Laurence’s Excution

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this brought up, but could England really have afforded to execute Laurence. I don’t mean this in the aspect that they would lose Temeraire, after all this is the reason given in the books. I mean could they do this without losing all benefits they gained from China. They would for all intensive purposes be executing a prince of China, a prince whose palace has their embassy is based out of, and whose existence is the very basis of their alliance. If they had executed Laurence would they have not loss all those benefits they gained?