Holy Roman Empire
640 The French New Plan
Since ancient times, it has been easy to find problems and difficult to solve them.Everyone can see the development dilemma facing France, and it is still a difficult problem to get rid of the dilemma.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Allen: "Your Majesty, learn about the Austrians developing colonies! France has more than 10 million square colonies. Once developed, most of the industrial raw materials needed in the country can be solved."
This is not the first time that "developing a colony" was proposed. As early as the time of Napoleon III, the French government formulated an ambitious colonial development plan.
To this end, the French government has also launched a large-scale immigration plan, with millions of immigrants from the Balkans, Italy, and the mainland, filling the North African region.
The influx of immigrants promoted the development of French Africa to a certain extent, but unfortunately it ended in failure.
It is not that the French government does not work hard, it is useless to work hard.Apart from the development of some precious minerals, other industries have not developed.
This is completely different from Austria. Austrian Africa can develop. There are a group of nobles and people who like to farm and develop a plantation economy locally.
More people settled, the income of the colonial government increased, the infrastructure gradually improved, and after the improvement of transportation, the surrounding minerals were slowly developed, forming a virtuous circle.
French Africa is different. The French have no love for farming.Everyone is only interested in precious metals such as gold and silver mines. Industries such as farms and plantations with low returns have no one willing to invest.
French people are reluctant to invest, let alone other immigrants.Even if you want to build your own farm or plantation, you have to have money in your pocket!
Private capital refuses to enter, and it depends on the investment of the French government. Naturally, it cannot last for several years.
The local economy has not developed, and the mining industry is still cheaper to use indigenous people.Against this background, the French colonial development plan soon went bankrupt.
Economic Minister Elsa: "His Excellency, it is so easy to restart the colonial development plan.
The biggest problem is that people are reluctant to invest in colonies. Even if they invest, they are only interested in mineral resources. Too few people are willing to invest in other fields.
With the power of the government alone, the cost of developing the colony is too great."
Chancellor of the Exchequer Allen: "We can increase government input and introduce policies to encourage people to go to colonial development. As long as we persist, we will succeed sooner or later.
Whatever the cost, it must be done.France is not short of technology. The domestic industrial development lags behind that of Britain and Austria. The main reason is that we lack enough cheap industrial raw materials.
If we cannot change the embarrassment of industrial raw materials subject to people, our industry will never develop!"
Economic Minister Elsa shook her head: "My Excellency Marquis, you should go to the nationalists and idealists outside and say that they will support you.
In fact, we all know that nobles, capitalists, and ordinary people in the country will not think so.
A few slogans are fine. If you let everyone invest money in colonial construction, the first thing that cannot be avoided is the issue of income.
There is also a gap between the colonies and the colonies. On the surface, we seem to be the third largest colonial empire in the world with unlimited scenery; but we have to admit that the difference between our colonies in Britain and Austria is too great.
Do you not think that the vast desert is also valuable?
After getting rid of these bad grounds, the remaining territory is already less than one-third.A large part of this land is subject to geographical conditions and has no development value.
Even if it is developed, it may not be able to meet domestic demand.At least our largest coal resource gap is not in French Africa."
This is a real problem. Like Austria, most French colonies are concentrated on the African continent, and most of them are in desert areas.
The harsh natural conditions and climatic environment have become the biggest problems restricting the development of French Africa.Investment and income are not proportional, and capital will naturally abandon them.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Allen said uncertainly: "Coal resources are only temporarily discovered, not equal to French Africa. We have developed these areas too low, as long as we continue to find them.
Continent ’s African continent cannot be without coal resources. Be patient and send more prospecting teams to find out, and there will always be gains."
At the time of saying this, Allen had no confidence. France lacked coal for a long time. In order to solve the shortage of coal resources, a large number of prospecting teams were sent during the period of Napoleon III.
It can't be said that there is no harvest at all. The coal mines still found a lot. Unfortunately, the reserves are too low and the development is difficult. Most coal mines have no economic value.
It would be too wrong to say that the prospecting team did not work hard.There is no such thing in itself, and they cannot always be transformed into coal mines.
Army Secretary Patrice McMahon retorted: "My Excellency Marquis, this only exists in theory. In fact, the distribution of mineral resources is determined by God. It is not that the land area is large, there must be rich minerals.
If we want to solve the shortage of coal, we can directly find a solution from our neighboring countries. It is better than not wanting to rely on unrealistic fantasy."
