Holy Roman Empire

Changing to France is different. The China-EU strategy has already been related to the question of whether France can go further.

If you can't expand to Central Europe, now is the peak era of France, and it can only go downhill in the future.

In fact, France has already begun to decline.Looking at the whole world, the era when France had the highest international status and the strongest horizontal comparative strength was between 1870 and 1881.

With the gunfire of the Paris Revolution, France was once again seriously injured, and now it is only just recovering.

Compared with Yingao, France directly wasted eight years.If the energy problem cannot be solved for a long time, the situation in the future will be even worse.

In this context, if the French government is unwilling to fall down and chooses to give it a go, it is only a matter of time.

Franz frowned, and said slowly: "This situation has to be considered, and we have to speed up our preparations to prevent things from being caught off guard.

Strengthen the monitoring of the French government. Once they find signs of preparing for war, they must report immediately. "

Austria's preparations for war have already started, but for the sake of confidentiality, the range of actions has been very small.

After all, now is not a good time for a decisive battle. Austria has not yet reached its limit, and its national strength is still growing at a high speed.

Chapter 141 The Paris Stock Market Crash

A drop in commodity prices does not mean a drop in production costs for enterprises, and even because of factors such as rising labor and industrial raw materials, the production costs of many enterprises have risen instead of falling.

The military orders provided by Britain and Russia are lower than market expectations, and many industries are facing a situation of oversupply.In this context, the life of the processing and manufacturing industry is naturally difficult.

In order to survive, everyone has to fight a price war.The fast-responsive companies were lucky, at least they made a fortune at the beginning of the war last year.

The market fell back in the first quarter, and overall profits were good.After entering the second quarter, it was a tragedy. A bunch of guys who fantasized about making war money joined in, further intensifying market competition.

It is impossible to exit, the funds have been turned into machinery and equipment, factory buildings, and at this time, there is no one to find a taker to leave the market.

Relatively speaking, British companies are the least affected, and the government's procurement is prioritized domestically, which invisibly occupies the greatest advantage.

Among the big countries, the worst is undoubtedly the French industry and commerce. The British government's orders cannot be obtained, and the Russian orders are facing competition from Austria.

The fact that the French government is willing to issue bonds to the Russians is actually to compete for the market. It is natural to buy French goods after taking the francs.

Even so, French industry and commerce can only get some orders for daily necessities, and the military industry with the most profit cannot compete with Austria at all.

It's not that French companies don't work hard, and it's not that the Russians treat them differently. It's mainly because the military industry system is different.

The Russian and Austrian weapons have the same caliber, and they can be used directly after purchase, and the logistics and maintenance are very convenient.

If you buy a French product, not only do soldiers need to be retrained, but logistical supplies and maintenance are even more of a problem. The tsarist government must consider practicality during the war years.

……

On May 1890, 5, another day when a listed company announced its financial report, the Paris Stock Exchange was already crowded with people.

From the faces of everyone talking and laughing, you can know that everyone is in a good mood.Looking forward to the stars and the moon, the Anglo-Russian War broke out, and now it is time to harvest.

From the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War to the present, the average share price of the Paris stock market has increased by as much as 23.7%, and the increase of the foreign trade enterprise sector has once exceeded 57%, and the stock price has doubled.

Based on the rich returns during the Prussian-Russian War, everyone's expectations for the Anglo-Russian War are very high.Especially the financial report of the last quarter of last year proved this point.

As for the price drop, I am sorry that the French people did not feel it.Because of tariff barriers, French prices are relatively less affected by the international market.

These days, news transmission is slow, capitalists are shrewd owners, export revenue is lower than expected, and there is a serious backlog of products. Naturally, these news must be kept strictly confidential.

If the news leaked ahead of time, who would take over for them?The market regulation in these years is about zero. Since the sales problems in the first quarter, everyone has been slowly reducing their holdings.

Under the continuous good news, ordinary investors have no idea that the crisis is approaching.

In front of the exchange, a middle-aged fat man was reading a financial newspaper with gusto.

"Yamix, what are you looking at?"

The middle-aged chubby Yamicks replied with regret: "Financial newspaper, Hex Textile Factory is negotiating with the Russians, and if nothing else happens, it's another big order of 3000 million francs!

It's a pity that I'm timid. I heard that there was a serious backlog of products in Hex Textile Factory a few days ago, so I withdrew half of it and bought Fei Duolun Machinery Factory. I missed this wave of market. "

The person who came comforted: "It doesn't matter, Fei Duolun Machinery Factory is also good. The downstream market is so good, and enterprises are expanding their production capacity. How can the performance of upstream equipment manufacturers be poor?"

