Make France Great Again

Chapter 935 Rhineland Political Crisis

Following the outbreak of economic crises of varying degrees in the United Kingdom and the United States, the European continent cannot escape the fate of being affected by the economic crisis.

Among them, the Kingdom of Prussia in North Germany was the first to suffer the baptism of economic crisis. As the country with the first industrialization level in the entire German region and the third largest industrial scale in Europe (the top two are Britain and France), the development of the Kingdom of Prussia since 1850 The speed can be said to be a big change every year, not to mention compared to the development speed of the old Britain and France, even compared to the development speed of the United States of America.

The Kingdom of Prussia, which was developing at a rapid pace, had covered up some of its national and class contradictions. Prussian citizens who had plenty of money turned their love for politics into the pursuit of assets. Not many people still remember what happened in 1851.

[ps: The class contradiction here refers to the contradiction between the Junker landlord class and the industrial bourgeoisie.

In 1851, in order to win the favor of the Russian Empire, the Prussian regent ordered the garrison in East Prussia and the returning regiment to enter Berlin, which in turn caused the tragedy of tens of thousands of people in Berlin.

The bicameral system was abolished and the Junker nobility regained control of the entire Kingdom of Prussia. 】

Many newspapers under Juncker's control even openly advocated the Three Estates Conference. They believed that the Kingdom of Prussia would truly become prosperous and powerful only under the Three Estates Conference.

However, these Juncker newspapers did not seem to notice at all that the third estate in the Three Estates Conference was just like the original France. They bore more taxes than the first and second estates, but their political interests were greater than those of the first and second estates. less.

The Third Estate finally gained its rights, but was completely lost in the turmoil of 1851.

If Prussia itself was not still developing at a rapid pace, some middle class and industrial bourgeoisie in the Kingdom of Prussia would have already stood up and rebelled.

However, the economic prosperity could not last forever. Under the barbaric development, the Kingdom of Prussia could still barely suppress the opponents below when the overall economy was prosperous.

Once the Kingdom of Prussia fell into an economic crisis, those undercurrents hidden under the water would completely swallow up the Kingdom of Prussia in an instant.

In mid-December, the economic crisis in the Kingdom of Prussia began to erupt.

The railway bonds of the Kingdom of Prussia on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange fell at a rate of 10% per hour on the first day of the economic crisis.

Many stockholders squatting at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange looked at the numbers on the writing board with horrified faces. Some stockholders holding Kingdom of Prussia railway bonds, like stockholders in the United States of America, rushed in frantically to get back their own money.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange briefly fell into chaos after being attacked by investors.

The whole chaos lasted less than 20 minutes before it was stopped by the National Army who came after hearing the news. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange also took this opportunity to transmit the news of the stock market drop to the Berlin Representative Office and the Koblenz Representative Office via telegram. (Located in Lainland, it is the capital of Lainland Province.)

Local stocks in Berlin and Koblenz (mainly related to railways, such as the steel industry and the timber market) also fell crazily with the decline in Frankfurt. Stock investors and industrial capitalists in Berlin and Koblenz were watching. After the stock fell, a look of despair appeared on his face.

By the time the Frankfurt Stock Exchange closed, the Kingdom of Prussia's railway bonds were already 60% less than at the opening, which was equivalent to 40% of the assets being directly evaporated.

During the era of liberal capitalism, the stock market did not have the concept of a limit.

Except for France, no country has set up a circuit breaker mechanism like that of later generations.

Therefore, even if the Kingdom of Prussia railway bonds fall to only 10% of the opening price, they can continue to be listed as long as they are not bankrupt.

If it really reaches 10%, the Prussian railway company will basically go bankrupt.

By the way, the vast majority of Prussia's current railway companies belong to companies owned by the Kingdom of Prussia.

The interests of the railway are entirely to serve the interests of the army, so Mao Qi was able to easily make the railway company obey his arrangements.

Therefore, the fall of the Kingdom of Prussia's railway bonds would have a more fatal impact on Prussia as a whole than the United States of America.

On the first day that Prussian railway bonds fell, the market gave feedback on the decline. Nearly a hundred companies in Berlin and Koblenz declared bankruptcy, the vast majority of which were steel and timber companies.

Many industrial capitalists and bankers began to panic, and people took the promissory notes that had expired or were about to expire to commercial banks, and were willing to exchange them at a price lower than the promissory notes.

However, the current Prussian trading houses also don't have a penny in their hands. All their money has been invested in industrial capitalists. Now the trading houses only have promissory notes and stocks of industrial capitalists.

