My Italy

1895 was a fruitful year for Italy. No matter which way you look at it, it is a successful harvest.

First of all, in terms of influence, Italy taught Japan a lesson through the expeditionary force in the Far East, allowing other countries to see Italy's long-distance intervention capabilities. Of course, Italy's greed for money and its desire for money rather than life was also exposed.

However, it is still unclear whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least in the eyes of various countries, Italy is no longer a dispensable role, and various countries will also consider Italy's attitude to some extent.

Of course, the expansion of influence is an additional gain for Italy, and the most important gain is economic gain.

Although Italy's direct monetary gains from this Far East War were not much, the indirect gains were very substantial. (During the entire Sino-Japanese War, the total casualties of the Italian navy and army were 4,217, of which 1,721 were killed, 2,470 were injured, and 26 were missing. The casualties seemed not small, but they mainly occurred in naval battles.)

Among them, the most profitable one is the military industry. In just over half a year, the arsenal worked overtime to produce artillery shells that were simply not enough to meet the needs of the Far East. A batch was also urgently transferred from the navy and army reserve warehouses to be shipped there.

And in addition to the military industry, war-related industries such as maritime transportation and the steel industry have all benefited from this dividend. And it is precisely with the help of the dividends of this war that all related industries have been fully developed.

The dividends brought by this war alone were not enough. Italy's acquisition of the right to build the Daqing Railway was the key. However, Italy could not monopolize this benefit, but in terms of the crucial procurement of materials, Italy used its relationship with the Qing Dynasty and its own sufficient share to ensure the procurement rights of the railway.

At present, the Daqing Railway Company has launched the construction of three railways at once, the Luhan Line, the Guangdong-Hankou Line, and the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Ring Railway. In addition, it is said that the railway company is exploring the direction of the Jinpu Line and Longhai Line.

The Daqing Railway Company's urgent and continuous start of construction is actually driven by shareholders from various countries. The great powers of various countries have a strong interest in promoting the construction of railways in the Qing Dynasty, especially after most of the shares of the Qing Dynasty Railway Company fell into the hands of various countries through private acquisitions.

And I heard that in addition to these two railway lines being explored, various countries are also interested in the Kanto Railway from Tianjin to Shengjing. Russia, in particular, has a strong interest in extending a branch line from the Siberian Railway to Shengjing and Lushun. This was just the idea of ​​the Russians, but it was boycotted by the British and Italy. No one knew what this polar bear had in mind.

In addition to the Kanto Railway, which has caused constant conflicts among various countries, France is currently very interested in the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and the British are also very interested in the Sichuan-Hankou Line. Of course, railway lines such as the Sichuan-Shaanxi Line, Sichuan-Yunnan Line and Changjiang-Ningxia Line are also in the plans of various countries.

It's ridiculous to say that other countries are more anxious to build railways than the Qing Dynasty, but this is also based on the fact that railways can help them expand their influence and penetrate into the inland areas. Therefore, all countries came with different thoughts, but even if the Qing Dynasty knew about it, there was nothing they could do. The combined pressure of all countries was unstoppable.

Of course, Italy was the happiest about the Qing Dynasty's large-scale railway construction. After all, except for the Hanyang Iron Works, the rails and steel needed for the railway were all owned by Italy. This is at least the demand for 100,000 tons of steel per year, which has a great role in promoting the Italian steel industry.

Promoted by such a favorable time, place, and people, Italy's fiscal revenue in 1895 also reached a record high of 1.827 billion lire.

Yes, it is such a high total fiscal revenue. Compared with the total government revenue in 1893 two years ago, it was 317 million lire higher.

From this number, we can see how much this Far East war stimulated the Italian economy.

In this fiscal income statement, the number one ranking is tariffs. In 1895, Italy achieved a total of 374 million lire in tariffs. The ability to increase so many tariffs is due on the one hand to Italy's strong import and export growth, and on the other hand to the severe crackdown on smuggling and tax evasion.

The crackdown on smuggling also benefits from the government's emphasis on customs, which allocates a lot of manpower and ships to the customs. The customs has lived up to expectations. Last year, it intercepted 146 smuggling ships, arrested 1,123 suspects, and seized illegal goods worth 32.69 million lire, which dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of smugglers. (Of course, to a certain extent, how frequent smuggling activities are in Italy has a lot to do with the topography of Italy. There are too many coastlines across the country, which is very conducive to smuggling activities.)

In addition to tariffs, the second largest category of fiscal revenue is salt and tobacco monopoly taxes.

That’s right, it’s the franchise tax that everyone understands. This state-monopolized industry provided the government with fiscal revenue of 326 million liras, which was comparable to the tobacco and salt monopoly taxes of a certain country in later generations, which were directly called military expenditures.

Of course, in addition to these two major types of taxes, the next one is the consumption tax. This kind of tax was placed directly on the goods in a later country, so it is not obvious, but if you go abroad, you will find that it is listed separately. The excise tax provides 215 million lire in revenue to the Italian exchequer.

Then there are property taxes, business taxes, land-related taxes, stamp taxes on securities transactions, etc. These taxes support Italy's finances and allow Italy to have more funds to enrich its national strength.

When it comes to national strength, the most direct one is the steel industry. In 1895, the Italian steel industry produced a total of 2.7 million tons of steel. What allows Italy to produce so much steel is, on the one hand, domestic demand, and on the other hand, it is reflected in tariffs. Italy has increased tariffs on imported coal, iron ore and steel products, directly increasing them by 21% without charging any taxes.

Although this caused dissatisfaction between Germany and France, Italy gritted its teeth and withstood the pressure in order to protect its domestic steel industry. Although Germany and France subsequently raised tariffs on Italian wine, figs and other agricultural products, protecting the country's steel industry was worth it.

After the tariffs were raised, coal and iron ore from Libya and Kosovo immediately became very attractive, making mining and railway transportation in the two places extremely busy.

Of course, it is not just the steel industry that reflects Italy's national strength. As a representative of light industry, Italy's textile industry is also developing very well. Currently, Italy has nearly 300,000 textile workers, producing 148,000 tons of cotton yarn and 42,110 tons of woolen fabrics.

As a representative of light industry, the textile industry is booming in Italy. Of course, agriculture, which is the foundation of Italy, has also developed significantly. Taking pesticides and chemical fertilizers that promote agricultural development as an example, Italy's current annual output is 21,000 tons of phosphate fertilizers, 17,200 tons of potassium fertilizers, and 1,571 tons of pesticides.

Although this may not seem like a lot, in this era when chemical fertilizers have not yet been used on a large scale, being able to produce so much fertilizer is the result of Italy's vigorous promotion. Due to the importance it attaches to its own agriculture, Italy attaches great importance to any fertilizer that improves crop yields.

Although Italy has a shortage of resources due to various reasons, compared with domestic arable land, overpopulation and other factors. But the Italian government is also working hard to change all this. Italy immigrate nearly 100,000 people to its colonies every year in an effort to alleviate the population pressure on the mainland. In addition, Italy's current efforts to search for various resources in various colonies have continued. For example, in the Somali region of East Africa, Italy discovered a good copper mine. Around the development of this copper mine, the East African colonial government also raised funds.

Overall, 1895 was a very memorable year for Italy.