Chapter 743: Patience

  Chapter 726 Patience

After the Great Purge, the Tsarist government put more energy into negotiations, and the Prussian-Russian negotiations soon entered a critical moment.

The focus of dispute between the two sides centered on the cession of land and reparations. Compared with reparations, land cession was actually easier to settle.

The most serious dispute between Prussia and Russia was the region of East and West Prussia, which was the nest of the Junker nobility, and the Berlin government did not dare to let go of it easily.

However, these regions were now in the hands of the Russians, and as a defeated country, Prussia simply did not have the ability to take them back.

There is a kind of “cession” called the established fact, this problem can be put aside for the time being, after a long time everyone will get used to it.

No matter how much the Junker nobles were dissatisfied, it could not change the fact that the Kingdom of Prussia was not strong enough to take back these areas.

Now the Berlin government is still fighting for it, on the one hand, it is expecting the Great Powers, counting on relying on the power of international intervention, forcing the Russians to make concessions; on the other hand, it is for political show.

Compared with the territorial dispute, the reparations were the real problem. Both Russia and Prussia were now short of money, and neither would make concessions.

The Tsarist government wanted to claim as much war reparations as possible to make up for the government’s financial deficits; the Berlin government, on the contrary, was in financial difficulties itself and could not afford to make huge reparations.

A real conflict arose, and of an irreconcilable kind. No matter how great the Russian advantage, the Berlin government had two words – no money.

The Berlin government was really broke, not fake broke, and couldn’t squeeze any oil out of it, no matter what it did.

Not only could it not afford to pay the reparations to Russia, but it also suspended payment of the debts it owed to the British.

The Prussian finance minister is said to have departed for London, seemingly to lobby the debtors to extend their debts or to accept payment in kind.

This lobbying operation is destined to be difficult. The Kingdom of Prussia is resource-poor, with limited industrial technological prowess and limited competitiveness of industrial and commercial products.

Even if the “payment in kind” goods would be discounted to a certain extent, it would be a problem to sell them in the face of competition from high-quality British industrial and commercial products.

The competitiveness brought about by mere “cheapness” is still limited, unless the price difference is very great, otherwise it is still the good quality goods that are more popular.

As a matter of fact, the Kingdom of Prussia did not have enough resources of its own and had to import industrial raw materials from overseas, and the cost of industrial and commercial products had already gone up.

The only advantage was probably cheap labor. Unfortunately these days the cost of labor all over the world is not high, except for some labor-intensive industries, most of the industry labor costs are only a small part of the cost of production.

As a matter of fact, the Berlin government also made a proposal to pay war reparations in kind, which was rejected by the Russian representatives.

There was no way, the Tsarist government was now short of money, not industrial and commercial products, especially the foreign exchange gap was very serious.

The war, which brought a huge trade deficit to the Russian Empire, had to rely on foreign debt to maintain the balance.

Now that the war is over, the tsarist government is in dire need of a large amount of foreign exchange to pay off its debts, or else it will have to take real money to fill the hole.

The British did not have these pressures and got cheap industrial and commercial products that they could still dump into the colonies, and the debtors would not lose money in their wallets.

The tsarist government to get these things can only use their own, take to the market to realize can only be their own printed rubles, for valuable foreign exchange.

The Russian representative, Nikita Titov, held out five fingers: ”Five hundred million sacred guilders, that’s our bottom line, it can’t go any lower.

You have to know that for this war, the Russian Empire has paid at least three billion divine guilders in military expenses, causing tens of billions of divine guilders in economic losses.

All of these were caused by you, and now the amount of compensation we are asking for is less than four percent of the losses, which is already very low.”

There was no problem, the two Russo-Prussian wars combined, including the expenses of suppressing internal civil unrest, the military expenses paid by the Tsarist government had indeed exceeded three billion divine guilders.

Economic losses, not to mention the fact that the Polish-Lithuanian region was nearly reached as a white land, the Russian Western Ukraine region was reduced to ruins, and the two wars caused more than ten million population losses to the Russian Empire.

Adding up all these losses, ten billion divine guilders would be more than enough. In this respect, the reparations demanded by the Tsarist government was really not too high.

At least, they didn’t ask the Berlin government for pensions. Otherwise, even the Kingdom of Prussia could not afford to pay for the pensions of tens of millions of people.

Politics is so realistic that if the Berlin government won, they were justified, and the war could be defined as a fight for the liberation of the minorities enslaved by the Tsarist government.

The international community would have defined: Poland, Lithuania, Russian Western Ukraine …… These areas were territories forcibly occupied by the Tsarist government.

Since they lost, there is no way to say that these areas were the territories of the Russian Empire, and any destruction of these areas by the war would be damaging the property of the Russian Empire.

Prussian representative Gillian von MacKeith cried decisively, “Your Excellency the Count, the disaster brought about by this war is not only borne by your country, we are equally victimized.

Now the livelihood of the Kingdom of Prussia is withered and in mourning, the ordinary people even the most basic life is a problem, the government’s finances are not enough to make ends meet, it is really impossible to get money.”

“No money” is an all-purpose reason, Gillian von MacKeith is not afraid that the Russians will further slaughter the Kingdom of Prussia, now the Russian control area is the bottom line acceptable to the European powers.

If the Tsarist government did not know enough and tried to swallow the Kingdom of Prussia in one bite, Britain, France and Austria would show them who owned Europe.

Being unable to annex the Kingdom of Prussia was not the same as being unable to destroy it, and it was not difficult for the Russians to fight all the way to Berlin for a new government if they were willing to pay the price.

