African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1401 Arrangement

The current economic situation in the whole of Europe is not optimistic, including Russia. If post-war reconstruction is delayed, economic recovery will be greatly constrained.

However, due to the First World War, a large amount of wealth flowed out of Europe, especially the governments of the participating countries, which did not have a penny in their hands, but instead owed a lot of debts. Russia was relatively single-minded and chose to default on its debts directly, but it also had to bear the cost of the collapse of its international credibility and reputation, and at the same time was subject to sanctions from the whole world.

Britain, France, Germany and Austria are in an equally bad situation. If possible, they would like to learn from the Russians and simply default on their debts. So the biggest headache now is for the United States, the world's largest creditor country. As the saying goes, the one who owes money is the boss, so the United States really needs to work hard on how to recover Europe's debts.

1923 11 Month 23 Day.

The first League of Nations conference was officially held, and basically all the mainstream countries in the world were invited. In addition to discussing the post-war structure, world economic recovery, anti-labor party and other issues, the debt issue was also one of the focuses of this conference.

So, after discussing issues such as the reconstruction of the post-war order in Europe and how to deal with the European Labour Party.

"Today, Europe's post-war reconstruction is progressing slowly, and production and living facilities have been severely damaged. This means that Europe is now simply unable to repay too much debt. Therefore, the United States, East Africa, Japan and other countries should understand the difficulties faced by European countries today." At the League of Nations meeting, the British representative was the first to attack.

Among the three countries named, representatives from the United States and East Africa looked unhappy.

Although East Africa and the United States were not sure whether to join the League of Nations, they also sent special representatives to attend the first meeting of the League of Nations.

Regarding the debt issue, American Commissioner Smith responded bluntly: "As an important center of civilization in the world, Europe should have a spirit of contract. After all, the wealth of the American people did not come from the wind."

"As the richest country in the world, Britain should not say such things. Your contribution to World War I was not necessarily much greater than that of the United States, and your homeland was not affected by the war at all. How can you talk about post-war reconstruction?"

"Moreover, Britain's social wealth is absolutely the highest in the world. Britain itself is the world's economic center, with the most colonies and the largest share of the world market."

"As the world's largest country, the UK should take the initiative to assume its responsibilities, rather than just enjoying the rights brought to the UK by the international system. This is unfair to other countries in the world."

The Americans bluntly refuted Britain's idea of ​​defaulting on its debts, saying that among the European powers that provoked the war, Britain had the strongest economic power and suffered the least losses.

Although Britain borrowed a large amount of dollars from the United States to support the war, objectively speaking, this is all Britain's own fault, and the United States will not be polite to Britain.

East African representative Gers also chimed in: "As Mr. Smith said, European countries should pay more attention to the spirit of contract. Otherwise, this will be a great destruction of the existing social order and international rules. Obviously, no country can bear the consequences of such an approach."

In fact, the money Europe owed East Africa was not that much, at least compared with the United States, it was almost negligible. It was not until the middle and late stages of the war that East Africa really benefited from it. After all, before the war, East Africa owed Europe a large sum of money.

However, although the proportion of Europe's debt to East Africa is small, it definitely does not mean that East Africa can ignore the debt. After all, no one will complain about having too much money, and East Africa has never been a wealthy country in essence. In terms of national income level, East Africa can only rank in the middle among the great powers.

Therefore, it is simply a joke to ask East Africa, a country that is not rich to begin with, to shoulder responsibilities for historically rich European countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Austria.

The British representative went on to say: "We in the UK are naturally a country of credibility, but you should also see the difficulties faced by the UK and Europe."

"Therefore, the deadline for debt repayment should be postponed, and even more generously some unnecessary debts should be reduced."

It is certainly impossible for Britain to overthrow the current international order. After all, Britain is the biggest beneficiary, so it will do its utmost to maintain the old international order. However, this does not conflict with Britain's desire to not repay its debts.

Moreover, without overthrowing the old international order, the United States and East Africa will have no way to deal with Britain, the rule maker.

Overthrowing the old international order requires strong military power. However, the gap in military power between East Africa and the United States on European issues is still quite significant. Of course, this is compared with the whole of Europe.

If Europe were a country, there is no doubt that it would still be able to maintain its position as the world hegemon and maintain it for at least another hundred years.