Unable to withstand the pressure of exchange, many established commercial banks took promissory notes and bonds in their hands and asked the industrial capitalists they invested to exchange them.

At this moment, the industrial capitalists also cannot redeem promissory notes because they have no orders on hand.

There was no way to exchange the promissory note in the company or the commercial bank, and it went bankrupt.

Take the prestigious Ugbe Commercial Bank, for example. Before the economic crisis, this commercial bank claimed to have deposits of 20 million marks. It can be said that it has won the hearts of Prussian savings users.

However, such a "well-funded" trading house declared bankruptcy a week after the economic crisis began. When the staff of the Kingdom of Prussia counted the liabilities of Urgebe Commercial Bank, among the 13 million mark liabilities of Urgebe Commercial Bank, there were 7 million marks were promissory notes, and this old trading house only had a pitiful 300,000 marks in hand to maintain their huge debt.

Those poor Prussian savings users and those who held the promissory notes of Ugbeer Trading Company had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill alone.

One week after the economic crisis, the railway bonds of the Kingdom of Prussia had fallen to less than 25% of their peak (when there was no large-scale sell-off in the French Empire). The textile industry, steel industry, and coal industry also fell to one-half of their original value. .

The development of the entire Kingdom of Prussia was directly cut off by the economic crisis, and nearly 300,000 workers were transported to society.

To make matters worse, the decline of the Kingdom of Prussia was not yet over.

Dozens of companies go bankrupt every day, and more workers are sent to society.

Those unemployed workers and white-collar workers, guided by certain foreign forces and domestic republicans and national forces, once again recalled the tragedy that happened in 1851.

Organized by constitutionalists, republicans and Catholic forces in Prussia, Koblenz began rounds of demonstrations.

Almost every day, nearly 10,000 people parade on the streets of Koblenz with various tastes.

After seeing this scene, the police and national army in Koblenz did not expel them as before, but instead acted as they did.

After all, they were also people from the Yinlan area, and they did not dare to kill these fellow villagers who were demonstrating.

Not to mention that there are Catholics among the demonstrators. If they really hit the Catholic demonstrators, they will face the risk of being "deathed by cyber violence" throughout their trip to Inland.

The Catholic forces in Laiyinlan have a greater influence on the guilds in Laiyinlan. A large part of the people in Laiyinlan rely on Catholicism from birth to burial. In this case, anyone with a little sense will I won’t choose to dig my own grave.

Moreover, the Prussian Protestant bumpkins from the east who came to Inland to serve the local police and national army also harbored deep malice.

The intertwining of various factors caused the entire Lainland to become the first turbulent province in the Kingdom of Prussia.

Seeing this, the garrison stationed in Coblenz immediately sent a telegram to the Prussian Regent William in Berlin. They asked the Regent to allow them to enter Coblenz as they did in 1851 and destroy the troops in Coblenz. The "cancer" is removed.

However, the garrison stationed in Coblenz did not know at this moment that the regent in Berlin was also in distress.

The cliff-like decline of Prussian railway bonds not only plunged all walks of life in the Kingdom of Prussia into crisis, but also put the Kingdom of Prussia's finances into an extremely dangerous situation.

In order to save the critically endangered Prussian Railway, William had continuously invested more than 50 million marks, but these marks were like pebbles thrown into the sea, with no movement at all.

Just when William I wanted to continue investing in marks to pull back the price of railway bonds, the finance minister told William I that the British Kingdom was selling the Kingdom of Prussia's national debt in the market.

If the Kingdom of Prussia does not leave some funds to cover the bottom line, the national debt of the entire Kingdom of Prussia will also follow the footsteps of the Prussian railway bonds.

After hearing the news, Prince Regent William immediately cursed, "Those damn British, why do they have to choose to sell at this time!"

"Your Majesty the Regent, the crisis in the British Kingdom is even more serious!" the Finance Minister responded respectfully to Prince Regent William, "This has resulted in them having to sell bonds in the European market as soon as possible to maintain the country's declining economy!"

"Why don't they sell French bonds! They have a lot of French national debt!" Prince Regent William cursed again.

"Your Majesty, France also holds a large amount of British national debt!" the finance minister replied to the regent.

"..." Prince Regent William remained silent.

The tragedy of the Kingdom of Prussia is that it developed too late.

At this moment, Minister of War Ron also brought heavy news from Coblenz to William I, which made William I's blood pressure even higher.

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