Chapter 427

Napoleon Iv shook his head, picked up a newspaper, and said, "You have all seen these newspapers. They all say that France is in decline.

Including our domestic newspapers, they are also pessimistic. I think you all know what this means.

If we don't take measures to counterattack, we won't be able to do it even if we want to. "

Although they didn't want to admit it, everyone knew that France was indeed going downhill, especially in the economy.

Especially in the economy, after quelling the civil rebellion, the French economy directly regressed to 1860.

Although it had recovered in the last two years, it had only caught up to 1870. It would take at least three or four years to recover to the peak of 1881.

If they were one step slower, they would be slower at every step. France, which was already lagging behind Britain and Austria economically, was even further left behind by its two competitors.

Now, with the incident in Egypt, the reputation that the French army had painstakingly built up was gone by half.

No matter how good the reason for Governor Adolf's defeat was, a loss was a loss, and the people wouldn't care about the specific reasons.

Economic, military, and political triple attacks were coming at the same time. If it wasn't handled well, the foundation of the government would be shaken.

In order to consolidate his rule, Napoleon Iv now had to take a tough stance and restore the prestige of France.

Thinking and doing were two different concepts. Taking revenge on Britain and Austria was easy to say, but it required careful consideration.

Minister of the Navy Hamdi Halbowi said, "Your Majesty, although Britain and Austria are strong, they are not completely flawless.

The core of the British colonial system is India. As long as we work on it, it will be enough to make them uncomfortable.

We already control half of the Indochina Peninsula and can continue to expand into Myanmar, making the British hesitate.

Although we can't touch Austria's core colonies, we can create some trouble for them. For example, supporting the Republic of Colombia. "

It sounded good, but in fact, these harmless counterattacks could at most cause a little trouble for Britain and Austria.

But this just showed that Hamdi Halbowi had a political mind. He counterattacked Britain and Austria, but didn't completely fall out with them. He controlled the conflict within a controllable range.

Napoleon Iv shook his head, "This is far from enough. Expanding into Myanmar can still make the British feel threatened. If we make a big move, we can barely make it.

Supporting the Republic of Colombia is far from enough. Maybe it could have played a little role earlier. But now, Colombia was scared out of its wits and did not dare to confront Austria.

Moreover, with their little strength, if a conflict breaks out with Austria, it might give the Government of Vienna an excuse to annex them. "

It wasn't that Napoleon Iv was demanding, but the key was that they had to come up with a counterattack to show the European countries and their people.

If they didn't fight back after being bullied, how could they still be the powerful France?

The reason why superpowers were superpowers was because of their strength. Now France needed a chance to prove its strength. The reason why they chose to have a conflict with England and Austria was to re-establish their position as one of the three major countries.

France didn't care. Up Up Up up up. "France up up up with Austria." Germany "

After a while, the Economy Minister Erza said with some apprehension, "Your Majesty, we don't have to retaliate against Austria militarily. We can also retaliate against them economically.

But the consequences are serious. We might have to face both Russia and Austria at the same time, and it's the kind that can't be solved. "

France wasn't England. Killing two birds with one stone wasn't their ultimate goal.

They learned from their mistakes.

The Government of France clearly felt the aftereffects of having too much hatred. It wasn't a problem to retaliate against Austria.

It was not in the interest of France to directly become enemies with Russia and Austria and continue to oppose each other.

Everyone was dumbfounded after listening to the Minister of the Economy. Wasn't it just a blow to Austria's economy? Was there a need to become mortal enemies with Austria and Russia?

Napoleon Iv asked curiously, "Tell me, what plan is so terrifying?"

Minister of the Economy Elsa explained, "Start the African Agricultural Development Plan immediately. It's different from the previous plan. This time, we don't consider profits.

If there is no private investment, the government will fund the establishment of state-owned farms and expand the area of food cultivation.

In a short period of time, a large amount of food will be produced and put into the international food market to bring down food prices.

Agriculture has always been one of Austria's most important industries. Agricultural exports accounted for nearly 40% of Austria's total exports and contributed a large amount of tax revenue to the Government of Vienna.

