The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 772

February 1847, England, City of London.

Four months after the import of Austrian grain to the UK, instead of falling, the price of grain in the UK broke through a new high, reaching 78 shillings per quarter. After that, it continued to set new historical highs, breaking through 5 shillings per quarter in mid-May shilling.

During this period, due to the absence of the restrictions of the "Corn Law", grains from Austria and the United States flooded into the British market crazily, and British industrial products also crazily hit the Austrian and American markets.

But for Austrians, British goods are really low-end. Fortunately, there are Hungarians who buy British goods.

The high-level officials in Austria also acquiesced to this fact. After all, only selling but not buying will make the British blackmailed.

In fact, British fur products were also popular in Europe during this period, and high-quality coal was also well received.

In particular, anthracite has an irreplaceable role in blast furnace smelting and chemical industry, and it is also the best fuel for the military at this time. Otherwise, the navy with black smoke would be easily spotted.

The United States was brutally beaten by British goods. The factory owners in the North strongly opposed allowing British goods to continue to enter the US market, while the South hoped that further tariff reductions would help them export grain and cotton.

As the toughest president in American history, James Polk naturally chose to forcefully raise tariffs, and Britain naturally responded immediately with retaliatory tariffs.

There is almost no obstacle to the passage of this resolution by the British Parliament. After all, the entry of American food into the UK has harmed the interests of too many people.

Although the southern states were dissatisfied, they could only replant those wheat fields with cotton, because the price of grain in Austria was lower and there was no restriction of high tariffs.

Most of the grain exported from Austria to Britain came from the colonies, and the difference was made up with Hungarian grain and Russian grain.

The quantity of these exported grains has been carefully calculated, so that the quantity will not be too much for the British, and the excess will not be sold in the domestic market, but stored.

Therefore, domestic food prices remain stable and upward, because Prussia was hit by a disaster, the price of food in Prussia rose, and the price of food in Austria also rose accordingly.

However, the Austrian government did not choose to bring the exported grain back to the country to stabilize prices, because it is too good to earn extra money from export, and they have never seen so much money in their life.

And at present, the price is completely within the acceptable range. In fact, with the increase of the national income of the Austrian Empire over the years, the price of food is already low. Properly raising the price of food is conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of agriculture.

It's just that the time for cutting the leeks of the British was short-lived. In September 1847, the price of British grain was cut in half, and some grain merchants, including the bankers behind them, went bankrupt.

Of course, the British government is not a fool. They immediately summoned experts from all walks of life to come up with a set of plans.

In order to eliminate market panic and save those grain merchants who hold a large amount of goods, what the British government has to do is to prevent food prices from continuing to fall.

The action they took was to adjust import tariffs, to adjust the import prices of commodities.In fact, in a sense, it can be regarded as a temporary restoration of the "Corn Law".

英国人对外来粮食征收的关税从1847年6月的4先令直接提高到14先令，之后很快就提高到21先令。

The price of wheat rose rapidly against the trend, and people had to accept high grain prices and pay for those big merchants and big bankers.

But the trend of grain merchants going bankrupt is still going on, because many small and medium-sized grain merchants and those who are not so well-informed have sold off their assets before the grain price reversed.

Due to the sudden increase in tariffs and the large-scale bankruptcy of grain merchants, other industries have also been affected, especially those who are mainly engaged in foreign trade with the United States, Austria and other countries.

Bankruptcy and runs happened at the same time, and the Bank of England had to raise the discount rate, which directly caused panic in the banking industry.

At the same time, some big businessmen with a keen sense of smell began to cash out one after another. At this time, the weakness of Britain's insufficient gold reserves or insufficient bank reserves was exposed.

The Bank of England can only sell bonds to withdraw funds to deal with the immediate crisis.

However, as the saying goes, good fortune never comes singly, and misfortunes never come singly. The investment in railways, which were popular before, has increased year by year, but the rate of return has continued to decline.

The rate of return of the early railways was as high as 10%. As more and more railways became available, the competition became more and more intense. Because the UK is a private railway company, there is a lack of coordination and planning, and the problems of repeated routes and low utilization have become increasingly prominent. So the rate of return is getting lower and lower.

So this kind of low-quality assets naturally became the first target to be abandoned, and then the stock market also exploded.The panic among the people began. At this time, the British government has no means to prevent the outbreak of this economic crisis.
Time went back to a year ago, and Skaha was still leading the three little ones to study how to cook the shelled sorghum rice more badly. His younger sister Ella suddenly ran in and carefully took out a paper bag from her arms.

"Sister! Sister! Look what this is!"

After Skaha opened it, a scent of butter entered the nostrils, in addition to the smell of milk and sugar, and a faint fragrance that I had never smelled before.

When she came back to her senses, the little devils around her were already drooling.In fact, they had never eaten this kind of food even before the famine, let alone when they were hungry.

"Ella, where did you get these biscuits?" Scatha asked suspiciously and angrily.

Because even the baker in the town can't make such food, it can only be stolen from the baron's house.

In fact, what Franz asked for was indeed dry food, and he asked for it to be dry and hard, but the court pastry chef always wanted to save face, and even if it was intentional, he couldn't do it poorly.

And at least the raw materials are top-notch, and the craftsmanship is also top-notch. At the same time, the pastry chef specially added spices to the biscuits in order to highlight the royal style.

Although the price of spices is much cheaper than in the age of great voyages, it still seems extravagant to use it for making biscuits.

But Ella, who was overly excited about these details, obviously didn't notice.

"I traded it for a stone."

"How can you lie to me?"

Scathach was already a little sullen, she was afraid that her sister would do something shameful if she couldn't think about it for a while.

But Scathach didn't notice that his sister had cut her hair, and now she was almost like a little boy.

"Why am I lying to you? Hurry up and leave one piece for each person, and leave four yuan for mom and dad. Come with me quickly."

Scathach didn't know why, so he waved his hand and asked.

"What are you doing?"

"There's a caravan coming from the village. That's where I traded my biscuits. Go and cut your hair, and you'll be able to sell it for a good price."

"Really?"

"real!"

"Wait a minute then, I'll wash your hair. If you don't wash it, you won't be able to sell it for a good price."

"Yes! Washing can also increase the weight, so you can change to more food."

The three little ones didn't quite understand, but they jumped around happily when they saw the food.

(End of this chapter)