The Fox of France

Chapter 430: Trade Wars and Proxy Conflicts

Shipbuilding isn't something that happens overnight, but the announcement of this plan immediately caused a huge reaction in the market. Building these warships requires a large amount of steel, many factories, numerous workers, and many engineers. To put it in terms of a saying from a later era:

"The Soviet Union, the Party Central Committee, the National Planning Committee, the Military Industry Committee, and nine Defense Industry Departments, along with 600 related professions and 8,000 supporting manufacturers—altogether requiring a great nation to accomplish it."

Today, in France, the Republic replaces the "Soviet Union," the ruling government replaces the "Party Central Committee," and the military-industrial complex replaces the "Military Industry Committee and nine Defense Industry Departments." Although France's military industry hasn't developed to the extent of having "600 related professions and 8,000 supporting manufacturers," the warships of this era are simpler, and France's existing industrial capacity is sufficient. As for the "great nation," isn't Napoleon's slogan now "Let France continue to be great"?

With the introduction of this plan, the stagnant industrial machinery began to operate again. Steel mills and various factories began hiring workers again, and various supporting factories began to operate, so factory workers started to receive wages, and the market began to show clear signs of recovery.

"Investing in the military can stimulate the economy for a while, but in the long run, unless we strike gold, such military investments will almost certainly lead to war. Because without war, there can be no war dividends, and economically, such actions will only lead to increasing debt and ultimately greater economic pressure. It's like drinking poison to quench one's thirst," Joseph couldn't help but remind Napoleon, seeing his apparent satisfaction with the seemingly revitalized economy.

"I'm well aware of that," Napoleon replied.

The massive shipbuilding plan also greatly relieved other countries on the European continent. The reason is simple: if the French are committed to building a large fleet, their target certainly won't be themselves. As for why the French are expanding their army, it's undoubtedly to invade the British Isles.

However, the use of these expanded engineering troops once again refreshed the understanding of other countries—there's still this method. The French immediately announced a second plan to expand domestic demand, which is the "French Five Major River System Governance Plan." According to this plan, in the years to come, France will connect the five major river systems within its borders through canals to make inland navigation more convenient.

Furthermore, France will also conduct major dredging of river channels to allow larger sea vessels to enter French inland areas directly. Of course, this is a significant project, and the newly formed engineering troops were immediately put to use for such purposes.

The third part of expanding domestic demand is to combat the dumping of foreign goods in France.

The target of this action is also Britain. Napoleon accused Britain of not adhering to the recognized principle of free trade when trading with France and the rest of continental Europe, and demanded that Britain immediately stop its discriminatory tariffs on French steel products, otherwise France would take reciprocal sanctions.

In fact, in recent years, France has consistently had a trade surplus with Britain. Even though the British have imposed tariffs and other restrictions on French industrial products, this has remained the case. (Of course, France's trade surplus hasn't come without cost; Britain has a trade deficit with France alone, but it has a trade surplus with the whole of Europe.) Since France is in a trade surplus position, it hasn't cared much about Britain's various behaviors in the past. But now, things are different. In Napoleon's plan, Jews are blamed for the economic crisis, and the consequences of the economic crisis must be blamed on the British.

Because the most important way to solve an economic crisis is to reduce production capacity. But reducing one's own production capacity isn't a good thing; it's better to reduce someone else's. Throughout Europe, apart from France, only Britain's production capacity is worth considering. Moreover, the British control so many colonies, all of which are the best markets for industrial goods. Who in Europe isn't envious?

So, when Napoleon's State of the Union address and budget were announced, the countries on the European continent immediately followed suit. The Netherlands was the first to follow suit, declaring that Britain's dumping behavior violated the principle of free trade. Therefore, as retaliation, the Netherlands plans to double or even triple the tariffs on more than fifty kinds of goods imported from Britain.

Following this, the Rhine Federation, the Northern Italian Republic, and even Austria joined in. They also stated that because the British were not playing by the rules and refused to open colonial markets to various European countries, they would also raise tariffs on British goods.

Then it was the turn of the French to take action. French Foreign Minister Talleyrand summoned the British ambassador to France and demanded that Britain immediately adopt the same "open door policy" as Spain, allowing other European countries equal access to commercial activities in British colonies.

Of course, this was impossible, because if such demands were agreed to, whose colonies would they be? This was something the British would never agree to, at least not until French troops set foot in Buckingham Palace.

So the British promptly rejected the absurd demands of the French and stated that if France imposed trade sanctions on Britain, Britain would also impose trade sanctions on France.

After receiving this response, the French immediately announced punitive tariffs on more than thirty types of goods exported from Britain. The British, in turn, advised the French not to do things that harm others and themselves, then sternly warned the French not to underestimate the British determination to defend their interests. Then, after delaying for a month and seeing almost all of Europe following France's lead, starting to close markets to Britain, the British formally announced punitive tariffs on more than thirty products exported from France to Britain. Thus, a trade war officially broke out.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, the ceasefire between the Irish and the British had been maintained for several years. During these years, both sides were not idle. The British continuously built fortifications in their controlled areas, trying to consolidate their control and prepare for future sweeps.

The Irish, naturally, were not idle either. During these

years, they expanded their own army, established a government with effective control over more than half of the island, and greatly improved their own military strength.

As for the relationship between the Irish and the French, although there was no formal alliance, they were, in fact, in the same boat. On the one hand, the British were both their enemies, and on the other hand, they both had disputes with Britain over the ownership of the colonial markets. Therefore, the two sides had maintained a high degree of military and diplomatic coordination.

At this time, the British intelligence department received a top-secret report from Ireland that made them all feel a sense of crisis. The report said that the French plan to attack Britain had been decided, and the French army would launch an attack on Britain from Ireland.

The content of the report was very detailed. According to the intelligence, the French were planning to transport tens of thousands of troops to Ireland, then launch a surprise attack on Britain through Ireland. Once Britain was attacked by France, it would immediately turn its attention to the threat from France. At that time, Ireland would undoubtedly become the battlefield where the two sides fought, and the British would undoubtedly immediately attack Ireland to prevent France from establishing a bridgehead in Ireland.

For the British, Ireland was their Achilles' heel. Once France established a bridgehead in Ireland, the British Isles would be threatened by France, and the British would face a huge threat.

The content of the report was immediately forwarded to the upper echelons of the British government. After reading the report, the British government immediately convened an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.

At this time, there was another piece of news that made the British even more flustered. The French had already dispatched a large number of engineering troops to Ireland to help the Irish improve their transportation and other infrastructure. According to the report, the number of French engineering troops dispatched to Ireland was several times that of the British engineering troops stationed in Ireland.

It seemed that the French were indeed planning to use Ireland as a bridgehead to attack Britain. If that was the case, the consequences would be disastrous for Britain.

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