Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On October 5, 1867, a poll showed that King William IV surpassed his father William III and grandfather William II, and was tied with his great-grandfather William I as the greatest king.

To this end, the Dutch House of Representatives invited him to give a speech. William IV naturally did not refuse.

In the eyes of many Dutch people, a king who refuses an invitation from his own parliament is definitely not a competent king.

So people began to discuss the report card of William IV in the past six years since he ascended the throne of the Netherlands on December 1, 1861.

They found that William IV took stock of the situation and launched a series of democratic reform measures as soon as he came to the throne, including supporting the construction of newspapers in the Netherlands and allowing everyone to express opinions criticizing the cabinet government and the royal family.

William IV even publicly stated that in his opinion, allowing the people to speak freely and improving people's intelligence is the window for the rise of the Netherlands. "

When this policy was announced, it attracted a wave of positive responses from the entire Dutch Parliament.

William IV therefore won a lot of support from members of Congress.

I have to say that this reform of William IV aroused the feelings of the congressmen present at the time. For the congressmen, is there anything more to their liking than the reform of William IV?

William IV formulated policies to make the work of the Dutch government orderly. Power must be concentrated in a person who can flexibly use various powers within the limited scope of rights and take decisive action when encountering problems. On people. Therefore, he wants to rectify the government's working order first.

He and Prime Minister Tolbeck established a working order: all documents approved by the Prime Minister will be handed over to various departments for processing after being signed by the Prime Minister; matters within each department must be reviewed and approved by the Minister of each department before they can be Let your subordinates implement it.

Especially important issues will be discussed at a meeting before implementation.

In order to handle matters more quickly and efficiently, he abolished some cumbersome etiquette for receiving foreign guests, and also requested that his clothing be as simple and plain as possible.

In addition, the annual opening of the Congress and the formal speech were canceled and replaced by documents. At the same time, many official residences were opened for tourists to visit every morning.

To ordinary people, William IV was a king who sought welfare for them. William IV was very concerned about the living conditions of ordinary people. He advocated frugal methods to replace taxes. He abolished the local property tax that had been implemented for nearly 40 years. At the same time, he also advocated expanding the suffrage of white men.

In places such as the Netherlands mainland and Suriname, he abolished property restrictions for voters.

He also announced that it would be followed up and implemented in the Far East in the future.

In order to successfully integrate the various races in the Far East into the Netherlands and completely solve the problem of interference in the trade, William IV promulgated the "Prohibition of Slave Trade Decree" in 1862, which enabled the Dutch Constitution to stipulate April 1, 1862 as the deadline for slave trade. Although this constitutional amendment bill was interfered and obstructed by domestic supporters of slavery, it was successfully passed and implemented and legally restricted slavery.

This also made it easier for the Netherlands to manage the Far East later.

William IV also made some adjustments to the Dutch land policy. After 1858, the Dutch land law led by William III increased land prices, which caused an uproar at the time. After succeeding to the throne in 1861, William IV supported the Netherlands in order to quell public criticism. Congress enacted a new land policy that lowered the minimum amount of land purchased per person from 100 acres to 50 acres. Some credit purchases are also allowed for those who do not have sufficient funds, but the unit price of the land remains the original price.

This is a major benefit to the Dutch people and the lower class. William IV thus gained enormous support.

In addition to his homeland, William IV also encouraged large-scale development of the Far East. Starting in the first half of 1862, he enacted the Far East Land Law, which stipulated that the minimum amount of land purchased by each person at one time was reduced to 50 acres, and 100 acres were also given away. The price is less than half of the local price. These preferential policies caused a large number of native Dutch people to flock to new areas in the Far East, and the Eastward Movement began.

In 1863, William IV supported the promulgation of a new land law by Parliament, which gave preferential treatment to those who purchased land on credit and extended the final repayment period by 5 years. William IV's land policy achieved good results. Land sales started from January 1, 1862. The number of acres increased from 67,000 to 3.5 million acres in 1866. Among them, the Far East accounts for 3.2 million acres, of which Australia accounts for 2.8 million acres.

Another democratic reform of William IV was the abolition of the laws that destroyed human rights started by William I. Only then was William IV able to enact the Naturalization Act in 1862. In his State of the Union address, he said: "Refuse to give People who have lived for 15 years or more will be treated by nationality, which means that most people who have this intention will express their opposition. No matter who it is, as long as he shows sincerity and is willing to breathe and share our fate forever, can't he definitely obtain the qualifications of a citizen? ?”

Therefore, after William IV re-edited the "Naturalization Law" and promulgated it, it was stipulated that as long as foreign residents have lived in the Netherlands for five years, they can automatically apply for Dutch citizenship. This policy has been formulated by William IV for a long time. After all, the population of the Netherlands is there. If it does not absorb the international population, how can it compete with the big powers and rise.

In addition to these, William IV implemented a series of measures at home that contributed to the consolidation and development of the kingdom. To sum up, these measures can be divided into two aspects, one is the protection system, and the other is domestic reform.

As for the protection system, it is said that it mainly protects some of the domestic industries that have just started by raising tariffs. As early as 1855, the Dutch Parliament passed a protective measure bill that increased tariff rates on textiles and iron products. After William IV succeeded to the throne, he continued to implement this decree. This move provided favorable development space for the textile industry and steel smelting industry in the Netherlands and the Far East, thereby promoting the Netherlands' own industrial revolution- ming process.

As for domestic reforms, it is mainly through the joint funding of the Dutch government and capital consortium, setting up special funds, vigorously developing public infrastructure construction in the Netherlands, and actively improving the transportation situation in the mainland and with the Far East. Expand the markets in both places.

William IV required that each Dutch city hall must have a broad 30-meter-wide and 5-kilometer-long hardened avenue, which is a model of promotion.

This legislative move by William IV and the Parliament set off a wave of stalled construction of toll roads in various provinces and companies in the Netherlands.

Areas rich in river and lake resources began to vigorously build small canals, which greatly promoted the development of agriculture and transportation.

The improvement of domestic transportation conditions has also promoted the flow of the Dutch domestic population, and a large number of immigrants have poured into the Far East of the Netherlands.

This is also very consistent with the Far East development policy formulated by William IV.