The European economy has been gradually declining since the 90s of the last century. After entering the new century, the decline is even more obvious. There are different opinions about the decline of Europe, some people believe that it is because the United States is afraid of the European Union, openly and secretly suppressing it; Some people also believe that Europe's high welfare policies reward laziness and punish attendance, resulting in a lack of enthusiasm for work.

The ancient Chinese said that we were born in sorrow and died in peace, and there is a truth in this. Relying on the technological and capital advantages left by their ancestors, the Europeans live too nourishingly, and without the pressure of survival, decay is inevitable.

In real history, since the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, European countries such as Iceland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland have suffered fiscal crises, causing the EU to almost break up. In this parallel world experienced by Lin Zhenhua, the European debt crisis came even earlier.

"Zhenhua, the Portuguese government has asked us for help, hoping that we can buy at least 10 billion euros of Portuguese government bonds to help Portugal tide over the current financial difficulties. What are your thoughts on this? ”

In an open-air café on the streets of Lisbon, Huang Gang and Lin Zhenhua sat opposite each other, each holding a small cup of coffee, chatting casually. Looking at their laid-back appearance, it didn't look like they were talking about such a big deal at all.

"It's only been a few years, and Europe has fallen to this point." Lin Zhenhua said bitterly, "I remember the first time I came to Europe, it was like a countryman entering the city, and all I saw was the prosperity of imperialism. But now I don't think Lisbon is as good as our Xunyang. ”

"Haha, Zhenhua, you're too conceited, aren't you?" Huang Gang said with a smile, "No matter what, people also have hundreds of years of cultural heritage, and you actually say that it is not as good as your Xunyang?" ”

Lin Zhenhua pouted and said: "It is only a few hundred years old, do you know how beautiful our Xunyang was when it was in the Three Kingdoms?" ”

"Uh-uh......" Huang Gang had nothing to say, and went to Europe to talk about cultural heritage. It's really not a good topic, when the Chinese created a brilliant culture, the ancestors of the Europeans were still picking fruits from the trees to satisfy their hunger.

Lin Zhenhua said that Lisbon is not as good as Xunyang, and there is some truth. Prosperity in Western countries. It's just that in the last century, the last round of urban construction was after World War II, and it has been fifty or sixty years so far. Since then, there has been little large-scale development in European cities, and there are far more old buildings than new ones left in the streets, elegance and nostalgia are enough, but modernization is far from enough.

China, on the other hand. Since the reform and opening up, the rapid economic growth, especially in the last 10 years, large-scale real estate development has driven the development of various cities, high-rise buildings have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and the architectural style of the city does seem to be closer to the times.

Thirty years ago, when Chinese went abroad, they always sighed at how spectacular their buildings were. But now, it's foreigners' turn to praise China's architecture. This is the reason why Lin Zhenhua said that Lisbon is not as good as Xunyang.

Huang Gang often goes abroad, and he is a little used to this kind of change, and now he listens to Lin Zhenhua. There are also some relatives in his heart, and he smiled and said: "Zhenhua, if you want to talk about the decline of Europe, you also have a part of it." Over the years, how much business has you Hanhua Heavy Industries snatched from European companies? ”

Lin Zhenhua said: "It's not just our heavy industry, our light industry can't ignore the encroachment on Europe. This time, I was able to open my eyes in Spain, a farmer in his 30s in southern Zhejiang. can make tens of millions of euros of business. It was such a group of peasants who brought down the Spanish shoe industry. ”

Huang Gang said: "I already know about Elche. How to manage the relationship with our colleagues and local residents in the host country is a very important new issue for us. In this regard, your experience in dealing with the strike at the Mutong iron ore mine. It is worth learning from the majority of domestic enterprises. ”…,

Lin Zhenhua said modestly: "The experience of Mutong Iron Mine is not applicable everywhere, and we are also exploring in this regard. However, I believe that the rise of any country will not be peaceful, and it is impossible not to have conflict. I hope that when the country encounters this kind of thing, it will not blindly blame our own enterprises, but should have a little spirit of protecting the calf. ”