Except that in doing so, it would add another huge amount of military spending. After the war Prussia was whited out, so don’t even think about a penny of reparations.

No sensible government would put the national interest at risk just for the sake of a single breath, especially not a poor country like Russia, which can’t resist the charms of money.

How short of money the Czarist government was, one can see by looking at the choice of payment currency used in the negotiations.

Generally, when it comes to war reparations, everyone pays in their national currency.

The Tsarist government had no choice but to choose the “S.D.S.” instead of the “ruble”.

Due to the financial pressure, the Tsarist government had to issue more money, and the ruble is continuing to depreciate.

In order to guarantee its own interests, it was necessary to designate a currency with a stable value, and the only choices left were the pound and the guilder.

The biggest debtor of the Russian Empire was Austria, which inevitably favored the S.D.U. when stockpiling foreign exchange, and the original financial model of pegging the ruble to the pound sterling had long since been abandoned during the war.

Nikita Titov shook his head and sternly refused, “This is something your government needs to consider, there is always a need to take responsibility for wrongdoing.

If you can’t afford to pay the reparations, find a way to borrow, I’m sure your country has a way to raise enough money.

If it’s really not possible, we’ll use our own release to take it, in short, this 500 million Shendian is not to be missed by a single penny.”

Theoretically speaking, if the war reparations of five hundred million divine guilders were obtained, the financial crisis plaguing the Russians would immediately be solved.

Paying the debt in advance could save a great deal of interest expenses. If all of it was taken to pay off the debt, the foreign debt would immediately be cut.

In order to force Prussia to compromise, Nikita Titov did not hesitate to start threatening. Can you get so much money if you go and get it yourself?

The answer was no!

The present Prussia is not yet the German Second Empire at its peak. If you want to make up for war losses by dismantling machines, you won’t be able to come up with half a billion dollars, even if you finish removing all the screws.

……

Can not give in, met with no money. The two sides are also considered to be a chess match, and the negotiation quickly reached an impasse.

Vienna Palace, closely watching the Prussian-Russian negotiations Franz, this time also headache.

Russia-Prussia negotiations so dragged on, Austria is also very unfavorable.

Not to mention, without putting an end to this war, how can the new Vienna system be established?

With the style of the British, if they do not take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble, then it is not the British, otherwise how come there is the reputation of “stirring up shit”.

As the saying goes, the night is long, and after a long delay, no one knows whether the Austrian advantage can be sustained.

If we miss this opportunity, Austria will lose a lot. The Vienna system brought not only fame, but also huge political interests.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, the Russian appetite is too great for Prussia to bear.

A war reparation of 500 million guilders, I’m afraid that’s more than all the war reparations in the history of Europe combined, or even all the war reparations in the world put together, it may not be as much as that.”

How much?

Looking at it in this day and age, it is indeed an astronomical amount of reparations. The Franco-Prussian War in the original time and space, the final war reparations were only 5 billion francs, all shocked the world.

With the current exchange rate, 5 billion francs is only 400 million guilders.

Of course, taking into account the different eras, the 400 million guilders ten years ago was really not less than the 500 million guilders now.

But Prussia and France were two entirely different concepts. The French easily raised 5 billion francs, and supposedly exceeded it by over a billion.

Keep in mind that the Franco-Prussian War also smashed several eastern provinces, with an economic loss of more than 20 billion francs, and that the French government itself still had a huge debt of tens of billions of francs, no less than what the Berlin government owed now.

Thick bottom is so cattle, people lose the affordable, change the Kingdom of Prussia simply can not do.

Franz was not touched, that is because have seen the reparations of World War I and II, the heart has been very strong, this little money has been difficult to make him touch.

After a few moments of contemplation, Franz nodded: ”For the Berlin government, it is indeed a bit much. Will it be able to make the Russians make concessions?

For example: reduce a part of the indemnity, or extend the number of years of payment. Limit the amount of reparations paid each year to what the Kingdom of Prussia can afford.”

Weissenberg shook his head, “Your Majesty, I’m afraid this is difficult. The damage caused by the war is too great, and the Kingdom of Prussia barely has the ability to pay now.

Besides, the Russians still owe us a huge debt, and any proposal for a reduction, or deferral of payment, is not suitable for us to propose.”

Hearing this explanation, Franz rubbed his forehead helplessly. Self-interest was involved, and that meant there was no negotiation.

It would have been embarrassing if the Vienna government had suggested that the Tsarist government reduce its reparations and the Russians had demanded that Austria reduce its debt.

How could it be possible that bad finances could lead to no reparations? According to this logic, how could Austria collect from the Russians?

Franz asked, “How long can the Tsarist government’s finances be sustained under the present circumstances?”

The Prussian-Russian armistice did not mean that the war was over. As long as the treaty was not signed, the war was not really over.

Now there are still millions of troops from Prussia and Russia still facing each other on the border, even if there is no war, just the food and drink for these millions of mouths, the daily expenses are not a small number.

For the financial bad Prussia and Russia, there must be pressure.

Prime Minister Felix replied, “It will probably be able to last two to three months, and the threat of force from the Russians, which failed to scare the Kingdom of Prussia, is directly related to this.

If the Russo-Prussian War had continued, it would have gone on for a month or so at the most, and the Tsarist government would have been in a money panic again.

Not only were the Russians short of money, but Prussia was no better. If the Prussian army hadn’t been stationed on the mainland, reducing transportation consumption, the Berlin government might even have gone bankrupt first.”

Two poor people were comparing patience, and Franz was speechless. According to the current situation, it was no longer a question of how much money the Kingdom of Prussia would have to pay out, but how much money they could come up with.

(End of chapter)