Greece’s Roman Road - Chapter 291

Everyone followed the Crown Prince Constantine and filed into the conference room.

In front of the bar-shaped square table furnished in the spacious conference room, Constantine and Prime Minister Venizelos sat at the two ends respectively, and the rest went down in priority order.

“Everyone present, in addition to the senior officials of the Greek government, there are also elites in the Greek business community. Compared with the purpose of this economic meeting, there is already speculation about the purpose of this economic meeting.” As the convenor and host of the meeting, Constantine Ding first explained the content of the meeting to everyone.

“With the end of the war, the border of Greece’s northern defense has been under severe national defense pressure. The attention and energy of the entire country are focused on military and war, and there is no time to consider too many economic matters.”

“Except for the progressive tax reform that the government successfully carried out on the tax front a few years ago, very little has been accomplished”

“After the war of 1913, Greece was liberated from the heavy land-based military threat, and we will usher in a period of peace”

“However, the cloud of war currently looming over the whole of Europe is becoming more and more gloomy, and the whole of Europe is divided into two major military groups: the Allied Powers headed by France and Russia (the United Kingdom did not explicitly join the Allied Powers Group) and the Allied Powers Group headed by Germany, Austria and Italy.”

Hearing Constantine’s introduction to the current tense political and diplomatic situation in Europe, everyone in the room sat upright, with serious faces, and a look of serious concern.

“The situation competition between the two military groups is in full swing. Among them, the warship competition between Britain and Germany has cost the two countries huge funds. From a military point of view, when one party is difficult to maintain due to financial pressure. In order to avoid the further expansion of the fleet strength of both sides and the further deterioration of the situation when the warship is financed, immediately going to war has become the best choice for the weaker party.”

In order to reduce the pressure on the government in the next meeting, Constantine first gave everyone a vaccination.

This is not entirely alarmist by Constantine. In fact, the arms race between countries can easily evolve into war, unless there is a more powerful third country that uses its own strength as a guarantee to conduct strong mediation.

“As soon as war breaks out in Europe, Greece will immediately face the problem of standing in line”

“The Greek government should also take advantage of this time to quickly carry out financial reforms, and our time is also very urgent.”

Having said that, Constantine gestured to Prime Minister Venizelos opposite him.

Venizelos, who knew it, immediately said, “Just like Crown Prince Constantine said, since the establishment of the Greek state, because it has been under threat, the energy of the entire country has been used to deal with the threat of war.”

“Greece’s economy has been in a state of savage growth, and the government has rarely interfered in the operation of the economy”

“To this day, there have been many drawbacks. Recently, the whole of Greece has been making a lot of noise. The highly controversial national debt incident is the most typical representative.”

“In addition, the current economic situation in Greece also determines that we must make changes.”

“Greece’s level of industrialization is very low, and processing with supplied materials, which currently plays an important role in the Greek economy, has come to an end. Greece imports a large number of industrial raw materials from overseas, and its main export products are also low-level industrial products with very low added value.”

“Correspondingly, in addition to importing a large amount of industrial raw materials in Greece, most of the machines used in the production of enterprises are basically imported from abroad.”

“Greece has a low position in the international division of labor and is only better than an industrial dumping ground”

“The cost of buying machinery in Greece may be higher than the sum of the profits of the primary industrial products produced by these machines during their life cycle, that is to say, from a macro level, many of our enterprises are economically negative.”

“The government’s plan is to carry out reform and rectification in the field of financial order, so that Greece’s capital market can better serve the real economy and promote industrial upgrading.”

The acquisition of the Congo colony has greatly promoted the Greek economy, benefiting almost all enterprises, and the Greek capital market will also develop by leaps and bounds.

According to Congolese Governor Banning’s report, since Greece acquired Congo, the Greek business community has received no less than 2.5 billion drachmas in net gain from Congo.

It is precisely because of the large amount of funds deposited in Greek society that the government’s issuance of national debt during the war was so smooth.

It was the national debt issue that raised hundreds of millions of drachmas in just a few months to raise huge war funds, and the domestic capital of Greece entered Constantine’s vision, making Constantine aware of the strength of Greek capital.

After Constantine discussed with Prime Minister Venizelos, Venizelos, who was worried about Greece’s industrial upgrading, was overjoyed. The two hit it off and decided to regulate Greece’s domestic finance and use Greece’s domestic capital to promote industrial upgrading as much as possible. .

Hearing that the government intends to carry out such a major reform in the economic field, the business people in the conference room suddenly exploded.

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, I don’t think it is necessary for the government to get involved in the financial order. This is a brutal interference with the market economy.” Georges took the lead in attacking the government’s plan.

Greece’s current economic policy follows the example of the United Kingdom. It is a typical market economy and advocates a small government: the government tries not to interfere with the operation of the economy.

“Yes, Greek society has always admired Britain and the United States. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is very good. The invisible hand allocates resources more efficiently. The government’s brutal interference in the economy is undoubtedly a blasphemy and insult to the market economy.”

The book “The Wealth of Nations” laid the theoretical foundation of the capitalist free economy. UU reading www.uukanshu.com is widely admired in the Western world. It is the first book in the world to describe the history of industrial development and commercial development. Free trade and capitalism in the current economy provide a theoretical basis and have a crucial impact on the development of capitalism.

The Wealth of Nations views not only influenced later theorists, but also the legislation and government policies of European countries at that time.

When the Greek parliament is now debating or discussing draft laws, MPs often quote sentences from The Wealth of Nations, and once they are quoted, most opponents no longer refute them.

Some countries rely on the book’s basic ideas when formulating their policies. Smith’s views against government interference in business and commercial affairs and in favor of low tariffs and free trade had a decisive impact on government policy in the 19th century.

The impact of these policies is known in the 21st century, and their influence is still felt.

Constantine and Venizelos looked at each other, not surprised by the backlash from the business community.

After all, the economic field has always been a restricted area under government management. Capital predators and Greek business people are like wild horses on the grasslands, free and unrestrained. Now someone puts a saddle on them, which will naturally arouse their strong resistance.

Just like Georges himself, he has a huge influence in the stock exchange market and is privately called the king of the exchange.

Georges himself relied on such a position and did not know how many benefits he had obtained. The national debt project has just been successfully operated and made a big profit.

Now the government suddenly intends to reorganize the financial system and reform the economy, and the purpose is also very obvious.

If the government’s plan succeeds, his days will be over.