Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1726
Tom did not find the southern African customers he hoped for. Although the southern Africans are rich, the federal government has issued an administrative order to stop importing agricultural products from the United States as revenge for the US government's investigation of Adan Company.

"Lock, you are too rash. London is considering a counterattack against the United States. Doing so in southern Africa will disrupt London's plans—" Winston did not suggest that Rock do so.

"Oh, Winston, I don't need to remind you. With London's efficiency, I'm afraid it will take a year or two to start a counterattack against the United States." Rock does not trust the British government. Last year's coal workers went on strike, and the British government They can ignore the demands of the coal workers, and it is the same now. Don't expect the British government to come up with an effective counterattack in a short time.

The United States is actually the same, and it is not much better than the United Kingdom. The economic crisis has erupted for half a month, but the US government has done nothing. Like the British government during the strike last year, it sat back and watched the US economy suffer from the economic crisis. as.

It sounds unbelievable, right? How could the democratically elected government ignore the interests of the people and ignore the economic crisis?

In fact, it's not to ignore it, but Hoover has more important things. The United States will start the general election next year. Hoover has already started preparing for the general election, and he really can't care about the economic crisis.

Or in other words, since the once-in-a-decade economic crisis is unavoidable, why should we intervene in the economic crisis, why not wait for the social economy to repair itself, and get through it like those previous economic crises?
Rock doesn't think so. The previous economic crisis lasted for two or three years at most, and the social economy will slowly recover.

This time is different. The Great Depression will last for ten years.

Of course, Roque would not say something like "there are only nine years left in the Great Depression, everyone work harder." The first thing Roque has to do is to close the country.

The "closed country" here refers to closing the Commonwealth market, raising tariffs to restrict imports, and subsidizing exports. At the same time, the federal government decided to devalue the rand again. After the Ministry of Finance decided to stop gold exports a week ago, it announced again yesterday that the ban Private storage of gold and gold securities.

What should be explained here is that before the outbreak of the economic crisis, the gold reserves in southern Africa were worth more than 40 billion rand, accounting for half of the world's total gold reserves.

"Locke, your approach seriously violates the original intention of free trade, and will cause the entire Commonwealth to be passive. This is an unnecessary overreaction." of.

The U.S. government does not dare to intervene too much in the economy because the U.S. government cannot touch the interests of American capitalists, and free trade is just an excuse.

The cowardice of the British government stems from the powerful aristocracy in the UK, which is similar in nature to the United States. The UK wants to protect the interests of the aristocracy, so it can only use the banner of free trade and not interfere too much in the economy.

Southern Africa is different from the United Kingdom and the United States. Rock himself represents the most powerful capital force in Southern Africa. When the interests of capital and the interests of the country overlap, this force can change the world.

"Winston, this economic crisis is completely different from all previous economic crises." Rock reminded him friendly, it was up to Winston to listen or not.

"What's the difference?" Winston is not a god, and also has his own class limitations.

"The duration will be longer and the destructive power will be more serious. In a few years, no one will mention free trade anymore. Do you know Keynes? Go and read Keynes's works—" Rock didn't want to say too much, Keynes is The British, Rock suggested that Winston and Keynes could have a good chat.

Keynes is known as the "Father of Macroeconomics" and is known to the world for initiating the "Keynesian Revolution" in economics.

"You mean John? Hahahaha, Locke, John is the most resolute Englishman who supports free trade—" Winston laughed loudly, and Rock's example is not valid.

What Rock didn't know was that Keynes founded macroeconomics until the outbreak of World War II. After Keynes witnessed the inaction of the British and American governments during the Great Depression, he reflected on the Great Depression, and then there was the Keynesian Revolution.

Now Keynes is a firm supporter of free trade, and believes that protectionism is useless for domestic economic prosperity and employment growth. When the Washington Convention was signed, Keynes also insisted on the issue of German reparations: the balance of payments will be passed Changes in domestic and foreign price levels automatically restore balance.

Now Keynes is the chairman of the National Mutual Life Insurance Company, whose annual report to shareholders has always been a must-read and first-heard news for people in the financial world.

"No matter who he is, the traditional free trade policy is no longer suitable for the current international situation. The federal government of southern Africa must protect southern African enterprises with a firm attitude, and London is the same. If London fails to respond in time, then southern Africa will restrict gold exports. The scope will be further expanded." Roque directly threatened that the restrictions on gold exports in southern Africa did not include the United Kingdom.

