Reborn Capital Madman

From Hong Kong's perspective, the most direct and obvious impact brought about by Britain's entry into the European Economic Community is undoubtedly tariffs.

Since the beginning of this century, that is, since 1900, the United Kingdom has launched the Imperial System of Preferences aimed at reducing and balancing mutual import tariffs within the "sun never sets" colonial system, in order to enhance its competition with Germany and the United States and consolidate the United Kingdom's

colonial system.

Of course, this imperial preferential system must give priority to the interests of the British mainland, but in a small place like Xiangjiang, you can live a good life if you get some soup and water.

However, although the Imperial System of Preferences was very effective in the early part of this century, after the end of World War II, with the dramatic changes in the world structure, it was inevitably impacted.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, led by the United States, and the European Economic Community, led by France and West Germany, are gradually suppressing Britain's imperial preferential system, so that Britain has now turned to the embrace of the European Economic Community.

Logically speaking, with the UK's qualifications and being a founding member of the European Economic Community, it should be no problem to join the European Economic Community when it was first established, eliminating the need to seek membership later.

However, when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1951 and the European Coal and Steel Community was established, the United Kingdom was not present; when the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 and the broader European Economic Community was established, the United Kingdom was also absent.

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Britain's attitude towards the European Economic Community changed dramatically during the Conservative Harold Macmillan cabinet, and it formally submitted a request to join the European Economic Community at the European Economic Community meeting in January 1963. As a result, it was rejected by the then

French President de Gaulle vetoed it.

The reason is that De Gaulle was worried that after Britain joined the European Economic Community, the European Economic Community would become another version of the "Atlantic group dependent on the United States"; also, the cooperation between Britain and the United States in nuclear weapons made De Gaulle very

dissatisfied.

After the UK's application to join the European Economic Community was frustrated, it did not give up. Instead, it launched all kinds of public relations with France, which even came close to flattering France. Even Hong Kong in the Far East was affected.

For example, when projects such as the construction of large-scale reservoirs in Hong Kong to solve the shortage of fresh water resources were tendered to international consortiums, once the participating French companies were unsuccessful, they would protest, scaring London to put pressure on Hong Kong to win the bid.

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It was not until the death of de Gaulle in 1970 that the UK's application to join the European Economic Community saw a significant turnaround; coupled with the addition of Edward Heath, the British Conservative cabinet prime minister from 1970 to 1974, and de Gaulle's

The successor, the then French President Pompidou, established a good relationship and prevented him from voting against it. This allowed the UK to officially join the European Economic Community on January 1, 1973, together with Ireland and Denmark.

However, although the United Kingdom has gone to great lengths to join the European Economic Community, there has always been strong Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom, that is, opposition to the European Economic Community.

This anti-European faction has a very broad political spectrum and has many supporters in both the Conservative Party and the Labor Party, as well as in other organizations.

Even more fatally, Edward Heath, the Conservative Prime Minister who led the United Kingdom to join the European Economic Community, was defeated by Harold Wilson of the Labor Party in the 1974 British general election.

At this stage, the achievements of the European Economic Community are mainly reflected in the fact that in July 1968, after the phased reduction of industrial product tariffs among member states, all tariffs were eliminated one and a half years ahead of schedule; in terms of agricultural products, in addition to the realization of a customs union

In addition, a common agricultural policy was implemented, prices were unified, and agricultural funds were established.

Harold Wilson's Labor Party has always expressed concerns about the Common Agricultural Policy.

Because, within the Commonwealth system, food prices are generally not high; but once the UK joins the European Economic Community, food prices will inevitably increase, which will easily make the conflicts in British society, where strikes occur one after another, become more acute.

Of course, the differences in British politics over Britain's joining the European Economic Community are not that simple. In the final analysis, they are unwilling to hand over part of their sovereignty to the European Economic Community, which is higher than the state.

Faced with doubts that the Conservative cabinet signed unfavorable terms during the negotiations during the UK's hasty accession to the European Economic Community, Edward Heath, who was about to step down, came up with a plan to hold a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Economic Community.

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This move is significant because it will be the first national referendum in British history.

It is not difficult to imagine that the "first time" must have required careful preparation, so the British "Brexit" referendum in this era was finally scheduled to be held in 1975, that is, in June of this year.

Gao Xian came to the UK to receive his CBE, and just in time to catch up with this excitement, he got to know the British media, large enterprises, trade unions, social institutions, and even the British government, and other roles, and let's put on a big show together.

Generally speaking, although there are loud voices opposed to Britain handing over part of its sovereignty to the European Economic Community, Britain's joining the European Economic Community is indeed a major trend.

One of the evidences is that both Harold Wilson, the leader of the ruling Labor Party, and Margaret Thatcher, the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, both support Britain's joining the European Economic Community.

The main difference between the two is that Harold Wilson was dissatisfied with the terms signed by the Conservative Party when he led Britain to join the European Economic Community.

Therefore, as part of its official propaganda campaign, the British government printed pamphlets and distributed them to every household in the UK, stating that the issues in the renegotiation were food, money and jobs.

In addition, almost all the mainstream media in the UK sang a series of advertisements that praised Britain's joining the European Economic Community and "yes". They were simultaneously broadcast on BBC One and Two and ITV, attracting as many as 20 million viewers.

audience.

It must be said that British banks and large industrial companies are all "pro-European" and have invested a large amount of money in the public relations campaign for this referendum.

In the end, Chief Counter Sir Philip Allen announced that the turnout rate for this referendum was 64.62%, of which 67.23% approved of the UK joining

European Economic Community.

In other words, the trend of Britain's joining the European Economic Community has been decided. There is no need for politicians to waste their saliva on "yes" and "no" issues. The serious business is to fight for detailed terms that are beneficial to the United Kingdom.

After Gao Xian simply calculated the result of multiplying the turnout rate of this referendum by the passing rate, he further realized that whether Britain and the European continent are close or not depends on how much benefit it can bring.

Zhou Wenyao asked: "Boss, now that Britain's entry into the European Economic Community is a foregone conclusion, can our home electronic game consoles and personal computers be used as a springboard to quickly enter the European continental market?"