Chapter 658 Wise Man Baldwin

The losses at various branches of the Benz Automobile Factory were certainly bad news, but the biggest headache at this time was not Arthur.

After all, Arthur only owned half of the dividends and profits of each branch factory, and most of the real shares were in the hands of local nobles and capitalists.

At least Arthur, the British and German car factory, has nothing to worry about. Those British and German aristocrats are more worried than Arthur. They will never sit back and watch the car factory go bankrupt.

As for the Benz Automobile Plants in Australasia and the United States, Arthur can also accept such losses.

After all, the cars are just sitting in warehouses. After being stored for a few years, they can be sold to Americans at full price.

At worst, it can be like other American companies and lay off employees on a large scale. Anyway, most of the workers are Americans. After laying off employees, it will also be the US government that has a headache.

As for the main factory, there is no need to lay off employees.

Domestic cars can no longer be produced for the time being, and car factories can start building military trucks.

We can take advantage of this period to strengthen the mechanization of the Australasian army. In Europe and the United States, where roads are relatively developed, military trucks can play a significant role.

Yes, Arthur is already planning war on the United States and Europe.

This does not mean that Arthur will take the initiative to go to war with some European countries or the United States, but due precautions must be taken.

History has shown that Germany, which has been passed on to the crisis, will never swallow its anger. The Germans have long attached their hatred of the annexed land to the French. In addition, Britain and France are passing on the economic crisis, and the Germans will definitely take action.

Even if Hitler does not ascend to high office, there must be other extremists who will be surrounded by angry Germans and push Germany into the wave of war.

This trend is unstoppable unless some country can withstand Germany's economic crisis and give Germans a breather.

Then the French let the Germans beat them up and return Alsace and Lorraine.

But is this possible? The French would not agree, and the British would not sit back and watch the former German Empire reappear.

After all, France, the current European hegemon, is just an empty show. Germany used to be the real European hegemon, without any moisture.

However, whether it is a war against Germany or a war against the United States, it will inevitably require the support of the British Empire.

These two imaginary enemies are located on other continents thousands of miles away. Without the support of Britain, which has the largest navy, Australasia cannot pose a threat to these two countries.

But thinking about it, whether it is a war against Germany or a war against the United States, many countries must be involved.

It is not impossible for many countries to unite to carve up the United States. After all, the current situation in the United States is not very good, and there is even a risk of civil war.

1. Prime Minister's Office, London, UK.

The current British Prime Minister is Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party, a relatively familiar guy.

Sitting on his prime minister's throne, looking at the cabinet members around him, Prime Minister Baldwin asked with a gloomy face: "Everyone, how is the situation now?"

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, Germany and the United States have successively announced the suspension of compensation payments, and the island countries also seem to intend to suspend the payment of international debts. Under such a situation, the stock market may continue to fall. This may be a disaster that will last for a long time." Finance Minister He said bravely.

What's even more terrible is that this kind of debt default did not occur in countries such as Germany and the United States. Almost all countries have the intention to terminate loan payments. After all, they cannot open the pot at home.

In the face of debt defaults and national bankruptcy, officials in these countries are still very smart. After all, one kind damages the country's international influence, and the other directly damages the government's credibility among the people.

"Damn it, the United States and Germany are the hardest hit by the economic crisis. How dare the island country stop paying its international debt?" Prime Minister Baldwin asked with an ugly face.

Although the UK has terminated cooperation with island countries long ago, some economic ties cannot be interrupted so easily.

Even though the island country's announcement to stop paying international debts will hurt the United States the most, it will also have a certain impact on the United Kingdom, especially its domestic financial institutions.

Financial institutions are already barely surviving. If foreign debts cannot be recovered, the domestic financial system will collapse sooner or later.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, you have no time to care about the decline of the stock market now. The most important thing now is to stabilize domestic financial institutions and ensure that no more factories and banks will go bankrupt due to this crisis." The finance minister tried to suggest.

Although the stock market is still falling, how far can it fall? What's more, London's stock market is still under certain control. Some companies were delisted before the economic crisis broke out. The disaster in the stock market was not as serious as imagined.

Compared with rescuing the stock market, those financial institutions are currently the ones that should be rescued the most. Because financial institutions not only control the life and death of those factories and enterprises, but also control the life and death of a large number of unemployed people.

If financial institutions go bankrupt during a crisis, it will be equivalent to the direct disappearance of the money deposited by people in banks.

People have lost a lot of income, coupled with the loss of their jobs, riots are inevitable.

This is a heavy blow to the government and may even directly affect its stability.

"Approximately how many people are unemployed now?" Baldwin asked with a serious look on his face, rubbing his brows with his hands.

