Welcome to 19th-century Europe, where strength reigns supreme

Although it is said that more money will be printed, it will not be that fast. In this era, the money printing machine cannot be used all day long. It will probably smoke after a while. It is only January, and the current economic situation is changing rapidly. August A general outbreak of problems is expected in February, so she has to fix the problem before then.

On January 1860, 1, Auguste was sitting in her office drinking coffee as usual. She was promoting the military reform. Although the parliament agreed, it was not officially implemented until today. This morning, Finance Minister Lister I found August. Coal production was significantly reduced last year, down by almost 20 percent. Coal is the lifeblood of the steam era, and is equivalent to oil in this era.

It would be better to say that in this era, fuel is not as valuable as coal, so what does reducing coal production mean? Such a profitable industry has become unprofitable and cannot be mined. There is only one possibility. The company has no money, the government has been in chaos for a long time, and the people have no money to consume expensive industrial products. It is difficult for Prussia to reach its technological level. When competing with Britain and France for external markets, if domestic demand is insufficient and there is no dumping market for excess production capacity, companies will lay off workers without profits. Such massive unemployment will be a huge trouble.

"Liszt, how many people are currently unemployed?"

"About two million...this is just for men. If you include women, the scale is too large to be calculated..."

"What the hell? How much? Two million! Real or fake?"

"Not only that, there are about 1850 companies registered since [-], and now [-] have declared bankruptcy. Coupled with the reduction in grain production last year, we may not be able to hold on by March... ..”

"Oh, what an outrageous number? Where are the two thousand five hundred companies...factories?"

"There are probably less than two thousand seats left..."

First of all, let me state that Liszt was stupid when he calculated this number this morning. There are only [-] factories in the entire country and less than [-] new companies are still alive. This scene of vigorous vitality and all things flourishing is still before our eyes.

"Liszt, I'm going to give you a plan now. You go tell the procrastinators in Parliament that Prussia is now at the point of life and death. They have only one choice, which is to do what I say, otherwise Prussia won't call every day. It’s Prussia, and none of those old guys can escape!”

August knocked on the table, his momentum frightened Liszt, "Yes, Your Highness August."

When Tina came to work today, she saw that August's face looked a little bad, the dark circles under his eyes were a little heavy, and he suddenly felt a lot more haggard.

"August, are you okay? It won't be good if you break your body."

"It's okay. I request a cabinet meeting tomorrow. I have something to do and I can't attend. You are responsible for giving a speech. I need to do something else."

August handed a proposal to Tina. After Tina opened it and read it, it was a proposal on economic reform. The content was that the country officially announced to the people that the gold standard would be officially abolished. The national currency would no longer be riveted to gold, and the government would Control, rectify the banking and financial system, order banks to close for rectification, gradually restore the credit of banks, and depreciate the mark to stimulate exports.

Next is the problem of skyrocketing prices of agricultural products. The solution given by August is to use legal provisions to strongly restrict the price of domestic food. If those Junkers are unwilling, then use the army to suppress them. A balance must be struck to be able to Let them accept it, and let the people accept it.

But this is tantamount to playing with fire. The Junker landowners are the backbone of Prussia, and August has undoubtedly offended their interests. If they really get angry, it will undoubtedly lead to many problems, one of which is military mutiny. Many people in the army are from the Junker aristocratic class. If they rebel, they will be in trouble.

But now we can only do this. No matter what, we must first ensure the existence of Prussia. From another perspective, during the economic crisis in the United States, the number of unemployed people was almost [-] million, while Prussia only had [-] million, not more, not more.

Next is the issue of reviving industry. After all, the reduction of coal production is likely to make Prussia fall behind imperialist competition in the future, which is very unfavorable. Prussia needs to solve all problems at lightning speed and then start to unify Germany, otherwise You see other countries are eyeing it, and it’s hard to imagine how to play in the future.

August's current idea is to increase coal production while also controlling production capacity without letting it be excessive or too little. This is difficult, but if August wants to do this, various industrial enterprises Formulate fair business regulations for this industry and determine the production scale, price levels, market distribution, wage standards and working hours of each enterprise.

Using this method to increase production capacity while protecting workers' wages and consumption power, the increase in external demand after the devaluation of the mark can also share the remaining production capacity. Enterprises will expand production in pursuit of profits, and the more benefits they need to give up. , This forms a virtuous cycle, allowing the industry to have good conditions for expansion.

But this will hurt the interests of capitalists. August has offended the interests of two interest groups. Her power is still unstable. If she directly carries out such a drastic reform, how can you let those messy people play?

"This has a strong smell of communism. Are you going to use these things to convince the parliament? Everyone. And now the strike is intensifying. As long as the workers cannot resume production, everything you do is meaningless. Even so, you Do you want to do it too?”

Tina tortured August's soul. After all, she is also a Junker, and her family also achieved positive profits by driving up the price of barley. Now August is prohibited from raising food prices. To be honest, this has also caused Tina Trouble, she couldn't accept such a proposal, but looking at August's expression, she didn't dare to refuse it directly.

"Tina, there are many people in the government who are afraid of progress. Do you know why? They are unwilling to give up their vested interests and want to gain greater profits. In order to curb this progressive reform path, they will give us They put strange names on things, sometimes democracy and sometimes communism, and in doing so they complicate something very simple, and I just believe in pragmatic explanations and pragmatic policies.

They just focus on the benefits they can see now. They cannot imagine how huge profits they can create with existing resources when the economy takes off and everyone can afford to buy goods. Suppose one kilogram of grain is sold. Ten people buy it for [-] marks, or [-] people buy a kilogram of grain for [-] marks. Which one do you think makes more money? It is wrong to raise prices excessively. The people cannot afford it, so the food can only be wasted. Lowering prices excessively will damage the interests of farmers. Controlling the market is also the job of the government. The Prussian government cannot be superstitious about free economy. He must use his visible hand to control it so that it does not escape control. "

August explained that Tina still had concerns. Although August was right, she actually did not have the confidence to convince those stubborn members of parliament. Moreover, as a woman, she was nominated as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia. This incident has already caused public outrage, and various newspapers have been criticizing this incident. To be honest, Tina's mentality has indeed been affected to some extent.

"August, do you really want to do this? The throne you just obtained..."

"If I can't do anything as regent, I'd rather not take the throne. Just do as I say and I'll take care of all the rest."

"Yes, August."

Tina compromised, and she finally chose to believe in her good friends and believe that the people of Prussia could support August.