Chapter 479 European Union

Time passed day by day, and soon it was mid-February of 1940.

The Soviet Union was still struggling on the Soviet-Finnish battlefield. Finland's Mannerheim Line had long been dilapidated and shaky, but it had managed to hold on until now. According to German intelligence, the Soviet army's casualties had reached 800,000, while Finland's casualties were less than 30,000. For a time, the Soviet army's combat effectiveness became a laughing stock in countries around the world, mocking it as a paper tiger that was good-looking but useless.

But no matter how Stalin roared, how he slammed the table and issued death orders; the Soviet army still failed to make any progress.

"It's really a shame to die for face!" Yannick couldn't help but sigh. Even in such a situation, Stalin did not withdraw his troops and stop the war.

But this is understandable. Stalin needs to consolidate his authority. At this time, withdrawing troops means that the war has failed, and it also means that many of Stalin's measures may also fail. Once people no longer trust him, many of his policies will be difficult to implement.

Stalin would never allow failure, so he could only fight Finland to the end.

This war also allowed the snipers sent to Finland to show their skills. Simon Haye alone shot and killed more than 200 Soviet soldiers, and his partner Tias also killed more than 200 people; the rest of the snipers also achieved good results, which made the Soviet soldiers shudder at these snipers and called them the White Death.

On the British side, Northern Ireland fell. After the unification of Ireland, Irish President De Grasshead announced that he would contribute to the complete elimination of the evil British Empire.

The unification of Ireland completely blocked the British mainland, and the dense mines in the surrounding waters made British ships unable to leave the port. Even if the British wanted to send people to sweep mines, these minesweepers would either be sunk by various new mines of the German army or sunk by German warships cruising in nearby waters. And even if they tried their best to sweep mines, they could not catch up with the speed of the German mines.

Even so, Churchill had no intention of surrendering. According to the estimation of the German intelligence department, even if these British people only ate two meals a day, they could only last for a year at most, and they would starve to death after a year. I don’t know what this guy insisted on; he is crazy.

But Yannick didn’t want to wait for a year for them to starve to death. After all, there is a saying that the longer the night, the more dreams there are; he still planned to attack the British mainland at the end of February according to the plan; to completely eradicate this European cancer.

In addition, there are many good news, such as nearly 500 tons of gold ornaments dug out from the pyramids in Egypt; the intelligence department secretly brought Molotov’s daughter to Germany; the navy’s "Tiger Shark" super submarine has entered the sea trial, etc.

This day Yannick invited Prime Minister Pétain of Vichy France.

After a round of greetings, both the host and the guest sat down, and Yannick said. "Today, I invited the Prime Minister to discuss something."

Prime Minister Pétain smiled self-deprecatingly. "Your Highness is too polite. If there is anything I can do for you, just tell me."

Since he was so polite, Yannick didn't bother to be polite anymore and went straight to the point. "I want to establish a European Union."

"European Union?" Prime Minister Pétain was stunned. "You mean the 'United States of Europe'?"

Prime Minister Pétain was not unfamiliar with the so-called "United States of Europe", because France once had a dream of a United States of Europe centered on France, and this dream can be traced back to the famous Napoleon.

In European history, Napoleon can be regarded as the first person to put the "United States of Europe" into practice. The imagination of the United States of Europe is the third factor of Napoleon's nature and the source of his confidence and energy.

His many wars of conquest in Europe were basically to unify European countries, thereby ending the disaster of politicians in European countries leading the entire nation into war due to their own selfish interests.

However, since France was limited in economy, military and geography, and war was ultimately a contest of comprehensive national strength between countries, Napoleon's military strength was ultimately defeated by the huge united power generated by the anti-French alliance formed by European countries, and Europe lost an opportunity to form the "United States of Europe".

Yannick nodded. "You can also say that the European Union will have a unified foreign policy, unified armed forces, a unified parliament, the same laws, and a unified currency unit and central bank. People, capital, and goods can flow freely in the European Union."

Seeing Prime Minister Pétain open his mouth slightly in shock, Yannick smiled and said. "In the future, this alliance will become a unified country, which will be the most powerful country in the world. Its currency will replace the pound as the world's hard currency, and its metropolises will become the place of yearning for outstanding talents from all over the world. What do you think? I guess the French people should have no objection to this, after all, this was Napoleon's unfulfilled wish back then."

"..." Prime Minister Pétain thought for a while and asked. "The unified currency you are talking about is your country's mark?"

"No." Yannick shook his head. "We will issue a new currency called the 'Euro'. All European Union countries will abandon their own currencies and use the Euro."

"Is this currency based on the gold standard? Is it pegged to the British pound?"

Although the foundation of the international gold standard is gold, before World War II, the British pound replaced gold to perform various functions of international currency. Holders of British pounds can exchange gold at the Bank of England at any time, and using British pounds is more convenient and superior than using gold. At that time, Britain relied on its economic power status as the "world factory" and its colonial political power status as the "sun never sets", as well as its advantages in trade, shipping, marine insurance, and financial services, making the British pound a currency widely used in the world and making London a world financial center.

In international trade at that time, most commodities were denominated in British pounds, 90% of international settlements were in British pounds, and the international reserves of central banks in many countries were in British pounds rather than gold. Opening a British pound account in London can earn interest, while storing gold not only has no interest, but also requires custody fees. Holding British pounds is more convenient and profitable than holding gold, so some Western economists call the international gold standard before World War II the British pound standard.

Yannick curled his lips in disdain. "Mr. Prime Minister, are you kidding? The British Empire is on the decline and is about to perish; how can the new currency be related to the British pound? It is naturally the gold standard."

Jannick does not need to worry too much about this matter. After all, the US currency after World War II in the original time and space, that is, the US dollar, is the gold standard linked to gold.

At that time, compared with the war-torn Asia and Europe, the United States, far away in North America, was the only country that was not affected by the war. During World War II, President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal and returned fiscal power to the central government for regulation. Therefore, the capital accumulation of the United States is extremely rich. Therefore, after the war, the United States is the country with the richest gold reserves in the world, the most stable silver root, and the US dollar is also the most powerful to become a universal currency.

The "Bretton Woods Conference" held at the end of World War II established the US dollar, a reliable currency supported by gold, as the benchmark currency for international trade financing. The currencies of other countries are pegged to the US dollar at a fixed exchange rate that rarely changes. The goal of the fixed exchange rate system is to maintain the integrity of trading countries and prevent them from falling into a long-term trade deficit.

But it was not expected that it would dictate the standard of living of trading nations, which is measured by many other factors besides exchange rates. It is for this reason that the Bretton Woods system, conceived under the conventional wisdom of international economics, did not take into account the cross-border capital flows required to finance world trade.

In 1971, under pressure from persistent fiscal and trade deficits that would drain the US gold reserves, US President Nixon abandoned the dollar's peg to gold (1 ounce of gold = $35), and the dollar has since become a non-redeemable paper currency without any national fiscal and monetary discipline.

In short, since 1971, the dollar's reserve currency status has not been based on gold, but only on the US geopolitical power that forces all key commodities to be priced in dollars.