Chapter 436

New York, the largest city in the United States, became more prosperous after the war. Since 1865, the U.S. economy has begun to recover, and everyone's life seems to be getting better all of a sudden.

Of course, this is just an illusion. There is a sense of happiness only when there is contrast. Compared with the war period, life has indeed improved a lot now.

The United States is rich in resources, and because of the war, the population has been greatly reduced, especially the young people who suffer the most.

Affected by the relationship between supply and demand in the market, in order to obtain enough labor, the capitalists had to introduce cheap black labor while raising wages to retain the original workers.

The increase in income has eased social conflicts. Today is the weekend and Tom is out with his girlfriend Elena.

"Tom, have you noticed that the items are much cheaper recently. The price of a dress I liked last month has dropped by the second half."

Tom said distressedly, "Sorry, dear. We've already spent our budget for this month, why don't we wait until next week's paycheck?"

Affected by American culture, young people do not have the habit of saving money. As a member of the Moonlight Clan, Tom only cares about prices half a month after his salary is paid.

In addition to leaving money to live, his salary can only support half a month at most. It's still a good job, an honorable employee of a securities firm, barely a member of the middle class.

New York City is both heaven and hell.

It is only suitable for the rich to live here, and it is best for the poor not to go out. Otherwise, the more you know, the more difficult the day will be.

Seeing Franklin's face, Elena nodded. No way, with limited income, it is impossible to survive in the city of New York without careful planning.

Not seeking the best, but seeking the most expensive, is New York in this era. The most expensive area in the United States, or the most expensive area in the world.

While wandering, Tom's face gradually darkened. There are advertisements for discounts and promotions everywhere, ranging from clothing and footwear to machinery and equipment.

As a graduate of Columbia University and working in finance, Tom is particularly sensitive to the economy.

This large-scale price reduction made him feel that something was wrong. Don't look at the fact that there are a lot of people rushing to buy now, but the total market demand has not changed.

Buying now is equivalent to advancing future purchasing power. Fortunately, the United States has the tradition of the moonlight family, and there is no advance consumption, that is, the credit card has not been born.

It's not that the capitalists are benevolent, it's mainly that the technology is not up to standard. I can't play with such a high-level thing, otherwise I would have long advocated over-consumption.

Tom smiled bitterly and said, "Elena, it seems we are going to prepare for a hard life."

He can detect the problem, will the upper-level capitalists not find it? Any economic crisis has a foreboding in advance.

In almost every economic crisis, the consortium standing at the top of the capital makes a lot of money. If they lose, they're either too stupid to be fooled by their opponents, or they're too greedy and want to make every last Franklin.

Elena asked in surprise: "What's the matter, are you unemployed?"

"No, but soon," Tom replied.

Elena comforted: "It doesn't matter. With your ability, it's easy to find another job. The big deal is from next month, we will cut expenses."

...

Just as the two negotiated, the market had already fed back to the final manufacturer. Affected by cheap Austrian goods, many companies' products cannot be sold.

The economic crisis happened in the UK, ordinary people do not know, but it is not a secret in the circle of capitalists.

...

"Gentlemen, according to the intelligence we have gathered, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of ships coming from Austria recently, all of which are for commercial and industrial products," said President James at Citibank's executive meeting.

From toothbrushes, screws, nails, to mechanical equipment. Almost all walks of life are involved, there is no doubt that this is a dumping.

Not only the Austrians were on the move, the British were not idle either. The number of ships heading to the United States from London increased by a third.

The British are also dumping us, which is not a good thing for us. Our customers are completely powerless in the face of the price war they set off.

In other words, most American companies are powerless to resist. So we have to take action, or it won't take long for a lot of bad debts to appear. "

Citibank is the oldest bank on Wall Street, and it is not yet the giant Citigroup of later generations. The main business of banks is not arms, but lending and financial securities.

In this era, the US military industry was very small, and the international arms export market was monopolized by European powers. In peacetime, these industries could not support a bank.

At present, the connection between Citibank and military industrial enterprises, that is, commercial loans, has not yet been directly invested. Now encountering a crisis, banks will naturally have to protect themselves first.

The shareholder Babno asked: "Mr. James, what are you going to do? It's probably too late to push Congress to legislate, raise tariffs, and restrict the entry of foreign goods."

Action is inevitable, a legacy of the civil war. While intervening in the American Civil War, Britain, France, and Ossie also opened up the American market.

It is not so simple to increase tariffs to protect the market. This is also the reason why Austrian goods can be quickly dumped in the United States, without tariff restrictions, low prices become all the way.

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The trouble is that these industrial and commercial products are not only cheap, but also surpass American products in performance in all aspects.

In this era, American industrial and commercial products have always been synonymous with knockoffs and inferior goods. Compared with imported goods, they can only rely on cheap to seize the market.

Now it's a tragedy. Austrian goods have begun to sell in tears, and the British have followed suit with discounts. The cold winter of American manufacturing has come.

James shook his head and said: "Of course not, we are not the savior. The economic crisis is inevitable, even if it is raising tariffs and protecting the market.

Now all we have to do is stop our losses and make a profit in this crisis. I want the authorization of the board of directors to temporarily suspend foreign loans.

