Mediterranean Hegemony Road

War is a continuation of politics, and there is no doubt that this world war is no exception!

The capitalist economy has developed to a certain extent, and all countries have accumulated a large number of social contradictions. In order to transfer internal contradictions, this world war has finally been triggered!

In contrast, the contradiction between Germany and France, the contradiction between Britain and Germany, the contradiction between Paul and Austria, and the contradiction between Russia and Austria are only a trigger for the outbreak of the World War, and it only determines who will fight whom!

As for whether to fight or not, when will it start? These are not determined by these contradictions, but by the internal contradictions of the major powers. When the internal contradictions cannot be suppressed, the war will break out!

And the more established the empire is, the more serious the internal contradictions will be. Some countries have even reached the point where they cannot be reconciled. If there is no war, wait for the revolution!

A series of social problems such as inflation, unequal distribution of social wealth, polarization of the gap between the rich and the poor, solidified social strata, unscrupulous exploitation of the working class by capitalists, overproduction, and rising unemployment have plagued governments of all countries.

In this context, everyone tacitly chose to transfer domestic conflicts, and the world war broke out.

Bulgaria is no exception. As a rising star, the domestic contradictions are naturally not solidified by classes. Even the distribution of wealth and the gap between the rich and the poor are not very serious. The capitalists have no courage to exploit workers recklessly. The only problem is overproduction. One is very serious!

Since Ferdinand's accession to the throne, in order to increase the domestic industrial strength, three five-year plans have been formulated. As the so-called upward and downward effect, the central government tries its best to increase the country's industrial strength, and local governments naturally follow suit.

Of course, in order to enhance the overall national strength, Ferdinand is naturally happy to see the local government's vigorous development of industry and commerce, not only did not stop the local government's behavior, but encouraged it!

When the domestic overcapacity crisis is about to break out, the world war also breaks out. During the war, all industries are serving the war, and naturally there will be no overcapacity!

But once the war was over and the economy normalized, the troubles came. Of course, as long as the war is won, these crises can be overcome by the war bonus!

However, the preparatory work in advance is still indispensable. On January 6, 1917, the Bulgarian government held an economic seminar in the parliament building. !

...

On January 15, Ferdinand also held a cabinet meeting in the palace to discuss new issues that Bulgaria will face after the war, including the issue of economic transformation.

Ferdinand directly threw the following questions:

1. How to deal with the Allies after the war?

2. How to manage the newly added territories after the war?

3. Post-war Bulgarian diplomatic strategy?

4. Ethnic problems in the country after the war?

5. How did the domestic economy transform after the war?

6. What about the placement of the recovered soldiers after the war? And the placement of mercenaries?

...

Of course, there are so many problems, and naturally they cannot be solved in a short time!

Ferdinand just threw it out in advance to give everyone a mental preparation. If he really had to come up with a specific solution, he had to wait until the end of the world war to make a decision based on the actual situation!

The current domestic economic situation in Bulgaria can no longer be described as good or bad. Due to the war, many companies have been converted from civilians to the army, and even Ferdinand's own industries are no exception.

In this context, the production of civilian materials has naturally been greatly reduced. For ordinary people, in addition to the most basic necessities of life, other materials have risen or fallen to varying degrees!

For example, the price of luxury goods has plummeted, and the Rose Industrial Park, one of Bulgaria's pillar industries, has had a great impact, and the sales of many of its brands have been greatly reduced.

During the war, everyone's spending power is reduced,

Like the usual hot-selling perfumes, skin care products, health care products, beverages, etc., sales are greatly reduced.

Of course, it is not because of the increase in output. Unfortunately, these increased products are strategic materials purchased by the military, and can only be charged at the cost price, and there is no profit at all.

This is determined by Bulgaria's special mobilization mechanism. In order to prevent the capitalists from making a fortune, Ferdinand specially issued the Law on the Procurement of Strategic Materials in War Times. All strategic supplies of 's are purchased at cost and are also mandatory!

Therefore, since the outbreak of the World War, the capitalists of many countries around the world have made a fortune, but only the capitalists in Bulgaria are doing voluntary labor.

Of course, they are not unbalanced, and many are still having fun!

Anyway, they are all treated the same. All companies in the country are treated the same regardless of their size and background. Even the royal family companies have been requisitioned for free. What else is there to say?

Even the loans that the bank gave them before were not directly extended, and they didn't have to pay interest during the war!

Therefore, the interests of many enterprises have been seriously affected, and even threatened the survival of enterprises, but the capitalists are not worried, they believe that the government must not sit idly by.

