Chapter 1021: The Shrewd William II

  Chapter 1001 – The Shrewd William II

When the bubble was burst, Shinra, as the economic leader, suffered the greatest loss; Britain, as the second largest industrial country in the capitalist world economic system, naturally suffered the second greatest loss.

Regardless of whether the two countries have been politically opposed to each other, they have long been economically tied together. The Shen Luo Empire’s economic bubble was serious, and Britain’s economic bubble was not much less.

In fact, the crisis should have erupted after the end of the Continental War, only to be suppressed by a coalition of forces.

The Vienna government took measures, and the London government was not idle. Gladstone cabinet in charge of the period, Britain’s diplomatic strategy near total collapse, if the economic prosperity is also gone, it is estimated that the British public will be born to tear them.

The cabinet wanted to get through its final term in peace, the consortium needed time to retreat, and the two sides hit it off, artificially creating a virtual economic boom in the second half of the year.

The economic crisis that should have erupted in 1893 has been dragged out to the present. If not for the thunder of the Vienna stock market, it is estimated that the crisis would have continued backwards.

Against this background, Robert Cecil, who had just taken office, had a tragedy. The stock market crash came before his ass was firmly seated, and the economic crisis was about to break out.

In these days, Britain practiced a free economy, and the government was not allowed to interfere with the market. Of course, it’s good to hear that, if you take it seriously then you lose.

The fact that the government cannot directly intervene in the market does not mean that it does not intervene at all. As a matter of fact, the government’s economic policies, laws and regulations are all important factors affecting the development of the economy, and the difference only lies in the intensity of the intervention.

Including the adjustment of tax rates, social relief, joint consortiums to save the world, waging foreign wars to divert the crisis, etc., are all part of the government’s intervention in the market.

“How’s it going, did the consortium agree to step in to save the market?”

No wonder Prime Minister Robert Cecil wasn’t anxious, since the economic bubble was burst, the London stock market followed in the footsteps of the Vienna stock market and started a continuous downward pattern.

Unlike the kind of conservative country, there are a large group of family business dead pinch shares do not go public, Britain is the most developed country in the financial industry, but all the scale of the enterprise are listed companies.

Listed companies are more likely to obtain financing, which is conducive to accelerating the development of enterprises, the aftermath of which is that enterprises are subject to the impact of fluctuations in share prices.

The management mode of professional managers seems to be very scientific, but the company’s money is not their own after all. In order to obtain higher returns in the short term, corporate management is usually more aggressive in formulating strategies.

In normal times, it is fine, but once the stock price drops drastically and it becomes difficult for the company to raise funds, the aggressive development strategy often leads to a break in the financial chain of the company.

In contrast, the non-listed, conservative family business prefers to play it safe. Although the pace of development is a little slower, but the enterprise itself is rarely a large amount of debt, most of the time to maintain a sufficient flow of funds, there is no risk of a break in the capital chain.

The most important thing is that large enterprises that are not listed are usually high-quality enterprises with good profitability and strong market competitiveness, and their own risk-resistant ability is the strongest.

Specifically, you can refer to Wen Franz’s royal consortium, most of the enterprises taken out to the market are high-risk technology enterprises, or enterprises with insufficient profitability and uncertain development prospects, as well as enterprises whose development potential has touched the industry bottleneck.

Really lucrative, or is in the high-speed development stage of the enterprise, one by one are nestled in the bottom of the muffled wealth, when the development of the industry to the upper limit of the bottleneck, when is the time to go public to cash.

What common growth, common sharing, this kind of deception ghost words to hear on the line. Steady income without loss of high-yield trading, their own pinch in the hands of bad, why take out to share?

Perhaps there are enterprises to do, but such enterprises are rare, thousands of listed companies in so many hundred and eighty, the vast majority of enterprises listed are mediocre performance.

The vast majority of companies are mediocre after listing. The enterprises that have been able to operate stably, beat inflation, keep up with the pace of national economic development, and have not suffered any violent thunderstorms are enterprises with a conscience.

If all of these high-quality enterprises listed under the table, even if the market gives how low the valuation, with the economic volume of the Holy Roman Empire, Vienna + Frankfurt two financial centers can not be smaller than London.

In this context, the Holy Roman Empire, the worst stock market decline, the impact on the economy is not as big as Britain.

