Greece’s Roman Road - Chapter 257

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“On land, the Balkans is a place where major European powers compete fiercely. Greece needs to actively and cautiously expand into the Balkan interior and Asia Minor to fill the political and military gaps left by the decline of the weak Ottoman Empire.”

“Greece is obviously not an eastern country, nor is it a western country, but a country located between the east and the west, where the east and the west meet. If the New World is not counted, Greece is at the center of the Eurasian and African continents” Jun Shi Tan Ding said to everyone in the conference room.

“Greece wants to be a great power, it has to recognize this situationally, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage of Greece”

After listening to Constantine’s explanation, the Greek military, political and high-level officials in the audience had a general understanding of Constantine’s central empire strategy.

The so-called central empire strategy is based on the center of the Eurasian and African continent, radiating in all directions, and enhancing the influence of Greece.

The senior officers of the navy and army are naturally happy. Since they are expanding, they must increase their investment in the army.

Contrary to the cheerfulness of the military personnel, the government looks bitter and can’t help it. If this continues, the government’s fiscal deficit will become larger and larger.

“His Royal Highness, your vision for the future of Greece, Greece’s strategic plan, is indeed very grand and powerful, but is it a little too, um, unrealistic?” Prime Minister Venizelos said hesitantly.

“Currently, Greece is only a small country with shallow foundations. I hope your strategic planning can take this situation into account,” Venizelos said earnestly.

I originally wanted to give a lofty evaluation, but considering the face of the royal family, the wording was a little more euphemistic.

Regarding the attitude of the prime minister and the government, Constantine had some expectations. After all, the large-scale investment of funds into the army and navy will undoubtedly make Greece’s already tight finances even worse.

To be honest, this strategic concept does have some whimsical elements. Is it just a dream, or something, in case it can be realized?

Just like the slogan chanted by US President Monroe: “America is America’s America”, at that time, how many people thought it was possible to realize it?

“Mr. Prime Minister, as Cantoriotis said, strategic planning must naturally maintain a certain degree of forward-looking and redundancy,” Constantine said with a smile.

“Hey” with a sigh, seeing that His Royal Highness was determined, Venizelos stopped exhorting and said: “In view of the increasingly serious fiscal deficit problem in Greece, it has reached the point where it must be resolved, His Royal Highness, I invite you to a ministerial meeting at the Prime Minister’s Residence this afternoon to address the government’s lack of funding.”

Since the royal family is so unrestrained, let you also feel the pain of raising money. It is easy to pay back money, but difficult to make money. This is the voice of Venizelos at this time.

That afternoon, Constantine took a carriage to the Prime Minister’s residence.

When Constantine came in, there was a quarrel in the reception room, and I saw the Minister of Armament Giannis and the Commander of the Navy Contoriotis were entangled in the Minister of Finance Laris and Prime Minister Venizelos.

“Prime Minister, our navy urgently needs to continue to buy several new German submarines. In any case, you need to allocate a sum of money,” Cantoriotis said anxiously.

Giannis, who represents the army, is naturally not polite: “Minister Laris, our army is now actively preparing for war, and we should give priority to allocating funds to the army”

Larry, who was already a little impatient, shouted: “I also want to know where to get the money now. You can’t wait for a while. As soon as the income from the tax department next month arrives, I will transfer it to you immediately.”

While the two were entangled with Finance Minister Laris and Venizelos, Constantine came in.

However, I saw a few acquaintances in the Prime Minister’s official residence, that is, the three managers of the three major banks in Greece, the Royal Bank of Greece, the National Bank of Greece and the Alpha Bank.

Seeing Constantine’s surprised eyes, he didn’t expect to see the three here.

“The three managers are here by invitation,” Venizelos explained again and again, greeting Constantine to sit down again and again.

Venizelos nodded to Laris, who took out a stack of documents from the desk and handed it over. Venizelos transferred it and put it in front of Constantine: “His Royal Highness, money is being used everywhere in Greece now. , in addition to the previous budget, how many additional budget items have been allocated later, you should also know that even if the Ministry of Finance has more money, it will not be enough! If the government’s revenue still cannot cover the expenditure, the Greek government will immediately We are about to usher in a financial crisis, the specific situation is here, you can take a closer look.”

Constantine’s result data, carefully checked, the content is more and more amazing, even if he was mentally prepared for the huge cost of the war, but when he saw the text on the document, he was still shocked.

The war of 1912, although it was only a few months, but the Greek Ministry of Finance paid 460 million drachmas for the war, not including the cost of pacifying the wounded soldiers.

This is not the end. Now Greece is gathering troops in Macedonia, and the backward traffic conditions in Macedonia continue to change, which are two huge expenditures.

According to the data point of view, in 1912 Greece’s fiscal deficit was 230 million drachmas; in 1913 the estimated fiscal deficit was 360 million drachmas; in 1914 this figure would become 690 million drachmas Vandrachma, this figure almost catches up with Greece’s annual fiscal revenue!

“If the financial crisis cannot be resolved as soon as possible, I am afraid that the Greek government will fall before the war comes,” Venizelos said with a wry smile.

Constantine pointed to the managers of the three major banks and asked inexplicably, “Can’t we continue to issue large government bonds to the three major banks? In this case, in the short term, the government only needs to consider paying the 5% interest on the government bonds. The government’s financial constraints can also be greatly eased.”

The Minister of Finance was embarrassed and hesitated.

“What’s the matter~www.mtlnovel.com~ The three major banks are unwilling to issue government bonds for the government?”

After listening to Constantine’s words, the manager of the Royal Bank of Greece, Koledis explained: “His Royal Highness, if you strongly demand that the Royal Bank must issue government bonds for the government, the royal family, as the major shareholder of the Royal Bank, has absolute controlling rights, I am this The general manager will naturally obey orders.”

“Just as a professional manager, I have to remind you, Your Royal Highness, that the total savings received by our three major banks is about 1.2 billion drachmas, and we have issued about 360 million drachmas for the government. of national debt, in other words, the Greek Ministry of Finance is now the largest borrower of our three major banks”

“The three major banks are trying their best to find wealthy people who are interested in investing in government bonds every day to buy government bonds and ease the banks’ own predicament”

“At present, the three major banks are subject to the government’s national debt problem, which has greatly affected the liquidity of the banks. The three major banks are unprecedentedly weak. Once the domestic economy has some troubles and a bank run storm, His Royal Highness, the consequences of this, I believe that the people here are present. Not everyone wants to see it.