Just outside Berlin, Tempelhof, which is under construction, has welcomed an aircraft like no other, with a corrugated aluminium casing and three 450 hp BMW 101 star-piston air-cooled engines, a spacious fuselage with 16 seats and luxurious-looking wood-grain décor.

The aircraft was the latest product to be introduced by the Junkers Aircraft Manufacturing Company in the summer of 1923 and received the designation Junkers J.23.

Because it is equipped with the BMW 101 engine developed by BMW according to Hersmann's requirements (the patent for the star-piston air-cooled engine belongs to BMW), the aircraft not only has strong horsepower and a maximum level flight speed of more than 220 km/h, but also has excellent economy - the star-shaped air-cooled engine has a simple structure, reliable performance and long service life, so the cost of use is very low.

Among the passenger aircraft of the same era, I am afraid that only the Fokker F5 (which is a twin-engine 12-seater) produced by the FK-BF joint company can compete with this Junkers J.23. Therefore, it is no surprise that Junker Aircraft Manufacturing Company and FK-BF United Company have become the two leaders in the international civil aircraft market. Even at a time when the German economy was nearly paralyzed by hyperinflation and the Ruhr problem, these two aircraft manufacturers still accounted for four-fifths of the European civil aircraft market.

The plane came to a steady stop at the end of a runway that had just been built, and the hatch of the cabin was lowered into a gangway to the ground. The new German Finance Minister, Dr. Schacht, first got out of the cabin, and then stepped off the plane by a middle-aged man in his forties, bald, with a big nose, thick lips, a mustache, and very attentive eyes. Hersman, who stood at the bottom of the gangway to greet visitors, had seen photographs of this man long ago, and had heard of his name earlier.

He was the British economist John Brown. Maynard. Keynes. On this occasion, he would replace the American banker Dawes as chairman of the International Committee of Experts to Save the German Economy and Currency - as Britain and Italy withdrew from the Entente Reparations Commission at the same time, Belgium would follow later. As a result, the Entente Reparations Commission, which was controlled by France, had ceased to exist in name only, and the newly established "International Commission of Experts" had in fact partially replaced the functions of the Entente Reparations Commission, which was also responsible for studying the German reparations.

In response to the international expert committee composed of experts from seven countries, including Britain, the United States, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Greece, and Portugal, the newly inaugurated President Hindenburg (Ludendorff became vice president) and Chancellor Stresemann decided to set up a German expert committee. And Hersmann, who had just been promoted to colonel, entered this expert committee as a representative of the German Wehrmacht.

Although not an economist, nor an official in charge of economic and monetary policy. However, Hersmann was the real soul of the German expert committee, and the "principle of reimbursement in kind" that the German expert committee was going to recommend was formulated on the basis of Hersmann's proposal.

The so-called "principle of repayment in kind" means that Germany no longer pays reparations with gold, silver, and foreign exchange, which Germany does not have and cannot produce—the possibility of paying reparations by loan is completely blocked. This method of circulating funds bypassing the real economy is even theoretically a lure to quench thirst. Germany borrowed dollars or pounds at very high interest rates, and most of them were not put into production, but were immediately handed over to the victorious countries. In the long run, it is the crisis in Germany that has magnified rather than narrowed.

So Hersmann insisted on repayment in kind, even in full with coal, which was more advantageous than paying borrowed pounds and dollars! Because in order to meet the obligation to repay in kind, Germany would have to increase its production capacity accordingly - if it was to repay its debt with coal, it would have to invest heavily in coal mines; If industrial goods such as airplanes, ships and automobiles are to be repaid, then Germany will have to invest in increasing industrial capacity.

And these capacities, built to repay the reparations, were at the same time the war potential of Germany!

Of course, paying off the debt entirely with coal is not the most advantageous option for Germany, which will only create the world's largest coal mining capacity. And Hersmann also wants production capacity for planes, cars and ships. In particular, aircraft factories and automobile factories are very easy to convert to military use.

However, after several contacts, Britain was always suspicious of Germany's request to export large quantities of aircraft and automobiles with the help of reparations.

As a result, Hersmann abandoned the "foundry plan" and proposed that German automakers and aircraft manufacturers produce products for their British, French, Belgian, and Italian counterparts, and at the same time open up their technology to them -- according to this plan, Germany would produce a certain number of airplanes and automobiles every year and hand them over to Britain, France, and Belgium, and then Britain, France, Belgium and Italy would sell them to their own manufacturers at low prices and sell them under the manufacturers' own brands.

And it doesn't have to be sold in Britain, France and Belgium, you can also dump it in the United States! Britain, France, Belgium and Italy all owe a lot of debt to the United States -- a total of $10.34 billion owed, and it is impossible to use gold to do so. And to repay in dollars, the United States would have to accept the dumping of European goods to a certain extent.

Otherwise, where would European countries find dollars? You can't brush it yourself, and if you ask the Americans to borrow dollars, it's not like sooner or later there will be a big problem, and it's a very fatal problem!

