Chapter 573: The Troublemaker Reaching Out to North America

Chapter 574: The shit-stirring stick reaching out to North America

"Perhaps you are too pessimistic." Lord Grenville comforted the old man with a pleasant tone, "We are not without gains.

"More than three months after the launch of the plan, the cost of producing goods in French factories must have exceeded 500,000 pounds. Although this did not meet our original target, it still dealt a blow to their industrial competitiveness.

“In addition, after this incident, France will inevitably feel resentment towards Austria and Italy, and dividing them is also our strategic direction.

"You've done a great job."

The Duke of Leeds was originally prepared to accept punishment, but he didn't expect Grenville to be able to "explain" like this. He immediately looked at him and said, "Do you really think so?"

"I swear." The British Foreign Secretary smiled, "In fact, this is what I wrote in the report to Parliament."

He knew very well that in strategic battles between great powers, victory or defeat was inevitable. He must not complain about the incompetence of his own people just because of a failure, thus affecting morale.

"You are so, so full of wisdom! Thank you very much."

"This is nothing." Grenville smiled and waved his hand, and added, "But we must seize this opportunity to continue to attack the French industry."

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Hope's plan is just a little trick after all. If you want to defeat a huge industrial system like France, you must start with raw materials and markets at the national level."

Grenville said, opening the car door for the Duke of Leeds, leaning over to let him in, and then sat down opposite him: "I brought back some good news from Russia this time.

"For example, the Russian Empress agreed to exchange the interests of the Balkan Peninsula and threatened to send troops to intervene in the situation in Silesia to induce an armistice between Austria and Prussia."

The Duke of Leeds said excitedly: "This is indeed good news!"

Grenville nodded: "But we must convince Prussia to dispatch more than 80,000 troops to cooperate with Russia in attacking Poland, and at the same time ensure that Austria does not oppose this action."

He raised his hand and made a downward movement: "Let's go back to trade.

"I have signed supplementary trade terms with Russia, which will expand the import of raw materials from Russia. In addition, our country has also obtained authorization to mine coal and iron in the southern Donbass, and the conditions are exactly the same as those of France."

His two words may seem like nothing, but in fact they have achieved considerable diplomatic gains.

For example, Russian-British trade. The previous tsars had always been wary of Russia's high dependence on the British market, so they constantly looked for alternative markets, such as France, and tried to reduce the scale of exports to Britain.

But this time, in order to promote the war against Poland, Catherine uncharacteristically agreed to expand exports to Britain.

You know, in terms of purchasing power, French companies are not yet rivals of Britain. The increase in British imports will inevitably reduce France’s sources of raw materials—Russian exports are basically industrial raw materials.

As for Donbass, if the UK can successfully develop large-scale coal and iron mines there, it will be able to divide the largest Russian-French cooperation project and even squeeze out French companies there through vicious competition.

Grenville continued: “So we are now looking at another major source of raw materials in France.”

The Duke of Leeds pondered: "You mean, the United States?"

"Yes." The Foreign Secretary nodded, "So, I hope you can go to Philadelphia."

The Duke of Leeds frowned slightly: "However, France and the United States are very 'intimate' at the moment, so I'm afraid it will be difficult..."

"As long as we are willing to give up some interests, we can do it." Grenville said with a relaxed expression, "For example, the Indians."

The Duke of Leeds was a little surprised: "The parliament agreed?"

"Yes, His Majesty the King signed it last week."

After Britain became independent from the United States, it has been secretly funding the Indian tribes in North America in revenge for the Americans who drove them away.

Over the years, the Indians, dressed in British fabrics and armed with Brown Bess muskets, had been dealing with the invading American pioneer groups in the mountains and wilderness, causing considerable obstacles to the United States' westward expansion.

Some Indians even fled into areas controlled by the British after being defeated. The British still had many sporadic strongholds in North America except Canada. It was not until the 1830s that they were gradually occupied by the Americans.

And if Britain gave up its support for the Indians at this time, the United States would be able to gain a large amount of territory in a short period of time.

Definitely a huge benefit at the strategic level!

The Duke of Leeds beamed: "Americans have been longing for our market. If we can give their parliament a reason to accept us, I am confident that we can persuade them to give up the French!"

As a former British colony, the United States' commodity production was originally planned according to British needs. It was only due to the factors of the War of Independence that it switched to the arms of France.

And if the previous level of trade with the United Kingdom can be restored, it will undoubtedly benefit more for the United States.

Grenville had no intention of stopping: "Besides negotiating with the Americans, you can take the time to go to Santo Domingo for activities.

"You may have heard that the abolitionists and the slaveholders there are at loggerheads. Those 'second estate' people are leading black slaves in riots in order to obtain the right to vote.

"Of course, the French still have strong control there, but if the second-tier people obtain weapons and funds, with the huge number of black people, it will definitely give the French government a huge headache.

"Even, drive the French out of there."

Saint-Domingo, later known as Haiti, is located in the Caribbean region in the southeastern United States and is currently one of France's most important colonies.

It is rich in sugarcane and is the world's largest single producer of sugarcane besides Brazil and the British West Indies. French plantation owners bought a large number of black slaves here to grow sugarcane, contributing 30 to 40 million francs of sugar trade income to France every year.

However, it was precisely because of the cruel exploitation and abuse of black slaves by plantation owners that the black slaves resisted fiercely.

After more than a hundred years of colonization, a large number of mixed-race descendants of whites and blacks were born in Saint-Domingo, the so-called "second-order people" - people here are divided into three levels: whites are the first level, mixed-race people are the second level, and free blacks are the third level. As for black slaves, sorry, they do not belong to the category of people.

Haiti currently has 30,000 whites, more than 500,000 black slaves, and tens of thousands of mixed-race people and free blacks.

Under the influence of the European abolitionist trend, and also in order to obtain more political rights, the mixed-race class began to promote the abolitionist movement and demanded that black slaves be granted citizenship.

The white plantation owners carried out a bloody suppression. However, as time went on, the second and third order became more and more powerful, and Saint-Domingue was on the eve of the storm.

Historically, at the end of August this year, the black people of Saint-Domingue launched the largest uprising, and ended the French rule two years later.