My Italy

As time goes by, the private activities of the army generals have become more and more frequent.

However, although those generals were active, the results they achieved were not good. Among them, Prime Minister Despretis, who is the main target, has not expressed his position so far, but the generals are not discouraged and they will continue to work hard.

Of course, the activities of these generals have always been under the surveillance of interested people. Of course, as the number of their activities increases, their purposes are gradually exposed.

"Your Majesty, this is what the army generals contact other ministers privately."

Also in this secret room, a middle-aged man in ordinary clothes handed a document to Carlo.

Carlo opened it, took a look, and said. "Thank you for your hard work, keep monitoring them."

“It’s all for the Kingdom.”

After waiting for this person to leave, Carkaro looked seriously.

It recorded the conversations between these admirals and the contacts, and Carlo looked at the content of their conversations, his expression gradually relaxed.

Since these generals want to play politics, that's fine, let them feel the strength of professional players.

After letting go of his thoughts, Carlo returned to the office, where various statistics about this year have been placed on his desk, and their height is by no means comparable to before.

Carlo looked at these data files representing the Italian economy and sighed. This year's economic situation is written on them. Whether it is a mule or a horse, you always have to take a look.

He opened the top document, which belonged to the Ministry of Finance. It listed various expenditures of the Italian government this year, and Carlo read it carefully.

This year, the Italian government's total fiscal revenue has reached a new high, reaching 1.478 billion lire, which is 58 million lire higher than last year's 1.420 billion lire. The main reason for the growth is that the expansion of overseas markets has gradually recovered the Italian industry, and the tax revenue growth it has brought is still very considerable. Because today's enterprises have to pay government taxes if they don't import, and they also have to pay a tariff when exporting. Although Italy encourages exports, the tax paid is only about 2%, but it is still considerable.

Although the income looks gratifying, if you look at this year's expenses, it is even more scary.

This year, Italy's fiscal expenditure reached 1.829 billion lire. This year's revenue-expenditure ratio gap has been the largest, resulting in a huge deficit of 351 million lire. You must know that this era is based on the gold standard, and the banknotes printed by the government have gold content. Such a huge expenditure puts a lot of pressure on the government. For this reason, Finance Minister Teera has repeatedly warned Carlo that Italy's finances are in a dangerous situation and must reduce expenditures in order to gradually return the fiscal revenue and expenditure to normal.

Moreover, a large part of the 1.829 billion lira expenditure was used to repay maturing government bonds and interest. This year Italy cashed in its national debt to the tune of 197 million lire and paid interest of more than 83 million lire. The two items totaled 280 million lire, which was higher than the expenditure on the Abyssinian War.

You know, this war that established Italy's victory in East Africa only cost 194 million lire.

The national debt and interest that Italy needs to pay every year are more than enough to fight a colonial war. Under such pressure, how can the Italian government come up with money to invest domestically? Therefore, Italy's industrial development relies more on its own or foreign capital. This also resulted in Italy's industrial development being relatively slow compared to the development of other powerful countries.

Of course, as Carlo guided Italy to open up the Far East market, Italy's industrial development finally recovered. Although the gap with other powers is still large, it can at least give people hope of catching up.

Although the Italian industry has recovered, agricultural products are still the main source of foreign exchange for Italy's exports. At present, the main source of foreign exchange for Italy is various agricultural products. So which agricultural product makes the greatest contribution?

It’s wine. Many people wouldn’t have thought that the wine exported by Italy is the main source of its foreign exchange earnings. The soil in Italy is very favorable for the growth of grapes, so Italians have been making wine since ancient Rome. Italian wine has always been famous in Europe.

However, when Napoleon III came to power, the French implemented the world-famous red wine hierarchy system, which made French red wine famous in the world.

Of course, the key to this is that the French continue to improve the quality of grapes. Excellent grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Ugni Blanc, Semillon, Syrah, Chenin, and Carignan are basically developed in France. It is thanks to such grapes, excellent production areas, and superb technology that French wines are world-renowned.

The best in France in this regard is Bordeaux. Its soil and terrain are suitable for the growth of grapes, so Bordeaux wine is the most famous.

Italian wine, on the other hand, was defeated by the French, and the export of wine was also decreasing day by day. If it were not for the support from the government after the unification of Italy, Italian wine with the longest history would have been able to retreat to the country and survive.