"What do you mean?" Winston's smile froze. The gold from the Rand Gold Mine was too important to the British Empire.

The significance of gold lies in the fact that under the premise of the gold standard system, how much gold can print as much money. The unlimited quantitative easing of the Federal Reserve in the 21st century cannot be realized at the moment in 1927. Even if the United States bite the bullet and print, no one will pay. After all The current international currency is the pound sterling, not the dollar.

This situation is also changing. After the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system, the United States bound the US dollar to oil, and only then did the US dollar system come into being.

In the world now, the British pound is bound to gold, and its status as an international currency is still strong.

However, oil is bound to rand. If you want to buy oil from Adan, you must use rand. This is also the deep-seated reason why the US government is investigating Adan.

The pound is already an international currency. If the rand also becomes an international currency, the dollar will never be able to go abroad.

One more thing, the United States launched the "Dawes Project" objectively to promote the dollar.

"What I mean is that London must advance and retreat with southern Africa, restrict American goods, and leave the Commonwealth market to all Commonwealth companies instead of importing from the United States." Rock made the request directly, and his old mind had to change up.

The UK has always been wary of southern Africa. In order to downplay the impact of southern African products on the British mainland, there are also American products in the British market.

Before the economic crisis, Rock could live with this situation.

It is no longer possible, the Great Depression has begun, and the Commonwealth must work together to face the impact of the Great Depression.

"Locke, you are crazy, you are absolutely crazy, if you insist on going your own way, it might lead to the outbreak of World War II—" Winston looked horrified, once southern Africa also imposed a gold embargo on Britain, the pound's The international currency status will be seriously affected.

It will not collapse in an instant. Even if a country like the British Empire declines, it will take a long process, which may last for decades.

What Rock has to do is to keep throwing straws at the camel of the British Empire. It seems that the straw is very light, but sooner or later the British Empire will be overwhelmed.

"Winston, World War II will definitely break out, but it won't start in southern Africa—" Rock looked at the huge world map on the wall, not knowing how Germany is now.

Compared with the United States and Britain, where chaos is emerging, the situation in Germany is even worse.

However, because of the lag of the impact of the economic crisis, ordinary people in Germany do not feel deeply about the economic crisis.

To put it bluntly, the situation is already very bad, and it won’t be too bad if it is worse. They have to run around for three meals a day, and their lives are precarious. Now Germans really don’t have time or mood to worry about the economic crisis.

Here I want to explain that Germany has to pay a large part of the responsibility for the collapse of the US stock market.

After the implementation of the "Dawwes Plan", the United States increased its investment in Germany, with an average annual investment of more than one billion U.S. dollars.

According to the agreement of the "Dawwes Plan", the investment of the United States in Germany will return to the United States in the form of repaying the loan during the World War after it has been transferred from Britain and France.

The plan is good, but there will always be deviations when it is implemented. Germany paid the indemnity as scheduled the year before last, and Britain, France and the United States were rejoicing. People believed that the international order had returned to normal and the economic situation would continue to improve.

Then last year, Germany did not pay compensation on time on the grounds that the domestic economic situation deteriorated again.

Then the problem came. If Germany did not pay compensation, Britain and France would have no money to return to the United States. At this time, American investors finally recognized the nature of Germany as a bottomless pit, and began to doubt Germany's solvency. When all these were concentrated in the United States In the stock market, disaster strikes as promised.

The outbreak of the economic crisis is a good thing for the German Workers' Party, which is on the rise.

After receiving investment from the United States, the influence of the German Workers' Party in Germany has gradually expanded. In the German parliamentary election last year, the German Workers' Party received an unprecedented 100 million votes, with a vote rate of more than [-]%. Formal seats, the Workers Party finally got the coveted right to speak.

The German Workers' Party was funded by the United States, and in southern Africa by Krupp.

The supporters of the German Workers' Party are mainly the German petty bourgeoisie and workers; the supporters of Krupp are the German Junker nobles and big capitalists.

In terms of influence, Krupp is indeed bigger.

However, in terms of audience, the coverage of the German Workers' Party is significantly wider.

(End of this chapter)