Chapter 796: Armenia
Chapter 779 Armenia
With the internal problems of the Anti-Turkish League solved, the final piece of the puzzle now remained, finding a king for the newly independent Armenians.
The Armenian Kingdom had been extinguished for thousands of years, and the former royal family had long since disappeared into the river of history, and the legitimate heir simply did not exist.
Located in the center of the sandwich between Russia and Austria, this newborn country is doomed to a future that will not be too comfortable.
If the relationship between Russia and Austria remains friendly, Armenia will be forced to take sides once the relationship between the two countries deteriorates.
Franz did not have the slightest interest in such a miserable position. Just because the Habsburgs gave up, it did not mean that the other royal families also gave up.
Europe’s least is the decline of the royal family, the core members are just, prominent identity can still access the upper class, with these resources in, at least can be a rich man.
The side line is miserable, the decline of the royal family has no extra resources to provide them with, must be to make their own way.
Luckily, can still top an empty title to mix life; bad luck, will be directly reduced to commoners.
These people who have nothing will not give up any opportunity, and the successful example of Napoleon III is an incentive to rise up.
Hot potato?
What’s there to be afraid of? Being king for a day that’s still being king. As long as it was recognized by European society, it was a class leap, and a step up the ladder.
Since the Habsburg dynasty announced the abandonment of the aftermath of the relatives exposed, the Vienna Palace has become particularly lively, come to climb the relationship that is numerous.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, the Russians want to support Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich to become King of Armenia.
The Tsarist government has already begun lobbying the Armenian hierarchy, and they have made an offer that the Armenians cannot refuse. As long as we don’t object, the outcome of the latter election is predetermined.”
Franz smiled slightly and said, “Oh, the Russians are willing to give up the Batumi region?”
(Note: Batumi, a port city in present-day southern Georgia)
The Kingdom of Armenia exists as a buffer between Russia and Austria, and the boundaries have changed from the original time period, and the country is now like a banana.
It is bordered by Persia to the east and the Black Sea to the west. The territory covers about 30,000 square kilometers, and the capital is still Yerevan.
If that’s the case, the Armenians should be considered to have made a fortune. Unfortunately, the Russians are tugging at the sea and not letting go, and the newly formed Kingdom of Armenia is still a landlocked country.
The small city of Batumi in the Caucasus is the closest access to the sea, and the area the Armenians want the most.
Weissenberg shook his head, “No, the Tsarist government can’t give it up yet, but Alexander III turned Batumi into a fiefdom of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.
If the Armenians accept this king, there will be no restrictions on their import and export trade, and vice versa ……”
This is normal operation, how could the Russians give up such a good bargaining chip so easily?
Perhaps the Armenians could also borrow a route from Austrian territory, but unfortunately even to the nearest port of Hopa, they would need to walk an extra hundred miles.
In later times, this distance of an hour’s problem would naturally be nothing. But in this day and age, it would mean an additional two days of transportation.
Once or twice did not matter, but more often this loss was much greater. From the beginning, the Russians dug the hole well.
Figuring out the ins and outs, Franz replied indifferently, “Since the Russians are so well-prepared, let’s make it work for them.”
Armenia’s value was not high enough to warrant much Austrian effort. The special topography of the Caucasus region had innately decided – this could not be the main battlefield of the Russian-Austrian rivalry.
It is not impossible to pull the Armenians in, mainly because the payoff is not proportional to the benefit, it would be better to give it to the Russians and lure them south to Persia.
Prime Minister Felix reminded, “Your Majesty, the Russians may not really want to take control of the Armenian Kingdom.
Although we have already determined the boundaries of the Armenian Kingdom, population relocation requires not only time, but also a lot of money.
From relocation and resettlement to subsequent reconstruction, without tens of millions of divine guilders, this Armenian Kingdom simply cannot be established.
Even though the Tsarist government has just made a deal with us, most of the money from it has been offset against debt, and the Tsarist government can only really get its hands on 20 million God’s Guilders.
Throwing away half of the proceeds just for an Armenian kingdom, I’m afraid the Russians aren’t that generous.”
There’s nothing wrong with that, the Kingdom of Armenia only exists in theory at the moment, the provisional government is all still on its way to the capital, and in essence the country is still nothing.