This is also the result of the Bulgarian government's frequent involvement in the economy. Whenever there is an economic crisis, the government will come forward to clean up the mess. Everyone is used to it and has a sense of security!

Faced with this situation, Ferdinand certainly cannot let the government sit idly by. If these enterprises go bankrupt due to the war, it will inevitably cause very serious adverse social effects!

To put it simply, it will make the capitalists die and become staunch anti-war factions, and even resist the government's free requisition of their factories!

And there will also be extreme anti-war factions. After all, if a company goes bankrupt, some people will inevitably lose their jobs. Some of these people will have a strong sense of fear of war in the following days because of their personal interests, and will also instinctively want to avoid war!

These are obviously not what Ferdinand wanted. Isn't France in World War II a living example? Due to the fear of war among the people, the Soviet Union was allowed to rise first, and then Germany was allowed to rise. In the end, they could only escape by pretending to be dead!

...

Ferdinand asked with concern: Mr. Kennedy, how many companies are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the war in your fiscal crisis statistics? How many are caused by our government's wartime procurement law?

After thinking about it, Kennedy said: Your Majesty, there are now more than 1,800 companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the war, and a total of 765 due to the Government Procurement Act!

Among them, there are 8 large enterprises, including Bulgarian Machinery Group, Bulgarian Automobile Group, Bulgarian Steel Group, Bulgarian Railway Group and other giant enterprises. Before the war, the total assets of these eight enterprises totaled 5.86 billion lev, and they had 1.76 million supporting industrial workers. Great social influence!

And more than 1,800 other small and medium-sized enterprises have total assets of 2.56 billion levs and employ nearly one million people!

Ferdinand frowned, but fortunately he found out in advance that if these companies really went bankrupt, the economy belonging to Bulgaria would explode.

But all of this is worth it. Now the purchase of the same strategic materials costs the Bulgarian government less than one-third of John Bull's, because of the advantages of this extreme mobilization mechanism!

After all, this starts from the production of raw materials, all the way to the cost price, without adding a penny of profit!

Of course, materials purchased from overseas naturally do not have this benefit.

If there is no cost advantage, why would Ferdinand dare to raise so many troops?

If purchased at market price, even if Britain and France provided more than three billion pounds of loans, plus more than four billion dollars borrowed from the Americans, it would not be enough for a year of war expenses!

Ferdinand pretended to be surprised and asked: These companies are the leading industries in Bulgaria? How could they be on the verge of bankruptcy?

Kennedy quickly explained: Your Majesty, these enterprises are all engaged in heavy industrial production, and basically all production lines have been requisitioned by the government.

In order to be suitable for military production, we have carried out a large number of modifications to a large number of production lines and workshops inside. To produce civilian products after the war, these must be changed back again, and the cost must be indispensable.

There is also wear and tear of machinery. In many cases, in order to meet the deadline, we have not taken into account the maintenance of machinery. Therefore, after the war, their machinery and equipment will basically have to be replaced.

As a result, in the first few months after the war, they were unable to resume production. In addition to the wear and tear of these equipment, the money needed to spend has exceeded the company's own capacity.

Although our law has also formulated a compensation plan, because this war lasted too long, unlike the previous two short-term wars, the losses caused to the company this time are too great, and these compensations are simply a drop in the bucket!

Ferdinand nodded, how could he not know these circumstances? You must know that the companies here are basically his industries. Does he still not understand what is going on?

Heavy losses are inevitable. Although it has not developed to the point of bankruptcy, it will be soon. If the war continues, bankruptcy is not far away!

Especially for the Bulgarian Railway Group, the transportation of military materials is free, and the loss is even greater. The annual loss of freight is at least 500 million levs.

Of course, they are state-owned enterprises, and no one will complain, but it is inevitable to reach out to the government if they have no money!

Since the separation of government and enterprises has been completed, they are now taking bank loans to maintain operations, plus the previous loans for railway repairs,

They now owe a huge loan of 3.19 billion levs from the three major domestic banks, and they are already insolvent. If the government does not allocate funds in the future, they will go bankrupt!

And the banks that provide them with loans are also coordinated by the Bulgarian government. Otherwise, who would dare to lend to them? Now the government naturally cannot let them go bankrupt!

It is not only the railway group, but also several other companies. They are all giants in the industry. Each company has a large number of affiliated companies, which affects the whole body. If a giant falls, it will also bring another. The affiliated companies of Dabang will be finished!

