Chapter 818: The African Farm Program
Chapter 801 The African Farm Program
Napoleon IV shook his head, picked up a newspaper and said: “These newspapers compared to you have read, all of them say that France has fallen.
Including our domestic newspapers, the same pessimistic attitude. What this means, I’m sure you all know very well.
If we don’t take countermeasures again, we won’t be able to do so later on even if we want to fight back.”
Although unwilling to admit it, everyone knew very well in their hearts that France was indeed going downhill.
Especially in terms of the economy, after quelling the domestic rebellion, the French economy had directly retreated back to 1860.
Although it has recovered in the last two years, it has only caught up with the level of 1870. It would take at least three or four more years to return to its 1881 peak.
One slow step is followed by a slow step. France, itself economically behind Britain and Austria, was left even further behind by its two rivals.
Now there is the Egyptian affair, the French army hard to build up the prestige, but also tossed out most of them.
No matter how well justified Governor Adolf’s defeat was, a loss was a loss, and the public was not concerned with the exact reasons.
The economic + military + political triple blow came at the same time, once not handled well, the foundation of the government will be shaken.
In order to consolidate his rule, Napoleon IV must now take a tough stance and reshape the majesty of France.
Thinking and doing are two different concepts. Taking revenge on Britain and Austria is easy to say, but doing it requires a lot of thought.
Minister of the Navy Hamdi Halbauwer: “Your Majesty, although Britain and Austria are strong, they are not completely without flaws.
The core of the British colonial system is India, so as long as we work on this, we can make things difficult for them.
We already control half of the Central and Southern Peninsula, we can continue to expand our power to Burma, so that the British will not be able to do anything.
Although we can’t move Austria’s core colonies, we can still create some trouble for them, for example: supporting the Republic of Colombia.”
It all sounds good, but in reality these painless counterattacks will only add a little trouble to Britain and Austria at best.
But this just shows that Hamdi Halbauer is politically astute, not only counterattacked the British and Austrians, but also do not have to completely tear the face of the conflict within a manageable range.
Napoleon IV shook his head, ”This is not enough. Expansion into Burma can still make the British feel threatened, and we can barely make do with making a little more noise.
Supporting the Republic of Colombia is far worse, and perhaps earlier, it could have been useful. But now Colombia is too cowed to confront Austria.
Moreover, with their little strength, if a conflict breaks out with Austria, it might even provide the Vienna government with an excuse to annex them.”
It is not that Napoleon IV is demanding, the point is that now they have to come up with a countermeasure that carries weight, and do it to the European countries and the domestic public.
Being bullied by others, do not fight back, that is still bullish France?
The reason why the powers are the powers, rely on the strength. Now France needs to prove the strength of their own opportunities, choose and Britain and Austria friction once, is to re-establish their position of the three powers.
The results are not important, but the momentum must take enough, so that everyone can see France’s great power style.
After a few moments of work, the economic minister Elsa said with some apprehension: “your majesty, to retaliate against Austria does not necessarily have to start from the military, from the economy to do the same can also.
Only if we do so, the consequences are somewhat serious. We may face both Russia and Austria at the same time, or the kind that can’t be unraveled.”
France was not England, and the strategic plan of killing two birds with one stone was not their highest pursuit.
Learn from your mistakes, and you’ll be wiser.
The French government has clearly felt the aftereffects of too high a hate value, alone to Austria trouble, a small revenge no problem.
Directly and Russia and Austria to make a deadly hatred, has been antagonistic, and does not meet the interests of France.
Hearing the words of the Minister of Economy, the crowd was dumbfounded. It is not just to economically give Austria a black hand once, as for and Russia and Austria become immortal enemies?
Napoleon IV asked curiously, “Tell me, what plan is so horrible?”
Economy Minister Elsa explained, “Immediately start the African agricultural development program, and the previous plan is different, this time we do not consider the revenue.
No one from the private sector will invest, so the government will fund the establishment of state-owned farms to expand the area of food cultivation.
In a short period of time, a large amount of food will be spawned and put into the international food market to bring down the price of food.
Agriculture has always been one of the most important industries in Austria, agricultural exports accounted for nearly 40% of Austria’s total exports, contributing a large amount of tax revenue for the Vienna government.
