Chapter 653: The Yang Plot.
Chapter 639: A Conspiracy
After half a year of negotiations, Britain and Austria finally reached an agreement. on November 12, 1877, the representatives of the two countries signed the Anglo-Austrian Free Trade Agreement in Paris, and Austria formally joined the free trade system.
Have to say that the Paris conference is a comedy, was intended to reconcile the contradictions of the countries, the elimination of international conflicts, the results want to do did not do, irrelevant treaty instead of the birth of a lot.
Think about it, at least it is also a high-level meeting of countries, there is no result, how to go back?
Running on the subject is inevitable, all for the sake of performance. So far, the Paris Conference has produced eight treaties, involving most of the countries in Europe.
This is still only on the surface, secretly how many secret treaties, no one can know, in short, the Paris Conference did not open in vain.
……
Versailles Palace, Napoleon IV slammed his cup and cursed angrily, “Damn Englishmen, damn Austrian fools, they must have done it on purpose!”
Napoleon IV’s guess was not wrong, the Anglo-Austrian free trade negotiations actually took place in Vienna, ran to Paris to sign the treaty, that was strongly requested by the British.
The reason for this goes without saying, the French made up Queen Victoria so much, the London government couldn’t afford to have no reaction ah!
Diplomatic protests could not stop the French, but the French newspapers dared to publish even the Emperor’s lascivious news, not to mention the Queen of England.
From the initial “curse”, it has now developed into peach color news, and even erotic novels, the contents of which are unpleasant to read.
Strait is unable to block the spread of entertainment gossip, through the dissemination of these newspapers, novels, has long been across the sea into Britain, and in the dark spread out.
Whether the content was enjoyable or not was one thing, but it was so degrading that it made the British public very unhappy. People demanded that the government in London put a stop to the bad behavior of the French.
Of course, the British royal family should have played a major role in this. Under pressure from all sides, the London government naturally had to take action.
Since it could not gag the French, it should make a big news to divert everyone’s attention and knock the French in the process.
The Anglo-Australian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is undoubtedly the best killer, hitting the French directly on their vitals. Once it is not handled well, France, which is already falling behind, is going to really go into decline.
Allen, Minister of Finance: ”Your Majesty, this is not the time to get into it with them, the first order of business is to minimize the impact.
Britain and Austria have already reached an agreement, and it is estimated that it won’t be long before the two countries take action to pull in more countries to join the free trade system.
The only European countries left outside the free trade system are us and Spain. Right now we have to stabilize the Spaniards no matter what, or we’ll be in big trouble.”
One has to admit that the British diplomacy is just awesome, and in the past few decades, it has pulled in the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and the Nordic Confederation to join.
Now that Austria has joined the free trade system, it is only natural that the remaining Switzerland, the German Federal Empire, Greece, and Montenegro, will also join the free trade system.
France was once again isolated, and the only remaining Spain had to be grasped in any case. Fortunately, the Spanish royal family was embraced by Napoleon III, a proper pro-French faction.
Foreign Minister Montero: “It’s not that simple, the Spanish may not stand with us this time.
Britain and Austria have too many chips in their hands, and the price they can offer will be much higher than ours.
Our advantage is mainly that the Spanish government is pro-French, but it’s hard to say how much that advantage can be utilized in the face of interest.
The situation is now very clear, and it is our turn to make a decision. This current model of semi-free trade, which was viable before, has now become the worst option.”
“Semi-free trade system”, this is Napoleon III’s economic policy with reference to the economic policies of European countries, according to the actual situation of France.
Simply put, it was to implement tariff-free, or low tariffs for industrial raw materials that France needed, and a trade protection policy for goods that could be produced in the country.
In a way, the economic policies of France and Austria were somewhat similar until then, both protecting domestic industry and commerce.
Unfortunately, Austria seized the opportunity of the second industrial revolution and took the lead in completing the industrial transformation, which was supported by its own agriculture, and now has the ability to participate in international competition.
France is not the same, its own lack of resources, not to mention the domestic capitalists do not like to invest in manufacturing.
Even Napoleon III encouraged the development of manufacturing industry, but also failed to change the nature of French capital more like usury.
