War wasn't child's play. Finding excuses for war could be ignored, but mobilizing troops and gathering strategic supplies were still necessary.
Egypt wasn't a weakling, but it also depended on who they were compared to. At least they were the strongest country in Africa.
Their biggest competitor was Ethiopia, but this opponent was weakened by the British. When they finished fighting Ethiopia, it would be the end of Ethiopia.
There was no doubt that the great powers still cared about their reputation. Unless it was a cockroach like Afghanistan, the British would still cripple Ethiopia for the sake of their reputation.
Hegemony needed to be maintained by force. It was okay to lose to the European powers, but not to the African natives.
The Government of Paris was still very pragmatic. In order not to make a fool of themselves, they made careful preparations. Napoleon Iii decided to parallel politics and military affairs. He would first defeat the Egyptian government and then rope in the pro-French people.
This was also a common method used by European countries to expand overseas, including Austria in Central America. The special situation in Africa was an exception.
In London, the news of the opening of the Suez Canal caused an uproar in the financial market. Many people pessimistically believed that the era of great navigation was coming to an end.
This was based on facts. After the opening of the Suez Canal, the voyage from Austria to the Indian Ocean was shortened by more than 12,000 kilometers. The voyage from France and Spain to the Indian Ocean was also shortened by more than 10,000 kilometers.
The British had the shortest voyage and were at an absolute disadvantage in this aspect. The capital market looked down on British companies. The stocks of export companies in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and other regions all fell precipitously.
This fall affected the entire London market. The related industries in the upstream and downstream naturally couldn't be spared, and they all plummeted. The stock crash broke out.
The capitalist world economy was affected as a whole. When the stock crash broke out, other industries couldn't be spared. The first to be affected was the financial industry.
Since the beginning of 1868, there had been long queues on the streets of London. The stock crash caused speculative financial institutions and banks to go bankrupt, causing panic among the people, and the bank run broke out.
This was just the beginning. If there was a problem in one link of the circular economic chain, it was bound to affect other links.
There was no doubt that when the bank run broke out, the banks stopped lending to protect themselves, and the financial crisis affected enterprises.
The opening of the Suez Canal was only the fuse that triggered the economic crisis. The British economy had been in trouble for a long time. As early as a few years ago, the United Kingdom had been experiencing overcapacity.
This was also related to the rise of Fao. The global market was only so big, and with more competitors competing for the market, the market share of British industrial and commercial products continued to decline.
The market was small, and the production capacity was not reduced. Naturally, there was excess. However, first it was the American Civil War, followed by the Prussian War, which delayed the outbreak of the crisis.
Now that the war was over, there was no market for the goods produced, and an economic crisis was brewing. At this time, the Suez Canal happened to be in a crisis ahead of time.
Starting from 1864, the economic crisis broke out in England. Now that it had been delayed by three to four years, the overcapacity was naturally even more serious.
This was caused by the inconvenience of communication and the lack of information in the market. The capitalists did not keep up with the pace of the market to adjust production, resulting in serious overcapacity.
There were no new tricks. With the economic crisis erupting, they naturally had to think of a way to survive the winter. Companies without strength directly went bankrupt, and industries with strength also began to lay off staff and reduce production capacity.
In the summer of 1868, the Great Depression struck London. The scale of British railway construction was reduced by 78%. More than a dozen large and small railway companies declared bankruptcy, and more than 20 railways under construction were suspended indefinitely.
The shipbuilding industry also reached its peak in 1867, and then began to shrink. By the end of 1868, the size of the industry had shrunk by 34%.
The textile industry was the hardest hit area of the crisis. Affected by the Austrian cotton industry, they lost the market in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Western European market was attacked by the French.
The pillar industry of the British was hit hard by the economic crisis. Five giant companies with more than 100,000 workers went bankrupt in the economic crisis.
Bankrupt people were everywhere on the streets. Half a year ago, they were still rich and powerful, but now they were reduced to street refugees.
At the same time, due to the economic crisis, exports shrank sharply. Gold outflow was serious, funds were tight, banks and companies went bankrupt, and the British faced the eleventh crisis in economic history — the Canal Crisis.
After the economic crisis erupted, the Government of the United Kingdom did not take timely measures, but allowed the crisis to wreak havoc, causing the crisis to become out of control.
Countless unemployed people took to the streets of London to demonstrate, and the capitalists also complained. The opposition party attacked the government's inaction in the newspapers, and the economic crisis led to a political crisis.
John Russell's cabinet encountered the biggest crisis of confidence since he took office. However, it was really none of their business. According to British law, the government had no right to interfere with a free economy.
Those who argued didn't care that much, anyway, it was all the government's fault. Fortunately, Prime Minister John Russell didn't interfere with the market, otherwise he would have to bear the charge of "interfering with a free economy and causing an economic crisis."
Needless to say, when politicians encountered a problem they couldn't solve, the most common method was to resign.
...
