Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 1072 The economic crisis behind the prosperity is approaching
William IV had to remind his successors that the development of the Netherlands in the next hundred years will never be separated from the electrical age. After all, the various industries derived from the future are too magical for people of this era. It is so magical that it can be described as magical. All correct.

Take communication as an example. Telegraph, telephone, and other wired communications have now appeared.

Telegrams, faxes, etc. will also appear one after another in the near future.

According to history, wireless communications such as beep machines, mobile phones, keyboard phones, and smart phones will appear on land in the second half of the 20th century.

That was 70 years later.

But now, driven by him and the Kingdom of the New Netherlands, the world has entered a stage of rapid development.

The Netherlands relied on Edison and a large group of genius inventors collected by William IV to maintain its leading position among countries in the electrical age.

Edison owned incandescent lamps, phonographs, movie projectors, and cameras, which were only invented this year. Especially the electric system, it can be said that it was very important for the Dutch to enrich and improve human civilization.

Don't tell him that Edison was a capitalist. An inventor naturally needs to use capital. Otherwise, why did Tesla still need Edison's capital and technology to further develop alternating current, radio and other technologies?

So they all complement each other.

The Netherlands can also use this to further distance itself from Germany and the United States in the era of global electrical industry.

The electrical age is not only an economic issue, but also a booster for the international political landscape and strength.To sum up, from the mid-19th century until 1882, the stage characteristics of world economic development changed, and the political and national strength also changed accordingly.

Driven by the electrical age, the capitalist economy began to develop rapidly after 1850, faster than the first industrial revolution led by the British.
世界钢产量由1850年的10万吨上升到了1865年的52万吨，然后又上升到1880年的1830万吨，增加了183倍多。

同期，石油由1850年的2万吨上升至1865年的160万吨，之后上升至1880年的1000万吨，增加了500倍。

Since 1850, the world's transportation industry has also achieved significant development. The most obvious thing is that the world's railways have increased eightfold. Among them, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States accounted for 70% of the newly built railways.

全球船舶的总吨位由1850年的540万吨上升至1865年的1180万吨，然后又涨到了1880年的2680吨，增长近5倍。

By 1880, maritime transportation was basically mechanized, and ships gradually gained a dominant position in shipping. This caused freight rates to drop by more than half from 1850 to 1880, which greatly promoted and facilitated international economic exchanges.

During this period, the railway transportation industry developed more rapidly.

全世界的铁路总长由1850年的11万公里增长到了1865年的30万公里，到了1880年，增长到了78万公里，在短短30年时间里增加到了7倍。

At the same time, a railway network around the world was initially formed.

It has brought most countries into the world market and played a very important role in the development of the world economy.

The development of industry and transportation and the expansion of the world market resulted in tremendous development of world trade during this period.

1850年-1880年，世界贸易总额从8亿英镑上升到了1865年的20亿英镑，然后又升到了1880年的41亿英镑，增加到了5倍有余，单单荷兰占据了全球贸易的40%以上，超过16亿英镑以上。

The widespread use of agricultural machinery and chemical fertilizers has greatly improved agricultural production efficiency, resulting in a substantial reduction in the agricultural population and a rapid increase in the urban population.

William IV had to lament that at this time, the Western world's dominance in the world must be unclear.

By 1882, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany were developing towards agricultural modernization. The Netherlands had reached 90%, the United Kingdom 80%, and the United States 60%. The German Empire had reached 50% agricultural modernization. The western United States, Canada, and Many mechanized large farms have sprung up in Argentina and other places, becoming an important commercial grain base in the world.

The world's food production has doubled. During this period of rapid development of the world's capitalist economy, it has shown some special and outstanding characteristics.

First of all, the economic development of capitalist countries is extremely uneven.In particular, it has caused drastic changes in their economic status in the world.

In 1876, the Netherlands surpassed the United Kingdom to become the world's largest economy, which set the stage for other countries to break the position of the largest economy occupied by Britain during the first steam revolution that began in 1800, and gave other countries hope.

Then Britain began to compete with the German Empire for the position of the second largest economy in the = century.

Currently Britain is second, Germany is third, the divided United States is fourth, the divided French Empire in Paris is fifth,

Although the status of Austria-Hungary, Tsarist Russia, and Qing Dynasty Japan has significantly improved, their proportion of the world's total industrial value is still very small. The Qing Dynasty ranks 9th, only ahead of Argentina.

Behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Spain, Italy, and the Third Republic of Southern France.

Secondly, the British trade monopoly was broken, and world trade formed a multi-center pattern. In the 19s and 50s, most of the countries involved in the world market were countries with dominant agriculture.

They revolve around this huge center - Britain, which consumes their raw materials and supplies them with necessary industrial products.

Now after 1870, due to the rise of a number of new industrial countries, the British trade monopoly was broken.

Now in the world market, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States have become Britain's strong competitors.

The trade pattern centered on the United Kingdom has completely changed, and it has been replaced by a series of industrialized countries in Europe and the United States.

World trade has formed a new polycentric pattern.

Thirdly, economic crises occur more frequently after capitalism.

Because the capitalist economy develops too fast and the intellectual growth of industrial products exceeds the demand of the world market, capitalist economic crises continue to occur.

From 1873 to 1881, a total of three world-class economic crises occurred.

Compared with the 50s, these crises are more destructive and their intervals are shortening. On the whole, the second electrical revolution from the 19th century to the present 1880 has developed rapidly and continues to create miracles.

William IV naturally knew that this would bring prosperity to the world as a whole for the world economy.

But the economic crisis that just came to mind is something we have to be wary of.

Behind the prosperity is the approaching crisis, and there are also many disadvantages behind the prosperous economy of the Netherlands in recent years.

Therefore, finding out the shortcomings and correcting them is the most urgent thing at present.

Many people thought that he was delegating power to his eldest son, Albert, in order to test his abilities. But what they didn’t know was that William IV was actually taking more time to pay attention to the global economic evolution, trying to find out what was happening in it. As for the source of the economic crisis, it would be better if the Netherlands could at least be left alone, not to mention eliminating it.

(End of this chapter)