"Martinez, go find out where the assets of the three consortiums have been transferred. I want to know where the three financial consortiums of Lloyds, Kimbas, and Barclays have transferred their assets in the Republic of Brazil."
After seeing off the principals of the three consortiums, Williams returned to the meeting hall, turned around and gave instructions to the assistant beside him.
"The assets of the three consortiums should have been transferred to Han State. Before meeting you, the three of them have successively transferred part of their financial assets to Han State through the Counselor. I mentioned this matter to you a week ago."
"Well, I remembered that a week ago, the Lloyd Group had a commercial dispute with the American Cleveland Mining Company. At that time, the Lloyd Group seemed to have a precursor to shrinking its business presence in the Republic of Brazil."
Williams recalled a business dispute reported to him by his assistant a week ago, and frowned: "The overseas business expansion of the American capital consortium has become more and more excessive. They have not positioned themselves at all, and they have no respect at all.
The interests of Great Britain are always like a pack of wild dogs. When they smell the scent of interests, they pounce on them impatiently. What a bunch of uneducated barbarians!"
"Americans always regard them as the masters of the North and South American continents and arbitrarily interfere with the empire's normal economic and trade activities on the American continent."
The assistant echoed: "I heard from colleagues working in Canada that the President of the United States, high-level generals, and officials will meet with the leaders of overseas capital groups in the White House, State Department, or other more hidden places from time to time to plan peace affairs.
Organize joint operations and prepare to send military forces to occupy and control the Caribbean and northern South America.
Americans' ambitions are getting bigger and bigger, and they always dream of driving the empire and other European countries out of the Americas, and then exclusively enjoying the economic interests of North and South America."
"Yes, Americans are becoming more and more confident in their own strength, and they are paying less and less attention to the interests of the British Empire."
Williams said: "Twenty years ago, Americans only threatened the empire and European countries to abandon colonization of already independent American countries in the name of independence. However, in recent years, the actual controllers of major American conglomerates have repeatedly
On formal occasions, they publicly announced their opposition to the economic cooperation activities of the empire and European countries in the Americas. At the same time, the U.S. government also began to use their strength and military power to exert pressure on Caribbean countries one by one.
They even threatened to land the "Marine Corps" to ask these countries not to grant concessions to the empire and European capital or sign contracts with them, and even forced these countries to abrogate the agreements they had already signed with the empire and European investors.
One year ago, in 1878, a local economic consortium in the empire started negotiations with the Mexican government in order to obtain normal economic and trade license rights in Baja California.
Just when the two sides were about to reach a formal cooperation agreement, the news leaked and reached the ears of the Americans. Within a few days, the U.S. government threatened the Mexican government and demanded the cancellation of economic cooperation with the imperial consortium.
At that time, because some members of the Empire's Home Parliament advocated compromise with the United States and eased political relations with the United States, the excessive demands of the Americans were met, and this also encouraged the Americans' expansion ambitions in the Americas.
This in turn led to the empire being passive and unfavorable when carrying out economic and political activities in the Americas."
Williams was very dissatisfied with the Americans' hegemony and the British government's compromise, but intellectually, Williams also knew that Britain was a global empire and that Britain not only had interests and interests in the Americas but also in other parts of the world.
Correspondingly, the potential enemies that Britain faces include not only the United States, but also Russia, Germany, France and other countries.
What is different from other countries is that the United States has the greatest comprehensive strength and development potential, and also poses the greatest challenge to British maritime hegemony.
The common man is innocent, but he is guilty! The United States not only has the strength to threaten Britain's global hegemony, but also shows its ambition to expel British power and dominate the Americas. If other countries honestly coexist in accordance with Britain's balanced strategy, then Britain will not have a chance.
We cannot make up our minds to do our best to curb the expansion of the United States in overseas areas. However, international diplomatic relations and cooperation and competition between countries are not simple black and white relationships. They are intricate, cooperation and competition, friendship and hostility, etc.
Intertwined hybrid relationships.
It is true that Britain maintains temporarily peaceful relations with Russia, Germany, and France, but France is Britain's biggest competitor in Africa and the Middle East.
In the Far East and Central Asia, Russia was Britain's main enemy.
In Europe, Germany has serious economic conflicts and competition with the United Kingdom.
For example, such complex international relations involve a lot of British energy and military strength. The impact of this kind of international game is that the economic and military strength that the UK can invest in the Americas is not superior to that of the United States.
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Moreover, with the rapid development of the domestic economy of the United States, the overall strength comparison between the United Kingdom and the United States in South America will change even more unfavorably to the United Kingdom.
Based on the changes in the balance of power between the two countries in South America, Britain's policy towards the United States is also constantly being adjusted. At least for British diplomats in Latin America who often deal with the United States, they must pay attention to the changes in the true strength of the United States.
It has become their consensus to use the political and economic advantages accumulated by Britain in its early days to weaken and slow down the speed of the United States becoming the dominant player in the Americas.
In the eyes of most British politicians, the United States becoming the hegemon of the Americas is an almost unstoppable trend. All they can do is to find allies as much as possible to delay the United States becoming the hegemon of the Americas. As for Mexico, which supported it early, it currently supports
Countries such as Han in South America are just valuable pawns and do not have the strength to compete with the United States alone.
It is precisely because of this concept that Britain and the United States have both competition and hostility in South America, as well as compromises and concessions.
Even if the time comes to give up dominance in South America, Britain will not leave in despair. Instead, it will choose a relatively favorable way to exit South America in a dignified manner.
Of course, the time to withdraw from South America may be between ten or eight years, or it may be decades later. As for when to start the evacuation plan, it depends on the speed of the Americans' overseas expansion and the British government's plans for South America.
The measurement of political and economic value and the degree of cooperation of American allies.
On the surface, the Second Paraguay War involved Paraguay, the Republic of Brazil, and South America's Han Kingdom, but behind the scenes, the Americans used this war to expand their influence in southern South America.
There were many secret meetings between U.S. consortiums and senior officials of the Brazilian Republican government. The U.S. Minister to the Republic of Brazil took the initiative to bridge the gap and find a consortium to undertake the war bonds issued by the Republic of Brazil.
The Americans made frequent moves in secret. Although the British side has not yet obtained detailed intelligence, by analyzing the information provided by some pro-British compradors of the Brazilian Republic, Williams also roughly guessed the purpose of the Americans.
It is nothing more than persuading the government of the Republic of Brazil to accept capital investment from the United States, requiring the United States to be the first economic cooperation country, and expelling British capital and investment from the Republic of Brazil.
And if we speculate further, it is not impossible that the Americans would use the pretext of maintaining peace in South America to propose conditions such as leasing military bases and deploying military forces to the Republic of Brazil.
Williams is basically certain that Americans must be causing trouble behind the withdrawal of the three British consortiums from the Republic of Brazil.
But faced with an unbreakable competitive situation between the United States and Britain, he had no appropriate counterattack.
