I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 762: Open Robbery
The division in the United States is reflected in all aspects, and tariffs are particularly evident.

The US policy has been swinging between isolationism and free trade. The Republican Party, which represents industrial capital, advocates improving the competitiveness of its products through high tariffs on industrial products and low tariffs on agricultural products; the Democratic Party, which represents agricultural capital, hopes to protect the interests of local agriculture through low tariffs on industrial products and high tariffs on agricultural products.

The tariff policy of the United States from its founding to the present can be summarized in one sentence: maintaining government revenue through high tariffs and protecting American domestic companies through import restrictions.

However, when it comes to exports, the United States has always held high the banner of free trade, requiring European countries to open their doors and open their markets to American goods.

European countries are not stupid either, and they have to protect their own interests, so the United States has had to pursue isolationism for most of the time since its independence for more than a century.

The world war allowed the United States to taste the sweetness of free trade. Driven by profit, American capitalists frantically increased productivity. By 1918, the United States accounted for 40% of global manufacturing production.

After the end of World War II, US exports plummeted, which was the root cause of the economic crisis in 1920.

The economic crisis had a serious impact on the US economy. It took the US two full years to make a difficult transformation. When the US turned its attention back to Europe, it found that Europe had returned to a closed state.

Needless to say, Britain and France have their own independent economies, and if it weren't for the world war, they would have no need to import goods from the United States.

Germany was severely weakened, its economy continued to be sluggish and it was unable to import.

Russia has formed a free trade alliance, uniting the fragmented small and medium-sized European countries, and its economy is also independent.

Americans were surprised to find that after the baptism of the world war, Europe had become an iron-clad turtle with nowhere to attack.

This is unacceptable to the United States.

Russia also cannot accept the US double standards.

If the United States wants to join a free trade alliance, it must change its long-standing isolationism, lower tariffs, and open its market to the free trade alliance.

This is a risky move for the United States.

As of 1924, American products had no technological advantage over European ones, but rather won by scale.

The biggest difference from another time and space is that the Russia in this time and space is not only not isolated and excluded, but is also the leader of the free trade alliance.

In many emerging fields, such as automobiles and aircraft, Russian products not only have technological advantages, but Russia's industrial scale is no less than that of the United States.

If the United States wants to join a free trade alliance, it must open its market to the free trade alliance. At that time, Russian goods will flood into the United States. Can American domestic companies withstand the impact of Russian goods?

Russia actually has the same concerns as the United States.

Compared with Russian products, the biggest advantage of American products is their low cost.

After Russia implemented a series of welfare systems, the competitiveness of Russian products has been affected to a certain extent due to the increase in labor costs.

Although the United States abolished slavery early on, there is still a clear wage gap between blacks and whites. Except for a few star companies, most factories in the United States are sweatshops, and labor costs are lower than in Russia.

Based on the current international situation, George asked Russian companies to increase their attention to scientific research and strive to maintain Russia's technological advantages.

George will focus on automobiles and construction machinery, as well as household appliances.

With the commissioning of factories in St. Petersburg and Constantinople, Russia's annual car production increased to 800 million vehicles, more than a fifth of which are exported.

Among the European countries today, only France's automobile industry has reached a certain scale, while other countries are still in their primitive state. Even Britain and Italy are just starting out. Russian cars are very popular in the market due to their excellent power and stylish appearance.

Russia also has a clear advantage in household appliances. The phonographs, radios and washing machines produced by the Amur Light Industry Group are also very popular.

George's dissatisfaction is that due to climatic reasons, Russia pays serious inadequacy to refrigerators and air conditioners.

Although Russia does not need refrigerators and air conditioners, for tropical countries like East India, refrigerators and air conditioners are indispensable and have a direct effect on improving people's quality of life.

George hopes that Russian companies can be people-oriented and produce what the market needs.

In other words, if Russian companies are not interested in this part of the profits, then East India can focus on developing related industries.

Since industries are complementary, cooperation is the way to go.

While strengthening his own strength, George did not forget to take advantage of capitalism.

Alexander's investment in Australia went smoothly, and he acquired mineral mining rights in Western Australia for 100 million pounds.

Western Australia has an area of ​​252.5 million square kilometers. If Western Australia were regarded as a country, it would rank ninth in the world.

At this time in 1924, the iron ore in Western Australia had not yet been discovered. Western Australia was the poorest state in Australia, with a sparse population and a backward economy. Not only was it located on a plateau, but there were also three major desert areas inland.

In this situation, the Yuriev family, which had been investing crazily in Western Australia, became the major financial backer of Western Australia.

