Rebirth of Hong Kong 1981

"Hello, Secretary Lan (Secretary Blue)"

"You two, the car is ready. Let's get in the car first. The boss has a manor in London. Everything has been arranged for you. You don't need to stay in a hotel."

"The manor? The boss is really rich." Cai Lan said enviously. You must know that this is London, where every inch of land is expensive, and the house price is not necessarily lower than that of Xiangjiang.

In particular, Cai Lan clearly remembered that Lan Meiren was talking about the manor, not the villa. The area of ​​the manor in England is the same as the villa in Xiangjiang, and there is no comparison between the two.

Everyone followed Lan Meiren, and soon saw a row of vehicles parked on the side of the road, one of which was an extended version, which directly blinded the eyes.

Many British people around stopped and looked, guessing the identities of Li Lizhen and his party.

These days, the Chinese are very low-key in foreign countries, which is completely different from the rich second generation in China who spend their days and drinks outside.

Lan Meiren walked up to the extended car, saw that Guan Zhilin hesitated for a moment, and was about to get into the car behind, so she couldn't help but said: "Miss Guan, let's get in this car together."

Seeing the three girls getting into the car, Junzi directly closed the door, Cai Lan felt very cold, but fortunately, he was smart enough to get into the car behind him with his assistant.

After getting in the car, Li Lizhen took a look inside the car and asked, "Sister Lan, what is brother doing? Are you busy?"

Lan Meiren: "The boss just flew from Spain to London yesterday. He was invited by Mrs. Thatcher to have dinner at home last night. Manager Yuan came to see the boss early this morning. He has been busy until now. What is the specific matter? Wait for you to see After the boss, I will ask him later, some things, I dare not spread them outside."

"Mrs. Thatcher? Who is that?" For Li Lizhen, who went abroad for the first time and never cared about the lives of foreigners, hearing the name of Mrs. Thatcher was unfamiliar.

Although Xiangjiang is under British rule, Li Lizhen knows nothing about the name of the British Prime Minister except that the Queen is Elizabeth.

Even the person who just took over as the governor of Xiangjiang has not been figured out yet, so when she heard the name Mrs Thatcher, she first thought it was the rich man's wife.

The blue beauty saw that she didn't know who Mrs. Thatcher was, so she explained: "Mrs. Thatcher is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She is a woman whose status is a bit lower than the Queen's, but whose rights are greater than the Queen's."

"Prime Minister" Li Lizhen heard the words, her small mouth was cylindrical, and she couldn't believe it: "Sister Lan, you mean that my brother had dinner with the British Prime Minister last night."

Although Li Lizhen didn't know who the British Prime Minister was, she still knew the official position of Prime Minister. When she heard that Yang Chen had dinner with the British Prime Minister yesterday, Li Lizhen didn't know how to express her feelings for a while.

"That's right." Lan Meiren smiled and said, "Do you think it's amazing?"

"Yeah." Li Lizhen nodded and said, "My brother is amazing. I have never had dinner with the prime minister of that country."

As a commoner, Li Lizhen, not to mention sitting with the British Prime Minister for dinner, even the Governor of Xiangjiang, she has never enjoyed it.

Chapter 737 British Coal Industry

living room

Yang Chen is discussing with Yuan Tianfan which industry companies in the UK to buy. There are many car companies in the UK and there are many choices. There is no need to worry about this.

Others that are relatively profitable must be industries that are convenient for monopoly. As long as anything involves monopoly, there will inevitably be unimaginable benefits.

Even for a crematorium, the interests involved will surprise people.

Led by coal, electricity, oil and steel industries in the UK, the UK, as the most thoroughly industrialized country, has great demand in these areas, and this type of industry is also highly monopolized, and the scale of state-owned enterprises involved in the above industries is also large. Selling shares, realizing privatization, can turn losses into profits immediately.

You may wonder why the UK, as a capitalist country, still has problems with state-owned enterprises.

This point has to be talked about after World War II.

After the end of World War II, the British Labor Party came to power and set off two waves of nationalization, especially in infrastructure and important industrial fields. After these two waves, the proportion of state-owned enterprises in the national economy in the UK reached its peak.

Especially in important strategic industries such as coal, power generation, postal services, railways, communications, and shipbuilding, the proportion of state-owned enterprises has almost reached [-]%.

