I Became A Hidden Powerhouse Of The British Empire [EN]: Chapter 67

The Messenger of Peace

Throughout the entire journey back from Buckingham, I remained silent, my lips sealed.

James, who had been quietly observing me, cautiously inquired, “Master… no, I mean, Earl, is something the matter?”

“It’s a problem if it’s a problem, and it’s not if it isn’t.”

“It can’t be because of the peerage, so is it perhaps due to the Undersecretary position?”

“Yes. Those bastards made a huge mess and now they want me to clean it up for them.”

“You must be feeling awful.”

Awful indeed.

I had always anticipated going to Asia someday.

As long as the British Empire continued its expansionist policies, conflict with Asia was inevitable.

Especially when competing for interests with countries like France and Russia in the future, my very existence would give me a tremendous competitive edge.

The higher my position, the more the Asian countries’ perception of the British Empire would change.

However, the timing is terrible right now.

The relationship between the Qing Dynasty [the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912] and Britain had long passed the point where it could be salvaged through diplomacy.

If it were about five years earlier, perhaps, but as things have unfolded exactly as in the original history up to 1838, war was unavoidable.

Opium was merely the immediate cause of the war, not the fundamental reason it was bound to happen.

In the end, Robert Peel doesn’t genuinely hope that I will improve relations with the Qing Dynasty.

He wants to be able to say that he tried to address the issue by even appointing someone from Asia in an unprecedented move, but the ‘barbaric’ Qing Dynasty refused to negotiate, leaving him with no choice.

He probably also aimed to tame me, who has been continuously successful recently.

Because I showed such confidence at the end, he seemed hesitant, but he still doesn’t completely trust me.

In fact, I have no intention of resolving this issue smoothly.

No, from the start, I didn’t have the ability to do so, and I don’t enjoy being reckless enough to dive into impossible tasks.

“James, what do you think? You must have heard and seen a lot through the information coming from the detective agency and running the business. Do you think this country will go to war with Qing?”

“Until the year before last, the prevailing opinion was that there’s no way they would go to war. However, now that Qing is completely banning opium and trying to confiscate it all, voices are gradually emerging that we must find a way out, even if it means war.”

“Who are the people making such claims?”

“Key figures in the East India Company [a British trading company that held a monopoly on trade with India and other parts of Asia] are the main ones. Even though they lost their exclusive trade rights in Asia, the East India Company still holds a significant share of the opium trade. Above all, the prices at the opium auctions in Calcutta [now Kolkata, a city in India] must have plummeted, and all of that would have turned into losses, so it would be strange if they weren’t desperate.”

From a third-party perspective, it looks like a drug dealer getting angry after being caught, but for merchants, the important thing is the huge losses they’ve incurred.

After 1834, when the East India Company’s monopoly on trade with Qing disappeared, numerous individual merchants jumped into the opium trade.

Nevertheless, the opium they sold was produced by the East India Company in India, so there was a kind of symbiotic relationship between the East India Company and the drug dealers.

But now that Qing has started cracking down on opium, what will happen?

They have to auction off opium to merchants in India, but it’s not selling at all, and only bad inventory is piling up.

“The biggest lobbyists pushing the parliament to resolve this quickly must be from that side.”

“Yes. If the announcement of your appointment as Undersecretary is made, they will probably come to you immediately.”

“Not Undersecretary, Minister. I told the Prime Minister that I wouldn’t take the job unless I was given that position.”

“A, Minister? Even Undersecretary is a shockingly unconventional appointment, but Minister… Has there ever been someone in British history who became a Minister in their teens?”

Of course not. There wasn’t even an Undersecretary [a junior ministerial position], so would there be someone in British history who became a Minister in their teens?

There hasn’t been until now, and there probably won’t be in the future either.

“I need to have this kind of title so that I won’t be dismissed as just a kid who doesn’t know anything.”

“But the Minister is ultimately the highest authority on foreign policy. The fact that you wanted that position means you have a clever plan to resolve the current situation…”

“I have some ideas in mind. First, roughly identify people who are tight-lipped, and then look for opium companies that we can just take over the name of. In the current situation, there will be plenty of individual merchants who are trying to close down their companies anyway, so we should be able to get the company name for next to nothing.”

