Frankfurt

Chapter 732: Frankfurt

Austria was not the only one to realize that a crisis was approaching. The Vienna Government had merely acted one step ahead. After Austria opened the floodgates of dumping, British capitalists swiftly followed suit.

In overseas trade these days, Britain and Austria together held three-quarters of the market share. So-called international competition was mainly fought between these two countries.

The market was only so large. If you took more, I took less. Neither side could afford to yield.

Britain and Austria had not fallen out openly only because their paths of development differed.

Britain exported the most textiles, while Austria exported the most agricultural products. These were also the two commodities with the largest shares in international trade at present.

They accounted for 68.3% and 21.6% of total international trade respectively. It was worth noting that textiles' share was increasing year by year, while agricultural products' share was declining year by year.

Such a vast disparity in their shares was not only due to the scissors gap between industry and agriculture, but also related to their trading models.

Britain's textile industry imported raw materials, processed them, and then exported the finished goods. Most of Austria's agricultural products were home-grown, so it imported comparatively few raw materials.

If one truly compared the scale of the industries, agriculture would certainly surpass textiles. This was determined by population structure: over 80% of the world's people were agricultural workers.

But when it came to making money, agriculture could not compare with textiles, even after processing.

In textiles, the British had France as their greatest competitor. Their earlier scheme to establish cotton plantations in Egypt had ultimately made a wedding dress for the French.

Once the raw-material problem was solved, France's cotton textile industry was able to grow rapidly and had become