Holy Roman Empire

The previous African development strategy is one of the measures that the French government wants to get rid of its dependence on the outside world.

Although the development of North Africa has been slow due to insufficient capital investment, it can still be considered a success in terms of results.

France has basically achieved self-sufficiency in various economic crops including cotton, and even if it is not self-sufficient, its demand for imports has also decreased.

However, this is not enough. Not all resources can produce blood by themselves, and coal and food are still flawed.

Naturally, Elsa can't do anything about non-renewable coal.Facing a trade deficit, he can only choose food that can be solved.

Chapter 64 With Crisis Comes Opportunity

Since receiving the news that the French government intends to start the "colonial farm plan", the Vienna government has become tense.

Today, agriculture is still the most important pillar industry in Austria, absorbing the largest number of employed people.

The capacity of the international grain market is limited. If Austria hadn’t held the International Agricultural Summit and led the establishment of the International Agricultural Products Export Alliance, the major grain-producing countries would jointly control the export volume, jointly set the grain sales price, and avoid vicious competition. Everyone would not have a good life now. .

However, all of this is based on the premise of a basic balance between food supply and demand. Any increase in food production capacity in any country will cause market shocks.

Franz: "How many French colonies are suitable for the development of agriculture?"

Colonial Secretary Stephen replied: "Based on the information collected by the Colonial Department, there are millions of square kilometers of arable land in French Africa alone, and more than 50 square kilometers of fertile land suitable for agricultural production.

It is mainly distributed in 21 square kilometers of French Algeria, 12 square kilometers of French Morocco, 4 square kilometers of French Tunisia, and 6 square kilometers of French Egypt..."

The natural environment and territory of this era are different from those of later generations, and it is inevitable that the area of ​​cultivated land will vary.

For example: Tunisia was divided between Britain and France, Morocco is also full of forces from Britain, France and Spain, and French Egypt also includes half of Sudan.

Hearing this answer, everyone's expressions became more dignified.

With so many places, not to mention all developed, even if one-third or even one-fifth is developed, the French will be able to be self-sufficient.

The desert empire is not all deserts. There is so much fertile land in French Africa alone. If other colonies of the French overseas are included, it is estimated that this number can be doubled.

In Franz's interests, the Indochina Peninsula is very suitable for the development of agriculture. Although it is a little farther away, the French have tax barriers.

With so much land, any development of a part of it can cause a devastating blow to the international grain market.

The French do not need to go out to grab the international market. Just achieving domestic self-sufficiency is enough to collapse the international grain market.

Knowing is knowing, and the Vienna government is powerless now.The French developed their own land, and Austria had no reason to interfere at all.

After contemplating for a while, Franz said slowly: "It will be a matter of time, no major country is willing to be controlled by others in terms of strategic security, and the French are no exception.

Even if investing in farms in the colonies does not make money, as long as they can ensure self-sufficiency in food and reduce foreign exchange losses, they will earn back economically.

The only ones who can stop the French now are the French themselves.Agricultural investment cannot see returns in a short period of time.

Reclaiming wasteland, constructing water conservancy projects, and roads all require a lot of initial investment, and no one does business at a loss.

Capitalists are definitely not willing to invest, and the colonial farm development plan can only be paid by the French government.

Judging from the current situation, the French government is far from rich and can easily spend money for agricultural development. In the short term, their investment in agriculture is still limited.

At least for three to five years, we don't have to worry about the collapse of the international grain market.For such a long time, a lot of things can already be done. "

Opening up wasteland is not just talk, maybe it is very simple to open up a piece of farmland, just burn down the trees and weeds, and then level the land.

Except for a few areas with good natural conditions and abundant water sources, most areas need to build water conservancy.

The food is planted, but it is not the end.If it cannot be shipped out for sale, even a mountain of grain is of no value.

Considering various factors, three to five years is already very optimistic.It is estimated that the coastal areas can produce some results, and the inland areas may not be able to be developed in ten or eight years.

There is a buffer time, and it doesn't make everyone optimistic.Disasters will still break out, it's just a matter of time.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg suggested: "This is no longer our family's business, maybe the news will be better if the news is released.

If you can pull all the members of the Agricultural Export Union to put pressure on the French, there may be unexpected gains. "

There is no doubt that Russia and Austria are mainly responsible for exerting pressure, and other alliance members can also wave their flags.

Forcing the French to back down, of course, everyone is happy.But the possibility is unlikely, if it is so easy to compromise, France will have no way to mix in the European continent.

Prime Minister Karl shook his head: "No need, this kind of thing can't be kept secret. As soon as the French's colonial farm plan is started, everyone will know about it.