“You’re planning to disguise our people as opium merchants. I’ll take care of it right away.”

As I became an adult, James completely separated from the Aaron family and became independent.

However, it hasn’t even been a year since we separated, so he was using the name of another company when doing work related to me to avoid any gossip.

Especially when carrying out plans that could escalate into diplomatic issues like this time, it’s necessary to be more careful than usual.

“Oh, and get me some data on the key figures in the East India Company. Everyone from the representatives on the board of directors in London to the people in charge locally. And if there are any wealthy merchants who are deeply involved in the opium trade, investigate them as well.”

“We already have data on the East India Company side. I’ll look into the local side a bit more and then report back.”

There are several reasons why this matter hasn’t made any real progress and has only gotten worse, but one of them is that the interests are too complexly intertwined.

The British Parliament, the East India Company, individual merchants, and even the Qing Dynasty.

How can there be a compromise when everyone wants to avoid losses?

But in this world, if someone benefits, someone else is bound to lose.

There’s no such thing as a world where everyone is happy.

And if someone has to lose, it should be the people who don’t help me first.

* * *

John Locke, the chairman of the board of directors who moves the East India Company, a massive company that once monopolized trade with India and still wields tremendous influence over Indian governance, couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

“Minister of Foreign Affairs? Undersecretary was already absurd, but an 18-year-old greenhorn as a Minister of the British Empire? Is this country finally doomed?”

“They say it’s only temporary, though.”

“Even if it’s temporary, a Minister is a Minister. Is it even possible that such a young… no, a kid is sitting at the very top of this country’s Foreign Office?”

In the British Empire, there are no more than 20 positions that are equivalent to or similar to a Minister.

Even if you include positions like the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House, and the First Lord of the Treasury, that’s about the only number there is.

John Locke, as the chairman of the East India Company, had many informants within Parliament.

So when he first heard that an 18-year-old kid was going to be appointed as Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, he couldn’t believe his ears.

Still, if it was just a temporary Undersecretary, he thought maybe they were just setting up some poor young aristocrat as a bullet shield.

The British Parliament using such shallow tactics wasn’t anything new, so he thought maybe that was it, but the announcement he encountered today went beyond that level.

-Earl Aaron Killian Gore will be appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and will prioritize resolving the diplomatic dispute with the Qing Dynasty.

“…Why do I have to find out about such an important matter by reading the newspaper in the first place? I was clearly told he would be appointed as Undersecretary! How much money have I been pouring into those Westminster bastards to have them do things like this?”

“The Prime Minister drastically changed his course at the last minute. Originally, it was supposed to be Undersecretary, but the member of Parliament who was originally scheduled to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs was switched to the vacant position of Attorney General…”

“What is it about Earl Aaron that makes them go that far?”

“He’s said to be a quite well-known noble family in Ireland. And why, wasn’t there a considerable issue in academia with the paper that perfectly proved comparative advantage during the repeal of the Corn Laws [tariffs on imported grain in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846] last time? The person who wrote that paper is said to be Earl Aaron.”

Talking about the repeal of the Corn Laws reminded him.

Certainly, there was a time when it was noisy because a young student who hadn’t even gone to university yet had perfectly proven Ricardo’s theory [David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage, a fundamental concept in economics].

“Is it because this Earl Aaron is such a great person that the Prime Minister is pushing him so hard?”

“There hasn’t been much information because he hasn’t been revealed above the surface until now, but when I looked into it, his background is quite impressive. First of all, as I mentioned, he is a family that boasts tremendous influence in Northern Ireland and central Ireland, and he is the adopted son of the Duchess of Inverness [a title held by Cecilia Underwood, the second wife of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex], who was recognized as the chief lady-in-waiting and the wife of the Duke of Sussex [Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of King George III]. In addition, the Parliament unanimously recommended to His Majesty that a new title be created, and His Majesty accepted this and created and granted the title of Baron Sudley [a title associated with the Gore family in Ireland].”

