Chapter 858: All Smart People
Chapter 841 – All Smart People
It’s easy to dismiss an official, a decree will do, the trouble is how to make good after dismissing an official.
The bureaucrat-led farm program has proven to be a failure.
If you want to solve the problem, you have to replace them with a group of loyal, incorruptible, capable people who are not interested in glory and profit, and who are still willing to go to the colony to live a hard life.
Such bureaucrats may exist, but they are definitely a very small minority, and they are treasures wherever they are placed, and there is simply no surplus to throw at the colonies.
Prime Minister Terrence Burgin proposed, “Your Majesty, there is no point in dismissing them now, the most important thing right now is to make sure that these projects fall into place.
I suggest giving a buffer time, ordering them to complete their tasks by a deadline, and only disposing of the guys who fail to complete their tasks.”
A buffer time was a must, for a while the French government simply couldn’t find so many replacement officials.
The bottom line is that after getting these guys down, the money still won’t come back. No bureaucrat would be foolish enough to put all the property in his own name.
Moreover, the embezzlement of public funds is not one or two people do, up and down are involved, there is no way to investigate.
After calming down, Napoleon IV asked, “Given the buffer time, will they be able to complete the task?”
When things came to this point, everyone knew that the money allocated by the government for the project had been embezzled by the following. The chief official specifically in charge may have taken the lion’s share, but that wasn’t the whole story.
The biggest problem in wanting to complete the previous program was money. The government would not reallocate the money, and the shortfall would have to be figured out by the person in charge.
Napoleon IV does not think that these bureaucrats can be noble enough to fill the gap with their own money, even if it is to cut the meat for their own official hats, that is only if they can fill the hole.
Can’t expect these guys to get the money back from the people who share it, right?
Prime Minister Terence Burgin explained, “One hundred percent completion is naturally impossible, but a discount is still hopeful.
The government can put pressure on them and severely punish officials who fail to deliver results.”
The typical bureaucratic solution naturally could not satisfy Napoleon IV, but there was no way around it, it was the best option at the moment.
If you want to clean up these bureaucrats, you can only boil a frog in warm water, if you push it, there will be a big mess.
……
The French government internal infighting, is not something honorable, those in the know have very tacitly chosen to deal with a low profile.
If it is not the intelligence department came to the news, Franz do not even know that France almost changed again.
But by this time it was already too late, missing the best time to intervene.
Otherwise operate a little, so that Napoleon IV detained in Algeria, the bullish French Empire will really fall.
Detaining the emperor is easy, want to control the French government is difficult, the Paris government will not sit idly by, the coup d’état can not be launched by anyone.
With the bureaucrats’ integrity, directly embracing the Dauphin to succeed the throne is more likely, after all, the young master is easier to control. Napoleon IV’s son is still breastfeeding, is absolutely the best choice.
However, the young lord could not suppress the scene. Domestic Orleans and Bourbon dynasty will not buy, forced to the corner of the colonial bureaucrats, but also can only one road to the black.
Push the Italians out again to make a scene, and a table of mahjong will come together.
There is no way, this is the aftermath of the loss of the majesty of the monarch, the Paris revolution shook the foundation of Napoleon IV’s rule, the burning of Versailles is even more disgraceful to him.
Seeing a leaf and knowing the autumn, the French colonial system is rotten, the Austrian colonial system is now how?
No one can answer this question. Perhaps Austrian Africa in the process of localization, the government control is tight, the situation will be better.
As for the South Seas and the Americas, where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, it all depends on the modesty of the bureaucrats, and anyway Franz did not expect much.
Putting down the secret document in his hand, Franz sighed. Even if there was a problem, it was not something to be dealt with now.
That was the graduation test that Franz had prepared for his sons, so if the answers were given in advance, what purpose would it serve?
Adjusting his thoughts, Franz’s gaze returned to the country, the difficulties encountered by the French Grand Farm program, Austria was also experiencing.
Only it is not the farms, but the enterprises and factories that were confiscated and forfeited. Due to the one-time seizure of too much, a moment can not realize the cash, can only be temporarily operated by the government.
There is no doubt that this must be done at a loss! Enterprises and factories can be taken over directly, but customer orders, contacts and networks, these things can not be inherited.
The government appointed temporary management, more role is still to stabilize the people, to ensure the smooth progress of production.
