Spring and autumn change, cold and summer come and go, the years pass by like flowing water, and it is another Christmas season in a blink of an eye.

In the solemn and magnificent living room of the Berlin Imperial Palace, the state secretaries headed by Chancellor Holwig are sitting at a banquet table; The crystal chandelier in the center shines brightly, illuminating the entire room as if it were day. On the other side of the long table, more than a dozen senior generals of the army and navy also gathered, wearing various medals of honor in front of their straight military uniforms, reflecting dazzling brilliance under the bright lights.

On the main seat in the center, the gray-eyed Emperor William raised his glass to greet from afar, and after a brief pre-banquet greeting, he was greeted with a flowery chant and prayer. After months of recuperation, William finally recovered from the loss of his beloved and reappeared in front of his subjects at the beginning of the year. However, to everyone's surprise, after his return, he did not take back all the power that belonged to him from the hands of Crown Prince Etter, but continued to delegate all matters including economy, transportation, colonies, and the occupation of Eastern Europe to the other party, and he only retained the leading power in domestic affairs, foreign affairs, justice, and defense. For the first time, there was a decentralization of power in the German center. Although the control of the core department is still in the hands of the emperor, anyone with a little common sense will see that William is already laying the foundation for his successor.

The suspicion and surprise expressed by the outside world at this decision was even greater than the sudden illness of the previous one: even at the beginning of 1916, the emperor was only 57 years old, and this was the prime of a monarch's life. In contrast, the crown prince, who has just passed his reign, dominates the affairs of the country. It undoubtedly seems a little immature. However, William's attitude is very clear. His own successor already has enough power. It is enough to share his worries in the affairs of the Empire; At the beginning of his reign, he was under thirty years old, and the other party would do better than him from any point of view.

Seeing that the emperor relied so heavily on his heir, the ministers no longer objected too much to this matter, but accepted his decision. The prime minister, who was originally only responsible to the emperor, began to frequent Qingying's office, bringing with him a constant pile of papers. After a slight surprise, Qingying also took over these affairs, and tried to gradually put his vision into practice: whether it was economic development or control of the newly occupied territories, it was the key cornerstone of Germany's future emergence as a world pole capable of competing with the United States!

What makes Qingying feel excited. Today's Germany is in a golden season of rapid economic and industrial development. With the acquisition of a large number of colonies and territories in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe, the demand for German markets outside of its homeland skyrocketed; Seduced by the dazzling Mark, Germany's already world-second powerful industry burst into flames like oil drums thrown into Mars. Unlike the military heavy industry that flourished before the war, Germany's light industry was at the forefront of this surging wave of expanding production: whether it was the black uncle, who had nothing to sell except for strength, or the occupied areas of Eastern Europe, which were ravaged by artillery fire in the war against Russia, what the people urgently needed was obviously not guns and ammunition, but all kinds of commercial goods necessary for daily consumption.

This external condition has undoubtedly greatly improved the current industrial composition of Germany. Previously, due to the complete collapse of the European system dominated by Bismarck at the end of the 19th century, Germany, which had a sudden deterioration in international shape, had to devote a lot of energy to the defense industry; And the direct consequence of this choice. That is, the amount of money in the pockets of the German people is far from matching their actual industrial capacity.

In 1912, before the outbreak of the war, Germany produced 17.3 million tons of steel. It is 10% more than the three countries of Britain, France and Russia combined, and its power generation and coal production are also far ahead of European countries; However, in terms of gross national income, they are far from being as domineering as heavy industry. Germany's national income in 1912 was only £2.6 billion, which was not significantly superior to Britain's £2.25 billion, which was still a considerable increase in the same period in history. If the per capita income is calculated, the German people can only share it equally at less than 39 pounds, while the British people can exceed 50 pounds.

Even France, which had been left behind by Germany in heavy industry, had a national income of 1.2 billion pounds before the war, and this is where France dared to stand up to its long-cherished enemies. Compared with the lighthouse countries with a gross national income of 7.63 billion pounds and a per capita income of 79 pounds, Germany is even more dwarfed! The disproportionate disparity is partly due to finance, and partly due to light industry.

