After half a year of negotiations, Britain and Austria finally reached an agreement. On November 12, 1877, representatives of the two countries signed the "Anglo-Austrian Free Trade Agreement" in Paris, and Austria officially joined the free trade system.
It had to be said that the Paris Conference was a comedy. It was originally intended to reconcile the contradictions between countries and eliminate international conflicts. In the end, it was not achieved, and many irrelevant treaties were produced.
It was reasonable to think about it. After all, it was a high-level meeting of various countries. How could they go back without any results?
It was inevitable to go off-topic. Everything was for political achievements. Up to now, the Paris Conference had produced eight treaties, involving most of the European countries.
This was only on the surface. No one knew how many secret agreements there were in the dark. In short, the Paris Conference was not held in vain.
…
In the Palace of Versailles, Napoleon Iv threw his cup and scolded, "Damn British, damn Austrian idiots, they must have done it on purpose!"
Napoleon Iv's guess was right. The Anglo-Austrian free trade negotiations were actually held in Vienna. It was the British's strong request to go to Paris to sign the treaty.
There was no need to explain the reason. The London government had to react to the way the French slandered Queen Victoria!
Diplomatic protests couldn't stop the French. The French newspapers even dared to publish gossip about the emperor, let alone the Queen of England.
From the initial "curse," it had now developed into love news, and even erotic gossip appeared. The content was unsightly.
The strait couldn't stop the spread of entertainment gossip. Through the dissemination of these newspapers and novels, they had already crossed the sea into Britannia and secretly spread.
It was one thing whether the content was good or not, but it was too insulting to the country, which made the British people very unhappy. Everyone asked the Government of London to stop the bad behavior of the French.
Of course, the British royal family played a major role in this. Under pressure from all sides, the Government of London naturally took action.
Since they couldn't stop the French, they made a big news to divert everyone's attention and beat the French at the same time.
The Anglo-Austrian Free Trade Agreement was undoubtedly the best trump card, directly hitting the French in the vitals. If it wasn't handled well, France, which was already falling behind, would really go into decline.
Finance Minister Allen: "Your Majesty, now is not the time to argue with them. The most important thing is to minimize the impact.
The United Kingdom and Austria had already reached an agreement. It would not be long before the two countries took action to rope in more countries to join the free trade system.
We and Spain are the only major European countries that are outside the free trade system. We have to keep the Spaniards at all costs, or we'll be in deep trouble. "
One had to admit that the diplomatic means of the British were formidable. In the past few decades, they had successively roped in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and the Nordic Federation.
Now that Austria had joined the free trade system, Switzerland, the German Federal Empire, Greece, and Montenegro would naturally join the free trade system as well.
France was once again isolated, and Spain had to be the only one left, no matter what. Fortunately, the Spanish royal family was supported by Napoleon Iii, and they were definitely pro-French.
Foreign Minister Montero said, "It's not that simple. The Spanish might not stand with us this time.
The United Kingdom and Austria have too many chips in their hands. The price they can offer will be much higher than ours.
Our main advantage is that the Spanish government is pro-French, but it's hard to say how much this advantage can be used in the face of profit.
The situation is very clear now, and it's our turn to make a decision. The current semi-free trade model was feasible before, but now it's the worst choice. "
"Semi-free trade system" was an economic policy formulated by Napoleon Iii based on the economic policies of Europe and the actual situation of France.
Simply put, it was to implement a tariff free or low tariff on the industrial raw materials that France needed, and implement a trade protection policy on the products that France could produce.
To some extent, the Fao and Austria's economic policies were somewhat similar before, both protecting domestic industry and commerce.
Unfortunately, Austria grasped the opportunity of the second industrial revolution and was the first to complete the industrial transformation. With the support of agriculture, they now had the ability to participate in the international competition.
France was different. Not only did they lack resources, but the domestic capitalists also didn't like to invest in the manufacturing industry.
Even though Napoleon Iii encouraged the development of the manufacturing industry, it didn't change the nature of France's capital preference for usury.