"We're already doing that." Huang Gang said, "After the Elche shoe burning incident this time, not to mention other departments, our NDRC alone has negotiated with the Spanish government several times, asking them to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese businessmen from infringement." Our senior director spoke directly with the Spanish prime minister on the phone and threatened to reconsider the issue of economic and trade cooperation with Spain. ”

"Haha, it's really a bit imperialist." Lin Zhenhua smiled, "Finally, it's our turn to threaten others." ”

Huang Gang waved his hand and signaled Lin Zhenhua not to make a public announcement, after all, this is a private communication between the government, and if it is made public, the Spanish government will inevitably not be able to step down, and it will naturally be inconvenient to take care of the Chinese side. Things in the world are like this, if you get cheap, you have to keep quiet, otherwise no one will want to cooperate with you in the future.

"There are many places where the Spanish government needs our support, such as financial support, trade issues, and Chinese investment in Spain, in short, we hope to get more money from China and help them solve their immediate difficulties. Now the whole world is counting on its fingers, and the richest is China. Huang Gang said in a low voice.

"If you have money, you can't use it indiscriminately." Lin Zhenhua muttered, "Huang Gang, what's going on with Portugal this time?" ”

Hearing that Lin Zhenhua was back to the topic, Huang Gang also put away his smile and said: "Portugal is the poorest country in the whole of Western Europe, and in the past 30 years, Portugal's budget has never reached a balance, and it has to borrow money every year to live. At present, Portugal's government debt has reached more than 80% of GDP, and the country's external debt is more than twice that of GDP. If it were not for the fact that it is a European country, such a financial and external debt situation, the country would have gone bankrupt long ago. ”

"Alas, the landlord's family has no food left. Think about the time, Prince Henry led a thousand boats to race and start the great voyage of the Europeans, what a beautiful scenery it was. Who would have thought that Portugal would end up where it is today. Lin Zhenhua smacked his tongue and felt sad for the ancients.

Huang Gang is usually not as idle as Lin Zhenhua, so naturally he doesn't have so many petty bourgeois complexes. Although he can't say that he has a lot of opportunities now, he has also taken on dozens of tasks, big and small, and it is very rare to be able to sit in the sun and drink some coffee like today. He didn't answer Lin Zhenhua's words. Instead, he continued to say to himself:

"Last week, Fitch International Credit Ratings downgraded Portugal's sovereign credit rating from AA- to A+, with a negative outlook, making it much more difficult for Portugal to issue new bonds. The banks in Portugal can no longer afford to buy new government bonds, so the Portuguese government is now moving around, and the biggest hope is pinned on China. ”

"What are we going to do?" Lin Zhenhua asked. In fact, he also asked this question, and he already knew it. Huang Gang came to Portugal this time with officials from the Central Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, and he definitely planned to provide some financial assistance to Portugal, but what has not been resolved now is only the way of aid, which is why Huang Gang invited Lin Zhenhua to Portugal to discuss together.

Huang Gang said: "The general principle of our country is to be willing to contribute some money, after all, our foreign exchange reserves have grown too fast in recent years, and we also need a place to use them." U.S. bonds are too much of our foreign exchange reserves. There are certain risks associated with this. We want to be able to diversify our risk a bit and move some of our Eurobonds. ”…,

"I'm afraid the risk of European debt is higher than that of U.S. debt, right?" Lin Zhenhua said. Although he is an industrialist, he has been exposed to it over the years and knows a little bit about finance. Hanhua is now rich in money and has abundant cash flow, and Xiang Zhe is also thinking about engaging in financial investment and finding a way out for the company's funds.

Huang Gang was convinced by Lin Zhenhua's statement, saying: "This is the difficulty we are facing now. There is indeed a great risk of European debt, especially these small countries in Europe, when they are really riddled with debt, they dare to tear off their faces and declare financial bankruptcy. Until then. The bonds in our hands may really become a piece of waste paper. ”

"I think it's very likely." Lin Zhenhua nodded.