This is the most common experience. Once the industry improves, all companies in the entire industry chain will benefit.

Yamix shook his head, it is true that upstream companies will benefit.However, the increase in stock price is definitely not as large as that of the company involved.

Now is a time of war, and all industries related to strategic materials are good. How can there be a large-scale product backlog?

Even if it is a backlog, it is still a company hoarding!Thinking of this, Amix directly greeted the whole family of the guy who delivered the message.

Looking at the smiling man, Yamix tentatively asked, "Anthony, I remember you also bought this stock, so you must have made a good profit this time."

Anthony smiled slightly: "It just happened to catch up, and I didn't buy much, only [-] shares.

But Yamix, you are too timid.The most important thing in our business is mentality. To analyze the overall market, there is no need to pay attention to gossip.

Capitalists are not fools. If there is a serious backlog of products, they would have already known to lay off employees and reduce production. It’s not like there are job advertisements in the streets and alleys now! "

Hearing his friend's analysis, Yamix's face became even more ugly, as if he had lost another [-] million.

Judging the operation of a company from the labor market is the most basic ability of ordinary investors, and even a novice in the stock market should know it.

Especially for the manufacturing industry, when companies are recruiting aggressively, it is definitely the best time for the market.

It seems that the consciousness has said it, and Anthony hurriedly remedied: "Okay, Yamicus. Now wait for the company to announce its financial report patiently. Anyway, it is all about making money, it is nothing more than a question of how much.

Maybe the performance of the machinery factory has exploded, and the stock price has risen even higher than that of the textile factory.You must know that in the recent period, there have been many new factories popping up, and they all need to purchase equipment. "

As soon as the words fell, someone shouted again: "This is impossible!"

"It's not true, you must be lying to me, right?"

……

As the financial reports of each company appeared, similar voices began to be heard endlessly.

Realizing that something was wrong, Yamicus and Anthony, who were still on the periphery of the crowd, hurriedly squeezed into the exchange.

But it was too late, and the stockholders who received the financial report had already started to sell their stocks after the initial panic.

The market is full of sell orders, and there are no buy orders at all.All the investors on the scene knew that the market was going to die.

Seeing that the situation was out of control, a group of well-prepared policemen appeared in the market and began to maintain order at the scene.

As of the close of trading that night, the Paris stock market fell by 8.6% directly, and some stocks were directly cut in half.

This is just the beginning. The companies that announced their financial reports today are only a small part, and the remaining companies will be announced in the following week.

If most companies fall short of market expectations, it will be a real disaster, and now it can only be regarded as an appetizer.

It's just that this appetizer directly tossed and tossed the Paris stock market's gains for more than half a year.

Chapter 142 Conspiracy

The turmoil in the stock market soon spread to the whole society.

Before the curtain opened, the capitalists artificially created a hot market in order to transfer losses, which is no longer necessary.

After the window paper was punctured, companies laid off employees and cut production.The economic crisis has not yet begun, and the wave of unemployment has already come first.

The news that was originally covered up no longer needs to be hidden.At this time, everyone suddenly realized that the so-called benefits were completely fabricated out of thin air.

The so-called purchase orders do exist, but it is not the Russian government or the British government that signed the contract, but a newly established leather bag company.

Since it is a leather bag company, it naturally cannot represent the government's position.The so-called entrusted procurement is even more fake and cannot be faked anymore.

Frankly speaking, this game is not brilliant.Perhaps in other countries, there may be government-entrusted companies to purchase, but it is absolutely impossible to exist in the Russian Empire.

The tsarist government has the most resentful bureaucratic team. How can this kind of hard work be outsourced?

Known as the cleanest procurement department in the Russian Empire, it absolutely cannot tolerate such middlemen making price differences and wasting national wealth.

Before the crisis came, it was able to unite many capitalists to act together, control mainstream public opinion, and artificially create market prosperity, all of which proved the strength of the French consortium.

As a rising star in the French manufacturing industry, Fidoren Machinery Factory was founded in 1867, and now it has become a leading company in French machinery and equipment.

Industrial technology needs time to settle. The founder, Baron Fedoren, can stand out from many competitors in just 20 years.

Sir Fedoron, who was supposed to be famous, was currently smoking a cigar, puffing away.

The secretary reported in a low voice: "Your Excellency the Baron, according to the latest statistics, [-] companies, including Said Textile Mill, Eidolon Cannery, and Allenburg Spinning Mill, have requested to return the goods.

The total price of these returned products is about 3000 million francs, of which there is still a final payment of about 657 million francs, which we have not received yet.

