"Mr. Clifford, why are you so angry at enclosure?" In a private garden near London, Hawks Clifford, who had just returned from the Far East trade, was entertaining Sir William Temple.

Sir William Temple is an evergreen in British politics. When he was young, he served as ambassador to the United Provinces and France. Later, he went to the East Coast to serve as ambassador for a period of time. After resigning from office, he served as a private consultant to Prince Orange, and his experience was very rich.

Of course, Sir William Temple's other identities are more dazzling than these positions: a veteran member of Congress, a shareholder of the newly established Bank of England, and an industrial investor. To put it bluntly, he is the actual ruler of the Kingdom of England, and even the king has to compromise with them.

Sir William Temple owns a coal mine in Wales, a machining factory in Birmingham, and a cotton textile factory in Manchester. Although he himself did not ask about specific business affairs, this did not damage his identity as an industrialist. It seems that the time he lived on the East Coast caused a considerable change in his thinking to the old man who had invested in several trading companies and began to pay attention to industry, which surprised Clifford.

Of course, Sir Temple did not give up on his trade business. In fact, he invested in the Hamptons (operating the East Coast-England, North America-England route) and the Cliffords (operating the Far East-England route) and the amount was not small. However, he invested all the income he received from trade in those factories and the Bank of England again, and did not buy land like those traditional nobles.

However, when it comes to traditional English aristocrats, after a relatively low-key hardship, they have finally ushered in a turning point. Now from East Anglia to Wales, from the southern coast to Scotland, and even Ireland, which had just calmed down the war, has set off a vigorous land enclosure movement, that is, the nobles took back the land originally leased to farmers, no longer planted food, but instead grazed sheep to meet the increasingly large wool demand in England and overseas.

In fact, the land enclosure movement has long existed. A century ago, some aristocrats with a keen sense of smell discovered that the price of wool was always rising, so they decisively abandoned farming and pastoralized, focusing on raising sheep. The resulting refugee problem was absorbed due to the steady development of urban industry (a considerable part of them became sailors).

However, the scale of the land enclosure movement in England is certainly not comparable to that before, because it has almost formed a trend, and more and more nobles have joined it. Because wool is really more profitable than food - perhaps except in the war years - and the amount of labor required is only one-something that used to be, the extra population can flow into the booming industries, such as coal mines, building materials factories, textile factories, machinery factories, etc. that urgently need a large amount of labor.

Of course, there are also some people who have lost their land on their own and have not found a job in the city. The way out for these people is either to be sailors, to join the army, or to live in overseas colonies. What? You are neither willing to be a mercenary or sailor, nor to go to the New World? Then you can only wander around and do odd jobs to make a living! Don’t say that there are actually quite a few people of this kind. The developed wandering culture of Britain and the United States in later generations began here.

Hawks Clifford is engaged in overseas trade and has been away from China for many years. Some of the only industrial industries in the family are also engaged in by relatives. When he returned to London this time, he suddenly heard people talking about the surge in refugees caused by the land enclosure movement. He was immediately surprised and a little uneasy. Sir William Temple happened to talk to him about the British North American colonial trade, so he asked this question.

But it is obvious that Sir Temple is not worried about the issue of refugees. He only heard him say: "It is not a wise thing to run the grain planting industry now. All prices are rising, but the increase in food is limited. In fact, it has been quite good in recent years. The continent is fighting, and several major countries have no surplus of food. However, the grain planting industry in the Black Sea is slowly rising, and Russia and Poland are also increasing the export of food and livestock. Oh, by the way, the people of the East Coast are also transporting food to Spain. You see, there are so many unfavorable factors here, how unprofitable it is. In my own manor, there are several troubled farmers who tell me that the iron for making plows, rakes and trolleys is rising, while the prices of wheat, eggs, vegetables and fruits are almost not rising much, which makes their lives

It's very difficult. Well, at least in the past two years, I haven't raised the rent price. You should know that in other places, land rents have generally risen, and some have risen very strongly. The farmers there should be more harder than those in my estate. Hawks, you shouldn't be sad about this. All this is God's arrangement. Land is an extremely important resource - according to the East Coast people, yes, it's a means of production - I have the right to make my land produce greater value. Your family also has some land in Yorkshire, right? Rising land rent and land prices are not a bad thing for you, because when you make loans in banks, the collateral will be higher, and you can get more loans and more favorable interest, which are very realistic benefits."

