It was not until the beginning of 1897 that the gold-silver ratio in the international market finally stabilized between 1:9~1:11, which made the biochemical soldiers sent by Li Hui lose room for speculation, but at this time, they had already made a net profit of more than 900 tons of gold and more than 20,000 tons of silver, which did not include the gold and silver earned by realizing war spoils and foreign trade after the armistice between China and Britain......

As a result, the system's inventory of gold and silver has skyrocketed to nearly 2,500 tonnes (second only to the UK, ranking second in the world). pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info) and more than 51,000 tons of silver (surpassing the United States, jumping to the first place in the world. At this time, Li Hui did not have to worry about the military salaries of the biochemical soldiers for a long time, but the economies of Western countries were hit by an unprecedented impact, and the outflow of a large number of precious metals and the resulting exchange frenzy made it difficult for the first-class powers to cope.

In November 1896, the French government was the first Western power to abandon the gold standard, and the franc exchange rate plummeted, causing funds to flee. The depreciation of the currency is not all bad, because it can theoretically improve the international competitiveness of domestic industrial products, but because most of the low-end sectors of French industry have been transferred, high value-added industries, especially luxury goods, have become the backbone of the economy.

What's even worse is that, as a typical example of "usury imperialism", France is quite dependent on the interest income from foreign money, and after the sharp depreciation of the franc, the actual amount of money that the debtor needs to repay is greatly reduced, and the French actually get back less principal and interest than the original loan, and the more money they have lent out before, the more they have lost now, and the millions of parasites in France who live on interest suddenly wailed. On the whole, although these people are parasites, they are able to consume, and their widespread bankruptcy will also lead to a reduction in the purchasing power of society, leading to a worsening economic crisis in France.

What's worse is that France still has a deep revolutionary tradition, and as soon as the economic situation deteriorated, French workers with strong fighting power took to the streets to demonstrate, and then workers from all walks of life went on strike under the organization of trade unions, which made the French economy even worse.

In this predicament, the right-wing government, which did not have much advantage in the approval rating when it came to power, could only resign, but the so-called left-wing parties that came to power were actually still at the service of the capitalists, and it was impossible to take really useful measures, so they could only dig up the flesh and mend the sores and overdraft the finances to increase welfare and appease the masses, but in the current situation of economic depression, this policy obviously could not last, and eventually the left-wing government could not sit in office for a full term, and then the right-wing came to power again, and the already very bad French economy also deteriorated under the influence of political turmoil. gradually fell from the ranks of the first-class powers, and fell to the point where they could only be the bosses of the second-class powers......

However, it is unfair to say that the French governments during this period have not done any work at all, and they have introduced several important policies.

The first is to cut government spending, because the class contradictions in the country are already very acute, public services and welfare cannot be cut, otherwise it will be difficult to repeat the Paris Commune, the French government has focused on saving money on military spending, and the army is the basis for self-preservation under the threat of Germany, and it is also the hope of revenge against Germany and regaining lost territory.

But what if there was no Grand Fleet, which was actually vulnerable, but at least seemed quite intimidating, France's vast colonies would inevitably be unprotected?

Due to the financial predicament can not be solved, the navy can not be cut, then you can only give up a part of the colonies to reduce the need for the navy, do this is naturally the **** government, in fact, this is one of the main views of the French **** political party, and started earlier, the net is the essence of the United Kingdom, France's colonies have many areas in the economy is actually more than worth the loss, but it is difficult to get public opinion support in any country to give up the territory, if it is not forced by the current situation, It is not known how many teenagers it will take for this proposition to become a reality.

Ignoring the small islands, France gave up three colonies, namely New Caledonia in Australia, Madagascar in Africa and Indochina in Asia, and the remaining French colonies were either on the African continent or in the Atlantic Ocean (or coast), all of which were relatively close to the mainland, even if the French navy was greatly reduced, it could be taken care of.

New Caledonia and Madagascar were both sold to the British, which not only made a lot of cash, but also greatly improved the relationship between Britain and France, which had deteriorated greatly due to the colonial rivalry between Britain and France (after the two colonies, the British colonies in the Indian Ocean and Australia were completely connected, and the strategic situation was greatly improved). This is of obvious significance to the fight against the sworn enemy Germany, and it can be called a clever move.

But Indochina, a more valuable colony, is not easy to get rid of, because she is surrounded by China on all sides, and with the strength and geographical advantage of the Chinese Republic, once China wants to seize it, no major power in the world will be able to keep this colony, and because of this, it will have to make enemies with China, an invincible and terrible enemy (in the Far East), even if it wants "land under the sun" The Germans, who were already going mad, would not be a pick-up man (not to mention the fact that the French government could not sell the Indochina colony to Germany, a sworn enemy), so even if they did, there would be only one possible buyer, and that was China.

In the absence of competitors, it is obviously impossible for the Chinese government to offer a high price, but what makes it difficult for the French authorities to accept is that the Chinese want to empty the white wolf and refuse to give out a single franc, so they want France to surrender Indochina, which is also too picky!

However, it didn't take long for the French representative, who had been leaving angrily to return to the negotiating table with a shy face, not only giving away the Indochina colony for nothing, but also taking the initiative to underwrite the 1 billion Chinese dollar treasury bonds issued by the government of the Republic of China......

However, the international community was not surprised by this, because the French government would still throw away the Indochinese colony, if not give it away......

Because the French government was unable and did not dare (for fear of angering China) to send heavy troops to the Far East, the Vietnamese rebel army led by Huang Huatan developed rapidly in North Vietnam, and soon formed a prairie fire, and it was only a matter of time before the French army was completely defeated and withdrew from Vietnam. Compared with the defeat and exit, the transfer of Indochina to China is not only a little more face-saving, but also saves a lot of military spending, and the Chinese government is willing to pay for the purchase of French assets in the colonies, although the price is not high, but it is much more cost-effective than losing it all. (To be continued.) )