After half a year of negotiations, Britain and Austria finally reached an agreement. On November 12, 1877, representatives of the two countries signed the "British-Austria Free Trade Agreement" in Paris, and Austria officially joined the free trade system.

It has to be said that the Paris Conference is a comedy. It was originally intended to reconcile conflicts among countries and eliminate international conflicts, but the result was that the attempt was not done. Many irrelevant treaties were born.

It’s right to think about it. After all, it’s a meeting between high-level countries and there is no result at all. Why do you have the nerve to go back?

It is inevitable to go off topic, everything is for political achievements. So far, eight treaties have been generated at the Paris Conference, involving most European countries.

This is just an open and no one can know how many secret agreements there are in secret. In short, the Paris Conference was not in vain.

...

At the Palace of Versailles, Napoleon IV threw his cup and cursed: "Damn British, damn Austrian idiots, they must have done it on purpose!"

Napoleon IV's speculation was correct. The British-Austrian free trade negotiations were actually held in Vienna. They went to Paris to sign the treaty, which was strongly requested by the British.

Needless to say, the London government cannot be without response when the French arranged Queen Victoria so much!

Diplomatic protests cannot stop the French people's mouths. French newspapers dare to publish even the emperor's gossip news, let alone the Queen of England?

From the initial "curse" to now, it has developed into love news, and even erotic novels have appeared, and the content is unsightly.

The straits cannot block the spread of entertainment gossip. By spreading these newspapers and novels, they have long been traveling across the ocean to enter Britain and secretly spreading it.

It is one thing to be happy about the content, but it is too disgraceful to the national character and makes the British people very unhappy. Everyone asked the London government to stop the French's bad behavior.

Of course, the British royal family should play a major role in this. Under pressure from all parties, the London government naturally needs to take action.

Since we cannot block the French, let’s make a big news to divert everyone’s attention and hit the French.

The UK-Austria Free Trade Agreement is undoubtedly the best killer weapon, directly hitting the French. Once it is not handled properly, France, which is already behind, will really decline.

Chancellor of the Finance Minister Alan: "Your Majesty, now is not the time to be concerned with them. The most urgent thing is to minimize the impact.

Britain and Austria have reached an agreement, and it is estimated that it will take not long before the two countries will take action to win more countries into the free trade system.

Now, we and Spain are the biggest European countries outside the free trade system. We must stabilize the Spaniards no matter what, otherwise we will be in trouble."

It has to be admitted that the British's diplomatic methods are powerful. In the past few decades, they have successively won over the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, the Nordic Federation and other countries to join.

Now that Austria has joined the free trade system, the remaining Switzerland, the German Federal Empire, Greece, and Montenegro will naturally join the free trade system.

France was isolated again, and the only remaining Spain must be seized no matter what. Fortunately, the Spanish royal family was supported by Napoleon III and was a pro-French faction.

Foreign Minister Montero: "It's not that simple, the Spaniards may not stand with us this time.

Britain and Austria have too many bargaining chips, and the price they can give will be much higher than ours.

Our advantage is mainly that the Spanish government is pro-French, but it is hard to say how much role this advantage can play in the face of interests.

The situation is now very obvious, and it is our turn to make a decision. This semi-free trade model, which was feasible before, has now become the worst choice."

"Semi-free trade system" is an economic policy formulated by Napoleon III based on the economic policies of European countries and based on the actual situation of France.

Simply put, it means that the industrial raw materials needed by France are exempted from tariffs or low tariffs, and the trade protection policy is implemented for the goods that can be produced in the country.

To a certain extent, before that, the economic policies of France and Austria were somewhat similar, and both were protecting domestic industry and commerce.

Unfortunately, Austria seized the opportunity of the Second Industrial Revolution and took the lead in completing industrial transformation. It also has agriculture as a support, and now it has the ability to participate in international competition.

France is different. Not only is it scarce, domestic capitalists do not like to invest in manufacturing.

Even Napoleon III encouraged the development of manufacturing, it failed to change the nature of French capital's preference for usury.

