Chapter 496 Restless Europe
It will take at least several months before everything that happens in the Far East reaches Europe, thousands of miles away. Let us turn our attention back to Europe.
The strike wave among British miners continues to ferment. Even if the mine owners imprison some of the "troublemakers", it will not help.
England is facing the biggest coal crisis since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In addition to coal workers, workers from other mines have also joined this massive demonstration.
This plunged the British economy, which had just improved, into a cold winter again, and even had to purchase coal from Scotland.
However, the cost of doing so is extremely uneconomical. Although the price of coal is cheap, the freight is horribly high. Coupled with England's alarming consumption, the whole situation looks very funny.
Almost all British newspapers criticized the "Soots" overwhelmingly. They believed that this was a complete traitorous act, a sign of ignorance and low intelligence, and that they were followers of Mammon and Belphegor.
(Mammon and Belphegor are the embodiments of greed and laziness in the Bible)
However, there were people on the European continent who waved and cheered for them, and even called on people to donate money and materials. Then the two great men received an incredible amount of donations.
It's just that the source of this fund is puzzling to them, but it is true that the two of them are very poor. This money is enough for the two of them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, and even their children and grandchildren will no longer need to work.
But the reason why great men can become great men is that they are different from ordinary people. The two resisted the temptation and still started to assist the British miners.
So when the miners were driven to the streets by the mine owners, a sum of aid funds solved their urgent needs.
This group of miners actually had nothing. Because their houses were built on the land of the mine owners and were deemed by the government to be mine property, the residents were evicted from their houses.
This move resulted in tens of thousands of people being forced to leave their homes, and the methods of the mine thugs were even more heinous; whether they were the elderly, children, or pregnant women, they were all driven out with extremely violent methods. Some mothers were even dragged out of bed by their hair and pushed into dirty, smelly ditches.
It was clear that this inhumane act was directed by someone whose purpose was to cause a riot and turn the strike into an atrocity so that they could forcibly disperse the participants.
In view of the strong influence of the Chartists at this moment, Whitehall did not dare to easily announce the termination of the strike, so it had to resort to this strategy. After all, the number of miners was much smaller than that of the Chartists, and they were also located in relatively remote areas.
If it were placed in London, they would never have the courage.
Thanks to donations from the European continent, the miners who participated in the strike lived much better than in history, at least there were no large-scale deaths from freezing and starvation.
But this situation did not last long, because there was no lower limit for certain groups, and soon this country that advocated free trade banned merchants from selling goods to miners.
At the same time, hungry people were recruited from Ireland and Wales to replace them. The restoration of involution was the real drain on this group of warriors who dared to challenge serious injustice.
However, some previously suppressed news also broke out at this time, such as the use of child labor in some mining areas and resulting in widespread deaths.
Of course, the boss must not know about this scandal, and it must be the temporary supervisor below who is doing it for petty profits.
As a result, a group of unlucky guys who blatantly violated the law and caused major accidents were sent to the gallows.
As for ignorant child laborers such as David, Jim and Kate, they will be exempted from prosecution and will be sent back to their homes, or to workhouses and workhouses for the poor.
Since Russia in the Near East joined Austria's trading system, the Tsar's wallet has bulged.
The first thing Nicholas I thought of when he got money was to engage in military industry. Before, there was only one Ivresk Arsenal in Russia, which was established during the reign of his brother Alexander I to deal with Napoleon.
Due to a long-term lack of funds and backward technology, the annual output only stayed at the level of 25,000 rifles, 5,000 swords, 200,000 rounds of ammunition, and 30 cannons.
At the same time, the production capacity of the British Enfield Arsenal was almost double that of its Russian counterpart, and there were three other arms factories of the same level in Great Britain (including a Calcutta Arsenal in India).
Similarly, Russia's production capacity is not as good as France and Austria, not even as good as Prussia, and only slightly stronger than Spain, the sick man of Western Europe.
However, with the support of its ally France, the former master of Iberia is increasing its military production capacity by leaps and bounds.
This made Nicholas I unable to sit still, so he spent huge sums of money to establish two arsenals, namely the Shetroretsk Arsenal and the Tula Arsenal.
St. Petersburg is very cautious when it comes to the military industry, so all arsenals are built in its hinterland.
Although the production capacity of Russia's arsenal is weak, the state control is strong, while the arsenals of France and Prussia have strong private enterprise backgrounds, and in Austria, the presence of Franz has led to a split between public and private.
The British Enfield Arsenal is also known as the Royal Small Arms Arsenal. Historically, British weapons have represented the highest level in the world, but now they lag behind Austria and Prussia.
The sharp increase in production capacity caused by the Tsar's massive military industry is something worthy of praise in itself, but the cost is also huge.
For this reason, the Russians came up with the idea of "friendly neighbors" to the Ottomans. After all, a czar's life would be incomplete without engaging in several Russian-Turkish wars.
The evaluation of a tsar by later generations often depends on how many Russian-Turkish wars he launched. Nicholas I naturally knew this.
So a serf living on the Russian-Turkish border complained, "The sheep raised by the Ottomans crossed the border again, but this time they were not eating cabbage, but cotton."
This immediately attracted great attention from the Tsarist Russian government. After all, it was an imperial system. As long as His Majesty the Great Tsar felt it was important, then small things would become big things.
Some ministers proposed setting up isolation zones, some proposed sending troops to the border for training, and others proposed raising more shepherd dogs for biological control.
Naturally, these weird things could not please His Majesty the Tsar, and instead made him almost angry to death.
“I can’t see Russia’s future with these idiots”
Nicholas I turned his head to Prince Mainkov and Duke Lyubai, and they immediately began to think hard.
The Tsar raised his forehead again.
"Damn idiot! Do you have to make me drive animals like me before you can take the initiative to think?"
"Alexander Nikolayevich, tell me what you think."
However, at this time, the Russian Crown Prince was still staring at the new court lady in the corner and did not hear his father's question.
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich (Alexander's younger brother) on the side quickly tapped his brother twice with his elbows. At this time, Alexander looked at his father who was glaring at him in confusion.
Nicholas I was speechless for his young child, but since the crown prince had to maintain his majesty in public, it was not easy for him to go into details, so he could only ask other people present.
"Does anyone have any other comments?"
At this time, a young officer stood up.
"Since the Ottomans can't control the livestock on their land, they should hand over the land to us for management! But our Russian Empire is a civilized country. We can first send envoys to Constantinople to ask for compensation, depending on the other party's reaction and The international situation will be decided again."
This answer made Nicholas I very satisfied and asked with a smile.
"Young man, what is your name?"
"Your Majesty, my name is Andrei Uvarov."