Chapter 74: Turning the Crisis into an Opportunity

In the philosophical analysis of Weiss and Professor Lao Yang, the sinister intentions of the Normans are clearly revealed, but philosophy is usually jerky and difficult to understand, and there are many obstacles to the dialectic of real problems, while the normal human mind is realistic. The shift in the focus of the defense and defense industries has raised concerns about financial institutions and consortia that had previously had a high level of enthusiasm for the Lorraine Industrialists' Union. They approached Weiss and offered to ask the Lorrainians to repay the loan early, or to ask for more collateral, or to suspend the issuance of new loans.

From the perspective of financiers, this is a necessary measure to improve their own safety and reduce operational risks, but for Lorraine, which has a rapidly developing industry, this is an almost bottom-up behavior, which is certainly very detrimental to long-term development. In the short and medium term, it will lead to a shortage of funds, and there is even a danger that the capital chain will break.

When spring arrives, everything recovers, and everything comes alive, the people of Lorraine have to deal with an invisible economic battle. Because of the sharp fluctuations in the market and the predicament that could be expected in terms of capital, Weiss brought together the main industrial entrepreneurs of Lorraine to analyze the situation and discuss countermeasures, and came to the conclusion that all the current medium- and long-term projects were temporarily frozen, and all the projects that were in progress and could be completed in the short term were discharged, the important projects that could produce benefits quickly were carried out at full speed, and the secondary or slow projects were subject to the financial situation. Among them, the third phase of the canal project has become the largest project of the temporary disassembly, and 1/3 of the campus of the Free Lorraine University has not yet been put into use, which is the key guarantee, but the discipline setting and the distribution of faculty at the Free Lorraine University have also been adjusted accordingly due to changes in the situation.

In terms of production, Weiss asked Lorraine's industry to temporarily tilt towards the front end of the industrial chain, that is, to increase the mining of minerals and the smelting of metals, to reduce the output of the manufacturing industry accordingly, and to rationalize the deployment of labor. In addition, taking advantage of the spring ploughing season, more manpower and material resources will be released from industry to agriculture and forestry.

For the manufacturing industry, the temporary reduction does not mean that the development is stagnant, but from extensive operation to careful calculation, especially in the manufacturing industry research and development of technology, the implementation of the Lorraine Industrial Joint Research Center plan in advance, by the direct involvement of the industrial department of the Lorraine State Government, on the one hand, to ensure that the best technology research and development force will not be lost in the turbulent period, on the other hand, the existing technology research and development projects to implement integration and screening, as far as possible with limited funds to continue to promote technological progress.

In the old time and space, Weiss was a very responsible little person, his economic philosophy was to live within his means, a little wealth is peace, never think about financial leverage, early consumption, just hope that he and his family can live a normal life, even if the loan to buy a house, it seems to him that the goal is far away. On this strange planet, in the particularly intimate land of Lorraine, he has become a bigwig in the political and industrial fields, leading the industrialists of Lorraine to set off a wave of post-war economic recovery and rapid development through financing, and has achieved remarkable results in just two years. Now, due to the shift in the judgment of financial investors on the industrial focus, these thriving industries in Lorraine seem to have become sunset industries and backward production capacity overnight. Although the construction of industrial infrastructure and equipment can be suspended, there is no shortage of funds needed for industrial operation, such as the purchase of raw materials, the turnover of goods and the wages of workers. Weiss was not intimidated by these sudden difficulties, and under his dispatch, with the Lorraine State Government and the Lorraine Industrialists Alliance as a solid backing, he supported those industrialists who were slightly weaker but had no problems with their business scope and operating conditions, and took this opportunity to replace a number of enterprises that were not operating well or lagging behind, and quickly completed a certain scale of integration through mergers and acquisitions. In this way, Lorraine's industrial production rhythm was orderly changed to a new gear, and after a period of running-in, it was smoothly advanced.

During the same period, the Grumman Group, which had dominated the western region for many years, encountered the same difficulties. Because they expanded too quickly in the early stage, and judged that small-caliber artillery and mechanical equipment were the focus of the future. Nowadays, in the case of the expected surge in the supply of Xingyuan Stone, the school of national defense and military has undergone a major change, and it is generally believed that in the foreseeable future, flying ships will become the main weapons, the status of small-caliber artillery and mechanical equipment has declined sharply, and the manufacture of flying ships and the production of heavy weapons have become popular again, which means that the valuation of Grumman Group's early foreign investment has shrunk on a large scale. Although they have a very rich family background, but after the large-scale investment in the post-war years, the liquidity of funds has been very urgent, and in the face of the directional adjustment of the industry, they have fallen into an unprecedented crisis. Under the repeated coordination of the family bosses, the Grumman Group and the Grumman Foundation, which were originally operated separately, had to join hands to tide over the difficulties, which meant that the funds of the Grumman Consortium had to be transferred back to support the Grumman Group to the greatest extent. Even so, the Grumman family's crisis is like waves in a raging storm, and the ship is tossed up and down in this raging wave.

The overall contraction of the Grumman consortium's external funds naturally affected the operation of Lorraine Industries. Previously, about a third of the financial funds to support the industrial development of Lorraine came from the Grumman consortium, and now the funds guaranteed by the contract will not be suddenly withdrawn, but the rest will have to find replacement funds at short notice if they are close to maturity or have relevant provisions in the contract. After calculation, this is a large shortfall of nearly 200,000 gold crowns. You know, even if the entire Clumber-Haysen family estate were discounted, it would not be enough to meet half of their needs, and the Grumman family's crisis spread to Lorraine, becoming a crisis that Weiss and his companions had to find a way to overcome.

