Chapter 1026 The past and present life of the IMF

In the era of colonialism, the great powers were openly swaying, and finance was a supporter of war and piracy, and a sharer of plundering interests.

In the era of industrial capitalism, in order to pursue the excess profits brought by trade, currency and finance are tools for exporting commodities. The competition for monetary status and financial status among the great powers is also to obtain commodity benefits.

In the era of financial capitalism, the pursuit of trade interests has changed to the pursuit of excessive seigniorship interests. The powerful currency takes advantage of its absolute dominance, not only profits from occupying resources, commodities, and labor in other countries, but also profits from the rise and fall of global financial prices, and also profits from the process of quickly defeating a country's economy.

When it comes to wealth plundering, people are likely to think of pirates, including the sayings of gentlemen and royal pirates.

Europeans usually refer to pirates supported by a certain national government or royal family as royal pirates. During the Great Discovery, based on the discovery of the New World and the expansion of colonies, various ships loaded with gold and cargo were sailing on the oceans of the world, so plundering at sea became a profession.

This was originally a crime of a private robber gang, but in order to strengthen navigation technology and expand colonies, the old European empire deliberately raised pirates and even legalized it.

The most typical case is the British Royal Pirates, and the most famous figure is probably the British navigator Francis Drake. In 1577 and 1580, Drake was personally boarded the ship by Queen Elizabeth I of England in April 1581 for two rounds of the earth.

However, the hero in the minds of the British and his commanded Hawkins fleet were actually pirate gangs licensed by the British Royals, who turned every pound of investment of the British Royals into a profit of 47 pounds.

In Europe in the 16th century, Spain was the dominant force of Catholicism and the world hegemony, while Britain was insignificant. However, during this period, religious revolutions were surging, reversing the political structure of the entire Europe. Henry VIII of England founded the British Church and separated from the Roman Catholic Church. Britain became one of the earliest Protestant countries.

The United States is also in a miserable state. Hoover's economic hopes made by every effort were completely destroyed by Britain's domineering financial behavior.

During this period, the United States invented consumer credit, and the annual output of automobiles increased from 2.9 million in 1924 to more than 5.3 million in 1929. During this period, the average annual output of the United States' steel production increased by 8%, while the United States' GDP also increased from US$60.8 billion to US$68 billion, while per capita GNP increased by 25%.

In January 1915, in order to avoid conflict with the neutral position of the United States, the United Kingdom appointed a heavyweight businessman to New York and appointed him as the British business representative in the United States. This person was J.P. Morgan, a great financier who was well-known internationally, and was the head of the Morgan Consortium.

In January 1917, German submarines once again blocked the maritime transportation lines between Britain and the United States on a large scale, claiming to win the war within six months. If this lifeline of war is cut off and Germany wins the war, the US's tens of billions of debt to the Allies will inevitably be wiped out.

In 1925, Britain, which should have made every effort to restore its economy, was eager to save the declining British pound status. Its Chancellor of the Finance Minister Churchill ran around to try to rebuild the strong gold standard British pound status before the war and the fixed exchange rate of 1 pound to 4.86 US dollars.

J.P. Morgan was in New York at that time, so it was not appropriate to say "come" but another person in charge of the central connection did come to New York from London, the one named Rothschild.

The Great Discovery Period was also accompanied by, connecting the colonial period. In order to colonize a piece of land, colonists also used financial weapons in addition to swords, guns, sticks and sticks.

Moreover, in order to defeat the German-Austrian alliance, French newspapers released a false news that "The Credit Bank of Vienna is suffering from a run." Unexpectedly, France's move not only caused a fire, but also triggered a credit crisis that shocked the entire European and American financial markets.

Churchill's picture on the New York Stock Exchange is indeed true. As for the sigh, Nan Yi was thinking about it after reading the information, but it was not something he thought of casually with a slap in his forehead.

At the end of 1930, the US economy turned around, and the stock market also recovered its lost territory in 1929 in March 1931. But at this moment, the European credit crisis suddenly broke out, and the well-informed Wall Street boss once again sold stocks wildly.

During the Kangxi period, the Qing Dynasty had become the main supply base for European countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark in terms of tea, silk, and porcelain. Foreign companies such as the British East India Company purchased a large amount of goods in China.

After Queen Elizabeth I came to power, she consolidated her Protestant status internally and supported the independence of Protestant countries such as the Netherlands externally, and tried to turn Britain into a Protestant empire. As a result, the conflict between Britain and Spain became increasingly fierce.

In 1924, it was still a new thing for Americans to own a radio, but by 1929, more than 10 million families in the United States had at least one radio.

