When William Avery Rockefeller finished speaking, the faces of the assembled Rothschild financial magnates were not pleasant to behold – what was the implication? That they were all idiots, and only Rockefeller was intelligent enough to see things so clearly?
No one had brought this up because doing so was too disheartening!
William Avery Rockefeller ignored the displeased expressions of the Rothschild magnates and continued, "If we merely increase production, when the Ming Emperor decides to print more Dragon Yuanbao Bills, it will likely be our turn to suffer."
William Avery Rockefeller's words served as a reminder to the assembled Rothschild magnates.
As William Avery Rockefeller had said, Emperor Zhu could decide to raise the interest rate on the Great Ming Dragon Yuanbao Bills, and he could just as easily print more. In the end, the Dragon Yuanbao Bill was still made of paper, and its face value was backed by the Great Ming court. Once the Great Ming decided to devalue the Dragon Yuanbao Bill, it would simply devalue, with no other possibility.
Everything returned to the core issue: if the "Silly Eagle" could make the decisive move to completely decouple its US dollar from the Great Ming Dragon Yuanbao Bill, then regardless of whether the Great Ming raised interest rates or devalued, it would not affect the "Silly Eagle."
However, the crux of the problem was that the "Silly Eagle" could not completely decouple the US dollar from the Dragon Yuanbao Bill unless it could incite every country on the entire planet to return to the era of trading with gold and silver.
With the world accustomed to settling transactions with the Great Ming Dragon Yuanbao Bills, and with the backing of the Great Ming's military power, which country would be willing to follow the "Silly Eagle" back to an era of trading with gold and silver?
Not to mention France, which played the role of the Great Ming's top henchman in Europe – even if the "Silly Eagle" was confident in persuading other countries, it would absolutely not be able to persuade France!
This led to a vicious cycle: being exploited by the Great Ming was painful, but decoupling was impossible, leaving them with no choice but to be at the Great Ming's mercy.
In this cold, harsh world, the only solace the "Silly Eagle" might find was that it could still join the Great Ming in exploiting other nations. This was, in a way, a small benefit the Great Ming provided to the "Five Benevolent People" of the "Little Pot."
James Rothschild frowned and asked, "What are your ideas?"
William Avery Rockefeller glanced around and said sternly, "Why can the Ming country do whatever it wants? Why can't our 'Silly Eagle'? Because the Ming country is a unified entity. Although they have the guise of a nation, they are more like a civilization in disguise. Their Emperor and court are the helmsmen of this civilization, while our 'Silly Eagle'..."
He chuckled self-mockingly and continued, "Our 'Silly Eagle' is a true nation, and our nation is not completely in agreement. For example, those savage Indigenous peoples seem to harbor great hostility towards us."
"In addition to those damned Mohicans, our 'Silly Eagle' citizens also seem dissatisfied with the current situation, always wanting to gain more benefits that do not rightfully belong to them."
"If these problems cannot be resolved, we will not be able to do what we want like the Ming country, and can only allow the Ming country to oppress us at will."
The assembled Rothschild financial magnates immediately understood William Avery Rockefeller's meaning.
Why did William Avery Rockefeller say that the savage Indigenous peoples harbored great hostility towards the "Silly Eagle"?
It was because the "Silly Eagle" had learned scalp-taking from the Indigenous peoples, and then turned around to use firearms and money to take Indigenous scalps and make them into boots.
Why did they say that the "Silly Eagle" citizens wanted more benefits that did not rightfully belong to them?
It was because a large portion of the benefits had been taken by the Rothschild magnates, and the little that slipped through their fingers was not enough to satisfy the needs of the "Silly Eagle" people.
If this were in the past, these two issues would have been separate problems, and either one would have been easily solved –
The Indigenous peoples harbored hostility towards the "Silly Eagle"? Then kill them all or drive them into the deep mountains and old forests, destroy their homes, and cut off their avenues of expression, and their hostility would naturally become irrelevant;
The "Silly Eagle" citizens wanted more benefits? Then let them have a little more, and this could also be solved in conjunction with the Indigenous peoples' issue.
