Chapter 321: Liverpool, the Great Commercial Harbor

Chapter 318 – The Great Commercial Port of Liverpool

As an island nation founded on commerce and trade, Britain has countless commercial harbors, but in the Middle Ages, the most important ports in Britain were from the southeast, represented by the founding ports of the Five Ports Alliance, Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney and Hastings.

Five ports alliance because and France across the sea, only a distance of the English Channel, coupled with their backs on the fertile plains of southeast England, coupled with the coastline is easy to dock, so in the scientific and technological development is not developed in the Middle Ages, the development of this low difficulty of the port naturally became the first choice of Britain’s foreign trade place.

And wait until the world line progress of the Renaissance, along with the development of the Americas, the rise of the slave trade, the merger of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain, the first industrial revolution and the Far East transshipment trade, the previous small fishing village of southwestern Britain Liverpool finally ushered in the golden age of development.

Due to the close proximity of the domestic cotton industry center Lancashire and cotton industry center Yorkshire, in the late 18th century, Liverpool’s northwestern industrial zone has been the rapid development of the original small fishing village is not just the original England invasion of Ireland’s forward base, but has been transformed, beyond the coal industry as the center of the Newcastle and Bristol to import and export trade as the core of the Britain after the second largest economic center. London after the country’s second largest economic center.

After the abolition of slavery in Britain, Liverpool also quickly found its own new position, now it is mainly to operate the commercial trade between Britain and the West Indies, tobacco, sugar, cotton and textiles and other raw materials imports are in the country ranked first.

And due to the opening of inland canals such as the River Mersey and the River Irwell, as well as the construction of railroads with Manchester and other industrial areas, Liverpool’s position as a hub for domestic transportation is also becoming more prominent.

Now the number of merchant ships registered in Liverpool has exceeded 1,200, with a total tonnage of more than 160,000 tons, and the number of registered sailors is more than 18,000 people.

Such a thriving trade has naturally given rise to large-scale illegality, with rowdy sailors from all over the world bringing high levels of crime, and the booming commercial activity leading to large-scale smuggling.

In addition to the fact that many of the business families that started from scratch in Liverpool were in the slave trade or privateering business, it was a fantasy to expect these people to obey the law.

In the conference room of the Liverpool Customs Department, Arthur stood up and read out the document in his hand.

It was an executive order issued by the cabinet just yesterday, requiring Liverpool and other ports to strictly enforce the segregation of merchant ships and crack down on smuggling trade during the cholera period.

Outside the glass window of the conference room, the sun is shining brightly, and you can vaguely see the blue Irish Sea, but the faces of the gentlemen in the conference room do not see half a bit of sunshine, and their expressions are cloudy and uncertain.

Early before coming, Arthur had already collected the background information of all the gentlemen who came to meet today.

Although he had guessed that in such a large port as Liverpool, the identity and background of those in power would most likely be related to business and trade, but what Arthur had not expected was that the percentage of businessmen in the Liverpool City Council was still much higher than he had expected.

Merchants occupy more than 76% of the seats in the Liverpool City Council, and among the municipal officials, the proportion is even higher than 77%.

In other words, in this meeting today, rather than Arthur giving administrative orders to Liverpool municipal officials, he was representing the central government of London’s Whitehall Street in commercial negotiations with Liverpool’s multinational trade federation.

As expected, as soon as Arthur’s words were finished, someone over there had already raised his hand to raise his own challenge.

“I don’t want to criticize the decision of the Privy Council and the Cabinet, but for Liverpool, commercial trade is the foundation of the city. Combating the smuggling trade to prevent the importation of cases is something we can understand, and we couldn’t be more supportive of this decision by the Cabinet. However, we do not understand why the normal entry of ordinary merchant ships should be implicated.A 40-day quarantine would be devastating to Liverpool’s commercial prosperity and this would further implicate the normal production of the textile industry in Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as leading to an increase in the price of everyday consumer goods for the people of Britain.”

At this point, the officer suddenly spoke up and asked, “Superintendent Hastings, I take the liberty of asking, do you smoke?”