Credit Bank of Vienna did not make any profit during this period, but only relied on the cash liquidity provided by domestic savings and short-term foreign debts to maintain operation. The funds required to acquire assets came from short-term financing from the British and American consortiums.

On August 4, 1914, on the day of the outbreak of World War I, US President Wilson immediately stated that the United States maintained a neutral position. On August 19, he even called on the United States to be impartial in its thoughts and actions.

In the five years of World War I, the total industrial output value of the United States increased from less than US$25 billion to US$64 billion, an increase of 156.7%; the number of American millionaires increased by 17,000. Mellon, then US Treasury Secretary, admitted that the profit margin of the United States in war transactions was as high as 80%.

Drake Mingli showed piracy of killing and looting, but behind it was primary financial behavior.

Under such a premise, the market credit of copper coins is greatly reduced, which leaves an opportunity for overseas commercial and financial forces to take advantage of.

Just when the Germans were facing a hunger crisis, an Austrian art student failed the exam came forward to hum: "I am a deadbeat, I am a deadbeat, I will not pay back the money, I will not pay back the money..."

If this speculation is true, Nan Yi's brainstorming can be considered meaningful.

Foreigners cast large quantities of silver balls without the control of the Qing court, and used them to obtain a large amount of national silver exchange. In the Qing Dynasty, the serious outflow of wealth had already led to a financial crisis and an economic crisis, which was also an important economic background for Daoguang to make up his mind to send Lin Zexu to ban opium.

Moreover, the British company wants German companies to "Versailles" well, and it also expects German companies to help them repay the loan from Bank of America.

After 1929, in order to strengthen investor confidence, the "market rescue fund" built by the Morgan Consortium led Wall Street financial institutions to invest in was actually cleared.

In 1577, Drake received information that a Spanish transport ship full of gold and silver treasures was sailing from Peru to Panama City. So, Drake set up an ambush on the coast of Panama and captured the Kakavogo, who had come from afar, on March 3, 1579, robbing 80 pounds of gold, 20 tons of silver, 13 boxes of silver coins and many pearls and gems at one time.

On August 9, when the New York Fed raised the rediscount rate from 5% to 6%, the Wall Street stock market began to collapse. On October 24, 1929, the Wall Street stock market collapsed, and British Treasury Secretary Churchill happened to stand in the stands of the New York Stock Exchange. He witnessed what happened that day and sighed at the pheasant in his mouth like a weasel, saying, "God, what a poor American."

However, it takes two or three years to go out to sea at one time. At that time, the risk of sailing at sea was huge. It is common for merchant ships to bury themselves in the sea, which means that huge returns are accompanied by huge risks. Because of this, after tasting one or two sweet things, some people will stop when they see the good things and sell the "shares" in their hands to others, that is, cashing out the shares. The person who takes over the shares may make a fortune or lose all his money.

This group of people are the backbone of German society, and each of them has the "right to speak out". The fact that the 100,000 mark of injustice and 400,000 marks is condensed into a slander, and the Jews have to bear it even if they don't.

Due to the funding of the British Royal Family, Drake sailed an armed merchant ship in 1572 and became a "black pearl" that made the Spaniards scared at the time in the Caribbean. He also became a household name in Britain and plundered countless wealth for Britain.

More importantly, gold flowed from Europe to the United States. In 1919, the US gold reserves were equivalent to 40% of the total gold reserves of countries around the world. With the income from the war, they redeem more than 2 billion US dollars of US debt from overseas investors, and turned from a debtor country to a creditor country.

Later, Lin Zexu dismissed cigarettes in Humen, and British capital saw that financial means through exchange rate gaps were no longer profitable, so he put down his "literary" achievements and took on the "martial" fight.

Although the new President Roosevelt initiated administrative intervention measures, by March 1933, more than 9,000 banks in the United States were still liquidated and closed.

In desperation, on April 6, 1917, the United States was forced to declare war on Germany. Yes, it was forced. The United States did not want to go out to fight in person. It hid behind the scenes and watched coldly, selling goods while lending, which was very pleasant. Unexpectedly, Germany not only made harsh words, but also wanted to destroy the "good brothers". How could the United States, Liangkun, and the country were not angry?

Didn't say anything, hack it to death.

On February 7, 1929, just as the United States was still considering whether to curb market speculation through interest rate hikes, the United Kingdom took action first. On this day, without the United States' knowledge, the Bank of England unilaterally increased the bank discount rate from 4.5% to 5.5%.

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According to the Dawys plan, Germany's war reparations became short-term foreign debt of the 18.5 billion Empire Mark. The Great Depression in the United States also caused Britain and the United States to vigorously withdraw funds from Germany, forcing Germany to move on to the broken wire rope again.

