"These guys in the Textile Industry Guild are all mud that can't be helped!" Bill Langley, the largest steel producer in the UK, couldn't help being angry after learning of the concessions made by the Textile Industry Guild to the French. To his friend, member of the House of Commons, Henry Bolton of the Tory Party, said, "Look, in the trade with Europe, these **** are the ones who make the most money! And now the trade between us and France is now taking place. The tension is almost entirely caused by their greed. Then, when we are all fighting against the French to protect the interests of our English people, they take the lead in surrendering to the French for some of their immediate interests. ...This is really...I have never seen anyone so brazen!"

But for Langley's statement, his friends did not seem to agree.

"Bill, although this can be said, especially when it is public, it can be promoted like this. But to be honest..." Henry Bolton gently turned the silver spoon in the Far Eastern white porcelain cup with black tea, while Say, "To be honest, if I change me, I must surrender quickly. I think my friend, even you, if you are a textile owner and not a mine and iron factory owner, I think you are most likely They will make the same choice as them. After all, making money is not shabby. Well, my friend, I heard that you have recently reached some new contracts with the French."

"Hehe..." Langley sneered, "Henry, you guys always like to tell the truth. Damn French, they make so much money, but they make us unable to make a lot of money, really... now, Because my steel products can’t be sold anymore, they’re almost overwhelmed by them, and my iron ore mining capacity is far beyond what I can sell now, so I can only export iron to the French. It's mine... This is really... Henry, you have to understand that this is a manifestation of the collapse of the entire British steel industry. Henry, the French have been suppressing us, and they almost don't allow us to have any high-end industries now— -This is almost to colonize us. So Henry, we in Britain must take measures-we cannot let this situation continue."

"I know what you want to say. You hope to raise tariffs on French steel products and protect our own steel companies, but you know." Henry Bolton replied, "Our steel companies simply cannot use such low prices. For example, if we use domestically produced wrought iron rails, the speed and carrying capacity of the locomotives we use will drop drastically. The transportation capacity will drop to a quarter of that of a French railway, or even lower. In terms of cost, there is not much difference. In addition, many things are almost impossible to achieve without steel."

"What you said is reasonable, but even so, such railways are not unusable. Moreover, our scientists are not eating rice. After all, we have also been born in the United Kingdom, Sir Newton. In recent years, the Iron and Steel Industry Association has Steelmaking technology has invested a lot of money and used various methods. Today, our steelmaking technology has also made great progress. Soon, we will be able to produce qualified steel at a lower cost."

"Soon? You said the same last year."

"This time is true. The experimental steelmaking furnace has completed its first test and the results are satisfactory. However, as you know, our technology is still immature, and there are many cases of waste smelting. , The cost is still much more expensive than imported French steel. But if it is not protected, our industry will never develop, and I believe you understand the significance of our industry."

"What about the finished products of your steelmaking? Is it really possible to enter commercial operations?" Henry Bolton asked, "Well, how much output can you guarantee in the first year? How much is the price? If there is such a big one. For breakthroughs, I can invite some more important people with identities to take a look."

"The output can reach about three thousand tons a year-if everything is normal. In addition, we can produce some special steel that the French don't want to export to us..." Langley said.

"Wait, the special steel you mentioned is..."

"Cannon steel. We can produce cannon steel in a non-crucible way."

"How much cheaper can the price be than crucible steel?"

"If we want to have enough profits to continue to develop, it should not be too cheap, but the price is still much lower than crucible steel. In the short term, it will drop to two-thirds of crucible steel. In the long run, it should be more low."

The price is still much higher than the price in France. It is said that when the French sold artillery steel to Bonaparte military industry, the price was only slightly more than twice that of ordinary rail steel, and this price was placed in the United Kingdom, and even the price of wrought iron produced by British steel companies was higher. Not much.

"What about the price of ordinary steel? How much can it be reduced to France?"

