Countermeasures

Although Napoleon implemented some measures, the economic situation across Europe continued to deteriorate. Once banks ran into trouble, no other industry could escape it. Various factories also began to experience broken cash flow. As a result, the air quality in Paris suddenly improved, and the sky suddenly turned blue. This was because most factories in Paris were either operating below capacity, had simply closed down, or had even gone bankrupt.

The bankruptcy of numerous factories immediately led to mass unemployment. To be honest, the living conditions of France workers were relatively good compared to other parts of Europe. But even so, most workers, especially unskilled workers, couldn't save much money. Once they lost their jobs, they immediately faced the problem of not having food. Some factories couldn't even pay their workers severance pay and had to force them to take unsold shoes from the warehouse to the streets for a fire sale.

As for skilled workers, their income was naturally higher, so much so that they often had some decent savings, and some were even calculating how much lifetime annuity they could get with those savings. However, during the economic crisis, banks also encountered major problems, and a large number of banks collapsed. As a result, some former "middle class" members became penniless almost overnight. Those seemingly well-off so-called "middle class" members were almost all swimming naked when the economic tide receded.

The large number of unemployed people immediately worsened the security situation in Paris, with theft and robbery becoming rampant.

The Consulate immediately took measures, announcing the issuance of a batch of special government bonds and calling on patriotic businessmen to purchase them. The Rothschild immediately announced that they would purchase at least three million francs of special government bonds. The Roman Bank, on the other hand, bought forty million francs of special government bonds in one go.

After the Roman Bank purchased these government bonds, Napoleon used the money to buy large quantities of grain from the Veterans' Union and implemented an emergency food distribution plan based on household registration. In Paris, registered legal residents received a small amount of grain daily. This amount was obviously insufficient to feed an entire family; it would at best keep them from starving. However, such benevolent governance was rare in France history. As a result, the entire France people rallied even more closely around the Consulate centered on Napoleon.

"So, to win people's hearts, you can't just let them live a good life. People's hearts are never satisfied; they always want more. On the contrary, if you put them in difficult situations from time to time, and then only give them a small gift, you can make them grateful. Hmm, what do you mean? It's better to give help in times of need than to add flowers to brocade. Hmm, so Napoleon, you must remember, if it doesn't snow, we should create artificial snow from time to time..." Joseph said this to Napoleon when he was boasting to Joseph that his Napoleon rating had risen to nearly 100%.

"You're right, Joseph. But are you sure we're not going to mess this up? After all, the industrial losses are enormous," Napoleon asked again.

"Economic crises are inevitable. They are beyond human control," Joseph said. "Remember the political economy I taught you?"

"I remember. What you said was truly eye-opening," Napoleon said.

"This needs to be kept secret. No one can see it, understand?"

"Nonsense, how could such a terrifying thing not be kept secret? Compared to it, Machiavelli is as naive and innocent as a silly girl," Napoleon replied.

What Joseph taught Napoleon was actually not complicated; it was simply an analysis of how overproduction is inevitable under market economy conditions.

"The total price of all goods in society equals the total wages paid to produce those goods plus the total profits earned by businesses or business owners. As long as total wages and profits are not fully invested in consumption, aggregate demand will always be less than aggregate supply, and some goods will inevitably go unsold. Once some goods cannot be sold, producers will lower wages, and as wages decrease, demand will shrink further. This cycle continues, leading to the situation we see today. Joseph, your explanation is excellent. However, we are also suffering great losses now," Napoleon said.

"Wealth and poverty are relative. We've suffered great losses, but some countries have probably suffered even greater losses. As long as their losses are greater than ours, that's a victory for us. It's like playing chess; do you expect to checkmate your opponent without losing a single pawn?" Joseph laughed. "Besides, we discussed principles for dealing with economic crises before, remember?"

"It's nothing more than seizing new markets to increase demand, or eliminating some of the supply, preferably other people's supply, so that they'll cede the market to us. Hmm, the second method, the most direct means, is war. But Joseph, you don't seem to be too keen on war," Napoleon said.

