Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 392 Economic Crisis and Opportunities

"Your Excellency, there are two foreign students outside who want to see you."

The assistant walked into the office and reported to Hu Jingde.

"What's matter?"

"International students want to intern in German factories to gain experience, but most companies reject their applications, so they want to seek help from the consulate."

"It's a good idea to do an internship at the factory. Go and invite those two international students in. I want to hear their ideas in person."

Handling the affairs of international students is an important responsibility of the Chinese Embassy in Germany. Over the past ten years, the number of government-sponsored and privately-funded students who have traveled across the ocean to study abroad has exceeded 7000. Among them, in addition to the 2000 students who have returned to China after completing their studies, there are more than 5000 students studying in Europe.

Among the more than 5000 international students, more than half, about 3000, are studying in Germany. The second largest group is students studying in Austria (Austria-Hungary), about 1000. The remaining more than 1000 students are scattered in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and other countries.

Sending students abroad is the most effective way to absorb and learn Western modern science and technology. The benefits of sending a large number of students abroad are self-evident.

But this does not mean that the local government can send all selected students to study in Europe according to its own wishes.

There are three main reasons:
First, the number of native Chinese was limited, and there were not enough young students between the ages of 10 and 15 who had basic cultural and learning abilities. It was only from 1880 onwards that this restriction was slowly changed as the number of native new generations who reached the age limit for studying abroad increased.

Secondly, European countries have restrictions on the number of Chinese students studying abroad. Because of early small-scale military conflicts, Britain, France and Italy have reservations about accepting Chinese students. The three governments review the Chinese students living in their countries every year, and then determine the specific number of Chinese students for the following year based on the results of the three governments' analysis of the review data.

Britain, France and Italy were unwilling to accept large numbers of Chinese students, so students sent from their own countries could only receive education in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the economic ties were relatively close and there was no strategic conflict between the two sides.

Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also did not allow Chinese students to enter their countries. Between 1871 and 1878, the number of Chinese students was only more than 3000. In addition to the restriction on the number of students of school age, the annual cap of 500 students set by the German and Austro-Hungarian governments was also an important factor.

After 1879, Han successfully annexed Argentina and Uruguay, becoming an important country in South America in terms of territory and population. In addition, after curing Prince Valmadre and establishing a good personal relationship with Crown Prince Frederick's family, the German and Austro-Hungarian governments further relaxed restrictions on the number of Chinese students, raising the annual upper limit of officially sent Chinese students to 1200 and the upper limit of private self-funded students to 700.

Third, due to the limitation of study abroad funds, each government-sponsored student receives four years of university education overseas at the shortest, and seven to eight years or even ten years at the longest.

During their study abroad, each international student spends an average of 200 Chinese Yuan per year, and more than 5000 students studying abroad spend more than 100 million Chinese Yuan per year.

Due to various factors, the number of Chinese international students cannot achieve the rapid leap forward that the local government had expected.

It is difficult for the foreign policies of the governments of Britain, France and Italy to change in the short term. Germany and Austria-Hungary have just raised the upper limit of Chinese students. It is probably not a task that can be accomplished in one or two years if the German government is asked to further increase the number of Chinese students.

Therefore, the effective measures that Hu Jingde can take at present are, on the one hand, to apply for funding for international students, and on the other hand, to reasonably allocate the funds for studying abroad, and try to spend the limited funds on more students while ensuring the quality of students' learning and living.

Hu Jingde has been trying to get a share of the study abroad funding, and today two international students who came to see him gave him a good idea to save the study abroad funding.

"According to the principle of individual voluntariness, government-sponsored students can choose whether to use their vacation time to intern in factories and earn part of their living expenses. For private self-funded students, it doesn't matter if they come from middle or upper-middle-class families, but for those with excellent academic performance and average family conditions, the embassy can take the lead in introducing them to factories in their majors for internships. Using their vacation time to work and study is a good way to save money and allow more students from average families to have the opportunity to study abroad."

After analyzing the benefits of working and studying, Hu Jingde made a preliminary plan in his mind and then asked his assistant to invite the two international students into his office.

"You can think of doing internships in factories, earning money for daily life through the professional knowledge you have learned, and saving the country money for studying abroad. This is a good idea and has great potential for promotion."

Hu Jingde smiled and said gently: "The number of international students sent by the local government has not yet reached the upper limit required by the German government. If we adopt the work-study method, more students can get the opportunity to study abroad.

I think your proposal is fine. The embassy will be responsible for helping students find suitable internship factories. Once everything is arranged, I will send someone to Berlin University to inform you. "

"Thank you, Your Excellency the Minister! We will definitely live up to the expectations of the country and Your Excellency the Minister, study science and technology knowledge seriously, and strive to return to our homeland as soon as possible to serve the country!"

Tan Yaoxun and Pan Mingzhong said happily.

"The prosperity of a country requires the efforts of all citizens. You should go back to school first and then report the names of all students so that the embassy can contact different factories based on each student's major and skills."

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency."

The two saluted Hu Jingde, expressed their gratitude again, and then left the embassy excitedly.

