War is not child's play, and finding an excuse for war can be ignored, but mobilizing troops and raising strategic materials are still indispensable.

Don't look at the weak chickens in Egypt, it also depends on who you compare with, at least they are still the leaders on the African continent, known as the first power in Africa.

Their biggest competitor was Ethiopia, but the British helped weaken it, and when they finished fighting Ethiopia, it was over.

There is no doubt that the great powers still want to save face. Unless it is a small power like Afghanistan, otherwise for the sake of face, the British will also cripple Ethiopia.

The hegemony needs to be maintained by force, and it is okay to lose to the equal European powers, but not to the African natives.

The Parisian government is still very pragmatic, and in order not to make jokes, they make elaborate preparations. Napoleon III decided to go hand in hand with politics, defeating the Egyptian government and then co-opting the pro-French people.

It was also a common means of overseas colonial expansion in European countries, including Austria in Central America, with the exception of the African continent.

London, the news of the opening of the Suez Canal caused an uproar in the financial markets. Many people are pessimistic that the Age of Discovery is coming to an end.

This is also based on the fact that after the opening of the Suez Canal, Austria's voyage to the Indian Ocean was shortened by more than 12,000 kilometers, and the voyage of France and Spain to the Indian Ocean was also shortened by more than 10,000 kilometers.

The British were at an absolute disadvantage in this respect with the least shortened range. In the capital market, the stocks of British local companies and export companies in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the South Seas have fallen off a cliff.

This fall has affected the entire London market, and the upstream and downstream related industries naturally cannot be left alone, and the stock market crash broke out.

The capitalist world economy is affected by the whole body, and when the stock market crash breaks out, other industries should not be left alone, and the financial industry is the first to be affected.

From the beginning of 1868, long queues began to form on the streets of London. The stock market crash led to the bankruptcy of speculative financial institutions and banks, which caused panic among the people, and the run crisis broke out.

This is just the beginning, and if there is a problem in one link of the circular economy chain, it will inevitably implicate the others.

There is no doubt that the run crisis broke out, banks stopped lending to protect themselves, and the financial crisis affected enterprises.

The opening of the Suez Canal was only the trigger for the economic crisis, and the British economy has long had problems, and there was overcapacity in the UK a few years ago.

This is also related to the rise of Fao-Austria, the world's market is so big, there are more competitors to grab the market, resulting in the continuous decline of British industrial and commercial products in the international market share.

The market is small, and the production capacity has not been reduced, so there will naturally be a surplus. However, first the American Civil War, then the Russo-Prussian War, delayed the outbreak of the crisis.

Now that the war is over, there is no market for the goods produced, and an economic crisis is brewing. At this time, it happened that the opening of the Suez Canal detonated the crisis ahead of schedule.

The economic crisis began in 1864 when the economic crisis erupted from Britain. Now that the time has been delayed by three or four years, the overcapacity is naturally more serious.

This is caused by inconvenient communication and poor market information. The capitalists did not keep up with the pace of the market to regulate production, resulting in serious overcapacity.

Without any new tricks, the outbreak of the economic crisis will naturally have to find a way to survive the winter. Weak companies went bankrupt directly, and strong industries began to lay off employees and reduce production capacity.

In the summer of 1868, the Great Depression struck London. The scale of railway construction in Britain has been reduced by 78%, more than a dozen large and small railway companies have declared bankruptcy, and more than 20 railways under construction have announced indefinite haltation.

The shipbuilding industry also reached its peak of production in 1867 and then began to contract, and by the end of 1868 the industry had shrunk by 34 percent.

The textile industry is the hardest hit area of this crisis. Affected by the impact of the Austrian cotton spinning industry, they lost the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, and the markets of Western Europe were attacked by the French.

The British, a pillar industry, were hit hard in the economic crisis, and five giant companies with more than 100,000 workers went bankrupt in the economic crisis.

Bankrupt people are all over the streets, and half a year ago they were rich and glamorous, but now they have become street refugees.

At the same time, exports have shrunk sharply due to the economic crisis. The outflow of gold was severe, funds were tight, banks and enterprises went bankrupt one after another, and the British ushered in the eleventh crisis in economic history - the canal crisis.

When the economic crisis erupted, the British government did not respond in a timely manner, but allowed the crisis to unravel and let it spiral out of control.

Countless unemployed people took to the streets of London to demonstrate, and the capitalists also complained bitterly. The opposition parties slammed the government for inaction in the newspapers, and the economic crisis led to a political crisis.

The John Russell Cabinet has experienced its biggest crisis of confidence since taking office. However, this is really none of their business, and according to British law, the government has no right to interfere with a free economy.

The Mouth Cannon Party will not care so much, it is all the government's fault anyway. Fortunately, Prime Minister John Russell did not interfere in the market, otherwise he would have been charged with "interfering with the free economy and causing an economic crisis".

Needless to say, politicians encounter problems that cannot be solved, and the most common means - resignation.

