Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Of course, Bulgaria's industry is still dominated by light industry, among which agricultural products processing enterprises are the most prominent.

There are 84 agricultural product processing enterprises across the country, accounting for 25% of the total number of enterprises, and there are 8 processing enterprises with assets exceeding 5 million levs. Its total output value accounts for 35.4% of the total industrial output value, and the flour processing plant ranks first in the food industry.

However, the monopoly economy is still dominant. Ferdinand's Shuanghui Food Group, a single enterprise accounts for more than 70% of the output value, and almost monopolizes all exports!

The field of machinery manufacturing is still the biggest shortcoming in Bulgaria! Except for the Bulgarian Machinery Factory that Ferdinand came up with, there is no one who can take it.

The few remaining machinery factories also lack market competitiveness with a single product. Even though the Bulgarian government has exempted the tax, they are still struggling to survive.

In contrast, Ferdinand's Bulgarian machinery factory is much more outstanding and is already a comprehensive machinery manufacturing group.

Basically, the main machinery in the world can be copied, such as textile machines, silk cutting machines, most steam engines and other products, and the quality has been in line with international standards!

Even a car has been manufactured, but it has not been able to be brought to the market, either the cost is too high, or the performance is too poor to be competitive in the market!

At the same time, the Bulgarian Machinery Factory is also the largest manufacturer and supplier of spare parts in Southeast Europe, with a market share of about 53.5%. The machinery factory can proudly announce that there are no parts in this world that they cannot imitate!

By the end of 1895, Bulgaria had a total of more than 9,800 kilometers of railways and 15,000 kilometers of highways, and the main trunk lines were basically connected. The level of traffic, although not comparable to Western Europe, is unmatched in Southeast Europe.

In the field of basic education, Ferdinand can proudly announce that Bulgaria is already at the top level in the world! Although there is no compulsory education, it is almost the same. The primary school enrollment rate in Bulgaria is as high as 96.6%.

The secondary school enrollment rate has reached an astonishing 20.4%, surpassing the foreign powers and ranking first in the world! (History is the world's first)

Of course, in higher education, Bulgaria is still far from the great powers. There is only one science university in the whole country, supplemented by more than ten various vocational education colleges, which is the whole of Bulgarian high-level education!

It's not that Ferdinand doesn't want to start a few more universities. He is a university professor these days. He is a treasure wherever he goes. It is not easy to gather teachers from Bulgarian universities!

Between quality and quantity, Ferdinand chooses quality without hesitation.

Anyway, the main purpose of Bulgarian universities is to cultivate cutting-edge talents. Based on the population base of Bulgaria, the number of students recruiting five or six hundred people every year basically catches all the talented people!

Compared with the meager 2,000 students in Bulgaria, vocational colleges are much larger, with more than 38,000 teachers and students.

Among them, the personnel entrusted by the factory to train also occupy a considerable proportion! Since it is training engineers, as for the requirements, of course, it is much lower!

Compared with education, the development of Bulgaria's re-medical field is far behind. At the end of the 19th century, there were not many advanced medical devices, and doctors could not rely on mechanical inspection to treat diseases, and most of them could only rely on experience.

Therefore, the training cycle for doctors is much longer. Unlike doctors who were trained in the later four or five years, if you don’t have ten or eight years of study in this era, don’t want to be a teacher!

Due to the lack of adequate doctors, Ferdinand was also powerless. The measures to be taken in the short term are still to organize local doctors and conduct short-term training. How much can be improved, how much.

As for medical school, sorry, haven't graduated yet? The earliest group of students only studied for seven or eight years.

Now they are still intern, gaining experience!

Of course, the level of medical care has been greatly improved, and it is much easier to train nurses, which can basically meet the initial needs.

In 1895, Bulgaria's total import and export trade amounted to 760 million leva, an increase of nearly four times compared with 1887. Among them, the total import was 365 million lev, the total export was 395 million lev, and the trade surplus was 30 million lev.

Among them, trade with Russia accounts for 71.5% of the total, and it is Bulgaria's largest trading partner, and it has always had a trade surplus in this trade. Of course, the introduction of immigration expenses is basically a trade balance!

Fiscal revenue continued to grow rapidly, an increase of 25% over 1894, reaching 218 million leva! Much higher than Bulgaria's economic growth rate of 13%, which is mainly the dividend of the First Five-Year Plan!

In order to stimulate economic development and encourage private capital to join the industry, the Bulgarian government has taken administrative measures to intervene in the market. Many industries have been provided with tax incentives for a number of years. Now the time for tax reduction for some companies has come, and the government finances have begun to harvest dividends!

After listening to the report from the cabinet, Ferdinand sighed to himself: It's not easy! After ten years of hard work, Bulgaria has finally developed by leaps and bounds, both in the field of industry and agriculture, and in the military field, it has achieved outstanding development!

I saw Ferdinand nodded and said, That's right! After ten years of hard work, Bulgaria can be said to have entered the threshold of an industrial country today!

However, we can't relax now, new challenges are coming, and Jackie Chan is here to win!

The next year will be the most critical year since the founding of Bulgaria! What is the plan of the Cabinet?

Prime Minister Constantine said calmly: Grand Duke, in the next year, apart from implementing the already formulated 'Two Five-Year Plan', the government does not plan to carry out any major construction!

In order to ensure an advantage in the upcoming war, the cabinet will devote maximum energy to preparing for the war, and maximize our war potential as much as possible!

Ferdinand nodded and motioned to continue.

Everyone here knows the current situation in Bulgaria. The industrial development has almost reached the limit of this country!

Raw materials and markets, these two dual factors, restrict the further development of Bulgaria!

This is also the previous estimation error of Ferdinand. If there was no Bulgarian war in 1894, which consumed a part of the materials, the rapid development of the Bulgarian economy would have stopped now!

No way, who said that Bulgaria itself has a limited market? And international trade, for most small and medium-sized enterprises, is undoubtedly a dream!

First of all, product quality is not dominant compared to developed countries.

Secondly, Bulgaria's products are exported by land: the cost is too high, and the farthest to Austria-Hungary is the limit;

Export by sea: In addition to the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Romania, exporting to other countries will first be subject to a tariff by the Ottoman Empire, which will raise the cost! After adding a tariff, it also tends to be at a disadvantage in terms of price.

This is also one of the reasons why the trade between Bulgaria and Russia is booming. They are all forced out and blocked by local chickens. Except for a very few special products, it is difficult for other commodities to be competitive in the world!

Of course, there are disadvantages as well as advantages. The industrial and commercial products of Western European industrial powers must also experience double tariffs when entering Russia. Not to mention the quality, the price alone, plus the freight and a tariff, are not as competitive as Bulgarian products!

Similarly, the export of Russian goods (mainly grain and industrial raw materials) had to be skinned by the Ottomans, seriously blocking the way of the nobles!