Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 21: A misunderstood economic crisis

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He couldn't convince a few old foxes, and Ham was not angry. He knew that these people were already tempted, but he didn't dare to say it because he was too timid.

He is not a revolutionary either, and only got involved with the revolutionary party for the sake of profit. If he can achieve his goal by peaceful means, would a fool want to rebel

This is the European continent. Even if the rebellion succeeds, what will happen

Does the prince and general Xiangning have a kind

The answer is: yes!

If he succeeds, at most he will become the president of the bourgeois republic. If he takes this position, he may not be as comfortable as he is now.

If it fails, it is estimated that exile abroad is the best ending.

In the face of the cruel reality, Hamm's low revolutionary enthusiasm has become even lower.

Like the vast majority of capitalists, it's okay to support the revolutionary party, but it's okay to lead the revolution personally, and they don't want to be president.

The banquet is very difficult to keep secret. The story that happened at Veris Manor outside Vienna was quickly passed on to Metternich. Of course, the content of the secret meeting was not among them.

However, Prime Minister Metternich is a man of rules. He adheres to the bottom line of political struggle, and did not take advantage of the issue to arrest the capitalists who attended the banquet on the charge of colluding with the revolutionary party.

Annoyed because of the rules.

Knowing that the capitalists are conspiring, but can only passively defend, Prime Minister Metternich's mood is naturally not good.

It is more appropriate to describe his situation with a sentence of internal and external troubles. There are nobles inside who are eager to move, and capitalists outside who are staring at him. Everyone has a common purpose to let him get out.

Since the winter of 1847, the people of Vienna have had an intuitive feeling that prices have risen, and they have risen sharply at a speed visible to the naked eye.

By the end of December 1847, prices in Vienna had risen by 47%, and the capitalists were testing the limits of the people's tolerance little by little.

At this time, everyone turned their attention to the Vienna government, expecting the government to come up with a solution.

Obviously, everyone will be disappointed, the Vienna government has no ability or function to intervene in prices. Although Prime Minister Metternich took several measures, they had little effect in the end.

For example, the government posted a notice ordering businessmen not to drive up prices, but it was of no use.

Another example: the Prime Minister has unsuccessfully interviewed capitalists many times.

The government also seized the time to mobilize materials from outside to enter Vienna in an attempt to quell prices. Unfortunately, under the resistance of the capitalists and the corruption of the internal nobles, it finally failed.

Of course, it is not completely ineffective, at least the speed of price increases has been suppressed, and it has not climbed to the peak all at once.

After the last failure, the capitalists are not very trustworthy. Seeing that it is profitable, many small capitalists with weak strength cannot wait for the moment when prices are at their peak.

People are all selfish, and Franz is very clear that behind the sharp rise in prices in Vienna, there is also the participation of the nobles, but they are all spontaneous behaviors for profit, and they do not participate in the joint actions of capitalists.

The initial idea of these people may just want to take the opportunity to make a fortune, but now, wealth has gradually confused people's eyes, and many people are trapped in it and cannot extricate themselves.

But their luck was not very good, just in time for the European economic crisis.

Since 1845, there has been a lack of food in Europe, and international food prices have skyrocketed. With the rise of food prices, European people who are not rich have spent a lot of money on food, and the European purchasing power market has been shrinking.

In 1846, the price of cotton and cotton spinning products in the United States nearly doubled, and the high price caused the sales of cotton spinning products to decline.

With the decline of commodity trade, capitalists naturally chose to lay off workers. The unemployed population in Britain continued to grow, and the volume of railway freight continued to hit new lows. Many railway companies fell into a state of loss. In the autumn of 1847, the British railway bubble burst.

The capitalist world has always been one thing at a time, the railroad bubble burst, the railroads under construction stopped, and the demand for steel fell.

The crisis quickly spread to the steel and coal industries, with 58 of Staffordshire's 137 iron furnaces shutting down. Pig iron production fell by a third in a month to a month and a half, and coal production also fell by nearly two tiers.

In November 1847, in Lancashire, one of the centers of the British textile industry, 200 of the 920 cotton textile factories were completely closed, and most of the rest started working 2-4 days a week. More than 70% of workers are hit by unemployment, or partial unemployment.

The industrial crisis that broke out in Britain did not attract the attention of Austrian capitalists. Neither the British economic crisis in 1825 nor the economic crisis in 1837 affected Austria.

As a non-industrialized country, even if you want to have an industrial crisis, it is not enough, and the possibility of an economic crisis is also infinitely low.

Many people have forgotten that Austria is no longer the Austria it once was. As a semi-industrialized country, Austria can no longer survive the economic crisis alone.

The first to be unlucky was the French. After the British economic crisis broke out, in order to survive the crisis, British capitalists began to dump materials overseas, and the French, who were caught off guard, became the first wave of victims.

By 1848, French industrial production had fallen by fifty percent.

The German region is no exception, because its industrial strength is weak and the impact is greater.

In the winter of 1847, 3,000 of the 8,000 looms in Kleinfeld stopped working. In the first half of 1848, only 3 of the 14 factories in Cologne started operation, and the industry in Erfurt was almost wiped out.

Austrian capitalists cried, and so did the nobles who wanted to take advantage of the fire. In order to calm prices, the Vienna government lowered import tariffs, and a large number of British cheap goods came in front of us. This is really unbearable.

It takes money to drive up prices. In the face of dumping from an industrial country, Austrian capitalists said that they were not fools, and the capitalists with bright minds chose to retreat at the first time.

In January 1848, except for the relatively strong food prices in Vienna, the prices of all industrial and commercial products collapsed. In times of crisis, everyone was too busy to take care of themselves. Who could take care of others

Fast-running capitalists can also take advantage of the time difference to stop losses, while slow-running capitalists are directly stuck.

Supply exceeds demand, and the price of industrial and commercial products in the Vienna market has fallen below their production cost price. The capitalists and nobles who drive up prices are forced to reluctantly cut their meat.

Everyone knows that the economic crisis is coming. In order to reduce losses, capitalists have started laying off workers. More capitalists have even shut down factories because of heavy losses in this crisis. Unemployment in Vienna has risen sharply.