But Europe happens not to be a country, and is internally divided and mixed with good and bad people. But even so, the strength of the major countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Russia should not be underestimated when taken individually.

Take Germany for example. If Germany had been forced to deal with the United States and East Africa alone based on its performance in World War I, the final result would most likely have been Germany's failure. But what if a European power suddenly joined in the later stages of the war?

Therefore, both the United States and East Africa are still very wary of Europe as a whole, and it is even more impossible for them to allow Europe to truly unite.

When it comes to dealing with European issues, East Africa and the United States still have some common topics, but it is obviously impossible for the two countries to cooperate closely, just like European countries. After all, in terms of national strength, it is difficult to determine who is the leader and who is the follower.

In the past, there was no country more powerful than the United States outside of Europe, so there was no big problem for the United States to eventually become the world hegemon. Now with the addition of East Africa, the future direction of the international landscape has become even more unclear.

"I think what the British representative said makes sense. Europe, especially France, has suffered huge losses in the war. Before the national economy is restored, even if we want to repay the debts, we are completely powerless." said the French representative.

Compared with Britain, France was really "poor". France itself was one of the biggest victims of World War I, with losses second only to Russia. Its population and industry were severely damaged by the war.

Moreover, due to its careless investment, France was defaulted on a large amount of debt by the Russian Labor Party. The evaporation of this wealth had an impact on France that was no less than the impact of World War I.

Therefore, France is now even more willing to lie down when facing the debt problem, or it has simply lost all its dignity. It has no money, and it doesn't want to give its life... either.

France’s “poverty” is more reflected in its government finances. In fact, France has a strong financial foundation, and its overseas colonies and social wealth are still considerable. However, if it were to hand these over, France would really have to “eat coarse food”.

In fact, France's debt repayment ability was demonstrated in the Franco-Prussian War of the last century. So if France is willing to repay its debts, it can still work like a slave for the United States and East Africa. But this is absolutely impossible unless the US military and the East African Defense Force enter Paris and put a knife on France's neck. Germany naturally supports the actions of Britain and France: "Europe does need time to recuperate, and we have to face pressure from Russia and the European Labor Party."

"If the European economy collapses because of the debt problem, I think the only beneficiary in the end will be the Labour Party. At that time, compared to the Labour Party, there is no doubt that helping Europe through the current economic difficulties is the best choice."

"If you push too hard and cause a colour revolution across Europe, I think not only will your debts be threatened, but your own security will also be threatened by the Labour Party."

The Labour Party's approach is very simple. It is to directly abolish all debts. In this way, the economy can be reopened directly like a game. Of course, this also means that the so-called "wealth" will evaporate directly, just like the gold coins, skills and experience in the game.

The German representative was not exaggerating. The current situation in Europe is indeed like this. Under such difficult economic conditions, the activities of the European Labour Party have become more frequent, especially among the grassroots people, who have even begun to actively accept the Labour Party's ideas.

This is also the fundamental reason why the European Labour Party has not disappeared with the suppression of various governments, but has become increasingly powerful. The lower-class people in Europe will really vote for the Labour Party as long as they are pushed a little more. After all, compared to not being able to survive, joining the Labour Party is a very good option.

It seemed that the "difficulties" of European countries finally convinced the East African delegates. Gers said: "The Labour Party is indeed an international issue. If the Labour Party is allowed to spread across Europe, it will be a disaster for the whole world."

Allowing the Labour Party to integrate Europe means the rise of a superpower spanning the Eurasian continent, and this superpower is naturally opposed to imperialist countries such as East Africa and the United States. Even if it is isolated overseas, this superpower will not let go of the two countries.

The change of color in Europe is not groundless, but it is really possible. Take the UK for example, the support rate of the British Labour Party has been soaring in recent years. Although the British "Labour Party" is not pure enough and is not recognized by the Russian Labour Party, it is also very telling.

In fact, this type of "Labor Party" is also very popular in East Africa, because East Africa itself is a special country that has implemented a planned economy. Even some people in the international community have long said that the Rhine Emperor Ernst was suspected of being a "Labor Party".

Of course, East Africa is clearly not a so-called "Labor" country, it is just that some of the special economic and state governance practices of that type of party are borrowed.

