"Your Excellency, Minister, there are two international students outside who want to see you."
The assistant walked into the office and reported to Hu Jingde.
"What's matter?"
"International students wanted to intern in German factories and gain experience, but most companies rejected their applications, so they wanted to seek help from the consulate."
"Interning in a factory is a good thing. Go and invite those two international students in. I want to hear their thoughts in person."
Handling international student affairs is an important responsibility of the Embassy in Germany. In the past ten years, the number of government-sponsored and private self-financed students who have traveled across the ocean to study abroad has exceeded 7,000. Among them, excluding the 2,000 who have returned to China after completing their studies,
There are more than 5,000 students studying in Europe.
Among the more than 5,000 international students, more than half are students in Germany, about 3,000. The second largest number are students in Austria (Austro-Hungary), with about 1,000 students. The remaining 1,000 students are scattered in the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands.
, Switzerland and other countries.
Sending students abroad is the most effective way to absorb and learn modern Western science and technology. The benefits of sending a large number of students abroad are self-evident.
But this does not mean that the local government can completely follow its own wishes and send all the selected students to study in Europe.
There are three main reasons:
First, there are a limited number of local people in Han, between the ages of 10 and 15, and there are not enough young students with basic culture and learning ability. That is to say, from 1880 onwards, with the new generation of locals, they reached the age to study abroad.
As the number of people in the lower limit gradually increased, this restriction was slowly changed.
Secondly, European countries have restrictions on the number of Chinese students studying abroad. Due to early small-scale military conflicts, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy have reservations about accepting Chinese students. The governments of the three countries review Chinese students living in their countries every year.
, and then determine the specific number of Chinese students studying abroad in the next year based on the results of the analysis and review of data by the governments of the three countries.
Britain, France, and Italy are unwilling to accept large-scale Chinese students. Therefore, overseas students sent from the mainland can only receive education in Germany and Austria-Hungary, which have relatively close economic ties and have no strategic conflict between the two sides.
Germany and Austria-Hungary also did not allow Chinese students to enter the two countries. From 1871 to 1878, the number of Chinese students was only more than 3,000. In addition to the limit on the number of students of appropriate age, the German and Austria-Hungarian governments gave 500 students each year.
The cap on international students is also an important factor.
After 1879, the Han Dynasty successfully annexed Argentina and Uruguay, becoming a very important country in male America in terms of territory and population. In addition, it cured Prince Valmad and established an empire with Crown Prince Frederick and his family.
Good personal relationships have led the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary to further relax restrictions on the number of Chinese students abroad, raising the upper limit of official Chinese students to 1,200 and the upper limit of private self-financed students to 700 each year.
Third, due to the limitation of study abroad funds, each government-sponsored international student can receive a minimum of four years of university education overseas, and a maximum of seven, eight or even ten years of education.
During their studies abroad, each international student spends an average of 200 Chinese yuan per year, and more than 5,000 students studying abroad spend more than 1 million Chinese yuan a year.
Affected by various factors, the number of Chinese students studying abroad cannot achieve the rapid growth expected by the local government.
It is difficult for the foreign policies of the governments of Britain, France, and Italy to change in the short term. Germany and Austria-Hungary have just raised the upper limit for Chinese students studying abroad. If we want the German government to further increase the number of foreign students, I am afraid it will not be a task that can be completed within one or two years.
Therefore, in front of Hu Jingde, the effective measures that can be taken at present are to apply for funding for international students on the one hand, and to reasonably allocate the funds for studying abroad on the other hand. On the premise of ensuring the quality of students' learning and life, try to use the limited funds as much as possible.
Use it on more students.
Hu Jingde has been fighting for a share of study abroad funds, and the two international students who came to see him today gave him a good idea to save money for studying abroad.
"Based on the principle of individual voluntariness, government-sponsored overseas students can choose whether to use their vacation time to intern in factories to earn part of their living expenses. For private self-financed overseas students, it does not matter if their family background is average or above, but those with excellent academic performance and average family conditions
For students, the embassy can take the lead and introduce them to factory internships in their majors. They can use their vacation time to work-study, which is also a good way to save money and allow more students with average family financial conditions to obtain the opportunity to study abroad.
"
After analyzing the benefits of a work-study program, Hu Jingde made a preliminary plan in his mind, and then asked his assistant to invite the two international students into the office.
"You can think of interning in a factory, earning money for daily life through learning professional knowledge, and saving money for studying abroad for the country. This is a good idea and has the potential to be promoted."
Hu Jingde smiled and said gently: "The number of international students sent by the local government has not reached the upper limit required by the German government. If we adopt the work-study method, more students can get the opportunity to study abroad.
There is no problem with your proposal in my opinion. The embassy will be responsible for helping international students find suitable internship factories. When the arrangements are made, I will send someone to the University of Berlin to inform you."
"Thank you, Your Excellency, Minister! We will definitely live up to the expectations of the country and Your Excellency, the Minister, study scientific and technological knowledge seriously, and strive to return to our homeland to serve the country as soon as possible!"
Tan Yaoxun and Pan Mingzhong said happily.
"The prosperity of a country requires the efforts of all citizens. You should go back to school first and report the names of all students so that the embassy can contact different factories according to each student's major and skills."
"Thank you so much, Minister."
The two of them saluted Hu Jingde, said some words of gratitude again, and later left the embassy excitedly.