“Does that mean that he is an Irish aristocrat but also belongs to the House of Lords [the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom]?”

The youngest Minister of Foreign Affairs in history, a member of the House of Lords, and the adopted son of royalty.

Even though he is from Ireland, he is a maintainer of Ireland, a region that can bring dozens of seats to the Conservative Party.

Putting all of this together, he was not an aristocrat with a negligible background.

“That’s not the end of it. There is also a rumor that he studied literature with Her Majesty the Queen [likely Queen Victoria] since he was young. He entered Eton [a prestigious boarding school in England] on the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington [a leading British military and political figure], and he is currently said to belong to the faction of Charles Wellesley, the Duke’s second son.”

“He has his feet in many places. It’s a mistake that I didn’t know about such a person of interest until now… But frankly, even looking at it this way, I don’t understand the reason for carrying out such a drastic appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs? There are plenty of people with more impressive backgrounds, aren’t there?”

“Chairman, Killian Gore is said to be of Asian mixed descent. And since he spent his childhood there, wouldn’t he be familiar with that culture? The Prime Minister seems to have valued that point.”

“Asian mixed descent? A member of the British House of Lords?”

“What should we do?”

John Locke, who had been organizing his thoughts for a moment, immediately got up from his seat and packed his bags.

“What should we do? The new Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that he would resolve the opium issue, so of course I have to go see him in person. You’ve prepared the gifts, right?”

“Yes. But these were prepared with Earl Aaron being appointed as Undersecretary in mind…”

“Then put some cash… no, some gold bars in there.”

I have never seen a politician in this world who dislikes sparkling gold.

John Locke and other executives of the East India Company have always shown such material sincerity whenever a high-ranking official of the new government comes in.

It’s not just a quid pro quo [a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something] gift to get on their good side.

It was because they could guess the other person’s tendencies based on how they reacted to receiving this.

In particular, considering the influence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, it would be necessary to grasp what kind of person Killian Gore is at the first meeting.

‘Well, no matter how great he is, he’s still only an 18-year-old kid. If I flatter him appropriately, he’ll loosen up quickly.’

Perhaps this is a golden opportunity.

If we can use Killian Gore well to minimize the damage we have suffered, or even go beyond that and control him as we want by winning him over.

It is not impossible for the East India Company, which has been shrinking continuously after losing its monopoly trade rights in India and Qing, to fire the starting gun for a revival.

It has been more than 10 years since he became a member of the board of directors, and if you go back to the time when he first entered the industry, it has been at least several decades.

His intuition, which has been rolling around in this industry for decades, was telling him.

A moron who misses this opportunity is not qualified to be the chairman of the board of directors.

* * *

As soon as the announcement that I was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs was made, love calls from numerous figures from all walks of life poured in, just as James had said.

The mansion was flooded with reservation inquiries from people asking if they could visit, like a Michelin 3-star restaurant.

Thanks to this, my first task as a Minister was to select the useful ones from among them.

The first person I met among them was John Locke, the chairman of the board of directors of the East India Company, who was number one on the waiting list for the glorious open run.

Since the majority of opium sold to Qing was produced through this East India Company, it was necessary to coordinate opinions, so I welcomed him.

“I am meeting with the Minister. I am John Locke, representing the board of directors of the East India Company, and I am here to greet the Minister. I am lacking, but I look forward to working with you in the future.”

I was curious about how he would treat a Minister who was much younger than himself, but he was as polite as could be, as expected of someone who had been rolling around in the industry for decades.

“I am the one who should be looking forward to working with you. I was just about to send someone to the East India Company, but I am grateful that you came in advance like this.”

“Gratitude? We are the ones who are grateful. We were already having a headache because of the Qing Dynasty, but I don’t know how reassuring it is that the new Minister will deal with this issue as a top priority.”

“I will do my best, so please cooperate a lot. The people are already suffering from the effects of the recession that started last year, so we must not let the Qing Dynasty continue to bother us any further. We will take firm and decisive action to create an environment where our merchants can trade with peace of mind.”

“Oh! Does that mean that the government’s policy is to resume the opium trade?”

