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The Fox of France - Chapter 473
🕑 Added 2024-04-06 05:26:43 +0000 UTCChapter 473: The Final Battle Against the British Colonizers
Since the news of the French Navy's victory spread, it immediately caused a sensation among European nations. The entire "civilized world" quickly united, ready to start a frenzy of partitioning the United Kingdom.
Yes, the entire civilized world is now very thirsty. In the economic crisis, European countries, except for the French who utilized North American gold and were getting by, were not doing well. Their businesses, in free trade, for various reasons, and we are not even talking about reasons related to technology and scale, just the inability to get low-interest loans from the "Roman Bank" was fatal enough. Not getting low-interest loans led to increased financing costs, which in turn led to increased product costs, and higher product costs led to higher commodity prices. Higher commodity prices meant that goods couldn't be sold, which led to the breakdown of the capital chain...
Just like another great person said in his classic work "Capital": "From product to commodity is a perilous leap, its result is either the generation of profit or the death of the capitalist." Thus, capitalists from Austria, Prussia, the Rhine region, Italy, and the Low Countries were one after another found on rooftops and similar places.
However, the French, worthy of being the leaders of the free world, produced various great philanthropists. Just when those foreign capitalists were trembling on the rooftop, taking a look down, closing their eyes, filled with nostalgia for this world and fantasies about traversing to another world, getting the golden finger, becoming dominant, and then reaping everything... right before they were about to leap, a hand pulled them back.
When they turned around, they would often see a person dressed in a gray suit, wearing a top hat (many suspect they wear hats in any weather to cover some unique feature on their head), a monocle on their nose, holding a contract written on parchment in their hand—ah, wrong, although it looked somewhat like it, that contract was not actually written on parchment.
These people would tell them: "You don't have to despair because you still have a chance, as long as you are willing to transfer a portion of your shares, along with yourself, to some gentlemen. Hmm, although due to operational difficulties, your shares are now hardly sellable, but what we value is not entirely those shares, but more importantly, your ability. Yes, your ability. Being able to stand here until now is a demonstration of your ability. Just sign this agreement, and you can get the urgently needed cash flow, and to the outside world, you are still the boss of this company."
The ones coming to acquire those businesses with certain acquisition values were naturally from the French military-industrial complex. According to Joseph, in an economic crisis, due to the influence of panic, many valuable businesses would appear severely undervalued, which presented a good opportunity for acquisition.
As for why they still left the original bosses and even left them a bit of shares, there are certainly reasons that the original bosses were quite capable, knew how to operate, and were worth exploiting, but there's more...
"Napoleon, if one day, most of the bosses of French companies became English, do you think the French people would hate the English?" Joseph asked Napoleon this question when discussing this issue.
"Of course. Who in the world doesn't hate their boss? I've heard that even in some companies, even the white-collar clerks like to hum 'The Song of the Slaves' when they have nothing to do. It's all your fault!" Napoleon replied.
"Napoleon, do you know, in this world, there are two basic ways to distinguish between groups of people." Joseph said, "One way is based on economic status, simply put, the poor and the rich. Generally, the poor naturally envy the rich, and the rich naturally despise the poor. This is not due to misunderstanding or anything, but a real conflict of interest.
The second way is to divide people into different ethnicities based on language, customs, etc. French, English, Austrians, Italians, and so on. Of course, there are also conflicts of interest between different ethnic groups. But honestly, does a French poor person really have a conflict of interest with an Austrian poor person? Would they naturally hate an Austrian poor person? How could that be?
Simply put, hatred between classes is inevitable, but hatred between ethnic groups is not, unless these two things coincide."
"These two things coincide?" Napoleon said.
"Yes, for example, look at Ireland and Poland. Why can Ireland make a fuss, but Poland can't really make much of a fuss? Polish people are still just secretly throwing grenades and such, not making much impact at all. Why?"
Napoleon didn't answer.
