I was the Founding Father of the United States

Chapter 138 Two Types of Enlightenment: England and France

Chapter 138 Two Types of Enlightenment: England and France

As early as 1638, the Spanish learned from the indigenous people of Peru that cinchona bark powder could be used to treat malaria.

Later, a British quack doctor named Talbot cured Charles II and Louis XIV's crown prince with cinchona bark powder and wine. He was immediately knighted and sold the formula to Louis XIV for a high price, becoming a wealthy man—which is quite similar to Lord Chen's path to riches.

After Talbot's death, Louis XIV made the formula public, and Europeans then accepted the therapeutic effects of cinchona bark powder.

However, the Spanish now monopolized this cash cow, so the price of cinchona bark remained high. This is why Europeans used large numbers of enslaved Africans who were resistant to malaria when developing tropical plantations in the Americas.

There was no other way; Europeans were afraid of malaria, and Native Americans were afraid of smallpox. Only the Black people of Africa, who had been tested by various diseases, were most suitable to serve as tropical laborers.

In a way, these black Africans can be considered the answer to the question of being "chosen by God".

But Chen Wenbin had to try to change this. One direction was to create the bloodline of black slaves to pollute public opinion, while another was to find a way to get cinchona seeds and extract quinine, or to extract artemisinin from Artemisia annua.

After all, he was going to open a plantation in the lower Mississippi River. In the short term, he could reduce the loss of life by using mosquito nets and strict sanitation measures, but in the long term, malaria was a problem he had to solve.

However, conquering malaria would indirectly accelerate the colonization process in European countries, so this pace had to be carefully managed.

The time at sea was quite boring, so while playing with the maids, Chen Wenbin also taught his subordinates and wrote books, striving to establish himself as a great thinker in history.

First, there's economics. He had already written half of "The Wealth of Nations" before, and now that he was going back to North America to take up the post of Governor General, his status had risen, and he no longer needed to worry about attacks from mercantilist scholars and politicians. So he planned to finish the book and usher in the era of classical liberal economics.

For an inventive and creative entrepreneur like him, the theories of free trade and the "invisible hand" of market economy in "The Wealth of Nations" were the best intellectual tools for opening up foreign markets and destroying trade barriers in the domestic market.

Of course, this also benefits Britain, the current maritime superpower, as Britain also needs such a tool of thought to conquer foreign markets.

Besides his economic treatise, *The Wealth of Nations*, Lord Chen also plans to publish some articles and commentaries on Enlightenment thought.

He was a man destined to be the Founding Father of the United States, so how could he not have some impressive works and viewpoints?

He doesn't need to be as radical and fanatical as the French Enlightenment thinkers. He only needs to continue the British empiricist tradition and put forward some moderate, reformist, humane, and even somewhat conservative Enlightenment ideas. That should be enough to attract a group of wealthy and influential elite fans.

People's thoughts always change with their social status.

When he had nothing, he naturally preferred hanging streetlights, overthrowing all the old aristocrats, and having everyone share in the wealth of society.

But now Lord Chan is a colonial governor, a tycoon, a big businessman, a big landowner and a baron of Britain. If he were to advocate smashing all the old systems and judging all nobles and rich people like Rousseau, who was poor all his life, wouldn't that be going against himself?

If he were to actually publish a whole bunch of articles praising rationalist utopia, his allies and subordinates would probably start to wonder if he'd lost his mind.

He also carefully compared the differences between British and French Enlightenment thought.

To be honest, if he had to choose which ideology to use to govern the country, he would most likely still choose the ideology developed by the British.

The reason is simple: the French Enlightenment thinkers, represented by Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu, were characterized by reason, radicalism, criticism, equality, and revolution.

They believe that pure reason can rebuild everything, enjoy constructing grand systems, criticizing all old institutions, and tend to completely overthrow the old world and rebuild a perfect new world.

If the French Enlightenment had continued to develop, the result would have been rational fanaticism and the momentous French Revolution that changed all of humanity!

If you ask whether Lord Chen's French Enlightenment ideas are good or not, or whether they are progressive or not?

He would definitely say it's great, such a significant improvement!

But if you ask him if he would like to live in Paris during the French Revolution, he definitely wouldn't!

British Enlightenment thinkers, represented by Locke and Hume (including Scottish thinkers), were characterized by their ideas of experience, moderation, reform, freedom, and constitutionalism.

Their view is that humanity should acknowledge its own ignorance, cannot replace God with its own reason, and that a perfect human society does not exist.

People should trust experience and common sense, and not smash the old things all at once. Instead, they should implement gradual improvements as much as possible, oppose wishful thinking, do practical things, and improve things little by little.

The most important thing for society is to protect individual freedom and property, and to uphold the law and constitutionalism.

Guided by this ideology, Britain went through the Industrial Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the First and Second World Wars, maintaining its global hegemony for two hundred years.

Most countries that followed later essentially modeled their own paths to modernization on these two sets of ideas from Britain and France.

As for which is superior or inferior, it is difficult to judge due to the different circumstances in each country.

The French approach is a powerful remedy that can enable developing countries to quickly gain momentum and catch up.

The British route is suitable for powerful nations with first-mover advantage and abundant resources.

On the afternoon of October 15th, in a cabin on the Iris that served as a study, John Adams listened to Lord Chen's understanding of the Enlightenment ideas of the two countries and frowned, saying: "—Your Excellency, London is planning to deploy several thousand to ten thousand permanent soldiers west of the Appalachian Mountains to oversee the implementation of land laws, and the North American colonies will bear the costs of the garrison."

Once this matter passes through Congress, I think at that point we will no longer be able to guarantee the rights and freedoms of North America through the dignified means of law and protest—when all peaceful means fail, we will probably have no choice but to resort to violence to forcibly terminate this treaty!

After saying that, he stared at Chen Wenbin across from him, waiting for his reply.

Chen Wenbin knew that this guy was testing whether he had changed his original intentions after becoming governor, so he shook his head and smiled, "John, don't worry! If the conflict is really irreconcilable, I will only give up the title of governor and choose to stand on the side of the people of North America!"

Instead of worrying about this, think about your wedding with Abigail —