Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Time passed day by day, and soon it was mid-February of 1940.

The Soviet Union was still struggling on the Soviet-Finnish battlefield. Finland's Mannerheim defense line has long become dilapidated and crumbling, but it has managed to hold on until now. According to German intelligence, the Soviet casualties have reached as high as 800,000, while the Finnish casualties are less than 30,000. For a time, the Soviet army's combat effectiveness became the laughing stock of countries all over the world, mocking it as a paper tiger that was worthless and useless.

But no matter how Stalin roared and pounded the table to issue death orders, the Soviet army still failed to make any progress.

"You really have to suffer to save face!" Yannick couldn't help but sigh. Even in this situation, Stalin did not withdraw his troops and stop the war.

But this is understandable. Stalin needs to consolidate his authority. But withdrawing troops at this time means the war has failed. It also means that many of Stalin's measures may also fail. Once people don't trust him, many of his Policies are also difficult to implement.

Stalin would never allow failure, so he could only fight to the end with Finland.

This war also allowed the snipers sent to Finland to show off their skills. Simon Heyer alone shot and killed more than 200 Soviet soldiers, and his partner Tias also killed more than 200 people; the rest The snipers also achieved good results, which made the Soviet soldiers keep silent about these snipers, calling them the White Death.

On the British side, Northern Ireland fell. After the reunification of Ireland, Irish President de Grassehead announced that he would contribute to the complete elimination of the evil British Empire.

The unification of Ireland completely blocked the British mainland, and the dense mines in the surrounding waters made it impossible for British ships to leave the port. Even if the British wanted to send people to clear mines, these minesweeper ships would either be sunk by various new types of German mines or sunk by German warships cruising in nearby waters. And even if they tried their best to clear mines, they could not keep up with the speed of the Germans laying mines.

Even so, Churchill had no intention of surrendering. According to the estimates of the German intelligence agency, even if these British people only ate two meals a day, eating chaff and drinking water, they could last at most one year, and after one year they would collectively starve to death. I don’t know what this guy insists on; he’s crazy.

However, Yannick didn't want to wait a year for them to starve to death. After all, there is a saying that the night is long and the dream is long. He still planned to attack the British mainland at the end of February as planned to completely eradicate this European cancer.

In addition, there is a lot of good news, such as the discovery of nearly 500 tons of gold jewelry from the Egyptian pyramids; the intelligence agency took Molotov's daughter to Germany without anyone noticing; the Navy's The "Tiger Shark" super submarine has entered sea trials and so on.

On this day Yannick invited Prime Minister Pétain of Vichy France.

After some pleasantries, both the host and the guest sat down, and Yannick spoke. "I invited the Prime Minister to come here today to discuss something."

Prime Minister Pétain said with a self-deprecating smile. "Your Highness is too polite. If you need anything from me, just give me an order."

Since he was so polite, Yannick stopped being polite and went straight to the point. "I want to build a European Union."

"European Union?" Prime Minister Pétain couldn't help but be stunned. "You mean 'United States of Europe'?"

Prime Minister Pétain is no stranger to the so-called "United States of Europe", because France once had a dream of the United States of Europe centered on France, and this dream can be traced back to the famous Napoleon.

In European history, Napoleon can be considered the first person to put the "United States of Europe" into practice. The imagination of the United States of Europe is the third factor of Napoleon's nature and the source of his confidence and energy.

Its multiple conquests and wars in Europe were basically aimed at unifying European countries, thereby ending the disaster of European politicians leading the entire nation into war due to their own selfish interests.

However, because France is ultimately limited economically, militarily, and geographically, and the war is ultimately a contest of comprehensive national strength between countries, Napoleon's military strength was ultimately defeated by the huge United Nations power generated by the anti-French alliance formed by European countries. , thus Europe lost an opportunity to form the "United States of Europe".

Yannick nodded. "It can also be said that the European Union will have a unified foreign policy, a unified armed forces, a unified parliament, the same laws, and a unified monetary unit and central bank. People, capital, and goods can move freely in Europe Flowing around the league.”

Seeing Prime Minister Petain opening his mouth slightly in shock, Yannick smiled. “In the future, this alliance will become a unified country, which will be the most powerful country in the world. Its currency will replace the pound as the world’s hard currency, and its metropolis will become a destination for outstanding talents from all over the world. What do you think? I guess the French people don’t have any objections to this. After all, this was Napoleon’s unfulfilled long-cherished wish.”

"..." Prime Minister Petain thought for a while and asked. "The unified currency you are talking about is your country's mark?"

"No." Yannick shook his head. "We will issue a brand new currency called the euro. All European Union countries will give up their own currencies and use the euro."

"Is this currency on the gold standard? Is it pegged to the pound?"

Although the basis of the international gold standard system is gold, before World War II, the pound replaced gold to perform various functions of the international currency. Holders of pounds can redeem gold at the Bank of England at any time, and there are many conveniences and advantages in using pounds over gold. At that time, Britain relied on its status as an economic power as the "world's factory" and as a political power under colonial rule as "the country on which the sun never sets", as well as its advantages in trade, shipping, marine insurance, and financial services to make the pound a currency widely used around the world. Currency; made London the financial center of the world.

In international trade at that time, most commodities were priced in pounds, 90% of international settlements were in pounds, and the international reserves of many countries' central banks were in pounds instead of gold. Opening a pound account in London can earn interest, while storing gold not only has no interest, but also has to pay storage fees. Holding pounds is more convenient and profitable than holding gold, so some Western economists refer to the Second World War as The previous international gold standard was called the pound standard.

Yannick curled his lips disdainfully. "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, are you kidding? The British Empire is in decline and is about to perish; how can the new currency be related to the pound? It is naturally the gold standard."

Yannick doesn’t need to worry too much about this matter. After all, the U.S. currency after World War II in the original time and space, that is, the U.S. dollar, was a gold standard linked to gold.

At that time, compared with the war-torn Asia and Europe, the United States in North America was the only country that was not affected by the war. This was also because President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal during World War II and returned financial power to the central government for control. Therefore, the capital accumulation in the United States is extremely rich, so after the war, the United States is the country with the richest gold reserves in the world, the most stable monetary policy, and the most powerful US dollar to become a universal currency.

The "Bretton Woods Conference" held at the end of World War II established the U.S. dollar, a reliable currency backed by gold, as the benchmark currency for international trade financing. The currencies of other countries were pegged to the U.S. dollar at fixed exchange rates that rarely changed. The goal of a fixed exchange rate system is to maintain the integrity of trading countries and prevent them from falling into long-term trade deficits.

But people at the time did not expect it to dictate living standards in trading countries, which are measured by many factors other than exchange rates. It is for this reason that the Bretton Woods system formed under the traditional wisdom of the international economics community did not take into account the cross-border capital flows required for world trade financing.

In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon abandoned the peg of the U.S. dollar to gold (1 ounce of gold = 35 U.S. dollars) under pressure from continued fiscal and trade deficits that would empty out U.S. gold reserves. Since then, the U.S. dollar has become a currency without any national financial and financial resources. Monetary discipline governs non-cashable banknotes.

Simply put, since 1971, the U.S. dollar’s ​​reserve currency status has not been based on gold, but only on U.S. geopolitical power that forces all key commodities to be priced in U.S. dollars.