Chapter 287 Stock Exchange
As time entered September 1910, the floods in several provinces in East Asia became more and more serious. Starving people everywhere robbed food, refugees rose up, and people were in distress.
It was time for Australasia to improve its goodwill. Arthur announced in a high-profile manner that on behalf of Australasia, he would provide 100 tons of food and 50,000 Australian dollars to the disaster area to show Australasia's peaceful and friendly side.
As expected, after receiving the good news of Australasia's assistance, not only did the local government publicize it, but the disaster victims and refugees from all over the country were also very grateful to Australasia.
It's a pity that they didn't know that the income from the sale of food in this disaster was hundreds of times more than these aids.
In early September, Sydney took the lead in establishing the first stock exchange in Australasia. On that day, Arthur personally participated in the opening ceremony of the stock exchange and delivered a speech, stating the importance of the stock exchange.
In fact, stock trading had already occurred in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1602. At that time, the Dutch government printed the world's earliest stocks, the East India Company stocks.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Britain, and the United States successively established their own stock exchanges, which has been at least a hundred years ago.
Even in the island country that Arthur seemed to be less developed, two stock exchanges were established in 1878.
In this way, the establishment time of the stock exchange in Australasia has lagged far behind other countries.
The newly established Sydney Stock Exchange is under the management of the Ministry of Finance and is not for profit.
However, the establishment of stock exchanges and stock markets plays an important role in the development of the country and private enterprises.
Private enterprises can choose to list on the stock exchange and divide their companies into several shares and sell them to others.
This allows companies that lack funds to raise development funds in the stock market to meet the large amount of funds needed for construction and development.
In addition to raising funds, the stock market can also diversify investment risks and increase the value of private enterprises' assets.
This is good for the development of Australasia's enterprises, and can also attract a large amount of external capital to Australasia and drive the development of Australasia.
Given the population and economic scale, the establishment of the stock exchange in Sydney is sufficient.
Sydney is the only city in Australasia with a population of over a million. It is also a political, economic and cultural center, and naturally attracts more capital.
I believe that after the establishment of the stock exchange, small and medium-sized enterprises in Australasia will also usher in certain development.
As September slowly passed, Arthur became more and more concerned about the situation in Europe.
According to historical developments, the second Moroccan crisis should come soon.
The Moroccan crisis is a political conflict between Germany and France in Morocco, which also intensified competition in Europe and the deterioration of relations between Germany and other countries.
After the first Moroccan crisis, in March 1907, France used the excuse of a doctor's murder to send troops to occupy Oujda in eastern Morocco.
Then, in August 1907, France used the excuse of several French workers being killed (in fact, these French workers destroyed Muslim cemeteries during construction) to send troops to forcibly land in Casablanca and occupy five port cities on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
After France occupied Casablanca, the relationship between Germany and France suddenly became more tense because of the pursuit of deserters and the conflict with the German consulate.
However, Germany chose to settle the matter peacefully, which was unexpected to other countries. It agreed to submit the incident to arbitration, so that the incident could be resolved peacefully.
In fact, there were two main reasons why Germany chose to settle the matter peacefully. First, the previous Bosnia crisis had made the European situation very tense, and the Germans were unwilling to add fuel to such a tense situation.
Second, the first Moroccan crisis had made Germany realize that France's trend of controlling Morocco was unstoppable.
Rather than continuing to fight with France in Morocco, it was better to compromise in exchange for Germany's economic interests in Morocco and compensation from France.
After all, Germany was the second largest power in the world. Since it had given in to France in Morocco, France had to give some compensation!
Therefore, on February 9, 1909, France and Germany signed the Franco-German Agreement. France announced that it recognized the independence and integrity of Morocco and recognized that Germany had equal economic rights in Morocco.
Germany recognized that France had special political rights in Morocco and promised not to interfere with France's actions to maintain peace and stability in Morocco.
The signing of the Franco-German Agreement made the politicians and senior officials of Germany and France very satisfied, and even eased the contradictions between the two countries to a great extent, almost transferring the contradictions between France and Germany to the negotiation table instead of the battlefield.
Unfortunately, the rapprochement between France and Germany made the British very cautious and concerned.
After all, with Britain around, it is impossible for Germany and France to reconcile.
Whether it is Germany or France, their status in Europe is at the hegemonic level. Once these two countries move towards unity, they can really control the whole of Europe.
This is what the British don't want to see at all. After the reconciliation between Germany and France, won't their enemy naturally become Britain?
