Chapter 1476 Economic Crisis Breaks Out

August 7, 1929.

City of Stuttgart.

This time Ernst stayed in Europe for a long time. After leaving the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he went to Germany, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries.

The visit of the Emperor of the Rhine Empire made the whole of Europe lively, but Ernst eventually returned to southern Germany.

His final destination was the Principality of Hechingen. In theory, Ernst was still the Prince of Hechingen and the ruler of the Principality of Hechingen.

Because of the changes that took place during World War I, the German monarchy still existed, and the local nobles and principalities of all sizes in Germany still existed. Before this, Ernst's itinerary in Germany was mostly spent visiting these princes and nobles in southern Germany.

Although the Rhine royal family left Germany for decades, they have always had frequent contacts with these nobles. These nobles once made a lot of efforts when East Africa absorbed immigrants from Germany.

At the Stuttgart Palace.

King Albrecht of Württemberg had been waiting for Ernst for a long time.

"It's been a few months since we last met, Albrecht. How have you been lately?" Ernst asked when he saw him.

Albrecht did not dare to neglect Emperor Ernst. He said with a smile: "Your Majesty Ernst, your presence in Stuttgart has made the weather in Stuttgart much better today. As for me, thanks to you, my life is pretty good. The last time we met was in Vienna, at the coronation ceremony of His Majesty Rudolf."

"In fact, I met you a few times in Vienna earlier, but that was at a noble gathering in Vienna, and I was just a nobody at the time."

Albrecht and Ernst were legitimate relatives. The new King of Württemberg was born in Vienna, and his late wife was Princess Margaret Sophie, the daughter of Archduke Karl Ludwig, the younger brother of Emperor Franz and Archduke Ferdinand. However, after Princess Margaret's death, Albrecht never remarried.

Therefore, Albrecht and Ernst were related. In addition to the Habsburg relationship, Albrecht, as a Württemberg nobleman, had ancestors who had frequent dealings with the Hohenzollern family of Hechingen.

However, Albrecht had little contact with the Rhine royal family before, and he was not a main line of the Kingdom of Württemberg, so he was not even born in Württemberg, but in Vienna, Austria.

As for his throne, it was because the former King of Württemberg, William II, had no heirs, so Albrecht, as a collateral line, was able to inherit the throne and moved his family from Vienna to Stuttgart.

King Albrecht was also a German field marshal and performed well in World War I.

In his previous life, because of Germany's defeat in the war, although Albrecht was the heir to the Kingdom of Württemberg, he did not inherit the throne. Now he has become the King of Württemberg. This is the result of the change in the trajectory of history.

Ernst said: "The Black Hingen lineage of the Hohenzollern was not very famous in Germany, but now, the Rhine royal family has become the most prominent royal family in the world, so you don't have to belittle yourself. The starting point of the Kingdom of Württemberg alone is much higher than our tiny Black Hingen Principality back then."

"Sigmaringen, next to Hechingen, has also established a foothold in Romania and the Kingdom of South Germany. If you in Württemberg have ideas, you may be able to copy our experience and expand your territory outside of Europe, such as in West Africa. There is still room for operation."

Ernst's words did make Albrecht somewhat excited. Now as the King of the Kingdom of Württemberg, he seemed to be in a high position of power, but in fact, Berlin's power over the local area was also being tightened.

Moreover, Albrecht himself has three sons, so it is not a bad idea to let one of them go to Africa to expand the territory.

In the past, there were German nobles who wanted to replicate the experience of Hechingen and Sigmaringen, but they lacked the means and opportunities. Now that Ernst had made the promise, this was obviously an opportunity.

As for Ernst himself, he did not care about German nobles going to West Africa to establish a country. East Africa also had a fulcrum in West Africa, and it was not a bad idea to demarcate a piece of land from Togoland as the first pot of gold for his business. However, the latter had to withstand the pressure from Britain and France.

Back then, the Kingdom of South Germany was able to grow so big by snatching food from the British, and eventually gained access to the sea and a lot of land in Nigeria.

