Holy Roman Empire

The negotiations between the North and the South have not ended, but the American Civil War has actually ended.Neither the European powers nor the American people do not want this war to continue.

This is not something that can be reversed by the individual's will. The rest is nothing more than talking about conditions.

In order to show sincerity, both the North and the South stopped military operations, including the ongoing military mobilization.

Strategically, the goal of weakening the United States is basically achieved.It is now the last paper treaty that has divided the United States.

This is not just a good thing, but also a series of problems.For example: Austria's cotton and cotton spinning industries will be hit.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the cotton supply shortage in the international market during the American Civil War, the Austrian cotton spinning industry, which has sufficient cotton supply, has sprung up to grab the British market in Europe.

Now in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Central Europe, British cotton spinning products are gradually being squeezed out of the market.

Previously, because of the insufficient supply of cotton, the cotton textile products were in short supply, and the British were helpless when they were robbed of the market by Austria.

It is different now. With the end of the civil war, US cotton production will soon recover.With sufficient supplies of raw materials, British capitalists will naturally make a comeback.

The market is the lifeblood of every industrial country. As the first country to complete the industrial revolution, the British have accumulated enough advantages, and industrial strength once exceeded half of the world.

With the completion of the industrialization of France and Austria, the proportion of British industry in the total global industry has declined, but it still ranks first in the world.

However, an embarrassing thing is that the British Empire, the world's factory, has been in a state of superevolution for a long time.

In 1864, British exports totaled 215 million pounds, while imports totaled 275 million pounds, and the trade deficit reached 60 million pounds.

During the same period, France ’s total foreign exports amounted to 2.963 billion francs, imports from the outside totaled 2.523 billion francs, and its trade surplus reached 440 million francs.(About £ 17.6 million)

Austria ’s total export volume is 285 million Aegis, its total import volume is 226 million A.D., and its trade surplus is 59 million A.D.(About £ 29.5 million)

Not only is the French and Austrian countries in overtaking status, but even the Russians are in overtaking status. In 1864, Russians exported 187 million rubles in total, imports totaled 175 million rubles, and trade surplus was 12 million rubles.

In this era, the volume of international trade was relatively small, and the Russians ’grain exports exceeded half of the total exports. With this advantage, a trade surplus was achieved.

Austria can have such a large surplus, and agricultural exports also occupy an important position. After all, people always have to eat. The British are one of the most important food importers in Europe.

In order to solve the trade deficit problem, all previous British governments have broken their hearts.There is no way, the lack of local resources determines that the British have been in a state of overtaking for a long time.

Fortunately, there are many John Bull colonies, and this gap can be filled by plundering colonial wealth, otherwise ordinary countries will not be able to support it for a long time.

The history of the Opium War was caused by the British in order to smooth out the trade deficit.

Now that the market has been robbed by Austrian capital, the British will certainly not give up.It is not enough to overturn the table, and at this point the conflict does not require the two countries to tear their faces.

Of course it is useless to turn your face. This is fair competition in business.At that time, the supply of cotton products in the British was insufficient, so that Austria had to take advantage of it, and John Bull had no ability to keep the market waiting.

Now that the American Civil War is over, cotton production in the South may return to normal next year.Thanks to the export of labor services, this output may even increase further.

The geographic conditions of the United States of America are unique, and their cotton yield per mu is usually higher than in other regions.

Of course, the insufficient output per mu can be compensated by expanding the planting area, but the corresponding labor input still increased.

Historically, the North has won the victory. As the losers, the southern plantation owners have lost their cheap labor, cotton production has been seriously affected, and they have encountered Indian and Egyptian cotton to grab the market.

Of course, the most important thing is that the capitalists in the north need cheap industrial raw materials, and by means of raising tariffs and rail freight, the US cotton has lost market competitiveness.

India ’s cotton production has not yet increased. In order to compete for the labor force to dig the Suez Canal, the British promoted cotton cultivation in Egypt was also hindered by the two countries.

At this time, the only competitor of the United States in the cotton market is West Africa.

There is no surplus of cotton supply in the international market. Such competition is unwise in the short term, and Austria itself can digest most of the production capacity of West African cotton.

However, in the future, when Indian cotton enters the market and Egyptian cotton enters the market, this competition will become fierce.

In the cotton textile industry, it is necessary to compete with the British and the cotton market to compete with the United States, Egypt, and India. Franz had to consider this series of economic issues in advance.

Schonbrunn Palace

"There are only two issues today. First, how can we maintain the market share of our cotton textile industry products on the European continent; second, how to protect the interests of cotton farmers?"

In this era, there were few industrial and commercial products, and the textile industry economy dominated.The Austrian core industry does not include the cotton textile industry, but because of the American Civil War, the cotton textile industry has sprung up, which cannot be abandoned.

At present, there are more than 1.2 million workers in the cotton textile industry in Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Lombardy, Venezia and other regions, and more than 2.5 million employees in the industrial chain.

So many people are pointing at the textile industry to eat, which directly determines that the Vienna government must protect this industry. The British-Austrian trade dispute is inevitable.

Not to mention protecting the interests of cotton farmers, most of the colonial plantation owners are currently nobles.

This is determined by Austria ’s national conditions. Ordinary people are limited by their economic strength, even if they open up plantation areas; capitalists have no love for farming.

Because of the redemption of domestic land, many nobles lost their land and received a ransom payment, which obviously could not be left to sit in the mountains.