What's more, if Germany can reconcile with France, can't it reconcile with Russia?
If their contradictions are resolved, what about Britain?
You know, although Britain and France are the two countries with the largest colonies in the world today, most of the interests are actually controlled by Britain.
If the major European powers really reconcile, their enemy can be imagined, that is Britain.
As a famous European troublemaker, can the British Empire tolerate such a situation?
Apart from anything else, the reconciliation between Germany and France is the last thing Britain wants to see. After the reconciliation between Germany and France, the main contradictions on the European continent also disappeared.
This will lead to the reason for the confrontation between the two major military groups becoming the contradiction between Germany and Britain, which is to say, the competition between the first and second powers for the position of world hegemony.
In this case, will France and Russia still be willing to work for Britain?
It would be good if they didn't even come to participate. After all, the British Empire occupied the most colonies and divided the most interests among all the powers. On the basis of peace for everyone, dividing the British Empire seems to be beneficial to most countries.
If the historical trend is followed, the second Moroccan crisis will break out in a few months.
The second Moroccan crisis made the contradiction between Britain and Germany more acute, because Germany became the only target of British politics.
At the same time, the Second Moroccan Crisis also made the relationship between the Anglo-French entente more solid.
Because at the most critical moment for France, Britain stepped forward, drew its sword to help, and dealt a fatal blow to Germany.
This made the French grateful to Britain, and later strengthened the close cooperation between the two countries in all aspects, with the aim of fighting against Germany together.
The Second Moroccan Crisis created a more tense situation in Europe, and even made the atmosphere of war more and more intense.
If it were not for Britain's tough style in the crisis and the Germans' retreat, I am afraid that the Second Moroccan Crisis would have become the fuse of the First World War.
In any case, it is necessary to prepare for this crisis. The Moroccan crisis in history was resolved more properly, but who can guarantee that the Moroccan crisis in this world will not become the fuse of war?
After all, this world has Arthur, a butterfly, and many developments are already different from previous history.
In this case, it is not impossible for Britain and Germany to have other ideas.
If Germany chooses to be tough, doesn't it mean that the First World War is coming?
Of course, even if the Second Moroccan Crisis did not become the fuse of the First World War, it is necessary to prepare for it in advance.
This crisis focused the attention of the three major European powers, Britain, Germany and France, on this struggle, and also led many ambitious countries to use this crisis to expand their own interests.
For example, the Italo-Turkish War and the Balkan War that broke out during the crisis.
It is worth mentioning that the protagonists of the two wars are the same, the already corrupt Ottoman Empire.
It is worth mentioning that the Sarajevo incident, the fuse of World War I in history, is also related to the Balkan War.
The Balkan War is precisely a war between several Balkan countries and Turkey, including Serbia, the protagonist of Sarajevo.
After the two Balkan Wars, the Balkan countries were established into two camps, opposing each other.
One side is Serbia, Greece, Romania and Montenegro, with the Allied Powers behind them.
The other side is Bulgaria and Turkey, with the Allied Powers headed by Germany and Austria behind them.
This also shows the control and influence of big countries on small countries. The Balkan region was also divided into two factions due to the influence of the two major European military groups.
Since they are divided into two major factions, conflicts between them are inevitable.
As one of the Balkan countries, Serbia naturally has some ambitions. Serbia wants to unify the Balkans and establish a Yugoslav state of Greater Serbia.
This ambition naturally conflicts with the strategic interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire two years ago, is mostly inhabited by Serbs and borders Serbia.
Because of the border conflict between the two countries, Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire became enemies, but small countries can't fight against big countries after all.
Therefore, some young nationalist officers in Serbia formed a mafia called "No Unification or Death".
And this mafia composed of Serbian officers is the organization that will provide weapons to the assassins who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand in the future.
It can only be said that the conflicts between European countries are related. Because of the Second Moroccan Crisis, Italy launched the Italo-Turkish War.
Because the Italo-Turkish War made Turkey exhausted, the Balkan countries formed an alliance and launched the First Balkan War.
Later, due to the uneven distribution of war and the opposition of national forces behind it, the Balkan countries split into two factions.
Coupled with Serbia's territorial expansion in the two wars, Serbia gave birth to the idea of establishing a Greater Serbia Yugoslavia.
This idea conflicted with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and also made some young Serbian nationalist officers hate the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially important Austro-Hungarian personnel like Archduke Ferdinand who opposed Greater Serbia and were hostile to Serbia.
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