Among them, the export of finished grains accounted for the largest share of agricultural exports, accounting for an estimated 53% of the total.

If our plan succeeds, international food prices will plummet and Austria will suffer heavy losses.

Seventy percent of Austria's grain exports are imported from Russia. If international food prices plummet, Russia will be the next victim. "

There was no doubt that this was the common weakness of both Russia and Austria. Once a third country dumped a large amount of grain, international food prices would collapse. Enterprises engaged in agricultural processing and farmers would suffer heavy losses.

Enterprises would only face the pain of a sudden price plunge. At worst, they could just lower the purchase price of raw grain and pass on the losses. Farmers would lose everything.

Such an obvious loophole wasn't a secret.

For colonial countries, it was naturally not difficult to grow food overseas and dump it on the European continent.

The problem was that the increase in food production would inevitably lead to a drop in international food prices.

The food that was painstakingly grown would not only not make money, but they would also have to pay for the transportation, not to mention recovering the cost of land reclamation.

Roy Vernon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, hurriedly objected, "No! The African region is undeveloped wasteland, while Russia and Austria are developed land. Our food planting costs will definitely be higher than theirs.

This means that in the future competition, we will be at a disadvantage. In order to ensure that the food is not unsalable, the only way is to dump it at a low price.

At that time, everyone will compete with financial resources to see who can't hold on and fall first. This is completely hurting the other side.

What's more, the plummeting international food prices will also affect the domestic farmers and make them lose money. "

Once this plan was started, money would be spent like water. The Ministry of Finance's thin wallet simply couldn't support it.

Napoleon Iv said, "Roy is right. It's not advisable to attack food prices. This will only cause both us and Austria to suffer losses, and the British will benefit from it. "

Napoleon Iv didn't care if he accidentally hurt the Russians. Anyway, the relationship between the two countries wasn't good, so it didn't matter if he offended them.

It was different when it concerned the interests of the French farmers. The French farmers were the strongest supporters of the Bonaparte family. Napoleon Iii relied on the support of the farmers to ascend the throne.

Even if it was a big blow to Austria, Napoleon Iv couldn't do this kind of self-destructive thing.

The words of a politician had already been spoken, so naturally, they couldn't easily take it back. Since Elsa had made this suggestion, he could only bite the bullet and continue.

"Even if it's not to attack Austria, we still need to start the African farm plan.

Since the annexation of the Regions of Italy, France has become one of the major food importers in Europe and spends a lot of foreign exchange every year to import agricultural products.

If one day we fall out with Austria, there will soon be a food crisis in the country. For the country's strategic security, we must achieve food self-sufficiency.

Since we have already withdrawn from the free trade system, we can completely adopt tariff barriers to protect domestic food prices from the international market and protect the interests of the farmers.

We can even take a step back and not compete for the international agricultural market. We can only achieve food self-sufficiency in the country and reduce the hostility of Russia and Austria. "

When he heard "protect the market," Napoleon Iv's heart lit up. He was willing to attack Austria's economy under the premise of ensuring that the interests of the domestic farmers were not damaged.

Although the economy didn't equate to the strength of the country, if the economy was developed well, the government would have money in their pockets, and with money, there would be soldiers.

Perhaps the middle and lower classes hadn't felt the threat of Austria, but after the Paris Revolution, the upper class of the Government of France realized that their neighbors were different.

Suppressing Austria had become the consensus of the French government. They hadn't taken action because the Government of France was busy. After suppressing the domestic rebellion, there was still a lot of mess waiting to be cleaned up.

Seeing that the domestic problems were about to be solved, the Egyptian rebellion broke out again. If it weren't for the fact that they were forced, the Government of France wouldn't have chosen to fight back at this time.

Today, the Great France Empire was second only to the United Kingdom in food imports. Once this market was lost, Europe was bound to have agricultural overcapacity.

At that time, Russia and Austria, the two major food exporters, wouldn't have a good life, and it might even trigger a new round of economic crisis.