Chapter 525 Real Estate Plan
French Prime Minister Millerand was somewhat moved when he heard what Minister Gray said about the lack of market caused by the collapse of the German economy.
In Europe at present, France is definitely the largest importer of cheap German industrial products. The proportion of France importing German products is much higher than that of the United Kingdom and Italy. After all, it also has the advantage of geographical location.
This has also led to France currently being extremely dependent on Germany's cheap industrial products. After all, German industrial products are not only of good quality, but also very cheap.
If Germany's economic collapse leads to a significant reduction in German industrial product output, will French industrial products be able to fill the gap in the market?
The answer is actually obvious. If France's industry had developed so smoothly, it would have returned to its pre-war level long ago. How could it still be at a standstill?
It is absolutely impossible for France to fill the vacancies in German industrial products, even if it has an advance layout.
Seeing that French Prime Minister Millerand remained silent, Minister Gray knew that his persuasion had been effective and continued: "Prime Minister Millerand, we only need to reduce the loan by 5 billion pounds and reduce the German government's loan within three years. By increasing the share of reparations, we can save Germany and avoid the consequences of the economic crisis.
I understand that reducing reparations will cause losses to your country, but the value is not limited to reparations, right?
A stable Germany can generate more benefits and save Germany is a good thing for us. After all, only a stable Germany can ensure the smooth repayment of the reparations.
If Germany collapses, whether the reparations can be repaid is a question. I believe that your country is not willing to see this situation. "
The reason why Germany can successfully repay reparations is that, in addition to the threat of force from Britain and France, there is also a very important point, that is, the current German government still has the ability to pay reparations.
But if the German economy really collapses, or even triggers an economic crisis, will Germany still have the ability to pay compensation? The problem is obvious.
By then, Germany will have a reason to default on its debts. After all, the country is bankrupt, and it is justifiable to default on its debts.
Prime Minister Millerand was silent in thought, but he could not deny that what Minister Gray said did make some sense.
Compared to the protagonists of this meeting, Britain and France, Italy and Australasia seemed a little indifferent, quietly watching the performances of Britain and France.
In the end, under Minister Gray's argument, French Prime Minister Millerand finally agreed to reduce Germany's compensation from 20 billion pounds to about 15 billion pounds, and reduce the German government's share of compensation within three years to save the country. The crisis currently facing the German government.
Of course, the British also paid a considerable price to persuade the French.
The first was that the British should unconditionally support France's policies in Alsace and Lorraine, and acquiesce to France's further control of the Trust Republics on the Franco-German border.
Secondly, the British must support the French in the proportion of the navy. In other words, they must increase the size of the French navy as much as possible.
Fortunately, the British government was able to accept these two points. During the handshake between Minister Gray and Prime Minister Millerand, an agreement affecting the situation in Germany was produced.
The reason why Prime Minister Millerand agreed to Minister Gray's proposal to reduce the proportion of German reparations was actually because he was thinking about France on a deeper level.
After the defeat of the war, the situation of defeated countries like Germany was very bad, but this does not mean that life of victorious countries like Britain and France will be easy.
Fortunately for the UK, there is no impact on the country and the economic losses are acceptable. This is also the reason why the depreciation of the pound is not significant.
But France is different. The losses France suffered in World War I and various post-war policies led to a major devaluation of France's official currency, the franc.
According to French folk statistics, one franc could buy about 7 kilograms of flour before World War I, but now one franc can only buy less than 4 kilograms of flour, and the depreciation rate has reached as high as 47.1%.
Before World War I, one pound was worth about 25 francs, but now it is worth 53 francs.
Although the depreciation of the franc is far less serious than that of the mark, France's policy on banknotes is relatively loose, and the depreciation of the franc is still accelerating, which will lead to more serious inflation.
If Germany's economy suffers a major crisis at this time, France, as a neighbor of Germany, is bound to be severely affected.
What's more, France is filled with a large number of German industrial products. These German industrial products are cheap treasures in normal times, but they can be life-threatening scythes in times of economic crisis.
France's economy simply cannot withstand major turmoil. This is the real reason why Prime Minister Millerand agreed to back down.
We have to admit that World War I was a pure internal conflict between Europe. After World War I, two European countries were on the verge of collapse, Germany and Russia, and France suffered heavy losses.
Only the United Kingdom is still struggling, but apart from the United Kingdom, the most powerful European power that can stand out is France.
This is also the real reason for the rise of the United States in history. After all, European countries are all suffering from serious internal conflicts. Even if the United States does not take any action, the ranking of comprehensive strength will naturally improve.
Of course, the current situation is quite different from that in history. The Americans took the blame for the flu, and their international status and influence did not improve much.
On the contrary, Australasia has now become recognized as the fourth great power in the world (after Britain, France and the United States). It does not have the oppression and occupation of colonies by old powers like Britain and France, nor does it have the dirty methods of the Americans against the world. (Influenza) currently has a relatively good reputation internationally.
