Chapter 879: Smashing the Pot
Chapter 862 Smashing Pot
France and Russia secretly have contact, Britain and Austria similarly have not broken contact. Only that everyone is unspoken, pretending not to see it.
If you are serious, you will lose your friends.
International relations in the late 19th century had become a mess. France and Austria were at loggerheads over Central Europe, but they were in agreement over Central Asia.
Though their motives were different, their goal was to provoke an Anglo-Russian war and weaken their rivals.
On the other hand, Britain and Russia are also similar, Central Asia is about to fight, in Central Europe, both sides of the position is almost the same: let France and Austria at each other’s throats, can not appear a dominant situation.
……
London.
Despite the fact that France and Russia had been secretly eyeing each other for a long time, the news that the French had issued bonds on behalf of the Russians caused strong resentment in the British government.
Prime Minister Gladstone frowned and asked, “To issue bonds for the Russians at this time, what are the French trying to do?”
The time point is too sensitive, earlier, later for the Russians to issue bonds are no problem, in favor of the British and Russian flip-flopping at the moment, against the meaning of too obvious.
Foreign Minister George explained, “The French are retaliating, we promised to support them in expanding their sphere of influence into Central Europe, but the government chose neutrality in front of the French when they were seeking to benefit from the coal of the two countries of Belgium and Germany.”
Was it really just “neutrality”?
The answer is: no!
If the British government hadn’t pushed and pulled the French back, the anti-French wave in Europe wouldn’t have erupted so easily.
Perhaps in the British government’s view, not jumping out directly against it, that is even the biggest support for France.
Secretly give than Germany and Germany two countries to cheer, to the French government to pass if not warnings, these pull back behavior, are professional habits, is nothing at all.
In the face of such an ally, the French government does not react violently, that would be a problem.
Originally is to take advantage of each other, who did not really think of each other as allies, secretly pit one is not surprising.
In fact, from the beginning, the British dug a good hole. Supporting the French to “expand their sphere of influence” is not the same as supporting the French to expand their territory, which are two very different concepts.
Perhaps during the negotiations, in order to fool people, diplomats will be vague or verbal commitment. But on paper, there is absolutely no support for French territorial expansion into Central Europe.
The French empire is now very strong, and if they are allowed to expand further and make up for the last shortcoming, there will be a new round of power surge.
Britain and France are separated by only a strait, letting France continue to grow stronger, Britain will really not be able to sleep.
Prime Minister Gladstone rubbed his forehead, this explanation left him speechless, standing in Britain’s position, there is no problem in pulling the French back.
Britain and France have been feuding for hundreds of years, it is not something that can be dissolved by a paper alliance. Containing France’s growth has always been the British government’s top priority.
Although Russia and Austria are also enemies, but because of the distance, the British government’s personal feelings are not deep.
If the Czarist government hadn’t been eyeing Central Asia and threatening the security of India, the two countries wouldn’t have faced each other directly and head-on.
After hesitating for a while, Prime Minister Gladstone made a request: “Find a way to give the French something to do.
We can’t let them be idle so that they don’t pull us back, and at the same time we need them to keep Austria in check.”
To fulfill these two requirements, it would be necessary to put France and Austria at each other’s throats. Sowing discord has always been a specialty of the British.
With the current relationship between France and Austria, it seems that there is no need to continue to provoke, as long as the intensification of conflicts is enough.
After calculating once, Foreign Minister George nodded: “No problem, the Foreign Office will find something for them to do as soon as possible.
Only in this way, the two countries will be completely pushed to the Austrian side. With the Habsburg dynasty’s ability to pull in allies, the French may suffer.”
France and Austria were at loggerheads for the sake of Bidde, and once the conflict escalated, Bidde as the center of the storm would not be able to get out of it at all.
Even because the French government didn’t pay attention to the eating, causing their international reputation to fall another wave, as their neighbors can’t not be worried.
In this context, once the situation in Europe is tense, even if Austria does not move, European countries will push Austria out to check the French.
Without the outbreak of war, France and Austria fought, the power of the French government will certainly suffer.
As for the real fight, George will not be able to judge the result. After all, the French have a strong reputation, and Austria has a lot of strength and potential allies.
Prime Minister Gladstone laughed coldly, ”If we don’t let them suffer a little, how can we know our importance.
Having just concluded the alliance, they hastily reached out to Central Europe, not even knowing to choose a good time.
The French have had too much of a good time these years, so much so that it has made them oblivious and arrogant beyond belief.”
……
Franz was, in fact, more nervous about France and Russia leaning in than the British government.
It was geographically determined; Austria was sandwiched between France and Russia, and once France and Russia drew closer, Austria was in too much danger strategically.
Only a few more lessons from history, Franz chose to hold back for the time being, pretending not to know anything.
Not only did he not interrupt the loan to Russia, retaliate against the serpentine government of the Tsarist government, but also suppress the anti-Russian voices in the government.
“The matter of the Russians has come to an end for the time being. Whatever the Czarist government has done, let us now pretend that nothing has happened.
The Foreign Office can properly express its dissatisfaction, and all other issues will be discussed after the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian war.”