"That compares with the price they sell to." Langley said, "The price of general structural steel and rail steel they sell in the UK is much higher than in continental Europe. But even so, we can currently The price will not be cheaper than them. As for the price in Europe or even France, our cost price may be higher than their selling price."

"Are we technically so different from them today?" Henry Bolton asked.

"It's not just technology. It also includes many aspects. For example, the Lorraine Iron and Steel mine has the most advanced mining methods, so in terms of mining costs, they are already lower than ours; they have used railways for transportation, and their The transportation cost is lower than ours; and their blast furnace is much larger than ours—this thing, the larger the scale, the lower the unit cost, so their ironmaking cost is lower than ours; then their steelmaking technology is again It is better than us, and their steelmaking needs are large enough, so the scale is much larger. Only this scale can bring down the cost again. So... you see that the gap between us and the French in metallurgy is full In terms of position, if there is no national barrier protection, facing the first-mover advantage of the French, we will actually have nothing to fight back." Langley explained.

"and so……"

"Therefore, the maritime regulations must be upheld and even strengthened. Britain cannot possibly rely on the French steel. The British market must be left to the British steel companies. Otherwise, the United Kingdom will have no future."

Half a month later, in a meeting of the House of Commons, the Whig party once again proposed to amend the navigation regulations in exchange for Europe to open more markets to the UK.

The Tories raised the need to further strengthen navigation regulations and further increase tariffs on European goods, especially steel and other products. On the current basis, the tariffs on European steel will be increased by 300% to counter the sanctions imposed by European countries on British exports.

Then naturally it is the traditional performance of the Whigs and the Tories. At this time, the most important thing is which side the New Tories will stand at this time.

The New Tory Party is the same as the Whigs. Many of them have invested a lot in the textile industry. The textile business has also been the most outstanding bright spot in British foreign trade in recent years. From this point of view, they Should be on the side of the Whigs. But they also have a lot of investment in mining and metallurgy, as well as military industry.

So the attitude of the New Tory Party is the most tangled. On the one hand, they wanted to preserve the European textile market, so they tried to explain to the Tory guys that if there were no wealth brought by the textile industry, the British finances would immediately have various serious problems. Other markets will also shrink, so a direct increase in tariffs of 300% is suicidal and is really undesirable.

On the other hand, they have to persuade the Whigs not to dance with the French. You know, Britain now exports a ship of cotton or wool to France in exchange for a carriage of mechanical products. More importantly, the French are now obviously trying to suppress the British industrial upgrading. They only allow the British to engage in the lowest level of business. Once they try to develop up the industrial chain, they will immediately suffer economic blows from the French.

And because the British failed to control a higher position in the industry chain, his substitutability is very strong, so when faced with French economic sanctions, he will be very vulnerable~www.mtlnovel .com~ So in order to make long-term money, to make more money, we must protect Britain’s own high-tech industries, and to protect the British high-tech industries, there must be sufficient protection barriers and cannot completely follow the French." "Free trade principles" dance, otherwise, Britain will really become a vassal of France.

Then, the Tory and Whigs asked together: "Then what do you think?"

Then the New Tory Party came up with its own reconciliation plan: the textile industry must take into account the long-term needs and bear a bit of a loss for the time being; but the metallurgical and military industries should not be impatient, but should exercise restraint. In short, everyone should give in. , To be considerate of each other...

But anything, once entangled with interests, it will be particularly difficult to handle. This conciliatory argument of the New Tory Party was unacceptable to either the Whig Party or the Tory Party. As a result, the three parties had a red face in the British House of Commons, and the newspapers controlled by the three parties followed suit.

During the controversy, some news was also disclosed in the newspapers. For example, news that Britain may have broken through steelmaking technology was stabbed out intentionally or unintentionally.

Of course, the news was sent back to France by telegram in the first place. After Napoleon got the news, he immediately called Joseph and Lucien to discuss countermeasures.