Holy Roman Empire

The trouble is that the sales price of the product has gone down, but the sales volume has not increased.

This is not a joke, it really happened.All industrial and commercial products are undergoing price cuts, and the products under the Moore Group are also reduced in price and promoted in line with the trend, but the total sales volume has not increased much.

……

Moore Textile Group was not the only one affected. Compared with light industry, France's heavy industry is full of corpses.

Since the second half of the year, the export price of the international coal market has risen for five consecutive times, with a total increase of 26.4%, especially the price of coke, which has increased by as much as one-third.

The sharp rise in raw material prices has put the French steel industry in a difficult situation.

Before everyone could recover, the price of steel was reduced again.

The UK and Austria maintained synchronous actions. The prices of raw steel and pig iron in the international market fell by 15.4% and 18.6% respectively. The influx of a large amount of cheap steel directly brought the French heavy industry collectively into the era of negative interest rates.

The problem facing the French heavy industry now is: production equals a loss, the more it produces, the more it loses; not producing also means a loss, the difference between the two is just how much it loses.

……

Chapter 3 and Seven

Facing the joint attack of the Anglo-Austrian capital, the French government did not raise its hand to surrender, and Napoleon IV showed a courageous side.

First, it called on domestic enterprises to withdraw investment from overseas, increase foreign exchange reserves, and buy francs in the international market.

Then an administrative order was issued to strictly prohibit domestic banks from lending francs to international hot money. For this reason, they personally interviewed several domestic consortiums.

No one knows exactly what was discussed. Anyway, after being interviewed by the emperor, people in the French financial circle have become more disciplined.

Many people also took out funds symbolically and joined the resistance army.

At this time, it was too late, and the attacking party had already hoarded a large amount of francs. Even if the domestic consortium was caught, it would not help.

All in all, the Paris government performed well in responding to the crisis, and the response measures were considered timely.

It is a pity that the root cause of this crisis is that France's foreign exchange and gold reserves are seriously insufficient. If this problem cannot be solved, it will not be able to get rid of the crisis.

Theoretically speaking, France has a large amount of investment overseas, and as long as one-fifth of it is withdrawn, it can tide over the difficulties.

However, this is the 19th century, not the 21st century, and it is simply not something that can be done in a day or two if you want to withdraw funds from overseas.

Time waits for no one, and before overseas funds come back, the French government's foreign exchange reserves are about to bottom out.

The Paris government is in a hurry. If this continues, it will use gold reserves to fill the hole in a few days.

Originally, the French government’s gold reserves were insufficient, and if there is another large-scale outflow of gold, the value of the franc will definitely collapse.Instead, it is better to surrender now.

……

In the Palace of Versailles, Napoleon IV no longer had the high spirits of the past, and his whole person was much depressed.

Obviously, this crisis hit him a bit hard, and the French Empire was not as powerful as he imagined.

Economic Minister Elsa: "We have limited the amount of money exchanged each time, but the number of people who come to exchange every day is still increasing.

Panic has been caused, the market is not optimistic about the future of the franc, and there are more and more bears shorting the franc in the financial market.

Judging from the current situation, if no other forces join in, the market crash will happen sooner or later. "

Facing the attack of Yingao Capital, is there any force in this world that can compete with it?

The answer is: Yes.

Although the French consortium is slightly weaker than the Anglo-Austrian capital, the Anglo-Austrian capital has not fully invested in it. If the French consortium joins the guard army, it will be fighting on the ground. With the strength of the French government, they are completely capable of fighting.

After hesitating for a moment, Napoleon IV said slowly: "Send someone to talk to the domestic consortium. Other issues are easy to discuss, except for the right to mint coins.

Tell them, if they still refuse to make concessions, we will compromise with Yingao Capital, and no one will think about it. "

The French consortium is willing to cooperate with Yingao Capital, in addition to the benefits in the financial market, it is more to force the Paris government to make concessions.

If the franc really collapses, it may not be a good thing for the French consortium.

In the short term, they may be able to speculate to make more money, but this will lose the future.

The franc loses its status as an international currency, and the cost of French consortiums wanting to develop overseas will greatly increase.

