check the sash for stains.

"I heard...the Orange Belt Party." Georgiana said cautiously.

Edgeworth's fingers moved away from Garterlan's sash.

"This time Ireland and England merged, they did a lot of work." Georgiana said.

"But I don't," laughed Edgeworth. "I don't know William III of Orange."

Georgiana didn't answer. Lupe had said the same thing yesterday in the pool room.

"There is also a statue of King William on College Green, and since the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in 1740, there has been a parade on King William's birthday every year, including 1779," Edgeworth said. There was a bit of a riot, some people hung some signs from the statues, and some people carried weapons."

"1779?" Padma asked.

"The Irish also joined the American War of Independence, Miss Patil, and that parade was held by the Irish Volunteer Army who was about to go to North America." Edgeworth said politely to Padma, who was coming to a foreign country. They came back to Ireland and became an important force in protecting Dublin and supplementing the lack of police force."

In 1689, the British Parliament announced that James II had abdicated the throne, but James II went to Ireland to seek supporters. In 1690, William III, who married Mary II and won the British crown, led 35,000 Dutch Blue Guards to land in Ireland and defeated James II's army, causing James II to go into exile in France again. 1740 happened to be the 50th anniversary of the battle.

The way London restricts the export of Irish wool is to promulgate the "Wool Act". This bill is not only for Ireland, but also includes the North American colonies. To go to the British port, there is the abolition of taxes on the export of British woolen goods to the colonies, so that British woolen goods can compete with the colonies at a lower price.

The enactment of this act had two consequences. First, there were fewer people raising sheep in Ireland. Second, the Atlantic trade from Ireland to North America was almost completely stopped, leaving only trade routes to Philadelphia and the Caribbean. The Irish sugar mills process the rough sugar from the Caribbean into fine sugar, which is a re-export business.

The sugar industry had a much smaller working population than weavers, and there was little reaction when English sugar ruined the Irish sugar industry. Since the accession of William and Mary II of Orange to the throne, the Irish people's demand is "free trade". The Yorkshire trade was just as pointless. However, when it really came to the merger in 1785, some Irish people didn't want "free trade" anymore.

The Irish who wanted free trade saw the British opening their ports, and it was the British restrictions on Ireland that led to poverty in Ireland. There are also some flax merchants, and England has always had preferential treatment for Ireland in the flax trade. But it was a disaster for the muslin merchants. Originally, silk was the most consumed fabric in Ireland. After the tariff was abolished, cheap muslin surpassed it, and it also led to the closure of Irish cotton factories.

But the Irish can't refuse a bill given to them by the British Parliament, nor can it be set aside like the Witchcraft Act, so the method used is informal resistance. For example, tar and feathers were applied to importers and tailors, or the uniforms of the Irish Volunteer Army were all made of Irish cloth.

Mounted police and uniformed patrolmen were abolished in 1795, because the police were often surrounded by layers of police in the streets, and the army needed to be used to rescue them. The Irish Volunteer Army, born in Dublin, was backed by guilds, the basis of a representative parliament in Ireland since the Hanoverian dynasty, and the Weavers' Guild supported a volunteer army.

The students recruited from the King's College of Medicine soon became scared after being surrounded several times. The number of police officers dropped sharply. The police station was considered a "cumbersome and useless" institution. Some political prisoners were released in the spring of 2009.

These are actually not the point.

Large-scale industries are based on cities. Edgeworth bought a small town and named it after himself. He also advocated the promotion of the telegraph. Bayonet", Edgeworth and a Protestant cavalry to keep the law and order, still received death warnings on the way home from the newlyweds.

The army took on too many functions of urban police, and it was easy to form a situation like that in the Cromwell period. The volunteer army of the bar association had openly "rebelled" and opposed the Anglo-Irish merger, which was the opposite of the lawyer's position. The advantage of the reform is that the functions of the military city police can be removed, but the power of the local council will be strengthened in this way.

After the Anglo-Irish union, the judicial autonomy gained by Ireland's participation in the American Revolution was taken back, and the "free trade" shipping restrictions on Ireland were cancelled. When they heard the news on Christmas Day in 1779, the citizens cheered and lit up everywhere.

Of course, free trade should have preferential tariffs, and it would be better to cancel the checkpoints, but the Irish asked to postpone the reduction of tariffs. Edgeworth’s friend Wedgwood organized all industrialists in Scotland and England to discuss this matter in 1785. Politicians cannot ignore their interests. They drafted many pamphlets and distributed them to the whole country. One version It was written by James Watt, which had the greatest impact on the printing industry.

In the pile of old books from the 16th century, Georgiana saw a book that England could not dye bright red, which also led to the Indian red cotton cloth still entering the UK after being subject to various restrictions.

The hourly wages in Ireland are lower, and the British textile industry cannot sell at a lower cost price to gain a price advantage.

The printing and dyeing workers threatened to strike and demanded that all the terms be stopped. But some people think that a larger market can be obtained. For calico cloth manufacturers in the expansion period, obtaining cheap raw materials and an open market are the primary goals.

When Ireland failed to reap the benefits of "free trade," the appeal was reversed to a claim for the integrity of legislative sovereignty, and England received nicknames such as "cruel stepmother" and "jealous sister."

The Anglo-Irish merger of 1801 offered a promise of a seat, but the king refused, and William Pitt, Jr., who made the promise, resigned as if it would be written off.

"I, I don't understand." Padma stammered and asked, "Is there such a big difference between dyed fabric and undyed fabric?"

"Take your blue dress as an example. If you buy American indigo with a 400% tariff, its price will be very high, but if a neutral country buys it and only charges a 4% tariff, there will be huge profits." Georgiana said, "If everyone wants to do this business, there will be price competition, and huge profits will become small profits, but the price of white cotton cloth remains the same, and he can sell it to anyone, and the sales volume has also increased due to the expansion of the market. .”

Padma suddenly realized.

"Which faction does Wedgwood belong to?" Georgiana asked Edgeworth, a former member of the Moonlight Society and a friend of Wedgwood.

Edgeworth didn't answer, he looked out the window.

"Here we are," he said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the carriage stopped. Georgiana also looked out the window and found St. Tyrell standing on the steps.

"What is this place?" Padma asked.

"The Royal Institution of Natural Sciences." Edgeworth put on his hat. "This world needs a little rationality, ladies."

After speaking, he opened the car door.