After pondering for a moment, Ferdinand said: This is indeed a serious problem. We must increase support for heavy industry, which is related to our national defense!

Even these companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy, we cannot let them go bankrupt, at least not because our government requisitions their factories or purchases their goods at cost prices to cause them to go bankrupt!

Does the Ministry of Finance have a corresponding salvation plan?

Kennedy said with some embarrassment: The Ministry of Finance does have a rescue plan, but because too many companies are involved, the amount of funds required is too large, and the finances cannot afford it.

Therefore, we have revised the plan again, giving priority to saving these eight large enterprises, and then working hard to save small and medium-sized enterprises within the scope of our ability!

Ferdinand's face became embarrassed. If he did this, Bulgaria would not become a monopoly in the future?

Ferdinand started a monopoly before because Bulgaria's plate was too small. In order to avoid wasting resources, he had to concentrate his efforts to support a few Big Macs.

But it is different now. After the end of the world war, Bulgaria's plate has become bigger. In order to maintain the vitality of the market, this monopoly mechanism must be broken!

Ferdinand did not rush to object, but continued to ask: How much money do you need to save the market, and how much money do you need to save these eight major companies?

Kennedy thought for a while and said, Your Majesty, as the war continues, the number of companies that may face a crisis in the future will continue to increase.

According to preliminary estimates by the Ministry of Finance, if we want to save the market, we need at least 3 billion levs of funds, and at least 2 billion levs are needed to save these eight major companies, of which the railway group accounts for two-thirds!

Ferdinand sighed and said: Get ready to save the market, it is estimated that the life of European countries will not be easy in the future, but we still have to keep these enterprises, otherwise the social impact will be too bad!

After this war is over, our domestic market will expand by at least one third, and the market within our sphere of influence should be able to digest our production capacity!

As for the funding gap, we can find ways to solve it, and we can abandon the gold standard when necessary!

Well, Ferdinand is planning to print money to tide over the crisis, and there is nothing he can do about it. He knows that countries have abandoned the gold standard after the last war in history. The big deal is that Bulgaria will take the lead this time!

Kennedy's face changed greatly, and he asked in horror: Your Majesty, how can you have such an idea? Once you give up the gold standard, Lev will become worthless, and the consequences will be very serious!

Ferdinand smiled and said, Look at it. After the outbreak of the World War, the flow of gold from European countries all converged in one place. After the war, whether everyone can keep the gold standard will be a problem?

Kennedy blurted out: It's the United States! Your Majesty, even if there is a large outflow of gold, Britain and France should still be able to hold on to it, right?

Ferdinand shook his head and said: Don't worry about them, let's look at us first! Since the outbreak of the World War, more than 100 tons of gold have flowed out of us alone!

However, due to the trade with the Russians, we made up for this loss and added more than 100 tons of gold, but it did not change the fact that a large amount of our gold flowed to the United States!

Of course, I did not count the gold seized by the military. This is abnormal income and cannot be counted in trade!

Kennedy thought for a while and said, Your Majesty, I think we should be able to keep the gold standard. The military has harvested nearly 200 tons of gold in Italy and more than 100 tons in the Ottoman Empire. Once Ankara is conquered, there should be an income. , plus our original gold reserves, it should be enough!

If we are lucky, if our army can get another fortune in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it will be more certain!

Ferdinand shook his head, why should he stick to the gold standard? There is a price to pay for reversing the trend. Why do it if there is no benefit? Does Bulgaria still want to become a financial hegemon?

You think too well, for the sake of our gains in Italy, the British and French ambassadors are still wrangling with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they will not be able to show it in the short term.

And gold is not so easy to obtain, our army is almost three feet high in the Ottoman Empire, isn't it still only a little harvest?

Do you think we can do the same in Austria-Hungary?

Besides, gold is not a big object. As long as you think they want to hide it, you can just dig a hole in this place and bury it. Can you find it?

Kennedy nodded reluctantly, a fact he had to agree with, but he still didn't change his original thoughts.

In his view, although of course the gold standard can gain certain benefits in the short term, the damage to the lev's currency value is too great.

And after the government abandons the gold standard, the massive devaluation of the Lev will cause severe inflation, and the wealth that many Bulgarians have accumulated for a lifetime will shrink in an instant, which will cause a very serious social crisis.

Didn't Ferdinand know all this? Of course not, the problem is he can't do anything about it? It is impossible for European countries to give up the gold standard, so let the Bulgarian family stick to it! Do you still want to export?