Chapter 21 Portuguese Goa

“Yes, yes.” Pedro hurriedly took the words into his mouth, and said, somewhat by way of excuse, “Portugal has always been very friendly to England, and has never wished to change this amicable relationship.”

“Alan is a bit young and not quite able to objectively recognize the relationship between countries and nations.” John collected his smile and said softly, “I myself am a great believer in Portugal’s friendly stance, in fact, our two countries still have a lot of common interests, or else we wouldn’t have invited you, sir, to such an, informal and important private gathering today.”

Continuously used several modifiers, indicating the purpose of today’s meeting, the subtext is to tell Pedro, after today’s two people may not recognize that there is such a gathering.

Apparently Pedro heard and understood, and nodded solemnly, “To be able to establish a precious friendship with the two of you is more than I can ask for.”

Portugal is also a leader of a dictatorial nature? Ambiguous relations with Italy and Germany? So what?

It was well known that the British Empire never distinguished between friend and foe based on moral standards, uniting with the Dutch to fight the Spanish, uniting with Germany to check and balance France, and uniting with France to check and balance Germany.

It’s not like Portugal was strong enough to be valued by Britain, just because Salazar was a dictator? Britain will come after Portugal? Those old men in London don’t have such high moral standards.

So after a brief outburst, John felt that the mood was about right and went straight to the point, saying that he was more than willing to maintain the current relationship with the Portuguese, especially when it came to the subcontinent.

“Here in South Asia, we actually share common interests between Britain and Portugal, and at the end of the day we are European countries. The world’s colonial empire is not just the British Empire alone, more or less, in addition to Germany and Italy, a number of countries have a number of colonies, these colonies in the future in what position!” Alan Wilson cocked his head at John and nodded, “This is a very important issue, and we would like to maintain the current amicable relationship.”

“The British Empire has always taken a tacit attitude towards Portuguese Goa and hasn’t hit Goa, but if the political figures in India were to be replaced, they wouldn’t feel the same way.” John shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands helplessly, “It’s a known fact that the Congress side means the whole of British India’s suzerainty.”

“Another fact is that Portuguese Goa also seems to have a Congress Party base.” Alan Wilson said with a bitter smile, “This is more difficult to deal with, all in all, in the near future, the Portuguese Viceroyalty of Goa, seems to face no small problem.”

“Goa is part of Portugal, this is a known fact.” Pedro’s expression became solemn and frowned, “Goa has been a Portuguese territory for close to five hundred years, and at that time British India didn’t even know where it was?”

Alan Wilson reached out and shook his hand, signaling a moment’s peace, with a regretful look, “This kind of rhetoric, for us gentlemen is useful, but for nationalists the role is limited, it is really well known that nationalists are usually unreasonable, they only believe in their own favorable rhetoric, and turn a deaf ear to objective and neutral facts, according to my many years of work in India work experience, this is still particularly true of nationalists in India.”

While the two Tupang commissioners and the representative of the Portuguese Viceroy were laughing and joking, the Tupang representatives at the other place were also talking to each other.

The promises of the Congress Party were not very attractive to the big Tupangs of the subcontinent who were on the stage. These big native states would not be attracted by small gains, no matter how good the NCP’s words were, how could they be better than the monarchs of these native states’ own words?

There have always existed earth state alliances between earth states, like the relationship between a sovereign and a vassal state. The situation in the South Asian subcontinent is very much like the Spring and Autumn period in China, where the hegemonic state led the smaller states and worked together to cope with everyone’s problems.

These alliances are usually done in private, but it is extremely rare to see a majority of the major states appearing like this one.

And this time was different from the past again, as a representative of the Portuguese Viceroyalty showed up.

“I’m actually a little perplexed as to what Goa can do to help Britain.” Pedro said with some puzzlement, “With what the British Empire can do, it doesn’t need our help.”

“There are some things that may not be good for us to do in the future.” Alan Wilson said with a programmed smile, “With Goa in Portugal’s hands, things might be much better. It wouldn’t just help us, it would be good for Portugal as well.”

The glory of Portugal’s great seafaring days was well and truly history, replaced by backwardness and poverty. Although centuries of overseas trade and colonization had brought Portugal countless riches, they had ultimately not translated into real development. This wealth was concentrated in the hands of the royal family, the nobility and the clergy, similar to another neighboring country, Spain, which had a civil war that brought Franco to power.

Most of it was used for lavish consumption rather than production, so the real standard of living of the people did not improve much. To make matters worse, the influx of wealth also led to inflation, making Portugal’s products uncompetitive in the European market, resulting in a serious trade deficit and Portugal becoming the most backward country in Europe.

Republican power did not change the situation, Salazar took advantage of the situation on the stage of history, through the dictatorship of the struggling reforms, Portugal slightly improved, but is still the most backward country in Europe.

But it depends on who is compared, Portugal’s backwardness refers to the backwardness in the European context, British India? The level is not better than Portugal, British India is defined as the dumping ground for British industrial products, the first step is to kill off the traditional textile industry in India, most of the South Asian market is occupied by the United Kingdom, but Portugal because of the relationship between the Goa, always be able to share a little bit of interest.

Currently Portugal has the same vested interests in the South Asian subcontinent, which is what Alan Wilson was talking about, that Portugal and Britain have common interests.

Enabling some sort of Portuguese cooperation with Britain in India is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination.

“Honestly, do you think highly of the Portuguese? How much can Portugal’s national power help us?” Waiting until after Pedro had gone over to the Tuban representatives, John asked his own question, clearly not as subdued as he appeared to be.

“Portugal is a strongman political state, while we are a British democracy, democracy is something that is discussed and discussed, and it’s too late to discuss opinions and everything.” Alan Wilson pursed his lips and asked rhetorically, “Do you think it’s not that? What if Goa is in our hands and Britain is in the position of the Portuguese and the Indians launch an attack on us?”