Chapter 535 The Rise and Fall of the Tea Country

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

In 1845, Britain encountered the Irish famine. Phytophthora infestans not only attacked Ireland, but also spread to the European continent. In 1848, the Spring of Nations Movement broke out. This was a battle between European civilians and liberal scholars against the monarchical dictatorship. Revolution, the first revolution broke out in Sicily, Italy in January 1848. The subsequent French February Revolution even spread the wave of revolution to almost all of Europe. But most of this series of revolutions quickly ended in failure. When the Hungarian Revolution failed, the National Spring Movement ended.

Although the revolution led by scholars is advanced, the unity of different political factions and social strata in the revolution has been successful to a certain extent, but the original contradictions are too deep-rooted and difficult to resolve in a short time. The system of the new regime , The balance between various ethnic groups, the economic transformation after the industrial revolution, etc. The issue of nationalism has led to fierce ethnic conflicts, and even the destruction of regimes in the revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe; the issue of constitutionalism and democracy has made liberals and democracy There have been huge differences between the factions, leading to political polarization, and even until modern society, this issue has plagued many European countries.

  These remaining issues are worth thinking about. However, what really changed the world pattern and caused the Qing government to fall into decline took place in 1850.

  In the economic foundation of the ancient Chinese dynasty, there were three unique products: silk, porcelain, and tea. Whether in terms of output or quality, they have been the best in the world for thousands of years.

  Through prosperous and developed overseas trade, these Chinese specialty products are sold globally, and they exchange massive amounts of gold and silver income for China every year, which is a source of national income that all dynasties have depended on. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, European countries have successively mastered the production technology of silk and porcelain. Lyon, France and Como, Italy have become silk capitals. Bone china from Britain and Mason porcelain from Germany can compete with the Qing Dynasty in terms of output and quality. These two specialties 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 an absolute advantage.

  The British East India Company, as a multinational business group that has long monopolized trade in Eurasia, has always been concerned about this. In order to break the dominance of the Qing Dynasty in the world tea trade system and get a share of it, in 1850 they hired a European Robert at a price of 550 pounds to sneak into the Qing Dynasty inland 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 the time. He once traveled alone on all continents of the world to explore, investigate and steal exotic treasures and rare plants and animals. Resources.

After Robert came to China, pretending to be a businessman and a traveler, he arrived in Wuyishan, Hangzhou and other tea producing areas successively. He used money to buy and rhetoric, and successively obtained a batch of tea seedlings and tea seeds, and used high salaries as bait to buy them. I hired 8 tea farmers who are proficient in tea planting, and went to work overseas with him.

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

Taking this as an opportunity, India’s tea planting industry developed rapidly, and within more than ten years, it quickly grabbed most of the world’s tea market. The tea export volume of the Qing Dynasty plummeted, and the export volume plummeted, leading to the most important thing in the Qing Dynasty. Tea, a foreign trade product, has completely lost its position in the world tea market. The decline and stagnation of the tea trade has resulted in the loss of the most important and stable source of income for the Qing Dynasty’s economy. Coupled with the loss of a large amount of silver in the opium trade and war reparations, without foreign trade income, they had to exploit internal civilians and transfer tariffs. The means to pay off the debt.

  The Yellow River suffered four major breaches in 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1851. In 1855, there was a diversion. The Qing government aggravated the disaster by temporarily easing the congestion.

  In 1856, the locust plague in Shanxi, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, and the Yaluo incident broke out on October 8, and the Second Opium War broke out.

Many people have forgotten that kind of scene of life being charred. Most ordinary people cannot live for 150 years. A lot of painful memories follow them into the grave, but the age of wizards is longer than ordinary people. The longevity that Muggles dream of is right. It's not a good thing for them.

Everyone wants to have a smooth life for the rest of their lives, with financial resources, and worry-free food and clothing. The tea merchants in Huizhou were once rich and rivals. Hu Xueyan, the "red-top merchant", is one of them. Falling, looking at the situation of the separation of people and wealth, but the situation has changed, and the external environment has changed. It is impossible to prevent this change from happening.

  Japan’s rapid rise after the war took a ride on the Vietnam War and the Dodge Project, but after all, they are nothing more than piglets raised by the United States.

  Japan’s bubble economy burst in 1990 and housing prices were cut in half, ending decades of rapid growth.

  Since then, the Japanese economy has basically fallen into a state of stagnation.

  After the tea trade changed hands, Huizhou merchants also began to decline. Not only did the tea business were forced to stop, some tea merchants had to sell their fields and mortgage their family properties to survive. Who said the core competitiveness was stolen by the East India Company.

  Countries where coffee beans are grown are mainly distributed in the area between 25 degrees north and south. Because coffee beans have adapted to a specific climate zone, even a 0.5 degree temperature rise may have a huge impact on their production.

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

  If you still maintain the value concept of drinking Starbucks as a status symbol, then the opportunity brought by the abnormal climate will be missed again.

  In the past, pepper was also a spice with the same price as gold, like saffron, 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 slowly dropped.

The popularization of tea needs to be spread, and the use of saffron is the same. Its medicinal and edible value need to be developed. Artemisinin has made worthless weeds look forward to quinine and become a special medicine for the treatment of malaria. Extracted from cinchona bark.

Herbal medicine is not only the basis of magical medicine, but also contains huge business opportunities. Chinese people’s weak awareness of intellectual property rights will make them suffer a big loss. R&D institutions and pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Switzerland are based on the technology disclosed in Chinese papers in Qinghao Extensive research on artificial total synthesis of artemisinin, artemisinin complex, purification and preparation technology, etc., applied for a large number of improvements and peripheral technology patents, and this money was earned by others.

  It is clearly discovered by the Chinese, why is the patent not owned by the Chinese?

  It was Severus who improved the wolf's poison potion, but in the end the honor was taken away by Damocles Belle. This kind of humiliation mood was the same.

  Patience is not for obedience, but for revenge one day, and now Damocles Belle is working for Severus.

  Some people go too far and too fast, but their souls have not kept up, and they are still standing still.

   Victor Hugo once said that books are tools for creating souls. This sentence is taken from The Miserable World. The poorest one 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 man named Mrs. Victunian found out Fantine's past experience and exposed her illegitimate daughter. Several of her colleagues gave Fantine 50 francs in the name of Mr. Madeleine and told her to leave, but Madeleine did not know about it. Fantine began her tragic experience from then on. She was fired and no one would hire her anymore. She was unable to support herself and her daughter who was fostered in another's house by labor. 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 described as haggard, terminally ill, and suffering from social discrimination.

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

  If you are beautiful, you will be jealous. If you are ugly, you will be laughed at. It seems that only ordinary people can get peace.

  Pomona admires Lotus very much. She can ignore the opinions of others and show her beauty proudly, but she hides herself and only reveals herself in front of one person.

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

  Sometimes she wants attention, but she is not mature at all, like a stupid kid making fun of her life.

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

  This is what she thought of when she woke up the morning after losing her virginity. What on earth penetrated her skull and made her think that she was not worthy of him?

  At this moment, Pomona was sleeping on the bed in the luxury apartment, glaring at the "newly married husband" lying next to her, who seemed to be sleeping well.

  Why is this person so annoying?

  (End of this chapter)