Of course, this doesn't scare them.Most capitalists don't think so long-term, and many consortiums rooted in the local area have little interest in internationalization.

But no one dared to ignore the threat of Napoleon IV.

If the French government directly compromises with Anglo-Austrian Capital and lures wolves into the house to let Anglo-Austrian Capital in, it will kill people.

Nothing is impossible in the face of interests. What the French government needs is stability, and what Anglo Capital needs is interests.

After ignoring political factors, the chances of a compromise between the two sides are very high.

As long as they can achieve their goals and get the expected share of profits, the capitalists don't care if they can't beat the franc.

Don't think that this financial turmoil was created by Franz alone. In fact, capital from all over Europe has gathered at this time, which has long been beyond Franz's control.

Even if the British and Austrian governments stop it together, it may not be effective.

The real money has already been invested, and if you don't get any benefits, you want the capitalists to stop, how is it possible?

……

"Stock crash + financial crisis + overcapacity = economic crisis", this set of calculations may not be 100% accurate, but there are still 90.00% [-].

First, Yingao Capital dumped its products on France, and then caught up with the stock market crash. Before the French could catch their breath, Yingao Capital launched an offensive in the financial market.

By linking all these things together, one conclusion can be drawn—transferring the crisis to the outside world.

The most serious overcapacity is the two industrial countries of Britain and Austria. Even if the economic crisis breaks out, these two countries will suffer the most.

What Britain and Austria are facing is not only overcapacity, but also overcapital.A sum of war fortune has just been made, and the capitalists of the two countries are very rich in their pockets.

Under normal circumstances, everyone will invest these funds instead of putting them in the bank for interest.

It is a pity that the whole world is now facing overcapacity, and investing in any industry is a disaster.

However, before the crisis broke out in Britain and Austria, which should have the most crisis, France had problems first.

Looking at the information in the Palace of Vienna, Franz breathed a sigh of relief.

A dead friend is not a poor one. If Austria wants to get through the current crisis safely, diverting the crisis is an essential part.

Looking at the whole world, is there anyone more suitable than France?

If you don't take advantage of everyone's reaction and pull the British to suppress France, there will be no chance in the future.

No matter how low-key Franz is, it will be a matter of time before the Austrian threat theory surpasses the French threat theory. By then, Britain and France will join forces to fight Austria.

Now that the French are being attacked in advance, this hatred value alone can push back the time when Britain and France are getting closer for many years.

This time the hatred is too great. If there is no accident, the three-nation alliance of Britain, France and Austria will come to an end after the crisis.

While diverting the economic crisis, it also hit the biggest competitor on the European continent. Franz's evaluation of this magical operation was "perfect".

Putting down the information in his hands, Franz ordered: "Let our people add fire secretly to make this financial war even bloodier.

In particular, we must focus on French heavy industry. Now many French steel factories are still struggling to support them. We should help them.

Continue to raise the international coal price, if necessary, you can ban domestic coal exports, let the French continue to study charcoal steelmaking technology!

By the way, arrange for people to release news in France, throwing the scapegoat for this incident to the British. "

Heavy industry is France's most important and most vulnerable industry.Restricted by insufficient coal resources, even in 1881, a considerable number of enterprises in France still used charcoal to make iron.

As for the "charcoal steelmaking technology", that is a joke.After many improvements by the French, charcoal steelmaking technology has stabilized.

It's really stable, with a pass rate of more than [-]%.Regardless of the quality, Britain and Austria do not recognize that thing as steel anyway.

Knowing that it won't work, French companies can only bite the bullet.There are only a few steel producing areas in Europe, none of which are under the control of the French.

Originally, the Rhineland region was the most suitable source of raw materials for France. Unfortunately, after the Pudd Territory transaction, most of the coal mines in the Rhineland region fell into the hands of the Anglo-Austrian consortium.

The consortium has not given up on the physical industry these days, and both sides have their own factories, so it is natural to attack competitors.

The two sides tacitly control coal production and artificially raise the international coal price in order to reap huge profits.

If someone counts, they will be surprised to find that the country that exports the most coal resources to France is actually the humble Belgium.

In this context, French coal-consuming enterprises are having a hard time.The easiest way to hit French industry is to raise the price of coal.