"Counselor Zhao, send telegrams to the embassies in Britain, France, and Italy, asking whether the economies of the three countries have experienced a certain degree of recession, just like Germany?" After sending the two students away, Hu Jingde, with the sensitivity of a diplomat, immediately issued an order to the diplomats in the embassy. …………

Since entering the modern industrial society, European countries have experienced more than ten economic crises of varying scales.

The most recent one was the twelfth, the economic crisis of 1873-1879.
In 1873, a financial crisis broke out at the Vienna Stock Exchange. The crisis quickly spread to financial cities such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, and New York.

There was panic in the financial markets and railroad stocks fell sharply.

In September 1873, Jay-Cook Financial Company, one of the most prosperous banks in the United States, went bankrupt due to railroad speculation. The New York stock market plummeted, and 9 commercial companies and 5000 securities trading companies went bankrupt one after another.

This crisis was mainly a crisis of heavy industry, while the light textile industry was relatively less affected, and this was true for all countries. Investment expansion during the crisis can only mean further overcapacity, which means the coming of a larger crisis. However, this crisis lasted for a long time, the price drop was large, and the process of moving towards monopoly was more conscious. Monopoly organizational forms such as cartels, trusts, and syndicates developed during this period.

In response to the twelfth economic crisis, the United States and Germany successively adopted trade protectionist policies and transformed the economic crisis into economic construction by strengthening infrastructure, thus emerging from the economic crisis earlier than Britain and France.

However, blind investment in infrastructure is not a panacea. Take the United States as an example. From 1879 to 1883, the United States built nearly 5.3 kilometers of railways, accounting for about 50% of the world's railway construction in the same period, and the output of major heavy industry products doubled.

In 1882, steel companies had overcapacity, American railway construction declined, and stocks of heavy industrial companies such as steel and coal fell, triggering the thirteenth economic crisis in world economic history.

Banks and investors sold railroad stocks and bonds. Railroad investment plummeted. From 1882 to 1886, the wholesale price index fell 24.1%. The depression lasted four years.

During the same period, the British economy began to decline as early as 1881, and the crisis deepened after the decline of the US railway. During the crisis, steel production fell for the first time, reaching 15.9%, cotton consumption fell by 19.7%, and the shipbuilding industry fell the most, reaching 62.8%. The unemployment rate was 1882% in 2.3, increased to 1884% in 8.1, and reached 1886% in 10.2.

The severity of the crisis in France was second only to that in the United States. In 1882, the Union General Bank and the Lyon and Rolle Bank collapsed, shocking the nation. In the same year, more than 7000 companies went bankrupt. From 1884 to 1886, the number of bankrupt companies and the number of unemployed people increased further.

From 1882 to 1885, imports and exports fell for several consecutive years, with exports falling by 13.6% and imports falling by 15.2%. The output of coal and iron, and the consumption of cotton, all fell sharply.

The consequences of the 1882th economic crisis began to emerge when embassies in various European countries sent the economic intelligence they had collected back to their home countries. Even though Li Mingyuan had not heard of the economy of 1886-, he began to smell the scent of another economic crisis based on the impression that economic crises had occurred in Western countries every seven to eight years or every ten years.

"You can see that the economies of major European countries are showing signs of recession, and the shipbuilding industry is particularly affected."

Li Mingyuan distributed the received telegram to everyone to read, and added: "I was originally curious about why the German government suddenly changed its attitude. Not only did it agree to build two armored cruisers in the country, but it also agreed to license the construction technology related to armored cruisers to us.

Now it seems that it is not that the Germans have become more generous, but that the economic crisis broke out in Europe and the Vulcan Shipyard was having a hard time, so they relaxed on the issue of warship technology transfer. "

“Will the economic crisis in Europe affect the development of the local economy?”

Liu Pu said worriedly.

"It does have some impact, but it's not a big problem."

Li Mingyuan turned his gaze to the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Agriculture below him and asked, "What are the data on the local economy and agricultural product exports in the past six months?"

"Your Majesty, the ten-year development strategy is progressing steadily. The production capacity of local steel, machinery, chemical and other industries continues to expand at an annual growth rate of more than 14%. There are no signs of any industrial sector being affected by the European economic crisis for the time being."

"The share of meat and grain exports has fluctuated slightly. In the second half of 1882, the total amount of agricultural exports decreased by about %. However, due to the reduction in manufacturing costs of fur and food processing companies, it is expected that this year's agricultural export revenue will be slightly higher than the same period last year, and there will be no losses or profit reductions."

The Minister of Industry and the Minister of Agriculture reported successively.

"The overall level of local industrialization is still in its early stages, and the European economic crisis will not affect South America for the time being."

After listening to the two people's reports, Li Mingyuan arranged: "However, the economic crisis in Europe is good news for the mainland. The mainland can take advantage of the economic recession in Europe in recent years to vigorously introduce new technologies in traditional heavy industries such as steel and machinery to make up for the shortcomings of local industrial development.

Liu Pu, I'll leave this matter to you. The Ministry of Finance will lead the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and other departments to discuss carefully and come up with a suitable plan as soon as possible, and then report it and implement it quickly after it is approved."

"Yes, Your Majesty."………………

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(End of this chapter)