Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 1093 The German education system is ten years behind the Netherlands

Hermann Van Peron continued his analysis in The Australian Times by pointing out that the Netherlands can become a super economic power, but the German Empire is difficult to achieve.

He believes that since December 1861, observers from neighboring powers such as the German Empire and the United Kingdom and other Dutch territories in Europe have been predicting week by week that the Netherlands will never be able to return to the prosperity of sea coachmen in the 12th and 17th centuries.

You must know that at that time, the Netherlands' tulips created the financial capital and its maritime transportation ranked first in the world. The country was destroyed by Napoleon I at the end of the 18th century. The Netherlands, which was re-established in 1815, will eventually live as a second-rate power.

Why do you think so?
The reason is naturally that the European territory of the Netherlands is only more than 4000 square kilometers, plus the 2600 square kilometers of the Principality of Luxembourg, it is about 5 square kilometers.

The area is even just one-tenth of the German Empire itself, one-sixth of the British Isles, and one-eleventh of the French Empire.

Not even one-sixteenth of the 83 square kilometers of the United Kingdom of Sweden and Norway.

Surrounded by these four major countries, the potential of the Netherlands will naturally not be optimistic.

As the Kingdom of Prussia among the Holy Four Kingdoms rose in the east of the Netherlands, the Netherlands would never compare to the German Empire. The competition between the two countries was not optimistic from the beginning.

Even during the entire 1860s when His Majesty William IV came to power, the Netherlands only developed a plastic product business under his leadership, igniting the Netherlands' global trade.

But it’s just a single product.

And they don't dare to go too far to capture market share in the UK, Germany, and even other countries.

If the markets of the four countries were squeezed by the Netherlands, it would turn into political pressure and pour into the European Dutch government, which at that time was still asking to move its capital to the Far East.

France even held joint military exercises with Belgium in the south of the Netherlands to put pressure on the Dutch hands.

The German Empire also exercised on the Dutch East Cadre border.

The United Kingdom was even more ruthless and frequently demonstrated its actions against the Netherlands directly at sea.

Therefore, this further proves that it is difficult for the Netherlands to rise.

This was true even with the Dutch East Indies and American colonies.

Unfortunately, the Netherlands finally took the wrong approach and moved its capital directly to the Far East, completely breaking away from the encirclement of Britain, France and Germany. It also formed an alliance with Sweden and Denmark to form the Nordic Alliance, and maintained historical friendship with the Tsarist Russian Empire to check and balance Britain and Germany. In the end, the Netherlands The Far Eastern Dragon has the sea. In just 12 years after moving its capital to Melbourne, it not only became the world's largest economic power, but also had the world's most strategically advantageous surrounding environment.

Not to mention that one country actually occupies the entire continent (Australia). The surrounding islands are all Dutch, and they are all protecting the Australian continent.

What the Netherlands doesn't know yet is that in addition to this protective layer, the Netherlands has also established an alliance system in surrounding countries.

All the Pacific side of the Americas were allies of the Netherlands, as was the Qing Dynasty in Asia, Goryeo, and Spain, the suzerain country of the Philippines, was also an ally of the Netherlands.

Even the Second French Empire, which now occupies North and South Vietnam, is currently easing relations with the Netherlands.

Counting the surrounding areas, only Britain, which occupies South Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Malaya, is left.

Therefore, the Netherlands only faced off because it was willing to threaten the Netherlands with Britain in a strategic sense.

On the other hand, some things have happened in Germany recently, such as the German Empire's strict general rule on its member states, restrictions on words and deeds opposed to Berlin's rule, the rise of factions within Germany, and the Bismarck government's excessive control of parliament, which limited the effective control of the country. Healthy competition, and the negative impact of clumsy decisions made, seem to support this view.The Dutch Federal Reserve Bank recently issued a report highlighting tax cuts and economic liberalization in the Netherlands, and it also highlighted one.Historical fact: Since the beginning of the steam revolution, every economic progress, that is, sustained growth in core productivity, has been related to investment in human capital and increased female labor force participation.

Hermann Van Peron pointed out the problem directly: “None of the German Imperial universities are among the top five in the world, and less than 5 German universities are among the top 16 universities in the world, while the Netherlands has 8 and the UK has [-]. "

He pointed out that the Netherlands is also better prepared for future opportunities, with 16 Dutch universities ranked among the top [-] in the world, accounting for almost one-third of the list.

Among them, the University of Sydney occupies No. 1, the University of Melbourne occupies No. 2, and the fifth place is the Australian National University in the Netherlands.

The famous University of Cambridge and Oxford University in the UK have dropped to third and fourth place.

The University of Sydney is regarded as the top university in the world of finance.

Melbourne is the most coveted political and management university in the world.

The Australian National University has a global reputation for science.

At the same time, 13 others said that local universities are almost competing with top universities in other countries around the world for position.

In contrast, no university in the German Empire ranks among the top five, and even among the top ten, only the Humboldt University of Berlin ranks among them.

Universities in other countries can only compete with the second- and third-rate universities in the Netherlands. It has to be said that the German Empire lags far behind in terms of manpower quality when facing the Netherlands.

“When I visited Europe in the name of the President of the University of Sydney three months ago, I went to Berlin and talked with the President of the University of Berlin, Alexander von Humboldt. He revealed to me that the current German education system reflects the lack of universities in other countries. Just teach them in a swarm, instead of deploying future industries and laying out advanced technological foundations early like the Netherlands.

He lamented that Germany was ten years behind the Netherlands in education.

I don’t know if this is true, but I know that Germany’s technology is indeed more than ten years behind the Netherlands. "

"This Berlin University student was full of praise for Dutch university education when he was chatting with me."

Hermann Van Peron only said in the Australian Times: "Germany is more like an economic miracle waiting to happen than the Netherlands today. If the miracle comes true, the core figure will be the next generation of top-level changes in Germany rather than the current German Empire. Now the iron triangle formed by Wilhelm I, Bismarck, Moltke, and Rohn."

"In this regard, Alexander von Humboldt, who was chatting with me at the time, agreed with my point of view."

Hermann Van Peron finally said: "If Germany wants to become the next economic superpower like the Netherlands, it should be familiar with the Dutch economic operation rules.

Even now that the country has become more market-oriented, the Netherlands has still made substantial investments in its citizens, raising education and food and clothing standards to the highest level required for an internationally competitive labor force, even surpassing the United Kingdom by a long way. .

The per capita income is nearly twice that of Germany.

In the 0 Human Capital Index of the Dutch Federal Reserve Bank, which measures the education and subsistence achievements of countries on a scale of 1 to 1881, the German Empire only had 0.61, just reaching the subsistence stage, and even lower than the Dutch allies Denmark and Greece, the two European per capita incomes. China; the Netherlands has a perfect score of 8.5 point, and the UK is [-], which is one-sixth less than the Netherlands' annual input.

Therefore, if the German Empire wants to become the world's most powerful economic superpower, it needs to work harder to improve its education system.It will take at least ten years to get to where the Netherlands is now. "

(End of this chapter)