Arthur nodded slightly, “Of course, sometimes I need a little tobacco to relieve stress. Doctors say that smoking is good for the body, they even invented the Intestinal Smoke Therapy for this purpose.”

The official smiled at that and spoke up, “You see, then the implementation of the segregation policy in Liverpool will affect you as well. Liverpool’s tobacco imports can account for up to forty percent of the entire England, and according to statistics, Britain’s per capita tobacco consumption is around eight ounces, can you accept smoking half as many cigarettes less every day?”

Hearing this, Louis, who was the clerk of the meeting, picked up his pen and made a few notes in the book in front of him, before turning his attention back to Arthur.

He intended to see just how his chief would deal with this difficult group of municipal officials.

Arthur just gently waved his hand and said, “Mr. Will, I fully understand your concerns. However, I must emphasize one point, I came here today to announce the latest resolutions of the Chancellery, the Ministry of the Interior, the Customs Administration, and the Central Health Committee, not to consult with you on issues. It is well known that in the field of public health, the Royal Chancellor holds the highest decision-making power. This resolution has been endorsed by His Majesty the King in Council and has been voted on by the members of the Privy Council as an Order in Council. We are not Members of Parliament, but Clerks of the Peace, so all we can do is simply to implement the final decision from a higher level.”

Just after Arthur had finished saying this, another official from the Liverpool Customs Department snapped, “But with an executive order like this, we guess it will be hard to convince the city council to accept it.”

Arthur raised his hand and interrupted him, “If the municipal council has any objections to the cabinet’s order, they can send someone to London to communicate with the Lord Chancellor’s Office and the Central Board of Health, that’s not my area of responsibility. As I have already emphasized, I am here in Liverpool for one thing only, and that is to ensure that the smuggling of cases into Britain during the outbreak of cholera is minimized as much as possible. You may not realize how determined the Cabinet is to combat smuggling this time.

More than half a month ago the Admiralty ordered the Black Clown and the Rosamund Beauty, two fast warships that were fighting the slave trade in the Ivory Coast of West Africa, to return immediately to Britannia and formally incorporate them into the anti-smuggling operation in Liverpool. You may have read in the newspapers over the years how much these two ships contributed to the abolitionist movement.

If you do not know, then I can also introduce them to you here. The Black Clown and the Rosamund Beauty have captured a total of nine slave ships and liberated nearly 3,000 slaves in their campaigns against the slave trade in recent years. Although Liverpool started out in the slave trade, it was equally a pioneer in this area when the abolitionist movement first took off in Britain, and I’m sure you gentlemen will be pleased to learn this information.”

The officials in the room all changed their faces when they heard these words, some of them looked slightly worried, some of them had the mentality of watching the fun, and some of them showed their excitement.

The officers of the Royal Navy all rejoiced: ”The Black Clown and the Rosamund have returned? So, the Admiralty is going to do something serious? Mr. Hastings, may I ask if the Admiralty has issued a firing ban on high seas stoppages this time?”

Arthur looked at the group of sharks who had already smelled blood and knew that the group of alternates who stayed on land had already idled their asses off a long time ago.

He spoke up, “Merchant ships flying the flag of another country cannot be fired upon without verifying smuggling behavior.” “Uh ……” The officers deflated as soon as they heard this.

Seeing this, Arthur added, “However, when the Royal Navy has communicated a request for boarding and inspection and the merchant ship still refuses to comply after three warnings, the Admiralty will allow the anti-smuggling fleet to use a certain degree of force. If it’s just a matter of putting a hole in their cabin with the bow ramming horn, I think that should be fairly reasonable.”

The officers’ moods fluctuated, and the corners of their mouths, which had just drooped, suddenly turned up again, “Mr. Hastings, that’s too big of a wheeze for you to say. But we understand what you mean.”

Hearing this, the officials from the Customs Department and Liverpool City Hall finally understood the Cabinet’s determination as well.