This is also the reason why Britain was able to control the majority of the say after World War I. Britain avoided suffering too many losses in World War I, and at the same time, it allowed its biggest competitor after World War I, the United States, to bear huge infamy. No single country can pose a threat to Britain.
Coupled with the support of its ally Australasia, and relying on the entire world alliance, this should be the most glorious moment of the British Empire since the 20th century, with British authority even approaching that of the Victorian period.
But this does not mean that there are no problems in the UK. The strength of Britain at this time is, to put it bluntly, not the strength of Britain, but the weakness of other countries. The United States is currently the second-largest country in the world in terms of comprehensive strength, but the United States at this time is far less powerful than Germany before World War I.
To put it bluntly, the current threat posed by the United States to the United Kingdom is not as strong as that of Germany before World War I. This is why the United Kingdom supports Australasia to fight the United States instead of directly confronting the United States.
Once the French gave in, the meeting went smoothly. In just one day, the four countries present reached a tacit understanding and agreed to reduce the proportion of Germany's reparations, and agreed to propose it at the next World Alliance meeting and vote jointly.
As the permanent and elective members of the World Alliance, the four countries united are enough to control the entire World Alliance.
As for the loss of interests of other small and medium-sized countries, it is no longer within the scope of Britain and France to consider.
After all, compared to these small and medium-sized countries, saving Germany's economy is the most important thing.
Arthur was not surprised at all by the outcome of the meeting. After all, the British could not allow the German economy to collapse. This also meant that the result of reducing the proportion of reparations must be achieved.
It's nothing more than how much concessions the British and the French made, but this is completely unimportant compared to the result.
Arthur is quite concerned about the situation in Europe, and naturally knows that the French cannot not give in. After all, the French economy is not very good.
Even historically, the French abandoned the gold standard in 1926 because of their paper currency inflation policy.
In the next ten years or so, a large number of countries also gave up their gold capital position, which brought the US dollar onto the stage of history.
But in fact, currency devaluation is not a bad thing at certain times. Although the franc depreciated significantly, the benefits brought by currency undervaluation allowed the currencies of other countries to appreciate relatively, thus causing imported deflation.
It is precisely because of this kind of deflation that the French economy has remained relatively stable since the beginning of the Great Depression.
According to historical statistics, after the beginning of the Great Depression, the number of unemployed people in Germany was as high as 4.5 million, and the number of unemployed people in the UK was also as high as 2 million.
Logically speaking, France is bound to suffer a major impact, but at that time the unemployed population in France was only about 200,000. This was the reason why France took the initiative to depreciate its currency.
It can only be said that governments of all countries are not all fools. Although sometimes the policies of some countries seem outrageous, being able to become a great power does have its own advantages.
The United States is currently the absolute number one in the world in terms of industry and economy. If we want to cross the gap between the United States and the United States, it is simply impossible to rely on our own development alone.
After pondering for a long time, Arthur set his sights on the real estate policy that would become very famous in later generations.
The current currency is still very valuable compared to the market outlook, which has also led to the fact that housing prices in various countries are not high.
Take the British Empire as an example. House prices in London generally range from tens to hundreds of pounds. Generally, you can buy a single-family villa for 200 pounds. This price is still quite low.
Judging from the per capita income of the British Empire, a person can buy a single-family villa in London with all the money after working hard for about 4 years, and have a foothold in a world-famous big city.
Although this estimate is not exact, for people with a guaranteed income, the actual situation will not be much worse.
House prices in the United States are lower than those in the United Kingdom. After all, the area of the United States is much larger than that of the United Kingdom.
As the most economically and industrially developed country in the world, housing prices in the United States generally remain below US$700, and even in remote areas and small cities are less than US$400. This is something Arthur does not want to see.
As the most economically developed country in the world, the United States must set an example, such as increasing its housing prices.
After all, real estate can drive the development of various industries and is also very rapid for economic development.
Out of kindness towards the people of the United States, Arthur felt that it was necessary to take the initiative to increase housing prices in the United States to help Americans develop better and become a better country.
Of course, this would never admit that speculating in real estate is just to make money for yourself. After all, what does speculation in American real estate have to do with Australasia?
As long as the American real estate industry is booming smoothly, those capitalists will find huge business opportunities.
As long as capitalists quickly enter the market, others will not think that real estate is driven by Arthur.
When real estate really develops, even if the US government wants to control it, it will definitely not be that easy.
The huge profits brought by real estate speculation are enough to make capital crazy. The United States, a capital country, cannot escape the influence of capital. If the U.S. government wants to control real estate prices, it depends on whether American capitalists agree.
After all, after the rise of real estate, there are not a few employees engaged in the real estate industry. The unemployment problem of these people is also the reason why real estate must be maintained.
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(End of chapter)