Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

8 a.m. on June 1, 1866, Stockholm, Scandinavia.

Although the monsoon in Stockholm in the morning was not as strong as in winter, there was still some lingering Arctic chill in the morning, which was quite refreshing.

The Nordic continent is indeed not suitable for large-scale human migration. Not to mention food, just because of the cold weather, the money spent on buying fabrics and clothing every year is much higher than that of places such as the Kingdom of Italy in southern Europe. For ordinary people For a family, this is a big expense.

It's no wonder that the population of the United Kingdom of Sweden-Norway is always so small.

As the largest city in Sweden, Stockholm is also the heart of the country with the most concentrated power. Royal palaces, government agencies, and parliament buildings are all located here.

Stockholm is adjacent to the Baltic Sea and has beautiful scenery. It is distributed on 14 small islands and a peninsula. More than 70 bridges connect these islands. Therefore, it is known as the Venice of the North. Therefore, William IV came to Sweden 2 days early this time. . After walking around Stockholm the past two days, I attended the German Heads of State meeting chaired by Karl XV today.

William IV was sitting on the carriage and asked the Dutch Ambassador to Sweden, Harf, "Tell me about the current domestic situation in Sweden."

This time he was accompanied only by Foreign Minister Hesbert von and International Intelligence Agency Director McKay Sean. Of course, the head of the Dutch Royal Guard was bound to follow him. It was his responsibility to maintain the safety of the royal family members. Considerable.

Harf was born in 1834 and is only 32 years old this year. He is still young and strong. He can be said to be a young man in the Dutch diplomatic community. In terms of fame, he is second only to Nicholas Pearson, Ambassador to Prussia, and Michael Davis, Ambassador to the British Empire. The former was born in 1835 and the latter in 1830.

Huff takes over from Pierson.

William IV knew that the Harv in front of him was a member of Pierson, the leader of the Young Boys, in the Dutch diplomatic community.

Wherever there are people, there are Jianghu factions. This saying is true.

However, William IV does not have to worry too much about these things. Just like Tolbeck now, he has been elected as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands for the second time. He can only serve as Prime Minister for two terms at most, but he is not prepared to break it. .

Therefore, for the new cabinet government in the Dutch general election in 1869 and 1870, William IV did not mind that the opposition came to power to check and balance the current ruling party of the Netherlands, the Liberal Party.

"Christian denominations can maintain my support as a religious believer. This is what must be done."

William IV secretly thought: "However, the Franco-Prussian War is coming. If a Christian party comes to power at this time, it may break many of the current arrangements of the Netherlands and affect my and Tolbeck's plans, which makes me a little bit It's a contradiction. It depends on the situation. If it doesn't work, you can let the Free Party continue to work for another term. After Europe enters the peace of the 1970s, it will use the Christian Party to paralyze other European countries and promote the commonality of the Netherlands in Protestantism."

Thinking of this, William IV looked at Harv in front of him, and then thought of Nelson, the ambassador to Prussia.

"Nilson is a good guy. He is very shrewd, and the political methods he uses are different from Tolbik. Nielsen likes to use the royal approach. He goes straight and at the same time catches his opponents off guard and uses his power to overwhelm others. This is in front of him. When facing Bismarck, he was able to escape unscathed, and you will know if Prussia agrees to form an alliance with the Netherlands and France.

Nelson comes from a Christian dang, so he's a good choice. In the next term, he will only be 36 years old. If it is 1874, he will be exactly 40 years old, which is really good.

Michael Davis, the liberal ambassador to Britain, was 40 years old in 1870, so he could succeed Tolbek. However, it was still early. After all, Hesbert von was also the same age as him, and other cabinet members were also of similar age. It’s not big, but the Liberty Dang is full of talents. However, Davis, Pearson and a few others can first enter the cabinet to gain experience and broaden their horizons.”

William IV was thinking here, but Ambassador Harf reported: "Your Majesty, the domestic situation in Sweden is quite chaotic now."

William IV looked at him in surprise, "Continue talking."

Harv said solemnly: "Before 1861, Sweden wanted to be independent because of Norway, so King Carl XV tightened controls on Norway. Originally, the Norwegians did not dare to make any changes.

However, as the UK has promoted maritime trade with Norway in recent years, the trade volume between the UK and Norway is even higher than the trade volume between Norway and Sweden. This has caused Norwegian capital to begin to focus on Gradually turning to Britain, Norway vigorously built maritime ships. "

William IV asked: "Won't Karl XV stop him?"

Capital gravity means that for more than 2 million Norwegians, they may resist Stockholm in the future.

Because factories in this era were more purely manual, employment would change with the direction of industry. If Norway's industry served Britain, then the number of jobs in the future would be in the hands of London, not Stockholm.

Sure enough, Harf said with a wry smile: "Karl XV once asked Oslo to reduce its trade with the United Kingdom, but it caused huge dissatisfaction in Oslo. Even after the Norwegian Parliament passed the Anglo-Norwegian free trade proposal, it was sent directly to the Royal Palace of Stockholm. V's office, which is said to have caused great anger to Karl XV."

William IV: "What happened in the end?"

The result is of course useless. Looking at the fact that Norway continues to trade with Britain in full swing, you can know that Karl XV's enthusiasm has gone gray.

Harf: "Karl XV was ready to veto it directly. He even planned to directly remove the nativist Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway, Frederik Stang, and replace him with one from Stockholm. But in the end, this proposal from the royalists, It was actually rejected in the Swedish Parliament.”

What!

At that time, William IV was paying attention to southern overseas countries such as Africa and the East Indies, but he did not pay attention to this. Moreover, Sweden quickly downsized the major issue, so it did not cause much international sensation.

However, William IV was a little bit surprised when he proposed to Sweden to hold a summit of German leaders, and Karl XV readily agreed.

"Why do they oppose the proposal of Karl XV at home?"

Harf then explained: "The Swedish Parliament is currently mainly composed of liberals supported by royalists and capitalists. Many people in the capitalist camp are the promoters who want Sweden to keep up with the pace of Western European industry. Therefore, under the influence of Karl XV's father Oscar I, who wanted to promote Sweden to become an advanced industrialized country, received great attention from the beginning, and the conservative royalists were suppressed by Oscar I."

William IV knew this, because these royalists were traditionally the descendants of nobles, and they were all vested interests.

On the contrary, many Swedish capitalists have only just begun to rise, and they can be regarded as starting from scratch. At that time, Oscar I was afraid that the capitalists would be suppressed by the royalists, so he gave his support to the capitalists.

Chapter 2, there will be another chapter later