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	[h2]Paleis Noordeinde, Den Haag[/h2]
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It's a calm day in the Netherlands. The snow is still falling and all seems peacefull and the people seem happy. Children are playing in the snow and people are iceskating. Yes, it seems so peacefull. But in King Willem III's office the atmosphere is tense. The king sits behind his desk and infront of him sits Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, the minister of forgein affairs. Van Nijevelt has come to discuss the new developments in the world and has so much to do this day. But the king is just sitting behind his desk, drinking a cup of tea as he is reading the newspaper. They have been sitting like this for five minutes now and van Nijevelt is getting impatient. He coughs once, hoping to get the king's attention. The king doesnt seem to react. He then looks up at the king, opens his mouth and says: "Your grace, I have more to do then just sitting here. There are pressing matters I must discuss with you."

The king smiles. "It's about damn time you grew a spine van Nijevelt." The king puts down his newspaper and looks van Nijevelt in the eyes. "Well, you have our attention now, what is it we need to know."

Van Nijevelt lets out a sigh of relief. "Well your grace, there have been certain developments in the world these last few days. The most notable is ofcourse the end of the Civil War in the United States of America. The Union was victorious, as was predicted. But the war is not important to us besides the fact that we have a stable tradepartner now. We have calcualted that they would need alot of resources to rebuild their wartorn nation, resources we have. The heads of the WIC and the VOC have reported to me that we are able to supply large amounts of blue coal from to colonies to the USA and that they would supply us with the agrarian goods we require for our growing population. All we need is your approval."

The king raised an eyebrow. "And what about Thorbecke and the Staten-Generaal? Dont they get a say in this?"

Van Nijevelt smiles. "Your grace, you remember that the WIC and VOC are officially independent companies dont you? Just like the AMC they are trade companies which officially do not have any ties to the government. So the Staten-Generaal has no say in their actions."

[hider=Info about trade companies in the Netherlands]
The [b]West Indische Compagnie[/b], [b]Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie[/b] and the [b]Afrikaanse Mediterraanse Compagnie[/b] are Dutch trading companies which devide the Dutch trade interests in 3 parts of the world. The WIC has control over the trade in the Americas, the VOC in Asia and the AMC in Africa and the Mediterranean. Every company is led by their own "seventeen gentlemen" who are on paper completely independent of the government, allowing them to trade with nations which are enemies of the Dutch or their allies, making sure that commerce shall not suffer from a war. They are offcourse loyal to their stockholders, and by a complete coincidence the Dutch royal family is in control of nearly 50% of the stocks from the three companies.
[/hider]

Willem smiles at van Nijevelt. "Indeed. Well then we guess we shall have to write a recommendation on the course the WIC and VOC need to take." Willem continues smiling. "We take it there are more reasons why you've come here."

Van Nijevelt folds his hands together. "Yes your grace. It concerns the Kingdom of Naples." Willem frowns at van Nijevelt. "You mean that country which sees technological progress as the devil's work?" Van Nijevelt nods. "Yes my lord. As your grace might have heard before the Kingdom of Naples has two fairly large blue coal mines and it is rumoured that they are willing to sell the coal to the highest bidder. The reason for this is that the Kingdom of Naples is a fairly useless land when it comes down to agriculture. They need capital in order to purchase agricultural products like wheat and corn. Not only that, but they also fear that industrialised nations would want to invade the country for it's blue coal. We cant let that happen for it would destabalise the entire region and that wouldnt be good for commerce."

Willem nods. "Indeed, we would be very displeased if the commerce in the mediterranean would be disrupted by war. What is your recommended course of action van Nijevelt?" 

Van Nijevelt looks down at the king's desk. "There are several options. One would ofcourse be to do nothing but that would be squandering a great oppurtunity." Van Nijevelt now looked at the king's eyes. "The second option is for us to secure the blue coal mines and enforce our monopoly on it. We would promise to supply them with any amount of agrarian products they require and we would post our mediterranean navy to patrol the Napolian coasts. If they would allow us we would also offer to mine the coal by ourselves, not using any Napolitans but imported workers. This way the local population does not have to find out that we are actually mining the coal and King Pagani would not need to fear an uprising by his people."

Willem leans back in his chair and meets van Nijevelt's eyes. "But didnt you just say that we needed the agrarian products outselves?" Van Nijevelt smiles at his king. "Indeed your grace, you are very perceptive. But with the new blue coal we can get more agrarian products from the Americas and maybe even Germany. Dont worry about it my lord." Van Nijevelt leans back and looks to his left, to the east.

"Speaking about Germany, I've heard they are looking for blue coal aswell. They might prove to be an annoyance with Naples. If you would allow me then I will schedule an appointment with the German ambasador and discuss their lack in blue coal. We are a small nation with a very large Asian colony, 1/5 the size of the European continent. We have far too much blue coal for our little nation, I am sure the Germans will agree and they would be happy to unburden us." Van Nijevelt smiles at the king. "Doesnt your grace agree?"

The king nods. "Indeed, we think that our German brothers would be happy to aid us in our 'burden'. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss with us minister van Nijevelt?"

"The is one more thing, it concerns the Australian Commonwealth. They contacted us and want to start a trade relation with us. They offer us gold and blue coal in exchange for military technology."

Willem shakes his head. "Military technology for those resources... We can not accept that. The weapons of our state are for our state alone. If we are giving them so easily to one state then what stops that state from spreading all of our technologies over the world? No, we can no accept that offer."

"Thank you your grace. Those are all the matters I had to discuss. If there is nothing else then I must beg my leave." van Nijevelt prepares to stand up but is stopped once the king raises his hand.

"There is one matter we would like to discuss. It concerns the Eisenkreis-Kzechverin dual monarchy. We would like to go on a state visit to that state, you think you could arrange that?"

Van Nijevelt nods. "Ofcourse your grace, I shall work on it at once."

Willem nods. "Good, then you are dismissed."

Van Nijevelt bows infront of the king and walks out of the office. Willem gets out of his chair and looks through the large window looking at the collum of soldiers who are marching in the square infront of the palace. They are mounted hussars and their sabers shine in the sunlight. They are willing to give their life for him, their king, without a second thought. Willem hopes that that day will never come.

He walks back to his desk and picks up the newspaper and his tea and then walks over to his sofa. He sits down and opens the newspaper. He then takes a sip of his tea. [i]Dammit... It's cold.[/i]