Chapter 1094: Evil Free Trade

  Chapter 1073 – Evil Free Trade

The spring wind of reform blew all over the British Isles, but Britain was not able to change its new face. It’s not that reform can’t work, the crux of the problem lies in how to reform.

The domestic economy continued to decline, stimulating the British, the elite group know Britain to a fork in the road, must be social reform.

Despite the economic problems, Britain is still at the top of its game. It is not fashionable in the European world to say that the peak is the end of the world. If you look through the history books of Britain, you will find that they have only ever had a bull’s-eye view of the world.

If it were not for the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, which increased the pressure on them, it is estimated that the vast majority of Britons would not even have a sense of crisis.

In fact, even now the British do not have a strong sense of crisis, simply do not think that the powerful British Empire has the risk of capsizing.

There was no way around it, Shinra was acting too peacefully. Even if they had gotten a super battleship, it was just to come out and hang around for a while and then go back.

The originally expected arms race, because the Vienna government did not follow up in time, made the British also lost interest.

After all, Britain’s old battleships there are still a lot of, this time to provoke the “dumpling competition”, the front of the old battleships will be scrapped.

Landlords do not have food, especially in the downturn of the domestic economy, the government’s financial revenue is not rising but falling, the budget is even more to save a little spending.

Anyway, with the protection of the Straits, as long as the Royal Navy’s superiority remains, people will not panic.

The external pressure is not enough, and the internal unity is naturally not enough. After all, reform is a double-edged sword. Some people will benefit from it, while others will suffer.

Vested interest groups are unwilling to give up the interests in their hands, and conflicts arise. From the prelude to the reform, the British Parliament has fallen into a noisy mode.

This year’s British government, power is still very limited. Not only is there a parliamentary constraint, but there is also a king above it.

As the king of Britain to reshape the glory of the monarchy, Edward VII is not a rubber stamp. Cabinet government wants to casually toss, that is simply not possible.

Conservatives are strong, and the government’s internal system of ribs is so big, – Campbell’s government’s reform progress is naturally not fast.

For a big country, reform is naturally better slow than fast. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little slow, but if it’s fast, it’s going to be a big problem.

But for enterprises, the situation is very different. The traditional industry is fine, itself has established a moat, even if there is a shock to the day will be able to go on.

The real bad luck is still emerging industries. Restricted by the small local market in Britain, inherent shortcomings, coupled with a slow start, not yet had time to fully develop, competitors will kill over.

One of the most typical is the machinery and equipment manufacturing and automobile industry chain, related enterprises have either gone bankrupt, or close to the edge of bankruptcy.

……

Stepping out of the government office building, McCall’s smiling face has disappeared. As the owner of Britain’s leading high-end machine tool manufacturer, it is reasonable to say that McCall’s small life, should be living a very nourishing.

The reality is the opposite, because in the second industrial revolution in the error of judgment, McCall’s machine tool factory has been focused on traditional areas.

Not only his family, Britain’s machine tool manufacturers are headlong into the field of steam engines, not at all in the emerging field of electric power layout.

Along with the large-scale popularization of electricity, electric power is also the emergence of a new force, in industrial production gradually occupy a dominant position.

One slow step, one slow step.

By the time McCall reacted, rival products had already killed the British Isles. With excellent performance and low operating costs, they soon stole a large piece of cake from their hands.

Thanks to the conservatism of the British capital, not diligent in the issue of replacing equipment, coupled with the fact that the steam engine still has merit and has not been completely eliminated, McCall’s factory still survived.

Only along with the strong entry of competitors, their orders were still robbed of a large chunk, especially the overseas market is almost completely lost.

Market share has been reduced, in order to survive, choose the wrong way of the British machine tool companies, passive into a brutal price war fighting.

Even the leading companies, can not be an exception. After all, now they are only the leading British, not the world’s leading. Compared to their international counterparts, McCall’s companies have fallen behind in terms of comprehensive technology.

Changing the track was easy to say, but trying to make it on the new track was not so easy.

In order to survive, McCall had to turn to the government for help.

