Chapter 627: Omen of a Stock Market Crash

  Chapter 614 The Omen of a Stock Market Crash

Watching the continent of Europe all fall into a wave of strikes, Franz was also emboldened. Those who had not experienced the 1848 Revolution could not understand the tension.

The first place to go wrong was Rome, where the Italian Independence Organization took advantage of the wave of strikes to raise an uprising in Rome.

What was even more bizarre was that they succeeded. Upon hearing the news, Franz was dumbfounded, and presumably the top brass of the Italian Independence Organization was also in a daze.

After a few random roars, they actually restored Rome. You know, people weren’t ready just to declare the idea of national independence.

Reality is such bullshit, the police in Rome were all locals, and were not disgruntled with the French for more than a day or two, so they simply went passive and sat back and watched the uprising break out.

The French garrison was outside the city and had only one infantry battalion. At the first sign of the uprising, the French were waiting for orders, but due to the destruction of the telegraph lines, it was too late for them to receive them.

Don’t blame the commanders for not knowing what to do, it was the rule of the French army. Army movements had to be ordered by superiors, and middle and lower ranked officers had no authority to send troops, not even to suppress a rebellion.

Frankly speaking, the current international situation Italy is not suitable for an independent uprising. The Paris Conference had only just begun, and it was the common will to reconcile the contradictions and reduce international conflicts.

Italian independence organizations launching an uprising now would find it difficult to find supporters internationally, even their biggest gold masters, the British, would not support them now.

Without external intervention, how can the Italian independence organizations, with their little strength, achieve victory?

The French are not a soft touch, not to mention that Italy is not yet independent, even if it is independent, it is still not enough for the French to fight.

In Franz’s opinion, this uprising was a farce, a confused success, and its next fate was to be suppressed by the French.

The only thing it probably did was to strike a blow at Napoleon IV’s prestige and make the situation in France a little more tense.

On March 12, a week after the uprising in Rome, another riot broke out in the Rhineland.

This time the protagonists were not only the working class, but also the capitalists were involved, and the main reason was to oppose emigration.

There was no doubt that the Berlin government’s immigration policy was unpopular, and that it was cutting off everyone’s wealth. With all the highly skilled people they have gotten rid of, how can the capitalists who stayed behind make a living?

The capitalists have wanted to fight back for a long time, but they are not strong enough to fight against the Berlin government. Now that the strike wave has broken out, it has become their opportunity.

The capitalists blamed the government for their inability to raise wages, openly blaming the government’s high tax and immigration policies for the inability of companies to pay more for labor costs.

There were even capitalists who openly promised that as long as everyone stayed, everyone’s salaries would be raised by fifty percent across the board after the Berlin government rolled over.

Judging from the reaction of the capitalists, Franz could be sure that the Berlin government had done a very good job of immigration, or it would not have forced the capitalists to play the game themselves.

Regardless of the success or failure, the relationship between Germany and Prussia had already begun to be strained. For Austria, this was also an opportunity.

The existence of the Customs Union was always a threat. Franz had wanted to abolish it for a long time, but unfortunately it had been plotted in front of him several times and failed at the last moment.

Now with the addition of the Rhineland region, the situation has changed. If the Berlin government didn’t click off these capitalists, the Rhineland would be a staunchly anti-Populist region in the future after this battle.

If all these people were to be eliminated, the problem would be just as serious, and it would put the capitalists in the country at risk.

Before Franz could take action, there was another problem in Spain. The Republicans revolted in Madrid in an attempt to overthrow Alfonso XII, the rebellion was crushed, and the situation in Spain was tense again.

In the first half of 1876, the most used words in European newspapers were “uprising”, “riot”, “revolution”, “suppression”. “.

Preliminary statistics show that 36 uprisings of more than 1,000 people broke out on the European continent in just half a year, and the remaining small uprisings were even more numerous.

Not to mention outside, even the Austrian police suppressed a large empire, plus two kingdoms. They were really “big empires”, with populations in excess of double digits.

For the sake of political influence, Franz had to put these people in mental hospitals. Of course, analyzed rationally, these people might actually be mentally ill.

No one in their right mind could do such a thing, and one of the empires had been lurking in a manor house outside Prague for seven years.

The owner of the estate is the emperor, the owner’s wife is the empress, all three sons are crown princes, and the residents of the estate are ministers, generals, guards, and maids ……

Well, hidden in the mountains and forests in the empire, Franz has seen a lot, this kind of in the suburbs of the “empire”, he still heard of the first time.

No wonder they were not discovered, this is a complete farce, I guess the neighbors found out, they thought they were in an opera.

The main reason for the exposure was that a traveling merchant was forced to sell goods on the estate and was taxed, and reported the case to the Prague police.

The nature of the situation was instantly different. Before that, the owner of the manor also honestly paid taxes to the government, even if they presented themselves as emperors and ministers, and people thought they were lovers of stage plays.

Once the illegal taxation came out, it immediately rose to the height of the chaotic party and attracted the attention of the Prague police. Do not check, a check shocked, all the way to Franz reported here.

See the case file, Franz is also crying and laughing. He closed the door to be the emperor is also just, why do you have to make a death to run to collect taxes?

Even if he was caught, he could still use the term “performance enthusiast” to get away with it. Without real action, the police will not define them as “rebels”.

In Austria, there is a threshold for “rebels”, not everyone can be one. They were clearly not qualified.

But it was better to have a farce than a riot, and Franz took it all in stride. Creating a little bit of laughter, ease the domestic tense situation is also good.