For instance, if a "Silly Eagle" citizen killed an Indigenous person, could they bring back the Indigenous person's scalp to exchange for money?
In short, there were many ways to solve problems, and problems that could be solved with money were not problems at all.
What was hateful was that ever since the King of Qin and the Ming people he led arrived in Louisiana, everything began to change.
First, the "Silly Eagle" suddenly discovered that the Indigenous peoples were no longer as easy to catch and kill. Not only did they have firearms similar to those of the "Silly Eagle," but their combat methods had also become more cunning.
Second, the dissatisfaction of the "Silly Eagle" citizens with their own government had intensified.
Qin country workers worked a maximum of eight hours a day and were required to rest two days a week, with no overtime permitted. If work was not finished, they would hire more people. In any case, overtime was a fantasy. Crucially, the wages were extremely high. A common Ming worker could earn at least a week's wages of a "Silly Eagle" worker, if not their entire month's wages.
What further fueled the dissatisfaction of the "Silly Eagle" citizens was the welfare provided to Qin country workers.
Or rather, it couldn't be called welfare for Qin country workers, but welfare for all Qin people. Any Qin person could enjoy the same welfare and benefits: each person was allocated ten mu of land. Whether you cultivated it or not was your business; even if it lay fallow, the land was yours. Every Qin family's children were required to receive free education at schools. The streetlights in Qin country were never turned off; they were always lit from dusk till dawn. Qin people could go out and play freely at night, with stalls selling barbecue and snacks everywhere. There was no such thing as lawyers being supreme, doctors being supreme, or financial magnates being supreme. When sick, there were hospitals established by the government; for the widowed and orphaned, there were welfare homes established by the government. If any Qin person suffered a grievance, the government had to resolve it for them, and there were always people watching to see if the government favored financial magnates. Any such discovery would lead to dismissal from office, even beheading.
In the past, hearing about these benefits was enough, but now they were laid out before their very eyes. This inevitably led to great dissatisfaction among the "Silly Eagle" citizens.
Or, viewed from another angle: if even the Qin people who had migrated to the Indigenous lands could enjoy such good welfare, how good must be the welfare enjoyed by the Ming people remaining in the Great Ming homeland?
As Mencius said: "It is not poverty that is to be feared, but inequality."
The better the welfare the Qin country's Ming people enjoyed, the more envious and dissatisfied the "Silly Eagle" citizens became.
However, they could only be envious.
Under their envy, many "Silly Eagle" citizens began to think about migrating to Qin country to enjoy a better life. After all, most European countries were casual about immigration; today they might be English, tomorrow they might be "Silly Eagle" citizens, and holding dual citizenship was not uncommon.
However, Qin country was different from those European countries.
They did not accept those with low education, nor those without exceptional skills. Even if they met the educational and technical requirements, they had to swear allegiance to the Great Ming Emperor and undergo a probationary period of several years before they could immediately enjoy the welfare that Qin people received from birth.
This selective attitude was quite vexing, making the "Silly Eagle" citizens even more envious.
Then, the "Silly Eagle" citizens recalled the third president, Thomas Jefferson.
During Thomas Jefferson's presidency, all of the "Silly Eagle" country's policies were modeled after the Great Ming, including working eight hours a day, resting two days a week, strictly prohibiting overtime, extensively building free public schools and introducing Ming textbooks, and managing officials and financial magnates in line with the Great Ming.
Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson miscalculated.
The Great Ming dared to play this game because Emperor Zhu held firm control over official hats, moneybags, and military power, capable of suppressing all dissent. From the imperial court to local governments, everyone had to act according to Emperor Zhu's will.
But what about the "Silly Eagle"?
