Chapter 381 Integration Process

The negotiations between the North and the South have not ended, but the American Civil War has actually ended. Neither the European powers nor the American people want this war to continue.

This cannot be reversed by personal will, and the rest is nothing more than negotiating conditions.

In a show of sincerity, both the North and the South have stopped military operations, including ongoing military mobilizations.

Strategically speaking, the goal of weakening the United States is largely achieved. Now there is one last piece of the treaty that will tear America apart.

This is not just a good thing, but also comes with a series of problems. For example: Austria's cotton and cotton spinning industries will be hit.

Taking advantage of the tight cotton supply in the international market due to the reduction of cotton production during the American Civil War, the Austrian cotton spinning industry, which has sufficient cotton supply, has sprung up and aggressively seized the British market in Europe.

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

Previously, due to the insufficient supply of cotton, cotton spinning products were in short supply for a time, and the British were powerless when the market was robbed by Austria.

It's different now, and with the end of the Civil War, U.S. cotton production will soon recover. With sufficient supply of raw materials, the British capitalists will naturally make a comeback.

The market is the lifeblood of every industrial country. As the first country to complete the industrial revolution, the British have accumulated enough advantages, and their industrial strength once exceeded half of the world's.

With the completion of the industrialization of France and Austria, the proportion of British industry in the total global industry has declined, but it still ranks first in the world.

However, an embarrassing thing is that the British Empire, the world's factory, has been in a state of overrun for a long time.

In 1864, the British exported a total of 215 million pounds, while the total import was as high as 275 million pounds, and the trade deficit was as high as 60 million pounds.

During the same period, France's total export volume was as high as 2.963 billion francs, and its total import from the outside world was 2.523 billion francs, with a trade surplus of 440 million francs. (approximately £17.6 million)

The total export volume of Austria is 285 million Aegis, and the total foreign import is 226 million Aegis, with a trade surplus of 59 million Aegis. (approximately £29.5 million)

In 1864, the Russians exported a total of 187 million rubles, imported a total of 175 million rubles, and had a trade surplus of 12 million rubles.

In this era, the international trade volume was relatively small, and the Russians' grain exports exceeded half of the total exports. With this advantage, they achieved a trade surplus.

Austria can have such a large surplus, and the export of agricultural products also occupies an important position. After all, people always have to eat, and the British are one of the main food importers in Europe.

In order to solve the trade deficit problem, successive British governments have been heartbroken. There is no way, the lack of local resources has determined that the British have been in a super state for a long time.

Fortunately, there are many colonies of John Bull, and this gap can be filled by plundering colonial wealth, otherwise ordinary countries will not be able to support it.

The Opium War in history was created by the British in order to smooth out the trade deficit.

Now that the market has been robbed by Austrian capital, the British will certainly not give up. It is not enough to overturn the table, and this little conflict does not require the two countries to tear their faces.

Of course, it is useless to turn your face, this is a fair competition in business. At that time, the supply of cotton products in the cotton industry was insufficient for the British, which allowed Austria to take advantage of it. John Bull did not have the ability to make the market wait.

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

The Confederate States of America have unique geographical conditions, and their cotton yield per mu is usually higher than other regions.

Of course, the lack of yield per mu can be made up by expanding the planting area, but the corresponding labor input is still increased.

Historically, the North won the victory, and the southern planters, who were the losers, lost cheap labor, and cotton production was severely affected, and they encountered Indian and Egyptian cotton markets.

Of course, the most important thing is that the northern capitalists need cheap industrial raw materials, and use means such as increasing tariffs and railway freight to make American cotton lose its market competitiveness.

Now India's cotton production has not increased, in order to compete for labor to dig the Suez Canal, the British promotion of cotton planting in Egypt has also been hindered by France and Austria.

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

There is not a surplus of cotton in the international market, and this competition is unwise in the short term, and Austria itself can absorb most of the West African cotton production capacity.

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

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

Schönbrunn Palace

"There are only two issues today. First, how can we keep our cotton textile products' market share on the European continent; second, how can we protect the interests of cotton farmers?"

In this era, there were fewer industrial and commercial products, and the textile industry dominated the economy. Austria's core industry does not include the cotton textile industry, but because of the American Civil War, the cotton textile industry has suddenly emerged, which cannot be given up.

Currently Bavaria, Württem

In Fort, Lombardy, Venezia and other regions, there are more than 1.2 million workers in the cotton textile industry, and more than 2.5 million employees in the industrial chain.

So many people are pointing to the textile industry to eat, which directly determines that the Vienna government must protect this industry, and this trade dispute between Britain and Austria is inevitable.

Not to mention protecting the interests of cotton farmers, most of the planters in the colony are nobles.

This is determined by Austria's national conditions. Ordinary people are limited by their economic strength, even if the plantation area is not large; the capitalists have no love for farming.

Because of the redemption of domestic land, many nobles lost their land and obtained a ransom money. Obviously, these money cannot be put aside for nothing.

After the colony was established, many conservative nobles put their investment targets on plantations. Perhaps in later generations, the profit of farming is not high, but in this era, the return on investment in plantations is not much lower than that of other industries.