"I just hope to wage war when I'm more certain. I don't want to get bogged down in a counterinsurgency," Joseph said. "The Britain are in a worse situation than we are. We started this crisis, and the harvested wheat is in our granaries. Ha, much of it is Britain wheat. We can sustain ourselves with this wheat by distributing welfare. But can the Britain, whose wheat we've taken, sustain themselves by distributing welfare like we do?"

"It's not impossible," Napoleon said. "But if they really intend to play that game, we can hold out longer than they can. Besides, we can make them spend money elsewhere. We can recruit some unemployed people into the army at this time, expand the army's size, and then use these troops to do some public works. It's a kind of work relief. On the other hand, our sudden expansion of the army will surely scare the Britain to death. They'll have to expand their army as soon as possible, and then they'll be even less money."

Napoleon had the confidence to do this. Firstly, he had reaped a considerable amount of Britain wheat in the market. During the railway frenzy, much of the investment in France railways came from foreign capital, including a significant amount from Britain, and now all that wheat was in Napoleon's granaries. But there was something else that gave Napoleon even more confidence: gold from North America.

In the original history, a severe economic crisis occurred in 1847, which nearly shook the entire capitalist world and brought about a series of political consequences: the France rebuilt their republic; the Prussia forced the king to establish a parliament through an uprising; and in Austria, at the cry of the revolutionary masses, Metternich fled in disgrace, dressed in women's clothing. Of course, these were just appetizers; more importantly, and more devastatingly, in 1848, a completely new political party published its programmatic document—the Communist Manifesto!—and openly called for the use of revolution to bury the entire capitalist system.

The revolutionary situation was very promising, and the revolutionary forces... But the revolution of 1848 suddenly disappeared, not even as a result of the reactionary suppression, but because an open-pit gold mine was discovered in San Francisco in 1848.

These gold mines were located in remote, unregulated areas, with shallow deposits and easy access, so even the poorest could pan for gold. This is what is known as the Gold Rush in history. Back then, if a merchant ship docked in a North America port, the captain would often find the ship unsailable the next morning because all the sailors had quit to pan for gold.

According to some Confucian scholars, gold is "neither food for the hungry nor clothing for the cold," and therefore of little use. However, this is not the case in a market economy. Gold is inherently currency, and currency is demand! If this gold falls into the hands of the wealthy, it might at most be used to build a gold-coin swimming pool; but gold prospectors are mostly poor, and for them, gold represents real purchasing power. Thus, because of these open-pit gold mines, economic crises are alleviated, or even eliminated, and revolutions naturally come to an end.

Today, these gold mines are under France control and secretly mined under the guard of France Gold Troops. The France government holds a large, undisclosed gold reserve. However, this gold still belongs to the state, and this is the perfect opportunity to use it for large-scale infrastructure projects, while simultaneously transforming the theoretical owners of this gold from the entire France population into the Military-Industrial Complex, making it sacred and inviolable private property. With this gold, Napoleon could confidently declare to other countries, especially the Britain: "If we keep offering welfare, you'll be the first to collapse!"

Of course, it's not time to use that gold yet. We should wait until the Britain can't hold on any longer and have to erect tariff barriers, and then the France retaliate with their own tariff barriers. Otherwise, if you give those people welfare, they'll just use that welfare to buy Britain goods, wouldn't that be essentially helping the Britain?

In later years, the automotive industry in United States faced a sales slump. To help the industry, United States offered benefits to car buyers, providing particularly favorable car loans. Then, United States's consumers eagerly claimed these benefits and then eagerly bought inexpensive and high-quality Japan cars.

Or, like in later European Union, the government lent money to distribute large amounts of welfare to its people, hoping they would buy Europe -made goods. However, those people weren't exactly benevolent; despite their constant complaints that "Red Hare Kingdom" products would explode, once they received the welfare, they still bought things from the "little rabbits" and exclaimed, "So delicious!"

Therefore, in the absence of tariff barriers, indiscriminately distributing welfare benefits might just be doing the work for someone else's benefit.