The official hats were not held by Thomas Jefferson but by financial magnates through "freedom." The moneybags were not even disguised; the "Silly Federal Reserve" was a private company. As for military power... Thomas Jefferson did not possess much military power.
If Thomas Jefferson had been given several decades to operate slowly, he might have had a chance to change everything. However, Thomas Jefferson's move to align with the Great Ming directly encroached upon the interests of the Rothschild magnates. Could those magnates let Thomas Jefferson go?
The Rothschild magnates, through the newspapers they controlled, portrayed Thomas Jefferson as a useless person who only knew how to learn from the Great Ming and knew nothing else. They also depicted him as an "ambitious person who sought to establish an imperial system."
Then, Thomas Jefferson was quickly impeached and removed from office. Forget about re-election; he couldn't even complete a full term.
The problem was that the people of the "Silly Eagle" country were not entirely foolish – the Kunlun slaves had not yet risen up to sing songs of liberation, nor was there talk of "Kunlun slaves' lives also mattering, and even more so." Now, seeing the excellent welfare benefits in Qin country, the people of the "Silly Eagle" country finally remembered Thomas Jefferson.
Then, the people of the "Silly Eagle" country turned their gaze towards the "Silly Eagle" itself. "We are all human. Why should the Qin people enjoy so many benefits while we, the people of the 'Silly Eagle' country, can only watch? Why did we have the opportunity to enjoy the same welfare benefits, but now have nothing?"
Wasn't it all because you magnates are not acting like humans?
Damn it!
Then, the "Silly Eagle" citizens began a grand campaign to commemorate Thomas Jefferson and started to attack those Rothschild magnates.
Of course, the "Silly Eagle" citizens were ultimately just citizens. They did not control newspapers like the Rothschild magnates, nor could they rely on the government to solve problems like the Qin people.
Within the framework set by the Rothschild magnates, they could only take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction and their desire for more welfare benefits.
If things continued like this, the Rothschild magnates would not have found it unacceptable – they would increase wages or provide some benefits after each commotion, and then gradually divide and conquer them. After all, there were always more solutions than difficulties.
The problem was that these "Silly Eagle" citizens suddenly received certain books.
No one gave them the truly complete "Dragon Slaying Secret Arts," but translated, emasculated, and modified versions of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" were being circulated everywhere, with parts about fighting and rebellion being helpfully marked as important.
Along with this, some French merchants also arrived in the "Silly Eagle," bringing flintlock rifles that France had already begun to phase out.
Then, the Rothschild magnates of the "Silly Eagle" country found that the workers were becoming harder to fool. Some even began to form groups, appearing ready to revolt if their welfare benefits were not increased.
Could this be tolerated?
William Avery Rockefeller said with a dark expression, "Those Qin people can enjoy such good welfare benefits because the Great Ming behind them has the conditions to provide them with such good welfare benefits. But can our 'Silly Eagle' do that?"
"We do not have as vast lands as the Great Ming, nor as large and stable fiscal revenues, nor as invincible an army as the Great Ming. We cannot reap the world at will like the Great Ming."
"If we imitated the Great Ming and provided them with such high welfare benefits, our 'Silly Eagle' treasury might not even last a year!"
James Rothschild's expression was also extremely grim. "William, don't you find it strange? Whether it's those damned Indigenous people or those greedy workers, they all seem to have become difficult to deal with."
"Don't just blame those two books. In fact, I've read both of them. Those two books alone are probably not enough to cause such a stir."
"I suspect that Qin people, or rather Ming people, are already involved behind the scenes of these matters."
William Avery Rockefeller grunted, "And then? The President just said that our 'Silly Eagle' does not yet have the strength to challenge Qin country, nor the strength to challenge the Great Ming."
James Rothschild snorted, "I know that our strength is still insufficient, but if we don't have the strength to challenge Qin country and the Great Ming, don't we still have the strength to deal with those damned Indigenous people?"
(End of this chapter)
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Heavenly Emperor's Noble Lineage reminds you: Remember to collect after reading.