These guys from the Textile Industry Guild are mud that can't be lifted! Bill Langley, Britain's largest steelmaker, could not help but say angrily to his friend, Henry Bolton, a member of the House of Commons, a Tories, after learning of the concessions made to the French, "Look at the bastards who make the most money in the trade with Europe!" And the trade tensions that now arise between us and France are almost entirely caused by their greed, and then, when we are all fighting against the French for the interests of our English. But for the sake of some immediate interests, they took the lead in capitulating to the French...... That's really ...... I've never seen anyone so brazen! ”

However, his friends don't seem to agree with Langley's statement.

"Bill, although this can be said, especially when it comes to the outside world, it can be promoted like this. But to tell the truth...... Henry Bolton said, turning the silver spoon gently in the white porcelain cup of the Far East, "to tell you the truth, if I had been replaced, I would have surrendered quickly, and I think my friend, even you, if you were a textile owner and not a mine and ironworks, I think you would probably have made the same choice as them." After all, it's hard to make money. Well, my friend, I heard that you have also recently secured some new contracts with the French. ”

"Hehe......" Langley sneered, "Henry, you guy, always like to tell the truth. Damn the French, they make so much money, but they can't make a lot of money on us, it's really ...... Now, because my iron and steel products cannot be sold, they are about to crush them, and my iron ore mining capacity is far beyond what I can sell now, so I can only export iron ore to the French...... That's really ...... Henry, you see, this is a manifestation of the collapse of the steel industry throughout the UK. Henry, the French have been suppressing us all along, and they are now almost not allowing us to have any high-end industries - which is almost to colonize us. So Henry, we in England have to do something – we can't let this situation continue. ”

"I know what you're trying to say, you want to raise tariffs on French steel products and protect our own steel companies, but you know." Henry Bolton replied, "Our steel companies simply can't afford to provide enough and good steel at such a low price." In the case of railways, if we use wrought iron tracks of domestic production, then the speed and carrying capacity of the locomotives we use will drop significantly, and the transport capacity of one of our railways will drop to a quarter of that of a railway that is only French, or even less. And in terms of cost, there is not even much difference. In addition, there are many things that are almost impossible to achieve without steel. ”

"You have a point, but even so, such a railway is not unusable. Moreover, our scientists do not eat for nothing, after all, we in England have also produced Sir Newton. In the past few years, the steel industry association, for steelmaking technology, has invested a lot of money, used various methods, now, our steelmaking technology has also made great progress, soon, we can produce qualified steel at a lower cost. ”

"Soon? You said the same thing last year. ”

"This time it's true, the experimental steelmaking furnace has completed its first tests and the results are satisfactory. However, as you know, our technology is not yet mature, and there are still many cases of waste refining, and the cost is still much more expensive than imported French steel. But if it is not protected, our industry will never develop, and the meaning of our industry, I believe you also understand. ”

"What about the finished product of your steelmaking? Is it really possible to enter commercial operations? Henry Bolton asked, "Well, how much production can you guarantee in the first year?" How much does it cost? If there is really such a big breakthrough, I can invite some more important people with status to take a look. ”

"The production can be about 3,000 tons a year – if everything goes right. In addition, we are able to produce some special steel that the French are not willing to export to us......" Langley said.

"Wait, the special steel you're talking about is ......"

"Cannon steel. We are able to produce cannon steel in a non-crucible way. ”

"How much cheaper can it be than crucible steel?"

"If we want to have enough profits to continue to grow, it can't be too cheap, but the price is still much lower than crucible steel. In the short term, it will drop to about two-thirds of the crucible steel, and in the long term, it should be lower. ”

This price is still much higher than the price in France. It is said that when the French sold cannon steel to Bonaparte's military industry, the price was only slightly less than double that of ordinary rail steel, and this price was not much higher in England, and even the price of wrought iron produced by British steel companies.