Economy Minister Aquinas shook his head, ”It’s a great pity that they rejected our proposal. The consortium believes that the current stock market still has a bubble, and that there is a very high risk of striking out to raise the stock price now, and that we need to wait a little longer.

If the government really wants them to fund a bailout, the consortium has also put forth the condition that they must join forces with Vienna to make a move, and they are worried about being taken advantage of.”

Robert Cecil frowned and said with displeasure, “Wait a little longer, if you wait any longer the companies are all bankrupt, what the hell is there to save the city. Jointly striking out together with Vienna, thanks to them for thinking of it.

Now the situation is very obvious, after the continental war the Holy Roman Empire economy has a big problem, is now in the economic adjustment period, with or without this stock market crash they will break out in economic crisis.

And we are not the same, just be implicated in the unlucky. If we cannot stabilize the stock market, we have to accompany them through the economic crisis.

Without dragging everyone down with them, it’s a wonder that the Vienna government would step in to save the market, they’d hate to drag everyone down with them right now and share the losses for them.”

It’s no use complaining, it’s not like there’s only British capital on the London stock market, there’s equally capital from mainland Europe.

If all parties can not reach an agreement, the British consortium to bail out the market, people take the opportunity to sell, they will become the receiver.

Although from the beginning of the year, the continental capital began to flow back, but for their kind of huge volume, the flow out is only a small part.

After the outbreak of the Vienna stock market crash, the British consortium took advantage of the advantage of the sitting tenants to take action ahead of the international capital to give a head start.

Now that they have to consider a bailout, they are naturally worried that others will follow suit. They themselves spend a large price to pull up the stock price, others take advantage of the opportunity to withdraw and run away, they will be bitter.

After all, the consortium is not omnipotent. In the capital market of deceit and deceit, anyone must be careful, or sooner or later they will be eliminated by the market.

What’s more, although a large number of corporate bankruptcies were very unfavorable to the country, it was a capital feast for the consortia. They could completely take advantage of the opportunity of corporate bankruptcy and reorganization to take some high-quality enterprises under their wings at a cabbage price.

……

The British government is not the only one with a headache; all capitalist industrialized countries have a headache in the face of the rolling stock that is bent on dragging everyone down.

In the past, it was the countries that were attacking the Vienna government for interfering with economic freedom, this time there was no need to spray, but the result was even more unacceptable.

The Vienna government was able to follow the natural laws of the market economy for once, and as a result everyone was dragged into the economic crisis.

In fact, Franz was now in a difficult position. If possible, he would not like to have an economic crisis now. But there was no way, without realizing it, the economy of the Holy Roman Empire gave a run for its money.

Especially in the northern states, not only was the industrial development uneven, but there was also a large amount of overcapacity. For example: the railroad and the construction industry are the two hardest hit areas.

After the end of the Continental War, I do not know whose idea it was, several northern states played a big infrastructure. There was no problem with infrastructure, but the problem was that they created a whole lot of infrastructure that they didn’t need.

Repeated construction of railroad lines, branch lines even deep into the villages, blossoming real estate projects, water conservancy projects that are not practical at all.

If the economic crisis hadn’t erupted and the government of the Kingdom of Prussia had declared bankruptcy, Franz wouldn’t have even known that there were actually people who were having such a good time.

In fact, even if he had known in advance, he had no way to interfere. State autonomy is not just for fun, how to develop the economy is the freedom of others, do not need to report to the emperor.

The only good thing about the North German region is that last year’s grain harvest was in arrears. That’s right, the lack of grain is also a good thing at this time, at least for now.

If there had been a bumper grain harvest, Franz would have had to consider the problem of a surplus of agricultural products. After all, when the economy explodes and the people have to tighten their belts, sales of even the most in-demand products such as food will decline.

Last year’s grain underharvest in the north at least ensured the stability of the empire’s agriculture. As for the subsequent effects of the grain harvest, those are minor issues.

Except for the Kingdom of Prussia, which became poor due to the Russo-Prussian War, the economic conditions of the other northern states are very good, otherwise they would not have the money to make things.

Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, with the exception of Wilhelm II, who personally came to Vienna to ask for help, the other states have only sent a few telegrams complaining about their difficulties, and in the meantime crying for money.

It was obvious that they were holding up for the time being and were not willing to let the central government meddle in the state’s internal economic problems.

This kind of frugal little brother was Franz’s favorite. As long as they didn’t cause trouble for the central government, who would want to interfere in the internal affairs of the state if they didn’t have enough to eat?

