My Italy

"Your Majesty, you are looking for me."

"Yes, Mr. Aldini, I do have something to ask."

Carlo, who inspected Florence and got a preliminary understanding of the situation, called the finance minister over.

"That's right, Aldini. I heard that the Ministry of Finance has cut the budget of the Grain Reserve Bureau in half this year. I wonder what the Ministry of Finance has in mind?"

Unlike other ministers, Carlo has always valued the finance minister in front of him. Although it is not difficult to choose the finance minister, it is really difficult to make him satisfied and reassured. Ability alone is not enough, you also need Carlo’s approval.

It can be said that the position of Italian Finance Minister is more demanding than other ministers and prime ministers, otherwise Carlo would not have caught Tejela and held it for more than ten years without replacing him as prime minister. If the other party really didn't want to do it anymore, Carlo wouldn't have planned to replace him.

This shows the importance of the position of Chancellor of Finance in Carlo's heart. For this reason, there is a political joke in Italy that the finance minister is the second-in-command of the government because he can connect the government, the king and the military.

Of course this is just a joke, but it also proves some of the political views on this position, at least one thing confirms that the king's attitude is different.

Although he was treated specially, Aldini did not think this was a good thing. So after Carlo asked, he immediately answered. "Your Majesty, the budget of the Grain Reserve Bureau was reduced because it was not necessary to ensure military expenditures before. Each department had reduced its own budget. However, the budget of the Grain Reserve Bureau was too high, so it was also reduced after discussion. Diminished.”

Well, Carlo understood what Aldini meant. This is because each department is reluctant to lose too much in its own department's budget, so after taking a look around, I found that there is another department that I don't love, so I'll let you be more patient.

Carlo didn't know what to say to Aldini's words. If there are any mistakes, it's all for official business, and it seems that many people still don't know enough about the Bureau of Grain and Material Reserves even now.

In fact, speaking of it, Carlo himself is also to blame. At that time, it was under his strong pressure that Italy's food reserves began to be built on a large scale.

As a result, the originally promised reserve of 3 million tons has exceeded 6 million tons along the way. However, we still need to continue to purchase grain. Not to mention the cost of personnel and space to manage the grain reserves, how much are these 6 million tons of grain worth alone? This is food worth more than 500 million lire, enough to feed the entire Italian population for seven months.

If this money had been given to other departments, it would have been able to do a lot of things, not only increase government revenue, but also promote economic and social development. If you use it to purchase food, you can only store it there, and you need to spend money to protect other losses.

Yes, for the government ministers, they see a large amount of the budget being used to purchase food every year. Who can remain indifferent?

I can endure it for the past two years, but it has already been eleven or twelve years. If Carlo's prestige hadn't been so high, they would have made a scene long ago.

And now, in the name of compressing the government budget, the ministers who have long disliked it, can't they use this to make it suffer a dumb loss?

So cutting half of it was for the sake of the king's face. If it were them who made the decision, why would they reserve so much food? They would keep only one or two months for themselves and sell the rest slowly.

Carlo was well aware of the hidden losses suffered by the Grain Reserve Bureau. Now it seems that asking the Ministry of Finance to restore the cut budget is impossible.

Although Carlo can do this, and the finance minister will not refuse, this will undoubtedly stir up the nerves of other ministers and increase the government's dissatisfaction with him. Carlo is not a fool, how could he do this.

But food procurement must continue, which is related to the future war.

Carlo thought for a while and then spoke. "Aldini, what if the kingdom issued another debt?"

"Your Majesty, I wonder how much debt you plan to issue?"

"How about five hundred million lire?"

Upon hearing the king's words, Aldini's heart tightened. He basically knew what the king was going to do. But he could say nothing but answer the king's questions.

"Your Majesty, if you are issuing 500 million lira of national debt, I suggest that it is best to choose New York. However, going to New York will cost you a fortune by those securities dealers in Manhattan, but at least it is safer and faster. If it is in Paris or London, with the comparison between our country and There will definitely be a lot of trouble in the relationship between Britain and France."

Aldini's suggestion is very reasonable. Although Europe is closer to issuing national debt, but in terms of the relationship between Italy and Britain and France, if Italy dares to issue national debt in Paris or the London stock market, then a small punishment will be the generosity of both countries. . Don't talk about free and open capital markets, that's just because you didn't offend him.

Otherwise, I will let you know in a minute what is reasonable and legal to make you lose a sum of money. (Obviously, I was disgusted by the way the British looked at Chelsea)

"In addition, our country has issued a lot of national debt in recent years. If we want to continue to make people have the desire to buy, the interest rate will have to be raised a little."

It's ridiculous to say that the Italian government has always wanted to reduce the size of the national debt it carries. However, over the years, the size of the national debt has nearly doubled, reaching 11.37 billion lire.

And this money is basically brought in by borrowing and repaying. If you borrow more and pay back less, won't the scale of debt increase? Of course, by borrowing so much national debt, Italy's economic strength has grown rapidly, which also prevents debtors from worrying about Italy's ability to repay its debts.

Of course, given the current scale of debt and the tense situation in Europe, even if Italy's economy is good, its interest rates will definitely not be lowered. It would be good to borrow as much as you can. The current tensions in Europe have made it difficult to sell the bonds of European countries.

"As for the interest rate, as long as it is not too high. Next, your Ministry of Finance will issue a treasury bond of 500 million yuan, and the name will be decided by your Ministry of Finance. Don't touch this money, I will keep it for great use. .”

Carlo had no choice but to accept Aldini's suggestion of raising interest rates. However, Carlo has not yet fully considered the payment of this national debt.

But one thing is certain, most of this money will flow into the funds of the Grain Reserve Bureau. Letting Italy stock up on food for a year is the most important thing.

Aldini, who received Carlo's instructions, acted quickly. Within a month and a half, a new Italian ten-year government bond was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and was sold by Morgan Bank. With the help of the Morgan consortium, the Italian government bonds were sold very quickly and were sold out in just one month.

It's late today. I'm tired and I'm going to rest.