The frost and winds dissipated, the snow melted, and the harsh winter of 1923 faded over time, and a warm spring finally descended on the land of Central Europe.

For the German people, the spring of 1924 was also a happy moment for them to feel hope and warmth for the first time after five years of desperate winters. Because in these months, the hyperinflation that has tormented them since the end of the Great War has finally been contained. At the age of 46, Almar Schacht was appointed governor of the Bundesbank in late 1923, a position in which he achieved feats that none of his predecessors could match. The Bundesbank, which already has almost no gold reserves, issued new Reichsmarks pledged by real estate, which were exchanged for 1 to 1 trillion old marks. Thanks to Schacht's operational efforts, Germany's collapsed economic structure was re-established, the value of the mark and its exchange rate stabilized, and international speculators stopped attacking it. When the German people saw that the prices of commodities on the market were no longer rising, they all felt a sudden feeling of emotion and excitement from the bottom of their hearts; I haven't experienced this stable market economy for a whole decade!

For the ambitious Schacht, though, simply taming inflation is clearly not all he wants. Prussia 100 years ago also had no inflation, but the overall strength of the country was only at the bottom of the European powers; Although Germany has long been an industrial country with a complete system, the overall economic situation is not much better than it was at the beginning. Due to years of economic recession and the expropriation of the Franco-Belgian bandits, Germany's industrial output in 1923 was only 55% of that of 1913; Nearly 2 million people are unemployed across the country, with an unemployment rate of 20 percent. Therefore, bringing the German economy back to its peak on the eve of the Great War was Schacht's ultimate goal.

As a well-known economic giant, Schacht understood the core roots of the German economy's declining economy in the five years after the war. If the issue of the astronomical war reparations of up to 132 billion gold marks is not properly resolved, then no matter how powerful he is, it will be impossible to truly turn stones into gold and openly hang up. According to Newton's theory, even the cosmic galaxy began to circulate under the "first blow of God"; If the current German economy wants to achieve a phoenix-like rebirth, it also needs to receive massive loan support to provide the source of the "first blow". So who to turn to for help? Which country has both the ability and the will to help Germany? Europe's neighbors and rivals are either suspicious or have little to spare, and Schacht can't count on them at all. After some contemplation, he looked beyond the vast Atlantic Ocean and accurately on the lighthouse country, which was already the center of the world.

By the end of the First World War, the United States, which had made a fortune, had replaced traditional Europe as the world center: more than half of the world's gold reserves were in the hands of the White House, and its total industrial and economic output undoubtedly exceeded that of all European countries combined. Since 1923, the U.S. economy has entered the heyday of the "Coolidge Boom", which has created a miracle of prosperity in continuous carnival every day; The abundant funds accumulated by the major bank consortia on Wall Street urgently need to find an outlet for investment. In addition, the US government, which is already the leader of capitalism, also wants to dominate world affairs more, and to truly deepen the US control over the world, economic penetration into Europe, which still exists, is obviously a good choice. Germany's hand for help coincided with Wall Street's golden wand, and under the leadership of the Morgan consortium, a huge plan to rebuild the German economy was drawn up by a team of experts headed by Dawes.

In this plan, the United States will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into Germany's massive loans, which will help Germany rebuild its industry and economy, and the output will be the return on the loans. Although Britain, France, and other European countries are extremely uneasy about the high-profile US intervention in European affairs, they also have to admit that Dawes's plan to "raise chickens and lay eggs" is indeed the only way to solve the problem of German reparations under the existing framework. It is impossible to make the German hen lay eggs without feed, and the situation of the previous years has proved that Germany alone cannot pay the reparations stipulated in the treaty; The Franco-Belgian and Belgian resorts to force on this issue are even more foolish, which directly causes the German economy, which could barely support itself, to collapse violently, and ultimately only cause a situation in which both are lost.

