Wild North America 1846

Chapter 567 France loses blood

Author: Portuguese toothless

Chapter 567 France loses blood

Brittany, the westernmost region of France

port of saint malo

This is a coastal port town with a population of just over 17,000. It is not conspicuous among the 10 ports in France. However, after it was occupied by the German Empire, it was allocated to the import merchants of the Tang Empire, and it became increasingly lively.

and shine.

From late September 1870

A large number of ships gathered outside the port of Saint-Malo. They brought strange steam cranes, installed 4 of them in just one week, and then unloaded massive amounts of cargo.

The entire port of Saint-Malo was agitated because these overseas merchants from the Tang Dynasty brought goods that were in high demand in France.

Hundreds of thousands of barrels of high-quality kerosene, diesel and lubricants, various cans, toffees, chemical supplies, including plastic bowls, plastic basins, plastic barrels, plastic raincoats, plastic shoes, various canned fish, fruits and meats,

and other popular products.

The French are keenly aware that the Port of Saint-Malo has ushered in huge business opportunities.

Through convenient telegraphs, the news spread to almost all the provinces in central and southern France at the first time.

After getting the news, whether they were businessmen, manor owners or farmers, they immediately took their saved money bags and drove their carriages to Saint-Malo to grab these hot commodities.

As long as you grab it, you will earn it.

In less than a week, more than ten thousand carriages went to Saint-Malo, where they returned loaded with goods and used up all the money in their pockets.

In the port of Saint Malo

All security was maintained by strong, armed Chinese patrols, with a total of more than 640 people. The Germans only stationed two companies of soldiers here, and sent 13 government employees to act as customs.

They are responsible for checking the quantity and type of goods landed, and calculating taxes accordingly.

Of course, compared to the 200% tariff imposed by the French on kerosene and the 30% to 45% different tariffs imposed on grain and various foods, the Germans impose a maximum of no more than 18% and less than 5%, such as grain or food

All categories are subject to a 5% tax rate.

Even so, it is two and a half times higher than the 2% that the UK liberalized customs tax after the implementation of the Corn Laws, and twice as high as the 9% kerosene tariff that the UK imposed. Naturally, it is a huge profit.

The merchants of the Tang Dynasty dumped products in large quantities at almost half the price, and the trade barriers originally built high by France collapsed in an instant.

The purchasing power of the French people who are so enthusiastic about purchasing can be seen from a set of data;

According to statistics from the German working group in Saint-Malo;

Starting from October 1870, the total number of kerosene imported in that month was 337,000 barrels. By November, it rose sharply to 859,000 barrels. In December, it exceeded the one million barrel mark in one fell swoop, reaching 1.186 million barrels. In the rest of 1871, it increased month by month.

, by May it had reached an astonishing scale of 2.07 million barrels.

Based on the average price of a barrel of kerosene, which is 21.5 Tangyuan, the amount of kerosene alone is as high as 44.5 million Tangyuan, which is a sales peak figure that has never occurred before.

According to the German tax rate of 18%, this monthly income alone has reached more than 8 million yuan, which can be said to be a huge fortune.

Of course, businessmen in the Tang Dynasty made more money.

Does France really need so much kerosene?

Never underestimate the wisdom of a nation. After the initial carnival passed, many French nobles, manor owners and loan sharks quickly realized a problem;

How long will the turbulent situation continue?

Will wealth depreciate?

When the situation stabilizes, is it possible to double your wealth?

Ever since

They invariably turned their attention to the product kerosene. Kerosene for lighting is a core demand of society and is needed at any time.

Compared with traditional products such as rapeseed oil and olive oil, kerosene has the characteristics of low price, good lighting brightness, long duration, stable lighting and no peculiar smell, etc.

The key problem is that almost all of Europe has no kerosene production and must import it from the Tang Empire or Tsarist Russia.

However, Tsarist Russia’s backward refining capacity resulted in low output, extremely high kerosene prices, and no market competitiveness at all.

A large barrel of kerosene weighs 306 pounds and costs only 21.5 Tang Yuan, which is equivalent to 86 francs.

Compared with the pre-war wholesale price of 145 francs (about 36 Tang Yuan) per barrel after tax, it was almost 60% cheaper, and there was a huge profit margin.

You must know that after many layers of sales, buying one pound of kerosene in a rural grocery store in France costs one franc, and the retail price is about 300 francs for a large barrel of kerosene.

With such a huge space, the profits are impressive!

At first, the vast number of grocery store owners in the central and southern provinces of France were crazy about stocking up on goods, ranging from kerosene, lubricating oil, toffee, cocoa, various cans to plastic chemical products, all in large quantities, and even borrowing money.

They were like ants moving from the port of Saint-Malo, with horse-drawn carriages and horse-drawn carriages returning laden with goods. Many products were quickly sold back to local towns, triggering a buying craze among local people.

This has prompted grocery store owners to travel more and more to the Port of Saint-Malo, becoming a member of this large and busy profit chain of smuggled goods.

