Chapter 1611: 7. Travel to the Republic (9)

As a gregarious creature, humans need companions to eliminate loneliness and insecurity, but if they are two people, then both parties will be happy for each other’s existence. After joining the third person, there will be a quarrel, which will split into a minority and a majority. Pie, the majority party suppresses the minority party. The more people, the more factions, and the more quarrels and struggles.
The history of factional struggle runs through the entire history of human civilization, where there are factions where there are people, and where there are factions. The Republic that advertises republic and freedom is no exception. Due to its special system and national conditions, this kind of struggle is not only superficial but also extremely fierce.
"Our answer to the government is that our Social Democratic Party firmly opposes any new military budget added by the government!"
A middle-aged man, Xie Ding, stood on the podium of the House of Representatives and screamed:
"I am here again to remind the members of the House of Representatives that war cannot solve the current problems facing the Republic. Continued increase in military expenditure will inevitably squeeze the proportion of education, medical care, scientific research and other people's livelihood projects in the national budget. Whether in the short or long term This is detrimental to our country. Today, there is a shortage of skilled workers in all walks of life. Child labor and elderly workers account for more than 20% of all industries. If you continue to increase military expenditure, more child dropouts and poor elderly people will appear. , The national finance will continue to deteriorate and the Republic will be unsustainable!"
The Social Democrat MP Owen Frey began to enumerate all kinds of data and what he saw and heard. His preparations were solid, all kinds of data were accurate and easy to understand, and various descriptions of cities and countryside came to life. However, not many members listened to his speech seriously, because everyone knew the problems of the domestic society and people's livelihood.
From the beginning of the founding of the Republic, economic problems have plagued all classes of this new country. Due to the huge expenses during the war and the excessive issuance of banknotes, the finances and credits of the Old Kingdom were completely bankrupt. In order to stabilize the hearts of the people and maintain normal government expenditures, the government of the Republic issued a large number of banknotes "silver notes (linked to silver)" until the printing and distribution were stopped A total of 255,144,200,500 giants were issued. These banknotes were issued without sufficient payment capacity. The original purpose was just to save the emergency. However, as the fiscal gap grows larger, it is inevitable to add or even overprint banknotes.
There are many reasons for the financial difficulties of the Republic, more than half of which can be traced back to the empire, and the remaining half of it is more or less related to the empire.
Among the many problems, the most prominent and most urgent need to solve is the extreme deflation caused by the problems of recycling gold certificates, currency reform, imbalance of supply and demand, nearly cut off foreign trade, the general poverty of domestic residents and lack of purchasing power, and the saturation of the local market.
That’s right, the problem that the Republic faced in the first years of its founding was not inflation, but deflation.
When transferring from the homeland to overseas colonies, the old Charlemagne's remnant parties counted the remaining assets on hand and they suddenly found that the colony's own material reserves and the transferred materials all added up, which can only consume up to five years. Corresponding to the unoptimistic material reserves, they are extremely lacking in precious metals used to stabilize prices. In addition to a pile of gold bonds and military tickets that are almost the same as waste paper, there are more than a dozen tons of depreciation left every day. silver. Under such circumstances, in order to prevent inflation from erupting again, monetary tightening is inevitable.
There are two main methods used by the republic. One is currency reform, the establishment of the National Bank of the Republic, and the issuance of a unified new currency by state power. It stipulates that any debtor must use the new banknotes issued by the national bank as legal repayment currency, and must not use foreign coins. Or gold round coupons, military tickets. At the same time, the old currency, such as gold coupons and military tickets, is subject to mandatory exchange and recovery at a ratio of 400:1; the second is through political consultation and negotiation, through the transfer of some technical patents and the opening of some markets in exchange for assistance from Albian and other countries.
From an economic point of view, it is understandable to adopt this approach. If the Republic does not want to go bankrupt as soon as it is established, it must do currency reform. Only in this way, most of the losses will be passed on to ordinary people, which is too cruel.
Depreciating the already worthless paper money meant that the hard work of farmers, workers, small workshop owners and small merchants was lost. Opening the market to the outside world means that domestic agriculture and industry must face competition from foreign counterparts who enjoy government subsidies. In addition, the general lack of purchasing power has greatly reduced the currency in the market, which has led to extreme deflation. How terrible is this economic phenomenon comparable to hyperinflation, and the bitterness and despair of the people at the bottom can be fully felt from the old love letter from a rural peasant to Minerva and the Senate.