In fact, the French plundered the Ruhr and made very limited profits after deducting the costs of the occupation. Not only did this not match the amount of reparations they would have received under normal circumstances, but it also greatly tarnished their international reputation, and shifted the dominance of the German reparations question into the hands of Britain and the United States. In addition, France's action deepened the contradictions with Great Britain, which feared in the Ruhr crisis that Germany, which had already made peace with Soviet Russia, would not be able to withstand the blow of hyperinflation and turn red, and that France was worried about France's wanton trampling on the sovereignty and wealth of defeated Germany and creating a monopoly in Europe, which caused London's attitude towards Germany and France to reverse for the first time in 20 years. At this moment, in the face of this US aid plan for Germany, Britain, which is interested in rebalancing the situation on the European continent, almost raises its hands in favor; France, which had just encountered a nose in the Ruhr army, was powerless to oppose the Americans who held high the glamorous banner of "development, peace, justice, and win-win", so this "Dawes Plan" was vigorously implemented in 1924.

For the Brom-Foss shipyard, which has a stable source of dollars, the end of the depreciation of the mark exchange rate is undoubtedly a rather unfavorable situation. This means that gone are the days when Rudolph could buy a large factory for a fraction of the cost and easily pay his workers. However, the subsequent massive injection of American capital created a new opportunity for Rudolph's family business.

Throughout 1923, the company under Rudolph's control had reaped the fruits of the collapse of the Mark: the weaker Weser and Kiel shipyards had been completely annexed, and the largest shareholder of the Germania shipyard had changed from Krupp to Brom. Today, Brom-Foss is a veritable shipbuilding giant in Germany, and it has the potential to be a "Qatari" monopoly by merging three companies. And this makes it easier for the American plutocracy to be chosen.

Historically, after American capital entered Germany, it was also quick to take a fancy to this way of uniting and controlling the entire market in a certain industry by a unified pricing limit agreement. Although this simple and effective method has the disadvantage of being unstable, because everyone who makes up "Qatar" has a motive to break the agreement, because the Germans have developed an excellent quality of keeping their promises as early as the Hanseatic League in the 14th century, and they have always despised such treacherous things, so they have unusually strong development potential in Germany. Under this framework, the bankers' manipulation methods have also become simple: they only need to give one or a few powerful companies an absolute advantage in one or two products, and they can hold the entire monopoly "Qatar" in their hands.

Brom-Forss, which has now become a leader in the industry, is undoubtedly an ideal company to attract American capital injection. Although its main shipbuilding is not as popular as the lifeblood industries of chemicals, steel, and electric power throughout Germany, Rudolf receives a constant number of letters asking for cooperation every day. Rudolph couldn't help but feel a little troubled by this situation: he didn't need a loan now, and the intervention of American capital would make his control over the shipyard decline. If you don't accept these loans, you will be too maverick and lose the industrial advantages that you have built up in front of your peers.

Fang Yan, who learned of this situation, did not have as many scruples as Rudolph. In a letter from home, he tried his best to persuade Cheap Daddy to take advantage of this opportunity to try his best to eat American funds in order to further expand the shipyard's monopoly industrial advantage over other peers. As for the decline in control over the company due to the reduction of the controlling share, there is no need to worry too much: because there is no political conflict between the United States and Germany, the White House is even happy to see European countries continue to fight openly and covertly; American investors don't care whether their money is used to build merchant ships or warships, and as long as they can make money, they will not hinder their own decision-making.

Under Fang's persuasion, Rudolph tried to get in touch with some American investors. And their attitude is exactly as Fang Yan expected: as long as they can get 5%~7% interest per year, then the board of directors does not care about the specific development direction of the shipyard at all, anyway, no matter how much Germany tosses, it will not threaten the United States. Rudolph, who received this assurance, was so determined that he immediately began to eat a large amount of loans; In his opinion, with the naval orders that will be in the pocket in the future, there will be no obstacles to maintaining a benign capital chain on the surface.

In fact, in addition to this superficial reason, Fang Yan's encouragement of Rudolph to take the American loan also has another deep meaning. Because he knew history well, he knew that the American loans that Germany received today would not have to be repaid at all. As long as the general trend of the world economic crisis will continue to emerge in a few years, the money that the Americans have invested in Germany will be fully integrated into the German economy as a "gift of friendship" because of the implementation of the policy of appeasement. In this case, Fang Yan is sorry for himself if he does not advocate taking loans from the Americans!