Chapter 328: Chapter 286: Stock Exchange

As time entered September 1910, the floods in several provinces in East Asia became more and more severe, causing local people to plunder food and riots broke out among refugees, creating a desperate situation.

It was time for Australasia to show its good side. Arthur announced, on behalf of Australasia, that they would send 100 tons of food and fifty thousand Australian dollars in aid to the disaster-stricken areas, demonstrating Australasia’s commitment to peace and friendship.

Sure enough, after receiving the good news of Australasia’s aid, not only did the local governments promote it extensively, but the local victims and refugees were also very grateful to Australasia.

Unfortunately, what they didn’t know was that the income Australasia earned from selling food during this disaster was easily hundreds of times more than the aid they provided.

In early September, the first securities exchange in Australasia was established in Sydney, and Arthur attended the opening ceremony of the exchange, delivering a speech asserting the importance of the securities exchange.

As a matter of fact, stock trading had already taken place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1602. At that time, the Dutch government printed the world’s first stock, shares in the East India Company.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Britain, and the United States successively established their own securities exchanges, which have been in existence for at least one hundred years.

Even in the seemingly underdeveloped island countries that Arthur observed, two stock exchanges were established in 1878.

In comparison, the establishment of Australasia’s stock exchange was far behind other countries.

The newly-established Sydney Stock Exchange was under the control of the Ministry of Finance and was not aimed at making a profit.

However, the establishment of the stock exchange and the stock market played an important role in the development of both the country and private enterprises.

Private enterprises could choose to go public on the stock exchange, selling their company in several shares to other people.

This allowed cash-strapped companies to raise development funds in the stock market, meeting the large amounts of capital needed for construction and development.

In addition to raising funds, the stock market also diversified investment risks and increased the value of private enterprise assets.

This benefitted the development of Australasian businesses and also attracted a large amount of external capital to Australasia, driving all aspects of the region’s development.

Considering the population and economic scale, establishing the stock exchange in Sydney was already sufficient.

Sydney is the only city in Australasia with a population of over one million, and it is the political, economic, and cultural center, naturally attracting more capital.

It is believed that after the establishment of the stock exchange, small and medium-sized enterprises in Australasia would also see some development.

As September gradually passed, Arthur became increasingly concerned about the situation in Europe.

According to historical developments, the Second Moroccan Crisis should be imminent.

The Moroccan Crisis consisted of a political conflict between Germany and France in Morocco, and it also intensified competition in Europe and exacerbated the deterioration of relations between Germany and other countries.

After the First Moroccan Crisis and the occupation of the eastern part of Morocco by French forces in March 1907 under the pretext of a doctor being killed, tensions between Germany and France increased suddenly.

However, at that time, Germany chose a conciliatory attitude that surprised other countries, agreeing to submit the incident to arbitration, thus peacefully resolving the issue.

The main reasons for Germany’s conciliatory attitude were twofold. First, the previous Bosnian crisis had already made the European situation extremely tense, and the Germans did not want to add fuel to the fire. Secondly, the First Moroccan Crisis made Germany realize that France’s control of Morocco was difficult to resist.

Instead of continuing to fight against France in Morocco, it would be better to compromise and exchange for Germany’s economic interests in Morocco, as well as compensation from France.

After all, Germany, no matter how you put it, was the second major power in the world. If it made concessions to France in Morocco, France would have to give some compensation!

Therefore, on February 9, 1909, Germany and France signed the Franco-German Agreement. France declared its recognition of the independence and integrity of Morocco and acknowledged Germany’s equal economic rights in Morocco.

Germany, on the other hand, recognized France’s special political rights in Morocco and promised not to interfere with French actions to maintain peace and stability in Morocco.

The signing of the Franco-German Agreement satisfied the politicians and upper echelons of both countries to a great extent, and it even greatly eased the contradiction between the two nations, almost shifting the Franco-German contradiction to the negotiating table rather than the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the rapprochement between France and Germany made the British extremely cautious and observant.

After all, there was no possibility of reconciliation between Germany and France as long as Britain was involved.

No matter whether it was Germany or France, both countries had a dominant position in Europe. If these two countries united, they would really be able to control the whole of Europe.

This was something the British absolutely did not want to see. After the reconciliation between France and Germany, wouldn’t their enemy naturally become Britain?

Moreover, if Germany could reconcile with France, couldn’t it also reconcile with Russia?

And what would Britain do then?

It should be noted that although Britain and France were the two countries with the largest colonial possessions in the world at that time, the majority of the benefits were actually controlled by Britain.

