Frederick III felt only stressed in the Berlin Palace. Affected by the war, after the outbreak of the economic crisis, the Kingdom of Prussia fell into the Great Depression early.

The Berlin government was able to support it until now, but it was all about overturning the table and raiding the house to obtain funds.

Overturning the table was also a cost. Although Frederick III took decisive measures to resume production in a timely manner, the government's fiscal revenue was still greatly affected.

If it is just that, it's nothing, and you can always recover after a few days.

But the roof was raining all night long. Just as the factory was distributed, everyone was about to roll up their sleeves and do it, the global economic crisis was coming.

A large number of products are piled up like mountains but cannot be sold. Of course, the officers and soldiers who got them to the factory have to find the government to solve the problem.

Without enough markets, Frederick III could not become a market. There was overcapacity in Europe, and the two big gangsters in Britain and the Austrians were unscrupulous in dumping.

The international price of industrial and commercial products is now lower than that of Prussian enterprises. Not only is it incomparable in price, but the quality of Prussian products is far inferior.

The Berlin government and British creditors have an agreement. In theory, they can use industrial and commercial products to pay off their debts. Unfortunately, the pricing power is in the hands of the British.

For example, now, the British refer to the wholesale prices in the international market to get a 30% discount, and then after the comprehensive quality assessment, the final price will be set.

According to the British price, most commodities are less than half of the production cost.

"Selling" is a loss of money, and the losses cannot be borne by the producers, otherwise there will be one factory in the country that will all go bankrupt.

This is something that the Berlin government cannot accept. Now these factory owners are the cornerstones of the Prussian Kingdom.

It was difficult to buy with economic interests, which made the Junker nobles accept the disarmament, and now they immediately smashed their jobs, which was the dead government.

The European revolutionary wave was so surging that the Kingdom of Prussia was able to remain stable because of the employment.

The factories are all owned by the workers, so there is no unemployment. In order to calm people's hearts, the Berlin government guarantees everyone that the cost price is guaranteed.

When the economy is operating normally, there is naturally no problem with this promise. Enterprises need to make money, and no one will deliberately produce a bunch of unsold products and throw them into trouble for the government.

It’s different now. The economic crisis breaks out, the market is a mess, and companies can’t make money at all.

According to the agreement, now that everyone's products cannot be sold, the Berlin government has an obligation to help them deal with them at a cost price.

Prussia has no colonies, and if it wants to dump goods, it must compete with European countries.

From an economic perspective alone, the British price was reasonable. Prussian industrial and commercial products were indeed not competitive and could only play price wars.

Don’t count on the European continent. Affected by the economic crisis, most European people are very poor. Unless they are urgently needed, it will be difficult to find a market.

For many people, the urgently needed goods at this time are food. Unfortunately, Prussia does not have enough food to eat, so exports do not exist.

These poor quality industrial and commercial products can only be dumped overseas. There is no doubt that Prussia does not have the ability to dump globally, and they cannot enter most overseas markets.

There are only a few countries with a relatively complete business network and the ability to dump in most parts of the world.

The six countries are Britain, Austria, France, Spain, Netherlands and Portugal. They all have a common characteristic - the colonial empire.

Among them, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal all declined, the commercial network was still there, but there were not many colonies, and they were unable to digest Prussia's industrial production capacity.

France had many colonies but not large markets, so domestic capitalists were not divided enough, so it was naturally impossible to put Prussian goods in.

Austria's colonies are well developed and the market is relatively complete. Unfortunately, Austria's own industrial production capacity is very large and there is no unnecessary market.

Moreover, even if Prussian goods are put in, they cannot sell them in the face of competition from Austrian goods.

The British had the most colonies, relatively sufficient markets, and internal competition was not so fierce. It can be said that it was the only choice for Prussia.

Under this background, the British naturally had to lower the price. While exporting industrial raw materials to Prussia, they also accepted Prussia's industrial and commercial products to pay off debts. It seemed that they were helping the Berlin government, but Prussia was working for them in vain.

It's not just a waste of work, but now the British are taking it a step further and making the Kingdom of Prussia lose money.

Frederick III's current mood is like: Fortunately, he worked hard for a year, but he didn't make a penny at the end of the year, and he still owed a lot of debts.

But he couldn't refuse, otherwise he would lose his job, mortgage, credit card, and press it together, that would be...

Life always has to be lived, and "blood loss" is better than "lost money". I can only admit that I was under price pressure, and the Berlin government had to bite the bullet and bear the loss.

Frederick III asked expectantly: "What's the situation? Did the British agree to the debt extension?"

There is no way, the Kingdom of Prussia is scarce and industrial raw materials must be imported. Everyone does not recognize Mark, which means that foreign exchange must be consumed.

The in-kind compensation agreement reached with the British does not mean that the goods are just thrown to the creditors, and the Berlin government is not that domineering.

Most of the creditors in Prussia are banks and financial institutions. These people are all engaged in finance and have no interest in international commodity trade.

The truth is that Prussia sold industrial and commercial products to British capitalists for foreign exchange, and after deducting costs, the remaining money was used to pay off the debt.

The role of the "Agreement" is that the British government also puts Prussian goods in. Otherwise, under the free trade system, the sales scope of Prussian goods is limited to the British mainland. If you don't have to think about it, you can't sell it at all.

Now that the price plummets, the sales price of commodities is not enough to cost industrial raw materials, so after doing a loss-making transaction, the Berlin government naturally has no "foreign exchange" to pay off its debts.

