Germany's reduction of tariffs on Russian agricultural products will naturally have a severe impact on the interests of the Junker landlords who rely on the land for food, which caused a strong backlash from the agricultural Junkers, and for a time there was a wave of opposition within the Reichstag, and even tried to oppose the "German-Russian Tariff Adjustment Agreement", Jochen, who had been prepared for this, proposed a plan to his father, Crown Prince Frederick, to divide the agricultural Junkers, so Crown Prince Frederick received the non-radical German agricultural delegation at the Charlottenburg Palace, and Jochen also attended.

January 16, 1888, side hall of Charlottenburg Palace

The delegation was led by a member of the Prussian State Parliament, Count Helmut von Ludwig, 46 years old, who had served in the 8th Army of the First Army, was a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, and inherited his father's title after retiring from the army. Therefore, as the leader of the delegation, he made a case to Crown Prince Frederick: "Your Highness, the land in the north of our country is not fertile, and the output is limited, and it is all necessary to increase the use of chemical fertilizers to obtain sufficient production. But buying fertilizer and finding someone to fertilize will increase the cost of production, so our benefits are not high. The Russians, on the other hand, not only have fertile land and cheap labor costs, but also have a huge amount of arable land per capita, and the cost of grain is extremely low depending on the rough management of extensive planting and thin harvesting, so we cannot compete with it in terms of price. If the import tariffs on Russian grain are lowered this time and Russia's low-priced grain enters the market, then we will face a loss. We hope that His Highness will take into account the agricultural class of the Empire, raise customs duties or lower agricultural taxes. ”

"Then what will you do if Russian low-priced grain enters the market, and the price of grain will not change for quite some time, Your Excellency Count Ludwig." Crown Prince Frederick asked.

"Then we can only reduce the number of people working the farm, reduce the labor cost, and then reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, so that although the food production is reduced, the income is correspondingly reduced, but in the case of lower food prices, the cost is more than the income, so at least we can ensure that we will not lose money because of this."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the German-Russian Agreement on Tariff Adjustment is for a period of five years, during which time the tariffs cannot be changed. However, in view of your difficulties, I will urge Parliament to enact legislation to appropriately reduce agricultural taxes. Crown Prince Frederick thought about it for a moment.

"Your Highness, lowering the agricultural tax will not solve the problem, because for those particularly barren lands, the agricultural tax is only about 5 marks, and even if it is completely exempted, it will not make much sense. Eventually, these barren lands will have to be abandoned and returned to pasture in order to save production costs. If this is the case, the arable land and food production of our country will drop significantly in the future, and as a result, a large number of yeoman farmers and estate workers will lose their jobs. And if this situation continues, a large number of agricultural producers will also go bankrupt. Count Ludwig said helplessly.

"At present, China's grain self-sufficiency rate can reach more than 75% under normal circumstances, and if grain production declines, the self-sufficiency rate continues to decrease, which will lead to larger-scale grain imports, and then the situation will deteriorate further. This is indeed a big problem. Crown Prince Frederick said with a frown.

"No, father, it's not that bad." "It is true that we will face a reduction in the production of cereals, especially wheat, but there will be a significant increase in the planting of crops with higher average yields, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes. So while the supply of bread will be reduced, the food we can provide will not necessarily be drastically reduced. Of course, potatoes and sweet potatoes are less valuable, and there is a high possibility that the price will be affected by other factors, so the economic benefits of growing such crops are not high. Farms provide more meat and dairy products, which provide more calories, and if the production of meat and dairy products increases, it will also lead to a decrease in prices, which will also lead to a decrease in revenue. But in my opinion, this is not a bad thing, because when the meat on the people's table increases, it is also conducive to improving the standard of living, and the increase in calorie and fat intake can also improve the people's physique. So the only problem we face is mainly cereals, after all, without bread, it is not advisable for people to gnaw potatoes every day, but importing low-cost grains can solve this problem. As for yeoman farmers and agricultural workers, it is not a bad thing to lose their jobs, and the rapid development of industry has increased the demand for workers in factories, which will provide a large number of jobs, and it is beneficial for our country that people leave the land and start industrial production. The only thing that will hurt is the landowners who can't get away from the land, is that right, Count Ludwig? ”

"Your Highness Joachim, what you say is indeed true, and we are not unreasonable. The empire intensified its industrialization, and we naturally supported it. After all, relying only on agriculture, the development of the empire is limited, and the strength of the empire also allows us to live a better life. But in the face of the onslaught of low-priced Russian grain, our business has fallen into great difficulty. Moreover, because of the reduction of profits, the wages we can give to the hired peasants are not too high, and the hired peasants are very tough now, and if they are not satisfied with their income, they threaten to slack off their work, and a large number of people go to the cities, and when the number of people is small, the wages cannot be reduced. We can't just go bankrupt. In the face of Jochen's aggressiveness, Count Ludwig could only play the sad card, and for a time the lords of the manor began to complain.

