Saving France Is Saving America

That was right. Even after war had broken out, the United Kingdom still had to keep buying Cane Sugar from France.

At the same time, France continued supplying sugar products to all of Europe.

After all, the Englishmen needed sugar to get by, while France had invested heavily in the Sugar Beet Industry. Many farmers made their living growing Sugar Beet, and the sugar refined from it needed markets as well.

Besides, with sugar prices so high, only a fool would refuse to sell.

In fact, the enormous profits from Cane Sugar currently covered nearly one-fifth of France's military expenditures.

Contrary to what people usually imagined, no matter how brutally a war was fought, private economic exchanges generally continued.

It was like the US-Soviet Cold War, when they wished they could dig up each other's ancestral graves, yet business that needed doing was still done—though they might dress up the methods of trade with a few tricks.

Of course, the transport capacity of France's mere seven merchant ships was nowhere near enough to meet its trade needs with the Americas and the Far East.

It could hold out for a short while, but if the war dragged on too long, the impact on the domestic economy would be immense.

The first problem was a shortage of industrial raw materials.

France's Cotton, wool, Leather, Oils, and even ropes depended heavily on foreign imports.

After undergoing industrial processing in France, these goods were sold around the world at high added value. If raw materials ran short, French industry would swiftly suffer widespread contraction.

The second problem was shrinking markets.

Once products had been manufactured, if the capital could not be recouped, it would further undermine France's industrial foundation.

As industry and commerce withered, a nationwide economic crisis would follow...

Therefore, France's overall