Chapter 1378 Currency Reform

"It's not bad. Germany finally forgot about its Axis allies and didn't look for the Japanese like an idiot." Alan Wilson took a deep breath, which was considered a blessing in misfortune.

"In fact, Japan's economic aggregate is close to that of the United Kingdom, and it is considered a powerful country." Pamela Mountbatten shook her head, but it was a pity that there were some things that could not be done.

"It's not because Japan's population is twice that of the UK." Alan Wilson muttered. "On the surface, Japan is indeed powerful, but this country has been reorganized by the United States. Internally, it is no longer a country. There are many important things to a country. Japan is lacking in many things. In fact, Germany also has this problem. Germany’s luck lies in the fact that it is in Europe. Britain, the United States and France have different strategies. Germany still has some room to play. Just look at it, Japan will find it difficult sooner or later.”

Does Japan dare to disobey the United States? Japan has secretly discovered financial loopholes and quietly accumulated a little gold. Japan can do this, but if it wants to go further and realize its national power, it depends on how far the United States can go.

In fact, Japan has really tried its best to break away from the development route set by the United States. Japan has tried many industries developed by a certain big country in the 21st century, and even succeeded with the strength of the whole country, but was stopped by the United States at a critical moment.

It can be said that Japan has developed all technologies that can be converted into strategic capabilities. Aviation engines, rocket engines, self-developed missiles, self-developed fighters, chips, hydrogen fuel, and large passenger aircraft have either been stopped or contained, and they have been truly contained. If it doesn't work, just change the standard. If Japan does well with hydrogen fuel, the United States will just change the track.

Now Alan Wilson is only using Malaya and Japan to carry out fixed-point sniping. When Japan really has the technical strength and wants to move to a higher level, it will not be his turn to worry about Japan. The United States will tell the Japanese what professionalism means. Nothing comes for free, and the United States will not keep its markets open indefinitely to feed Japan.

In fact, Alan Wilson really wants to understand one thing now: how much capacity does the so-called huge market in the United States still have.

If the capacity has peaked, it may be more difficult for South Korea to develop than in its original history. If the market capacity remains unchanged and Malaya and Japan compete for the market, where will South Korea's position be?

"Find an opportunity to talk to the emirates of the Persian Gulf and settle the matter of the grain company. Then we can consider allowing the emirates of Qatar and Dubai to gain nominal independence." Alan Wilson stretched his waist and said, "Retain the military base. Maintain the circulation of sterling, and the UK can ignore other things."

"Understood, does this count as my devotion to supreme authority?" Pamela Mountbatten glanced at her, connoting the Cabinet Secretary-General who only talks but does not do anything.

"Actually, I have another aerospace project that I want to talk to you about." Alan Wilson reached out and squeezed his wife's little hand. Devotion to the supreme authority can be demonstrated with practical actions.

Financial operations are naturally promoted by professionals. Alan Wilson's biggest goal at the moment is to promote the Typhoon's service and create public opinion with the news that the Typhoon fighter is the first third-generation fighter jet to enter service, so as to protect the face of the British aviation power.

The news that Britain is about to enter service with its first third-generation fighter jet will certainly attract the attention of enemies and suspicious allies, but if public opinion is not created, the picky Labor government may slow down the emergence of a classic.

The United States should be content. If Alan Wilson hadn't remembered, even the 18th carrier-based aircraft wanted to be cloned. Now we are waiting to see if the technology accumulated on the Typhoon can be used in the Royal Navy.

He also took time out to check on the progress of the composite armor. Alan Wilson didn't know to what extent the composite armor was considered qualified. Anyway, the scientists at the institute thought it was not yet qualified. In that case, just wait. Anyway, compared to The armored forces of the Warsaw Pact and NATO have never been of much use. They have always been at the bottom, and there is no need to rush to work hard.

Then I dived headlong into the achievements of semiconductors. It was not about riding a rocket with my sister-in-law, but really going to see the staged achievements of semiconductor development.

Computers have developed into the third generation.

Integrated circuit computers use medium and small-scale integrated circuits to replace magnetic core memories with semiconductor memory devices as their logic components. They use pipelines, multi-programming and parallel processing technology to gradually improve software. Time-sharing operating systems, conversational languages ​​and other advanced language, proposing modular and structured programming.

At the same time as the development of mainframes, "minicomputers" began to appear, allowing computer varieties to begin to diversify and become serialized, and their application fields continued to expand.

The main features are smaller size, fast speed, high precision, strong functions, further reduction of computer costs, and the development of software towards serialization and diversification.