Don’t talk about “free economy, opposing government intervention in the market”, those are all slogans shouted out when needed; now no longer needed, naturally have to be thrown farther away.

As a “high-tech” industry leader, it always has some privileges. Regardless of whether the technology has lagged behind international counterparts, but in the country McCall’s machine tool factory is still a brother.

As long as the London government does not want to see the field of high-end machine tools, all fall into the control of competitors, it is necessary to support local enterprises.

In order to their own interests, the former which respected the free trade of the boy McCall, has now become a firm “trade barriers” advocate.

There is no way, do not use extraordinary means, normal business competition, simply can not do competitors.

Even if McCall hard to increase the R & D budget of 50,000 pounds, that is far from being able to compete with the strength of the investment.

It is technologically backward, R & D investment is insufficient, counting on technological breakthroughs to overwhelm competitors, obviously a spring dream.

Continuing to increase investment is not impossible, but McCall is first of all a capitalist. For capitalists, profit comes first. As long as you can make money, it doesn’t matter whether you can outperform your competitors.

If the investment is unlimited, the technology may be able to catch up, but the return on investment, absolutely can not see people.

If you can’t make money, it’s useless even if you’re the number one in the world.

The investor’s requirement for the enterprise is only one – to be able to make money; and there is only one indicator for evaluating whether an enterprise is good or not – whether it has made enough money or not.

McCall has long passed the age of two, naturally will not be for a name, will be all the family pokies up.

Instead of scientific research and trade, it would be better to conduct political public relations and directly keep competitors out of the country.

Based on the domestic market alone, perhaps not able to make the enterprise earn a lot of money, at least to ensure long-term profitability.

As long as there is enough time, McCall believes that his business, will definitely catch up behind, and then go to grab the market with international competitors.

As for how long this time is, then no one knows. Maybe it was three years and five years, or maybe it was twenty years and thirty years, anyway, there was always hope.

……

Regardless of how the situation changed, as long as the days went on, banquets were always rare.

Leaving the government street, McCall drove a limousine from Shen Luo to the countryside, the destination is a manor named “Petr”.

Tonight, there was a banquet organized by the bigwigs of the business world. As an important member of the business community, McCall was also invited.

Despite arriving early, the manor was still full of people, and it was clear that there were many people who suspected the same thing.

I don’t know when it started, but the “banquet” was no longer just a “banquet”. Most of the time, people attending banquets had their own agenda.

Stepping into the venue, McCall found his own small circle. Once McCall had been the center of attention at a party, flattered by a group of people wherever he went.

Unfortunately, the good times do not last long, along with the intensification of competition in the machine tool industry, machine tool companies in the market, but the right to speak in the decreasing.

Once upon a time, the kind of production orders to a few years later, take the goods rely on the relationship between the times, has gone.

In order to survive, McCall had to put down the face, actively participate in social networking activities, and strive to maintain the relationship with customers.

Of course, this is not enough. Capital seeks profit, and if the product quality is not good, even the best friendship will not work.

One of the important factors to maintain the current basic disk is that we are all in the same consortium, there is a certain percentage of cross-shareholding.

In itself, we are a community of interest, in the case of comparable cost-effective products, we are still more willing to use their own products.

Performance can not be compared, then we can only kill the price. Originally profiteering machine tool industry, in recent times has been killed to the price of cabbage.

Pure machine tool business, is now selling a loss. If it is not after-sales service can still make money, McCall’s machine tool business, can now consider closing down.

Short-term wine glass, and the visitor clinked, McCall smiled and asked, “Byron, a long time did not see you, how are you doing recently?”

Regardless of how much internal pressure there was, McCall had twelve points of enthusiasm for his customers. It is this positive marketing attitude that allows McCall to crush a cadre of domestic counterparts and sit on the throne of the leading segmented track.

The middle-aged man shook his head and replied with a bitter smile, “Very bad. The damned Austrians, just like rats, are constantly seizing our wealth.

Ever since they launched their new model last year, I haven’t had a single day of comfort. I’m not going to lie, I’ve made three layoffs since the start of the year.”