If the international food price collapses immediately, then we are indeed the biggest victims, but isn't there a buffer of several years?

Although the local grain production capacity is still growing, the rate of increase is only less than [-]%, while the growth rate of grain consumption in the domestic market is as high as [-]%.

If it weren't for the launch of the Near East Development Plan, the grain production capacity may continue to grow in the future, and perhaps within ten years, our grain production capacity will only be enough to meet local needs.

At present, most of the raw grains we export are imported from the Russians. If there is an overcapacity of grains again, it will be a big deal to lower the purchase price of raw grains and pass on the losses.

A strong Russian Empire is not in our interest, just use the French to interrupt the development of the Russians.

It would be best to include the British if possible.

Britain and France implemented the grain self-sufficiency plan at the same time, and the international grain import market can directly shrink by half, which just allows everyone to feel the power of the agricultural crisis. "

The large increase in food consumption is caused by many reasons, the most direct reason being population growth, which increases food consumption.

The second is that people's living standards are improving day by day, and everyone's consumption level is also improving. The most typical is the rapid increase in the consumption of meat products.

Affected by this, the grain used as feed is also growing at a high speed every year, with an annual growth rate of more than 5.00%.

Finally, there is an increase in industrial grain consumption, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, alcohol, starch and other industries, and the demand for grain continues to grow.

The rapid growth of demand does not mean that the production capacity can also increase rapidly.In fact, since the outbreak of the agricultural crisis, the Vienna government has been encouraging the cultivation of cash crops.

It's not that Franz doesn't know the importance of food, but Austria really has no shortage of food. The consequence of continuing to increase production capacity is that the price of grain will hurt farmers, or even rot directly in the field.

Otherwise, if the agricultural export alliance is established, it is estimated that we are still in an agricultural crisis, and everyone pours milk into the river together.

Of course, wooing the Russians is also one of the reasons.

More than [-]% of the grain exported by the Russian Empire each year flows into Austria, and nearly half of the grain is processed and then returned to Russia for sale.

The Russia-Austria alliance has been able to continue, and people-to-people relations have remained friendly, which is essentially based on interests.

Generally speaking, the alliance of interests is often the most stable, but the relationship between Russia and Austria is an exception.

If one day the Russians complete the industrial revolution and the local processing industry develops, the food interest chain will be broken.

But this is a matter of the future, and there is no need to worry about it in the short term.

Against the background of imperfect infrastructure, the aristocratic lords of the tsarist government still like to be mine owners and big landlords who can guarantee their income in drought and flood, and are not keen on industries with huge risks.

Franz knew that these were only superficial reasons.Ten years later, the development of the Near East should almost be completed, and the real situation in Austria has become a reality.

At that time, the German unification process should also be put on the agenda.The Vienna government will not do things that actively break the situation and promote hatred.

Austria does not yet have the ability to single out the European world, so it is very necessary to provoke the relationship between European countries.

The French's colonial development plan did harm Austria's interests, but compared with the national strategy, the temporary loss is still acceptable.

Taking advantage of the situation and encouraging the British to join in, it seems that Britain and France have achieved food self-sufficiency, and the national strategic security is no longer restricted. In fact, it also put them on the opposite side of the Russians.

The interests of tens of millions of people were involved. Even if the tsarist government wanted to stand with Britain and France, the Russian people would not agree.

The probability of failure with one against three is too high, with one against two, two against two, or simply one against one, the odds of winning are greatly increased.

As a mature monarch, Franz still felt that it was better not to fight if he could avoid war.

"The Prime Minister is right. We can't stop the French from developing their colonies, and there's no need to stop them.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs put on a show to let the outside world know that we are very dissatisfied. It is best to let the British feel that the French hit our weakness.

Induce the London government to join in, artificially create the worst agricultural crisis, and create opportunities for our next strategy. "

The agricultural crisis is no fun. If it happened, the food exporting countries would suffer huge losses, and the two participants, Britain and France, would definitely not be easy.

Fortunately for the French, with the protection of tariff barriers, the Paris government will not let domestic food prices collapse.

The British are in trouble. Free trade has always been a double-edged sword. While enjoying the benefits of free trade, they must also bear the negative effects it brings.

In the style of the British, once the agricultural crisis breaks out, all the previous investment will be in vain, and the old men in Congress will order the government to stop losses.

The consumption of money and finances is small, and the key is political turmoil, which can delay the time for the British government to make decisions, which is very beneficial to Austria's next plan.

Chapter 65 is not easy

Perhaps out of disgusting Austria, the French's large farm plan was not kept secret, and the news was released to the outside world shortly after the Paris government made a decision.

