Chapter 535 The Rise and Fall of the Tea Country

The first Opium War occurred in 1837 after the Great Depression in the United States.

In 1845, Britain encountered the Irish famine. Potato infestation not only attacked Ireland, but also spread to the European continent. In 1848, the Spring of Nations movement broke out, which was an armed struggle against the dictatorship of European civilians and liberal scholars Revolution, the first revolution broke out in Sicily, Italy in January 1848. The subsequent February Revolution in France spread the wave of revolution to almost all of Europe. But most of this series of revolutions ended in failure quickly. When the Hungarian revolution failed, the National Spring movement ended.

Although the revolution led by scholars was advanced, the unity of different political factions and social classes achieved a certain degree of success in the revolution, but the original contradictions were too deep-rooted to be resolved in a short period of time. , the balance between various ethnic groups, the economic transformation after the industrial revolution, etc. The problem of nationalism led to fierce ethnic conflicts, and even led to the destruction of regimes in the revolutions of Central and Eastern Europe; Great divisions arose between factions, resulting in political polarization that plagued many European countries even in modern times.

These remaining issues are worth thinking about, but what really changed the world pattern and caused the Qing government to decline and recover occurred in 1850.

Among the economic bases of ancient Chinese dynasties, the three unique products: silk, porcelain, and tea, have been leading the world in terms of output and quality for thousands of years.

Through the thriving and developed overseas trade, these Chinese specialties are sold all over the world, and they exchange for a large amount of gold and silver income for China every year. They have been the source of national income that the dynasties have relied heavily on. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, European countries have successively mastered the production technology of silk and porcelain. Lyon in France and Como in Italy have become the capitals of silk. British bone china and German Meissen porcelain can compete with the Qing Dynasty in terms of output and quality. These two special products of the Qing Dynasty have gradually lost their advantages in the world trade pattern. Only tea is still thriving, occupying the leading position in the world's total tea trade with absolute advantages.

The British East India Company, as a multinational business group that has monopolized the Eurasian trade for a long time, has always been worried about this. In order to break the dominance of the Qing Dynasty in the world tea trading system and get a share of it, in 1850 they hired European Robert Robert at a price of 550 pounds to sneak into the interior of the Qing Dynasty to steal tea seedlings and tea planting technology.

With multiple identities, Robert was the most famous professional adventurer, botanist, naturalist, and cultural relic thief in Europe at that time. He once traveled all over the world to explore and steal rare treasures, rare animals and plants resource.

After Robert came to China, he disguised himself as a businessman and traveler, and arrived in many tea producing areas such as Wuyi Mountain and Hangzhou. He hired 8 tea farmers who are proficient in tea planting, and went overseas to work with him.

At the end of 1850, Robert returned with a full load. He took tea tree saplings, tea tree seeds, and 8 tea tree planting workers and boarded the sea ship to India. The East India Company has been waiting in India for a long time. Subsequently, the East India Company used these tea tree seedlings and workers to reclaim and cultivate a large number of tea gardens in the valley at the southern foot of the Himalayas with a mild and humid climate.

Taking this as an opportunity, India's tea planting industry developed rapidly, and quickly seized most of the world's tea market within ten years. The export volume of tea in the Qing Dynasty plummeted, and the export volume plummeted. Tea, a foreign trade commodity, completely lost its position in the world tea market. The decline and stagnation of foreign trade in tea caused the Qing Dynasty’s economy to lose its most important and stable source of income. Coupled with the loss of a large amount of silver from the opium trade and war reparations, it had no choice but to exploit internal civilians and transfer tariffs without foreign trade income. means of repaying the debt.

The Yellow River breached four times in 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1851, and diverted its course in 1855. The Qing government exacerbated the disaster by temporarily slowing down the blockage.

In 1856, the locust plague in Shanxi, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Yarrow incident broke out on October 8, and the second Opium War started.

Many people have forgotten the scene of devastated lives. Most ordinary people can’t live for 150 years. Many painful memories have entered the grave with them, but wizards are older than ordinary people. The longevity that Muggles dream of Not good for them.

