The lack of coal and iron resources is a major weakness in France's national destiny! However, this weakness is not irreparable. If France is really determined to make up for this flaw, they can solve this problem through huge colonies.
France lacks coal and iron resources in its mainland, but its colonies do not lack them. Just like the United Kingdom, the British mainland does not have many coal and iron resources, but they make up for the shortcomings in resources through their vast colonies, so the United Kingdom Until now, China ranks first in the world in terms of steel and coal output.
But the French don't seem to care about such a huge flaw at all, and they don't even think of making up for it. Why is this?
In fact, what is fatal is that there is something wrong with the French people's own national character!
This is a country of loan sharks who are greedy for pleasure! Moreover, their aristocratic capitalists are even more addicted to the luxurious palace style and cannot extricate themselves. This is the bad habit developed during the Sun King period!
Rich clothes, fine food, arrogant and luxurious "yin yu", France is full of eating, drinking and enjoying.
In order to meet such a life, France's economic structure has become one-sided and unreasonable, that is, it emphasizes light industry and neglects heavy industry!
The Prussian intelligence agency conducted a rigorous spying analysis on the French government. The result was that 70% of France's gross industrial production last year was provided by light industry, while only 30% was provided by heavy industry.
And what are these light industries? They are high-end tea sets, crystal products, expensive furniture, fine wines, exquisite food, luggage and leather goods that are popular in Europe, and beautiful clothing and hats. In other words, the entire light industry in France basically serves luxury goods.
Can this kind of thing fight? Obviously this is not possible!
Excessive obsession with luxury goods will naturally lead to a deformed development of their light industry, because luxury goods are difficult to produce quantitatively, and of course, things produced quantitatively cannot be called luxury goods.
Therefore, France's light industry is basically small handicraft workshops with a few dozen employees, and there are very few large-scale factories with more than a thousand employees.
hehe! The more I talked about it, the more I felt like I was seeing a European version of the Qing Empire. Before the Qing Empire was defeated by the British, it was also in an arrogant and arrogant fantasy mood. At that time, the luxury and enjoyment in the Qing Dynasty was much worse than it is now. France is even more serious!
Well, let us take another look at one of the most critical basic elements in the Industrial Revolution, which is the railway. How is the railway in France being built?
In 1869, that is, last year, the total mileage of French roads was 17,900 kilometers, but Prussia had built 21,400 kilometers of railways, and the number of trains and locomotives was several times that of the French. In other words, the mobilization of troops, materials, and resources during the war In terms of mobilization and so on, Prussia definitely has the advantage.
The more Xiao Luotian spoke, the wider and wider William I's mouth opened. He was completely shocked by these data, but there was something even more shocking later.
Dear Your Majesty the King, let us take another look at French agriculture. We must admit that from a geographical point of view, France has a warmer climate than our Prussian climate. It is affected by the Mediterranean and Atlantic climates and is more suitable for the development of agriculture. , Historically, we have always been weak in agriculture.
But the natural condition gap can be made up for by the system in the later stage. We all know that during the French Revolution, the feudal land centralization system in the past was abolished and turned into a small land ownership system held by farmers, that is to say, large pieces of land. The land was completely broken up and divided into small scattered pieces.
As we all know, farmers’ ability to resist various risks is very weak. After decades of development, this system of scattered farmers holding small land is destined to produce serious polarization.
There will always be people who are good at calculation and make life better and better, and there will also be those who are unlucky and make life worse and worse!
This is a long-term process of polarization, and at this moment, the polarization in rural France has become so serious that it is in dire straits.
France has not developed heavy industry, which means that it does not have too many factories and enterprises that can accommodate those bankrupt and impoverished farmers. The so-called French working class, in a sense, should belong to the urban citizen class.
Really poor and bankrupt farmers cannot survive in metropolitan areas because they do not have the skills to enter the luxury goods industry, and there are not many large factories that can provide them with opportunities to sell cheap labor.
They can only live a miserable life in the countryside and become slaves of loan sharks. They are a new kind of slaves, slaves of financial products and capital.
It is very strange to say that because the French are not too obsessed with land, so this kind of polarization, the subsequent social trend is completely different from China.
If in China, for example, once the land was fragmented in the Qing Dynasty, it would not take more than a few decades for another serious polarization to occur. What would be the final outcome of this polarization?
On the one hand, there is the rise of the new landlord class, and on the other hand, the extremely poor peasants become tenant farmers.
In the Qing Empire, this was a process of land concentration. Rich people preferred land ownership, but not in France. The rich people in France were very strange. They liked loan sharking rather than directly occupying land ownership!
Maybe 30 years ago, both families were similar farmers, but thirty years later, one family did very well and became a wealthy family with financial surplus, while the other family became a bankrupt family.
Well, at this time, rich households do not like to buy land directly from bankrupts like the Chinese, but let bankrupts continue to hold the land!
In order to continue operating the land and maintain normal production on this land, these bankrupts have to borrow debts from wealthy households. This is the social reality of loan sharking!
Some people say that all the people in France are loan sharks, and even the French economy is loan shark imperialism. I deeply believe this.
The poor farmers had to lock themselves in the land generation after generation, turning the surplus from each year's hard work into usurious interest.
At the same time, the ownership of those lands is still in their hands, giving them an inexplicable fantasy about the future!
It is precisely because of these illusions that they are reluctant to leave their own land, and thus unable to change their identities and become free craftsmen! This has also intensified the restrictions on the development of large-scale industrialization in France.
Without the support of sufficient workers, it is difficult for heavy industry to develop.
Looking back at Prussia, in the past few decades, Prussia has abolished serfdom and vigorously promoted the large-scale farm economy under capitalism. In this way, large-scale farms can stimulate the development of agricultural mechanization, but those farmers or serfs who have lost their land and own nothing are still struggling. Forced by life, he entered the city and joined the working class.
This creates a win-win situation. Due to the improvement of science and technology and the intensive development of agriculture, agricultural output is increasing year by year.
The development of the secondary industry also received urgently needed human resources. Because of the support of a large free population base, Prussia's industrial development was far smoother than that of France.
"Dear Your Majesty, Prussia's current national strength can be said to have completely crushed France, and this has been deeply hidden by Bismarck. The whole world until now thinks that Prussia is still the weak and weak nation it used to be! "
"The whole world has been deceived. Once the war breaks out, they will be shocked!"