How can you be willing to lose a lot of investment? Since you can't find it, you can rob the merchant ship that has returned home with a full load.

On the one hand, it is difficult for the vast majority of ordinary people to have the financial resources to exchange silver and cannot rely on silver to preserve their wealth; on the other hand, in the early Qing Dynasty, it was a poor country in silver production, and silver production relied on silver mines in Yunnan Province, Myanmar and Annan, but these places could not provide a stable source of silver, which made the official source of silver heavily dependent on the market and had to rely on the official copper coins to exchange for the market.

The problem is that Europe and North America have a huge demand for the Qing Dynasty goods, but the Qing people have very little demand for foreign cotton cloth, wool textiles, metal products, spices, peppers, sandalwood, etc. imported from abroad. For example, in the 13 years from the 46th to the 58th year of Qianlong, the total value of goods imported from Britain was only more than 16.87 million taels, which is only one-sixth of the value of British tea exported by the Qing Dynasty.

World War I and the ten years after the war were all related to finance. If it was a bit far-fetched to say that World War I was caused by finance, then World War II could be said to have caused by finance. Although the United States made great sacrifices during World War II, it was undoubtedly more gained.

In two years, Britain forced the United States to cut interest rates, inflate the US economic bubble, and then forced the United States to raise interest rates to puncture the US economic bubble. This is likely to be a means of Britain deliberately suppressing the United States in order to maintain its own status.

At this time, a unique currency phenomenon appeared. From 1833 to 1838, Lin Zexu, a national hero who dispelled cigarettes in Humen, followed up and investigated and found that foreign money had flooded many coastal areas such as Guangdong Province, Hu Jian and Zhejiang Province.

To stop this alliance, in March 1931, France ordered a significant reduction in short-term financing of Credit Bank Vienna.

In addition, when Europe was unable to take into account Latin American and Far Eastern markets, the U.S. trade with Latin America expanded from less than US$80 million to US$3.4 billion; the U.S. has basically controlled Mexico's oil and rubber, Bolivia's tin mine, Chile's saltpeter and Brazil's coffee; the output of US private capital to the Far Eastern market increased from US$3.5 billion to US$7 billion.

Faced with such a huge trade deficit, the UK has used two strategies: the first is to impose high tariffs on tea imports, and the second is to develop addictive special opium, organized and large-scale special goods smuggling of the Qing Dynasty.

However, repaying war reparations is an indispensable obligation. At this time, Credit Bank of Vienna, with the support of giants such as Morgan Consortium and Bank of England, became the most powerful financial institution in Austria. The reason why the British and American Consortium supported Credit Bank of Vienna was to make it play a very special role - acquiring Austrian small and medium-sized banks, the Austrian government had to sell high-quality assets to repay debts.

After World War I, the Versailles Agreement dismembered the Austro-Hungarian Empire under extremely harsh conditions, cutting off the "resource supply" of the most valuable economic cycle chain between Austria and Hungary and other Eastern European countries, so that Austrian industry has been ruined from then on and never recovered.

During World War I, the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, but in fact, the United States was already involved in World War I in 1915.

In the second half of 1928, the White House had noticed the crazy speculation that the stock market and the credit market pushed each other, but because of their commitments to the UK, France and Germany, the Federal Reserve did not dare to give up the low interest rate policy easily.

On December 4, 1928, the 30th President of the United States Coolidge delivered his last State of the Union address in office. He told members of Congress that the United States is experiencing an unprecedented and encouraging era of prosperity.

It can be said that the Credit Bank of Vienna is just an empty air and falls when a breeze blows.

Germany was originally the latter. Although the country was carrying huge debts, the people's lives could still be settled and there was no worry about being hungry. If we continued to move on peacefully, there might not have been World War II, but the collapse of the situation may not have started from the inside, or from the outside.

On February 14, 1929, the Federal Reserve held an emergency meeting to discuss whether the New York Federal Reserve should raise the rediscount rate from 5% to 6%, in order to prevent the sharp decline in gold reserves, but the meeting ended in vain. The reason was that participants believed that interest rate hikes would suppress the stock market and domestic manufacturing.

During the Great Depression in the United States, British and American consortiums withdrew their funds to shrink the front, and the liquidity of Credit Bank of Vienna was immediately interrupted, but it could still be maintained in a bleak short term.

The German company was defeated, not only had its working capital consumed, but it also carried a huge "Versailles". The pressure was so damn great that the company was running unpleasant, so just don't just open it.

What's ridiculous is that the British side's war expenditures were obtained through exchange rate differences throughout the Opium War, which means that the logistics of both sides were responsible for the Qing court in disguise.