Foreign Minister Fordman's face suddenly sank: "We have tried our best and even received support from the London government, but the negotiations failed in the end.

The impact of this economic crisis on the UK is even greater than we expected, and banks are short of money now.

One of our creditors, Garrit Bank, went bankrupt during the negotiations due to a broken capital chain."

Creditors are also short of money, which is a big trouble. Especially for Garrit Bank, who are all bankrupt due to a broken capital chain, it is even more impossible for them to agree to the debt extension.

Frederick III sighed deeply and asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer: "How much foreign exchange do we have now, and how long can we last if we pay our debts normally?"

Chancellor Orwitz frowned and replied: "The situation is very bad. Now our total foreign exchange is worth about £7.656 million, including £3.54 million, £5.68 million, and 8 million francs...

Theoretically, if no other expenses are made, it is only used to pay the debt, which can last up to seven months.

In fact, this is impossible. We must import industrial raw materials, machinery and equipment, and agricultural products to meet domestic production and life needs."

Foreign exchange has both yields and imports. Normally, relying on the export of industrial and commercial products, we can achieve a balance of income and expenditure.

After all, domestically produced industrial raw materials and labor costs do not require foreign exchange payment, and the problem can be solved by using a mark.

7.656 million pounds is equivalent to 56.04 tons of gold, which is already a well-deserved huge sum in this era, exceeding the total gold reserves of many countries.

If there is no foreign debt to be repaid, for a small country, so many foreign exchange reserves will be enough to live a very comfortable life.

Unfortunately, there is no if the Kingdom of Prussia has huge foreign debts to be repaid. This huge sum of money is only enough to pay for seven months' debt.

In fact, it can't last for so long. Due to the decline in export commodity prices, the Kingdom of Prussia has now entered the era of trade deficit.

Unless the creditors are willing to accept Mark's payment, the Berlin government will not be able to pay the debt on time.

...

After receiving a telegram from the Berlin government for help, Franz's first reaction was: to incite the Prussians to default on their debts.

As soon as this thought came out, it seemed like it had been impeded by a demon and could no longer be lingered.

"If the Berlin government fails to pay the debt, what will happen?"

Foreign Minister Wesenberg's face changed slightly: "Your Majesty, the Prussian economy is severely affected by the British, and the Berlin government does not have the ability to default on debts.

If the Berlin government debt defaults, the British will only impose trade sanctions on them, Prussia will collapse in less than half a year."

This is a fact. Once the Royal Navy sealed the coastline, the Kingdom of Prussia would fall into a state of embarrassment with a shortage of industrial raw materials and a lack of products.

Of course they can also go by land and go around from neighboring countries, but this cost is enough to bankrupt any company.

Prime Minister Felix retorted: "Not necessarily! In normal times, the British might do this to warn the monkey.

But now it is different, the wave of European revolution is getting worse and worse.

The French Revolutionary Party occupied Paris, and the situation in the Kingdom of Prussia was also very bad, and there was a possibility of a revolution breaking out at any time.

As long as the British were not prepared to collect debts from the Revolutionary Party, the Kingdom of Prussia could not be destroyed.

Now the Berlin government really has no ability to repay, and debt defaults are a matter of time. The London government should be prepared.

As long as the Berlin government does not directly announce its debts and find a reasonable excuse for debt extension, the British government will not take extreme measures.

The money lent to the Berlin government were banks, financial institutions, and speculators. Although these interest groups had a great influence in the UK, they did not make decisions for the government.

It is impossible for the British government to ignore the overall national strategic situation for their interests. Without the support of the government, these people could not do anything to the Kingdom of Prussia.

If the situation in Europe worsens further, the Berlin government can also negotiate terms with the British to seek relief of some debts."

It is not until after World War II, and the aristocratic group is in its prime, and it is simply a dream to have a consortium to control the government.

The French Revolution is already very scary. If the Prussian Revolution is made successful again, the European revolutionary wave will no longer be controlled.

Although Britain was alone in the overseas world, the revolutionary wave still did not let them go.

Britain and France have been exporting each other for many years, and they cannot survive the revolution if it continues.

...

On May 1, 1882, a massive anti-hunger campaign broke out in the Kingdom of Prussia. Countless people took to the streets to demand that the government import more food to solve the domestic food shortage.

After the outbreak of the anti-hunger movement, the Berlin government responded very quickly and provided assistance to the international community in the shortest time.

At the same time, on the grounds that repaying foreign debt consumed a lot of foreign exchange and had no money to buy food, he asked the creditors to delay the payment of debts.

There is no doubt that this is not like a "request", but rather a notice.

While making the request, the Berlin government has suspended debt payments in May.

It was announced that it would use the debt repayment funds in May to purchase grain to solve the domestic food shortage.

Most of the creditors of the Kingdom of Prussia concentrated Britain and France, holding a total of 95.4% of the Berlin government's foreign debt.

If you deal with the two major creditors of Britain and France, you can say that you deal with all the creditors, or to be precise, you can deal with the British.

The French are very busy now, and the civil war has broken out, so they don’t care about these trivial matters for a while.

Is there really a famine in the Kingdom of Prussia?

It depends on what the British think!

If the London government accepted this statement, then the Kingdom of Prussia would have "really" famine broke out.

If the London government does not agree with this statement, then there will be no famine in the Kingdom of Prussia.

Politics only needs to weigh the pros and cons, the truth does not matter.
Chapter completed!