1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 20 Direction in Crisis (1)

After Scrooge finished his analysis of the origin of the crisis, both Rockefeller and Clark were silent. After a while, Rockefeller said:

“Scrooge, I don’t know where your reasoning is, but there is a problem. If you really want to say, the vicious circle of economic crisis should be more and more serious. Human history has been so long. We should have finished in such a vicious circle long ago.”

Scrooge laughed. He asked his teacher this question when he was in junior high school in his previous life, and now he can just take the answer directly.

“For most of the history, the goods produced by human beings were not mainly used for commodity exchange, but self-sufficient to meet the needs of own life. In this era, most people are like Robinson, he is harvesting At that time, don’t worry about not being able to sell the food. Because he didn’t intend to sell his food. But modern times are different. Most of modern production is for exchange. The things produced are commodities, so the situation is naturally different. .”

“However, after entering the modern era, we have also experienced many economic crises. Why do we see a recovery every time, instead of getting worse and worse in the recycling process, and finally completely finished?” Obviously, Rockefeller was not convinced.

“That’s because the economic crisis is not without a solution. At least, for now, there are two ways to solve it.” Scrooge laughed, he was waiting for the problem.

“First of all, the vicious circle originates from within the system. If new purchasing power can be obtained from outside the system, the problem can be alleviated. This is the general principle, and then there are two specific methods. The first method is to rely on God’s Help. Do you remember the economic crisis of 1847 and the discovery of a gold mine in San Francisco in 1848?”

“Well, I remember the craze at the time. Some ships would not be able to set off the next day as long as they docked in North America, because more than half of the sailors were missing-they all went to San Francisco for gold panning. I’ve seen several such boats with my own eyes, and some of them even ran away after the captain.” Thinking of the story back then, Clark smiled.

“Well, this gold mine, as well as the one in Melbourne, are all shallowly buried. It is not difficult to pan for gold, and they are all in the land of no owner. Anyone can pan for gold. A large number of people who had no consumption ability found gold here. , Once again have purchasing power, and then the unsold goods can be sold again. It is like God hired them and then paid them generous wages to help us solve the problem of insufficient demand. So the economic crisis of 1847 was naturally resolved.” Scrooge smiled when he said that.

“Thank God!” Rockefeller reverently drew a cross on his chest.

“God bless United States.” Scrooge and Clark also hurriedly drew a cross.

“But what about this crisis? Do we have to rely on God to give us another gold mine?” Clark asked after drawing the cross.

“God gave us a bigger gold mine.” Scrooge said.

“Where?” Clark asked immediately, as if he couldn’t wait to run for gold right away.

“For the world, the largest gold mines are in the East. For United States, the largest gold mines are in the West and the South.” Scrooge said calmly.

“Can you make it clear,” Rockefeller said, “I couldn’t keep up with your thinking.”

“Well, let’s look back. Since the 15th century, Europeans have obtained countless amounts of gold and silver from America through colonial means. Can anyone tell me where these gold and silver have gone?”

Clark thought for a while and said, “You mean these gold and silver went to the East? Well, yes, through the trade of silk, porcelain and tea, China alone does not know how much gold and silver it has obtained from the West. I understand. Now that they have gold in their hands, as long as they can sell them the excess goods that cannot be sold, the problem can be temporarily solved.”

“Not bad!” Scrooge nodded appreciatively. “But the Orientals are not stupid. Of course, they know what the consequences will be if European goods are allowed to flow into the country. Their handicraft workshops are completely unable to compete with modern industry. It is almost certain that these workshops will go bankrupt. The handicraftsmen will be unemployed. Well, the consequences. At the end of the last century, the collapse of the textile industry in Kolkata, India is a ready example. At that time, 150,000 textile handicraftsmen in Kolkata were starved to death by 110,000. In the words of the British owner, it means “the bones of the textile workers have turned the entire plains of India white.” Secondly, it is impossible for the West to allow these eastern countries to continue to maintain their self-sufficient natural economy. Because of this economy. The model means that they do not need to buy any goods. In order to sell the goods, destroying their natural economy has become a must. And this can only rely on violence. The British destroyed India in the last century. Directly rule India and use violence to break the natural economy of the Indians, making India a raw material source and commodity sales market for the United Kingdom. By monopolizing such a large market with hundreds of millions of people, the United Kingdom has grown into the world’s hegemon. Of course, the economic crisis It has not been wiped out, it has only been passed on to India. Anyway, it is the Indians who are unlucky. Well, 10 million people died of starvation in 1770 because of the great famine in Bengal.”

