Chapter 686 Expensive Bread

The chaos in the United States is like a bomb that was suddenly ignited. The explosion covers the entire United States, including both white and black races.

When the government loses its last bit of credibility, the chaos in the United States is unimaginable, and it is also uncontrollable by anyone or any force.

If there are other people who add fuel to the fire, this will be a heavy blow to a country that has been established for less than 200 years, and it will be a bigger blow to a country that just ended the civil war decades ago.

Although the end of the Civil War has brought decades of peace and stability to the United States, it does not mean that the United States is a powerful country that has been twisted together.

After the liberation of blacks, the contradictions between blacks and whites have deepened, because their roles are no longer slaves of the plantation, but American citizens who want more political rights.

The contradictions between the eastern and western parts of the United States and the northern and southern states are also irreconcilable, unless there is a president who can be trusted by all Americans to coordinate.

But it is obvious that the current President Hoover has lost the trust of Americans, which is also the fundamental reason why the United States has fallen into extreme chaos.

After California announced that it would hold an independence referendum, the western states followed their big brother and announced an independence referendum.

This also paralyzed the Hoover Dam before it even started construction. After all, the site of the dam was in the western United States, and the western states no longer obeyed the dispatch of the US federal government.

Even the Hoover Dam, the greatest political achievement, could not proceed smoothly. It can be said without hesitation that President Hoover's political career has no chance of reversing.

What's more terrible is that the US policy of not prohibiting firearms has accelerated the occurrence of chaos.

As long as the state governments are willing, they can even have an armed force in a short period of time. Even those dark forces that cannot be on the stage can obtain weapons in various ways, and civilians with weapons are no longer civilians.

In addition, President Hoover massacred veterans of World War I, resulting in almost no American soldiers willing to suppress these rebellions for the government.

Even many soldiers have expressed dissatisfaction with the government, and the split between the army and the government seems to be possible.

While the eyes of the world are focused on the chaos in the United States, another equally chaotic country is undergoing huge changes at this time.

If the United States is the country suffering the most from the economic crisis, then Germany must be the second most serious country.

According to the latest estimates of the number of unemployed people, the number of unemployed people in the United States has exceeded 12 million, and the number of unemployed people in Germany has reached more than 5 million.

This is a rather exaggerated level, and it can fully prove how chaotic the economies of the United States and Germany are.

The US dollar still maintains a very high value for various reasons, but the official currency of Germany, the mark, has already fallen in value, and the current official exchange rate has fallen below 1355:1.

What does it mean? Under the official exchange rate, the pound, which has already fallen in value, can still achieve an exchange rate of 1 to 1355, that is, the value of 1 pound is equivalent to 1355 marks.

And this is just official data, the real conversion is even more exaggerated, and in most parts of Germany it can reach a ratio of more than 1 to 2000.

Such an exchange rate has plummeted by more than 100 times compared to before the war, which also means that the German people have to get more than 100 times the salary before World War I to live a life similar to that before World War I.

But the problem is that the per capita annual income of Germans before World War I was about 2,000 marks, and now the per capita income is just barely breaking through 3,000 marks.

The per capita income seems to have increased, but the actual purchasing power has plummeted by dozens of times. If we take into account the rising prices, the income of Germans has been falling wildly in the past ten years.

How exaggerated are the prices in Germany?

First of all, the price of food, which has increased more and more exaggeratedly every year.

Before World War I, most Germans ate white bread that looked fragrant, and the price of one pound was about 3 marks.

Now, white bread has become a food enjoyed by German nobles and capitalists, and civilians can only eat grains and black bread with a rougher taste. After all, such bread has a lower cost and selling price.

But even the cheapest black bread has exceeded 60 marks per pound.

If it is white bread with a more delicate and soft taste, the price per pound has even reached about 150 marks, and it is still out of stock and cannot be bought at all.

If civilians really want to buy white bread regardless of cost, they will spend at least 170 marks per pound.

This also means that civilians can only buy 20 pounds of white bread at most with their annual salary, which can be eaten for about 140 meals.

Such data is extremely exaggerated. The income earned by the people after a year of hard work cannot even provide a simple meal.

And Germany still has a large number of unemployed people, as well as elderly people and children who cannot work at all, which is also a burden on the working population.