To welcome the Yuriev family, the Western Austrian government designated July 7th of each year as Yuriev Day in Western Austria. Before the Western Austrian government had time to celebrate this holiday, the Yuriev family announced that iron ore had been discovered in the Pilbara region of Western Austria.

This news did not attract much attention from the outside world. Since the Yuriev family invested in Theo, they must have discovered something, which is why the Yuriev family took action.

If Theo had nothing, the Yuriev family wouldn't even look at him.

Alexander took big action. After announcing the discovery of iron ore, he announced a series of follow-up investment plans.

Alexander not only wants to build a port in Theo, but also a 300-kilometer railway, with an estimated investment of more than 5000 million rubles.

This plan finally attracted attention from the outside world.

The scale of 5000 million rubles is a huge sum even for a big family like the Yuriev family.

So how much iron ore does Theo have stored that makes the Yuriev family pay so much attention to it?

On August 8, the Sydney Daily News revealed that what the Yuriev family discovered in Theo was not iron ore at all, but gold mine.

The gold mining in Western Australia has a long history. As early as 1886, gold was discovered in Western Australia, triggering a gold rush.

In an interview with reporters, Bobov, general manager of the Yuriev Mining Company, refuted the rumor, saying that what Yuriev discovered was not a gold mine, but just ordinary iron ore.

This rumor-busting not only failed to dispel people's curiosity, but instead made people pay more attention.

Russia has no shortage of iron ore, and there are also iron ore in East India.

On August 8, The Times revealed that the Yuriev family had discovered iron ore reserves in Western Austria exceeding 27 billion tons, with an average grade of over 10%.

The news immediately caused a sensation.

Steel is the backbone of industry. As one of the world's largest industrial countries, Britain's demand for iron ore has remained high.

The iron ore produced in the UK is mainly poor quality, with only a small amount of rich quality. This is one of the main reasons restricting the development of the UK's domestic steel industry.

The UK has always sent mineral resources experts to search for rich iron ore around the world to make up for the lack of domestic production capacity in the UK.

However, the mineral resources experts in the UK are not very professional. Australia has previously been believed to have no rich iron ore, and the country's reserves are less than 2.5 million tons, which is not enough for self-use and is completely unable to be exported.

The iron content of British iron ore is usually between 20% and 30%.

If iron ore with a content of 60% can be obtained, the bottleneck restricting the development of the British steel industry will be completely broken.

The British Parliament reacted quickly. Just one week after the Times broke the news, it passed the Steel Act with unprecedented efficiency to restrict Australia's iron ore exports.

This means that the iron ore mined by the Yuriev family can only be sold to British companies and cannot be exported.

This is simply a steal!
George was completely shocked when he heard the news. How could someone be so shameless?

Alexander reacted equally quickly. On the second day after the British Parliament passed the Steel Act, the Parliament of the Grand Principality of Yuriev passed the Enterprise Act, which enabled the Grand Principality of Yuriev to take all means to protect its corporate interests when the corporate interests of the Grand Principality of Yuriev were damaged.

While the two countries' parliaments were busy exchanging verbal attacks, Britain's Rio Tinto Group acted quickly to put pressure on the Australian government.

The agreement signed between Yuriev Mining Company and the Western Austrian state government is exclusive. In the field of iron ore, even British steel companies cannot get involved in Western Austrian mines without the consent of Yuriev Mining Company.

The reason why such an outrageous agreement was signed was that both the British and Australian governments had determined that Australia had no iron ore, so the Western Australian government was so generous.

Under pressure, the Australian government ruled that the agreement between the Western Austrian state government and Yuriev Mining Company was invalid.

When the news came out, the whole world was in uproar.

Alexander made a strong statement: If the Western Austrian government dares to tear up the agreement, the Grand Duchy of Yuriev will take all means to safeguard the overseas interests of its enterprises.

The Western Austrian state government also issued a public statement confirming that the agreement signed between the Western Austrian state government and Yuriev Mining Company is legal and valid and that it does not accept the Australian government's judgment.

Things had gotten to this point and were beginning to get out of control.

As a part of Australia, Western Australia does not accept the Australian government's judgment. Does this mean it wants to rebel?
Theo does not want to rebel, he just wants to protect his own interests. Compared with the Yuriev Mining Company, Rio Tinto has not made any promises to the Theo government, but the Theo government has already taken the money from the Yuriev family.

Since the money has been taken, if the Western Austrian government tears up the agreement, it will definitely be retaliated by the Yuriev family.

Don't forget that Russia has not spoken out yet.

(End of this chapter)