……

In Vienna, the sudden economic crisis aroused Franz's attention. Unless it is a planned economy, overcapacity is unavoidable.

Since there is a problem in England, it is only a matter of time before Austria wants to be left alone.

Franz asked with concern: "The economic crisis is coming again, what measures does the cabinet have?" ”

Prime Minister Felix replied: "Your Majesty, judging from the information coming from the UK, the impact of this economic crisis will be very large.

In order to get out of the crisis, the Cabinet decided to let state-owned enterprises start destocking and dumping their stockpiles around the world at low prices.

We have to compete with the British and the French for time, the market is so big, and if the reaction is slow, it will be smashed in our hands. ”

In times of economic crisis, it is no longer time to think about profits. The most important thing is to sell all the products in exchange for a lot of cash in hand, so that the business can survive.

For state-owned enterprises to destock, it is enough to have an administrative order. Everyone will definitely implement it seriously, and few bureaucrats will be stupid enough to work against the government.

The private sector is different, and there is no way to issue this kind of government order to directly interfere in the market. In the capitalist economic market, the government cannot interfere with the normal operation of enterprises.

As the law-maker, the government naturally cannot break the law. Besides, so many enterprises have overcapacity, so they can't directly order them to reduce production, right?

Anyway, the survival of the fittest in the market always has to die a batch. Long pain is better than short pain, and whoever lives and dies depends on their ability.

There is nothing wrong with the cabinet choosing to save state-owned enterprises first, and the son always has to be treated preferentially. The unsalable products of state-owned enterprises have been exported, and the pressure of domestic overcapacity has been reduced.

Franz continued: "Is the emergency plan ready?" ”

It is not that private enterprises will not be rescued, but mainly depends on the specific situation of the economic crisis and takes measures according to the actual situation.

The government is not a nanny, and it is impossible to guarantee that a business will not go bankrupt. Whether or not they can survive depends on the judgment of the capitalists themselves.

If you die yourself, you will really die. Smart people saw the big moves of state-owned enterprises and began to follow the trend early in the morning.

If you can't react, you deserve to be unlucky. Don't you see that the royal family is running for their lives?

The Royal Bank can be seen as a bellwether for the Austrian economy, and as long as the banks tighten their monetary policies, there will be problems in the economy.

It is even more impossible to make the economic crisis public, and if there is no economic crisis, it will also artificially create an economic crisis.

Once there is a panic in the market, the damage is more terrible than the economic crisis. According to Franz's experience, the economic crisis is a race, whoever runs fast is the winner, and whoever takes the plate deserves to be unlucky.

Prime Minister Felix explained: "Your Majesty, this economic crisis is different from the past, it is simply overcapacity. Not only us, but most European countries have overcapacity.

The American Civil War and the Russo-American War made this crisis even more serious. Even before the war, there were signs of overcapacity in various countries.

If the crisis had erupted at that time, the market would have quickly self-regulated. Now it is different, the preliminary estimate is that domestic production capacity should exceed 30% of market demand, and some industries may exceed half of market demand, and may be higher.

We have no choice but to let the market survive the fittest and weed out the weak. The world can't find such a big market and such a large production capacity. ”

This is the sequelae of war money, most of the materials during the war of the Russians were monopolized by Austria, which led to overcapacity in many industries in Austria.

After the war, the market regulated itself to a certain extent. However, economic transformation is not something that can be completed in a few months.

Now that the economic crisis is coming, many companies that have been slow to respond will naturally not be able to escape.

Of course, the impact on big business may not be too fatal, after all, the war money was made in the past two years and the capital strength was accumulated.

As long as they don't expand blindly, they still have some money in their pockets and ammunition to survive this crisis.

Overcapacity is serious, which also means that it is impossible to get out of the crisis by relying on external exports. When the economic crisis broke out, the international market would soon shrink, and the only markets that belonged to Austria were the mainland and the colonies.

Other overseas markets are not worth mentioning at all, not because of the size of the market, but about the size of purchasing power.

In any case, Austria is also the world's largest economy in this era. There are two more populous countries with more than Austria, but the market is far from being able to compare.

Of course, if you count the colonies, this ranking is one place back. The British are still the kings of this era, and no one can compare with them.

Franz nodded, it's not that there is no way, but it doesn't fit this period. The outbreak of the economic crisis has caused the crisis of traditional industries to erupt.

To some extent, it also accelerated the outbreak of the second industrial revolution. If the traditional industries do not have enough profits, the capitalists have to look at the new industries.

It is conceivable that it will not be long before new industries in Austria will blossom in all directions. Against this background, Franz naturally did not intervene.

The capitalists who fall in the economic crisis can only be regarded as unlucky. If your investment vision is not good, who is to blame?

It should be a sacrifice for the new era and contribute to the second industrial revolution. If the investment vision is not good, even if you are lucky enough to escape this catastrophe, you will fall into the industrial revolution in the alternation of the old and the new.