Chapter 654: The French’s New Plan
Chapter 640 – The Frenchman’s New Plan
Since ancient times it has always been easy to identify problems, but difficult to solve them. The development dilemma that France is facing is something that everyone is able to see, and trying to get out of it is still a difficult task.
Finance Minister Allen: “Your Majesty, learn from the Austrians to develop their colonies! France has more than 10 million square colonies, as long as they are developed, the vast majority of the industrial raw materials needed in the country can be solved.”
This is not the first time that the idea of “developing colonies” has been brought up. As early as the time of Napoleon III, the French government had formulated an ambitious plan for the development of colonies.
To this end, the French government also launched a large immigration program, has been from the Balkans, the Italian region, the mainland immigrants millions of people, filling the North African region.
The influx of immigrants boosted the development of French Africa to a certain extent, but unfortunately it ended in failure.
It was not that the French government did not try, it was entirely useless to try. Apart from developing some of the precious minerals, no other industries were developed.
This is completely different from Austria, Austrian Africa can develop, that is, there is a group of like farming aristocrats and people, in the local development of the plantation economy.
Settlement of more people, the colonial government’s income also went up, the infrastructure gradually became perfect, the transportation improved, the surrounding minerals are also slowly developed, the formation of a virtuous cycle.
French Africa was different, the French had no love for farming. Everyone is only interested in gold, silver mines and these precious metals, farms, plantations and these low return industry, no one is willing to invest.
The French were not willing to invest, let alone other immigrants. Even if you want to set up your own farm or plantation, you have to have money in your pocket!
Private capital refuses to enter, all rely on the French government investment, naturally can not last a few years.
The local economy did not develop, and the mining industry was still cheaper with the natives. In this context, the French colonial development program soon went bankrupt.
Minister of Economy Elsa: “Your Excellency the Marquis, restarting the colony development program is not so easy.
The biggest problem is that the people are not willing to invest in the colonies, and even if they do they are only interested in mineral resources, too few are willing to invest in other areas.
With just the government’s power, the cost to develop the colony is just too great.”
Finance Minister Alan: “We can increase the government’s investment and introduce policies to encourage the people to go to the colonies for development, as long as we persist, we will succeed sooner or later.
No matter how costly it is, it must be done. France is not lacking in technology, the industrial development in the country is lagging behind Britain and Austria, mainly because we lack enough cheap industrial raw materials.
If, we can’t change the dilemma of industrial raw materials being restricted by others, we will never be able to develop our industry!”
Economy Minister Elsa shook her head, “Your Excellency the Marquis, this is something you should go and say to the nationalists and idealists out there, it is expected that they will support you.
In reality, we all know very well that the domestic nobles, capitalists, and even the general public, they won’t see it that way.
Shouting a few slogans is fine, but if you really ask people to invest money in the construction of the colony, the first thing you can’t avoid is the issue of returns.
There is also a gap between colonies and colonies, on the surface, we are the world’s third largest colonial empire; but have to admit, inside our colonies, compared to the British and Austrian countries, the value gap is too big.
Your Excellency does not think that the vast desert has value, does it?
After the removal of this rotten land, less than a third of the territory remains. A large portion of this land, due to its geographical conditions, is not of value for development.
Even if it is developed, it may not be able to meet domestic demand. At least the coal resources that we have the greatest shortage of are not available in French Africa.”
This is a reality, and like Austria the vast majority of French colonies were concentrated on the African continent, and also mostly in desert areas.
The harsh natural conditions and climatic environment have become the biggest constraints on the development of French Africa. Investment and return are not proportional, capital will naturally abandon them.
Allen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said uncertainly, “The fact that coal resources are only temporarily found to be scarce does not mean that there are none in French Africa. We have under-exploited these areas, and if we keep going we will always be able to find them.
It’s impossible for the large African continent to be without coal resources, be patient and send more prospecting teams out to look for them, there will always be a harvest.”
Said this when Allen has no bottom, France lacks coal for a long time, in order to solve the lack of coal resources, Napoleon III period sent a large number of prospecting teams.
It can’t be said that there is no harvest at all, coal mines are still found quite a lot, but unfortunately the reserves are too low, the development is difficult and large, the vast majority of coal mines have no economic value.
To say that the prospecting teams didn’t work hard, that would be too wrong. There is no such thing as a coal mine, so we can’t let them turn it into a coal mine.
Minister of War Patrice McMahon retorted, ”Your Excellency the Marquis, this only exists in theory. In reality the distribution of mineral resources, that is determined by God, it is not the case that if the land area is large, there will definitely be rich mines.
If you want to solve the shortage of coal, directly from our neighboring countries to think of ways, better than not hope in unrealistic fantasies.”
