April 1876.
Germany, struck by a new round of economic crisis, was clearly somewhat dissatisfied—especially those Junker nobles who had hoped to fish in troubled waters, only to lose the chicken and the handful of rice besides.
At the Imperial Parliament, a Prussian delegate said, "The fundamental reason this new economic crisis has erupted in Germany is that Germany lacks colonies and populations as vast as those of Britain and France to absorb our agricultural and industrial products. Nor do we possess territory as immense or resources as abundant as those of the United States to offset the crisis. Therefore, as an important political power in the world, Germany must possess colonies of its own. Germany's current international standing does not match the colonies it possesses. That is unreasonable."
The Prussian delegate's words reflected the mindset of the Prussian Junker nobility during this economic crisis. Facts had proven that when ordinary people encountered setbacks, they first considered their environment, and only afterward looked for problems in themselves.
But the broader environment truly was unfavorable to Germany, which made the Prussian nobles firmly believe that this crisis had been caused by a lack of colonies.
Bismarck was thoroughly enraged by the Prussian delegate's words. He had been stabbed in the back! In Bismarck's view, using administrative measures to force domestic enterprises into bankruptcy had been wrong from the start. Yet the Junker nobles had previously promised that as long as Berlin Agricultural Company was driven into bankruptcy, they would support Bismarck. Now that they had ruined their own game, they wanted to welsh on the debt?
This made Bismarck's anger surge to his heart, but as a rational politician, he still forcibly suppressed it and said humbly, "Although Germany has now been unified, our crisis has not been lifted. The French