"It's still inconvenient. This size is unrealistic for working from home." Alan Wilson shook his head in front of Turing and said to the father of computers in front of him, "This batch of computers still cannot meet our standards, but It can be used for export. While continuing to update technology, I think this batch of computers can be exported to engineering departments in Malaya, Hong Kong, and the Middle East."

"Isn't it needed locally?" Turing was a little disappointed. He had been focusing on semiconductors, and of course he still had to serve the UK, not for other reasons.

"My friend, you know that after the advent of the camera, the world's painting schools began to lean toward abstraction. The emergence of a new thing may subvert everything currently known." Alan Wilson made an analogy. After the emergence of the camera, In the past, paintings in Europe tended to be realistic, and Van Gogh's poverty was an obvious example.

When Picasso appeared, Western painting schools had already turned to abstraction due to the emergence of cameras. You couldn't compare with the shutter speed of a camera in realism, so you had to change the track. The times made Picasso famous.

Obviously, the current batch of computers that are as tall as one person are not unusable, but they can only be used in various universities and government departments. This does not mean that they are backward. In fact, these are the most outstanding finished products in the UK, but they cannot yet be used in the hands of various universities and government departments. Local promotion, because the size of computers under Moore's Law is obviously irrelevant to these computers that are one person tall.

The most cutting-edge computers now may fall behind in two years. Alan Wilson thought for a moment and said, "I will ask Hong Kong and Malaya to place orders to purchase this batch of computers for public services. As for the mainland, Let’s use the typewriter first. By the way, we can send a batch to Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister will definitely agree, and I can fight for this expense.”

"Okay, what you said makes sense." Turing nodded, "But it always sounds weird if the most advanced computers are used elsewhere."

"It's more than just weird. If the public knows it, they may think that I know Hui, but in fact the public knows nothing about Moore's Law." Alan Wilson grinned. People in all countries are the same on this point. They just want to I want to take advantage and not suffer losses, and I don't want to think more about why I do this.

The so-called public domain naturally includes all public services. The obvious one is medical care. It can be used in surgeries, especially head surgeries. In the past, visual surgeries were bloody and difficult to deal with.

It requires opening a large chunk of the skull to directly expose the brain. The doctor first needs to find the target on the surface of the brain, and then place his electrodes inside the brain. If the electrodes were installed deep, he would occasionally cut open the brain with a knife and then install the electrodes into the ventricles.

These are complex processes and cannot be taken lightly. The surgery was lengthy and arduous, and the patients never cooperated satisfactorily.

Now, computers have changed all that. It allows you to accurately determine position in three-dimensional space. Originally, researchers at the Institute of Neuropsychiatry and others in the field were trying to relate the location of the brain ventricles to the structure of the skull. They determined the surgical landmarks through the eye socket, ear canal, and sagittal suture.

Of course this doesn't work. People's brains don't grow in the same fixed location in their heads. The only way to determine which brain locations are deep is in relation to other brain locations, and the logical landmarks are the ventricles, the fluid-filled spaces inside the brain. According to this new system, everything is decided in relation to the brain ventricles.

It is best not to let British citizens know about this matter, otherwise the local citizens will find that the surgical techniques they enjoy are not as good as those in the colonies, and Whitehall will definitely find it difficult to explain.

On television, Harold Wilson was making an impassioned speech in the House of Commons, expounding the importance of currency reform and converting the pound to decimal. Now one pound is equal to twenty shillings and one shilling is equal to twelve pence. In other words, one pound equals two hundred and forty pence.

Coins are divided into: quarterpenny, halfpenny, one penny, threepence, sixpence, one shilling, two shillings, half-crown, that is, two shillings and sixpences, one crown and fivepences, etc.

The last coins were minted in 1967. In fact, most of the coins have stopped circulating. Only three pennies and six pennies are left to hinder the decimal reform of the British pound. When small-denomination currencies stop circulating, the British pound can already start the decimal reform. reformed.

"The Ministry of Finance said that this reform will promote the regulation of British imports and exports." Alan Wilson said to his wife, "In fact, there is a plan to depreciate the pound, but it has not been communicated yet. After all, we also have to prevent the United States from being After the run on gold, the British pound was pushed into the water. Although the British pound’s overshoot is not comparable to that of the U.S. dollar, it is always right to be cautious.”

"Using currency reform to promote devaluation, we have finally told the citizens in advance. Once the devaluation is announced, I believe citizens will also have certain psychological expectations." Pamela Mountbatten nodded, "But it still depends on the U.S. dollar in the next two years. Performance."