Although Italy has the largest number of grape varieties (it is said that there are more than a thousand), the Italian varieties are very old, complex and numerous, and have not been improved at all. In response to this, the government has increased financial investment, abruptly opening a new outlet for Italian wine.

At present, Italian wine has come out of the trough, from the lowest export volume of 210,000 tons in 1861 to the current 2.31 million tons. This is an increase of eleven times, which is not a failure. We must know that the export volume of French wine is only 2.6 million tons, which is enough to show how much the production of Italian wine has increased.

However, although the export volume of Italian wine has increased significantly, it is mainly based on volume. The products are mainly concentrated in the mid- to low-end, and there are fewer Italian products of high-end brands.

Of course, the government is very aware of this, so the next step for the Ministry of Agriculture is to come up with high-end Italian red wine products that are recognized by the world.

Of course, in addition to wine, Italy’s other major export is citrus.

? ? ? ? ?

That’s right, it’s citrus. Italy exports various varieties of citrus, accounting for 65% of the European citrus market. Although the overall scale is not large, it still allows Italy to export more than 100,000 tons every year.

Don’t think that this number is small. You must know that the current cost of transporting fruits is very high. If they can be shipped to other countries, the price will directly double. The biggest benefit from the export of citrus is farmers, because it most directly reflects the increase in their income.

This year, Italy's agricultural exports reached 440 million, mainly because of the surge in wine exports this year, which has driven Italy's agricultural exports.

Italy's total exports this year reached 1.674 billion lire, an increase of 7.1% over last year. The import volume reached 1.711 billion lire, an increase of 6.2%, and the total import and export volume reached 3.385 billion lire, an increase of 6.6%.

(The data was wrong before. Italy’s import and export did not reach 5.137 billion lire. I regarded the data of 1895 as the data of 1885. I am very sorry for the book friends. I apologize here)

The growth of Italy's import and export has naturally led to the growth of customs tax revenue, which this year reached 174 million lire. Making it the government’s second largest tax.

Well, the largest tax in Italy, needless to say, everyone knows that it is agricultural tax. Italy's agricultural tax revenue reached 191 million lire. It can be said that farmers support the Kingdom of Italy.

Unfortunately, Italy currently does not have the strength to allow industry to support agriculture, because the current Italian industry is too weak and cannot support the government's finances. Of course, currently in Europe, there are only a few countries where industrial taxation can support the country (except for small countries such as Luxembourg).

Of course, Italy is not without good news. In the Far East, Italy has an increasingly harmonious relationship with officials of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the number of Far Eastern specialties such as raw silk, tea, tung oil, and bristles represented by Italy is also increasing day by day. Of course, this also leads to the trade gap between Italy and the Qing Dynasty. Enlarging.

This year, the total trade volume between Italy and Qing Dynasty reached 412 million lire, and Qing Dynasty has risen to Italy's third largest trading country. Among them, Italy's total exports reached 131 million, which was 15 million lire less than last year. This was mainly due to the decrease in the arms trade volume from the Qing Dynasty, and Italy's exports of machinery and other products were completely unable to withstand the decline in arms trade volume.

Of course, this is within the government's tolerance. Last year, because of the Sino-French war, the favor of the Qing governors greatly increased, and the number of arms ordered increased significantly. And this good impression comes and goes quickly. Besides, it is impossible for the Governor-General and the Qing government to focus on buying Italian arms. No, this year it will basically return to 30 to 40 million lire.

Fortunately, Italy's exports of other commodities are quite strong, so the export volume will not drop ugly.

However, compared with exports, imports increased significantly, reaching 281 million lire. Italian businessmen acted as transit agents, importing specialties from the Qing Dynasty and selling them to countries all over the world. The large-scale imports of Italian merchants in the Qing Dynasty hurt the interests of merchants from other countries. For this reason, ministers from several countries put pressure on the Qing Dynasty and asked them to stop giving special treatment to Italian merchants. In the face of protests from ministers from various countries, the Qing government only came out and said that this was a commercial behavior and they could not let the merchants designate the seller.

Of course, what makes Italian businessmen so capable is thanks to the good credit of Italian businessmen in the Far East. Qing businessmen are more willing to sell goods to Italian businessmen (at the same price).