The lack of funds flowing into the manufacturing industry will naturally lag behind. The core factor that causes all this is essentially the lack of local industrial raw materials in France.

Although France was also a colonial empire, it was also a desert empire. Most of the vast colonies were deserts, and the output of colonies was relatively insufficient.

In addition, the annexation of the Italian region, which was more scarce, made France's resource crisis worse and had to rely on imports.

Now more than 70% of the world's industrial raw materials exports are monopolized by Britain and Austria. In order to combat competitors, Britain and Austria, which have the right to price raw materials, artificially raise the market prices of raw materials.

By developing industries by importing industrial raw materials, the cost will naturally increase. In international competition, the competitiveness of French industrial and commercial products is obviously insufficient.

Secretary of Finance Allen: "His Marquis, joining the free trade system is easy. If it is implemented, we must first consider whether domestic industry and commerce can withstand the impact.

According to statistics from the Paris Daily, the overall cost of industrial and commercial products we produce in China is 2.9% higher than that of the British and 2.7% higher than that of Austria.

But it is a fact that domestic industrial production costs are high. If market protection is relaxed and international competition is faced with international competition, we will be at a disadvantage."

The high industrial production costs are a problem that is unsolvable. Unless the price of raw materials is reduced, there will be no solution.

Napoleon IV: "If the industrial production costs differ by two or three percentage points, it seems that it is not irreparable.

The capital of Britain and Austria also needs to make money. They cannot sell at cost prices, so domestic companies are nothing more than making less money.

The government can also narrow the gap by reducing taxes. As long as it overcomes the first wave of shocks, I believe that domestic companies can gain a foothold in the competition.

At the worst, we can also rely on distance and maintain the local market, and will not make the situation worse."

After hearing Napoleon IV's words, the Chancellor of Finance Allen was shocked and hurriedly dissuaded: "Your Majesty, things are not that simple. This gap is the overall gap between all industries.

If it comes to a specific industry, the cost gap may also be widened to 20 to 30%, which is no longer possible to make up for the adjustment of the tax rate.”

Just kidding, God knows how much water is in the data published in the newspaper. No one knows whether it is through data analysis or speculation out of thin air.

The French government does not have a special statistical agency. When data is needed, economic experts are responsible for estimating, and the government then performs art processing based on needs.

Allen did not want to change all this. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he knew too much of the truth, but the French people could not accept the fact that they were not as good as Britain and Austria.

Not to mention now, after the French War of Time and Space, the French people did not admit that they were not as good as Germany.

World War I said it was caused by the German-French contradiction, but in fact it was also caused by the pride of the French. The first World War lost the pride of the French, which led to the corpse of World War II.

Instead of counting the real numbers and not daring to publish them, it is better not to count them and let everyone pretend to be confused.

In the free trade system, just shout slogans in normal times. If you take it seriously, you will die.

In addition to the financial industry, most of France's industries will be impacted. The emergence of the usury empire is not without reason.

Napoleon IV frowned, and there was no doubt that he was slapped in the face again. This feeling was very unpleasant, and it seemed that he, the emperor, was very ignorant.

"So how to solve the current problem? Britain and Austria jointly engaged in a free trade system, and most European countries joined in, and the remaining countries couldn't last long.

By then, not only Europe, but the whole world will be covered by the free trade system. Can France really be safe from it?"

It was not that Napoleon IV did not understand, but that he could see it too clearly. The free trade system that the British tinkered with was itself an open conspiracy, and even if he knew it, he could not stop it.

France's industry has not exploded now and can be left out for the time being. Once domestic industry and commerce develop further, France will still join in due to reality.

Of course, you can also choose to challenge the world. The original Germans in space-time lacked raw materials and markets and lacked the right to speak in the free trade system, and then started the war after being forced.

The current situation in France is naturally much better than that of the German Empire, but the crisis still exists. Unless the manufacturing industry is not developed, the crisis will sooner or later be triggered.
Chapter completed!