Chapter 275: The Great Powers’ Temperance
Chapter 266 – The Great Powers’ Temperance
Cairo
After the mediation of Britain and France, the negotiation finally achieved a stage, Jonas agreed to make limited concessions. Only this kind of concession, just what he thinks he is, the Egyptians can’t feel it.
“Mr. Mehmed, we can choose not to pursue your responsibility anymore, but you must pay sufficient compensation, otherwise I can’t account for it to the nation.
You must pay one million shillings for the loss of goods, two million shillings for the pension, and two million shillings for moral damages, this is the bottom line of the New Holy Roman Empire.” Jonas extorted.
Five million divine guilders is equivalent to 2.5 million pounds sterling, which is equivalent to 18.3 tons of gold, this figure has already exceeded the Egyptian government’s financial income, it would be strange to be able to accept it.
With an angry face, Mehmed retorted, “Impossible, you are extorting!
What cargo loss is worth a million divine guilders? This caravan was just transporting some jars, not worth a few dollars at all, and all the merchandise combined would not exceed five thousand divine guilders.
Your party only lost three people in total, and you want a pension of two million divine guilders, that’s just a joke, it’s only five hundred divine guilders at most.
The loss of the Ali Kwai Si tribe is dozens of times that of yours, shouldn’t your country also pay for their pension? We don’t ask for much, just offset it directly.
Spiritual damages, that’s even more bullshit. It’s obvious that we are the ones who suffered the losses, and even if it’s a claim, the Egyptian government should be the one to claim from your country!”
Jonas explained in a serious manner, “Mr. Mehmed, you’re out of your depth.
The merchant fleet’s altar jars are all precious antique relics, and each one of them is worth a lot of money. One million divine guilders is the wholesale price, and if they are spread out and sold at retail, selling them for three to five million divine guilders is not a problem.
The three unfortunate victims were all the best talents of the New Holy Roman Empire. If they hadn’t had an accident, they all had the potential to become great nobles in the future, so their families are requesting that your government compensate them according to the value of a nobleman.
Considering the feelings of the victims, we believe that this reasonable request should be supported.
The unlawful behavior of your government officials has deeply hurt the hearts of more than fifty million people of the New Holy Roman Empire, is a mere two million divine guilders of moral damages not much?”
Jonas’ explanation made the British and French representatives light up, it looked like they were ready to learn from the excellent experience.
What is there to be afraid of in crooked reasoning? In this era, when the powers acted overseas, when did they ever reason?
McHammond was exasperated and half speechless, how can we talk when it’s so bullshit?
The opponent can play rogue, but they can only reason. It is also necessary to reason enough to obtain the support of Britain and France to be able to check and balance the Austrians.
The French representative, de Lesseps, persuaded, “Mr. Jonas, your country’s demands are too high, and have far exceeded the Egyptian government’s ability to bear.”
It’s okay to ask too much of a lion, it’s all about negotiation anyway, how can you lower the price without talking about it? But as soon as it comes up, it says it’s the bottom line, how else can it be negotiated?
Jonas smiled and said, “There is no relationship, if you don’t have the money, just take the tariffs, minerals, right of way or land to offset the debt.
We are not here for the money either, only to have a just result will do. What exactly the Egyptian government uses to pay compensation is all negotiable.”
The poor figure had been a businessman, and Jonas was a diplomat only in a part-time capacity. When it came to doing business in the Egyptian region, the French were the best off and engaged in the most trades; the British were next, having gotten the rights to build roads and were expanding their power.
Austrian merchants were a bit more awkward, with many industries inaccessible and heavy taxes on Austrian goods exported to Egypt.
Whether others could tolerate it or not, Jonas, who had cut his teeth, could not tolerate it. British and French merchants have the privilege, he also wants to get his hands on it.
Of course, this must be based on the premise of fulfilling the orders of the Vienna government.
Mehmed growled, “This is impossible, the Egyptian government will never accept your blackmail. You can leave if you like, and if you want to stay and eat sand, just stay!”
What a joke, to pay so much for a small piece of oasis that has no value whatsoever, do you really think that the Egyptian government is easy to bully?
