Chapter 391: Integration process

  Chapter 381 The Integration Process

The negotiations between the North and South were not yet over, but the American Civil War was practically over. Neither the European powers nor the American public wanted this war to continue.

This is not the will of the individual can be reversed, the rest is nothing more than to talk about the conditions of skin.

In order to demonstrate their sincerity, both the North and the South stopped their military operations, including the ongoing military mobilization.

Strategically, the goal of weakening the United States was basically achieved. Now all that is left is the final paper treaty to divide the United States.

This was not just a good thing, but likewise came with a host of problems. For example: Austria’s cotton and cotton-spinning industries were to be hit.

Taking advantage of the American Civil War, cotton production reduction in the international market, the supply of cotton on the opportunity to tighten, have a sufficient supply of cotton in Austria’s cotton textile industry surged, in the European region in a big way to seize the market of the British.

Now in Eastern, Southern and Central Europe, the British cotton textile products are gradually being squeezed out of the market.

Before, because of the lack of cotton supply, cotton products once appeared in short supply, was Austria robbed the market of the British can not help.

Now is not the same, with the end of the civil war, the United States cotton production will soon be restored. In the case of adequate supply of raw materials, British capitalists naturally want to make a comeback.

The market is the lifeblood of every industrialized country, and as the first to complete the Industrial Revolution, the British had accumulated enough advantages that their industrial strength once exceeded half of the world.

With the completion of industrialization in France and Austria, the proportion of British industry in the total global industrial volume declined, though it still ranked first in the world.

An embarrassing thing, however, was the fact that the British Empire, the world’s factory, was in a permanent state of entry and excess.

In 1864, the British total foreign exports up to 215 million pounds, while the total imports up to 275 million pounds, trade deficit of up to 60 million pounds.

In the same period, France’s total external exports amounted to a whopping 2,963 million francs, while imports from the outside world totaled 2,523 million francs, with a trade surplus of 440 million francs. (about £17.6 million).

In contrast, Austria’s total exports to the outside world amounted to 285 million guilders, imports from the outside world totaled 226 million guilders, and the trade surplus was 59 million guilders. (about £29.5 million)

Not only were France and Austria in a position of outperformance, even the Russians were in the same position of outperformance, in 1864 the Russians had total foreign exports of 187 million rubles and total imports of 175 million rubles, with a trade surplus of 12 million rubles.

In this era of small international trade, the Russians exported more than half of their total grain exports, and with this one advantage realized a trade surplus.

Austria can have such a large surplus, agricultural exports also play an important role, after all, people always need to eat, the British is one of the most important food importers in Europe.

In order to solve the trade deficit problem, successive British governments have been worried. There is no way, the lack of local resources decided the British long-term in the state of the entry of the super.

Fortunately, John Bull has many colonies, and can fill the gap by plundering colonial wealth, or ordinary countries have long been unable to hold out.

The Opium War in history is what the British got up to in order to erase the trade deficit.

Now the Austrian capital has robbed the market, the British will not give up. The table is not overturned, this point of conflict does not need to let the two countries tear their faces.

Of course, there is no use to turn the other cheek, this is a fair competition in business. The British were not enough supply of cotton textile products to let Austria take advantage of the situation, John Bull has not let the market waiting for the ability.

Now that the American Civil War is over, cotton production in the South will probably return to normal next year. Thanks to the credit of the labor export, this production may even grow further.

The geographical conditions of the Confederate States of America are unique, and their cotton acreage, usually a little higher than other regions.

Of course, the acre yield is insufficient, can be expanded through the planting area to make up for, but the corresponding labor input is still increased.

Historically, the North won the victory, as the losers of the Southern plantation owners lost cheap labor, cotton production was seriously affected, and encountered the Indian and Egyptian cotton to steal the market.

Of course, the main thing is that the northern capitalists need cheap industrial raw materials, using higher tariffs, railroad freight rates and other means, so that the United States cotton lost market competitiveness.

Now India’s cotton production has not been raised up, in order to compete for labor to excavate the Suez Canal, the British in Egypt to promote cotton cultivation was also obstructed by France and Austria.

At this time the only competitor of the U.S. Confederate States in the cotton market was – West Africa.

There was not yet a surplus of cotton supply on the international market, and in the short term such competition was unwise; Austria itself was able to absorb most of the capacity of West African cotton.

But in the future, when Indian cotton enters the market and Egyptian cotton enters the market, this competition will become white-hot.

In the cotton textile industry to compete with the British, the cotton market and the United States, Egypt, India, a series of economic problems, Franz had to consider in advance.

American Spring Palace

“Today’s topic is only two, one, how can we keep our cotton textile industry products, the market share on the European continent; two, how to protect the interests of cotton farmers?”

In this era there were fewer industrial and commercial products, and the textile economy dominated. Austria’s core industries do not include the cotton textile industry, but because of the American Civil War, the cotton textile industry has risen, which can not be abandoned.

At present, Bavaria, Württemberg, Lombardy, Venetia and other regions, the cotton textile industry up to more than 1.2 million workers, the industry chain is more than two and a half million employees.

So many people on the textile industry to eat, directly decided the Vienna government must protect this industry, this Anglo-Australian trade disputes are inevitable.

Protect the interests of cotton farmers, not to mention, the current colonial plantation owners are mostly nobles.

This is Austria’s national conditions decided, the general public is limited by economic strength, even if the area of plantations opened up is not large; capitalists have no love for planting.

Because of the domestic land redemption, many nobles lost their land and gained a redemption money, which obviously can’t be put to sit and eat.