Patrice McMahon is a hawk in the French government, advocating to seize the territory west of the Rhine, and is incompatible with the dove faction led by Chancellor of the Exchequer Allen.(Belgium, Rhineland, and parts of Baden)
Now that coal resources are involved, Patrice McMahon immediately plays on the topic and advocates a strategy for expansion into Central Europe.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Allen accused bluntly: "My Excellency Marshal, if you can make Britain and Austria neutral, I would not mind developing towards China and Europe.
If you ca n’t do it, it ’s best to dispel this unrealistic fantasy, unless you want to experience another European anti-French war."
Army Secretary Patrice McMahon sneered and said disdainfully, "Coward!"
"The international situation is now very obvious. The enmity between the two countries is deep. The second general war between Russia and Russia may break out at any time, and it is simply unable to interfere in our actions.
Without the participation of both Russia and Russia, the Spanish government was influenced by us, the Italian region was annexed by us, Switzerland declared eternal neutrality, and the Nordic Federation was alone in the north.
As long as we are fast enough to create established facts, the small countries of the Netherlands and Portugal dare not send troops.
The British Army has limited strength, and the only one capable of interference is Austria. What are you afraid of one-on-one?"
Without experiencing the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, the French were still arrogant.The Russian Empire did not fall behind. For political needs, the French government claimed itself as the world ’s first army.
After a long time, I heard more praise, and the French military floated.Patrice McMahon was inevitably affected, and gradually dismissed other countries.
Foreign Minister Montero reminded: "My Excellency Marshal, one-on-one does not exist. The two countries will definitely join forces. Perhaps the Army can ignore their threat, but the Navy cannot.
If we cannot win the war in a short period of time, we will face a protracted blockade. Otherwise, food alone is a big problem."
Now the French are very confident in their own strength. The newspapers are bragging every day. After listening for a long time, the Paris government is also unprecedentedly confident in its own strength.
Of course, the high-level government has not completely lost, and at most it has confidence in the army.As for the navy, forget it. The Royal Navy's Jiwei is too prosperous, and the French have no confidence to challenge.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Allen waved his hand: "The topic is off. Today we are holding an economic conference to discuss how to solve the problem of Austria's entry into the free trade system, but it is not a military conference."
It seems to be an understatement, but it is actually warning that Patrice McMahon has passed.The economic conference is the government ’s job, and it is not the military ’s turn to intervene.
Although the Secretary of the Army is also a member of the government, in actual work, his power has been limited to the military field, and the government's economic policy has nothing to do with them.
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Napoleon IV rubbed his forehead, not knowing when the French government was used to quarreling.
The dispute in the cabinet is still harmonious. If it is to expand the meeting, it may even be a melee fight.
The relationship between the following people is not good, which is naturally beneficial to the emperor as an arbiter, but it is a great harm to the efficiency of the government.
When everyone quarrels for a result, everything is late.In order to improve government efficiency, many times Napoleon IV had to come to the game in person.
This approach is very harmful to the imperial power.But there is no way to arrange for the men to be hired. Everyone does not buy the bill at all, and Napoleon IV can only go by himself.
For example, now, the Minister of Finance ’s plan to restart colonial development is obviously unpopular.
If Napoleon IV wanted to restart the colony development plan, he had to give him the platform himself.
Seeing that the quarrel would not produce results, Napoleon IV interrupted: "Don't discuss the plan for the time being. Let's list the plans first and see how many options we have.
If you have no choice, even the worst plan is better than no plan.In any case, we ca n’t wait to die, it is chronic suicide!"
Obviously, they have little choice.As long as we join the free trade system, we must solve the problem of raw materials.
As for relying on the power of capital to promote industrial technological innovation, reduce production costs, maintain market competitiveness, and thus maintain the current market share.
Sorry, this is idealism.France does not lack capital, which does not mean that French industry does not lack capital.
Everyone originally thought that the real industry had a low rate of return and was reluctant to invest in the real industry.If we join the free trade system, increase competitors, and further divide profits, can we still expect capitalists to fail to invest?
Restarting the colony development plan may not be the best option, but it is the only viable option at the moment.
In addition, this plan can not get a return in a short period of time, and it will take another ten or twenty years to see the benefits.
Not to mention that it can completely solve the problem of insufficient raw materials in France, but most industrial raw materials can achieve self-sufficiency.
The prerequisite is that the French plan will be successful, and the colony will really be developed, or else it should be.
Forced by reality, with the support of Napoleon IV, the French government passed the "Restoration of Colony Development Plan" proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer with little advantage.
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