Not only the East India Company but also the merchants who trade opium are currently scattering huge amounts of money in Westminster [the location of the Houses of Parliament] and Downing Street [the location of the Prime Minister’s residence].

But even so, it was not easy to stir up public opinion to actually go to war.

The British Empire, which has nothing to fear in the world, could not see Qing, the super-giant empire of the East, as an easy opponent.

The current Qing Dynasty was nothing more than an empty shell, a tiger with its teeth pulled out, but it was not until the Battle of Chuanbi [a naval engagement in 1839] a year later that Britain was sure of that fact.

Until then, they knew that the Qing Dynasty was behind the times and that the level of weapons was also low, but the prevailing opinion was that they should never be underestimated because they still had the potential as a great power.

Even after seeing the Qing Dynasty’s pathetic naval power at the Battle of Chuanbi, caution did not completely disappear.

So, no matter how much the opium merchants shout that they should be willing to go to war in the worst case, it is not easy for public opinion to ignite so easily at this point.

The idea of going to war because they are upset that they were banned from selling drugs is unlikely to be easily accepted.

But contrary to that reality, sweet words flowed endlessly from my mouth.

“The government is under tremendous pressure because the trade deficit with Qing continues to accumulate even though we have not yet fully recovered from last year’s economic recession. That is why we have taken the drastic personnel action of appointing someone as young as me as Minister. Of course, I am confident that there is no one as familiar with Asian culture as I am.”

“Yes, I heard that the Minister spent his childhood in Asia.”

“Yes. Thanks to that, I know exactly how Asians think and act.”

“Indeed! If you know the enemy and know yourself, you cannot lose in battle. Hahaha, I have even more faith. Then, how can we help you so that you can do your job a little more comfortably?”

“First of all, we need to objectively understand how much damage our merchants are currently suffering. I know it roughly, but I need to know the exact figures so that I have something to say when negotiating with the Qing Dynasty. Please find out how much opium the East India Company produces, how much of it has been exported so far, and how much damage the merchants are suffering.”

There are many things in the world that people would not have easily started if they knew how they would be evaluated in the future.

It’s not just the Opium War.

If Cao Cao [a Chinese warlord and statesman], who boldly shouted that he would not care about future evaluations, knew that he would be cursed for 2,000 years for his filial piety on a scale that far exceeded human cognition.

If Hitler had seen how his name was received by people in the 21st century.

Could he have made the same choice so easily?

Of course, he could have, but at least it would have been an opportunity to think about it one more time.

Even if war is inevitable, the cause of drugs must be reduced as much as possible in this war.

Because I don’t want to be cursed as a symbol of hopeless malice even in the future, not 100 years, but 200 or 300 years from now.

“I understand. Then I will gather as much information as possible before the Minister leaves the country. And I will send letters to India and Guangzhou [a major port city in China] right away, so you can receive the data you want as soon as you arrive.”

“Thank you. People like the Chairman, who work hard for the economy of this country, are the true patriots.”

“Thank you for understanding. Ah. Although it is small, I have brought a gift…”

“Hahaha, you didn’t have to do this. I want to receive it with gratitude, but I will receive it after the work is finished. You can put a little more sincerity into it then than now.”

I may be the one giving bribes to someone, but I have no intention of receiving them and putting on shackles.

In the first place, unless it’s about 1 million pounds, who would use this kind of small change?

However, Locke, who interpreted my words in a different sense, smiled and bowed his head even deeper.

“I understand! Then I will fill it up at least several times and wait for the Minister to return. I would be too sorry if I didn’t give you anything.”

“Then I’ll ask you to do that.”

Even if it’s not a bribe, I plan to get much more from the drug dealers, so there’s no need to feel sorry.

Frankly speaking, I am willing to bow my head and demand gratitude.

When I go to Guangzhou, I plan to cleanly deal with the war and the drugs.

Then fame and money will roll in from both sides for me.

The British Empire can also avoid criticism for causing a disgraceful war that will be recorded in history, so what could be better than this?

So, East India Company, what to do? You’ve come this far.

Let’s have you sacrifice coolly.”