The true enemies of the major powers in Europe, one could imagine, are the United Kingdom.

As the famous European empire that stirs up trouble, can the British Empire tolerate such a situation?

Not to mention, the reconciliation between Germany and France is the last thing the UK wants to see. After the Franco-German reconciliation, the major contradictions on the European continent will also dissipate.

This will lead to the reason for the opposition between the two major military blocs becoming the conflict between Britain and Germany, or in plain words, the struggle between the first and second major powers for the position of world hegemony.

Under such circumstances, will France and Russia still willingly sacrifice themselves for Britain?

Even not participating would be a good option. After all, the British Empire occupies the most colonies and has the largest share of the spoils among all the powers. If everyone was at peace, dividing the British Empire would seem to be beneficial to most countries.

If history follows its course, the Second Moroccan Crisis will erupt in a few months.

The Second Moroccan Crisis made the British-German conflict even more acute, as Germany became the sole target of British politics.

Meanwhile, the Second Moroccan Crisis also made the relations between the Anglo-French Agreement even stronger.

Because at the most critical moment for France, Britain came to its aid and struck a fatal blow against Germany.

This made the French people extremely grateful to Britain and strengthened the close cooperation between the two countries in various aspects in order to jointly fight against Germany.

The Second Moroccan Crisis created an even more tense situation in Europe, even making the atmosphere of war grow stronger.

If it weren’t for Britain’s tough stance during the crisis and the German retreat, the Second Moroccan Crisis might have become the catalyst for World War I.

Anyway, being prepared for this crisis is necessary. The Moroccan crisis in history was relatively well resolved, but who can guarantee that the Moroccan crisis in this world wouldn’t become a fuse for war?

After all, this world has a butterfly like Arthur, and many developments and previous histories have already been different.

Under such circumstances, it’s not impossible for Britain and Germany to have other ideas.

If Germany chose to be tough, wouldn’t that mean World War I was coming?

Of course, even if the Second Moroccan Crisis did not become the catalyst for World War I, it would still be necessary to be prepared for it in advance.

This crisis has caused the three major European powers, Britain, Germany, and France, to focus their attention entirely on it, making them busy with this struggle and many other ambitious countries to take advantage of the crisis to expand their interests.

For example, the Italo-Turkish War and the Balkan Wars that broke out during the crisis.

It is worth mentioning that in both of these wars, one of the protagonists was the already decayed Ottoman Turkish Empire.

It is worth mentioning that the historical catalyst for World War I, the Sarajevo Incident, is also related to the Balkan Wars.

The Balkan Wars, to be precise, were wars between the Balkan nations and Turkey, including Serbia, where Sarajevo played a leading role.

After the two Balkan Wars, the Balkan states formed two opposing camps.

On one side were Serbia, Greece, Romania, and Montenegro, backed by the Allies.

On the other side were Bulgaria and Turkey, backed by the German-Austrian-led Central Powers.

From this, we can see the control and influence of the great powers on the small countries. Due to the influence of the two major European military blocs, the Balkan region was also divided into two factions.

Since they were divided into two major factions, it was inevitable that conflicts would break out between them.

As one of the Balkan states, Serbia naturally had ambitions. Serbia fantasized about unifying the Balkans and establishing a Greater Serbia-Yugoslavia.

This ambition naturally conflicted with the strategic interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the Austro-Hungarian Empire had annexed two years earlier, the majority of the inhabitants were Serbs and Serbia was adjacent to them.

Because of border conflicts, Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire became enemies, but small countries could never resist big countries.

Therefore, some young nationalist officers in Serbia formed a Mafia-like organization called Unity or Death, nicknamed the Black Hand.

And this organization, formed by Serbian officers, was the one that would later provide weapons to the assassins who killed Archduke Ferdinand.

It can only be said that the conflicts between the countries in Europe are related. The Second Moroccan Crisis prompted Italy to launch the Italo-Turkish War.

It was precisely because the Italo-Turkish War made the Turks preoccupied that the Balkan countries formed an alliance and launched the First Balkan War.

Later, due to the uneven distribution of war gains and the confrontation of the countries behind them, the Balkan countries split into two factions.

Moreover, Serbia’s territorial expansion during the two wars gave birth to the idea of ​​​​establishing a Greater Serbian South Slavia.

This idea conflicted with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which in turn angered some young Serbian nationalist officers, particularly those who opposed the Greater Serbian doctrine and were hostile to Serbia, such as Archduke Ferdinand, a key figure in Austria-Hungary.