East Africa only provides them with platforms and opportunities. Whether they can succeed depends on their investment and courage. For example, the Kingdom of South Germany had strong support from Sigmaringen and Romania in its early days. The most East Africa can provide them with is food and a way to obtain weapons.

The strength of the Kingdom of Württemberg was not weak. If Albrecht could make use of its power, he might be able to accomplish something. Of course, it all depended on whether Albrecht had the idea and ability to do so.

Ernst said: "When I left Stuttgart, it was just a small city. Now Stuttgart has changed a lot."

This was purely Ernst's compliment. Although Stuttgart has developed well in recent years, by East African standards, Stuttgart, a city with a population of only more than 400,000, is not even a medium-sized city and can only be classified as a small city.

However, in Germany, Stuttgart can be ranked around the top ten, and Stuttgart has an important label. It is one of the centers of Germany's automobile industry. In addition, Stuttgart is also good at fields such as mechanical manufacturing, textiles, electronics, etc.

Considering Stuttgart's relatively strong industrial strength, it can definitely compete for the top ten economic cities in Germany.

The automobile industry alone is enough to establish Stuttgart's position in German industry. Today, Germany's automobile industry is the most developed in the world, except for East Africa and the United States.

Moreover, the German automobile industry is highly competitive in the mid-to-high-end sectors and has high sales in Europe.

Although the East African automobile industry started early and had strong policies, it cannot be denied that the relatively weak industrial base in East Africa in its early days held back the industry.

The German automobile industry, on the other hand, has come from behind and surpassed others entirely by relying on its strong industrial power. To some extent, the German automobile industry is only slightly inferior to that of East Africa, but stronger than that of the United States, because the US automobile industry is now mainly active in the low-end market.

East Africa takes both into account, with a more complete industrial chain, numerous brands and wider market coverage.

However, the German automotive industry has one condition that both East Africa and the United States lack, and that is that Germany itself is within the European market.

Europe is still the world's largest consumer market today, and Germany, as the crossroads of Europe, is conducive to the export of German cars to other European countries.

Coupled with the credibility and solid materials of German industrial products, German cars have great sales in Europe. The only regret may be that Germany's local resources are relatively scarce, such as oil. This has greatly restricted the development of the German automobile industry, at least in the German domestic market. The development of the automobile industry has therefore encountered certain resistance.

At least the German government should consider its own "energy security". If there is a lack of oil, it should reduce the stock of cars on the market and vigorously develop alternative energy or public transportation, improve energy efficiency, etc.

However, this does not affect the export of German cars. Other countries, especially small countries, do not have the concerns of a big country like Germany.

Many of Stuttgart's automobile products are sold abroad, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.

The city's automobile industry started in the 1980s. In addition, Stuttgart had a solid foundation in the field of mechanical manufacturing before that. Therefore, after the German automobile industry was thoroughly developed, Stuttgart naturally became one of the important centers of the German automobile industry.

Other cities in Germany, such as Rüsselsheims, Munich, Zwickau, Berlin, Essen, etc., also have developed automobile industries, but their scale is not as large as Stuttgart. For example, Berlin's automobile companies basically rely on the support of some small and medium-sized automobile companies.

Essen's automobile industry was an attempt by the German military giant Krupp, but it also did not develop.

These are representative cities for the development of Germany's domestic automobile industry. There is no shortage of other East African and American automobile companies investing in and building factories in Germany. East African automobile companies have set up production lines in Stuttgart.

Albrecht smiled and said, "In terms of my knowledge of the development of Stuttgart, I may not know as much as you do. After all, when I was young, I basically lived in Vienna, and I only officially inherited the throne of the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1921."

Stuttgart is the closest "big city" to Hechingen, and Ernst visited it often when he was young, but that was a thing of the past century.

He went on to say: “Moreover, East Africa has made a lot of contributions to Stuttgart’s development, and many industries have investments from East Africa.”

Even now, Stuttgart has a lot of East African investment industries. After all, Hechingen, the hometown of the Rhine royal family, is just a small town. Even if the Rhine royal family gives back, it can't take in that much.

