Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Seeing this result, Ferdinand didn't know whether to cry or laugh!

This novel version of the history of the origin of the nation was created mainly to promote the integration of various ethnic groups in Bulgaria.

Unexpectedly, it also helped Austria-Hungary and Russia to a certain extent. Compared with Bulgaria, the ethnic conflicts in their country are more serious!

The main ethnic group of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is less than 30%; the Russian Empire is not much better. It is on the edge of 40%. Both countries need a set of theories to promote national integration!

The novel version of the history of the origin of the nation that Ferdinand fiddled with just met this condition, and was directly used by them. As for whether it has any effect, only God knows!

Anyway, Ferdinand is not optimistic about them, just relying on the executive ability of the bureaucrats of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire, trying to instill this set of close relatives theory is tantamount to a dream!

If you can't unify the language and words, even if you talk about it, the estrangement between them cannot be eliminated. People will ask, why is there such a big gap in our cultural heritage?

After the outbreak of nationalism in the future, it will be as it should be!

...

Economic crisis for Bulgaria: an immediate crisis, but also an opportunity!

Although the economic crisis has temporarily interrupted Bulgaria's economic development, industries all over the world are now depreciating in value, and many things that Bulgaria could not afford before can now be bought at low prices.

For example, before Ferdinand was eyeing a struggling English shipyard, the price quoted was 1.5 million pounds. It's still an expression of buying it if you like it, but not buying it. Now 500,000 pounds is a high price, and it is still depreciating!

The major countries in the capitalist world now have excess production capacity. The capitalists who are usually arrogant and arrogant are not having a good time these days.

First suffered heavy losses in the stock market, and then faced brutal market competition. The more you produce, the more you lose, the products cannot be sold, and the bank’s loans are stopped again. In order to recover funds, everyone has to sell at a lower price!

You drop me and I drop it, and he drops even harder, vicious competition begins to circulate, and factories go bankrupt because of this, and they are sent to the auction by the bank!

Ferdinand, who has been prepared for a long time, is of course going to buy, buy, buy!

...

His Majesty,

This is the procurement list delineated by the Ministry of Industry, please take a look! ' said the Minister of Industry, handing over a thin procurement plan.

Ferdinand took it over and glanced at it. Although the content was small, the appetite of the Ministry of Industry was not small this time, covering almost the entire industrial system.

Including metallurgy, electricity, fuel, chemical industry, shipbuilding, machine building, transportation... In addition to the industries that Bulgaria already had, the industrial system at the end of the 19th century was basically complete.

It is planned to acquire 148 factories, and the total amount of funds involved is as high as 1.5 billion leva, or about 60 million pounds, almost catching up with the indemnity of Gengzi!

This is still the price in the economic crisis. Ferdinand is sure that if this is in a period of economic prosperity, even if this number increases four or five times, it may not be able to get it!

No wonder the Chancellor of the Exchequer looked wrong, it was clear that the government could not come up with the money. Moreover, even if these factories are bought back, how to make them run is a problem!

It's not the problem of people. Now is the time of economic crisis. Unemployed people are everywhere. It's still very simple to poach people.

The question is, after these factories are running, how can they all survive! Products have to have a market, right?

For example, the two 30,000-ton docks and three 20,000-ton docks in this plan look very good, but Ferdinand can be sure that after the establishment, half of them can survive, which is a record-breaking!

Another example is this steel project. After theoretical completion, Bulgaria will be able to produce 3 million tons of steel per year. Ferdinand is very skeptical. Who will the steel be sold to?

...

Anyway, this series of acquisition plans are very radical! Ferdinand has some doubts, who is the transmigrator?

Did everyone know that the Russo-Japanese War would break out in 1904, so that the Russians could be volunteers? That's not right, even the Russo-Japanese War can't help consume so much production capacity!

Russians also have industries, and even if they want to purchase from abroad, they are only part of it, and they have to face competition from European countries.

Besides, the Russo-Japanese War ended in a few years, so who should it be sold to? Ferdinand doesn't think that Bulgaria's development can be so fast. In just a few years, he can consume this part of the production capacity!

Even though he was full of doubts, Ferdinand asked patiently, Can the Ministry of Industry explain this plan?

The Minister of Industry said a little embarrassedly: Your Majesty has a rare opportunity! Now such industrial equipment is cabbage price. If you miss this opportunity, you will...

Before the Minister of Industry could finish speaking, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kennedy interrupted him: But the problem is, even at the price of cabbage, we can't afford it!

This reason is powerful, so powerful that no one can refute it. The Bulgarian government has just completed the big immigration, and it is still in debt, so it is impossible to come up with this huge sum of money!