Because Italian businessmen never default on payment, nor do they take the opportunity to lower prices too much, and they also do not make all kinds of excessive demands (what are you looking at, I am talking about you British guy).

Of course, there is a reason why Italian businessmen can do business in the Far East so kindly. Because of the support of the Italian government, White Glove Howard businessmen relied on their relationships with the governors and their strong capital to create the Italy-China Friendly Business Alliance with other Italian businessmen in China. The full name is the Italian Businessmen in China Mutual Assistance Alliance ( Referred to as Italian Hualian).

The alliance has mainly set several rules, all of which are to ensure the principle of fair transactions. Basically, these businessmen who want to make money will agree with them. Because the brand of the Chamber of Commerce Alliance is very recognized by Chinese businessmen, as long as you say that you are a member of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, they are very willing to do business with you.

Because the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance has promised to the outside world that as long as it trades with members of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, if something is cheated, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance will fully compensate the Chinese businessmen who suffered losses.

There is also precedent for this promise. A previous member of the Italian-Chinese Alliance may have just arrived and did not understand the capabilities of the alliance. Therefore, he used tricks to trade with a Chinese businessman and defrauded him of goods worth 1.2 million lire. No trace.

The deceived Chinese businessmen then approached the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance and asked it to fulfill its promise. Howard, who was in charge of the affairs of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, immediately went to investigate in person. After listening to the testimonies of many witnesses, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance fully compensated the businessmen. loss to a Chinese businessman.

As for the person who brought shame to the Business Alliance, we stepped up our efforts to find him.

Three months later, the Horston family in Liverpool, who had just moved to Italy, caught fire in their home, and no one in the family escaped. Such tragedies even appeared in local newspapers, asking everyone to pay attention to fire safety.

However, from the body of the male protagonist who was not too burnt, he could vaguely distinguish that he looked like the missing former alliance member.

The actions of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance have made it more respected by Chinese businessmen, making it easier for Italian businessmen to do business in the Far East.

Of course, more and more Italian businessmen want to join the Italian-Hualian Alliance. However, if you want to join the alliance, you must pay a deposit of 100,000 lire per person, which discourages many businessmen. Of course, this does not stop Italian businessmen from wanting to join first.

At present, the most important thing for the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance is to crack down on those who pretend to be the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance. That's right, because many Italian businessmen couldn't afford the deposit, they began to use the crooked idea of ​​​​pretending. Not only Italian businessmen, but also businessmen from other countries pretended to be members of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance. There were not many.

For this reason, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance has sent out several messages in succession, asking Chinese businessmen to be careful. In addition, the Chamber of Commerce also gave each member a numbered badge, and also stepped up its crackdown on these fake thieves.

After ruthlessly dealing with more than a dozen impostors, this wave of impersonation was barely suppressed.

As a transit merchant in Italy, many people have made a fortune. Because there are more or less people behind these businessmen. Even the head of the business alliance, Mr. Howard, doesn't do things for others.

Okay, let us put aside the grievances and resentments of Italian businessmen in the Far East and continue to look at the wooden pipes at home.

For Italy at present, energy issues are its biggest concern.

With the development of industry and the construction of thermal power plants, Italy's current coal gap is increasing day by day. The value of coal imported from Germany alone is close to 200 million lire.

Although the Cabos coal mine in Sardinia is the only coal mine in Italy this year, although the lignite produced by the coal mine is not of great industrial use, it can still be used in daily life and power generation.

The only good news from the energy source is that after expert inspection, the Cabos Coal Mine is not a small coal mine with only 40 million tons as everyone thought, but a medium-sized coal mine with nearly 500 million tons. (according to the standards of the time)

This news also made the Italian government breathe a sigh of relief. Otherwise, the development of Italian industry may be hindered just by importing coal and iron ore.

Since the Cabos Coal Mine has such large reserves, what else can we say? Expanding the scale of mining is inevitable. According to the government's plan, the coal mine will reach a production capacity of five million tons within two years. In the next five years, the production will reach 8 million tons.

However, anyone with foresight can see that Italy's lack of coal and iron ore resources has seriously hindered Italy's development to the point where it is urgent to delay.

And this was very clear to Carlo who was looking at the information.