The lack of funds flowing into the manufacturing industry naturally lagged behind. The core factor that caused all of this was the lack of industrial raw materials in France.
Even though France was also a colonial empire, it was also a desert empire. Most of the vast colonies were desert, and the colony's output was relatively insufficient.
Coupled with the annexation of the Regions of Italy that were even more scarce in resources, this made France's resource crisis even more serious, and they had to rely on imports.
Now more than 70% of the world's industrial raw material exports were monopolized by Britain and Austria. In order to attack their competitors, Britain and Austria, which had the pricing power of raw materials, artificially inflated the raw material market price.
Relying on imported industrial raw materials to develop the industry naturally increased the cost. In the international competition, the competitiveness of French industrial and commercial products was obviously insufficient.
Minister of Finance Allen: "Marquis, joining the free trade system is easy to say, but if it is really implemented, we must first consider whether domestic industry and commerce can withstand the impact.
According to the statistics of Paris Journal, the overall cost of our domestic industrial and commercial products is 2.9% higher than that of Britain and 2.7% higher than that of Austria.
But it is a fact that domestic industrial production costs are high. If we let go of market protection and face international competition, we will be at a disadvantage. "
The high cost of industrial production was an unsolvable problem. Unless the price of raw materials was brought down, there was no solution.
Napoleon Iv: "If there is a difference of two or three percent in industrial production costs, it doesn't seem impossible to make up.
The capital of Britain and Austria also needs to make money. They can't sell at cost price, so domestic enterprises will only make less money.
The government can also reduce the gap by lowering taxes. As long as we can withstand the first wave of impact, I believe domestic enterprises can stand firm in the competition.
In the worst case, we can rely on distance and advantage to protect the domestic market, and it won't make the situation worse. "
After listening to Napoleon Iv's words, Minister of Finance Allen was shocked and hurriedly dissuaded: "Your Majesty, it's not that simple. This gap is the overall gap of all industries.
If it is specific to a certain industry, the cost gap may be magnified to 20% or 30%, which is no longer something that can be made up by adjusting the tax rate. "
What a joke, the data published in the newspaper, God knows how much of it was exaggerated. Whether it was through data analysis or speculation, no one knew.
The Government of France didn't have a special statistical agency. When data was needed, economic experts were responsible for estimating, and the government then processed it according to demand.
Allen didn't want to change all this. As the Minister of Finance, he knew too much of the truth, but the French people couldn't accept the fact that they were inferior to Britain and Austria.
Not to mention now, even after the Franco-Prussian War in the original time and space, the French people didn't admit that they were inferior to Germany.
World War I was caused by the conflict between Germany and France, but in fact, it was caused by the pride of the French. World War I lost the pride of the French, and only then did World War II become corpses.
Instead of counting the real numbers and not daring to announce it, it was better not to count at all, and everyone pretended to be confused.
Free trade system, in normal times, was enough to shout slogans, if it was taken seriously, it would be the death of the country.
Apart from the financial industry, most of France's industries would be affected. The emergence of the usury empire wasn't without reason.
Napoleon Iv frowned. There was no doubt that he was slapped in the face again. This feeling was very uncomfortable, and it showed that he, the emperor, was very ignorant.
"Then how to solve the problem at hand? Britain and Austria set up a free trade system together, most of the European countries have joined in, and the rest of the countries won't last long.
At that time, not only Europe, but the whole world will be covered by the free trade system. Can France really be alone? "
Napoleon Iv didn't understand, but he saw it too clearly. The free trade system that the British created was an overt plot in itself, and even if they knew it, they couldn't stop it.
Now that France's industry has not exploded, it can still stay away for the time being. Once the domestic industry and commerce further develop, France will be forced to join in.
Of course, they can also choose to challenge the world. In the original time and space, the Germans lacked raw materials and markets, and lacked the right to speak in the free trade system, so they provoked the war after being forced.
The current situation of France was naturally much better than that of the German Empire, but the crisis still existed. Unless they don't develop manufacturing, the crisis will erupt sooner or later.
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