4.26 million people were brought back and 2.67 million people were sent away. The Bulgarian government completed the migration of 6.73 million people in just three years. Even if each one spends a thousand levs, this is a huge sum of 673 million levs, and the actual cost will only be greater!

Coupled with domestic construction, the Bulgarian government's debt has grown like a snowball, and it has now reached a peak value of 2.6 billion levs!

Ferdinand also knew that the Bulgarian government was absolutely unable to carry out large-scale borrowing now, and this figure was almost four times the fiscal revenue.

Now is the beginning of the 20th century, not yet the 21st century. The fourfold debt ratio has not overwhelmed the Bulgarian government, but it has already broken a record.

Ferdinand asked: How much money can the government allocate now without affecting domestic construction?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Kennedy thought for a moment and said: Up to 700 million leva, including the emergency fund of 500 million leva raised later!

Considering the actual situation, after these industrial equipments are purchased, they must be put into production. We must leave at least 300 million funds for the construction of supporting facilities in the later stage!

Kennedy's words chilled the industry secretary's ambition, How about a penny to beat a hero?

Now this gap is not a thousand or eight million, and the government will squeeze it out. There is a funding gap of more than one billion levs, even if the Bulgarian government really smashes the pot and sells iron, it will not be able to make it up!

How can we do this? Your Majesty, our big industrial plan is at a critical moment, and we can't stop now!

Looking at the performance of the Minister of Industry, Ferdinand knew that these guys had committed the idealism disease again, and simply ignored them!

This is also impossible. In order to develop the industry more efficiently and rationally, many of the officials of the Ministry of Industry are engineers concurrently.

While people are engaged in industrial construction, they are also responsible for overall planning, and of course political savvy can no longer ask for it!

Ferdinand has seen this kind of idealized plan many times, but since they have done a good job in industrial construction, he will endure it.

Idealization is idealization, it's better than putting on a bunch of bureaucrats, tossing around for the sake of face-saving projects! Ferdinand said that as long as he can complete the tasks he has set, the details will not be investigated. Who is it that Bulgaria lacks talents?

Ferdinand comforted: Don't worry too much, all solutions can be thought of. Considering the actual situation, let's slim down this plan first and compress the production capacity, so that the funding gap will not be so big!

In addition, like the construction of supporting facilities in the later stage, we can still think of ways. Considering that our industry is about to skyrocket, then we can put a batch of currency into the market, and the market can also digest it, and the capital gap is almost blocked!

Well, the solution Ferdinand finally came up with was to print money. Anyway, he just made a fortune, and now the gold is still in the vault.

In the age of the gold standard, money can be printed with gold, which is not nonsense. With the rapid economic development of Bulgaria, the demand for currency has also increased significantly.

Just like the British Empire in history, there were still a lot of fiscal deficits in this period, but after the Anglo-Boer War, with the gold obtained from South Africa, the deficit quickly came out, and the financial hegemony of the pound became more consolidated. !

Moreover, Ferdinand also knew that the use of currency issuance to solve fiscal crises was also the most commonly used method in later countries. Even some countries' revenue from issuing currency exceeds half of their fiscal revenue.

Everyone has no objection, this is not their specialty, as long as the Ministry of Finance thinks it can be done!

Of course, Kennedy would not object. You must know that the Ministry of Finance made a lot of profits from the previous issuance of currency, but because of the economic crisis, this part of the profits was invested in infrastructure construction!

As for the specific amount of currency to be issued, and how much gold is needed for reserves, Ferdinand doesn't even ask. Bulgaria's original reserves plus his private treasury, the total amount of gold exceeds 600 tons!

This figure is already more than half of the Russian family, and the total amount of levs issued on the market is estimated to be less than one-tenth of the total amount of rubles!

In the end, Ferdinand cut off a lot of production capacity in the large industrial plan, but the projects were kept. After all, it is of great significance to establish a complete industrial system.

For example, the iron and steel plan has dropped by one million tons from the original annual output of three million tons of steel; another example is the large shipyard, which is also cut in half, only two 20,000-ton docks and three 10,000-ton docks are retained. dock.

These are all decisions that Ferdinand made in light of the actual situation.

In the next ten years, Bulgaria's railway plan will not stop, and it will consume a lot of steel.

Ten years later, the domestic market in Bulgaria has also grown, and steel production capacity can naturally be easily digested.

The same is true for ships. These production capacities can still be digested in the market. In the future, we need to increase them. The main purpose now is to accumulate shipbuilding technology and prepare for warship building.

As for the 30,000-50,000-ton giant dock, Ferdinand said it was flashy. The foreign powers want Pan Tech Tree, so naturally they can do it, but Bulgaria is fine. Now, let’s learn from behind them honestly!