Hearing Mehmed’s words, Jonas’s heart was ecstatic, but he still said expressionlessly, “The Sinai Peninsula, it can’t be worth five million divine guilders.
Your country must cut tariffs, abolish the restrictive conditions on Austrian goods entering Egypt, and give equal treatment to Austrian merchants in Egypt!”
Mehmed, who still didn’t know that he had been fooled, thought that Jonas had made a concession, and after a few moments of contemplation replied, “Mr. Jonas, your demands are too much, freely determining the tariffs is our sovereignty, and can never be given up.”
No need for McHammond to worry, Britain and France are also playing the Egyptian tariff attention, in this issue they simply do not dare to make any beside.
Jonas frowned and said, “It’s getting late now, let’s all calm down. The issue of the tariff, we’ll discuss it tomorrow, and the other clauses will be considered adopted?”
After negotiating for so long, it was the first time I had seen Jonas take the initiative to ask for an adjournment, and despite some doubts, McHammond did not object.
Leaving the conference room, Jonas immediately instructed the recorder sent by the Vienna government, “Will, organize the content of today’s meeting and send it back home to the Egyptian government to agree to cede the Sinai Peninsula.”
Will’s man frowned and said, “Mr. Jonas, the Egyptian government has not agreed to cede the Sinai Peninsula, ah, aren’t you deceiving the country by doing so?”
Jonas sneered, “How can it be considered cheating? The contents of the meeting were sent back, and according to the understanding that is most favorable to us, isn’t it that that idiot Mehmed wants to cede the Sinai Peninsula to us?
Don’t be silly Will, international politics is so dark. We just have to pick and choose what’s in our favor and confirm it, and ignore the terms that aren’t in our favor.
Negotiating with these indigenous countries, ambiguous agreements, or memorandums, is the best way to get benefits.
Don’t look at the French who seem to be supporting the Egyptian government, that guy de Lesseps moved when we offered to cut tariffs.
No one is a philanthropist when it comes to profit. They won’t stand up for the Egyptian government without enough benefits.
Now letting our people in the Sinai take an oath of sovereignty, at the end of the day the Egyptian government will either opt for war or will have to keep pulling their punches at the negotiating table.
These minutes are just an excuse to get our hands dirty and make our eating look as good as possible, essentially this is aggression!”
Will nodded thoughtfully, the Egyptian government wouldn’t say anything to sell the country without creating an established fact! The economic value of the Sinai Peninsula was low, but that wasn’t a reason to be able to sell the country ah?
Even though, in this era, the Egyptian government is influenced by Western culture, their passion for land is not as high as in later years. The Egyptian government is also afraid of making concessions, triggering a chain reaction and being divided up by European countries.
……
On June 26, 1855, Austrian colonists swore sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula by raising the flag of the new Holy Roman Empire.
It was met with strong protests from the Egyptian government, and Jonas accomplished a diplomatic blackmail by directly using the minutes of the conference as a pretext. Eventually, under the mediation of Britain and France, the government of Vienna agreed to pay fifty thousand sacred guilders as a ransom for the Sinai Peninsula.
Under the strong demands of Britain and France, the Vienna government made concessions, promising that it would not continue to seek expansion in the Egyptian region and immediately stop colonizing the region.
On July 21, 1855, Jonas, on behalf of the New Holy Roman Empire, and the Egyptian government signed the Treaty of Sinai Peninsula Land Transactions, and the following day Britain, France, and Austria signed the Treaty of Cairo, which officially withdrew Austria from colonial activities in the Egyptian region.
Having taken the Sinai Peninsula, the Suez Canal had its tentacles, and the government of Vienna was satisfied.
By paying only for a worthless Sinai Peninsula, Austria was successfully excluded from the Egyptian region, and Britain and France were satisfied.
The only tragedy was the Egyptian government, which lost a piece of Sinai Peninsula territory for nothing. The land redemption money of 50,000 divine guilders in name only turned around in their hands and was handed over to the colonial squad again as compensation for the Arish incident.
This was also the bounty that the Vienna government had issued to the colonization squad as compensation for the six months of sand they had risked their lives to eat. As the head figures of the colonization squad, Leo Haver and Andrea also received the knighthood of honorary knights.
All in all, things were considered to have come to a successful conclusion.
(End of chapter)