It’s easy to move immigrants, hard to resettle them. Even if they all go to farming, the first year rations, seeds, basic tools, houses for daily living, these must be there, right?
The war has lasted for more than a year, and with no income for such a long period of time, the Armenian family’s wealth has long been depleted in the war.
In the middle and late Armenian insurgents were able to support, relying on the Austrian airdrop supplies to them, otherwise they would have been cool.
If the Russians wanted to take this little brother, they had to pay for help to get the Armenian kingdom established.
Unfortunately, not only did the Tsarist government not have the money, but the Russian financial institutions didn’t have the money now either.
This involved the Russo-Prussian War and Alexander II’s reforms, where the old financial institutions were clicked off on the wrong side, and the newborn financial institutions were still in the stage of primitive capital accumulation and had no extra money to engage in international lending.
As the saying goes, “Take it from the people”, the Tsarist government, which lived on Austrian loans, was itself affected by the Vienna government, not to mention tiny Armenia.
Once the Austrian loan was accepted, the Kingdom of Armenia could only follow the Vienna Government, or else it would collapse financially in a minute.
Franz shook his head: ”This can’t be said. The funds that the Armenian Kingdom needs are not going to be spent right away.
The Russians are perfectly capable of investing in batches, first giving one million eight hundred thousand Shenduan for emergency purposes, and then spending the remaining portion of three to four hundred thousand Shenduan every month on the line.
After this debt reduction, the tsarist government can reduce the monthly debt expenditure of 950,000 shillings, monthly 300,000 to 400,000 shillings squeezed out.
We’d better encourage the Russians to do it, really can’t British and French capital can also be brought in, we don’t invest as a last resort.”
Not only the Tsarist government’s pocketbook was drying up, but even the Vienna government’s pocketbook was not rich now, and Franz genuinely didn’t want to take on this kind of loan with uncertain returns.
War is a gold swallowing beast, in order to this war the Austrian government has spent nearly 260 million guilders in military expenses one after another, this is still established in the case of joint troops.
Otherwise, there are hundreds of thousands of troops more military expenses, as well as tens of thousands of casualty pensions, no 400 million guilders is absolutely not enough.
In order to all according to the Ottoman Empire, the Vienna government is also pay the price, the immigrant resettlement costs, to the allies of the compensation, all converted into cash, that is almost 300 million guilders.
This is not all, the real cost is the post-war reconstruction.
Because of the relationship between the population transfer, the future of a long time, Asia Minor Peninsula are thousands of miles of uninhabited.
By the time the Austrian settlers were in place, the grass would have long since grown, cities would be in ruins, roads would be jungles, and farmland would be ……
According to the Vienna government’s plan, within the next ten years, the government will invest 1.2 billion guilders to rebuild the Asia Minor Peninsula.
Even if it averages out, that’s 120 million God’s guilders per year.
With so much money to be spent in the short term, the Vienna government’s pocketbook naturally dried up.
If not for the Austrian domestic financial market has grown up, has enough financing ability, Franz now already laugh out loud.
Of course, compared to other countries, the Vienna government’s finances are still considered loose.
Austria has enough gold production, as long as the domestic economic volume continues to grow, will be able to print money.
Enough gold reserves + huge economic volume, the Shendun is already the world’s currency, the Vienna government’s annual mint tax benefit is an astronomical figure.
Let’s put it this way, Austria’s annual mint tax revenue is already approaching that of the Russians.
Simply calculating the economic volume, the Russian Empire is one-third of the Austrian mainland, but the gap between the two governments’ ability to mobilize funds has been counted tenfold.
The advantage of industrial countries over agricultural countries is manifested here, and the only country in the world that can compete with Austria in terms of financial strength is Britain.
Being able to mobilize more money does not mean that you can spend it as you please. Native small area of the British may be able to, but Austria can not.
To develop the newly acquired territories, a large amount of money was bound to be squeezed out. To develop millions of square kilometers of land with only a billion guilders invested by the government is a complete dream.
The government investment is just a lead-in; to develop the Near East, more private capital is still needed.
Of course, the first step is still immigration. Otherwise, after the railroad is finished, there are no people along the route, and there is no need to open the train at all, and that would be embarrassing.
Domestic capital has a place to go, Armenia such a chicken ribs, naturally want to throw out.
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Foreign Minister Weissenberg replied
……
(End of chapter)