They had originally thought that this cholera quarantine would be fine as long as it was handled sloppily like it was before, but now it seemed that the Cabinet really seemed to be furious because of the emergency situation that had erupted across the country.

Especially with the dock riots that had just occurred in Liverpool some time ago, they didn’t have enough reason to refute the cabinet’s resolution at this juncture.

The officials rose and said, “Since the will of the Cabinet is so firm, we have nothing more to say. But Mr. Hastings, on the side of the municipal council, I’m afraid you’ll have to use your brains.”

Arthur nodded slightly and said, “Tough luck, everyone. But before we adjourn, I would like a list of all the import and export trading companies in Liverpool by tonight. It would be nice if the Customs Department could then attach all of their Import and Export Goods Declarations for this year.”

“Customs declarations?” The Customs Department official was surprised, “You even brought an auditor with you this time?”

Arthur fished out his pocket watch and glanced down, “Since it’s on short notice, he didn’t travel with me, so I guess he’ll have to arrive later this afternoon.”

The official in charge of customs duties asked cautiously, “If he hasn’t worked in customs proper for a while, he most likely won’t be able to read customs declarations. If you are hiring someone from an accounting firm, I think it would be sufficient to provide a commercial list. Liverpool has a tremendous amount of import and export trade each year, and I’m afraid this isn’t something you’ll be able to handle on a moment’s notice.”

Arthur smiled and spoke, “I appreciate your enthusiastic advice. But in this regard, you should not think for me. The auditor this time is a professional, Mr. John Mill from the London headquarters of the British East India Company, and he will bring a small team with him.”

“From the East India Company?”

When the officials heard this, they immediately understood the seriousness of the problem as well.

As the largest commercial trading company in Britain, in recent years the East India Company had often caused friction with Liverpool in terms of Far East trade.

And when the East India Company renewed their Royal Warrant in 1813, they spent a great deal of money lobbying in Parliament in order to continue to retain their franchise rights in the Far East. But even so, in the end, they were still stripped of their franchise in India by Parliament, retaining only a monopoly on the tea trade.

In this regard, in recent years, has been trying to expand the Far East trade Liverpool major companies but made a great effort.

These things alone are enough to confirm the deep hatred between the East India Company and Liverpool.

And the East India Company a director and shareholders in the parliamentary vote the night before the sudden strange suicide and let this story is covered with a layer of conspiracy theory flavor, many people have speculated that this is in fact those who are jealous of the East India Company’s rich profits.

And naturally, the major companies in Liverpool, as stakeholders, were also in the realm of suspicion.

Aware of the seriousness of the situation of the officials have said goodbye to Arthur left the meeting, they are in a hurry to leave the meeting room, look at their behavior seems to have been waiting to go to the major companies to remind them that winter is coming.

Looking at the empty conference room, Arthur picked up his cup of tea and went to the window, which was in front of the old Liverpool Docklands, built in 1715.

On both sides of the docks were small red-brick buildings and a constant stream of horse-drawn carriages and dockers carrying large bags.

Suddenly, Arthur heard the sound of a door opening from behind him, he turned his head to look, it turned out to be Dumas who had already changed into a standard police officer’s uniform.

Although Arthur had already picked an extra-large size for him, Dumas’s stomach was obviously still far beyond the worst prediction at the beginning of the uniform design.

To this situation, Arthur could only say in good conscience, “Alexander, it fits quite well!”

Dumas just rolled his eyes at that, “I never thought in my life that I would actually be able to wear such a garment one day.”

Heine also emerged from behind him, and with a civilized staff, he picked his hat and spoke, “Who would have thought that wearing a police uniform would actually feel like this.”

Louis smiled and asked, “So …… you two came over here specifically to insult this uniform?”

“That’s not so bad, we’re still doing business.” Dumas hooked his hand at Arthur and said, “Arthur, there’s a middle-aged man coming to the door of the Customs Department, he said he’s some kind of businessman doing import and export trade, and there’s also a company called some kind of Schweyer & Sons. He seems to know something about smuggling, do you think you should meet with him?”

(End of chapter)