The turbulent situation in Paris has not affected the money-making plans of these grocery store owners at all.

shortly afterwards

The aristocrats, capitalists and loan sharks with abundant capital in various French provinces who reacted quickly joined this smuggling army. Their capital strength was stronger and their ability to obtain goods was greater.

Each time, he brought a long convoy of horse-drawn carriages to the port of Saint-Malo, and soon returned with a full load.

Exporters of the Tang Dynasty, Germans, grocery store owners in central and southern France, and aristocratic buyers all benefited from the substantial reduction in imported goods prices and even benefited ordinary French people. This also stimulated their desire to buy and greatly increased the price of goods.

Sales volume.

Who suffered in this carnival?

The answer is the French government and customs taxes. The question is...does France have a government now?

The government of Adolphe Thiers was driven out of the city in embarrassment by the Paris Commune, and finally settled in the town of Versailles on the outskirts of the city. Then it launched a fierce attack on Paris in April 1871, and achieved a decisive victory at the end of May.

The chaotic situation in Paris gave the new government a headache. It was not until the end of August that the situation was initially clarified. More than 20,000 rebels were executed through various summary trial procedures, more than 7,500 people were imprisoned, and more than 10,000 Paris citizens were exiled.

.

At this moment

After calming down, Adolphe Thiers discovered that the western coast had been penetrated into a sieve by smuggling, and the same was true for the eastern and northern parts. The eastern part was smuggled goods originating from the German Empire, mostly industrial products.

In the north, from the UK, our traditional enemy across the English Channel, a large amount of cheap textile cloth flooded into the French market without collecting customs taxes, forcing a large number of textile factories in central and southern France to close down, with the number reaching more than 170.

Faced with this situation

Thiers angrily accused Datang; "They are little thieves who steal the wealth of the French Republic. They steal millions of francs every day. This is an unforgivable crime..."

So why not blame Germany or Britain?

Ahem... How can France today afford to offend these two strong men?

Especially Britain, a sinister guy who smiles in front of others and does evil things behind his back. The reason why the French Empire is in such a state now is that Britain secretly supports the Kingdom of Prussia. This is a well-known fact.

But the French don’t dare to say it. If they feel grievances, they can only swallow them with tears in their stomachs!

Britain already has a new favorite, the German Empire. This powerful little brother can pick up France and hammer it with a hammer. No matter how you look at it, you can't afford to offend it!

After counting, it seems that only Tang Dynasty can figure it out and warn these bandits not to go too far.

After the head of the French government Thiers spoke out, the public opinion media joined the ranks of accusations, and this naturally attracted the great attention of Datang.

Baron Luo Zhaohui, the ambassador to France, held a press conference in Paris, explaining that Datang has always complied with international conventions on trade behavior. The export of goods to Britannia is purely commercial and is naturally driven by the market. The government is not involved.

.

The merchants of the Tang Empire paid taxes according to regulations, but the taxes paid were in accordance with the taxation standards of the German Empire, because the above-mentioned areas were German-occupied areas, and the only ones operating were German customs officers.

This explanation was equivalent to kicking the ball to the feet of the Germans.

This is not an organized smuggling operation, I still pay taxes according to local conditions, but I am a businessman who abides by the law.

As for the ownership of the Britannia region, that is a matter between Germany and France and has nothing to do with the Tang Dynasty.

The French provisional government was immediately dumbfounded by this explanation.

According to the Treaty of Frankfurt, the defeated France not only had to cede the Alsace and Lorraine regions, but also had to pay huge war reparations of up to 5 billion francs, as well as a series of provisions for the loss of national sovereignty.

Among them, the victorious country has the right to maintain the existing occupied area until France fulfills its huge war compensation obligations.

The provisions of this clause are to use the occupied areas as collateral to ensure that they fulfill the provisions of the Frankfurt Treaty.

After receiving such an explanation, everyone in France was dumbfounded. It was impossible for them to go to the Germans to make trouble, and they had to pinch their noses and suffer this big loss.

After the news came out, the whole of Europe was in an uproar.

France has become a new laughing stock. Seeing that this always tyrannical European hegemon suffered such a big defeat, the surrounding small European countries are simply happy, and teasing the French has become a new focus.

Today's precarious France is a broken ship, and anyone can step on it.

The problem of smuggling in the Saint-Malo area is an unsolvable problem. As long as the German occupation area lasts for a day, it will be difficult to put an end to unprecedented rampant smuggling. And France is losing blood and a large amount of financial funds every day.

But who’s to blame?

It was the French Emperor Napoleon III who brazenly provoked the war in the first place. The Franco-Prussian War has been defined as France's war of aggression, but he was beaten badly by the Germans.

As the instigator of the war, France has no sympathy even if it pretends to be innocent.

In this world where the jungle prevails, all countries only respect the strong, and no one will be so sympathetic as to care about a veteran bandit.

(End of chapter)