Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

August 21, 1866.

London, Buckingham Palace.

Sitting in front of Queen Victoria were Creston, who had been the British Prime Minister for nearly half a year, and Russell, the Foreign Secretary.

The two of them came to Buckingham Palace for a routine debriefing meeting every week.

Different from the previous two meetings, this meeting came with pressure.

To be precise, the Queen is very dissatisfied with the current diplomatic situation in the UK, so the pressure on the two of them can be imagined.

In the current British political arena, Queen Victoria's influence cannot directly determine who will be the British Prime Minister, because the latter is elected as a result.

However, don't forget the Queen's absolute influence among the British people. As long as she lets out the news about who she supports and opposes, not to mention 100%, she can at least reduce the support rate of those she opposes, and almost half of them will die prematurely.

This is fatal to every candidate.

Therefore, in the British political arena, no one dares to take the Queen's attitude lightly. Creston's one-year term as Prime Minister is about to end. If you expect to get the Queen's support in the next Prime Ministerial election, go to Buckingham Palace. If you run away, you can get more support from the queen.

This was the suggestion made by Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Creston before his death, and the latter also accepted it.

Queen Victoria frowned and asked, "Why is this report so detailed?"

She was talking about the report of the Amsterdam Peace Research Institute, a semi-annual report. In the past few years, every time she stared at the above report, she couldn't help but feel dissatisfied. Why, she found that this report introduced the United Kingdom in detail. The level is so high that it is almost as accurate as the British Ministry of Defense report.

She has been in power for more than 20 years as the Queen of the United Kingdom, and she naturally understands the stakes involved. Therefore, she cannot help but feel uneasy and dissatisfied that the intelligence of the British Ministry of Defense has been so thoroughly understood.

Sure enough.

Cresdo and Russell looked at each other, obviously expecting the Queen to be concerned about this issue.

That's right, when they first saw this report, they even thought that this report was completed with the participation of senior officials from the British Ministry of Defense.

However, after investigation, it was found that there was no such thing.

Therefore, the two men were alarmed by the intelligence capabilities of the Amsterdam Peace Research Institute in the Netherlands.

Creston calmed down and replied: "Your Majesty, this organization has worked hard in this area. I suspect that they are funded by the Dutch government and participate in the collection of this intelligence in the foreign ministries of various countries, and the private sector , there is also a team involved at this time, so it is so detailed.”

Queen Victoria was not satisfied with this answer, but she did not plan to hold Creston accountable. After all, the guy in front of her had only been in charge of No. 10 Downing Street for half a year, and that report was almost over. It’s been ten years.

"Can we produce an identical report?"

See Russell and Creston even God hesitates.

Queen Victoria seemed to have seen through the ideas of Creston and Russell, and said: "The Whigs can have their own share, and the Tories don't have to worry about it. As for the foundation, I think you can cooperate with the "Financial Times" and the "London Journal" "Cooperation, after all, collecting information is their strength."

Russell and Creston's eyes lit up, and they thought the Queen's idea was good. When it comes to collecting information, who else can compare with professional newspapers, who have complete channels for collecting information.

If combined with the military's mysterious MI6 intelligence information, it is very likely that an organization similar to the Amsterdam Peace Institute will emerge.

Thinking about it this way, I couldn't help but admire the Queen.

Queen Victoria couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with the Whigs.

These are actually all information collected by her Royal Intelligence Service. In fact, she ordered the Royal Intelligence Service to track this organization a few years ago. Therefore, she understood the chakra composition of this organization.

I even thought about setting up this organization at the time. At that time, domestic arms dealers were dissatisfied because they were afraid of leaking their information to the British cabinet government and making their company secrets public, which would be very detrimental to the company.

Therefore, even a powerful person like Viscount Palmerston could only give up.

Now this comprehensive report from the Netherlands has made the British arms giants speechless and unable to refuse, so she raised the issue again.

They even promised the Whigs some benefits before the other two agreed.

The selfishness of the Whigs and Tories is also evident.

Queen Victoria mused secretly:

The Netherlands is not strong enough because other big countries are less wary of it, but the Netherlands is not weak because other big countries give the Netherlands a certain amount of respect.

The American Civil War in the Balkans and North America is still ongoing, and the five of them can accurately determine when it will end.

Since the American Civil War, William IV of the Netherlands has sent telegrams to Queen Victoria several times. William IV expressed his concern to Queen Victoria about the possible impact of the war on the Dutch interests in the Commonwealth of America, and suggested that Victoria The Queen held direct talks with the Lincoln government of the Confederate States of America.

William IV also stated that he could serve as a mediator between the American federal government and the British and Confederate governments to promote direct dialogue among the three parties.

William IV also said that the Netherlands was even willing to maintain friendly relations with the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire, and Tsarist Russia. During the Balkan Peninsula War, it would help Britain and the Ottoman Empire initiate dialogue with the Tsarist Russian Empire, and act as a mediator on the Balkan Peninsula if possible.

Conditional?

When Queen Victoria thought about the fact that the young king had stated this condition to her, he actually wanted the UK to recognize the legalization of the Dutch arms business, recognize the existence of the Dutch arms business, and not to maliciously suppress the other party.

But he actually refused at the beginning. After all, Britain's arms business is the best in the world. Naturally, Britain will not tie itself up. Britain wants to be exclusive.

However, she did not expect that the Netherlands would actually break into a new world in the past few years, and even its share. In just over five years, it would go from focusing only on South America, Venezuela, Colombia, and less than one-tenth of the United Kingdom, to occupying Argentina and the United Kingdom. , the Commonwealth of America, the Russian Empire, Sweden and other countries, the arms share has reached more than 30% of the current British foreign arms business, and looking at the current situation, there will even be a trend of large-scale development in the future.

Just yesterday, William IV sent her a telegram again. This little guy actually asked her hypocritically whether the sale of steam battleships by the Netherlands to the Commonwealth of America would break the current balance of naval power among various countries.

War around the world has shrunk the sales channels of British industrial products. British industrial products have piled up in London. Especially when the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden and other countries are dissatisfied with the British, they consciously reject the British industrial manufacturing platform. , and the conflict with the American Commonwealth has deprived British industrial products of a market of 23 million people. Recently, the Ottoman Empire has threatened to increase tariffs on British industrial products from time to time, causing British industrial products to increase prices in disguise, making the British The industrial products will be less competitive than similar goods from France, Prussia, the Netherlands and the Commonwealth of America.

Once these persist, the challenges to Britain's economic development will become even more severe.

This is Britain's dilemma.