He remembered that Iceland had done such a thing in later generations, declaring financial bankruptcy, and then holding a referendum to let the people decide whether to repay foreign debts. These debts are nominally owed by several private banks. And these private banks have gone bankrupt, so they don't have to pay their debts. But how can such a statement convince the public? In the final analysis, the money that the bank circled back then was squandered by the Icelandic people, and if the bank goes bankrupt, there is no need to pay back the money, how can there be such a cheap thing in the world?

But Iceland can do this kind of thing, they really have a referendum, and then tell the world that the result of our referendum is not to agree to pay back, you can do it.

Later, Greece did the same, with the EU demanding that the government reduce spending and repay its foreign debt as a precondition for providing a fiscal bailout. The Greek government did not take this responsibility, so it held a referendum, and then rejected the EU's demands under the pretext of public opinion. In fact, putting the matter to a referendum has already made it clear that it is trying to cheat, and the government asked the people: Are you willing to suffer for the sake of the country's credit? Can you expect the people to have any kind of high consciousness?

This kind of blatant behavior has happened, and the countries of the world really have nothing to do with them, so they will not send troops to invade them for the sake of billions of euros, right? Now it is no longer the 19th century, and it is no longer feasible to smash people's doors and grab things.

19th century ...... Lin Zhenhua's eyes lit up, and he seemed to think of something inspiring.

"In the past, inter-country borrowing relied on national credit as a guarantee, but now, these European countries don't even want face, and credit can be thrown into the toilet as a piece of paper, which is really a troublesome thing." Huang Gang said depressedly.

Lin Zhenhua said with a smile: "Huang Gang, I think of some past events, you said that our Qing government will have any money owed to foreigners?" ”

This question is difficult for Huang Gang, but he is also from a liberal arts background, he said: "Yes, at that time, the Qing government was at war with the Western powers, and if it was defeated, it would have to pay compensation. At first, you can afford to pay it, but then you can't afford it, so you can only owe it and use customs taxes as collateral...... Zhenhua, you don't mean to say that we also want the Portuguese government to use taxes as collateral, right? ”

To say that Huang Gang's reaction was fast enough, he guessed the other party's subtext from a question from Lin Zhenhua, but to say that using Portuguese customs revenue as collateral for the loan is a bit of a big game.

"Why not?" Lin Zhenhua didn't think there was anything wrong with this, "If you want to borrow money, you have to have something to pledge, right?" You have to bet something when you go to the pawnshop to borrow money, don't you? My suggestion is that while European countries are facing a debt crisis, we can seize the opportunity to make some good money. Like any technology patent, large enterprises, you can win.

As for countries with no technology and no enterprises, then I'm sorry, I can only mortgage the rights and interests of the state. For example, let's send a group of tax officials to Portugal to help them collect taxes, and after collecting them, we will repay our principal and interest first, and leave the remaining three melons and two dates for them to buy porridge to drink. ”

Think about it, a group of Chinese tax officials set up cards on Portuguese territory to collect taxes, and then ship the collected money back to China by boat, which is really enjoyable. But can the Portuguese stand it?

"You're too ruthless." Huang Gang smiled bitterly, "This is impossible, after all, people are still a sovereign country, and they have handed over all the tax power to you, not to mention whether they can explain to the domestic people, even if we give people a bad impression in the world." ”

"It's good to get used to it, it's not like Europeans haven't done this kind of thing, we just learn from it." Lin Zhenhua said with a smile.

However, Lin Zhenhua also admitted that Huang Gang's statement is also reasonable, tax collection is a symbol of national sovereignty, although Europe is facing a crisis, but compared with the Qing government back then, it is still much stronger, this kind of direct handing over sovereignty to others, at least for the time being, will not happen. As for the future, if European countries really fall to the point of no rice to cook, maybe any country will really do this. There's a saying in an ad that says? Anything is possible.

"Don't say it, this suggestion you made is really inspiring." Huang Gang's words changed and began to admit Lin Zhenhua's words, "We can't get the right to tax, what about other powers?" (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )