Faced with the joint attack of Anglo-Austrian Capital, the Government of France didn't surrender. Napoleon Iv showed his courage.
First, he called on domestic companies to withdraw their investments from overseas, increase their foreign exchange reserves, and buy francs in the international market.
Then he issued an executive order to prohibit domestic banks from lending francs to international hot money, and he personally met with several domestic consortia.
No one knew what they talked about, but after being talked to by the emperor, the French financial community was a lot more well-behaved.
Many people also took out their funds and joined the resistance.
It was too late. The attacking party had already hoarded a lot of francs. Even if the domestic consortia were controlled, it wouldn't help.
All in all, the Government of Paris's response to the crisis was commendable, and the measures were timely.
Unfortunately, the root cause of the crisis was France's serious lack of foreign exchange and gold reserves. If they couldn't solve this problem, they wouldn't be able to get out of the crisis.
In theory, France had a lot of investments overseas. As long as they withdrew one-fifth of it, they would be able to tide over the crisis.
However, this was the 19th century, not the 21st century. Withdrawing funds from overseas wasn't something that could be done in a day or two.
Time waited for no man. Before the overseas funds came back, the Government of France's foreign exchange reserves were about to run out.
The Government of Paris was anxious. If this continued, they would have to use their gold reserves to fill the hole in a few days.
The Government of France's gold reserves were already insufficient. If there was a large-scale outflow of gold, the value of the francs would definitely collapse. Instead of that, they might as well surrender now.
…
In the Palace of Versailles, Napoleon Iv was no longer as high-spirited as he used to be, and he was a lot more depressed.
Obviously, this crisis hit him hard. The France Empire wasn't as powerful as he thought.
Minister of Economy Erza: "We have limited the amount of exchange per time, but the number of people coming to exchange every day is still increasing.
The market is not optimistic about the future of the francs, and there are more and more short-sellers of the francs in the financial market.
Based on the current situation, if there are no other forces joining in, the market will collapse sooner or later. "
Faced with the attack of Anglo-Austrian Capital, was there any force in the world that could compete?
The answer is: yes.
Although the French consortium was slightly weaker than Anglo-Austrian Capital, Anglo-Austrian Capital did not fully invest in it. If the French consortium joined the defense force, it would be a local battle. Coupled with the strength of the Government of France, they would have the power to fight.
After hesitating for a moment, Napoleon Iv slowly said, "Send someone to talk to the domestic consortiums. Other issues can be discussed, except for the coinage authority.
Tell them that if they still refuse to give in, we will compromise with Ingao Capital. At that time, no one will have an easy time. "
The reason why the French consortium was willing to cooperate with Anglo-Austrian Capital, in addition to the benefits in the financial market, was more to force the Government of Paris to make concessions.
If the franc were to collapse, it would not necessarily be a good thing for the French consortium.
In the short term, they might be able to make more money by speculating, but they would lose their future.
If the franc were to lose its status as an international currency, French consortia would have to pay a lot more if they wanted to expand overseas.
Of course, this didn't scare them. Most capitalists would not think that far ahead. Many consortiums that were rooted in the local area had little interest in going international.
However, no one dared to ignore the threat of Napoleon Iv.
If the Government of France directly compromised with Anglo-Austrian Capital and invited the wolf into the house, it would be fatal.
Nothing was impossible in the face of interests. The Government of France needed stability, and Anglo-Austrian Capital needed interests.
After ignoring the political factors, the possibility of a compromise between the two sides was very high.
As long as they could achieve their goals and get the expected benefits, the capitalists didn't care if they could destroy the franc or not.
Don't look at how this financial crisis was single-handedly caused by Franz. In fact, at this time, capital from all over Europe had been gathered, and it had long been beyond Franz's control.
Even if the Anglo-Austrian government and the Anglo-Austrian government called for a halt, it might not work.
Real money had already been invested. How was it possible for the capitalists to stop without getting any benefits?
…
"Stock crash + financial crisis + overcapacity = economic crisis." This set of calculations might not be 100% accurate, but it was still 99.9% accurate.
First, Anglo-Austrian dumped its products on France, then caught up with the stock crash. Without waiting for the French to catch their breath, Anglo-Austrian Capital launched another attack in the financial market.
Connecting all these things together, one conclusion could be drawn – external transfer crisis.
The two industrial countries with the most serious overcapacity were Britain and Austria. Even if an economic crisis broke out, these two countries would suffer the most.
