Holy Roman Empire

The winds of reform have blown across the British Isles, but Britain has not been able to get a new face. It was not that reform was not possible, but the question was how to reform.

The continuing economic decline at home spurred the British, and the elite knew that Britain had reached a fork in the road and that social reform was needed.

Despite the economic problems, Britain was still at the top. It was not fashionable in the European world to say that Britain was at the height of its powers, but if you look in the history books of Britain, they were only at the height of their powers once.

If it were not for the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, which increased the pressure on them, it is unlikely that the majority of Britons would even have a sense of crisis.

In fact, even now, the British do not have a strong sense of crisis, and do not think that the mighty British Empire is at risk of collapse.

There was no way around it, and Shinra was too restful. Even though they had created a super battleship, it was just a matter of wandering around and going back.

The expected arms race, because the Vienna government did not follow up in time, made the British lose interest.

After all, Britain still had a lot of old battleships, and if the "dumpling contest" was started at this time, all the old battleships would be scrapped.

The landlords had no food to spare, especially in the downturn of the domestic economy, the government's revenue was declining, and the budget had to be saved.

Anyway, with the protection of the Straits, as long as the superiority of the Royal Navy remains, everyone will not panic.

If there is not enough pressure from outside, there is naturally no internal unity. After all, reform is a double-edged sword. After all, the reform is a double-edged sword, with some people gaining from it and others losing.

The vested interest groups are unwilling to give up their interests, and conflicts arise. From the prelude to the reform, the British Parliament has been in a noisy mode.

The power of the British government these days is still very limited. Not only was there parliamentary constraint, but there was also pressure from the king at the top.

As the king who restored Britain's monarchical glory, Edward VII was no rubber stamp. A cabinet government that could be tossed around at will would have been impossible.

The conservatives were strong, and the internal constraints of the government were so great that the Campbell government couldn't reform fast enough.

For a large country, reform should be slow, not fast. It doesn't matter if it's slow, because if it's fast, there will be big problems.

But for businesses, the situation is very different. The traditional industries are fine, having built a moat of their own, and they can live on despite the shocks.

It is the emerging industries that are really unlucky. Constrained by the small size of the domestic market in Britain, itself inherently deficient, coupled with a slow start, before they have time to fully develop, the competition came over.

The most typical of these were machinery and equipment manufacturing and the automotive industry chain, where companies were either bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy.

......

McCall's smiling face is gone as he steps out of the government office building. As the owner of one of Britain's leading companies in the production of high-end machine tools, McCall's little life should have been a comfortable one.

The reality was quite the opposite, as McCall's machine shop had, through a misjudgment during the Second Industrial Revolution, concentrated on traditional areas.

He was not alone; Britain's machine tool builders had dived headfirst into the steam engine business, not even venturing into the emerging field of electricity.

Along with the massive penetration of electricity, electric power also emerged and gradually dominated industrial production.

One slow step at a time.

By the time McCall reacted, rival products had already made their way to the British Isles. With their excellent performance and low running costs, they quickly stole a chunk of the pie from them.

Thanks to the conservative nature of British capital, which was not diligent about replacing equipment, and the fact that the steam engine still had merit and was not completely phased out, McCall's plant survived.

However, along with the strong entry of competitors, a large chunk of their orders were taken away, especially in overseas markets, where almost all were lost.

In order to survive, the British machine tool companies, which had chosen the wrong path, passively plunged into a brutal price war.

Even the leading companies are not an exception. After all, they are now only the British leader, not the world leader. In comparison with their international counterparts, McCall's company has lagged behind in terms of comprehensive technology.

Changing the track is easier said than done, but trying to make it on a new track is not so easy.

In order to survive, McCall had to turn to the government for help.

The "free economy, no government intervention in the market" slogan was just a slogan that was used when it was needed, but now that it is no longer needed, it has to be thrown away.

As the leader of "high-tech" industry, there are always some privileges. Regardless of whether the technology has lagged behind its international counterparts, McCall's is still the leader in the domestic machine tool industry.

As long as the London government does not want to see the high-end machine tool sector fall under the control of its competitors, it must support local companies.

McCall, once a young free trade advocate, has now become a staunch advocate of "trade barriers" for his own benefit.

There is no way to compete with the competition without resorting to extraordinary measures and normal business competition.

Even if McCall were to ruthlessly increase the R&D budget by 50,000 pounds, it would still be far from being able to compete with his competitor's investment.

The technology itself is lagging behind, the R & D investment is insufficient, expecting to rely on technological breakthroughs to overwhelm competitors, is obviously a big dream.

It is not impossible to continue to increase investment, but McCall is first and foremost a capitalist. For a capitalist, profit is the first priority. As long as he could make money, it did not matter whether he could outperform his competitors.

If you invest indefinitely, you may be able to catch up technologically, but the return on investment is absolutely disgraceful.

If you can't make money, it's useless even if you're the best in the world.

There is only one thing that investors want from a company - to make money; there is only one indicator to evaluate whether a company is good enough - whether it makes enough money.

McCall has long since passed his middle age, so naturally he will not put all his assets on the pike just for a name.

Instead of trading scientific research, it is better to conduct political public relations and directly keep competitors out of the country.

The domestic market alone may not be able to make a lot of money for the company, but at least it can ensure long-term profitability.

Given enough time, McCall is confident that his company will catch up behind him, and will then be able to compete with international competitors for market share.

As to how long that time will be, no one knows. It may be three or five years, or twenty or thirty years, but there is always hope.

......

Regardless of the situation, as long as life goes on, there will always be a party.

Leaving Government Street, McCall drove a Shinra limousine to the outskirts of the city, heading for a manor called "Petr".

Tonight, there was a party organized by a major businessman. As an important member of the business community, McCall was also invited.

Despite the early arrival, the manor was still boisterous, and it was clear that there were many people who suspected the same thing.

I don't know when the "banquet" stopped being a mere "banquet". Most of the time, the people at the party had their own agendas.

As soon as he walked in, McCall found his coterie. There was a time when McCall was the center of attention at a party, and everywhere he went there was a group of people flattering him.

Unfortunately, the good times were short-lived. Along with the intensification of competition in the machine tool industry, the voice of machine tool companies in the market was decreasing.

The former kind of production orders to line up a few years later, take goods rely on relationships in times, is gone.

For the survival of the enterprise, McCall had to put aside its face, actively participate in social networking activities, and strive to maintain relationships with customers.

Of course, this alone was not enough. Capital is profit-oriented, and if the quality of the product is not good, the best relationship will not be enough.

One of the most important factors in maintaining the current fundamentals was the fact that we were all in the same consortium, with a certain percentage of cross-shareholdings.

We are all communities of interest, and if the price/performance ratio is comparable, we are more than happy to use our own products.

Performance can not be compared, it can only kill the price. The machine tool industry, which was originally profitable, has recently been killed to the price of cabbage.

The pure machine tool business is now selling one at a loss. If not for the after-sales service can still make money, McCall's machine tool business, now can consider closing down.

Short glass of wine, and clinked with the visitors, McCall smiled and asked: "Byron, long time no see you, how have you been?".

No matter how much pressure there is inside, McCall has twelve points of enthusiasm for customers. It is precisely this positive attitude towards marketing that enables McCall to crush a number of domestic counterparts and secure the throne as the leader of the niche circuit.

The middle-aged man shook his head and replied with a bitter smile: "Very bad. The damn Austrians, like rats, are stealing our wealth.

I haven't had a comfortable day since they launched a new model last year. I'm not going to lie to you, I've had three layoffs since the start of the year."

It's no secret, just look at the brand of cars running all over the place and you'll see what life is like for the British car companies.

The thing about industrialization is that the more of the same product you produce, the cheaper it is to produce a single product.

The British automotive industry did not start late, or even early. As early as 1680, Newton, a famous British scientist, envisioned the jet car. Although the jet car did not work, the idea of the automobile was developed.

In 1804, British engineer Richard Trevithick, who built the world's first steam engine car, opened the curtain on the British automobile industry.

Unfortunately, the opening king was played for bronze in the end. After that, the history of automobile development shifted from Britain to France, and then to Shinra.

The steam engine car was also an automobile, albeit a less convenient one, but still valuable on certain occasions, so it was produced in small quantities.

By all means, the British car companies with their industrial heritage should not have fallen behind, but the key to the problem was the second industrial revolution.

Missing the wave of the second industrial revolution, internal combustion engine technology did not keep up, the car's engine became the biggest shortcomings in the British automotive industry.

The performance of their own engines can not keep up, it can only be imported from overseas, anyway, now is the era of free trade, want to buy can be bought.

The most direct manifestation of this is the rising cost of production.

Just the engine alone is expensive, but it's tolerable, or at worst, it's less profitable.

The problem is that Britain's car production capacity is very low, and the production of spare parts is not high, so the cost of producing fewer parts goes up.

Most of the locally produced parts are not only more expensive than the imported ones, but they also cannot keep up with the performance.

The direct consequence is that Britain's car manufacturing enterprise has become a car assembly factory.

In addition to the name of the car production company, an additional car logo, their work outside the garage can also do.

With the development of technology, information is becoming more and more transparent. After discovering this, more and more auto repair stores play cross-border, increasing competition in the market.

The domestic competition was already very fierce, but I didn't expect the international competitors to kill again. By virtue of their performance advantages, many of Shinra's car brands have gained a foothold.

The first high-end brands fall, look at the estate's cars will know, almost all of the imported cars.

Including Byron, the car manufacturer, the seat is also imported goods. There is no way, their own products in the performance of the real to some poor. For the sake of life and safety, we all know how to choose.

The high end of the market was lost, and there weren't many sales to begin with. Before the influx of imported cars, horse-drawn carriages were the main form of transportation in Britain.

Now it is different, with the influx of cheap cars. Without the core technology of the assembly plant, it was no longer a good time, and a large market share was squeezed out.

In order for the company to survive, Byron had to choose to lay off employees and cut production. But these are only immediate relief, want to get through the crisis is far from enough.

Customers were having a hard time, and McCall naturally couldn't mention the order problem. In a sense, we are all in the same boat now.

If you want to live comfortably, you have to collapse the free trade system first and protect the market with tariff barriers.

"Be optimistic my friend, it's going to be okay. The difficulties are only temporary, and the main problem is the free trade system.

Without this system, we can raise tariffs to protect markets and buy time for companies to grow.

That's what the Austrians did back then, and if they hadn't implemented trade barriers, they would never have become the number one industrial power in the world today."

Lying is also a learned skill, and as a qualified capitalist, it is a fundamental survival skill.

Although McCall didn't believe that Britain's industry could overtake it by protecting trade, he couldn't afford to wimp out on momentum.

Raising his glass and clinking it, Byron drank directly from it, and then said in the same breath, "My friend, you're right.

It is the fault of the evil Free Trade Agreement, without which the wealth of Britain would not have been stolen.

For Britain's sake, we must right this wrong. This damn treaty must not be allowed to continue to teatox Britain's future ......"

......