It is not wronged to throw the blame on the British. The British capital is indeed the largest among the capital army attacking the franc.

Whoever has more money is the boss; whoever gains the most is the culprit.

No matter how you look at it, the British are the biggest suspects.It is estimated that the French people will not believe that they are not the masterminds.

As for Austria, although Franz was very active in his participation, he couldn't stand up to the deep background of the British, and the funds mobilized were far from comparable to John Bull.

From the beginning of the operation, the initiative fell into the hands of the British consortium.The Austrian consortium can only play as a support, and its role may not be as good as that of the French consortium. The biggest contribution is probably the formation of this round.

……

Franz's decision gave the French economy the final blow.

The first to fall was not the dying steel companies, but the much-anticipated Moore Textile Group.

The big tree attracts the wind. Compared with those steel companies that lose money all the year round, everyone still prefers a company with strong profitability like Moore Textile Group.

Internationally, it was besieged by British textile enterprises, and the downstream sales channels defaulted; domestically, it was spied on by consortia.

Forced to have no choice but to go to court with the seller in the end, Moore Textile Group, whose cash flow was cut off, had to declare bankruptcy and reorganization before the trial started.

The well-known Moore Textile Group was eaten by a group of giant crocodiles during the reorganization, leaving only a mess.

This is just the beginning, and it is not just a Moore textile group that is being targeted by the consortium.Looking at the international capital galloping in the financial market, the French consortium also wants to eat meat.

Valuable enterprises were divided up and eroded, and worthless enterprises could only go bankrupt. The tide of bankruptcy spread, and the economic crisis broke out in France.

……

(Remarks: There is no electronic equipment, all manual operations, the financial model is very different from later generations, especially in terms of transaction speed, it is impossible to hit hundreds of millions with a single keystroke)

Chapter 3: Firecrackers on Fire

The economic crisis broke out suddenly, and the value of the franc currency was completely untenable.In just a few days, the value of the currency fell by 28.7%, shocking the world.

France is one of the world's three giants, with the fifth largest economy in the world, and its military strength is second to none.

When the Paris government sneezes, the world trembles.With such a giant, the financial system is so vulnerable that it was knocked down after just one round of attack.

After the harvest was completed, the consortium capital began to retreat, leaving the international hot money to bear the wrath of the French.

Just like: I came quietly, and left with great force, waving my sleeves, without taking a cloud.

Didn't take a cloud, just a lot of Aegis, sterling and gold.

It seems that a tacit agreement was reached. After the international consortium headed by Yingao withdrew, the French consortium came belatedly and joined the resistance army.

Without capital predators, the remaining group of retail speculators are naturally no match for the French consortium.

Watching the French consortium become famous in the first battle, as if it became the hero of France overnight, Napoleon IV was so angry that he was half dead. As the object of venting his anger, many vases in the Palace of Versailles were changed.

Capital invades politics, and the absolute advantage established since the time of Napoleon III no longer exists.

……

Looking at what happened to the French government in the Palace of Vienna, Franz felt a bit sad.

After the economic crisis, the strength of the French consortium has greatly increased, and its influence on the government has further increased. The future French Empire will become more lively.

After simply eating breakfast and putting aside all these troubles, Franz was about to go to bathe in the soft sunshine when an unexpected guest came.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg reported: "Your Majesty, the workers of Lyon launched an armed rebellion last night, and the situation in France shows signs of getting out of control."

For a big country, external threats are no longer fatal, and only itself can truly defeat them.

There is no doubt that France is such a big country.At least in this day and age.As long as they don't encounter gang fights, one-on-one, no one has the strength to destroy France.

The progress of a thousand miles is defeated by ants, no matter how powerful a country is, it cannot withstand internal toss.

The workers' uprising in Lyon is just the beginning. If the economic crisis is not resolved, France will not be stable.

Franz asked suspiciously: "Hasn't the French government already distributed relief food, why is there still a rebellion?"

This was a good policy enacted under Napoleon III, and the French working class had unemployment benefits.

Under this favorable policy, although the labor movement in France was still flourishing, there were few uprisings.

Weisenberg explained: "According to the analysis of news from the embassy, ​​the initial judgment should be related to the depreciation of the franc.