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.
After quelling the civil rebellion, France's 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 prestige that the French army had painstakingly built up was mostly gone.
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.
Besides, 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 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, would they still be the mighty France?
The reason why they were strong was because they had the 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." Austria, Germany, France, I Iv, up Austria.
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.
However, the consequences of doing so would be severe. We might have to face both Russia and Austria at the same time, and it's the kind that can't be solved. "
France was not England. The strategic plan of killing two birds with one stone was not their highest pursuit.
Once bitten, twice shy.
The Government of France had clearly felt the aftereffects of having too much hatred. It was not a problem for them to take revenge on Austria alone.
It was not in the interest of France to directly become enemies with Russia and Austria and continue to oppose each other.
Hearing the Minister of Economic Affairs' words, everyone was dumbfounded. 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?"
Economic Minister Elsa explained, "Immediately start the African Agricultural Development Plan. Unlike the previous plans, we won't consider profits this time.
Since there was no investment from the private sector, the government would fund the establishment of state-owned farms to expand the area of grain cultivation.
In a short period of time, a large amount of grain would be produced and put into the international grain market to bring down grain prices.
Agriculture had 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, finished grain exports accounted for the largest share of agricultural exports, accounting for an estimated 53% of the total.
If our plan succeeds, international grain prices will plummet and Austria will suffer heavy losses.
Seventy percent of Austria's grain exports are imported from Russia. If international grain prices plummet, the Russians will be the second most affected. "
There was no doubt that this was the common weakness of Russia and Austria. Once a third country dumped a large amount of grain, international grain 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 would lower the purchase price of raw grain and pass on the losses. The farmers would lose everything.
Such an obvious loophole was naturally not a secret.
For colonial countries, there was no technical difficulty in dumping overseas grain into Europe.
The problem was that the increase in grain production was bound to lead to a drop in international grain prices.
Not only would the hard-earned grain not earn money, but they would also have to pay for 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. Russia and Austria are developed land. Our grain 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 grain 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 collapse of international grain prices will also affect the domestic farmers and cause them to 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 hit the grain prices. This will only cause us and Austria to suffer losses and benefit the British. "
Napoleon Iv didn't care if he accidentally hurt the Russians. Anyway, the relationship between the two countries wasn't good. It didn't matter if he offended them.
But 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 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. Every year, we have to spend a lot of foreign exchange 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 to 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 weren't damaged.
Although the economy wasn't equal to the strength of the country, if the economy was developed well, the government would have money in their pockets. 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 from before.
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.
Just as 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. It might even trigger a new round of economic crisis.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