"We urge you to note that if you do not take any effective measures to protect the lives of the people, half of our residents will go bankrupt in a short period of time...The police move away from our home every day for things that can be exchanged for tax deductions, our land After the judge swore an appraisal and sold it at a third of the original price, the robust livestock was sold by the court to half the market price... At the same time, we counted the taxes that need to be paid: municipal tax, transportation tax, class tax 1. National taxes... All items add up to half the rent on the farm... Women and children are starving, and the elderly have only one breath left, unless we issue paper money or specify other media, so that we can repay taxes and debts. What else can you find from us?"
From the words full of grievances and complaints, it is not difficult to find the hardships of the people at the bottom. And the last sentence-"Otherwise what else can you find from us"-the meaning to be expressed is also very clear: except for this life, they have nothing.
The content stated in the petition is sad but also alarming, but it does not help to change the status quo, let alone their request for additional currency is simply a misunderstanding of the actual situation.
Currency itself has no "value", but it has meaning only as a medium scale in the buying and selling process. The letter complained that there was too little currency, which led to the failure to find buyers, which was a departure from the actual situation. Due to lack of economics-related knowledge, farmers and workers simply think that their harvest and production are low because there is not enough currency in the market, so in fact their core appeal is not to ask the government to print more banknotes and increase currency. Supply, but hope that the government can "issue more money", so that more money appears on the market, the results of their labor can be exchanged for more returns, income increases, and life improves.
However, the root cause of the problem is not simply the lack of currency circulation, the imperial maritime blockade, material supply shortage, low purchasing power, government financial difficulties, currency reform, land disputes between new and old immigrants, which led to extreme deflation.
Because supplies are scarce and most people have no money or willingness to consume, in order to avoid losses, factories and farms limit production, corporate profits decline, losses are directly borne by workers, wages fall, people’s willingness to consume further decreases, and production activities further reduce, Wages continue to fall, except for men, women and children who enter factories and workshops in order to survive, which further exacerbates the shortage of jobs. Poverty continues to intensify, and the products produced can not be sold, and can only be sold or reduced...
This terrible vicious cycle is deflation.
To restore prices and money supply, we must first restart production from foreign loans or assistance, stimulate the growth of industrial production through foreign trade, gradually restore market order, and finally establish a sound financial system.
The truth is not complicated. Anyone who has studied economics and knows the laws of economics knows all. But the farmers and traders in the Republic do not understand this, they only know that their days are going to pass, but the "arrogant and indifferent government" turns a blind eye to their plight, on the one hand, they are increasingly exploited, and on the other hand, they open the market to those. Cheap foreign goods that use unfair means of competition allow those abominable foreigners to take away profits that should belong to the nationals of the Republic.
The people are angry and the consequences are serious.
Since there were no so-called opposition parties in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, although the people had the right to vote, and the voting mechanism and implementation process were extremely fair, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives were not elected by direct election, but by the legislature and temporary The cabinet nomination is generated. The people actually only have one more right to say "yes" or "no", and the laws and regulations that the government intends to pass will be passed smoothly~EbookFREE.me~ Therefore, the people cannot and never thought of passing the votes in their hands Go reasoning with the government and even teach the government. They prefer to use fists and sticks for "debating" than biting words.
Almost overnight, various violent tax resistance and anti-law activities swept across the country’s rural villages, towns and villages where the conflict was most intense, and even the most violent farmers even forced the sheriffs and tax officials to rely on the crowd. Eating the "lawlessness" thing brought about by the self-sale of the tax resident property documents. Some dissatisfied veterans are entangled with their comrades-in-arms and relatives and friends. .
Seeing that the Republic, which had just been founded for less than a year, would be over, and the government had to make some concessions and compromises and began to increase the issuance of silver dollar bills.
It should be pointed out here that although the Republic has increased the issuance of silver dollar bills at this stage, it is generally very careful. People who have experienced the nightmare inflation in the old kingdom can also be considerate to this. After all, no one would think Then go back to the days when a sack of gold coupons could only buy a few moldy potatoes.
Relying on foreign aid and technology transfer in this way, the Republic survived the most difficult first year. As industrial and agricultural production gradually entered the right track, foreign trade surpluses began to enrich the national treasury, and the economy of the entire country showed signs of improvement. The Rhineland incident, a nightmare of the Republic’s economy, broke out.