Finished grain exports, in turn, account for the largest share of agricultural exports, estimated to account for about 53%.
If our plan succeeds and international food prices plummet, Austria will surely suffer heavy losses.
Seventy percent of Austria’s exports of finished grain, of which seventy percent is raw grain, are imported from Russia, and with the plunge in international grain prices, the Russians will be second only to Austria as a victim.”
There is no doubt that this is a common weakness of Russia and Austria. Once a third country dumps food in large quantities and international food prices collapse, enterprises engaged in processing agricultural products and farmers who grow food will become heavy losses.
Enterprises face only the pain of a sudden plunge in prices, the big deal is to depress the purchase price of raw grain and pass on the losses, and the farmers who grow grain are the ones who really lose their money.
Such an obvious loophole is naturally no secret.
For the colonial countries, there is naturally no technical difficulty in growing grain overseas for dumping on the European continent.
The problem is that an increase in food production will inevitably lead to a fall in international food prices.
The grain that is fortunately planted will not only fail to earn money, but will even lose freight costs, not to mention recovering the cost of opening up the land.
Finance Minister Roy Vernon hurriedly objected, “No way! The African region is all undeveloped wasteland, while Russia and Austria are already developed ripe land, and our grain cultivation costs will definitely be higher than theirs.
This means that in future competition, we are at an inherent disadvantage. In order to ensure that the grain is not stagnant, there is only one way to go: dumping it at a low price.
When the time comes, we will be fighting for financial strength to see who can’t hold out and fall down first, which is totally hurting people with the capital.
What’s more, the plummeting of international food prices will also spread to the country, making domestic farmers lose money along with them.”
There is no hurry, once this program is opened, it will cost money like water, and the dried up pockets of the Ministry of Finance will not be able to hold it up at all.
Napoleon IV: “Roy is right, shocking food prices is not advisable. It will only cost us and Austria both, and cheapen the British on the sidelines for nothing.”
Mistakenly hurt the Russians Napoleon IV does not care, anyway, the relationship between the two countries have not been good, offended is also offended.
Relating to the interests of the French peasants, that’s different. French peasants are the strongest supporters of the Bonaparte family, Napoleon III is relying on the support of the majority of peasants to ascend the throne.
Even if the blow to Austria is again great, this kind of self-destruction thing, Napoleon IV can not do.
The words of a political figure have already been exported, naturally cannot be easily retracted. Since Elsa had made this suggestion, she could only go on with her head.
“Even if it’s not for the sake of fighting Austria, it’s still necessary for us to start the African farm program.
Ever since the annexation of the Italian region, France has become one of the major food importers in the European continent, consuming a large amount of foreign exchange to import agricultural products every year.
If we were to flip out with Austria one day, a food crisis would soon erupt in the country. For the sake of the country’s strategic security, it is also necessary to achieve food self-sufficiency.
Anyway, we have withdrawn from the free trade system, and it is entirely possible to adopt tariff barriers to safeguard domestic food prices from international market interference in order to protect the interests of the peasant class.
We can even take a step back and not compete for the international market for agricultural products, but simply achieve domestic food self-sufficiency and reduce the hostility of Russia and Austria.”
Hearing “protect the market”, Napoleon IV’s heart lit up. On the premise of ensuring that the interests of domestic farmers are not jeopardized, striking the Austrian economy, he is still very happy to do.
Although these days the economy is not equal to the strength of the country, but the economic development is good, the government has money in its pocket, and money has soldiers.
Perhaps the lower and middle classes had not yet felt the threat of Austria, but after the Paris Revolution, the upper echelons of the French government realized that the neighbors in front of them were not the same as the original.
Suppression of Austria has become the consensus of the French top, has not been acted on, that is the French government is very busy. After suppressing the domestic rebellion, there was still a big mess waiting to be cleaned up.
Seeing the domestic problems to be solved, the Egyptian rebellion broke out again. The French government would not have chosen to strike back at this time if it had not been forced to do so.
To this day, the French Empire is second only to the British food importer. Once this market is lost, Europe will inevitably experience agricultural overcapacity.
At that time, Russia and Austria two big food exporters do not want to have a good time, and may even trigger a new round of economic crisis.
(End of chapter)