It’s no secret, just look at the brands of cars running all over the streets and you’ll know what kind of life the British car companies are having.

The thing about industrialization is that the more of the same product that is produced, the cheaper it is to produce a single product.

Britain’s automobile industry didn’t start late, or even early. As early as 1680, the famous British scientist Isaac Newton envisioned the jet car. Although the jet car didn’t cause work, the idea of the automobile was brought up.

In 1804, the British engineer, Richard de Trivisic, built the world’s first steam-engine automobile, kicking off the British automobile industry.

Unfortunately, it was the king of the opening, but in the end, it was played as a bronze. Since then the history of automobile development has shifted from Britain to France and then to Shinra.

Steam engine automobile that is also an automobile, although not very convenient, but still valuable in specific occasions, so still carried out a small amount of production.

It is reasonable to say that the British automobile business with its industrial heritage should not have fallen behind, and the crux of the problem lies in the second industrial revolution.

Missing the second wave of the industrial revolution, the internal combustion engine technology did not keep up, the car’s engine became the biggest short board in the British automobile industry.

The performance of their own engines can not keep up, then we can only import from overseas, anyway, now is the era of free trade, want to buy can buy.

Core technology is restricted by others, not to pay the price is impossible, the most direct manifestation is the production cost has risen.

Just the engine is expensive, but also can be tolerated, the big deal is to earn a little less.

The problem is that Britain’s automobile production capacity is very low, along with the production of spare parts is not high, the production of fewer costs naturally come down.

Most of the locally produced spare parts are not only more expensive than the imported ones, even the performance can’t keep up.

Support for domestic production is non-existent, capital for profit is naturally to buy cost-effective, the direct consequence is that Britain’s automobile production enterprises, turned into a car assembly plant.

In addition to the top of the name of the automobile production enterprises, more than a car label, their work outside the automobile repair store can also do.

Along with the development of technology, information is becoming more and more transparent. After discovering this, more and more auto repair stores play cross-border, intensifying market competition.

Originally, the domestic competition is very fierce, did not expect international competitors to kill over. With the advantage of performance, many of the automobile brands of Shenluo have gained a firm foothold.

The first is the fall of high-end brands, just look at the cars in the manor, it is almost a colorful imported cars.

Including Byron the automobile producer, the seat is equally imported. There is no way, their own products in the performance of the actual to be worse. For the sake of life safety, everyone knows how to choose.

The high end of the market was lost, and there weren’t many sales in the first place. Before the influx of imported cars, the main means of transportation in British society was the horse and cart.

Now it is different, a large number of cheap cars also followed the influx. Assembly factories without core technology naturally had no good time, and a lot of market share was squeezed out.

In order for the enterprise to survive, Byron had to choose to lay off employees and reduce production. But these can only solve the urgent need, want to get through the crisis is still far from enough.

Customers have a bad day, McCall naturally can not mention the issue of orders. In a sense, now everyone is in the same boat.

If you want to live a comfortable life, you can only first screw up the free trade system, relying on tariff barriers to protect the market.

“Be optimistic my friend, it will get better. The difficulties are only temporary, the main problem is the free trade system.

Without this system, we would be able to raise tariffs to protect the market and gain time for businesses to grow.

That’s what the Austrians did back in the day, and if it weren’t for the implementation of the trade barrier policy, there’s no way they would have become the world’s number one industrial powerhouse they are now.”

Lying is also a learned skill, and as a qualified capitalist, it is the most basic survival skill.

Although McCall himself does not believe that by relying on trade protection Britain’s industry will be able to catch up with the past, but in terms of momentum absolutely can not be abashed.

Raising his glass and clinking it, Byron directly drank it, and then said in the same breath.

It’s all the fault of that evil Free Trade Agreement, if it wasn’t for this treaty, Britain’s wealth wouldn’t have been appropriated.

For the sake of Britain, we must right this wrong. This damned treaty must never be allowed to continue poisoning the future of Britain ……”

……

(End of chapter)