Chapter 583 Competitors

Chapter 576 Competitors

The railway crisis broke out in the fall of 1857.

That year, nearly 5,000 companies went bankrupt, involving a total capital of up to $291.8 million.

Soon the railway crisis triggered a currency crisis, and the entire banking system was paralyzed. When the situation was the worst, 62 of the 65 banks in New York stopped paying, the discount rate was as high as 60%, and the stock market plummeted by 20%-50%, among which the stock of railway companies fell by more than 80%.

Company bankruptcy, factory shutdowns, business losses, agricultural stagnation, financial collapse and bank bankruptcy have been the norm in the past two years.

Unlike previous cyclical economic crises, in the past cyclical economic crises, there would often be signs and signs of the crisis gradually subsiding and the economy slowly recovering in the second and third years.

Therefore, the American people could still grit their teeth and endure it.

But this time, it seems that God is not blessing America. In the third year of the crisis, the overall economic situation in the United States has not improved, but has a tendency to develop in a worse direction.

Unemployment, poverty, hunger and even famine followed one after another.

It was in this context that Lincoln barely stabilized the economic situation of Illinois, making the economy of Illinois stand out among the wailing eastern states. He gained the support of a large number of middle and lower-class people.

But looking at the entire United States, the most outstanding performance in the economic crisis was not Illinois, but the three states on the west coast, led by California.

The economy of the three states on the west coast was not dragged down by the crisis, but continued to maintain a fierce upward momentum.

This allowed many people who had lost hope in the east, as well as a large amount of capital to flow into the west coast, and the west coast was able to absorb a lot of blood in this crisis.

However, this is only an appearance. In fact, the economic crisis in the east and the economic crisis in Europe also affected the west coast.

After all, the east and Europe are the two most important trading partners of the west coast. It is impossible to say that the economic crisis has no impact on the west coast.

The export of the West Coast region was also affected by the economic crisis, which led to a slowdown in export growth in 1858. More than a dozen small and medium-sized railway companies were directly declared bankrupt due to the railway crisis.

Fortunately, the West Coast region has already taken over high-profit industries such as the petrochemical industry, machine tool industry, high-end machinery manufacturing industry, shipbuilding industry, and arms industry. These industries directly or indirectly support a large population in the West. The petrochemical industry alone supports at least 1.2 million people.

In addition, the population of the entire western region is not large at present, so these industries are enough to make nearly 4 million westerners live a relatively comfortable life.

Furthermore, there is still a lot of land to be developed in the West, and the vast inland areas can be developed through the Eastward Expansion Movement to expand living space and alleviate the local economic crisis through outward expansion.

At the very least, it can also follow the example of Britain and dump goods in colonial countries and regions to pass on the crisis.

With the market size of Japan, it cannot become a dumping ground for goods in the entire United States, but it is more than enough to be a dumping ground for goods in the western region.

What's more, the western region also has the Qing Dynasty, a trading partner with a terrifyingly large market size.

The reason why California's economy can be stabilized is not that Fremont has the talent to save the world.

After ten years of foundation building and hard work, California has accumulated a lot of good cards.

As long as the ruler is a normal person and does not mess around, the economy of California and even the entire West Coast region will not be too bad.

"Governing a state and governing a country are two completely different things." Liang Yao said, "Moreover, the influence of the Civic Party is limited to a corner of the West, and its influence in the East is negligible. The votes it can attract are very limited. If it participates in the election, the party does not have too high expectations for the election results.

I heard that Mr. Lincoln's recent speeches in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin and other places have been warmly welcomed. The people in these areas hope that you can be nominated as a candidate for a higher position."

Liang Yao is not being modest. The political resources of the eastern states have long been controlled by the local aristocratic families, as well as the newly emerging local capitalists and large factory owners.

The expansion of the Civic Party in the eastern region is not very smooth overall. It has only made some progress in New York, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas, and has developed some party members locally.

Politicians in the East naturally lack trust in the Civic Party, whose base is on the West Coast and most of the party members have different skin colors and appearances from themselves. Only when it is profitable to do business with them will they be very enthusiastic.

People with different ideals cannot work together. Liang Yao and most of the members of the Civic Party did not shamelessly lower their status and beg those stray dogs of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party to join the Civic Party and take this opportunity to strengthen the Civic Party.

In his view, this is not to strengthen the Civic Party and absorb members who lack identification and trust and have the same political views, but to lay mines for the Civic Party.

Furthermore, absorbing more members from the East means that they must take sides on the issue of the abolition of slavery, and at present, he does not want to take sides.

