Chapter 747: Crisis Comes to a Head

  Chapter 730 The Crisis is Coming

The Prussian-Russian negotiations have ended, and the Vienna Peace Conference has entered its most critical moment, disarmament and the establishment of a new international order.

Disarmament went relatively smoothly, and everyone agreed that it was necessary. The core of the dispute centered on exactly how many troops to keep.

Smaller countries, which have limited armies and pose no threat to anyone, have little impact on disarmament.

The core of the conflict was between Russia, Austria and France, with Austria proposing a 10:10:7 ratio of troops, whereby Russia and Austria would maintain a total of 500,000 troops and France would maintain 350,000 troops.

The French representative, David Proval, objected strongly, saying: “As a great power, this is an insult to France.

We can’t accept this ratio, France must have an army that matches its own strength, I propose that France, Russia and Austria maintain armies of equal size!”

Austrian Foreign Minister Weissenberg shook his head and laughed, “Your Excellency the Minister, the essence of disarmament is to save on military expenses, maintain the military balance in Europe and avoid the outbreak of war.

Your country’s land forces are number one in the world in terms of combat power, who is your opponent at the same strength, and how can this balance be maintained?”

This boastful explanation calmed the anger in David Proval’s heart, but still insisted, “No way!

France has a multitude of colonies to maintain, we cannot simply consider the army’s fighting strength, we must consider it perfectly from a combination of many factors.”

In this age of the weak and the strong, strength was a reflection of status. What was being allocated now was not just the share of troops, but also the right to speak on the European continent.

If one got the same number of troops as Russia and Austria, with the advantage in combat strength, France would be the uncrowned king, if not the European continental hegemon.

“Advantage in combat power”, well, this aspect of the French people’s self-confidence is really bursting, has always been to the world’s first army to call themselves.

Perhaps at one time the French Army really was number one in the world, but the Italians joined in, and now it’s number one in the world, no one knows.

No specific interests were involved, Austria did not sing against the French on this issue, and after shouting for a long time, everyone acquiesced.

Weissenberg nodded: ”What Your Excellency said is not unreasonable, it is indeed necessary to consider all aspects.

But there are too many aspects involved, for example: population, economy, number of colonies, territory size, defense pressure, and so on.

Which one do we actually use as a reference standard, or do we consider all of them and calculate a comprehensive value?”

It was a devastating topic, and no matter which of these aspects was compared, France was at a disadvantage.

David Proval took careful stock of the situation and realized with embarrassment that he had made a mistake by mentioning the colonies.

Now the world’s first colonial empire is Britain, followed by Austria, France can only rank third. And the gap between this third and second is still very wide, even less than half.

Take the colonies as a standard, is not to let the British maintain the world’s first army size?

European countries may not have an opinion, John Bull is absolutely impossible to agree, that will make them from the sea power country, into a land power country.

Population, economy, territorial area, France does not have the same can occupy the upper hand, according to these data, perhaps they even Austria’s 70% share of the army can not get.

Defense pressure not to mention the use of say, never is France to others pressure, David Proval is really embarrassed to mention.

After hesitating for a while, David Proval replied stiffly, “Of course it’s a comprehensive calculation to consider, but it can focus on the regional military balance.”

British representative Edward: “I propose to consider regional military balance under the premise of prioritizing the needs.

In the case of France, simply keeping only 350,000 troops is simply not enough.”

In the usual fashion of shit stirrers, meeting the demand looks good, the question is how is the criteria for this demand defined?

First to meet the needs of all countries’ military strength, and then consider the military balance, then it can only be calculated according to the high, the maximum limit of 500,000 will certainly not be able to keep, or maybe in the end, the disarmament becomes the expansion of the army.

The British conspiracy, naturally, is not so easy to succeed. Other countries to raise a few more soldiers, perhaps not a big problem, the Russian Empire can not afford to raise.

Russian representative Nikita Titov immediately retorted: “Sir, we are a disarmament conference, not an army expansion conference.

If you were to fulfill the military needs of all countries, are you sure you could still disarm?”

Disarmament, why disarmament?

Standing in the position of the British, it is best for the European countries to maintain the current situation, one by one, if they consume a large amount of military expenditure on the land forces, they will be unable to compete with them for the hegemony of the sea.