"Look at Poland, why don't the lower-class Polish people oppose Russians, Prussians, and Austrians? Because compared to Russians, Prussians, and Aust
rians, they even hate the Polish nobility more. Those who are stirring up rebellion, without the support of the lower class, what can they really do? Just like France, if during the Great Revolution, the sans-culottes hadn't stood up, wouldn't it have been easy for the king to crush the Jacobins?
On the other hand, look at Ireland. When the English arrived in Ireland, they plundered wildly, making all Irish people poor, while the English became landlords and bosses, thus the contradiction between the Irish and the English, on the surface, seems like an ethnic conflict, but hidden underneath is the more deadly class conflict. So the lower class in Ireland, who doesn't hate the English? So you see, when the Irish start a rebellion, how decisive and firm they are. Hehe, without their cooperation, how could we deal with the English so well.
The mistake made by the English in Ireland, we cannot make in other countries. The English made the Irish feel that all Irish are poor, and all English are landlords and bosses, at least those they come into contact with. This is a big problem. We cannot repeat the same mistake.
So, in those places of other ethnicities, we must be careful to use proxies. Those lower-class workers and farmers, they can't understand the ownership structure of a company, they can't know who the real big bosses of these companies are, they can only directly interact with the direct 'bosses' who manage and operate the companies. Their hatred will only be focused on these people. We can continue to exploit these people while being the good guys, making the lower-class folks have a good impression of the French."
At this point, Joseph couldn't help but remember an operation he had seen in his previous life.
Speaking of which, back then, a corner of East Asia was developing quite well, especially South Korea, which had a very good momentum. Then, well, when the periodic operation of the United States came, well, South Korea was immediately stunned, a bunch of companies were going to be finished, and then Citibank and such, came out with their checkbooks playing God. Then, fifty-five percent of Samsung Group's common shares and eighty-eight percent of its preferred shares became theirs. Fundamentally, at that time, Samsung Group was actually a company of the United States.
But, the United States was very smart not to move Samsung's management. So, to the whole world, and more importantly to all of South Korea, it still seemed like Samsung was still owned by the Lee family. Although the entire Lee family's shareholding ratio was not even two percent. But if Koreans wanted to curse the chaebols, they would definitely curse those with the surname Lee, not Morgan.
Having seen such a successful experience, if not learned from, wouldn't it be a waste to be a transmigrator? So, the French's acquisitions of those European companies were very secret and very kind. Generally, the original bosses kept their "leadership position" in the company and a varying number of shares. (If they didn't hold shares, they would become workers unrelated to the company's profits, then who knows if they would use their power to make money for the company.)
Now, the acquisition of those particularly valuable companies was almost complete, and it was time for these companies to bring profits to the empire. Naturally, the most effective thing to do this was the partition of England.
The first trumpet call for the frenzy of partitioning England naturally sounded from Ireland. On the second day after the confirmation of the news of the North Atlantic naval battle, the Unified Irish People's Association published an editorial in their organ, "Free Ireland": "The Final Battle Against the British Colonizers!"
This not very long article was printed as a special edition, first sent to various regions, counties, districts, and villages in the stronghold. In the previous counterattacks, the entire "free zone" of Ireland had rapidly expanded and formed a contiguous area. The English had already retreated to a few limited major cities along the coast, and the Irish people were increasingly believing that they would soon win independence. In the villages, in the towns, soldiers of the independence army dressed in grey-green military uniforms recited this article aloud in front of the crowds, their excited voices occasionally interrupted by the cheers of the masses.
"On October 12th, the French Republic declared war on England, and on October 20th, the French Navy defeated the British Navy in the North Atlantic between Iceland and England, marking the complete collapse of the evil pillar of the British colonizers' rule over the world and their plundering of the world's people—British maritime power.
Thanks to this victory by our French allies, the process of the Irish people gaining freedom and liberation will greatly accelerate..."
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