The cotton plantation is no exception. A large number of nobles gather. As the spokesperson of the noble interest group, Franz naturally has to consider their interests.

This is also related to everyone's enthusiasm for establishing colonies. In a profitable situation, the ruling class will certainly desperately defend the colonial system and vice versa.

Economic Minister Andrew replied: "Your Majesty, our Ministry of Economic Affairs has prepared a contingency plan. When necessary, we can use political means to defend the domestic and Russian markets. It is not a problem.

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

The rest is Central Europe, including the German Confederation, Prussia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and other regions, which is the main battlefield of this trade war.

French capital may also join in. In recent years, the French economy has developed very well. Under the condition of ensuring the supply of raw materials, their cotton spinning products are also competitive in the market.

In order to improve the market competitiveness of cotton textile products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs believes that tax rebate subsidies can be given to these first-line production enterprises when necessary. "

Simple, rude, but very effective. Everyone's production technology is almost the same, and the quality of the products is indistinguishable from the pros and cons. There is still not much advantage in production costs. To gain an advantage in market competition, you can only fight policies.

Historically, the British cotton spinning industry collapsed under the subsidies of various countries. Manufacturing is all about cost and quality. Once the technological advantage is lost, the competition becomes cruel.

Franz is also powerless in this regard. He took a time lag to grab a part of the British market. Now the time for competition has come, and everyone can only fight for strength.

The only advantage is that the British cotton spinning industry is larger. Once the financial subsidies are played, the British will pay three million for every one million in Austria.

This kind of lose-lose style of play, under normal circumstances, everyone will not play. After all, there are so many industries in a country, it is impossible to concentrate resources on one industry.

Agriculture Minister Christian said: "Cotton and the cotton textile industry are closely related, and as long as the domestic cotton textile industry does not collapse, the cotton plantation economy in West Africa will not collapse.

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

Throughout the European countries, Austria is definitely the most important to the economic development of the colonies. But no matter how much attention is paid, it is not as good as the local.

In order to avoid the impact of cheap crops in the colonies on the local agricultural market, there was a trade tax between the local and the colony from the beginning, but it was slightly lower than the foreign tariff.

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

At present, the ruling model of West Africa, Congo, and Nigeria has begun to move closer to the country, and some colonial cities are adopting the same laws as domestic ones.

As the first generation of colonists, everyone has a very strong relationship with the local people. Many people 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 rashly announce that the colonies were incorporated into the mainland, but the best developed colonies have already begun to implement the provincial system.

Compared with the country, these colonial provinces have greater rights and even have certain military powers. Now reducing the trade rights between the colonies and the mainland is undoubtedly a further step in the integration process.

After pondering for a while, Franz raised a question: "There is no problem in theory, but the reduction of the domestic and colonial trade taxes also involves the integration process of the Second Germany and the mainland.

Let's talk about this issue first, and test the reactions of all walks of life in China. At the same time, to organize economists to conduct comprehensive demonstrations, it is necessary to find out how much impact this has on the mainland. "

This is to clarify the problem and promote it before: the legal basis for the integration process of the colony and the native country is the reconstruction of the second German homeland proposed by Franz.

Since the African colonies were the second German homeland from the very beginning, there was no problem in merging with the first homeland.

However, these are all speculations from the public, and the official has not made a statement. The main force in promoting the integration process is also in the private sector, and groups and individuals involved in colonial interests are promoting this plan.

The driving force is not small, and the opposing groups are even more powerful. They were mainly local aristocrats and peasants, who feared that the cheap agricultural products of the colonies would be sold back to the mainland, which would damage their interests.

However, the current situation is somewhat unexpected. Agricultural products in the Austrian colonies are not cheap, at least with

Local agricultural products are not competitive.

On the one hand, the colony lacked labor, resulting in high labor costs; on the other hand, it was mainly newly developed land, and the output in the early stage was not high.

The most important thing is that the two major grain-growing regions in Austria have very fertile land, and infrastructure such as water conservancy and transportation have been completed, which cannot be compared by colonies.

As for the future? Franz can responsibly say that once fertilizers are born, the profitability of farming will drop further.

Indigenous agriculture was affected with or without the colonial agricultural shock. Many grain importing countries have used chemical fertilizers to increase grain production, and the international grain market will experience a sharp contraction in a short period of time.

In this regard, Austria cannot develop fertilizers, and even if they are developed, they cannot be put into production.

The longer the delay, the better for Austria. Before the industry has developed to a certain level, rash changes can easily lead to disaster.

The more grain output is not the better, the market capacity is so large, once it exceeds the limit, it is necessary to look forward to the grain.

This can explain the problem from the fact that the inventors of chemical fertilizers were Germans in history. The United States, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, the grain exporting countries, invented chemical fertilizers, didn't they ask for trouble?

Of course, the Germans never dreamed of it. They invented chemical fertilizers, but the biggest beneficiaries were the French, which directly freed the French from the food plight and became one of the most important food exporters in Europe.