My Italy

Changing the region can only be done slowly, and Carlo has enough patience for this.

But for another thing, Carlo was not so patient, which was to build Italy's food reserves.

Speaking of which, Italy is a standard food importing country. Italy's grain import volume is second only to the British Empire, and it is the second largest grain importer in Europe. Currently, Italy needs to import about 2.4 million tons of grain, and the annual cost of purchasing grain is not a small amount. And as Italy's population increases in recent years, Italy will import more and more food.

Therefore, Carlo cannot sit idly by and ignore this food issue. You must know that the saying that there is no stability without farmers, no work, no wealth, is not wrong at all for Italy. The issue of food security has reached an urgent level.

So today, Carlo summoned his ministers to discuss Italy's food problem.

"Dear ministers, I have just seen the statistics of the total grain production over the years. The results make me very uneasy. Last year, our total grain production in Italy was 8.71 million tons, and the grain gap reached 22%. It can be said that our country has a large amount of grain production every year. The import volume puts our country in a subordinate position of food dominance. This makes me very uneasy, for fear that other countries will suddenly stop exporting food to our country, and what should we do. So then I checked our country’s food reserves. After all, everyone Housewives all know that they need to prepare food for at least half a month at home, and they cannot buy food in two or three days. However, the results of the inspection made me very shocked, because our country’s food reserves are only 150,000 tons, which is enough for the entire country. Eat for four or five days, and then what?”

Carlo looked at the ministers sitting at attention, and then continued. "Gentlemen, you are all important ministers of the kingdom. You must face up to the dangers that may be caused by food reserves. This is related to the safety of the kingdom. Therefore, you can make suggestions and put forward your opinions and suggestions."

Carlo's words made the ministers present immediately take action, and Interior Minister Edlas spoke immediately. "Your Majesty is right. Our country's food reserves are indeed low. We did not pay enough attention to food reserves before, so I think the food reserves must be increased, at least to one million tons."

Edlas' words did not attract the echo of other ministers, because they knew one problem, and that was money.

Yes, none of you here know what the kingdom’s finances are like. If you want to reserve one million tons of grain as mentioned by the Minister of the Interior, you will need to spend about 80-90 million lire. Such a high cost is required to complete the task. The biggest problem with food reserves.

Sure enough, His Excellency Tejela, the Minister of Finance who is in charge of the kingdom's financial power, stood up. "Your Excellency Edlas, I completely agree with what you said. Increasing grain reserves is indeed beneficial to our country's food security, but one thing is a problem, and that is the cost of purchasing grain. At present, purchasing one million tons of grain, Calculated based on 60% wheat, 30% corn, and 10% other grains, it will cost at least 80 million lire. Large-scale purchases will drive up food prices, and more funds will be spent. So where will the money come from? ?”

Yes, Finance Minister Tejela is not opposed to national food reserves, but where will this money come from?

"Then how much food do you think should be stored?"

The Home Secretary regretted these words as soon as he said them, because this was not giving the initiative to the other party.

Sure enough, Tejela, the finance minister, immediately took over the conversation. "I think we can reserve 500,000 tons first, and it is best to spend three years to ensure financial health."

Faced with Tejela's words, the ministers present also talked about it. It is really difficult to do this without money. The current domestic finance is already tight enough. This will cost another amount of food reserve funds, which will give anyone a headache. Fifty Ten thousand tons is not bad. After all, it costs more than ten million lire a year, which is not a small amount.

Looking at the ministers sitting down, Carlo felt a flash of annoyance in his heart. Could it be that these ministers couldn't see the significance of food reserves to Italy? They were always obsessed with the issue of money.

In fact, Carlo had wronged these ministers. Everyone knew about the issue of food security, but the importance of it still needs to be discussed. Because grain reserves can only reduce food security risks, but cannot generate benefits from this money. And according to Your Majesty, the food reserves will be quite large, and the expenses will be huge. Not to mention that the Italian government's finances themselves are not wealthy.

Carlo knew a little about the thoughts of the ministers, but he had to implement the food reserve, which was related to the future of Italy.

Because in more than ten years, a war affecting the entire world will break out. Italy, which originally needs to import a large amount of food, will really have no money to buy food by then, so food reserves must start now. You see, this is the cognitive gap between the two.

Look at countries that are not prepared for long-term war. Britain and France, with their superior navies, are able to purchase supplies from all over the world, but what about Italy?

Where can they buy supplies, especially grain? Eastern Europe, where they traditionally buy supplies, is at war. Even Russia doesn't have enough to eat and can still sell it to you.

Besides, Italy has not yet decided which side it will take, and must prepare for a rainy day.

Thinking of this, Carlo looked at the Prime Minister sitting there. Before the meeting, he had an angry relationship with the Prime Minister.

Seeing His Majesty's eyes looking at him, Antonio knew that he had to stand up at this time. "uh-huh."

The Prime Minister was just extraordinary, and his cough attracted everyone's attention.

"Everyone, regarding the issue of grain reserves, I think the Finance Minister's words are one-sided. Insufficient money is not a problem. In fact, I think that one million tons of grain reserves cannot guarantee food security in our country. I think at least three hundred are needed. Only with a grain reserve of 10,000 tons can our country initially establish a safe grain reserve."

Prime Minister Antonio's words surprised all the ministers present, because this requires at least 240 million lire of funds, which is equivalent to 11.6% of Italy's total fiscal revenue last year. It's not worth spending so much money specifically for food reserves. You have to know where this money can be invested if it cannot bring better benefits to Italy. Why should it be invested in food reserves?

"Prime Minister, where should I use this money to purchase food?"

The Chancellor raised the most worrying issue.

"I think we can issue a bond to raise funds to purchase grain and establish grain reserves. We can choose six or seven cities to build special grain reserve warehouses to ensure food security. It will take four to five years to complete the task of grain reserves."

Well, the Prime Minister's words leave people speechless, issuing a debt to solve the problem of lack of funds.

After some troubles by the Italian government, the total size of Italy's foreign debt has been reduced to 5.64 billion lire. However, it seems that it is impossible to continue to reduce the size of this foreign debt.

For Carlo, spending four to five years to reserve three million tons of grain is not bad. Of course, we can continue to increase the food reserves. In Carlo's mind, it must at least satisfy the people of the country for this year. After all, Italy's own food production is not high. If we don't purchase some food quickly, how will we survive that period of hardship? years.

Of course, when the Prime Minister comes forward to come up with a solution and the King expresses his support, the other ministers can only express their obedience. Next, the ministers present also gave their opinions on issues such as who should manage the grain reserves, city selection, and grain refurbishment.

The atmosphere at the scene became more and more lively under Carlo's gaze.

This is Chapter 460. I’m dizzy writing it.