Homo sapiens.

Chapter 539 Bankruptcy Wave
If we talk about the kangaroo country, we can barely grit our teeth and persist at this time.

The Europa region was really in dire straits right now.

Although a large number of glass greenhouse projects have been invested, with the slow work efficiency of the Europa people, these greenhouses cannot be produced in a few years.

Therefore, at this stage, they can only rely on open-air agriculture. The outbreak of genetically modified corn in America has directly affected the fish in Chiyu, and the Europa Consortium, which originally planned to purchase 3000 million tons of corn from North America as raw material for feed, was in a dilemma.

Even though it was used as feed for livestock, even if the livestock were inflamed, they would not be able to speak out.

The potential risks of genetically modified corn still make many people in the Europa Consortium oppose imports.

However, before the Europa Consortium could reach a conclusion, a vegetable and fruit producer in Germany directly declared bankruptcy.

This incident seems to have triggered a chain reaction. In less than a week, more than 17 large and medium-sized agricultural producers in Europe and the United States declared bankruptcy.

The headquarters of the United Supermarket Group in Munich.

Duren Martin, the person in charge of the financial department, was only pale: "President, we can't hold on anymore."

"Alas..." CEO William sighed, "Let's start preparing for bankruptcy and liquidation!"

Others present had already anticipated the arrival of this day.

Since the adoption of the mandatory low-price purchase restriction plan, the entire Europa Consortium has actually fallen into an endless loop.

The production costs of food, vegetables, fruits, and meat, eggs, and milk are constantly soaring, but the retail prices in supermarkets are not allowed to increase significantly, and are limited to a relatively low price range.

Although there are some subsidies, the problem is that these subsidies still have no way to make up for the losses caused by low-price purchase restrictions.

Many supermarkets and agricultural producers are losing money and are betting their hopes on the future.

It's a pity that they lost their bet, and the reality gave them a slap in the face. Extreme weather, raw material costs, labor costs and transportation costs have increased significantly, and the low-price purchase restriction order has been extended for another three months.

Faced with this kind of loss-making business, many companies finally couldn't hold on.

This time, the successive bankruptcies of agricultural enterprises and retail enterprises quickly evolved into a wave, spreading from Europa to the entire free world.

After several large supermarkets in Munich closed their doors.

Panic quickly broke out among the people, and many people found that the large supermarkets around them were closed one after another, which made people suddenly imagine.

For a time, the run-on panic buying inevitably appeared in the streets and alleys of the Europa Commonwealth.

In front of a small supermarket.

Dozens of aunts are queuing up, discussing the recent prices in low voices.

"It's so hard to buy things recently!"

"Several supermarkets have been closed again. If this continues, there will be no place to buy anything."

"That's right, no matter how low the price is, it's useless!"

"I hope this problem will be resolved as soon as possible!"

"Ugh……"

Suddenly the supermarket employees put up a sold out sign at the door.

This made all the aunts look very ugly.

"Hurry up and go to another supermarket!"

"Does this make it possible to live a normal life?"

"Don't squeeze..."

On the street, people who couldn't buy food hurried to another supermarket.

However, when they arrived at the entrance of the supermarket, they found that there were not many things left. Even if the purchase was restricted, there was still no way to ensure a stable supply of materials.

This is the invisible hand of the free market.

The Europa Commonwealth can enforce a low price, but there is no way to force farmers, agricultural companies and supermarkets to stay open.

Many farmers would rather rot their vegetables and fruits in the ground than sell them. The reason is that the selling price is too low. The farmers feel that the gain is not worth the loss, so they simply don’t plant them, or let the vegetables and fruits fend for themselves.

Obviously these farmers, agricultural companies, and supermarkets are forcing the Europa Consortium to make a choice
Either increase subsidies to ensure their net profit is positive;

Or they will die and the net will be broken, they will stop production and go bankrupt directly;
Or allow them to raise prices and guarantee profits.

These three choices are all propositions no matter how you look at them.

At this time, normal supermarkets in Munich, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and other places have shut down or declared bankruptcy, while the underground black market has taken the opportunity to become active.

After all, everyone has to eat. Back then, someone was willing to buy a piece of bread worth 50 marks. Now, in the underground black market, a bag of 10 kilograms of flour costs only 50 euros.

This is the beauty of the free market.

Coercive means used in a free market often only treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and may even be counterproductive.

Although various places continue to intervene and even adopt tough measures, there is still no way to solve the price problem, but it has intensified.

Underground black markets keep popping up all over the place, raising prices several times, and some items even increase in price by more than ten times.

The wave of bankruptcies continues.

The complaining Parisians were already singing and dancing on the streets.

The prices in Paris are actually not too high, because they have a large number of nuclear power plants, and their food production is not bad. If it were not for natural disasters and some merchants hoarding, the price would not have risen to more than double.

Many Parisians are outraged by rising food prices, restrictions on personal purchases and the rise of an underground black market.

……

Emergency meeting of the Europa Commonwealth.

The members of the directors all looked dignified. Obviously, they did not expect that the matter would develop to the current situation.

The director of Deutsche couldn't wait to say: "We must find a way to solve the price problem, otherwise we will blow ourselves up."

"You think we don't want to solve it. The problem is that we don't have any money now!" The director of West Rome was speechless.

The others were also full of tangled and helpless faces.

To meet the requirements of enterprises, it is necessary to increase prices, or increase subsidies.

To meet the demands of ordinary people, price increases must be limited while maintaining high incomes and low unemployment.

Obviously these two options are contradictory.

Whichever they choose, the people on the other side won't be too happy.

The director of the Netherlands thought for a while before answering the child: "If you want America to support us with some food, let's get through the difficulties first."

"Hehe, no one wants to give away the food in America now." The director of West Rome spread his hands.

The German director was very angry: "This is not okay, that is not okay, what are you thinking? Do you want to watch Europa blew up?"

Everyone started discussing in a hurry, and after a few minutes of verbal confrontation, there was still no result of the discussion.

Sure enough, it was like a plate of loose sand.

In fact, they have another method, which is to learn from Homo Sapiens and completely turn the entire Europa Federation into a giant enterprise.

The problem is that the consequences of doing so are not acceptable to everyone.

In particular, the model of giant enterprises and the model of the Europa Consortium are basically two things.

Many people will not give up for their own wealth.

The emergency meeting of the Europa Commonwealth broke up unhappy, and no specific plan was discussed at all. Many places have already planned to go their own way.

And this kind of behavior further cut off the cooperation relationship within Europa, making it impossible for them to work together internally.

On the other hand, under the chain reaction of the wave of bankruptcies, the economy of the entire free world began to suffer major problems.

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(End of this chapter)