Greece’s Roman Road - Chapter 278

“Greek-Roman Road (!

“His Royal Highness, what do you think our government should do?” Venizelos said.

Since Crown Prince Constantine came to discuss this matter with him in person, he naturally had plans.

“My opinion is that your government can focus on agriculture in the near future,” Constantine directly stated his purpose.

“Including the increase in food import tariffs you mentioned, I will attend a package of policies to focus on supporting the development of Greece’s agriculture, and strive to achieve breakthrough development in Greece’s agriculture within one to two years, especially in terms of staple food crops.”

The annual output of wheat consumed by Greece is about 860,000 tons, of which only 120,000 tons can be produced in Greece, and the rest is solved by importing.

Originally, the population of Greece was small, and the food it needed was not conspicuous in the international food market.

It’s just that the population of Greece is growing rapidly every year, and with it, the annual tonnage of wheat imported is also increasing rapidly, which not only causes a large amount of currency outflow every year, but also increases the risk.

At present, the population of Greece, stimulated by the government’s policy of encouraging births, predicts that according to the growth rate of the population, it will buy more than 10 million in the next few years.

Now that the war in Greece is over, after disarmament, Greek society will soon usher in a baby boom.

In this case, a country with a medium population, the main food import is out of date.

Venizelos frowned and said: “The way to quickly increase the production of staple grains is to directly provide agricultural subsidies to farmers who grow staple grains. This has the most significant effect.”

“It’s just the current state of government funding. Your Royal Highness, Crown Prince, is aware of it. You are powerless. The government has no funds, and many jobs are tied up.”

Hearing that Prime Minister Venizelos once again mentioned the issue of funding, Constantine also felt a little headache.

If it weren’t for the excessive pressure on the government’s fiscal revenue, in fact, Greece’s disarmament issue would not need such a big move at all.

In fact, in the Balkans, no country’s military expenditure is less than half of its fiscal revenue!

Bulgaria has a population of more than 4 million and maintains a standing army of 500,000 all year round. Judging from this ratio, Bulgaria is completely worthy of its “Prussia of the Balkans”.

This does not only mean that the Bulgarian soldiers are hard-working, full of character, the officers are shrewd and capable, and they are brave and good at fighting.

In fact, it also pointed out the characteristics of Bulgaria’s maintenance of military force. Like Prussia, it is not the country that has an army, but an army that owns the country.

In other words, almost all of Bulgaria’s fiscal revenue is used to maintain the army!

With a country like Bulgaria as a neighbor, who dares to be careful?

Therefore, as neighboring countries, they are in a defensive mentality. In fact, Greece and Serbia also spend most of their fiscal revenue on military spending.

Just like Serbia, with a population of less than 4 million, it also supports a standing army of 200,000 people all year round. How can the financial situation be better?

It is said that the big European countries are in the arms race all the year round. In fact, the small European countries have no chance to relax.

It is not only the big countries that are under the pressure of heavy military spending, the small Balkan countries like Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria are also not easy, and everyone is also engaged in an arms race.

It’s just that the arms race that took place in the Balkans is not so high-end among the European powers, and the naval arms race between Xiangying and Germany, dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, and super-dreadnoughts are in full swing.

The independence of the Balkan countries was short-lived (Greece was the first independent Balkan country, in 1821, other Balkan countries were basically independent until the late nineteenth century), the economic development was backward, and the arms race between countries was relatively primitive. : madly violent soldiers.

Just like the Bulgarian army.

You must know that in 1912, the fiscal revenue of the Greek government was only 1.2 billion drachma; in 1913, due to the impact of the war, the growth of fiscal revenue slowed down to only 1.3 billion drachma;

In 1914, Greece began to digest the war dividends, which naturally stimulated economic development. The Ministry of Finance optimistically estimated that revenue may exceed the 1.8 billion drachma mark.

However, military expenditures were 470 million drachmas in 1912; when the war broke out in 1913, military expenditures reached 1.6 billion drachmas;

Even so, the compulsory military service system is still adopted. Otherwise, the figure of military expenditure will be increased by 20% or 30% on this basis.

Now that the General Staff is now disarmed, the Greek army will still adopt the old way, that is, the army’s basic combat unit division, divided into capable divisions and full divisions.

The army establishment in Greece was modeled after the German system, and the number of each full division was as high as 17,000.

The number of capable teachers will shrink to 7,000 or 8,000.

Each of the six main divisions has more than 17,000 people, and the military expenditure of each division is as high as more than 30 million drachmas;

As a comparison, the elite division has seven or eight thousand people per division, and the military expenditure of each division is 18 million drachmas;

The main reason why new divisions are cheap is that soldiers are obliged to do military service, so they don’t have to pay salaries, and their weapons and equipment are not as good as the main divisions, which greatly saves money!

It’s just that the main teacher is too expensive, and Greece can’t afford it! As a last resort, Constantine could only choose to raise a sufficient number of officers!

According to the current number of officers in the Bulgarian army’s reserve and the basic number of 200,000 people, once the war breaks out, Greece will start a general mobilization. Within two weeks, the Greek army can expand the number of troops by two or three times at any time.

“Now that the war is over, and without the huge expenditures of the war, your government can also let go of its hands and feet and raise funds boldly.” Constantine heard Venizelos once again mentioning the problem of financial difficulties, in a tone of encouragement said.

“Just like the method of issuing government bonds, you can raise enough funds in a short time. Now with this demonstration, after people realize the investment role of government bonds, they should be motivated to buy government bonds issued by the government.”

The current fiscal policy of the Greek government is still very conservative. Its attitude towards debt is no different from that of ordinary people, and it always wants to replace debt as soon as possible.