This is understandable. At this moment, the Eighth Division of the rebel army led by Hutil and others has swelled to [-], and it is about to break through the [-] mark.

Regardless of the combat effectiveness, the French have already experienced the destructive power.This ragtag army only did two things along the way: crazy expansion of troops and looting of the manor.

Houtier and others gave full play to the style of bullying the weak and fearing the strong. The French strictly guarded the cities that were strictly guarded and did not touch them, and only picked weak villages and small towns to start.

Even if most of the soldiers hold cold weapons and rely on the advantage of crowd tactics, they will be invincible all the way.

In fact, many times there is no need to attack. Looking at the number of rebels, the defenders along the way all fled.

It's not that there was no resistance, but the main reason was that the force was too weak, there were too few French soldiers in small towns, and the Egyptians were unreliable.

Concentrating troops to garrison big cities is the best choice.Generally speaking, as long as the French army has more than a thousand soldiers, the Eighth Division will not hit the wall.

It doesn't make any sense to die, and it's not here to fight the world.Just wave directly, and the rebel army behind will do the job of grabbing the territory.

The Eighth Division ran wildly, and the French army in Egypt also lost the opportunity to regroup and had to fight on their own.

After all, there are few French soldiers who can fight. Most of the troops are colonial troops.

After making such a big commotion, the French government was naturally upset.In the spirit of making me feel uncomfortable, and you don't have to think about it, the French directly showed their cards.

Then all the agricultural stocks started to plummet.A group of self-righteous experts and scholars came out one after another to bad-mouth agricultural stocks, and some even directly believed that a new round of agricultural crisis was just around the corner.

Well, they were right this time.For a long period of time in the future, the life of enterprises engaged in agricultural production will not be easy, and it may be more appropriate to describe it as "every day".

Even if the French do not come to this wave, the agricultural crisis will still break out.With the continuous development of fertilizer technology, overcapacity of grain is an inevitable trend.

Even if grain-exporting countries like Austria do not promote industrial fertilizer technology, those grain-importing countries will.

Although it is not as rapid as the increase in the output of chemical fertilizers used in later generations, it is still possible to increase the output by tens of percent.

Grain production capacity can increase substantially, but the demand for food in the market cannot soar so much in a year.

Phosphate fertilizers have been born and have been used on a large scale; potash fertilizers have been born in the laboratory of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and they have not been promoted to maintain food price stability.

As for the ammonia fertilizer and compound fertilizer behind, there is no shadow yet.Human needs are the driving force behind technological progress, and now Austria is one of those lacking power.

In order to earn more profits in the export of agricultural products, Franz is not very active in the research on chemical fertilizer technology to increase grain production capacity on a large scale.

For many advocates of green food in later generations, perhaps this is the best era. Pure green food without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is everywhere.

Affected by the French large farm plan, the world's major grain exporting countries have panicked to varying degrees.

……

St. Petersburg, as the world's largest raw grain exporter, the tsarist government is undoubtedly the most troublesome.

Alexander III had personally experienced the agricultural crisis. It was during the last crisis that the Tsarist government panicked and foolishly ran to sign the notorious grain-for-loan agreement with the British.

This is one of the few black histories of Alexander II, who was fooled by the British and joined the pound-gold system.

Even if it was the British's account in the end, the Russian Empire still suffered a loss of tens of millions of rubles, and the political loss was even more immeasurable.

After learning a lesson, Alexander III realized the importance of agriculture to Russia, and paid special attention to changes in the international grain market.

"What do you think of the large farm plan announced by the French?"

Minister of Agriculture Balshak said bitterly: "This is simply terrible. At present, countries and regions in Europe that need a large amount of food imports are mainly Britain, North Germany and Italy.

The remaining countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, etc. are also food importing countries, but their demand is very limited, adding up to less than [-]%.

If the French's food self-sufficiency plan is successful, the international food export market will shrink by at least one-fifth.

Without this part of the market, a new round of grain overcapacity is bound to erupt in Europe.

As the largest exporter of raw grains in Europe, once this happens, we will inevitably suffer heavy losses, and even a new round of bankruptcies of farmers will break out. "

Alexander III frowned. Everyone knew these reasons. What he wanted was a solution, not to listen to complaints here.

"Is there a way to avoid the worst?"

Alexander III asked expectantly.

It is a pity that it is easy to see the problem, but difficult to solve it.This is the trend of the times, and it cannot be resolved only by personal ability.

Balshak shook his head: "The international market is shrinking, which is beyond the control of the Ministry of Agriculture.

If possible, it is best to use diplomatic means to get the French to abandon the plantation plan. "