However, this is completely conclusive evidence for those liberal economists in Europe and the United States who doubt that East Africa is "labor-oriented". After all, in his previous life, Roosevelt only learned three-dimensional imaging, but was labeled as a "labor party" by some Americans. Before that, East Africa's similarity with the Labor Party was almost 70%. If the Soviet Union appeared in the future, it is estimated that the similarity would be more than 90%.

Of course, just because two people look alike doesn’t mean they are the same person, East Africa and the Labour Party countries are examples of this, and they may even be completely opposite in nature.

As for the state system in East Africa, it is actually a lose-lose situation. It is disliked by both the Labour countries and the capitalist countries.

Moreover, East Africa has never exported ideology to the outside world, especially to Europe and the United States. In addition, with the shift in East Africa's economy in recent years and the improvement of East Africa's national strength, most people will not hold on to these small issues.

Gers went on to say: “We in East Africa can make some compromises on the debt issue with Europe for the sake of world security and, of course, more importantly, to curb the rampant Labour Party problem.”

"However, this compromise is more of a responsibility that we in East Africa must bear as a world power. Therefore, the debt cannot be eliminated, but the repayment period and scale can be relaxed."

East Africa's "betrayal" instantly made the Americans explode on the spot. Smith almost pointed at Gers' nose and said, "You East Africans are traitors!"

After all, European countries are now a group of "deadbeats" to the United States and East Africa. As creditors, the two countries should unite. But now East Africa is acting on its own and compromising with this group of European deadbeats, which will obviously put the United States in an embarrassing position.

Yes, East Africa deliberately tricked the United States. After all, although East Africa is also a creditor country, Europe’s debt to East Africa is almost negligible.

The logic of the debt between East Africa and Europe can actually be described as borrowing first and repaying later. Before World War I, East Africa borrowed heavily from Europe. Even at that time, economic laws were not followed at all. How much it could borrow depended entirely on its own ability. After the outbreak of the war, East Africa repaid its debts to European countries through commodities and industrial products, and East Africa took advantage of the opportunity to complete a leapfrog development in industrialization.

This is not the case with the United States. Although they owed Europe a lot of money before the war, a large part of it was in the form of investment by European countries in the United States.

During the war, because of the United States' developed and mature financial system, European countries were able to borrow from the United States very smoothly. To a certain extent, East Africa even became a foundry for the United States. European countries borrowed from the United States, and the United States then paid a deposit to purchase goods from East Africa and shipped them directly to Europe.

This is also an important reason why the United States became the world's largest creditor nation after the war. To put it more simply, in the free market of the United States, installation can continue regardless of risks, while East Africa can put the brakes on because of the immature financial industry and strong government supervision.

In fact, East Africa's foreign lending business in the later period was basically concentrated in South America and other regions, rather than Europe, which had the highest profits at the time.

During the war, in order to achieve final victory, European countries naturally borrowed large amounts of money from foreign countries without hesitation. After all, compared to borrowing money, it would be meaningless if one died.

The total amount of their loans would undoubtedly exceed their ability to repay, which meant that many European countries were destined to become defaulters after the war.

It was obviously impossible for East Africa and the United States to "armedly pursue debts" against Europe, so in the later stages of the war, East Africa knew that Europe's debt problem was a huge trouble, while American financial institutions had no such concerns at all.

After all, business and finance have always been a place where the bold are fed to death and the timid are starved to death. For the sake of wealth, these businessmen and financial institutions in the free market will continue to rush forward.

This approach cannot be said to be wrong. After all, each of those successful large companies is the result of the sacrifices of countless people. Behind their success are the downfalls of countless entrepreneurs.

From this point of view, East African businessmen are far less pure than American businessmen. However, this is also normal. After all, East Africa has only fully opened up its free market a dozen years ago, and it lacks a long-term and stable business atmosphere.

In short, the people who should be most worried about Europe’s debt problem now are the Americans. In the previous life, there was a German named Adolf who, like the Russian Labor Party, did not want to repay his debts, so he chose to kill his creditors, but the final outcome was very bad.

But if the whole of Europe follows Adolf's example, given Europe's current overall strength, no country will be able to do anything to him.

(End of this chapter)