After the opening of the colonies, many conservative nobles put their investment goals on plantations. Perhaps in later generations, the profit of planting land is not high, but in this era, the rate of return of investing in plantations is not much lower than other industries.

Cotton plantations were no exception, a large number of nobles gathered, as the spokesman of the noble interest group, Franz naturally had to consider their interests.

It also concerned, everyone’s motivation to open up colonies. In a profitable situation, the ruling class would certainly fight to maintain the colonial system, and vice versa.

Economy Minister Andrew replied, “Your Majesty, our Ministry of Economy has already made contingency plans. We can use political means when necessary, and there is not much of a problem in holding onto the domestic and Russian markets.

The South Italy region is in the midst of a civil war, the already small market is now further shrinking and will not be the focus of a British counterattack.

What’s left is Central Europe, including the German Confederation, Prussia, Switzerland, Holland and other regions, is the main battlefield of this trade war.

French capital is also likely to join, in recent years the French economy is also very good, in the case of guaranteeing the supply of raw materials, their cotton products are also competitive in the market.

In order to improve the market competitiveness of cotton textile products, the Ministry of Economy believes that these frontline producers can be given tax rebate subsidies when necessary.”

Simple, crude, but very effective. Everyone’s production technology is very different, product quality can not be distinguished from the advantages and disadvantages of the production cost or not much advantage, to gain an advantage in the market competition, it can only spell policy.

Historically, the British cotton textile industry is in the countries under the subsidies washed out. The manufacturing industry fights for cost and quality, and once it loses its technological advantage, the competition becomes brutal.

In this regard, Franz can not do anything to make a time difference to rob the British part of the market, and now the time for competition has come, we can only fight strength.

The only good thing is that the British cotton industry is much larger, once played with the financial subsidies, Austria out of every million, the British will have to pay three million.

This kind of lose-lose play, under normal circumstances everyone is not going to play. After all, a country with so many industries, it is impossible to focus resources on an industry.

Minister of Agriculture Christian said: “Cotton and cotton textile industry are closely related, as long as the domestic cotton textile industry does not fall, West Africa’s cotton plantation economy will not collapse.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of West African cotton, we can can think of ways on taxation, for example: lowering, or even canceling the tax on trade between the colonies and the mainland.”

Throughout the countries of Europe, Austria was definitely the one that paid the most attention to the economic development of its colonies. But no matter how much importance is attached to it, it’s still no match for the mainland.

In order to avoid the cheap crops of the colonies, which impacted the local agricultural market, from the very beginning there was a trade tax between the mainland and the colonies, only slightly lower than the foreign tariffs.

In the Vienna government, there has always been a call for economic integration, and the nobles who invested in the plantations have always wanted to incorporate the colonies into the mainland for their own benefit.

Currently, West Africa, the Congo, and the Niger have begun to move closer to the domestic model of rule, and some colonial cities are adopting the same laws as the domestic one.

As first-generation colonizers, people still have very strong feelings with the homeland. Many are pushing for the integration process, and Franz himself is one of the supporters.

However, because of the various aspects involved, the Vienna government did not dare to announce the integration of the colonies into the mainland, but the best-developed colonies had already begun to implement the provincial system.

Compared to the domestic, these colonial provinces have more power, and even have a certain degree of military power. Reducing the trade rights of the colonies with the mainland is undoubtedly another step forward in the integration process.

After a few moments of contemplation, Franz raised a question: “Theoretically there is no problem, but lowering the trade tax between the mainland and the colonies also involves the integration process between Second Germany and the mainland.

This issue is first released to test the reaction of all sectors in the country. At the same time, economists are organized to conduct a comprehensive argument, and it is necessary to figure out how much of a shock this will bring to the homeland.”

This was to bring the issue out into the open, and until then the juridical basis for pushing forward: the process of integration of the colonies and the homeland was Franz’s proposal to recreate the Second German Homeland.

Since the African colonies were the German Second Homeland from the beginning, there was no question of merging them with the First Homeland.

However, these were all private speculations, and no official statement was ever made. The main force behind the integration process was also in the private sector, with groups and individuals involved in colonial interests pushing for the plan.

The forces pushing for it are not small, and the groups opposing it are even more powerful. The local small and medium-sized aristocrats and peasants are the main ones, who are afraid that cheap agricultural products from the colonies will be counter-sold to the mainland and harm their interests.

But now the situation is somewhat unexpected, the agricultural products on the Austrian colonies are not cheap, at least not competitive with the local agricultural products.

On the one hand, the lack of labor in the colony caused high labor costs; on the other hand, it was mainly newly developed land, and the yield in the early stage was not high.

The most crucial thing is that the two major food-growing regions in Austria are very fertile, and the water conservancy, transportation and other infrastructures are already complete, so it is not something that can be compared to the colonies.

As for the future? Franz can responsibly say, once the birth of fertilizer, the profit of planting land has to further decline.

With or without the impact of colonial agricultural products, the local agriculture would be affected. Many food-importing countries, using chemical fertilizers to increase food production, the international food market will see a short period of sharp contraction.

In this respect, Austria would not be able to develop fertilizers, and even if it did, it would not be able to put them into production.

The longer the delay, the better for Austria. Risking changes before industry has reached a certain level of development could easily lead to disaster.

Food production is not the more the better, the market capacity is so big, once exceeded the boundary, we have to look for food.

This is illustrated by the fact that historically the inventor of fertilizer was German. The United States, Austria-Hungary, Russia, a few food-exporting countries, the invention of fertilizer is not asking for trouble?

Of course, the Germans never dreamed that they invented fertilizer, the biggest beneficiary is the number one enemy France, directly let the French become one of the most important food exporters in Europe.

(End of chapter)