As for sales, is still in the process of figuring out, the results are naturally very general.
Unless individual enterprises with their own sales network can operate normally to ensure profitability, most enterprises have a huge backlog of commodities, and are either already losing money or teetering on the brink of losing money.
Vienna Palace, Franz asked: “Asset realization, how far has it gone?”
If you can’t make a profit on your own operations, then you have to sell them off. The Vienna government has been working on this since the judgment came into effect.
Prime Minister Karl replied frankly, “Financial and bond assets, all of them have been sold at present, and the larger industrial and mining enterprises have also been sold almost.
In order not to impact the domestic market, land, houses and other real estate, we are prepared to hold them temporarily, and subsequently decide whether to sell them according to the actual situation.
Now the most difficult is those small factories, the number of these industries are as many as hair, the operation all rely on the owner’s own contacts, it is difficult to find a suitable buyer.
In addition, we have discovered some of the overseas assets of the people involved in the case, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in the process of communicating with the country in question on this issue.”
It seems to be an understatement, but in fact it is full of helplessness behind the scenes. Often know that it is a high-quality assets, but because the business operation into a loss of money, or have to bear the pain of selling.
Small industrial and mining enterprises can not be sold, the biggest problem is not because it is not profitable, mainly because the internal management is too chaotic, there are many procedures are not legal, or even simply underground black factories.
For the government, these are all garbage assets, stay in the hands in addition to increasing overhead, there is no value, must be disposed of.
Franz nodded: ”Sell those that can be sold, those that really can’t find a buyer, just go bankrupt and dispose of them.
The French thing has given us a wake-up call, blindly going into projects before having the ability to run them will only raise a bunch of assholes.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Prime Minister Karl replied
After a pause, Franz continued to add, “The French’s farm program has failed for the time being, the British’s food self-sufficiency program, how far has it gone?”
Not caring was not an option, Austria was still the world’s number one exporter of agricultural products and had to be wary of potential competitors.
If possible, Franz did not mind sabotaging the British and French plans to secure Austria’s pricing power in the international agricultural export market.
However, this was not possible. The threshold for food production is so low and its importance so high that the more Austria undermines it, the more Britain and France will push for it instead.
Agriculture Minister Hulse replied, “The British plan is different from the French, who use government subsidies to farmers and use economic instruments to encourage private cultivation.
However, this policy has recently run into trouble, as the local British agricultural associations have protested to the government, demanding that the British government treat them equally and give them the same treatment.
If the London government chose to compromise, it would mean a reduction of seven and a half million pounds in government revenue and an additional twelve million pounds in expenditure.
With one increase and one decrease, a small 20 million pounds will be lost, which is more than the British government can financially afford.
However, the British Agricultural Society is very powerful, from the present situation, the London government should not be able to hold on for long.
Either the subsidy scheme will be abolished, or the amount of subsidy will be adjusted downwards, together with the domestic farmers.”
It’s a dilemma; abolish the subsidy program and the food self-sufficiency program fails.
Unify the standard together with the subsidy, the government finance and can not stand. After all, into the British government’s direct financial revenue is also more than 80 million pounds, nearly all of a sudden cut off a quarter.
Franz shook his head: ”You are too optimistic, the British government is not stupid. What seems to be a dilemma, in fact, can still be changed.
For example: change the subsidy program, just give the newly reclaimed farms for a certain number of years of subsidies to open up the land, the government expenditure fell down at once.
This cost can also be returned through the agricultural transaction tax, processing tax, etc., only the first one or two years will be in the red, and later to achieve a break-even is still expected.”
These routines are often played badly by countries in later generations. An agricultural subsidy expenditure, not only mobilized food production enthusiasm, will also promote the development of domestic agricultural products processing field, increase jobs, it is simply a multi-purpose.
In general, the British food planting subsidy policy, to be more reliable than the French government personally to engage in farms.
Of course, this is not to say that the French government is stupid. France is a major food-producing country, and the French Agricultural Society is much more bullish than the British Agricultural Society.
If the Paris government only give colonial farms to subsidize food cultivation, French farmers must revolt. A full subsidy would be too much for the government’s finances.
The peasant class is the biggest base of the Bonaparte dynasty, and Napoleon IV would not do anything stupid like digging his own grave.
In this context, the state-owned farms became the best choice of the French government, but also the only choice.
(End of chapter)