In Vienna, the sudden economic crisis attracted Franz's attention. Unless it was a planned economy, overcapacity was simply unavoidable.
Since there was a problem in the United Kingdom, Austria shouldn't think about being alone. It was only a matter of time before it spread.
Franz asked with concern, "The economic crisis is coming again, what measures does the cabinet have?"
Prime Minister Felix replied, "Your Majesty, from the situation in the United Kingdom, the impact of this economic crisis will be very big.
In order to get out of the crisis, the cabinet decided to let state-owned enterprises start destocking and dump the inventory of goods all over the world at low prices.
We have to race against time with the British and French. The market is only so big, and if we react slowly, it will be crushed in our hands. "
During the economic crisis, it was no longer the time to care about profits. The most important thing was to sell all the products in exchange for a large amount of cash in hand, so that the enterprise could survive.
It only needed an administrative order to let state-owned enterprises destock. Everyone would definitely carry it out seriously, and not many bureaucrats would be stupid enough to go against the government.
Private enterprises were different. This kind of direct government intervention in the market couldn't be done. In the capitalist economic market, the government couldn't interfere with the normal operation of enterprises.
As the law maker, the government naturally couldn't break the law. Moreover, with so many enterprises having overcapacity, they couldn't just directly order them to reduce production, right?
In any case, survival of the fittest was the survival of the fittest in the market, and there would always be a batch of deaths. It was better to get the pain over with than to prolong it, and who lived and who died depended on each person's ability.
There was nothing wrong with the cabinet choosing to save the state-owned enterprises first. The son always had to receive preferential treatment. The state-owned enterprises' unsalable products were exported, and the pressure of domestic overcapacity was also reduced.
Franz continued to ask, "Is the emergency plan ready?"
It wasn't that private enterprises weren't saved, but it mainly depended on the specific situation of the economic crisis and the actual measures to be taken according to the actual situation.
The government wasn't a babysitter, and it couldn't guarantee that enterprises wouldn't go bankrupt. Whether they could survive or not depended on the judgment of the capitalists.
If they courted death, then they would really die. The smart people saw the big movement of the state-owned enterprises and started to follow the trend early on.
Those who couldn't react in time deserved to be unlucky. Didn't they see that the royal family's industries were running for their lives?
The royal bank could be seen as the wind vane of the Austrian economy. As long as the bank tightened its monetary policy, there must be a problem with the economy.
It was even more impossible to publicize the economic crisis. If they did that, even if there wasn't an economic crisis, they would artificially create an economic crisis.
Once the market panicked, the losses would be more terrible than the economic crisis. According to Franz's experience, the economic crisis was like a race. Whoever ran faster was the winner, and whoever took over deserved to be unlucky.
Prime Minister Felix explained, "Your Majesty, this economic crisis is different from the past. It's a pure overcapacity. Not only us, but most European countries have overcapacity.
The American Civil War and the Prussian War made the crisis even more serious. Before the war, there were signs of overcapacity in various countries.
If the crisis had broken out at that time, the market would have quickly adjusted itself. Now it's different. It's estimated that the domestic production capacity should exceed the market demand by 30%. Some industries may exceed the market demand by half, or even more.
Other than letting the market survive and eliminate the weak, we have no other choice. There's no such a large market in the world that can wipe out such a large production capacity. "
This was the aftereffect of making a fortune from the war. During the war, most of the Russians' supplies were monopolized by Austria, which led to overcapacity in many industries in Austria.
After the war, the market adjusted itself to a certain extent. However, the economic transformation couldn't be completed in a few months.
Now that the economic crisis had come, many companies that reacted a step slower naturally couldn't escape.
Of course, the impact on large companies might not be too fatal. After all, they had made a fortune from the war two years ago and accumulated capital strength.
As long as they didn't blindly expand, they still had some money in their pockets and had the ammunition to survive this crisis.
The serious overcapacity also meant that they couldn't get out of the crisis by relying on exports. When the economic crisis broke out, the international market would soon shrink. The only markets that belonged to Austria were the mainland and the colonies.
The other overseas markets weren't worth mentioning at all. It wasn't a matter of the size of the market, but the size of the purchasing power.
In any case, Austria was the largest economy in the world in this era. There were two countries with a population greater than Austria, but the market was far from comparable.
Of course, if the colonies were included, the ranking would fall by one place. The British were still the kings of this era, and no one could compare to them.
Franz nodded. It wasn't that there was no way, but it wasn't suitable for this period. The economic crisis broke out, causing a crisis in the traditional industries.
To some extent, it also accelerated the outbreak of the second industrial revolution. Traditional industries didn't have enough profits, so the capitalists had to focus on the emerging industries.
It could be imagined that it wouldn't be long before Austria's emerging industries blossomed everywhere. In this context, Franz naturally wouldn't interfere.
The capitalists who fell in the economic crisis could only blame their bad luck. Who could be blamed for their poor investment vision?
Just treat it as a sacrifice for the new era and shine for the second industrial revolution.
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