Indeed, when the price of cereals fell sharply, the price of bread naturally fell with it, and the purchasing power of the cash income of the working class was greatly increased compared with the income in kind of the peasantry, so that the self-regulation of the market led to a spontaneous flow of labour. The decline in the number of people engaged in agricultural production will naturally lead to an increase in labor costs, which does put a lot of pressure on these estate owners.

Junker, a transliteration of the German word Junker, originally referred to the children of nobles without the title of knight, and later referred to Prussian nobles and large landowners.

Juncker originated in the 16th century and largely died out after World War II. In German literature, the Junkers are divided into different types, such as the Battle Junkers, the Court Junkers, the House Junkers, and the Country Junkers. It was the village Junkers that really played a big role in German history. The village Junkers referred to the noble estate lords of Prussia, mainly descendants of German knightly lords who conquered and colonized the regions east of the Elbe. They are a combination of sovereignty and rural power. In the 16th century, in order to expand grain production, the Junkers forcibly seized a large number of peasants' land east of the Elbe, and ran a commodity-productive hacienda economy with serf labor.

In 1653, Frederick Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, granted Juncker the right to "complete control" over the peasants, and granted substantial economic incentives, including tax exemptions, in exchange for their support for the Elector to have a private army of his own.

In July 1807, Baron Stein, Minister of the Prussian Government, implemented reforms, mainly for the liberation of the peasantry, urban reform, administrative reform and military reform. Among them, the October Edict of October 9, 1807, announced the abolition of personal dependency of all Prussian peasants, the abolition of hierarchical restrictions, and the free acquisition of real estate, the freedom to leave the land, the choice of occupation, and marriage. and the reform of the officer corps and the abolition of aristocratic privileges in the context of military reform, which touched the interests of the Junker aristocracy and was therefore vigorously opposed by Juncker, who put Stein's letters criticizing Napoleon's statements into the hands of Napoleon I. On November 24, 1808, under pressure from Napoleon I, Stein was dismissed.

Marquis Hardenberg, who became Prime Minister of Prussia in 1810, continued Stein's reforms, but tried to make them as good as possible for the Junker aristocracy, but there were still provisions that favored the development of industry and commerce, such as the proclamation of freedom of industry and commerce, and the abolition of guild privileges.

The Junkers were dealt a heavy blow by the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, which began Prussia's transition from a feudal manor system to a capitalist Junker system, and from a feudal hierarchical autocracy to a bourgeois constitutional monarchy.

Since the 19th century, the rapid development of Prussian capitalism has completely dismantled the economic basis of the Junkers - the feudal estates, for which the Prussian dynasty gave important military and government positions to the Junkers as compensation, which also contributed to one of the main contradictions in society at that time. The call of "the prince will have a kind of peace" exists in any privileged society.

After the German Revolution of 1848, the Junkers' manor economy gradually transformed into a capitalist peasant super-majority Junckers began to become bourgeoisified landlords on the verge of many feudal remnants, and in the Junkers estates, hired peasants remained semi-serfs. This gradual replacement of serfdom exploitation with capitalist exploitation, while preserving feudal land ownership, is known as the Prussian road. The Junker landlord class was an extreme conservatism in politics, advocating absolute monarchy, advocating force, and favoring protectionism against agriculture, and its representative was the old stubborn Bismarck.

The unification of Germany "from above" in Prussia in 1871 marked the final formation of Junker bourgeois rule. The German Conservatives in the Reichstag and the peasant leagues outside the Reichstag represented Juncker interests, and most of the officers in the army were Junkers, thus giving the entire German Reich the Junker brand.

These were the most fundamental forces that sustained the rule of the Hohenzollerns, including the old aristocracy who had been living in the region for hundreds of years when Jochen's ancestors were still counts of Nuremberg, such as the Bismarcks. The new aristocracy, on the other hand, had been divided between Prussian Poland on both sides of the Oder River and Silesia seized from Austria in the form of military merits. Their views must therefore be taken into account.

But Jochen did not intend for them to stand in the way of German industry, and a significant number of them were avant-garde enough. Therefore, it is far more effective to get them to change the way of production than to compromise them.

"Your Excellency Ludwig, the problem you are talking about is true, but it is not unsolvable, and the main reason why the hired peasants left for the cities is that the urban industrial labourers have higher incomes than them, and therefore have higher purchasing power, and can obtain a better life, so have you thought of industrializing agricultural production?"

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