Chapter 525 Real Estate Plan

After hearing what Minister Grey said about the market loss caused by the collapse of the German economy, French Prime Minister Millerand was somewhat persuaded.

In Europe today, France is definitely the largest importer of cheap German industrial products. The proportion of French imports of German products is much higher than that of the United Kingdom and Italy. After all, it also has the advantage of geographical location.

This also leads to France's current extreme dependence on Germany's cheap industrial products. After all, Germany's industrial products are not only of good quality, but also very cheap.

If Germany's economic collapse leads to a significant reduction in the output of German industrial products, can French industrial products 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 stagnant?

If France wants to fill the gap in German industrial products, it is absolutely impossible for it to do so at present, even if it has made advance arrangements.

Seeing that French Prime Minister Millerand said nothing, Minister Grey knew that his persuasion had been effective, and continued: "Prime Minister Millerand, we only need to reduce the loan of 5 billion pounds and reduce the German government's share of reparations within three years to save Germany and avoid the result of an economic crisis.

I understand that reducing reparations will cause losses to your country, but there is more value than reparations, right?

A stable Germany can generate more benefits, and saving Germany is a good thing for us. After all, a stable Germany can guarantee the smooth repayment of reparations.

If Germany collapses, whether this reparation can be repaid is a question. I believe your country does not want to see this situation."

In addition to the threat of force from Britain and France, there is another important point that Germany can repay the reparations smoothly, that is, the current German government still has the ability to pay the reparations.

But if the German economy really collapses and even triggers an economic crisis, will Germany still have the ability to pay reparations? This problem is obvious.

At that time, Germany will have a reason to default on its debts. After all, the country has gone bankrupt, and defaulting on its debts is justified.

Prime Minister Millerand was silent in thought, but he could not deny that what Minister Grey said did make sense.

Compared with the protagonists of this meeting, Britain and France, Italy and Australasia seemed a little indifferent, quietly watching the performance of Britain and France.

In the end, under Minister Grey's argument, French Prime Minister Millerand finally agreed to reduce Germany's reparations, reducing Germany's 20 billion pounds of reparations to about 15 billion pounds, and reducing the share of the German government's reparations within three years to save the crisis currently facing the German government.

Of course, the British also paid a considerable price to persuade the French.

First, the British must unconditionally support France's policies in Alsace and Lorraine, and acquiesce in France's further control over the trusteeship republic on the Franco-German border.

Secondly, the British must support the French in the proportion of the navy, in other words, to increase the size of the French navy as much as possible.

Fortunately, the British government can accept both of these points. In the handshake between Minister Grey and Prime Minister Millerand, an agreement that affects the situation in Germany was born.

The reason why Prime Minister Millerand agreed to Minister Grey's proposal to reduce the proportion of German reparations was actually for France.

After the defeat, the situation of defeated countries such as Germany was very bad, but this did not mean that the victorious countries such as Britain and France had an easier time.

Britain was fine, there was no impact on the mainland, and the economic losses were acceptable, which was why the pound depreciated slightly.

But France was different. The losses suffered by France in World War I and various post-war policies led to a large depreciation of France's official currency, the franc.

According to French folk statistics, before World War I, one franc could buy about 7 kilograms of flour, but now one franc can only buy less than 4 kilograms of flour, and the depreciation rate has reached 47.1%.

Before World War I, 1 pound was equivalent to about 25 francs, but now 1 pound is worth 53 francs.

Although the depreciation of the franc is far less serious than that of the mark, France's policy on paper money is relatively loose, and the depreciation of the franc is still intensifying, which will lead to more serious inflation.

If Germany's economy suffers a major crisis at this time, France, as Germany's neighbor, will inevitably be seriously affected.

What's more, France is full of German industrial products, which are cheap treasures in normal times, but they are the scythe of death in times of economic crisis.

The French economy can't bear the great turmoil at all, which is the real reason why Prime Minister Millerand agreed to give in.

It has to be admitted that World War I was a pure internal consumption between Europe. After World War I, Germany and Russia were the two European countries on the verge of collapse, and France suffered heavy losses.

Only Britain is still struggling to hold on, but apart from Britain, the most European power that can come up with a decent performance is France.

This is also the real reason for the rise of the United States in history. After all, all European countries have serious internal consumption. 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 history. Americans took the blame for the flu, and their international status and influence have not improved much.

