"Textile Workers United Club"
In a sense, the selection process for this Prometheus Prize is almost a grand review of the scientific capabilities of Europe countries. Although the award ceremony has not yet taken place, and the candidates have not even been fully selected, it has already made the whole of Europe, and even the Britain, exclaim that France science is the best in the world.
The discussions in Britain newspapers about Britain youth, Britain, and the Britain education system weren't without their benefits. One was the successful suppression of voices regarding trade issues, which significantly reduced unnecessary interference during negotiations. After all, trade negotiations differ Britain France. In France, if Napoleon dictated that certain categories should compromise, they had to obediently comply (often, foreigners were the ones being forced to compromise). But in democratic Britain, such a thing was out of the question.
Under the guise of the "Prometheus Prize," the Britain trade delegation and the France reached a memorandum of understanding regarding previous trade disputes.
According to this memorandum, Britain textiles gained "free trade status" in continental Europe for the next year, meaning that Britain textiles could be considered goods of "free trade countries." However, this "free trade status" was not unconditional. Britain textiles would be subject to an annual review of their "free trade status," and if they failed the review, this status would be revoked.
The primary condition for the review is the protection of intellectual property rights. This means the Britain textile industry is prohibited from producing counterfeit Europe brand clothing. To ensure the effective implementation of this provision, a joint office will be established in London by the "free trade alliance," led by France. This office will have the authority to conduct unprepared, unannounced spot checks on any Britain factories and their warehouses exporting textiles to continental Europe to ensure they are not producing illegal products. Any factory found to have infringed rights during such inspections will be permanently disqualified from exporting. The Textile Industry Guild has also pledged to the "Free Trade Alliance" that anyone found involved in such activities will be expelled from the association and permanently banned from working in the textile industry.
Of course, agreeing to such a humiliating agreement also came with some compensation. First, they successfully circumvented the shipping regulations targeting "non-free trade countries," allowing them to continue making money on the Europe continent. On the other hand, they even retained the possibility of continuing in the garment industry, as long as they didn't counterfeit high-end France clothing. Overall, the France were relatively friendly towards the Britain textile industry. The main reason for this turmoil was simply that some of them were too outrageous, directly trying to steal money from the Bonaparte Family.
After resolving the textile industry issues, the next step was negotiations on the steel industry. The France, of course, opposed the Britain raising tariffs on steel products, while the Britain shamelessly suggested that the France could also raise tariffs on Britain steel products entering Europe.
"Damn it! Even if we gave you zero tariffs, your steel products still wouldn't sell in Europe. If you insist on maintaining high tariffs on the steel industry, then we'll have to raise tariffs on your textiles. Of course, you can also raise tariffs on our textiles entering Britain and its territories in return. Besides, I'm more generous than you; at least our textiles still have some market in Britain," Talleyrand retorted immediately.
Talleyrand's argument has merit. France does indeed export textiles to Britain, such as the Chris menswear line and the Chris womenswear line, which have seen considerable popularity in the Britain. Interestingly, many of those buying and wearing Chris menswear are rebellious teenage girls, while many of those buying Chris womenswear and flaunting it are men. This has led some conservative Britain media outlets to vehemently condemn these "immoral" products and demand a ban on France. Of course, this is just rhetoric, and even those newspapers know that under the current circumstances, banning France goods is virtually impossible.
The two sides then argued fiercely over tariffs, and finally, just as the France were about to announce the end of this pointless negotiation, the Britain made concessions. Losing the Europe market entirely would be too great a loss for Britain. Moreover, the France shamelessly implied that peace and friendship between the two countries were maintained by their trade relations.
The unspoken message is, of course, that if you dare to raise tariffs on steel, believe it or not, we'll send the "Free Trade out to disrupt free trade!
Just a few months earlier, the France had decommissioned their first "Free Trade" and sold it to the British Navy. Upon acquiring the ship, the British Navy immediately conducted a series of tests, ultimately concluding that "Britain's current industrial capacity is insufficient to build similar vessels."