With the help of Bank of America, British and French companies joined forces to seize the German company's market, but in the process of the struggle, the two companies also suffered heavy losses, and liquid capital was at risk of breaking chains at any time. Therefore, the three parties joined forces to force the German company "Versailles".

In 1840, before the outbreak of the First Opium War, there were two currencies in the Qing Dynasty commodity market, bulk transactions, and official transactions used silver with two units, while ordinary people and small merchants used copper coins to settle the transactions.

The French company agreed to this idea, the British company did not agree, and the American Bank did not agree. Once the German company was ruined, the loan could become a bad one. After thinking about it, the Bank of America concocted a package of repayment plans for Dawys.

After the crisis in 1929, Hoover actually took many measures to stabilize the US economy. He even asked industrial giants not to fire workers, not to reduce wages, and maintain market vitality.

J.P. Morgan in the United States used large-scale debt to help Britain raise war funds; the other hand used the raised money to represent the Allies purchasing large amount of military supplies in the United States. This business model allowed American financiers and industrialists to make a fortune.

Although Coolidge's optimism has been criticized by an entire generation of economists, objectively speaking, the US economy has indeed made rapid progress in the five years from 1924 to 1929.

Drake can be regarded as an entrepreneur. In the early stages of his business, he had only one armed merchant ship. After a robbery, someone found him and wanted to invest in him. Drake's single sail also turned into a double-in pair.

After two or three perfect "business" completions, Drake welcomed more investors to invest in rounds A and B, and he was able to establish the Drake fleet. As the "business" of the Drake fleet grows bigger and bigger, he gains more and more each time he returns to the voyage.

French companies and German companies have a lot of overlap in the market. Taking advantage of the big victory, French companies really want to completely kill German companies and become the overlord in the European market.

During the great sailing period, whether it is ocean trade or piracy based on force, there must be strong capital support behind it. Behind the pirate ship (armed merchant ship) is the shadow of joint-stock financing and the shadow of venture capital.

This rate cut was later regarded by many economists as "one of the stupidest actions in the history of the Federal Reserve." Herbert Hoover, who was elected the 31st US president a year later, defined this rate cut as "treason."

On the afternoon of March 26, 1929, when Wall Street's short-term lending rate rose to an unprecedented 20% and the US financial market suffered a severe shortage of funds, Bank of England Governor Norman appeared in the United States again, but this time he came to ask the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to raise interest rates immediately.

On September 22, 1931, Britain defaulted, abandoned the gold standard of the pound, gave up the fixed exchange rate between the pound and the US dollar, and raised interest rates again to support the strong pound. Financial institutions in various countries were even more desperately recovering foreign debts, and the world's debt chain was completely broken, and the economy was even worse.

According to the "Complete Works of Lin Zexu", foreigners "do not buy goods, but only buy silver, which secretly consumes it, resulting in less silver in the mainland and more foreign money."

Although the Doves plan is a poison pill, Germany has more and more debts, but debt is very fantastic. Some people don’t have a penny of debt, but they are so poor that they have no money to eat and are worried that they lose their hair every day; some people carry hundreds of billions of debts, but they have no impact on their lives. They should eat and drink, which is so comfortable.

Economically, Spain and Portugal made great fortunes in colonization, which also made Britain jealous. But as early as 1496, King Henry VII of England also hired the Venetian navigator Capote to find the New World, covering Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay and Virginia in North America, and Guyana in South America, but did not find gold, silver and treasures, and lost all their money again and again.

This move reversed the trade pattern in a short time, with opium trade leading to a large outflow of silver. At this time, the American independence movement led to weak demand for tea and raw silk in the international market, the supply chain of full-time silver was almost interrupted, silver was more expensive and money was cheaper.

So the British and American banks lend money to German companies, and Gilbert would immediately turn the money into war reparations and hand it back to British and French companies; the British and French companies would then use part of it to repay debts to American banks, and the other part would be used to import American goods.

As the U.S. Ambassador to the UK Page predicted in his letter to the U.S. Presidential adviser House on October 11, 1914: "After the war, almost all European countries will be on the verge of bankruptcy, and there will be no Germany at sea. Ten years later, the future of the whole world will fall into our hands, which is a very rare opportunity."

On December 8, Wilson formally approved federal loans, and in the more than a year afterwards, the United States provided tens of billions of dollars in monetary loans and materials to the Allies.

In the early spring of 1931, Austria and Germany took advantage of Britain and the United States to re-establish trade and customs alliances, which seriously stimulated France's nerves. France believed that the German-Australian business alliance would inevitably lead to the re-starting of political and military alliances, thus posing a threat to the security of the European continent.

The Great Depression in the United States in 1929 did suppress the upward trend of the United States' international status, but at the same time there was a chain reaction, and Pandora's box was opened.
To be continued...