“God! This is terrible!” Rockefeller drew another cross on his chest, and then let out a sigh of relief, saying, “Fortunately, those who starve to death are evil heretics.”

“It was mentioned in the newspaper not long ago that the British were still in conflict with China in the East.” Scrooge said, “Now that such a crisis has occurred, I am sure that it will not be long before the United Kingdom initiates a new strategy against China. War in order to further open up China’s market.”

“But, isn’t this a crisis in United States? What does it matter to the United Kingdom?” Rockefeller asked.”Over the years, we have continued to build railways. However, where are most of the steel and other things we use to build railways and the trains that run on our railways are produced? Are they produced by the United States? Once our economy When something goes wrong, we don’t have the money to build new railways, and we don’t have money to buy new trains, which means reduced demand for the United Kingdom. In this way, the crisis in United States will also become the United Kingdom’s crisis. Crisis.” Scrooge replied, “In order to get rid of the crisis, Britain can only expand to the east.”

“Then what should we do in United States? We don’t have the sea power like the United Kingdom and can expand eastward. What can we do?”

“We can expand to the west, where there are large tracts of land, and there will always be demand for the development of those land. In addition, we still have the south.” Scrooge said, when he talked about the south, his voice was a little bit cold. .

Some conscientious history books in later generations often interpreted the Civil War as a just war for the liberation of black slaves. But after passing through this era, after having studied the economy of this era, Scrooge is sure that the so-called liberation of black slaves is just a high-sounding excuse. The capitalists in the north are no more noble than the slave owners in the south, so they don’t care about the life and death of those niggers. If they were really so kind, they would not let the working conditions of the workers in their factories worse than the black slaves in the southern plantations. Just as Marx said, the capitalists will take risks with 50% profits, and if they have 100% profits, they dare to trample all the laws of the world, and if they have 300% profits, they dare to hang themselves. The danger of racking. To understand their behavior, they must and can only be considered from the perspective of how to make profits.

The slave owners in the south of the United States are actually capitalists. They are different from the manor owners in the Middle Ages. Their economic model is not self-sufficient manors, but market-oriented commercial agriculture. However, their interests are not consistent with those of the northern capitalists. For them, if European tariffs can be kept at a low level, then buying agricultural products—grain, cotton, etc.—in Europe will bring them more profits than selling them to the north. Therefore, the United States under the Democratic rule of the Virginia dynasty has always opened its doors to European industrial products in exchange for Europe’s open market for United States agricultural products. Such an approach, of course, will make the planters in the south earn a lot of money, but this is at the expense of the north. In a sense, the interests of the planters in the south of the United States are more aligned with the interests of the British. They are British economic vassals.

For the North, using tariffs to protect its own industries, especially manufacturing, is the most common method for a country that has just started in industry. The demand brought about by the expansion to the west should be able to feed the manufacturing industry in the north. However, with this group of Southern Leading Party, which has long controlled the federal government, the manufacturing industry in the north is under the pressure of large European industries. Can’t eat at all. In order to develop, take off, and make money in northern industries, especially the manufacturing industry, these leading parties must be defeated. In this sense, it is not unreasonable for some people to call the Civil War the Second War of Independence of United States.

“United States, relying on the entire North American continent, always has to find a way to find new demand, but to protect its industry-because only industry can provide enough employment opportunities for so many immigrants each year-it must raise tariffs and reduce European The industrial products of China are driven out, which conflicts with the interests of the South. Machiavelli once said: “Depriving others of their money is even more hateful than killing their parents.” Now, the North wants to make a fortune. Tariffs must be raised, and this must be at the expense of the South; and for the South to become rich, it must maintain low tariffs, and this must be at the expense of the North. Such problems cannot be resolved through negotiation. They can only be resolved by war. I dare say, use Before long, the United States will start a civil war.” Scrooge said firmly.

Rockefeller opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn’t say anything. Instead, Clark came up with this sentence: “Scrooge, you really deserve to be president.”