For high-risk loans, I also plan to send someone to collect them in advance. At the same time, most of the securities and stocks in their hands were sold, and the bank recruited professional traders to prepare to short the stock market. "

This is not to save the market, but to get in trouble. But it's not the point, as long as you can make money.

Qualified capitalist, profit is always the first guard. Conscience, social responsibility, these high-level words are enough to talk about, whoever takes it seriously will be stupid.

Especially in the 19th century, the bloodiest era of capital, every Franklin was covered with blood and sweat.

With nothing to negotiate, it's time to shuffle again. Before resisting the invasion of European capital, you must first ensure your own survival.

We still remember what happened during the last economic crisis. Inadequate preparation and lack of sufficient cash in hand, the United States experienced a frantic money panic, and Citibank almost went bankrupt.

With the development of the capitalist economy, economic crises are becoming more and more commonplace. At first, it was once every few decades, then it became once every ten years, and it will soon become once every few years.

There are many financial capitalists who make the same choice, and there is no warmth in front of their interests. In this age of the weak and the strong, everyone wants to survive, no matter how hard they are.

Banks shrank their money, which soon set off a chain reaction. Many companies are in trouble, including some companies with good profits, which are also in the midst of life and death because of the broken capital chain.

In an instant, layoffs and production cuts have become the most popular words in American society. The streets are full of people looking for jobs, but few companies are hiring. The post-war economic boom that had just begun died just like that.

Not just in the United States, the same thing is happening in many places around the world. Austria just opened the door ahead of time and diverted the economic crisis away.

Immediately after the actions of the British, the whole world was directly dragged into the water. The world's largest industrial country is also the country with the most serious backlog of goods in the world.

In order to survive, British capitalists dumped their goods directly on the European continent.

The first to suffer is France. A large number of British textile products are imported at the price of cabbage. The Paris government has repeatedly raised tariffs and has not been able to stop it.

There is no way, this time Austria will do it first, dumping goods to countries with relatively backward economies. By the time the British reacted, the purchasing power of the market was almost exhausted.

These countries have no industries, and the dumping of industrial products will not affect the agricultural economy. Many people are even lucky to buy cheap goods.

European countries are different, everyone's industry has started. The dumping of British goods has seriously affected the economies of various countries. There is nothing to say, and they have played with the tariff firewall.

The crisis has expanded on the European continent, including Austria, no one can survive on their own, and a large number of companies go bankrupt every day.

Under the influence of tariffs, our international market is shrinking sharply. The colonial empire is okay, at least there are colonial floods that can alleviate the crisis.

Countries without colonies are miserable, for example: Belgium, this industrial powerhouse has been hit hard. Without overseas markets, Belgium's industrial capacity was cut in half in 1868.

Poland, which had just emerged from independence, was not able to escape the disaster. Without the large market of the Russian Empire, Poland's fragile industrial system collapsed in the first shock.

Even the export of agricultural products has not been spared. Originally affected by the economic crisis, international food prices plummeted.

In addition, they have no export to the sea themselves, which increases the cost of tariffs and directly leads to the loss of competitiveness of Polish agricultural products.

This complicates the already contradictory Pu-Bo relationship. Poles hated the Kingdom of Prussia more and more and imposed tariffs on their agricultural products.

In fact, the Kingdom of Prussia is also unable to protect itself, and it does not care about the Poles at all. After the economic crisis broke out, the British did not spare their little brother.

A large number of British goods swept in, the fragile industry of the Kingdom of Prussia was hit hard, a large number of enterprises went bankrupt, and the number of unemployed increased sharply.

Industry has been hit hard, and agriculture has to be preserved. The Junkers aristocrats are in power, and the interests of the class must be safeguarded first.

After the Prussian-Russian War, the Kingdom of Prussia acquired a large amount of land, and became a grain exporter directly from a grain importer.

In terms of grain exports, the two countries have become competitors. Fortunately, everyone has just ended the war, and food production has not recovered to its peak period. Before, the competition among everyone was not fierce.

This contradiction, to the autumn harvest of 1868, the situation has changed. It happened to be the most violent period of the economic crisis, people's purchasing power declined, and international food prices fell by 28%.

The major grain exporting countries in Europe are living a hard life. In order to ensure their own interests, the Junkers nobles

The dominant Berlin government had to limit Polish grain exports with tariffs.

This is not entirely to blame for the Berlin government. Who let the Polish capitalists directly dump food into the Kingdom of Prussia?

Initially, the two governments agreed that Polish farm products could not be sold in Prussia. This kind of restraint between governments obviously cannot limit the capitalists.

Seeing the high price of grain in the Kingdom of Prussia, the capitalists naturally couldn't bear it in the face of interests.

At first, they were only on the way to transport, secretly selling a little to the people along the way, and the small number did not attract everyone's attention. Later, the business grew bigger and bigger, until the lid could not hide the outbreak.

There is no warmth in the face of interests, and the Junkers nobles whose interests have been damaged are making trouble. The Berlin government naturally knows which side to stand on. After negotiating to no avail, they directly resorted to tariffs.