On the contrary, Australasia has become the recognized fourth power in the world (after Britain, France and the United States). It has neither the oppression and occupation of colonies by old powers like Britain and France, nor the dirty means (flu) against the world by Americans. Its international reputation is still relatively good.

This is also the reason why Britain was able to hold most of the discourse power after World War I. Britain avoided too many losses in World War I, and at the same time made its biggest competitor after World War I, the United States, bear a huge infamy. No single country can threaten Britain.

Coupled with the support of its ally Australasia and the entire world alliance, now should be the most glorious moment of the British Empire since the 20th century, and Britain's authority is even close to the Victorian era.

But this does not mean that there is no problem in the UK. At this time, Britain's strength is not the strength of Britain, but the weakness of other countries.

The second country in the world in terms of comprehensive strength should be the United States, but the United States at this time is far less powerful than Germany before World War I.

To put it bluntly, the threat that the United States currently poses to Britain is not as strong as that posed by Germany before World War I, which is why Britain will support Australasia to fight against the United States instead of directly confronting the United States.

As soon as the French gave in, the meeting went very smoothly. In just one day, the four countries present reached a tacit understanding and unanimously agreed to reduce the proportion of German reparations, and agreed to propose it at the next World League meeting and vote jointly.

As permanent and elected members of the World League, the four countries united are enough to control the entire World League.

As for the loss of interests of other small and medium-sized countries, it is no longer within the scope of consideration of Britain and France.

After all, compared with these small and medium-sized countries, saving Germany's economy is the most important thing.

Arthur was not surprised at the result of the meeting. After all, the British could not let the German economy collapse, which also meant that the result of reducing the proportion of reparations must be achieved.

It's nothing more than how much the British and French concessions are, but this is completely unimportant compared to the results.

Arthur was still quite concerned about the situation in Europe, and naturally knew that the French could not not give in, after all, the French economy was not very good.

In history, the French even abandoned the gold standard in 1926 because of the policy of paper currency inflation.

In the next ten years, a large number of countries also abandoned the gold standard, which allowed the US dollar to enter the stage of history.

But in fact, currency devaluation is not a bad thing at some times. Although the franc has depreciated significantly, the benefits brought by currency undervaluation have made the currencies of other countries appreciate relatively, thus bringing about imported deflation.

It is precisely because of this deflation that the French economy has remained relatively stable after the Great Depression began.

According to historical statistics, after the Great Depression began, 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 number of unemployed people in France was only about 200,000, which is why France took the initiative to devalue its currency.

It can only be said that governments of all countries are not all fools. Although the policies of some countries sometimes seem outrageous, they do have their own advantages in becoming great powers.

The United States is currently the absolute world leader in industry and economy. It is impossible to cross the gap with the United States by relying on its own development.

After thinking hard for a long time, Arthur set his sights on the very famous real estate policy in later generations.

The current currency is still very valuable compared to the future market, which also leads to the fact that housing prices in various countries are not high.

Taking the British Empire as an example, the housing prices in London are generally between tens of pounds and hundreds of pounds. Generally, you can buy a single-family villa for 200 pounds, which is still quite cheap.

According to the per capita income of the British Empire, a person can buy a single-family villa in London in full after working hard for about 4 years, and have a foothold in a world-famous big city.

Although such an estimate is not accurate, for people with guaranteed income, the actual situation will not be much worse.

The housing prices in the United States are lower than those in the United Kingdom. After all, the land 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, the US housing prices generally remain below $700, and even the housing prices in remote areas and small cities are less than $400, which Arthur does not want to see.

As the most economically developed country in the world, the United States must set an example, such as raising its own housing prices.

After all, real estate can drive the development of various industries and is also very rapid for economic development.

Out of kindness to the American people, Arthur felt it necessary to take the initiative to raise US housing prices to help Americans develop better and become a better country.

Of course, this will never admit that real estate speculation is just for making money for oneself. After all, what does speculating 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 the capitalists enter the market quickly, 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 so easy.

The huge profits from real estate speculation are enough to drive capital crazy. The United States, a capitalist country, cannot escape the influence of capital. If the US government wants to control the price of real estate, it depends on whether the American capitalists agree.

After all, after the rise of real estate, there are many employees 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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