Everyone wants to live a smooth life, with a lot of money and no worries about food and clothing. Huizhou tea merchants were once wealthy, and the "red-top businessman" Hu Xueyan was one of them. The dream of the Red Chamber is the epitome of Cao Xueqin's life. No one wants to meet the family. Looking at the situation where people and wealth are scattered, but the situation has changed, the external environment has changed, and it is impossible to prevent this change from happening.

Japan's rapid rise after the war took advantage of the Vietnam War and the Dodge project, but in the end they were nothing more than pigs raised by the United States.

In 1990, Japan's bubble economy burst, and housing prices halved, ending decades of rapid growth.

Since then, the Japanese economy has basically stagnated.

After the tea trade changed hands, Huizhou merchants also began to decline. Not only the tea business was forced to stop, but some tea merchants had to sell their farmland and mortgage their property to survive. The core competitiveness was stolen by the East India Company.

The countries that grow coffee beans are mainly distributed in the area between 25 degrees north and south. Because coffee beans have adapted to a particular climate zone, even a 0.5-degree rise in temperature can have a huge impact on their yields.

Affected by global warming, the land where coffee beans are currently grown will gradually become unsuitable for growing coffee beans.

If you still maintain the value concept that drinking Starbucks is a status symbol, then you will miss the opportunity brought about by the abnormal climate.

In the past, like saffron, pepper was a spice with the same price as gold, and had the same monetary value as gold and silver. During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese began to plant it, and the price of pepper gradually dropped.

The popularization of tea needs to be spread, and the use of saffron is the same. Its medicinal value and food value still need to be developed. Artemisinin makes the worthless weeds look forward to quinine, and becomes a special medicine for malaria. So does quinine. Extracted from cinchona bark.

Herbalism is not only the basis of magic medicine, but also contains huge business opportunities. Chinese people’s weak awareness of intellectual property rights will make them suffer a lot. R\u0026D institutions and pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Switzerland have developed Artemisia annua based on the technology disclosed in Chinese papers. Extensive research has been carried out on artificial total synthesis of artemisinin, artemisinin complexes, purification and preparation processes, etc., and a large number of improvements and peripheral technology patents have been applied for, and the money has been earned by others.

Obviously it was discovered by the Chinese, why is the patent not owned by the Chinese?

It was Severus who improved the wolfsbane potion, but Damocles Belby took away the honor in the end. The feeling of anger is the same.

Patience was not for obedience, but for revenge someday, and now Damocles Belbee was working for Severus.

Some people go too far and too fast, but their souls don't keep up, and they are still standing still.

Victor Hugo said that books are tools to create the soul. This sentence is taken from Les Miserables. The most pitiful person in this book is Fantine. Her beauty has aroused the jealousy of many local wicked women, and her behavior has become the object of their discussion and suspicion. Finally one day, a person named Mrs. Victurnien found out about Fantine's past experience and revealed that she had an illegitimate daughter. Several of her colleagues gave Fantine 50 francs in the name of M. Madeleine to let her go, but Madeleine did not know this. Fantine began her tragic experience from then on. She was fired, and no one would hire her again. She could not support herself and her daughter in other people's homes by labor, so she could only sell one of her hair for 10 francs and two front teeth for 40 francs. A prostitute becomes a slave to society. Once upon a time, a lively young girl became haggard, terminally ill and discriminated against by society.

It seems that for a woman, whether she is beautiful or ugly is unfortunate.

If you are beautiful, you will be envied by others, and if you are ugly, you will be ridiculed. It seems that only ordinary people can find peace.

Pomona is very envious of Fleur, she can disregard other people's opinions and proudly show her beauty, but she hides herself and only shows it in front of one person.

Some children are mischievous and mischievous, just hoping to attract the attention of others. Everyone hopes that their views will be approved by others. Adults can maintain reason, but it is difficult for immature children to do so.

She also wants attention sometimes, but what she does is immature, like a stupid kid making fun of her own life.

look what she did She actually fooled around with the old bat.

That was the first thing she thought when she woke up the morning she lost her virginity, what the hell had seeped into her cranium to make her think she wasn't good enough for him?

At the moment, Pomona is sleeping on a bed in a luxury apartment, glaring at her "new husband" who appears to be sleeping soundly next to her.

Why is this person so annoying?