Although light industry cannot be converted into armaments in war, it is directly related to the amount of government revenue; And because of the basic economic principle, money is obviously the core source of strength for a country in peacetime. Only with money can heavy industry, which costs a huge amount of money, be able to be established and developed more extensively and deeply. Light industry has always been the carrier of heavy industry, and it is also an indispensable key link in a country's strength. In view of this, Qing Ying took advantage of this unprecedented opportunity in terms of international pressure and market demand, and vigorously supported this force while holding economic power, in order to fundamentally eliminate the unfavorable industrial top-heavy situation that had appeared in Germany at the beginning of its self-determination.

In just a few months, Germany's light industry output value has ushered in a blowout growth; With the launch of merchant ships from shipyards and the repaired Eastern Railway, the products of light industry were sold from Germany to the occupied territories throughout the world. Under the effect of the state-run monopoly and the trade scissors, the basic raw materials such as rubber, coffee, tobacco, and cotton, which are far higher than their own value, have entered Germany, which has undoubtedly made the German economy appear a benign pattern that has never been seen before.

At the same time, for the first time, the imperialist economic model was established in Germany. Since these raw materials were seized from the colonies at very low prices, the production costs of the German enterprises were undoubtedly greatly reduced compared with those of the past; Once these products are put on the world market, the competitiveness generated by them will also be greatly improved compared to the previous ones. Through the colonial-suzerainty of the imperialist economy of Guò, Germany's already competitive commodities were even more difficult to resist in the countries that pursued free trade; Due to political factors, it is difficult to go too far even with trade protection, which is also an important way for German goods to be sold to the world and to earn enough foreign exchange and precious metals through conventional trade.

In fact, for Germany, an industrial country with a narrow domestic market and a shortage of industrial raw materials, at the end of the 19th century, when the imperialist economic model was dominant, only this kind of colony-suzerainty structure that went abroad and established the same colony-suzerainty structure as Britain and France could ensure that its industry would not be destroyed by the innate industrial advantages brought about by the occupation of the world market by Britain and France. This is an indispensable objective need for Germany in the process of development, and Wilhelm's world imperial policy is completely correct. As for the nonsense argument that "the little emperor single-handedly destroyed Bismarck's European structure, arrogantly clamored for world domination, and finally ended up in a shameful end", it is nothing more than the victor's falsification of history, which only adds contempt and shame.

While the industrial and economic aggregates are growing rapidly, Germany's total gold reserves are also reaching record highs. By the end of 1915, Germany's gold reserves had exceeded the 900-ton mark, more than double the pre-war level: more than half of the increase came from Kolchak and the Red Russian regime, the Tsar's inheritance, 10% from the Rand gold mines that eventually flowed into Germany, and the rest from French reparations. Due to the loss of most of the overseas colonies, and the severe trauma of the war in the northern industrial regions of the mainland, the progress of French reparations was extremely slow; In this case, Qingying proposed to him to use gold as collateral for a part of the arrears, and then redeem it in kind with foreign exchange and other physical goods.

Since the pre-war state was a gold standard in which gold coins could be freely minted and circulated between countries, France, which had a large amount of gold, had no reason to refuse this proposal; So the same scene as 40 years ago is happening again today. Nearly a fifth of France's coffers have been emptied, and a significant amount of gold will be sent to Germany to pay off its debts. The increase in gold reserves has allowed the Bundesbank to issue a number of marks that can always meet the growing needs of the economy; The shadow of deflation under the gold standard then ceased to exist, which further fueled domestic production.

Because of the huge role of gold in the economic field, Qing Ying had no intention of returning it to the French. Where is the reason to spit out the fat that has already been eaten, and when the time comes, to provide some loans to the French as interest on gold storage zài Germany, it can already be regarded as his conscience expression of the ancient way!

"According to the statistics of the Ministry of Finance, the total national income of the Reich in 1915 exceeded 64 billion marks, an increase of almost 20 per cent over the same period of 1912; Considering the economic impact of the war in Europe, this is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement! I mention yì, let us all express our deepest gratitude to Ettel; Thanks to his outstanding achievements in the field of economics, the imperial government has enough funds to use in various fields! William looked at the still radiant young man beside him, and said with joy and pride in his words.

Knives and forks chirped, cups and plates clanged, and the New Year's dinner finally kicked off in a joyful atmosphere. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket support of the Chinese soldiers, and the nickname I don't want to be empty, zhouyu1976's reward~~~