Debate

"These bastards of the Textile Merchants' Guild are a bunch of hopeless good-for-nothings!" Bill Langley, Britain's largest steelmaker, angrily exclaimed to his friend, Henri Boulton, a Tory member of the House of Commons, upon learning of the concessions the Tory Party Merchants' Guild had made to the France. "Look at them! These scoundrels are the ones who make the most money in trade with Europe! And the current trade tensions between us and the France are almost entirely caused by their greed. And then, while we are all fighting the France to protect our England interests, they are leading the way in surrendering to the France for their own short-term gains... It's... I have never seen such shamelessness!"

However, Hulin his statement.

"Bill, you can say that, especially when it comes to public relations, but to be honest..." Henri Boulton said, gently swirling a silver spoon in his Far Eastern white porcelain cup of black tea, "Honestly, if it were me, I'd surrender immediately. I think my friend, even you, if you were a textile business owner instead of a mine or ironworks owner, would probably make the same choice. After all, making money isn't shameful. Hmm, my friend, I heard you've recently reached some new contracts with the France."

"Heh..." Langley sneered. "Henri, you always like to spout nonsense. Those damned France, they make so much money while preventing us from making any, it's unbelievable... Now, because my steel products can't be sold, they're almost squeezing me out of business. My iron ore mining capacity far exceeds what I can sell, so I'm forced to export iron ore to the France... This is truly... Henri, you must understand, this is a sign of the collapse of the entire Britain steel industry. Henri, the France have been suppressing us; they're practically preventing us from having any high-end industries—it's practically colonizing us. So Henri, Britain must take action—we can't let this situation continue."

"I know what you're trying to say. You want to raise tariffs on France steel products to protect our own steel companies, but you know," Henri Boulton replied, "That our steel companies simply cannot provide us with enough good quality steel at such low prices. Take railways, for example. If we used domestically produced wrought iron rails, the speed and load-bearing capacity of our locomotives would decrease dramatically, and the transport capacity of one of our railways would drop to only a quarter, or even less, of that of a France railway. And the cost difference would be negligible. Furthermore, many things are virtually impossible to achieve without steel."

"You have a point, but even so, this kind of railway isn't unusable. Besides, our scientists aren't just sitting around doing nothing; after all, Britain produced Sir Newton. In recent years, the Steel Industry Guild has invested heavily in steelmaking technology, using various methods. Now, our steelmaking technology has made great progress, and soon we will be able to produce qualified steel at a lower cost."

"Soon? You said the same thing last year."

"This time it's for real. 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 still many instances of scrap. Moreover, the cost is still significantly higher than imported France steel. But without protection, our industry will never develop, and I believe you understand the significance of our industry."

"What about the finished products of your steelmaking technology? Are they truly ready for commercial operation?" Henri Boulton asked. "Well, can you guarantee the production volume for the first year? What will the price be? If there really is such a breakthrough, I can invite some important, distinguished people to come and see."

"Production can reach about three thousand tons a year – if everything goes smoothly. In addition, we are able to produce some special steels that the France are unwilling to export to us..." Langley said.

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

"Armor steel. We are now able to produce gun steel without a crucible."

How much cheaper is it than crucible steel?

"If we are to have enough profit to continue developing, we can't be too cheap, but the price is still much lower than that of crucible steel. In the short term, it will probably drop to about two-thirds of the price of crucible steel, and in the long term, it should be even lower."

This price is still much higher than the price in France. It is said that when the France sold gun steel to Bonaparte Arms Industry, the price was only slightly more than double that of ordinary rail steel, while this price in Britain was not much higher than the price of wrought iron produced by Britain steel companies.

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

"It depends on who they're selling to," Langley said. "The price they pay for general structural steel and rail steel in the Britain is significantly higher than in continental Europe. But even so, the price we can offer right now won't be cheaper than theirs. As for the price compared to local Europe prices, or even prices in France, our cost price is probably higher than their selling price."

"Are we really that far behind them in terms of technology these days?" Henri Boulton asked.

"It's not just about technology. It includes many aspects. For example, Lorraine Steel's mines have the most advanced mining methods, so their mining costs are already lower than ours; they use railways for transportation, resulting in lower transportation costs; then their blast furnaces are much larger than ours—the larger the scale, the lower the unit cost, so their ironmaking costs are also lower than ours; then their steelmaking technology is superior to ours, and their steelmaking demand is large enough, so their scale is also much larger, and this scale alone can bring about a further reduction in costs. So... you see, the gap between us and the France in metallurgy is comprehensive. Without the protection of national barriers, facing the France's first-mover advantage, we are actually powerless to fight back," Langley explained.

"So..."

"Therefore, the Navigation Ordinance must be upheld, and even strengthened. Britain cannot possibly rely on France steel; the Britain market must be reserved for Britain steel companies. Otherwise, Britain has no future."

Two weeks later, at House of Commons, Whig Party again demanded amendments to the Navigation Ordinance in exchange for greater opening of Europe markets to Britain.

The Tory Party, on the other hand, proposed further strengthening of the Navigation Ordinance and increasing tariffs on Europe goods, especially steel. They proposed raising tariffs on Europe steel by 300 percent, in response to Europe sanctions on Britain exports.

Then, naturally, comes the traditional show of Whig Party and Tory Party tearing each other apart. At this point, the most important question is which side the New Tory Party will take.

Like the Whig Party, many New Tory Party have significant investments in the textile industry, which has been one of the most successful sectors of Britain foreign trade in recent years. From this perspective, they should align with the Whig Party. However, they also have substantial investments in mining, metallurgy, and the defense industry.

The New Tory Party were thus in a most conflicted position. On the one hand, they wanted to preserve the Europe textile market, so they tried to explain to the Tory Party that without the wealth generated by the textile industry, Britain's finances would immediately face various serious problems, and other domestic markets would also shrink. Therefore, raising tariffs by 300 percent was suicidal and unacceptable.

On the other hand, they also needed to persuade the Whig Party not to blindly follow the France. They understood that nowadays, Britain could only exchange a shipload of cotton or wool for a cartload of France. More importantly, the France were clearly trying to suppress Britain industrial upgrading; they only allowed the Britain to engage in the lowest levels of trade, and any attempt to move up the value chain would immediately result in economic repercussions from the France.

Because the Britain failed to control higher positions in the industrial chain, their products are highly substitutable, making them very vulnerable to France economic sanctions. Therefore, to make money in the long run, and to make even more money, Britain must protect its own high-tech industries. To protect these industries, sufficient protective barriers are necessary; Britain cannot simply follow the France "free trade principles." Otherwise, Britain will truly become a vassal state of France.

Then the Tory Party and Whig Party asked together, "So what do you think we should do?"

Then the New Tory Party offered their conciliation plan: the textile industry should consider long-term needs and temporarily tolerate some losses; however, the metallurgical and military industries should also exercise restraint, in short, everyone should make concessions and be considerate of each other...

However, anything becomes particularly difficult once interests are involved. Neither the Whig Party nor the Tory Party could accept the New Tory Party's conciliatory approach, so the three parties argued fiercely in the Britain House of Commons, and the newspapers controlled by the three parties also joined in the uproar.

Amid the debate, some news was also revealed in the newspapers. For example, the news that Britain might have made a breakthrough in steelmaking technology was intentionally or unintentionally leaked.

This news was, of course, transmitted back to France by telegram immediately. Upon receiving the news, Napoleon immediately summoned Joseph and Lucien to discuss countermeasures.