"What about the price of ordinary steel? How much can I reduce to French goods? ”

"That compares to the price they sell to." "The price of the general structural steel that they sell in the UK, as well as the rail steel, is a lot higher than in continental Europe. But even so, the price we can come up with at the moment will not be cheaper than theirs, and our cost price may be higher than their selling price compared to the price in Europe, or even in France. ”

"Are we so different from them in terms of technology today?" Henry Bolton asked.

"It's not just technology. There are also many aspects. For example, the mines of Lorraine Steel have the most advanced mining methods, so in terms of mining costs, they are already lower than us; We used railways for transportation, and as a result, their transportation costs were lower than ours; And then their blast furnaces are much larger than ours - this thing, the larger the scale, the lower the unit cost, so the cost of their iron smelting is lower than ours; And then their steelmaking technology is better than ours, and their steelmaking needs are big enough, so the scale is much larger, and this scale alone can bring about another reduction in costs. So...... You see, the gap between us and the French in metallurgy is all-round, and if there is no national barrier protection, we are actually powerless in the face of the first-mover advantage of the French. Langley explained.

"So ......"

"Therefore, the rules of navigation must be upheld, even strengthened. Britain could not possibly rely on the French for steel, and the British market had to be left to the British steel industry. Otherwise, there is no future for the UK. ”

Half a month later, at a meeting of the House of Commons, the Whigs again demanded that the navigation regulations be changed in exchange for Europe opening up more of its markets to Britain.

The Tories, on the other hand, argued for the need to further strengthen navigation regulations and further increase tariffs on European goods, especially steel and other goods. On the current basis, tariffs on European steel will be increased by 300% in response to the sanctions imposed by European countries on British exports.

Then, of course, there was the traditional performance of the Whigs and Torys against each other, and at this time, the most important thing was which side the New Tory would stand on at this time.

The New Tories, like the Whigs, many of whom have invested heavily in the textile industry, and the textile business has been the highlight of Britain's foreign trade in recent years, should be on the side of the Whigs. But they also have a lot of investment in mining and metallurgy, as well as in the military industry.

So the attitude of the New Tories is the most tangled. On the one hand, they wanted to keep the European textile market, so they tried hard to explain to the Tories that without the wealth brought by the textile industry, Britain's finances would immediately have all kinds of serious problems, and then the rest of the domestic market would also shrink, so it would be suicidal and undesirable to directly raise the tariff by 300 percent.

On the other hand, they also had to convince the Whigs not to dance exactly after the French. You must know that Britain now exports a shipload of cotton cloth or woolen wool to France in exchange for a carriage of mechanical products. What's more, the French now obviously want to suppress the industrial upgrading of the British, they only allow the British to engage in the lowest level of business, and once they try to develop up the industrial chain, they will immediately be hit by the French economy.

And because the British failed to control a higher position in the industrial chain, his substitution is very strong, so he will be very vulnerable in the face of the economic sanctions of the French. Therefore, in order to make money in the long run, to make more money, it is necessary to protect Britain's own high-tech industry, and to protect Britain's high-tech industry, there must be enough protective barriers, and it cannot completely dance with the "free trade principle" of the French, otherwise, Britain will really become a vassal of France.

Then the Tories and Whigs asked, "What do you think you should do?" ”

Then the New Tory Party came up with its own conciliatory plan: the textile industry should take into account the long-term needs and endure some losses for the time being; But the metallurgical and military industries should not be in a hurry, and they should also be restrained, in short, everyone should give way and be considerate of each other......

But anything, once entangled with interests, will be particularly difficult to handle. Neither the Whigs nor the Tories could accept this conciliatory argument of the New Tories, and the three parties fought over the British House of Commons, and the newspapers controlled by the three parties followed suit.

In the midst of the controversy, some news was also revealed in the newspapers, for example, the news that Britain may have broken through steelmaking technology was poked out intentionally or unintentionally.

Of course, the news was sent back to France by telegram as soon as possible. When Napoleon got the news, he immediately called Joseph and Lucien to discuss countermeasures.