According to a survey by some German media, in 1927, the German people spent more than 2,300 marks on food, accounting for 8% of the average annual income of German citizens.

What kind of exaggerated concept is this? Most of the income earned by Germans after a year of hard work is used to buy food, and even so, a considerable number of people are in a state of hunger.

If the price of goods in Germany is allowed to continue to rise, not only will the number of unemployed people continue to grow, but the number of people who are hungry and on the verge of starvation will also continue to grow.

But the German government at this time did not realize this problem. Because of Arthur's reminder, William II has entered a state of gradually decentralizing power.

Except for the news that the German royal family occasionally rescued the people and distributed food to the people for free, there was almost no news about the royal family in German politics.

This made President Hindenburg, the controller of the government, relieved, because it meant that the struggle for power in the imperial government had temporarily come to an end.

Without the suppression of William II, those states jumped out one after another. Some states are constantly printing marks and frantically increasing their currency reserves.

Some states even abolished the mark directly, such as Bavaria, which issued its own currency.

The actions of these states may be a solution to the economic crisis for them, but for the German government, it is the last straw that crushes the mark.

In 1928, the value of the mark was like a surging river, going down three thousand feet, and it was impossible to stop it.

Even if Hindenburg issued a number of strategies, it could not prevent the value of the mark from plummeting like a cliff.

In January 1928, the exchange rate between the pound and the mark remained at 1:1300, but by February, the exchange rate between the pound and the mark had grown to 1:1500.

It is worth mentioning that the value of the pound did not rise during this period, and it was even falling slightly.

This also means that the decline in the value of the mark far exceeds the current exchange rate, and the life of the Germans in the new year is destined to be not very good.

As expected, the purchasing power of the mark ushered in a new round of plunge in March.

This round of plunge not only caused the exchange rate between the mark and the pound to reach a terrifying 1750:1, but also caused all prices in Germany to rise, and the price of black bread per pound also rose to 75 marks.

Although this seems a bit incredible, if you count the number of marks printed by the German states, you can see it at a glance.

Because the German government has almost no jurisdiction over the states, the states with sufficient power are also printing marks unscrupulously.

This has led to the number of marks circulating in the market far exceeding the market demand, even dozens of times more than the market demand.

What were these marks originally used for? Long before the economic crisis broke out, these marks were used as war reparations for Germany and were delivered to the Allies.

But after the economic crisis broke out, the German government announced that it would temporarily stop paying reparations. Although this has eased the German economy to a certain extent, the large number of marks printed by the German government and the states are of no use.

Such a large number of marks cannot be treated as waste paper. The states are destined to be unable to bear such temptations, and it is inevitable that a large number of marks will be put into the market.

The continuous decline in the value of the mark is not a big deal for these states. At most, they will print marks with larger denominations.

Starting from March 1928, the denominations of marks printed by the states have all increased to more than 100 marks, and some states have also printed denominations of 1,000 marks, 10,000 marks, etc.

The fact that all of Germany was frantically printing marks was naturally reported by the media. Some political parties that wanted to attract the attention of the public denounced the German government and the states for frantically printing marks, but it was of no help to the whole incident.

In April 1928, a large number of German workers asked companies to increase their wages, because the purchasing power of the original wages had dropped significantly under the crazy depreciation of the currency.

It is worth mentioning that 3,000 marks in January 1928 was equivalent to 6,000 marks in April, which shows how fast the mark depreciated.

Under the pressure of a large number of workers, some German companies chose to increase workers' wages.

This also caused Germany's per capita income to surge in a short period of time, from 3,000 marks per capita to 5,000 marks per capita.

But the problem is that the actual purchasing power of 5,000 marks now is not as good as the previous 3,000 marks, which is also the biggest problem currently facing the German government.

As people's income increases, the selling price of goods will naturally increase. Don't overestimate the conscience of those capitalists. In such an economic crisis, the ambition and greed of capitalists also emerged.

The German people who could barely fill their stomachs soon found that their income could not even afford meat, and they could only buy the cheapest black bread.

The prices of various types of bread are also rising, and the price of a pound of white bread has even exceeded 300 marks.

The price of the cheapest black bread also exceeded the expectations of the German people, because the lowest price per pound of black bread marked in all stores was as high as 120 marks.

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