However, the France had barely retired the old "Free Trade" when they published a news item in the newspapers announcing that the new "Free Trade" had officially joined the French Navy.
Regarding this new "Free Trade, " Science Truth Daily " only gave it a brief, one-sentence report in an inconspicuous position on the front page. However, everyone is now aware of a habit of " Science Truth Daily ": the shorter the news, the bigger the story.
In the more specialized magazine * France Shipping Communications *, the new "Free Trade" was described with the following additional sentences:
"The new generation of steam-powered frigates is larger, faster, and has a more efficient firepower configuration. Its emergence will inevitably bring revolutionary changes to the navy."
Of course, the France Shipping Communications didn't go into detail about what the "new generation of steam-powered frigates" actually looked like or what their performance was like. The article in the magazine wasn't even specifically about warships; it was just using the new warships to promote a new idea of the author: that ocean-going merchant ships should also adopt steam power.
However, after carefully studying the article in the France Shipping Communications, the British Navy became even more worried. According to the calculations in the article, fully steam-powered ships capable of directly crossing the Atlantic Ocean had become possible.
If the new Free Trade was a ship capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean purely by steam power, its ability to disrupt the Free Trade would be even greater. And because it could maintain high maneuverability throughout, it could autonomously decide whether to enter or withdraw from battle at almost any time. Considering that the old Free Trade already possessed the ability to threaten the connection between Britain and its colonies, especially those in the Far East, the new Free Trade would be a nightmare for the Free Trade.
Therefore, after the France made such a threat, the Britain had no choice but to strategically back down for the time being. In the end, the Britain compromised, demanding that relatively high tariffs be maintained on France -made machinery to protect the Britain machinery manufacturing industry, but giving up high tariffs on steel products.
The France were not entirely satisfied with this suggestion, but considering that the navy was not yet fully built and the establishment of overseas colonies would require a period of peace, and that the upcoming Olympic Games also necessitated peace, they reluctantly accepted the conditions. Thus, the two sides formally reached a new Anglo-French Paris Trade Agreement Paris, effectively putting an end to the recent trade disputes.
Now that the trade issues were temporarily resolved, the Britain naturally asked whether the France intervention in the strikes within Britain should cease.
However, on this issue, the France have once again adopted a strong stance, claiming that they cannot betray the France spirit and abandon their international obligations.
The Britain naturally understood the France's meaning. In the France view, these striking workers were a very useful tool to cause trouble for the Britain when needed. Moreover, the Textile Workers' Union had suffered a major blow due to the death of its former president, and it was only thanks to the France intervention that the Federation stabilized and preserved its organization. Therefore, the France influence within the Textile Workers' Union rapidly increased. For the France, keeping them meant having another tool to cause trouble for the Britain. Of course, they wouldn't simply discard such a useful tool.
However, the France also stated that they did not want to see Britain textile companies default on a large number of orders due to the strike. Therefore, they suggested that Britain textile merchants should try to reason with the workers. Now that their trade issues with the France have been resolved, they no longer need to rely on continuing to suppress workers' wages to survive, so they can fully guarantee to the workers that they will not reduce wages or increase the intensity of workers' labor.
Regarding the Britain argument that, according to Britain law, the "Textile Workers' Union" is an illegal organization and they cannot negotiate with an illegal organization, the well-meaning Talleyrand stated that the law is, of course, sacred, and once enacted, it should not be arbitrarily amended.
"As far as I know, your country's laws only prohibit individual factory unions from forming United Trade Union. But they don't prohibit unions themselves," Talleyrand said. "And the 'Textile Workers' Union' could easily change its name to circumvent this issue. For example, they could change it to the 'Textile Workers United Club,' which, in theory, would be a place for unions from various factories to get together and have fun. Wouldn't that solve the problem?"