He knew what kind of people these makeshift teams in the East, which were mainly composed of Anglo-Saxons, were. Even if the West openly supported abolition and helped them win the future civil war, as long as the West itself was not strong enough, the next step they would consider was to snatch the cake from the Chinese in the West and demand to share the vested interests of the Chinese and even the pro-Chinese whites in the West.

What they did to the South today, they would do to the West again.

In the face of economic interests, in order to obtain cheap raw materials and labor in the South, the Yankees in the North could be ruthless to the Dixie people of the same skin color in the South, not to mention the yellow-skinned, black-haired Westerners. What's more, the industrial structure of the West is actually in competition with the North, and there is a direct conflict of economic interests.

At present, the West and the North can still maintain a relatively harmonious state, not because the politicians in the North regard the West as their own people, but because there are bigger conflicts and contradictions to be resolved, and they have no time to look west.

As Lincoln's reputation among the people is getting higher and higher, the voters in the North, especially the voters in the middle and lower classes, are calling for Lincoln to get a higher position.

Of course, the candidate for a higher position Liang Yao mentioned does not refer to the two powerful positions of president and vice president. It is the deputy of the Republican candidate.

Before the end of 1859, no one would associate Lincoln with the presidential or even vice presidential candidates. Although Lincoln was already the de facto leader of the Republican Party at that time and the most influential member of the Republican Party among the people.

The root cause was that Lincoln came from a humble background, and the political elites did not like him, and his foundation in politics was also shallow.

Lincoln had neither a huge fortune nor a family inheritance. When he was in his 50s, his administrative experience was still very limited, and he did not even finish a term as governor of Illinois. In addition, Lincoln's most impressive resume was only one term as a member of the House of Representatives, which was not very successful.

"A fool like me who is still wet behind the ears may not be qualified to be the candidate's deputy." Lincoln laughed heartily, "I still lack sufficient political experience."

"But you are a contributor to the founding of the Republican Party, and you are quite knowledgeable about the Constitution and have studied the works of the founding fathers." Liang Yao said.

"But I don't have any confidants in the densely populated eastern states, only a few ordinary friends. In vote politics, dense population means more votes. If you can't get the votes of the people in these densely populated eastern states, everything is empty talk." Lincoln said.

He chose to give speeches in sparsely populated inland areas such as Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin not because he was concerned about the development of frontier areas, but because he had to do so.

The influence of traditional families in densely populated eastern states is too strong. It is difficult for outsiders like him who have no foundation and no strong political allies to snatch food from these traditional families and win local votes.

Furthermore, Lincoln himself had no confidence in running for president at this time. His failure in the 1854 senator election was still vivid in his mind. This made him see the essence of American vote politics.

"Has the Republican presidential nominee not been determined yet?" Liang Yao asked.

"It has not been determined yet, but we have many strong candidates in the Republican Party." Lincoln said, "William Seward, Simon Cameron, and Salmon Chase are all very suitable candidates."

Lincoln mentioned the names of William Seward, Simon Cameron, and Salmon Chase, but did not mention himself. Liang Yao knew that Lincoln was keeping a low profile, retreating to advance, waiting for the opportunity, waiting for his competitors to make mistakes.

Liang Yao has always paid more attention to Lincoln and the Republican Party's movements. He still has a certain understanding of these founding fathers and core backbones of the Republican Party.

William Seward is the former governor of New York and the current senator of Congress. Before the Whig Party was dissolved, he was a core member of the Whig Party and played a great role in the establishment of the Republican Party. Many former Whig members joined the new party for William Seward's sake.

William Seward was born in a prominent family in Orange County, New York, New York. He had connections and qualifications. As long as William Seward did not make principled mistakes, he would be the nominee for the Republican presidential candidate.

As for Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, he is the current senator and has been elected to the senator for the second time. In terms of qualifications, he is more qualified to be a candidate for the Republican Party than Lincoln, and Simon Cameron has a keen political sense. But Simon Cameron has a fatal flaw, that is, he likes to make money. The Atlantic Railway Company was once bribed by Simon Cameron.

The last strong competitor for the overall nomination of the Republican Party is Salmon Chase, the current governor of Ohio. His experience is similar to Lincoln. He was born in poverty and entered the upper class through his own efforts. Salmon Chase and Lincoln had similar influence in the party. But Salmon Chase lacked Lincoln's charisma and political sense.

Salmon Chase was a good candidate for governor and a good candidate for minister, but he lacked a sense of the overall situation and was unlikely to be qualified for the presidency.