Unlike later generations, as long as the interest on government debts can be replaced in time, some countries even directly regard borrowing new debts to repay old debts as the main fiscal revenue.

“Maybe the government’s finances can be more active in dealing with debt issues and regard government debt as a normal state.”

Seeing Venizelos looking surprised, it was obvious that he couldn’t accept such a proactive fiscal policy in his heart.

“Of course, this is also a temporary financial means to ease the government’s financial pressure. The government should still focus on increasing fiscal revenue.” Venizelos nodded thoughtfully, planning if the government funds were too difficult to handle in a short time. , it is not that we cannot continue to issue some treasury bonds.

“The Bulgarian side has transferred the first indemnity, 80 million drachmas, to the government’s account,” Venizelos said.

“In addition, after this war, the government has a lot of land available for sale. The Greek people are still very enthusiastic about buying land. There is a large amount of minerals in Macedonia, which can sell mining rights to companies in Greece. A sum of money can be raised in a short period of time”

Before the outbreak of the Second Balkan War, the financially-strapped Greek government was already playing with the idea of ​​Macedonian land and minerals.

It was just that people in Greece were panicked at that time. Everyone knew that a war between Greece and Bulgaria to decide the ownership of Macedonia was going to break out soon. There was a risk of war. Naturally, not many Greeks really dared to take the risk of buying at that time.

After all, if the Greek army is defeated, the land and property in the Macedonian region purchased will be lost.

If you want to buy land and minerals in Macedonia now, it is not the same price as before.

Now that Greece has won the war and acquired Macedonia and Western Thrace, there is no risk at all.

The Balkans have always been a major gold producing region in Europe, with mining going back to prehistoric-ancient times.

How much gold reserves are in Greece, although Constantine can’t remember, but until the 21st century, he was still exporting gold to China.

Until the end of the 19th century, Greece’s economic level was lagging behind in history. In order to make up for the deficit in foreign trade that increased year by year, Greece’s gold has been in a state of outflow.

The Greek government, which is short of money, is now targeting gold mines. You must know that after the previous assessment by mining experts, they believed that Macedonia and Western Thrace included a lot of minerals. scale survey.

Gold mining technology is not lacking in Greece. Greek mining companies have been operating gold mines in Congo for several years.

Oh, the mining industry in this era does not have much technical content, the internal combustion engine has not yet become popular, and there are not many machines that can be used, and most of them rely on manpower.

Mining is not a good job, labor-intensive and dangerous.

Constantine estimated that there was no large-scale mining in the Ottoman Empire before, and not enough workers was also a reason!

After all, mining is a high-risk job, but Bulgaria has a limited population, and a few miners will be recruited to do it!

“We will organize manpower immediately to carry out a large-scale exploration! The five gold mines that are currently being mined are not large in scale before, with less than 1,000 mining workers! The mine has a key auction,” Venizelos said.

Ferdinand nodded, and he agreed with Venizelos’ plan.

The auction of the easy and the difficult is undoubtedly realistic, and it also satisfies the purpose of the Greek government to raise funds in the short term; all miners recruit outsiders, which can save labor costs to the greatest extent, and mining is a high-risk activity, resulting in casualties. It is inevitable.

And Greece has a limited population, and every citizen’s life is precious!

“Go ahead and do it. I will let the Intelligence Department of the General Staff provide you with convenience. They have a lot of baby clothes about the distribution of assets in Macedonia and Thrace. I hope they can help the government to auction those products smoothly as soon as possible. Minerals,” Constantine said seriously.

“Even so, in a short period of time, the government is still facing a deficit?” Constantine was a little uncertain.

With a sigh, Venizelos responded: “Although the war is over now, the impact of the war is still there in a short period of time, and the government also has a lot of work to deal with, such as the traffic construction problem in Macedonia, just now His Royal Highness The food subsidy you mentioned, the subsidy after the army layoffs, the interest on the national debt, the subsidy for the birth of the population, the new repatriation in Macedonia, the problems of schools and churches there also need to be rectified, and this is also an expenditure.”

Since the Berlin Conference in 1878, the Balkan countries have set their sights on parts of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire took the lead in taking Bosnia and Herzegovina into its pocket. In order to gain an advantage in the struggle for the ownership of Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia extended their tentacles into the Macedonia region, where the governments of the three countries expanded their schools and churches. In order to expand the country’s influence in Macedonia.

In this regard, Greece has come to the forefront of the other two countries due to its economic advantages.

From the end of the 19th century, ten percent of the Greek government’s fiscal revenue was used for infiltration work in the Macedonian region.

In 1886, three hundred and nine schools were established in the Macedonian region.

In 1897, the number of schools supported by Greece had increased to 871.

Serbia and Bulgaria, by the end of 1900, each had only more than 200 schools, and were left far behind by the Greeks.

Meanwhile, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia all fought fiercely for control of the founding schools and churches.

This kind of church school is usually organized by the consuls of the Three Kingdoms, and they accept their supervision!

Now that the ownership of Macedonia has been settled, and it is in the hands of Greece, then this mess of Macedonia will naturally be cleaned up by Greece.

“If the situation allows ~www.mtlnovel.com~ I think the Greek government needs to borrow from the UK to maintain its precarious financial problems,” Venizelos said cautiously, looking at Crown Prince Constantine.

“The glorious victory of the Balkan Wars has raised the international credit strength of the Greek government to a new level. If it really doesn’t work, you can ask the British government to come forward and guarantee it!

The government’s funding gap, for Greece, may be a pressure in the city, but for those capitalists in London, England, it is a drop in the bucket. “

After thinking about it, Constantine said beyond doubt: “In this case, the Ministry of Finance can contact the banks of various countries to discuss the borrowing conditions. This time the funding gap is too large, let’s see what conditions can be reached! “

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