If in accordance with the Austrian proposal, the number of French and Austrian land forces were suppressed to 350,000 and 500,000, which means that the two governments can save tens of millions of pounds per year out of military spending.

This money will not lie in the bank inside the interest, most of them will flow into the navy, which will cause a very big impact on the maritime hegemony of Britain.

Edward was unmoved and deliberately pretended to be confused: ”This is of course a disarmament conference, and the fact that everyone is able to sit here is the best proof of that.

How many troops to keep is the freedom of a sovereign nation and should not be subject to external interference. Disarmament should rely on everyone’s volition, not forced by external forces.”

The British stirring up the pot puts pressure on David Provar. Everyone else could “volunteer” but not France.

This is a historical legacy, and a large part of the countries present were part of the anti-French alliance.

Even now, everyone is still wary of France. If there is no leader, a group of rabble, the French government is not goaded.

Unfortunately, it was different now; there was an Austria on the European continent that had not been pressed, and there was a Britain outside the Channel.

Once France refused to disarm, it was likely to be misinterpreted by outsiders and could easily trigger a new round of international tension.

French representative David Proval retorted, “The sovereignty of independent countries must be respected, but as a responsible country, one must also think about world peace.

Excessive freedom is, in fact, the root cause of war. Disarmament is imperative for the prosperity and stability of Europe.”

David Proval’s words still add up. France was not opposed to disarmament, but only to the proportional size of the armies of France, Russia and Austria.

The hole dug by the British was directly avoided by him perfectly. The focus of the controversy was brought back.

Reasoning, evidence, a new round of war of words began again. Only this time the dispute was not about the quantity ratio, but the calculation rules.

Comprehensive consideration seems to be good, in fact, the most headache is comprehensive. Because the more directions involved, the more problems arise, and the longer the tug of war.

……

Just as everyone is pulling their hair out, a crisis is also hitting the capitalist world.

The cause was the defeat of the Pupo Confederation, which triggered turmoil in the London financial markets.

But this wave of crisis was put to rest after the British government’s efforts to bail out debtors and also achieve a partial debt rollover that reduced financial risk and restored confidence in the markets.

You can hide from Easter, but you can’t hide from Halloween.

The Berlin government existed though, and debts were being honored normally. But with the end of the war, the orders for the factories were gone.

Not only that, but many other companies had their last orders delivered before the Berlin government defaulted.

Defaulting on an order is a business practice, and the most that can be done is to pay a small amount of liquidated damages, or to be precise, the deposit is not wanted.

The aftermath of the default was a huge backlog of supplies. Ordinary products were fine, but they could be sold at reduced prices in the private market to make some money back.

Specialized production of strategic materials is a problem, the capital is willing to take out to sell, the problem is that now simply can not find buyers.

Not only Britain has a problem, most of the countries in Europe have a backlog of strategic materials, just in time for the disarmament of the good time, the market demand has fallen dramatically.

Production enterprises with weak financial strength are now on the verge of bankruptcy because of the backlog of a large number of goods.

It is not only these enterprises producing strategic materials that have been affected, but almost every industry has been affected.

With the reduction in export orders after the war, enterprises that started out with export trade had to turn around and come back to grab the domestic market, and competition in the market became brutal.

Overcapacity became a common problem in the capitalist world. In order to survive, enterprises began to show their skills, and discount promotions were indispensable.

Take Austria as an example, after the war, the prices of all commodities in the country fell, among which: the prices of daily necessities fell by 24%, the prices of clothing fell by 31.6%, the prices of hardware fell by 18.5%, the prices of machinery and equipment fell by 9.8%, and the prices of foodstuffs fell by 6.4%. ……

Falling prices are not always a good thing. Behind falling prices, there is also brutal market competition.

Looking at the recent economic data, Franz knew that the economic crisis was coming again.

Now most of the enterprises were gritting their teeth and holding on for dear life, once the market didn’t improve for a long time, the weak small and medium-sized enterprises would be the first to fall down.

Once the wave of bankruptcy appeared, the economic situation would deteriorate drastically.

Putting down the information in his hands, Franz sighed, “Notify the cabinet, and the heads of the economic departments to come over for a meeting.”

……

(End of chapter)