The tenacity tempered on the battlefield gave Weiss enough confidence to stand tall in the face of wind and rain. He was a young and legendary magistrate, with the credibility of the Canton of Lorraine as the last support, and the banks and financial institutions and consortia were still willing to finance him and his Lorraine industry, but at a much higher cost. Weiss was also helpless about these people's "robbery". After such a toss-up, the overall profit of the Lorraine Industrialists Union has dropped from about 5% to a critical point. If there are no new twists in the coming period, it will mean that they may not have a good year to come.

The incomparably huge spaceship ruins in Professor Yang's mouth did not really surface, and the Wessex government announced this discovery in the form of a government announcement that shocked the world. For the general public, the amount of information in this announcement is staggering, and it is comforting that governments will soon issue a joint proclamation announcing that all countries on the planet Orensian will share this "gift from space" in a peaceful way, and in order to cope with possible unexpected situations in the future, all countries unanimously agreed to establish a joint meeting of military chiefs of staff to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in defense and military with unprecedented strength, and avoid internal friction caused by competition and friction in the past...... The outlook looks bright! As a result, hot money flocked to the north to choose the right investment projects in Wessex, forming a new gold rush. In the long run, the Kingdom of Wessex will quickly recover from the trauma of war and become the most economically active hotspot on the planet, but that doesn't mean they'll be attracting major production capacity. Each country is still independently responsible for its own defense industry, especially the construction of flying ships, and only those small countries that do not have the capacity to build will entrust Wessex in the north to build it on their behalf.

At the end of spring, when Weiss was walking on thin ice to command this battle with capital as a weapon, a person he had completely unexpected, came with a thin but heavy checkbook, and what surprised him even more was that this person had made a major change in the shareholding structure of the Grumman Group in just half a month - now, 37.8% of the shares of the Grumman Group are in the hands of Parker Grumman and Gunevere Grumman, although the actual control of the group has not gone into the hands of "outsiders". But with the true strength of the father and daughter, it is impossible to take out tens of thousands of gold kronor in a short period of time to eat a large amount of shares that were originally in the hands of other Grumman family members, so as to become a major shareholder as a concerted actor......

By the time Weiss learned of the change in de facto control of the Grumman Group, Gunniwell himself had already arrived in Lorraine and had a head-to-head conversation with him, in which the Norman star who had conquered the Commonwealth with her singing voice said that she could provide Lorraine's industrialists with "friendly" short- and medium-term loans to help them tide over the difficulties, and to buy some businesses that were in difficulty or voluntarily transferred by their owners at a fair price. It is said that this is an act of sending charcoal in the snow, and the little red flower should be commended, but Gunnivel is not a philanthropist, and at this juncture, she came to Lorraine with a large amount of "unknown source" funds, and her true intentions are quite suspicious!

Over the past six months, Gunevere and Prince Barras of the Norman Empire have staged one bloody drama after another, using the airport of Bela Casser in Lorraine as a small base for their tryst. Despite Gunivale's intentions, how many people can always resist the temptation of drunkenness and tenderness? Her father, Parker Sr., is a direct member of the Grumman family and has been a director of the Grumman Group for a long time, but his family background determines his status, and his stake in the Grumman Group has never exceeded 3%, so how can he have the confidence to speak out loud? Where there is oppression, there will be resistance, and where there is frustration, there will be expectation, this is the weakness of human nature, and the power class of the Norman Empire is particularly good at this......

Money may be the most indispensable thing for the Hohenstaufen family, who ruled the Norman Empire for hundreds of years, and although Prince Barras is not yet the talker of that ancient family, with his status and resources, it is still easy to give Gunnivel a large sum of money, and it can make the federal security supervision and financial management department unable to find fault with it. Gunevere has an identity, fame, and is indeed an ideal "spokesperson".

As long as it does not endanger the interests of the country, it is inconvenient for others to interfere, not to mention that Weiss and Octavire decided to observe coldly and respond flexibly, so when discussing financing and mergers and acquisitions with Gunevere, he continued to maintain a posture of seeing through and not telling the truth, and "turned a blind eye" to the suspicious sources of funds. Speaking of which, Gunnevere's singing skills are impeccable, but his understanding of economics, finance and investment is very superficial, and he is not at all like the excellent generation cultivated by the Grumman family - in comparison, Octavier's vision and ability are much better, which seems to reflect the difference between Parker Grumman and Henry Grumman in terms of status and cultivation.

The mall is like a battlefield, at the negotiation table, the boss who knows how to fight in person, and the one who doesn't know how to do it has to choose a capable person to fight, and the several consultants brought by Gunivale are obviously powerful characters, so that the Lorraine industrialists represented by Weiss can't take any advantage outside of the preferential conditions they offer. However, Weiss organized and led the business negotiations not to obtain funds from the people behind Gunnevere, but to gather the goals and conditions of the other side. As soon as the negotiations were over, he wrote a secret report to the president's office and the federal security inspectorate, reminding them that the Normans were using the effects of events in the north to carry out economic infiltration in an attempt to erode and even control the industrial lifeblood of the Union. This secret report immediately attracted the attention of the federal leadership, who quickly began to investigate, and adopted Weiss's suggestion to arrange a part of the federal government's national debt funds to support the construction of Lorraine industry, and as a guide, obtained a special loan from the federal central bank to further help Lorraine industry solve its financial difficulties...... This was Weiss's strategy to kill two birds with one stone, not only to resist the invasion of Norman capital, but also to win legal and reasonable support for the development of Lorraine's industry!