After the colony was opened, many conservative nobles focused their investment on plantations.Perhaps the profitability of farming in later generations is not high, but in this era, the return on investment in plantations is not much lower than other industries.

Cotton plantations are no exception. A large number of nobles gather. As a spokesperson for noble interest groups, Franz naturally has to consider their interests.

This is also related to everyone's enthusiasm for developing colonies.Under profitable circumstances, the ruling class will certainly desperately defend the colonial system and vice versa.

Economic Minister Andrew replied: "Your Majesty, our Ministry of Economic Affairs has prepared an emergency plan. We can use political means to guard the domestic and Russian market issues when necessary.

The Southern Italy region is in a civil war, and the already small market is now shrinking further, and will not be the focus of the British counterattack.

The rest is Central Europe, including the German Federation, Prussia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and other regions, which is the main battlefield of this trade war.

French capital may also join in. In recent years, the French economy has also developed very well. With the guarantee of raw material supply, their cotton textile products are also competitive in the market.

In order to improve the market competitiveness of cotton textile products, the Ministry of Economy believes that these first-line production enterprises can be granted tax refund subsidies when necessary."

Simple, rough, but very effective.Everyone's production technology is almost the same, and there are no advantages or disadvantages in product quality. There are still not many advantages in production cost. To gain an advantage in market competition, you can only fight policies.

Historically, the British cotton spinning industry was washed away by subsidies from various countries.The manufacturing industry fights for cost and quality. Once the technological advantage is lost, competition becomes cruel.

In this regard, Franz is also powerless to fight a part of the British market with a time difference. Now that the time for competition is up, everyone can only fight for strength.

The only benefit is that the British cotton spinning industry is larger. Once the financial subsidies are played, the British will pay three million for every one million Austrians pay.

Under normal circumstances, everyone will not play this kind of two-player game.After all, there are so many industries in a country that it is impossible to concentrate resources on one industry.

Agriculture Minister Christian said: "Cotton is closely related to the cotton textile industry. As long as the domestic cotton textile industry does not fail, the economy of cotton plantations in West Africa will not collapse.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of West African cotton, we can think of ways to tax, for example: reduce or even cancel the trade tax between the colony and the homeland."

Throughout the European countries, Austria definitely attaches the most importance to the economic development of the colony.But no matter how important it is, it can't compare with the local.

In order to avoid the colonial cheap crops, which hit the local agricultural market, from the beginning, there was a trade tax between the local and the colonies, but it was slightly lower than the foreign tariffs.

There has always been a call for economic integration in the Vienna government. The nobles who invested in the plantations always wanted to include the colony in their own country for their own benefit.

At present, the ruling model in West Africa, Congo, and Nigeria has begun to move closer to the country, and some colonial cities are adopting the same laws as the country.

As the first generation of colonizers, everyone's feelings with the local community are still very strong.Many people are advancing the integration process, and Franz himself is also one of the supporters.

However, because of all aspects involved, the Vienna government did not dare to announce the incorporation of the colony into the homeland, but the development of the best colony has begun to implement the province system.

Compared with the country, these colonies have greater rights to govern the province, and even have certain military rights.Now lowering the right to trade between the colony and the homeland is undoubtedly a step further in the integration process.

After pondering for a while, Franz raised a question: "In theory, there is no problem, but the reduction of local and colonial trade taxes also involves the integration of the Second German and the local.

This issue first released the wind, to test the reactions of various circles in the country.At the same time, organizing economists to conduct a comprehensive argument must understand how much impact this has on the local community."

This is to clarify the problem and promote it before this: the legal basis of the process of colonial and indigenous integration is the reconstruction of the second German homeland proposed by Franz.

Since the African colony was the second German home from the beginning, there is no problem in merging with the first home.

However, these are all private speculations, and the official has not made any statement.The main force driving the integration process is also civil, and groups and individuals involved in the interests of the colonies are promoting this plan.

The driving force is not small, and the opposing clique is even stronger.Mainly local small and medium-sized nobles and farmers, they are afraid that the colonial cheap agricultural products will be sold back to the locality and damage their interests.

However, the current situation is somewhat unexpected. The agricultural products in the Austrian colony are not cheap, at least not competitive with the local agricultural products.

On the one hand, the lack of labor in the colony has caused high labor costs; on the other hand, it is mainly the newly developed land, and the early output is not high.

The most important thing is that the two major grain-growing regions in Austria are very fertile, and infrastructures such as water conservancy and transportation are complete, and they are not comparable to those in the colonies.

As for the future?Franz can responsibly say that once fertilizers are born, the profitability of farming will fall further.

With or without the impact of colonial agricultural products, local agriculture will be affected.Many grain importing countries use chemical fertilizers to increase grain output, and the international grain market will shrink sharply in a short time.

In this respect, Austria cannot develop fertilizers, and even if they are developed, they cannot be put into production.

The longer the delay, the better for Austria.Before the industry has developed to a certain level, it is easy to make a change if it is abrupt.

If the grain output is not as high as possible, the market capacity will be so large. Once the boundary is exceeded, the grain output will be sighed.

This can be explained by the fact that the inventor of fertilizers was historically German.Are the United States, Austria-Hungary and Russia, grain exporters, inventing chemical fertilizers not asking for trouble?

Of course, the Germans never dreamed that they invented chemical fertilizers, but the biggest beneficiary was the French, which directly freed the French from the food dilemma and became one of the most important grain exporters in Europe.