Patrice MacMahon was a hawk in the French government, advocating the seizure of territory west of the Rhine, and at odds with the doves led by Allen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Belgium, the Rhineland, and parts of Baden.)
Now that coal resources were brought into play, Patrice MacMahon immediately took advantage of the situation to advocate a strategy of expansion into central Europe.
Allen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had no qualms about accusing, “Your Excellency the Field Marshal, I wouldn’t mind moving into Central Europe if you could neutralize Britain and Austria.
If you can’t do that, it’s best to dispel this unrealistic fantasy, unless you want to go through another Europe-wide war against France.”
Secretary of War Patrice McMahon smiled coldly and said disdainfully, “Coward!”
“The international situation is now very clear, the Prussian and Russian countries are so deeply enmity that a second Prussian-Russian war could break out at any time, and are simply powerless to interfere with our actions.
Without the participation of Prussia and Russia, the Spanish government is under our influence, the Italian region has been annexed by us, Switzerland has declared eternal neutrality, and the Nordic Confederation hangs alone in the north out of reach, so where is the anti-French alliance?
As long as we are quick enough to create an established fact, such small countries as Holland and Portugal will not dare to send troops at all.
British army strength is limited, the only strength to interfere with only Austria, one-on-one what to be afraid of?”
Did not experience the failure of the Franco-Prussian War, the French are still arrogant. In the Russian Empire did not fall behind, in order to political needs, the French government to the world’s first army to call themselves.
Over time, after hearing more bragging, the French military drifted. Patrice McMahon was also inevitably affected and gradually became disdainful of other countries.
Foreign Minister Montero reminded, “Your Excellency the Marshal, one-on-one does not exist. Britain and Austria are bound to join forces, and perhaps the army can ignore their threat, but not the navy.
If we can’t win the war in the short term, we will face a protracted blockade, and food alone is a big problem, not to mention other things.”
Nowadays, the French are very confident in their own strength, the newspapers bragged every day, listen to the long time, the Paris government is also unprecedented confidence in their own strength.
Of course, the top echelons of the government are not yet completely lost, and at best they have confidence in the army. As for the navy, or forget it, the Royal Navy is too strong, the French have not challenged the bottom.
Allen, the finance minister, waved his hand: ”Off topic. Today we are holding an economic meeting to discuss how to solve the problem of Austria joining the free trade system, not a military meeting.”
What appeared to be an understatement was a warning that Patrice McMahon had overstepped his bounds. The economic conference was the work of the government, it was not the turn of the military to interfere.
The Minister of War, although also a member of the government, has in practice limited his competence to the military sphere, and government economic policy has nothing to do with them.
……
Napoleon IV rubbed his forehead, I do not know when, the French government has been accustomed to quarrels.
Cabinet disputes occur, it is still considered harmonious, if it is an extended meeting, it is even possible to stage a physical battle.
The bad relationship between the people below is naturally favorable to the emperor as the arbiter, but it is a great harm to the efficiency of the government.
By the time everyone argued out a result, it was too late for anything. In order to improve the efficiency of the government, many times Napoleon IV had to personally down the game.
This practice is very harmful to the royal power. But there was no way to arrange for his men to go on, people simply did not buy it, Napoleon IV could only go on himself.
Now, for example, the restart of the colonial development program proposed by the Minister of Finance is clearly unpopular.
If Napoleon IV wanted to restart the colonial development program, he had to personally stand up for him.
Seeing that the quarrel could not produce results, Napoleon IV interrupted: “Don’t discuss whether the program is okay or not for the time being, let’s list out all the plans first and see how many options we have.
If there is no choice, even the worst option is better than no option at all. In any case we can’t sit on our hands, that would be chronic suicide!”
Obviously, they have few options left. As long as they joined the free trade system, they would have to solve the raw material problem.
As for relying on the power of capital to promote industrial technological innovation, reduce production costs, and maintain market competitiveness so as to retain the current market share.
Sorry, this is idealism. Just because there is no shortage of capital in France does not mean that there is no shortage of capital in French industry.
People already resent the low rate of return on real industry and are reluctant to invest in it. If you join the free trade system and add competitors to further thin out profits, can you expect capitalists to invest?
Restarting the colonial development program may not be the best option, but it is the only viable option at the moment.
Moreover, this program will not be able to obtain returns in a short period of time, and the real benefits will not be seen until ten or twenty years later.
Not to say that can completely solve the problem of insufficient raw materials in France, but most of the industrial raw materials to achieve self-sufficiency, can still be done.
The prerequisite is that the French plan can be successful, the colonies really developed, otherwise it is still what should be done.
Forced by reality, under the support of Napoleon IV, the French government narrowly passed the “restart of the colonial development program” proposed by the Minister of Finance.
……
(End of chapter)