Ernst said with emotion: "Stuttgart is also a place with good memories of my youth. My father and I visited this city the most when we were young. This trip to Europe may be my last time to visit Stuttgart."

One of the important purposes of Ernst's visit to Europe this time was to revisit old places, so the last stop was his hometown of Hechingen.

In addition, the Far Eastern Empire is also one of the places Ernst wants to go. Unfortunately, he did not have much energy before. Now that Crown Prince Friedrich is responsible for state affairs, he can only spare time to visit Europe. If he has the chance in the future, he would like to visit his hometown in his previous life.

…

A week later, Ernst's trip to Europe came to an end. After staying in the Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen for a few days, he embarked on his journey back home.

While Ernst was drifting on the sea, a historic event was taking place in New York on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

August 15, 1929.

The stock market on Wall Street in New York suddenly collapsed. From the 15th to the next few days, almost all stock prices plummeted, tens of millions of stocks were sold, and hundreds of billions of dollars evaporated in an instant. The prosperous twenties in the United States came to an end.

At the same time as the U.S. stock market collapsed, an encrypted telegram was quickly transmitted via the Atlantic cable to the East African capital of Rhineland.

Crown Prince Friedrich immediately convened an emergency government meeting.

"Everyone, the US stock market crashed this morning. I think everyone should pay attention to this. What does this stock market crash in the US across the Atlantic mean to us and the whole world?"

"The outbreak of this stock market crash shows that a new round of economic crisis will soon spread to the whole world, centered on the United States. The United States is the second largest industrial country in the world after East Africa, and their industrial capacity is not much less than that of the Empire."

"Next, cheap U.S. industrial products will hit the global commodity market like a huge wave, triggering a bloody collapse in the prices of industrial products in the international market."

"Especially in East Africa, countries like Germany, which have the most active and developed industries, will undoubtedly be the first to be hit. Therefore, the government should immediately start to launch emergency plans and urge East African companies to sell off as much inventory as possible before the United States. Otherwise, after a while, they will not be able to sell them even at a low price, and they will just be stuck in their hands..."

In an economic crisis, the first countries to be hit are undoubtedly the industrial countries, and the stronger the industry, the more serious the impact will be.

The reason why the crisis broke out first in the United States, just like in the previous life, was due to the barbaric development of the American market. However, even if the East African government had taken some measures long ago, it would be impossible to avoid being affected by the economic crisis triggered by the United States, because East Africa is the world's largest industrial country.

Similarly, Germany, with its highly developed industry, is also very likely to become the second country to suffer after the crisis breaks out.

On the contrary, for countries like France, where the industry is in relative decline to a certain extent, the outbreak of the economic crisis may be delayed. As for the UK, the situation is rather special. Although the industrial development in the UK has not been ideal in recent years, the financial industry in the UK is very developed. This also means that the UK may be the first to be affected by the US economic crisis, especially when a large amount of US investment comes from the UK.

Of course, Crown Prince Friedrich has no intention of caring about the lives of other countries now. He must first ensure that the losses in East Africa can be minimized. As for avoiding an economic crisis in East Africa, this situation is impossible.

East Africa today is different from what it was 20 years ago. As the East African economy is deeply tied to the world market, the economic crisis will inevitably spread to the African continent.

Especially for East African foreign trade companies, the collapse of US industrial product prices will first cause a huge blow to these companies, so the East African governments can only cut off their arms to survive.

Crown Prince Friedrich ordered: "All state-owned enterprises involved in foreign trade should be notified immediately so that they can process the overseas orders that have been accumulated as soon as possible. At the same time, early warnings should be issued to the private market to guide them to prepare for the crisis..."

With the quick action of the East African government, just after the meeting ended, information was quickly sent from Rhine City to all parts of the country through telephone, telegram, etc. East African state-owned enterprises were the first to make plans. As for the private market, even with the government's reminders, not everyone was aware of the subsequent risks.

This is not surprising. After all, at that time, the US government on the other side of the ocean, including its President Hoover, had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem when the economic crisis had already arrived.

(End of this chapter)