Economists like Keynes can see it at a glance. Borrowing heavily in dollars is depriving European countries of pricing power in their own currencies – once the United States takes back their money, European currencies will plummet, their economies will be in turmoil, and even regime change will occur. In this case, European countries are bound to become more and more dependent on the United States.

Therefore, the method of borrowing new debts to pay off old debts is simply slow suicide! Absorbing U.S. capital to repay debts would make European economies dependent on dollar capital. Moreover, borrowing dollars and absorbing dollar capital will also allow the dollar to replace the pound sterling as the international reserve currency.

Therefore, when Keynes saw the specific plan proposed by the German expert committee, his eyes immediately lit up. This is the real solution to the $10.34 billion debt once and for all - selling more than $10 billion worth of German cars, planes and everything else to the United States!

If the Americans insist on free trade, then dumping at low prices (compensation for goods at no cost to the British) is used. If the Americans engage in trade barriers, then Britain can lead Europe and the United States to theorize between debt relief and German debt relief......

……

"We agree in principle with respect to the 'Reimbursement in Kind Principle' and the 'European Foundry Program'."

In a conference room at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on William Street, Hersman finally heard what he wanted to hear most these days!

Keynes finally nodded! He is the most authoritative economist in Britain, and if he nods, the British government will definitely nod his head.

"But we can't guarantee that France will support it." Keynes said this with a very relaxed expression - because France is "schizophrenic", their big right Pai government is already in crisis (government crises are the most common in the French Third Republic), and it will soon be replaced by the talkative Left Pai Madonna.

"If France is willing to support it, we will solve the current crisis by the following means," Keynes went on to state the conditions of the British government, "first of all, we must supervise the German central bank and the treasury." The Reichsbank would have to be separated from government and become an independent central bank, with 50 percent of its decision-makers made up of foreign experts.

Second, Germany issued a new mark pegged to the pound sterling, and the first reserves of the new mark were obtained from the Bank of England by borrowing - secured by a small amount of gold in the hands of the Reichsbank. £20 million worth of gold was exchanged for a £50 million loan. With this 50 million pounds as a reserve, 1,020.6 million new marks will be issued. After that, the issuance of new marks must also be carried out on the principle that the Reichsbank has in the Bank of England how many pounds it has in order to be able to issue the corresponding number of marks!

Third, in order to restore industrial production in Germany, the British government will help Germany issue long-term bonds of up to 1 billion pounds, guaranteed by customs duties, monopoly taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugar, railway revenues, and taxes on industrial and commercial enterprises.

Fourth, Germany's total reparations should end up being less than 100 billion gold marks, and in sterling terms, about 4.9 billion pounds. It must be repaid in kind, of which no less than 30% is coal and 70% is other industrial products, and the specific repayment plan is determined by Germany and Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and other countries through negotiation.

Fifth, Germany began to pay reparations in 1926. £100 million worth of goods to be delivered in the first year of payment of reparations, increasing year by year to £200 million by the fifth year......"

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The currency wars are a bit long, but this paragraph is actually a real war. Moreover, Rollo believes that the reason why Germany started World War II and the reason why it lost World War II was actually because of the fiasco of the currency war. In addition, some later generations claimed that Germany had "borrowed" dollars from the United States in order to revive its industry. This is actually a statement to discredit Sandezi and US imperialism. The U.S. imperialists lent money to Germany not to finance the revival of Germany, but to seize the right to issue German currency, which had a very complete and leading industrial system at the time, and could have upgraded without the help of American loans, if Germany had the right to issue its own currency.

However, Germany lost the right to issue currency due to the crisis of the early 20s, and the mark was forced to peg itself to the dollar, relying on loans from the United States to guarantee the issuance of the currency. The economic crisis that followed Germany after 1927 and Hitler's rise to power were all triggered by this. Because after losing the right to issue currency, the Bundesbank is unable to stimulate the economy and defeat deflation by issuing additional money. When the dollar flowed out of Germany, Germany could only face unbeatable deflation.

The inflation that Germany faced in the early 20s and the deflation it faced in the late 20s can be seen as currency wars. After losing two currency wars, Germany actually lost most of the interwar period as well. Preparations for war, of course, were very inadequate. Moreover, after obtaining the right to issue world currency, the United States was already invincible in the economic war with Germany. In a world war, the United States needs to import materials from neutral countries, just brush some paper. Germany, on the other hand, has to pay real money or its equivalent for industrial goods.

Therefore, in order to change the outcome of World War II, the protagonist must start with the currency war during the interwar period, preserve and expand Germany's industrial advantage through "in-kind reparations", and then introduce the concept of the European Community and a common currency, so as to lay a good theoretical and public opinion basis for the later discovery of the euro.

It's a bit long, and the friends who can patiently read it must be Rollo's loyal readers, Rollo thanks everyone for their support, and has a thick face to ask for a first order on May 1, asking for a monthly pass. Thank you.