The economic crisis broke out suddenly, and the value of the franc was completely untenable. In just a few days, the value of the currency fell by 28.7%, shocking the world.

France is one of the world's three giants, ranking fifth in the world in terms of economic aggregate and military strength.

When the government of Paris sneezes, the world will tremble. Such a giant, the financial system is so vulnerable that it only takes one round of attacks to kneel.

After the harvest was completed, the consortium capital began to retreat, leaving the international capital to bear the wrath of the French.

Just as: quietly I came, leaving with great momentum, waving my sleeves, not taking away a cloud.

Not a single cloud was taken, only a large amount of Aegis, pounds and gold.

It seems that a tacit agreement was reached, and after the withdrawal of the international consortium led by Britain and Austria, the French consortium belatedly joined the resistance.

Without capital predators, the remaining group of retail speculators is naturally not the opponent of the French consortium.

Watching the French consortium become famous in the first battle, it seemed that it became a hero of France overnight, Napoleon IV was half angry, and as the object of venting his anger, the vase in the Palace of Versailles changed a lot.

The absolute dominance of capital into politics, which had been established since the time of Napoleon III, is now gone.

……

In the Vienna Palace, looking at what happened to the French government, Franz was also a little sad.

After the economic crisis, the French consortium has grown in strength and influence on the government, and the future French Empire will become more lively.

After a brief breakfast, leaving these worries behind, Franz was about to soak up the soft sunshine when an uninvited guest came.

Foreign Secretary Wessenberg reported: "Your Majesty, the situation in France is showing signs of getting out of control last night in Lyon with the outbreak of a workers' uprising. ”

For a big country, the external threat is no longer deadly, and the only one who can really crush them is itself.

There is no doubt that France is such a great country. At least in this day and age. As long as they don't encounter group beatings, one-on-one, no one has the strength to destroy France.

Thousands of miles of lifting are collapsed by ants, and no matter how powerful a country is, it can't afford to toss internally.

The workers' uprising in Lyon was only the beginning, and if the problem of the economic crisis was not resolved, France would not be stable.

Franz asked suspiciously: "Hasn't the French government already distributed relief food, why did an uprising break out?" ”

It was a good policy in the era of Napoleon III, and the French working class had unemployment benefits.

Under this favourable policy, the labour movement in France, although still thriving, rarely revolted.

Wessenberg explained: "According to the analysis of the information from the embassy, the preliminary judgment should be related to the depreciation of the franc.

Due to the depreciation of the currency, prices in France have risen wildly, and the original unemployment benefits can no longer meet the daily expenses of workers. ”

Franz nodded, not in a hurry to draw conclusions. Generally speaking, the crazy rise in prices is caused by a combination of factors.

Inflation is only one of them, this factor is generally slow, it is impossible for the franc to depreciate today, prices will skyrocket immediately, and the market will need time to react.

Franz, by contrast, was more willing to believe that hoarding and shortages led to a sharp rise in prices.

After hesitating for a while, Franz decided to settle down: "Secretly finance the activities of the Italian independence organization and let them wait for the opportunity." ”

Despite his lack of confidence in the Italian independence movement, Franz was willing to add some chaos to the French government.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Wessenberg replied

After a pause, he added: "Your Majesty, according to the information gathered by our embassies in various places, and under financial pressure, Alexander III gave the land of the newly occupied territories as a reward to the meritorious men.

Affected by this, the regions of Poland and East and West Prussia that had just been occupied by the Russians were in turmoil of varying degrees.

The Governor-General of the Tsarist government in Königsberg, conveyed through the colonial company the hope that we would be able to relax immigration restrictions. ”

This was the aftermath of the previous Cossack cavalry battles, and the tsarist government's already few popular hearts in the local area were completely lost.

It is impossible to win the hearts of the people now, at least until this generation dies, it will be half the effort.

If the Russians are to re-establish their ruling base on the ground, they must prop up a new ruling class. In this respect, Alexander III's decision was not wrong.

Instead of supporting unreliable locals, it is better to directly replace them with your own. By using land as a bounty, the government can also save a lot of money.

Something similar, Austria has done in the Balkans. It's just that before the Austrian operation, most of the local people had already been emigrated, so there was no chaos.

Franz thought for a moment and said: "You can get in touch with the Russians, just in the name of the colonial company, and it is not convenient for the government to be directly involved in this kind of thing."

However, the immigration conditions still cannot be relaxed. All we need to do is get rid of the local German population, or the Germanized minority. ”

Even after the baptism of war, the population of Russian Poland + Baltic + Belarus + East and West Prussia, all of these lands combined, still has nearly 10 million.

Unable to win over the hearts and minds of the locals, these guys were the biggest destabilizing factor for the tsarist government.

If the tsarist government's executive power is strong enough, and the government's financial resources are strong enough, it can also pick out the diehards in it and wipe them out, and then disperse them and slowly digest them.

Unfortunately, this is not possible. The tsarist government did not have the executive power or the financial resources to do so.

It's about the same as the beard period, and you can send them all to grow potatoes. Prior to this, no tsarist government had such a powerful executive ability.

The Russians can't do it, and Austria can't afford it. Accepting a large number of ethnic minorities at once would be a fatal blow to the assimilation effort.

There is also a limit to the great integration of nationalities, and once that degree is exceeded, things will go in the opposite direction.

There are not enough interests, the mess of the Russians, Franz will naturally not take it.

From the standpoint of Austria, it is really good to have these people who hate the tsarist government and drag the Russians back.

……

Under the influence of the workers' uprising in Lyon, the people of Paris, as the holy place of the revolution, could not afford to be absent.

On December 11, 1881, the people of Paris launched a huge march, and hundreds of thousands of French people took to the streets in solidarity with the workers' uprising in Lyon.

Like firecrackers, France began to blow up. On 12 December, Toulouse followed with a workers' uprising.

(End of chapter)