Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

The report by the Amsterdam Peace Research Institute also pointed out that in addition to Britain almost monopolizing the arms purchases of the Confederate States during the Civil War, the second place was the Ottoman Empire.

In the past five years, the Ottoman Empire also purchased more than 3 million pounds of arms from the United Kingdom, with an annual average of more than 600,000 pounds, of which warships accounted for the bulk. The tonnage of warships currently being built in London for the Ottoman Empire exceeds 20,000 tons.

The rest include Italy, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Sweden and even other European countries such as the Russian Empire, which are all customers of British arms dealers.

According to the final calculated value, tracked by the Amsterdam Peace Research Institute, the main channels for British arms dealers in the past five years were inter-governmental sales, and the other was direct overseas commercial sales by private contractors authorized by the British cabinet government.

This report pointed out that the UK sold more than 30 million pounds of arms to foreign countries in the past five years.

The second place is not France, nor Prussia, but unexpectedly, it is the Netherlands.

The report stated that arms transfers and trade with the Dutch Ministry of Defense are important tools of the Dutch foreign policy, and said that the Netherlands has a wide range of arms targets, saying that the Netherlands has provided weapons to its allies, the Russian Empire, Argentina, Sweden, the Commonwealth of America, Colombia, Venezuela, and Greece. , Denmark and other countries took action.

If the recent successful signing of steam battleships with the Federal Republic of America, the Federal Republic of America will rise from the fourth place in Dutch arms sales to the first export destination country.

Even the Netherlands’ annual arms sales this year will break a historical record.

This report also lists estimated values.

In the past five years, the Russian Empire purchased more than 2 million pounds of arms from the Netherlands, Argentina more than 1.7 million pounds, Sweden more than 1.5 million pounds, Colombia and Venezuela about the same amount, both between 1 million pounds, and the Kingdom of Siam at about 800,000 pounds. .

The remaining Greece and Denmark are both around 500,000 pounds, and the latter only started to equip Dutch weapons in the past two years.

In the past five years, the Netherlands has sold approximately 9 million pounds of weapons.

The remaining third arms sales export countries were France, with 8 million pounds, Prussia with 7 million pounds (Prussia’s previous arms sales included other small German countries before unification), and the American Commonwealth with 4.8 million pounds.

The report pointed out that these countries will fully consider political, military, economic and end-use factors when selling.

This report immediately revealed the arms trade network around the world, which is very important for the analysis of the situation in various countries.

As a result, various countries are beginning to use this report to evaluate their military capabilities and potential.

The Netherlands, for the first time, became the second largest arms seller in this report, suddenly becoming the focus of the world.

Even in terms of military innovation potential, because the Netherlands has become the third country with the ability and technology to manufacture steam battleships, and because it has the latest world-leading rifle and firearms technologies, semi-automatic rifles first appeared in the Netherlands and attracted the attention of various countries.

Coupled with the fact that the Netherlands has never lost wars in South Africa, Mozambique, Congo and Angola in the past few years, the Netherlands' strong industrial and technological capabilities, world-leading per capita income, economic and educational capabilities have attracted the world's attention.

The report mentioned that the Netherlands' military equipment innovation capabilities ranked fourth, second only to the United Kingdom, France, and Prussia, and ahead of the American Commonwealth, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Tsarist Russian Empire. According to the data analysis of the report, it was So convincing.

The comprehensive military potential of the Netherlands is also ranked behind the five major powers of Britain, France, the Russian Empire, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is actually tied for sixth place with Spain and the Ottoman Empire.

Although opponents think it is somewhat exaggerated, with a population only half that of Spain and other countries, those who agree believe that the Netherlands can actually be compared to the Ottoman Empire. After all, a large population does not necessarily mean potential, and the Netherlands now has 2,000 African natives in East India. With tens of thousands collected, there is no shortage of people.

Moreover, the Mongolian cavalry would not have conquered so many countries in Eurasia and conquered Europe from Asia.

The streets of the world are filled with the significance of this report because of this report.

To this end, His Majesty King Willem IV of the Netherlands gave a speech in the Dutch Senate. He asked the Dutch cabinet to not only establish overseas arms sales as an important goal of national security and foreign policy, but also to regard it as a major opportunity to promote innovation and create jobs.

William IV also cited several wars as examples, pointing out that the development of the British Industrial and Commercial Bank was inseparable from the military development technology triggered by the war, and was later combined with private industry. The politics of allies was the original development basis for arms exports, which had a great impact on the British domestic military industry. The British arms industry, which is based on overseas arms sales, is ushering in a boom.

William IV also criticized the report of the Amsterdam Peace Research Institute, which stated that since 1861, among the top five military industrial companies in the world, except for the Dutch Wilhelm Group subsidiary Wilhelm Arms Company, which occupied the third place, the other top four were all located in the United Kingdom. Not even France has a share.

For this reason, William IV also pointed out that the Dutch arms dealers should only focus on domestic affairs and should also learn from the British and focus overseas.

The continued development of British military industrial enterprises is closely related to the interaction between enterprises, government and parliament. According to this report, in the past 20 years, British military industrial companies have spent up to 1 million pounds alone lobbying Buckingham Palace and Downing Street in London in order to influence British defense policy so that the weapons they manufacture can be used.

These arms dealers also have lobbying groups in other countries to lobby for their arms business, and their annual overseas lobbying expenses exceed 100,000 pounds.

The political and business revolving door in British society continues to promote the development of the military industry. After the British Tories and Whigs and other political bigwigs stepped down, they were directly employed by military industry companies, using resources such as personal connections to influence the British government. While pursuing export business for these military-industrial enterprises, he also made a lot of money from it.

Spink, a senior British official who has been retired for many years and visited by the Amsterdam Peace Research Institute, pointed out in the report that in the past few decades, the British military, industry, the House of Commons and the House of Lords complex have been linked to British newspapers, academia, and intelligence. The British Ministry of Defense is led by these capitals, causing the UK to become increasingly dependent on defense spending. He warned that although it is very good for the UK to have a strong military industry, it is easy to go astray when it comes to economic development, because he calls for the UK to re- Change direction to steer the ship in the right direction.

"We cannot repeat the path that Britain has taken under the feet of the Netherlands. This is wrong. The Netherlands must walk at its own pace instead of learning from others. Of course, we must also learn from the good ones."

William IV was in the Senate and looked at the senators below. Everyone had solemn expressions on their faces. He said with great seriousness: "Although He has made some small achievements so far, he can be proud of it, but he cannot be complacent. After all, we in the Netherlands are still suppressed by Britain, France, Prussia, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, etc. Even Spain, to be honest, it is difficult for us to defeat each other. This is because we need to assess the situation and use this to serve the Netherlands. When you control your own direction and seek national interests, you need to understand yourself and the operations of others."

Although William IV said this in the Senate, William's military industry, because of this exposure, turned out to be a hot pot for various countries, especially those small countries in South America. This was something William IV did not expect.