"Counsellor Zhao, send electricity to the embassies in Britain, France, and Italy and ask if the economy in the three countries has experienced a certain degree of recession like Germany?"
After sending away the two students, Hu Jingde relied on the sensitivity of a diplomat and immediately issued an order to the diplomats in the legation...
After entering modern industrial society, European countries have experienced more than ten economic crises of varying scales.
The most recent one was the twelfth economic crisis from 1873 to 1879.
In 1873, a financial crisis broke out on the Vienna Stock Exchange. The crisis quickly spread to London, Paris, Frankfurt, New York and other financial cities.
Financial markets panicked, and railroad stocks fell.
In September 1873, Jay-Cook Financial Company, one of the most prosperous banks in the United States, went bankrupt due to railroad speculation. The New York stock market plummeted, and 5,000 commercial companies and 57 securities trading companies collapsed one after another.
This crisis is mainly a heavy industry crisis, with the light and textile industry being relatively little affected, as is the case in all countries. Investment expansion during the crisis can only mean further excess production capacity, which means the coming of a larger-scale crisis. But this crisis
It lasted for a long time, prices fell sharply, and the process of moving toward monopoly became more conscious. Monopoly organizational forms such as cartels, trusts, and syndicates developed during this period.
In response to the twelfth economic crisis, the United States and Germany successively adopted trade protectionist policies and used the method of strengthening infrastructure construction to transform the economic crisis into economic construction, thus getting out of the economic crisis earlier than Britain and France.
However, blind investment in infrastructure is not a panacea. Take the United States as an example. From 1879 to 1883, the United States built a total of nearly 53,000 kilometers of railways, accounting for about 50% of the world's railway construction during the same period. The output of major heavy industry products doubled
.
In 1882, steel companies had overcapacity, railroad construction in the United States was on the wane, and stocks of heavy industry companies such as steel and coal fell one after another, triggering the thirteenth economic crisis in world economic history.
Banks and investors sold railroad stocks and bonds. Railroad investment shrank suddenly. From 1882 to 1886, the wholesale price index fell 24.1%. The depression lasted four years.
During the same period, the British economy began to decline as early as 1881, and the crisis deepened after the American railroads receded. During the crisis, steel production fell for the first time, reaching 15.9%, cotton consumption shrank by 19.7%, and the shipbuilding industry declined the most.
Reaching 62.8%. The unemployment rate was 2.3% in 1882, increased to 8.1% in 1884, and reached 10.2% in 1886.
France's severity was second only to the United States. In 1882, the Bank of Union, Lyon and Rolle collapsed, shocking the country. In the same year, more than 7,000 business failures occurred. From 1884 to 1886, the number of bankrupt businesses and the number of unemployed people increased further.
From 1882 to 1885, imports and exports declined for several consecutive years, with exports falling by 13.6% and imports falling by 15.2%. The output of coal, iron, and cotton consumption all dropped significantly.
The consequences of the Thirteenth Economic Crisis were initially revealed. When the embassies in various European countries sent the collected economic information back to their home countries, even if they had not heard of the economy from 1882 to 1886, with the help of subsequent Western countries, every seven or eight years, every ten years
With the impression of an economic crisis breaking out, Li Mingyuan also began to smell the smell of another economic crisis.
"As you all take a look, the economies of major European countries are showing signs of recession, and the shipbuilding industry is particularly severely affected."
Li Mingyuan distributed the received telegram to everyone to read, and added: "I was originally curious as to why the German government suddenly changed its attitude. Not only did it agree to the request to build two armored cruisers locally, but it also agreed to license the construction technology related to armored cruisers to us.
.
Now it seems that it is not that the Germans have become more generous, but that the economic crisis broke out in Europe and the Volcan shipyard was having a hard time, so they relaxed on the issue of warship technology transfer."
"Will the economic crisis in Europe affect local economic development?"
Liu Pu said worriedly.
"There will still be some impact, but it's not a big problem."
Li Mingyuan turned his attention to the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Agriculture, and asked: "What are the data of the local economy and agricultural exports in the past six months?"
"Your Majesty, the ten-year development strategy is advancing steadily. The production capacity of local steel, machinery, chemical and other industries continues to expand at an annual growth rate of more than 14%. There are no signs of being affected by the European economic crisis in various industrial fields."
"The share of meat and grain exports has fluctuated in a small range. In the second half of 1882, the total export volume of agricultural products dropped by about 2%. However, due to the reduction in manufacturing costs of fur and food processing enterprises, it is expected that the export earnings of agricultural products this year will be slightly
It is higher than the level of the same period last year, and there will be no loss or decrease in profits."
The Director-General of the Ministry of Industry and the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture reported one after another.
"The overall level of local industrialization is still in its infancy, and the economic crisis in Europe will not affect South America for the time being."
After listening to the reports of the two people, Li Mingyuan arranged: "However, the economic crisis in Europe is good news for the local area. The local area can just take advantage of the European economic recession in recent years to vigorously introduce new technologies in traditional heavy industries such as steel and machinery.
Make up for the shortcomings of local industrial development.
Liu Pu, I will leave this matter to you. The Ministry of Finance will take the lead in leading the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and other departments to discuss it carefully and come up with a suitable plan as soon as possible, and then report it to the government and implement it quickly."