There must be an autumn settling of scores, but the precondition must be that it is autumn.
If Austria were to have an attack now and cause trouble for the Russians, how would the Tsarist government have the courage to compete with the British for the Afghan region?
If the Russians lose the war, it will certainly lose a lot of money, and may even be the recent years, gathered the national fortune once lost.
Don’t look at the current Russian empire seems to be very powerful, but don’t forget the previous wars, this old empire has been hit hard.
The loss of millions of young men and women cannot be made up in a day or two.
Compare that to the population growth rate of the Russian Empire in the last thirty years, and you can see how much damage the war has done.
Especially after the Second Russo-Prussian War, the Russian Empire had been experiencing negative population growth for many years, and by now it was only able to keep the population from declining.
Against this background, if another million or eight hundred thousand were to be filled in in Central Asia, and it happened to lose the war, the foundation of the Tsarist government’s rule would have to be shaken.
Of course, winning the war these are minor issues that are not worth mentioning. Victory can squelch all discontent, and having taken the Afghan region, the Tsarist government up and down the line will make a concerted effort to scramble for India.
The problem was that it was easy to take Afghanistan, it was not so simple to digest the Afghan region.
Unless the Austrian policy of relocating the natives was emulated.
Otherwise, with the guerrillas ravaging the country and the British watching from the outside, the Russians will never have peace.
All Austria had to do was to give them a push at the right time. Although it’s a bit mean to screw over an ally like that, it was the Russians who hooked up with the French first.
……
Minister of Agriculture Holls reminded, ”Your Majesty, from the information gathered by the Ministry of Agriculture, the food self-sufficiency programs of Britain and France have both achieved milestones.
Especially the French’s big farm program, ever since the French government replaced a group of colonial officials, agriculture in French Africa has started to develop rapidly.
If there are no surprises, France’s shortfall of staple foods this year, will be reduced to less than 1.8 million tons, it won’t be long before they can achieve food self-sufficiency.
However, it is said that the running costs of the farms opened by the French in Africa are on the high side, and only a small portion of the farms are able to break even, with most of them relying on financial allocations.”
The result was not unexpected by Franz.
The shortage of food in France was mainly due to the Italian regions, and there was practically enough food in the headquarters.
In order to reduce foreign exchange expenditure, in recent years, and in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and other regions to establish farms, to make up for the food gap is sooner or later.
As for the high cost of running the farms, that was a foregone conclusion. The areas of French Africa suitable for agricultural development were already on the small side.
A lot of places are owned by owners, so you can’t get rid of all the owners, right? Keep in mind that many of the local land owners have long since become French colonizers.
In addition to grabbing part of the indigenous land, most of the farms or the French government personally opened up, many of the natural conditions of the farms are not the best, can only be said to barely get by.
If the water facilities were all perfected, the latter should not be a big problem either. But this all takes time, not something that can be fixed in a short time.
In the short term, these farms would have to rely on the weather, and naturally the food production would not be high enough. Together with the bureaucrats’ management, which added a lot of extra costs, losing money was the normal operation.
Franz nodded: “The time is almost right, promoting potash fertilizer also needs time, there is no need to continue to hide it.”
At this time to promote fertilizer, the biggest loss is definitely not Austria.
Affected by the fall in international food prices, Austria has been cutting back on the area planted with staple grains in recent years.
In addition to satisfying domestic consumption, it has rarely exported to the outside world. Domestic grain processing companies, too, have begun to vigorously import Russian grain.
In a sense, the fact that the Russian economy has been able to rebound against the backdrop of falling international food prices is also due to Austria’s policy of reducing food production.
Only this kind of good times, soon to be gone. Any more capacity cuts, Austria’s agricultural volume is here to stay.
Even if the potash fertilizer now, the effectiveness is not as good as in later years, grain production increased by only five percentage points, that is enough for six or seven million people to eat rations.
Increased production, certainly need to be digested by the market.
In the context of the British and French play self-sufficiency, the international grain market not only did not grow, but is gradually shrinking.
Domestic grain production increase, Austria must first take care of themselves, the Russians grain and then want to find buyers will be difficult.
The actual situation should be even worse, potash can not keep secret, European countries will follow suit.
As countries increase their grain production capacity, the international grain market will also shrink dramatically and prices will continue to fall.
In a sense, this is for potash. Austria can find a way to increase food consumption and get through the agricultural crisis, the Russians are out of luck.
Just after the Anglo-Russian War, an agricultural crisis erupted, which doomed the tsarist government to tighten its belt for many years to come.
Franz could swear to God that this tactic of killing a thousand enemies and damaging a hundred was definitely not aimed at the allies in the beginning.
It was originally planned that when the British and French food self-sufficiency program was completed, they would start smashing pots and dragging everyone into the era of food spelling costs.
However, the plan did not change quickly, to the implementation of the time, only to suddenly realized, it seems that the Russian Empire is the biggest victim.
There is no other reason, Britain, France and Austria are industrialized countries, domestic industrial chain support, only the Russians rely heavily on agriculture.
(End of chapter)