Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Royal Palace of the Netherlands.

"Father, why is Britain's economic status in the world declining?"

Prince Albert asked.

William IV naturally knew the reason for this.

Historically, Britain would have declined without the rise of the Netherlands. However, the rise of the Netherlands was too rapid, accelerating Britain's decline. .

In the previous life, from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Britain's world trade status also declined.

"Albert, you need to read more about the history and information about the rise of Britain.

Throughout the 19th century we are living in now, British exports were too concentrated in a few basic or important sectors at the forefront of the industrial revolution, namely several old industries such as cotton textile industry, ironware industry and metal smelting industry.

The export profits of products from these industries have always accounted for more than two-thirds of the total export profits.

It can be seen that the prosperity of British export profits depends on the export market's dependence on these old industrial sectors. "

Prince Albert asked: "In other words, the UK only pays attention to those sectors, and other industries are not willing to care?"

William IV shook his head and said: "No, in the 1860s, with the rise of the electric age led by our Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, the world began to shift from the end of the steam engine age to the electric age, and production technology was changing with each passing day.

The UK's over-commitment to these industries has exposed the weaknesses of the British economy. The Netherlands, Germany and the United States have spotted this opportunity, accelerated detours to overtake, and succeeded.

This has also resulted in the British foreign trade economy gradually being at a disadvantage in international competition.

Newly industrialized countries, such as our Netherlands, the United States and Germany, have taken advantage of their scientific and technological advantages to develop new emerging industries such as the chemical industry.

This is where the UK currently lags behind our three countries.

Britain's heavy burden made it difficult for its economy to adjust to more emerging industries, thus losing its status as the world's economic leader or the world's factory in the steam age.

How can we replace it? Currently, more than 40% of global foreign trade is carried out by the Netherlands. Even the German Empire currently accounts for 14%, which is only 3 points behind the United Kingdom.

The United States also accounts for 9%, exceeding the UK's global share of more than half.

The British economy over-maintains a few traditional industrial sectors instead of using new technological advantages to get out of trouble, which seriously affects its external trade balance. "

In the 1850s, when William IV first crossed over, British exports accounted for more than 40% of the traditional markets in Europe and North America.

But it began to decline in 1860, and by 1880 it dropped to less than 20%, and in 1881 it dropped to 17%.

At the same time, the products produced by the German Empire and the American Commonwealth through technological transformation have become increasingly popular, and have even entered the local market of the British base camp.

Albert: "Father, will the Netherlands follow in the footsteps of the United Kingdom? What measures do we need to avoid that situation? Maintain our share of global foreign trade?"

“Since the 1860s, the characteristics or weaknesses of Britain’s overseas trade model have restricted Britain’s ability to further develop, and this is a warning for emerging modernizing countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.

First, it is because Britain has always concentrated its exports of industrial products in a few important sectors that were first discovered by the industrial revolution.

By the late 1860s, these old industrial products could only be exported to primary producing countries outside Western Europe and the United States.

Although Britain's focus on production in several important industrial sectors ensured Britain's industrial leadership during the first industrial revolution, the premature maturity of this technology in the 1870s began to lead to the consequences of over-dependence.

Beginning in 1860, when technology continued to innovate and processes advanced, this over-reliance undermined the investment in new industries that required the potential for technological progress. As a result, Britain's advantages in productivity and foreign trade status have slowed down.

The second reason is that the pattern of overseas trade in the early 11870s influenced the modernization process and industrial comparison between Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States."

I saw my eldest son, Prince Albert, listening very seriously.

William IV also naturally and seriously explained: "Britain can only occupy a competitive advantage in some old industries, such as the textile industry, shipbuilding industry, heavy engineering industry and iron metal industry.

However, the combination of the Netherlands and Sweden is equally matched in the ferrous metal industry.

The combination of the textile industry of the Netherlands and the United States is also more prosperous than that of the United Kingdom.

In the shipbuilding industry, the Netherlands takes advantage of the excellent ports in Europe, as well as ports in the Far East, Australia, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea, and a series of excellent shipbuilding ports. The Netherlands' highly educated shipping industry talents are no worse than those in the UK.

As for the remaining heavy engineering industry, the Netherlands ranks first in the world in railway construction, and other infrastructure such as roads and terminals is almost called an infrastructure madman. A large number of jobs come from this industry, so the Netherlands is comparable to the UK.

Moreover, these British advantages seem to be based only on relatively labor-intensive industrial technology, and the technical content is not high.

On the contrary, the three rising stars of the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States relied on science and technology to develop their own emerging industries, which caused the decline of the British industrial hegemony that had been maintained for 60 years since the beginning of this century.

The contrast of industrial advantages and the format of competition restricted Britain's overseas modernization process. "

William IV sighed and said: "The sun rises and sets. There is no eternal strength in the world. There will always be times of weakness, and Britain is no exception. It's just a matter of time."

"To sum up, the main feature of world economic development in the second half of the early 19th century was that Britain could originally supply necessary industrial products to various countries. However, starting in the 1860s, due to the rise of new industrial countries led by the Netherlands, Germany and the United States, Britain's The trade monopoly was broken. The Netherlands, Germany and the United States became strong competitors to the United Kingdom in the world market. The world trade pattern centered on the United Kingdom was broken.

Taking the electrical age as the second industrial revolution, the economic development of major capitalist countries was unbalanced. The development speed of the Netherlands, Germany and the United States exceeded that of the United Kingdom. In the past, the world trade network, which was mainly centered on the United Kingdom, emerged with multiple changes. The pattern of the center”

Prince Albert: “???”

William IV: “For example, driven by the Electric Age Revolution (also known as the Second Industrial Revolution), capitalism developed rapidly throughout the second half of the 19th century. In the 15 years from 1850 to 1865, world industrial production only More than doubled.

But in the 15 years from 1866 to 1880, it increased nearly three times. It has to be said that the steam age came more violently here.

Therefore, the electric age is the route we in the Netherlands use to surpass the UK, and there is no room for error.

Because Germany and the United States are still eyeing our leading position and trying to catch up.

As for Britain, Britain is also jealous, waiting for us to fall at any time.

So, son, in the next hundred years, the Netherlands must stick to the electric age route and cannot change it."