In addition to these infrastructure fields, in many competitive fields, the proportion of the state-owned economy has also reached quite astonishing heights.

For example, in the steel and civil aviation industries, the proportion of state-owned enterprises in the UK exceeds [-]%, and in the fields of automobile manufacturing and petrochemicals, the proportion of the state-owned economy is also close to [-]%.

Of course, after the end of the war, Britain implemented nationalization, which also had unavoidable difficulties.

After World War II, the British economy was in dire straits. Facing a country devastated by the war, the state-owned economy played a very important role in restoring infrastructure and restarting strategically important industrial fields.

With the help of the country's strong capital, state-owned enterprises are not limited to the advantages of short-term effects, and gradually play a leading role in intensive industries such as infrastructure and heavy industry. This has played a very important role in the recovery of the British post-war economy.

However, as the war went away, the disadvantages of state-owned enterprises were immediately manifested.

First of all, production efficiency has dropped sharply, and most state-owned enterprises are facing a very embarrassing situation, that is, the problem of profit and loss.

Of course, there are some objective reasons. After the economic recovery, the tertiary industry represented by the financial and service industries has increasingly become the pillar of the national economy.

Factories, led by heavy industry, are collectively in trouble due to shrinking demand.

In particular, the outbreak of the oil crisis in the 70s further exacerbated the plight of traditional industries.

At the same time, British state-owned enterprises, like state-owned enterprises in other countries, inevitably have disadvantages such as overstaffed institutions and bureaucracy.

The big pot of rice lacks an incentive mechanism, so that workers have no enthusiasm, lack of competitiveness and innovation.

An enterprise without innovation and competitiveness will only go to perish in the end. In the 80s, the world economy was in a booming stage, and the third industrial wave had already set off. Facing the rapid development of emerging economies, Mrs. Thatcher led The Conservative Party knows that if the UK does not change, it will really become a second-rate country.

The former hegemony was robbed by the United States. If it loses its status as a first-class country, then the United Kingdom will live in the future.I'm afraid it will be even more difficult.

State-owned enterprises have been losing money year after year, putting huge financial pressure on the British government, the deficit has increased sharply, and the economy has also fallen into inflation.

Selling state-owned enterprises to private individuals is currently the most urgent matter for the British government. Yuan Tianfan has received Yang Chen's instructions a long time ago to collect first-hand information.

"Boss, I think we don't want to enter the coal mining industry for the time being. Now that the trade unions and the British government are at loggerheads, if we step in, it will easily lead to resistance."

Yang Chen said with great interest: "Why, do you think the British government will shut down all domestic coal mining enterprises in a short time?"

Yuan Tianfan said: "It's hard to say, but with the widespread use of new energy sources such as natural gas and oil, it's hard to say in other places, but it will definitely be gradually replaced in Europe."

Yuan Tianfan's words can be said to be the cruelest reality that British coal miners are facing today.

Once upon a time, coal was the blood that drove the British Industrial Revolution and was closely connected with the fate of the British Empire.

As one of the countries with the highest coal reserves, the United Kingdom has a large number of coal mines in the British Isles, and the main coal production areas are distributed near rivers or close to the sea, which saves a lot of effort in transportation, because it allows the United Kingdom to transport coal It will be sent to various places more conveniently.

In the long history, coal, together with steel and steam engines, has been a symbol of the first industrial revolution originating in Britain. The rise and fall of the coal industry is closely related to the national destiny of Britain, and it has achieved Britain's leading position in the industrial revolution.

For a long time, British anthracite has a high combustion value and less residue, so it has become the best fuel for naval vessels of various countries.

Since the 60s, when the British industrial revolution began, coal has become the core of British economic growth and the driving force behind the industrialization of European and American countries.

At its peak, Britain had more than 100 million employees and more than 3000 coal mines.

Banning coal mines, for the United Kingdom, undoubtedly smashed the jobs of countless people.

Of course, the closure of coal mines in the UK does not mean that coal mines do not make money. On the contrary, British coal mine factories are the most profitable among all state-owned enterprises.

The main reason why the British government wants to close coal mines is the air pollution caused by coal. The successive outbreaks of poisonous smog incidents have made the British government determined to completely close the coal mines.

Since the 50s, severe smog has frequently occurred in London and other big cities, especially the famous "poisonous smog incident". Under the heavy air pollution, London residents have widespread breathing difficulties and caused more than 4000 deaths.