It had been proven that the general public would not rebel as long as they could fill their stomachs.

The Austrian people have not yet reached the point of starvation, even if they are really poor and desperate, to the point of having no food, they can still sign up for immigration.

Many colonial companies were hiring, and when you signed a contract, someone would take care of your food. The standards aren’t too high, as long as they are able-bodied, men, women, and children are not picked.

It can’t be helped, who made the colonies short of people? Even if the quality was a bit poor, the colonial companies couldn’t care less.

……

In the city of Milan, the old Lanno is worrying about the stock market, affected by the strike incident, the share price of Dacor Textile Mills is in the toilet.

Even though the strike has ended, the stock price is still going down. It can’t be helped, who made them the most famous?

As the source of this strike wave, Dacor Textile Mills has spread with the strike movement, known throughout the continent of Europe, the popularity is higher than many small countries.

Unfortunately, none of it was a good reputation. Both bourgeois-leaning and working-class-leaning newspapers have called them names.

Obviously they had quelled the strike, but only the Austrian domestic newspapers reported on it, and the overseas media chose to believe that they had not seen it.

The reason for this is naturally clear to old Lanno, Dacor textile factory this time offended a lot of people to go, the interests of the capitalists will certainly be damaged to take the anger.

No matter how the content of the newspaper write, tend to which class, but the newspaper is still the capitalists. If the newspaper publicized that the Dacor Textile Factory had compromised, wouldn’t it encourage the workers to go on strike?

These unfavorable factors have a direct impact on the share price of Dacor Textile Mills. This quarter’s financial statements, still in the hands of old Lenoir, he doesn’t even dare to publicize them.

Affected by the strike, Dacor Textile Mills had its first loss in ten years, although the loss was not much, but now put the news out, it will still affect the confidence of the market.

Little Lanno discouraged, “Father, this quarter’s statement cannot be released to the public. The stock market is wailing right now, if we announce this news, Dakor Textile Factory’s share price will be blood-curdling.

In case it triggers a total stock market crash, we’ll be dead. Those large consortiums haven’t completed their retreat yet, and now that the stock market is crashing they’re all going to lose a lot of money, and they definitely won’t let us off the hook.”

There are many different definitions of the term consortium, usually it refers to a consortium of large groups and banks controlled by financial oligarchs, usually several families are united.

In a sense, Dakor Textile Mills was also a part of the consortium, and they had the same allies, only without the name of consortium.

The consortium was not a whole as everyone imagined, instead, it was full of internal contradictions, and only when they had a common interest could they all be united.

The main reason why consortia are powerful in later times is that with deeper cooperation, everyone’s interests are intertwined. Realizing that you have me and I have you, internal contradictions gradually eased.

Dacor family also and Lombardy several big families have deep cooperation, the old Lanno once also want to form a consortium, unfortunately people are nobles, the old Lanno is just a capitalist.

In order to cooperate for the common good, but if you want them to accept you, you still need a ticket.

There are many capitalists who have transformed into nobles, but there are many more who have failed to transform, and the Dakota family is one of the failures.

In the African colonization and expansion movement, the stingy old Leno hired a cheap Italian mercenary in order to save costs.

The results speak for themselves; cheap it was, but unfortunately it didn’t work well. After a few years of tossing and turning on the African continent, there was no war credit to be gained, and the army was nearly wiped out.

Of course, it was not without rewards, and soon discovered business opportunities. He made a big profit in the labor export business, and then opened a cotton plantation and directly produced and sold his own.

Time waits for no one, money is earned, the opportunity to cross into the noble class is also missed. The gains and losses are difficult for outsiders to say clearly, anyway, the old Leno often regret.

After hesitating for a few moments, Old Lanno shook his head: ”It’s not that simple, we have a strike this year, and everyone is well aware of it. Countless eyes are staring at us, if the financial statement is falsified at this time, it is easy to be seen as a problem.

Causing the stock market to crash, that just might happen, the consortium can still prop up the market. If the falsification of the financial statements is exposed, we’ll be finished straight away.

As for retaliation, the big deal is to give up a portion of the overseas market, can they still make trouble in Milan?

Or, do you think the few consortia in the country also have the guts to play that big in the stock market?”

After a pause, Old Lanno added: “Remember, what you see is not necessarily true, it is likely to be what others want you to see.

Those guys in the financial world are much more sensitive to the market than you can imagine, and their withdrawal speed is much faster than you can imagine.

Otherwise someone would have said hello to us a long time ago. It’s not likely that people are ready and waiting for us to give the stock market the final blow.

As for the losses brought about by the stock market crash, that is only on the surface for the public. You’ll realize when it’s all over afterwards that they’ve made far more than they’ve lost.”

That being said, Old Lanno was still unsettled in his heart. According to the current situation, Dakor Textile Factory was likely to turn into a scapegoat after the fact.

Legally, the stock market crash wasn’t their responsibility and didn’t require them to be held accountable. Public opinion is hard to say, sometimes spittle can kill. With a bad reputation, business is bad.

There are so many similar products on the market now, why would anyone want to buy a product from the infamous “Dacor Textile Mills”?

This is not the later times, no matter good reputation, bad reputation, as long as there is a reputation can make money.

Nowadays, the people are still relatively simple, and many of them think that the quality of the products of the enterprises with good reputation is also good, while the quality of the products of the enterprises with bad reputation is also bad.

In case the public boycott is triggered and the products produced cannot be sold, then it will really be the end.

……

(End of chapter)