Insufficient capital flowing into the manufacturing industry, industrial development naturally lagged behind. The core factor that caused all this, in essence, is the lack of raw materials for the French domestic industry.
Although France is also a colonial empire, but at the same time is also a desert empire. Vast colonies, most of which are deserts, colonial output is relatively insufficient.
Coupled with the annexation of the even more resource-poor Italian region, this makes the resource crisis in France become even more serious, and have to rely on imports.
Now more than 70% of the world’s industrial raw material exports were monopolized by Britain and Austria. In order to combat competitors, Britain and Austria, which have the right to price raw materials, artificially inflate the market price of raw materials.
Relying on imports of industrial raw materials to develop industry, the cost naturally went up. In the international competition, the competitiveness of French industrial and commercial products is obviously insufficient.
Finance Minister Allen: “His Excellency the Marquis, joining the free trade system is easier said than done, but if it is really implemented, we must first consider whether the domestic industry and commerce can withstand the impact.
According to the statistics from the Paris Daily News, the overall cost of our domestically produced industrial and commercial products is 2.9% higher relative to the British and 2.7% higher than Austria.
But the high cost of domestic industrial production is a fact, and if we liberalize market protection, we will be at a disadvantage in facing international competition directly.”
High cost of industrial production, this is an insoluble problem. Unless the price of raw materials is brought down, there is no solution.
Napoleon IV: “If there is a difference of two or three percentage points in the cost of industrial production, it does not seem to be irreparable.
British and Austrian capital also need to make money, they can not sell at cost price, then the domestic enterprises are nothing but less profit.
The government can also narrow this gap by lowering taxes. As long as they can withstand the first wave of impact, I believe that domestic enterprises will be able to stand firm in the competition.
At the very least, we’ll be able to rely on distance, and the advantage to keep the local market and not make the situation worse.”
Hearing Napoleon IV’s words, Finance Minister Allen was startled and hurriedly discouraged, “Your Majesty, things are not that simple. This gap is the overall gap of all industries combined.
If it is specific to a certain industry, the cost gap could also be magnified to twenty to thirty percent, which is no longer something that can be compensated for by adjusting the tax rate.”
Joking aside, the data published in the newspaper, God knows how much water there was, whether it was analyzed through data or guessed out of thin air no one knew.
The French government does not have a specialized statistical agency, the need for data, are economic experts are responsible for the estimation, the government and then according to the needs of the art of processing.
Allen did not want to change all this, as the Minister of Finance he knew too much of the truth, favoring the French people and can not accept the fact that it is not as good as Britain and Austria.
Not to mention now, after the Franco-Prussian War in the original time and space, the French people do not recognize that they are not better than Germany.
The First World War was caused by the German-French conflict, but in fact it was also caused by the pride of the French people. World War I beat away the pride of the French before the laying down of World War II.
Instead of counting the real figures and not daring to publish them, it would be better not to count them at all, and let’s all pretend to be confused together.
Free trade system, the usual period of shouting slogans on the line, if when the real, it will be the death of the country.
In addition to the financial industry has the advantage, most of the French industry will be hit. The usury empire was not created without reason.
Napoleon IV frowned, there was no doubt that he had been slapped in the face again. This feeling was very unpleasant, and it appeared that he was ignorant as an emperor.
“So what should be done to solve the problem at hand? Britain and Austria are working together on a free trade system, the vast majority of European countries have joined in, and the remaining countries won’t be able to hold out for long.
By then not only Europe, the whole world will be covered by the free trade system, can France really stand alone?”
It wasn’t that Napoleon IV didn’t understand, rather, he saw too much. The free trade system pounded out by the British was itself a phallic conspiracy that could not be stopped even if one knew about it.
Now the industry of France has not exploded, and for the time being it can still wander away. Once the domestic industry and commerce further development, by then forced by reality, France still want to join in.
Of course, there is still the option to challenge the world. The original time and space Germany is because of the lack of raw materials and markets, in the free trade system and the lack of voice, forced after the war.
Now the situation in France, than the German Second Empire is naturally much better, but the crisis still exists. Unless the development of manufacturing industry, or the crisis will be detonated sooner or later.
(End of chapter)