It didn’t matter whether or not they were a death wish, purely in terms of the results of developing the economy, these state governments were doing a better job than the vast majority of directly administered provinces.

The Kingdom of Prussia is mainly due to the serious historical problems and the huge indemnity brought by the war, which affected the domestic economic development.

But in general, the economy is still recovering well, although a little behind its neighbors, but the per capita income is still more than Spain and Russia, and are on the verge of catching up with the pre-war France.

Although the impact of the economic crisis is great, it has just begun, and is far from the most difficult time. With the family foundation of the Kingdom of Prussia, even if it can’t hold out, it won’t kneel in the first wave.

Especially since the Kingdom of Prussia had suddenly declared financial bankruptcy without any prior warning. Under normal circumstances, before declaring bankruptcy, they should have first turned to the central government for help.

Even if it was for the sake of the empire’s face, as long as the funding gap wasn’t too big, the Vienna government would give them a hand.

The reality is just the opposite, before the government declared financial insolvency, in addition to tossing out a bunch of bad projects, has not asked for help from Vienna at all, as if it is bent on bankruptcy.

After the Berlin government declared financial insolvency, Wilhelm II only jumped out and ran to Vienna to cry for help, which is obviously not normal.

Times are different now, and as a member of the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia already had the ability to bargain with the British.

Franz had every reason to believe that the Prussian government had deliberately bankrupted itself, and that the economic crisis had only provided them with an “excuse for bankruptcy”.

Even if there is no economic crisis, they will use other excuses to go bankrupt after a while, such as: the government’s financial chain is broken, unable to pay for the project ……

After all, the Prussian government has a lot to gain by going bankrupt! Domestic economic problems, you can turn to the central government for help, the government of Vienna is unlikely to sit idly by; owed to the British that next century may not be able to pay off the debt, but also can be reasonable and reasonable request for debt restructuring.

The Kingdom of Prussia also has a history in this regard. When the “German Federal Government” went bankrupt a year ago, the Berlin government followed suit.

Unfortunately, the British only accepted the transfer of the German Federal Government’s debts. After all, the German Federal Government was a government that would be dissolved tomorrow if it did not sign a contract today. In order to avoid not being able to find the debtor, the British could only hold their noses and admit it.

The Kingdom of Prussia is different, even if the government is dissolved the king is still there, William II is not likely to even want the throne because of the debt. As long as the country is still there, the government is no longer reorganized is, anyway, the debt is not run away.

In addition, the Holy Roman Empire was still in the process of formation, there was no central government in front of the wind and rain, the Berlin government could not withstand the pressure exerted by the British, in the fight for a few months of debt extension after the goat.

Now it’s different, as long as the Berlin government is thick-skinned enough, the British can’t do anything about them.

“Collateral” for the debt?

No problem, just send someone to get it. Full cooperation is guaranteed.

Tariffs, which were now collected by the central government, were not a problem as long as the British thought they could take them from the government in Vienna.

The port terminal, although in the hands of the Kingdom of Prussia, but involves territorial sovereignty, that is also the work of the central government. To talk is also to find the Foreign Office to pull the wool over the eyes of, as long as the Vienna government is willing to agree to everything is good to discuss.

Minting rights, that also belongs to the central government. If you want to discuss with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a local government Prussia now has no right to ask.

……

In short, after the debt default, the Prussian government had signed a series of collateral contracts with the British, now there is not a single can be realized.

Despite the fact that these treaties, which predate the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, still have the force of law, the only way to honor what was agreed upon in these treaties is to take up the matter with the Imperial Foreign Office.

The concepts of “willfully reneging on a debt” and “not having the money to pay a debt” are two very different concepts; the former is to be stigmatized by the international community, while the latter is to simply hand over the collateral and that’s the end of the matter.

Now William II as long as willing to put down the face, make a willing to hand over the collateral of the frame, and then put the problem to the Vienna government a push, the matter is over.

In the end, whether the British compromise, or the Vienna government for them to pay the debt, these questions do not need him to headache.

Knowing that it was trouble, Franz could only take it on with his head. No matter what the reason was, he, the emperor of the empire, could not let the country lose its sovereignty.

Thinking about it, Franz wanted to whack those keyboard warriors to death. Who said that William II is Iron Bean, people’s political tactics to play a thief smooth.

(End of chapter)