"The situation is not good, Your Excellency, Prime Minister." The Minister of State said somewhat depressedly: "Although we have maintained more companies, we still cannot stop a large number of companies from frantically laying off employees.

According to our current estimates, there are at least two million unemployed people in London as a whole, and even more across the country. "

"Damn, why are there so many unemployed people?" Prime Minister Baldwin couldn't control his emotions and asked in surprise.

"After the economic crisis broke out, large companies were frantically laying off employees to save their own expenses. According to our estimates, the number of people who were laid off was far greater than the number of people who lost their jobs due to company bankruptcy. This is the real reason for the skyrocketing number of our unemployed people. Reason." The Minister of the Interior said with a somewhat ugly expression.

"These damn capitalists." Prime Minister Baldwin instantly understood the reason and said with some anger but helplessness.

The large number of layoffs must be large companies controlled by capitalists. After all, small and medium-sized enterprises are basically unable to withstand the first wave of impact, and most small and medium-sized enterprises have gone bankrupt.

Although he clearly knows that the capitalists are behind all this, Prime Minister Baldwin obviously has no good solution to those capitalists.

Although the UK is a monarchy, it is a constitutional monarchy, and the capitalists still have considerable rights.

Although he may pose a threat to capitalists during his term as prime minister, how long can he last in office?

Even those capitalists can use funds to get a large number of lawmakers to remove the prime minister. How can Baldwin resist the huge capitalist class without the position of prime minister?

This is also the current situation in most European countries. After the monarch loses power, the power of the government is actually controlled by the capitalists.

Capitalists gradually have a say in the government, and people's lives are worse than during the monarchy.

If it hadn't been for the massive propaganda of the concepts of freedom and democracy by the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II, which led to rampant human rights and nationalism, I'm afraid the lives of people in European countries would not be so good.

"Approximately how many people can our relief food be distributed to?" Prime Minister Baldwin asked.

Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, the British government has begun distributing food relief to the unemployed.

After all, London is a huge city with a population of more than 7.5 million. There are too many urban people. They lose their jobs and have no income or food harvest.

If relief food is not distributed to them, I am afraid that in less than a week, these people will be so hungry that they will be dead on the streets.

"The ratio of our relief benefits is approximately 10 pounds of grain, one liter of milk, and one pound of meat per household every four days. According to the recent number of relief food recipients, approximately 750,000 families are receiving our relief food. And the number is still increasing." The Home Secretary carefully reviewed the data and then reported it to Prime Minister Baldwin.

Prime Minister Baldwin rubbed his brow and asked: "Are our food reserves enough?"

"It is enough for the time being, but it should not last long." The Home Secretary replied: "It is very difficult to deliver supplies to every region evenly. It is not easy just to maintain the supply in London."

Prime Minister Baldwin nodded and said rather helplessly: "Australasia should have enough food and meat production, right? Now is the time for allies to contribute, let them provide us with a large amount of food and meat, remember Housing is the cost price before the economic crisis.”

"I'm afraid the Australasians won't agree to this, right?" the Home Secretary asked hesitantly.

"We have to give it a try and we can't let our allies take advantage of the economic crisis. Aren't they attracting immigrants from our unemployed people? Tell Australasia that we support them from attracting immigrants from our unemployed people, even We can take the initiative to send immigrants to them. But we also have a requirement that they provide us with large amounts of food and meat at cost prices. This is about friendly cooperation between our allies." Prime Minister Baldwin said with a smile.

From Prime Minister Baldwin's perspective, this is simply a plan to kill two birds with one stone. It can not only transport a large number of troubled unemployed people to Australasia, but also obtain a large amount of grain and meat from Australasia to relieve the domestic unemployed people.

In this way, the crisis caused by the domestic unemployment population can be easily solved, and at least his position as prime minister is not at risk for the time being.

As for the population losses caused by large-scale immigration to Australasia, Prime Minister Baldwin does not care much.

After all, the British Empire had a population of over 40 million, and the colonies had hundreds of millions of people.

If the loss is only hundreds of thousands or millions of immigrants, this is not unacceptable, especially under the premise that the economic crisis has led to a sharp increase in the unemployed population.

If these unemployed people continue to stay in the UK, it will inevitably cause more troubles, which will endanger the rule of the British government.

Prime Minister Baldwin thinks he is very smart. Australasia is frantically attracting immigrants from all over the world, and it will definitely not eat many British immigrants.

If only hundreds of thousands of unemployed people are exchanged for a large amount of food and meat, then the deal is very cost-effective. Prime Minister Baldwin's name will also be set on the British Prime Minister's Honor List, and the way he handles this economic crisis will be recorded in The annals of history have become his outstanding achievements in his career as prime minister.

The second update of 3300 words, please vote for me and support!

Today we will continue to make thousands, and it has been updated. Please vote for me and support me!