In addition, there are 27 companies that have not delivered machinery and equipment, directly declaring that the order is in breach of contract and will not pay follow-up fees.

We arranged for the production of these mechanical equipment as early as last year, and it is too late to shut down now.

If we cannot find a new buyer, our preliminary estimate is that our loss this time will be as high as 5400 million francs, and the confiscated liquidated damages can cover about 1400 million francs, and the final loss will be around 4000 million francs. "

Birds of a feather flock together and people are divided into groups. As an aristocratic capitalist, Fei Duolun has a very ordinary relationship with the domestic capital circle.

Baron Fedoren was excluded from the retreat planned by the consortium and became one of the victims.

The machinery and equipment manufacturing that Fei Duolun Machinery Factory is engaged in belongs to the upstream industry, the main market is in the country, and there are almost no international orders.

The aging Baron Fedoren was obviously not sensitive enough to the changes in the international market, and he never expected that there would be overcapacity during the Anglo-Russian War.

A momentary mistake in judgment is brewing the bitter fruit of the present.Businesses received a bunch of orders, only to receive notices of breach of contract before delivery was complete.

After pausing for a while, Baron Fedoren said fiercely: "Tell them that it is impossible to return the goods.

As long as there is no problem with the product quality, we have no return service.And let them pay the follow-up final payment quickly.

Subsequent orders that breach the contract will be held accountable for their breach of contract in accordance with the contract.

Order to suspend the production of all orders, send someone to contact the remaining customers, and continue to organize production after confirming that the order can be delivered smoothly.

The order that is determined to be in default, among other orders that can be transferred, shall be deployed immediately.If it doesn't work, just disassemble the parts and use it!

At this juncture, there is no buyer at all, and we must stop losses in time. "

Mechanical equipment is different from other products. Once produced, maintenance costs will also be incurred.The longer the backlog is on hand, the more it costs the business.

Judging from the current situation, Baron Fedoren does not believe that the market may recover in a short period of time.

Before the problem occurs, it may be ignored by the good news in the market; the problem has already erupted, and Baron Fedoron is naturally aware of the deeper reasons.

The consumption of British and Russian war supplies was lower than expected, which only detonated the focus of conflicts.In essence, the cycle of capitalist economic development has arrived.

Based on past experience, overcapacity will not be a problem only for France, but for the entire capitalist world.

There are a few countries that are eligible for an economic crisis these years.France's industrial production costs are higher than those of Britain and Austria, and it is naturally at a disadvantage in international competition.

Now that there is a crisis, the first to fail is naturally the French company.The French consortium, which made up its mind to make war fortune, became the earliest victim.

It's just that these guys react very quickly.Before the crisis broke out, they began to transfer risks, which made investors feel like a thunderbolt.

The crisis detonated so quickly, not because the consortium was full, but mainly because the market was running out of money.

In the era of the gold standard, subject to the limitation of gold reserves, the circulation of francs was limited, and there were fewer funds circulating in the market.

Cutting leeks requires leeks to grow, and the early benefits have already fooled retail investors into it.Those who didn't escape, in fact, couldn't get out.

Now everyone has become a shareholder by speculating in stocks, and if they don’t reap, once the news leaks, they won’t be able to reap.

Judging from past experience, Baron Fedoren can conclude that, barring any accidents, this crisis will last for one to two years.

When the crisis is over and the market starts to overheat, it will take longer.

In this ever-changing era, no one knows when it will be time for mechanical equipment to be replaced.

Keeping a bunch of mechanical equipment in hand is simply tiresome.Not only do you have to take the risk of losing everything, but you also consume valuable cash flow from the business.

It is equivalent to dismantling semi-finished equipment, and the loss of the enterprise may be as high as [-] to [-]% of the production cost. If the production continues, it may lose a few times the production cost.

The secretary reminded: "Your Excellency the Baron, in the contract we signed before, there was an agreement to refund part of the money if the use was not satisfactory.

if……"

Baron Fedoren interrupted impatiently: "Don't worry about it so much, if they are not satisfied, they can go to court to sue.

At this point, are we still afraid of a lawsuit? "

Suddenly there was a loss of tens of millions of francs, and the Friedolun Machinery Factory, which was running well, was directly taken into the ditch.

The call from the bank to collect money had already caused Baron Fidolun to collapse.The unplugged phone on the table is the truest portrayal.

"Boom, boom, boom" knocked on the door, and Baron Fedoren said coldly, "Come in!"

A middle-aged man whispered: "Your Excellency the Baron, the people from the Bank of Paris have arrived and are resting in the living room."

As soon as the words fell, two middle-aged men in suits and leather shoes walked in.