"But this will cause serious problems..." Hawks Clifford was still a little unacceptable.

"Well, I'll give this an example. Suppose that all landlords in the country are still willing to charge land rent from their tenants like they did thirty years ago, but no one is willing to sell all kinds of goods at the price of thirty years ago, because the raw materials you used to produce goods have increased. Well, the prices of daily necessities have also increased rapidly, and the expenses of clothes, hats, shoes, etc., iron, tar, fuel have also increased, and even taxes have increased. The overall price in England has risen by 50% in the past eight years. I remember that I used to spend 4p on a goose on my estate, guess how much is it now? 8p!

God, such prices, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors are forced to raise their products to survive, which raises the cost of living for farmers. We cannot let our craftsmen or business owners lower the price of products, because this will only make foreign merchants rich. They buy goods from us at very low prices, and what leaves our factory owners or craftsmen is endless losses. Hawks, I think you understand the reasons for the price increase, and you have also made efforts in it, right?" Sir William Temple spread his hands and said with a smile.

Hawks Clifford was speechless after hearing this. Yes, he brought back so many goods from the Far East every year, and the value was not low. In addition to some of the goods sold in England, the number of goods resold to foreign countries was very amazing. I don’t know how many precious metals I would bring back to England every year, so it is not wrong to Sir Temple say that he is "contributing" to the inflation in England, because this is indeed a fact.

"England's balance of payments is very good, and overall, a large amount of precious metals flow in every year. The main thing we are inflowing gold and silver is in Eastern Europe, that is, the payment for wood, rig, grain and leather to Russia and Poland. Of course, our deficit with the East Coast is also very large, mainly importing hardware products, musical instruments, clocks, machines and instruments, but neither of them combined can be of high value to the goods we export to the continent of Europe. To be honest, Hawks, now is the best time to develop industry in England, and make money in everything you invest. I know your family has a building materials factory and glass factory. How about it? Are you interested in investing in steam engines? I plan to enter this industry, you know, this is a super market, so big that you can't imagine it." Sir William Temple tempted slowly.

Hawks Clifford was immediately moved. He had indeed sold several steam engines to the Far East in the past two years, and the price was very satisfying. Moreover, the Qing people continued to order from him, and placed an order for six steam engines in one breath, which really made him very excited. Even Mr. Zheng Kezang, Wang of Fujian, who had always been friends with the East Coast people, secretly ordered two small horsepower steam engines from him, which was said to be used to drill barrels and process armor - it was obvious that they could not buy steam engines from the East Coast people, because of the stupid trade blockade policy, so they could only turn to the English.

The profits of steam engine sales are already huge. If you can produce it yourself and ensure sufficient supply of goods, it would be even better. Hawks Clifford suffered in this regard. Someone from New England ordered two steam engines from him, but because the supply of goods could not be guaranteed, it could only be given up. This painful lesson made Clifford understand that holding upstream and downstream industries in his own hands is the most important thing. Now that the demand for steam engines is increasing, the English are no longer limited to docks, mines use steam engines, and textile factories are currently introducing them on a large scale. If you have a factory that can make steam engines that you can deeply influence, it is indeed a huge profit.

Therefore, after Sir William Temple mentioned this to him, he agreed without much consideration. His brother had agreed to invest the Xindet profit in a paper mill, but now he felt that it was not a urgent need, and the return would be greater when investing money in the field of steam engine manufacturing.

"A very wise decision, Hawks." Sir William Temple nodded with satisfaction and praised: "Now His Majesty the King has completely defeated the fake king of the Stuart family, and the country is about to enter a period of peace again. Considering that the war on the continent is still continuing, I think the industry in England will usher in a new wave of outbreaks. Your investment will bring you great returns, I promise."

"Your reputation is trustworthy, and everything is followed by your orders, my sir." Hawks Clifford responded.
Chapter completed!