Britain and Austria faced not only overcapacity, but also overcapacity of capital. Having just made a fortune from the war, the capitalists of the two countries were very rich.
Under normal circumstances, everyone would take out these funds to invest, rather than put them in the bank to collect interest.
Unfortunately, the world was now facing overcapacity, and investing in any industry was a disaster.
However, the crisis in Britain and Austria, which should have erupted the most, had not yet occurred, and France had problems first.
In the Palace of Vienna, Franz looked at the intelligence in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.
If Austria wanted to safely get through the current crisis, transferring the crisis was an essential part.
Looking at the world, was there a more suitable target than France?
If he did not take advantage of the fact that everyone had yet to react and pull the British to suppress France, there would be no chance in the future.
No matter how low-key Franz was, it was only a matter of time before the threat of Austria surpassed the threat of France. At that time, Britain and France would join forces to fight against Austria.
Now that he had made a move against the French in advance, the hatred alone could push back the time of Britain and France for many years.
This time, the hatred was too big. If there were no accidents, after the crisis, the Fao alliance would also die.
While transferring the economic crisis, it also hit the biggest competitor on the European continent. Franz's evaluation of this operation was "perfect."
Putting down the intelligence in his hand, Franz ordered, "Let our people secretly add fuel to the fire and make this financial war more bloody.
In particular, focus on the French heavy industry. Now many French steel mills are still struggling, and we should help them.
Continue to inflate the international coal price, and if necessary, ban domestic coal exports. Let the French continue to research charcoal steelmaking technology!
At the same time, arrange for people to spread the news in France and throw the blame of this incident to the British. "
Heavy industry was France's most important, but also the most vulnerable industry. Limited by the lack of coal resources, even in 1881, a considerable number of French enterprises still used charcoal to make iron.
As for the "charcoal steelmaking technology," it was a joke. After many improvements by the French, the charcoal steelmaking technology had become stable.
It was really stable, and the pass rate was more than 10%. Regardless of the quality, Britain and Austria did not recognize that thing as steel.
Knowing that it was impossible, the French companies could only bite the bullet. There were only a few steel production areas in Europe, and they were not under the control of the French.
Originally, the Rhineland region was the most suitable raw material production area for France. Unfortunately, after the Pudd territory transaction, most of the coal mines in the Rhineland region fell into the hands of the Anglo-Austrian consortium.
In this year, the consortium had not given up on the physical industry. Both sides had their own factories, so naturally, they had to attack their competitors.
Both sides tacitly controlled the coal production and artificially raised the international coal price in order to make huge profits.
If someone did the statistics, they would be surprised to find that the country that exported the most coal resources to France was actually the inconspicuous Belgium.
In this context, the French companies that consumed a lot of coal had a hard time. The easiest way to attack the French industry was to raise the price of coal.
It was not wrong to throw the blame to the British. Of the capital army that attacked France, the British did have the most capital.
Whoever had the most money was the boss; whoever had the most profit was the culprit.
No matter how you looked at it, the British were the most suspicious. The French people would not believe that they were not the masterminds.
As for Austria, although Franz was very active in participating, he could not match the deep foundation of the British, and the funds mobilized were far from comparable to John Bull.
From the beginning of the operation, the leadership fell into the hands of the British consortium. The Austrian consortium could only play a supporting role, and their role might not be as effective as the French consortium. Their biggest contribution was probably to organize this operation.
…
Franz's decision gave the final blow to the French economy.
The first to fall was not the dying steel companies, but the much-anticipated Moore Textile Group.
Compared to the steel companies that lost money all year round, people still preferred profitable companies like the Moore Textile Group.
The international was besieged by the British textile companies, and the downstream sales channel defaulted. The domestic was also spied by the consortium. Not only could they not get loans, but there was also a farce of several distributors defaulting on payments at the same time.
In the end, they could only go to court with the distributors. However, before the trial began, the Moore Textile Group with a broken cash flow had to declare bankruptcy and reorganization.
The famous Moore Textile Group was eaten by a group of giant crocodiles during the reorganization, leaving only a mess.
This was just the beginning. It was not just the Moore Textile Group that was targeted by the consortium. Looking at the international capital galloping in the financial market, the French consortium also wanted to eat meat.
The valuable companies were carved up and nibbled away, and the worthless companies could only really go bankrupt. The wave of bankruptcy spread, and the economic crisis broke out in France.
…
(Note: There is no electronic equipment, all manual operations. The financial model is very different from the future, especially in the speed of transactions. It is impossible to type hundreds of millions on the keyboard.)
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