Chapter 810: The British Counterattack
Chapter 793 – The British Counterattack
The following day, Franz received mixed news. Prime Minister Felix woke up last night, but nothing has been found about the cause of his coma.
There was no way around it, the 19th century’s medical standards were only so high. In the absence of instrumental testing, doctors could only base their judgment on past experience.
If it was an ordinary person, with only one doctor to receive him, naturally there wouldn’t be so many worries, just rely on God’s blessing.
If you are right, you will get the right medicine; if you are wrong, you will have to fend for yourself.
Prime Minister Felix is different, after his old man fell ill, Austria’s top wave of doctors came.
Then, different conclusions were reached. The professionals couldn’t agree, and the others were even more baffled.
When it came to this situation, Franz could do nothing. As a medical novice, he could only choose to wait.
Not waiting for Prime Minister Felix’s condition to be diagnosed, something else happened internationally.
Influenced by the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the British government began to accelerate the pace of its invasion of Persia.
On February 16, 1885, under the threat of force from the British, telegraph rights were obtained from British India to Bushehr via Kerman and Tehran.
It was just as well to force the laying of telegraph lines in Persia, but the point is that the cost of these erection had to be paid for by the Persian government.
The Persian Empire, which had been reduced to semi-colonial status, was naturally a poor man, and in order to pay for the costly construction of the telegraph, it naturally had to take out a loan from the British.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg handed Franz a document and said, “Your Majesty, the British are eating out of their hands.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just received news that three days ago the British secretly signed a loan against lease agreement with the Persian government.
This agreement is all-encompassing, covering a wide range of areas such as tariffs, minerals, railroads, factories, and water works.
Once the above becomes a reality, Persia will become the British’s own land, and we will essentially lose the commercial market in the Persian region.”
Receiving the document, Franz directly flipped through it, and the more he looked at it, the tighter his frown became.
The butterfly effect still hadn’t changed the history of Persia falling to the British as a colony.
Agreements on minerals, resources, factories and the like had little effect on Austria, let’s put it aside. According to the terms of the treaty: the British got 25 years of customs rights in Persia for only 20,000 pounds.
No wonder Weissenberg said that the British were overreaching, this was more than overreaching, it was clearly an attempt to have a monopoly.
In the last Anglo-Persian war, the British had not been able to meet strategic expectations because of Russian interference.
Persia also had a more relaxed international environment than at the same time in history, and after the war all three British, Russian and Austrian powers penetrated deeper into the Persian region, creating a new equilibrium.
The Viennese government was not prepared to expand into the Persian region and invested little in the area, just a portion of the commercial interests, and the fight was mainly between the British and the Russians.
Because of the Russo-Prussian War, the Russians were busy licking their wounds and reduced their investment of resources in the Persian region, and the British took advantage of the situation to increase their investment of power.
The all-encompassing lease agreement was the result of this upsetting of the balance.
After reading it, Franz took a deep breath, “The British want to build a railroad to the Caspian Sea, and I’m sure the Russians won’t look the other way, will they?”
The British got the control of the Persian Railway, the railroad extended to the Caspian Sea, but also means that the British power deep into the Caspian Sea, which seriously affects the interests of the Russians.
Weissenberg replied, “Of course! But what the Tsarist government is most angry about at the moment should not be the railroad.
The Russians controlled nearly 30% of the tobacco trade in Persia, and the British also took the tobacco franchise in Persia at a price of 15,000 pounds, which would directly reduce the financial income of the Tsarist government.
On top of that, there were tariffs. Persia was also one of the few countries that imported Russian industrial and commercial products, and with the British getting the tariff rights, they could basically declare Russian industrial and commercial products out of the Persian market.”
Without mentioning tobacco, Franz had nearly forgotten. The profiteering of the tobacco industry these days was revealed.
Persia was rich in tobacco, and until the discovery of oil, tobacco had been the largest export commodity.
Alexander II, in his reforms, followed the example of Austria in implementing a monopoly on tobacco and alcohol, and the tsarist government had to import large quantities of tobacco from Persia every year.
After processing, part of it was kept for domestic sale and part was returned to the Persian Empire.
The tsarist government was able to obtain a considerable income from it every year, occupying 1 to 2 percent of the government’s revenue.
In comparison, the export of industrial and commercial products was nothing. After all, Russian industrial and commercial products were just like that, except for the fact that they were more leathery, they were useless in other aspects.
Even if such products could be sold, the sales volume could not be high. However, it is better than nothing, even if the export is small, it is still an export, and it does not mean the same thing to the Russians.
As the saying goes, “cutting off someone’s money is like killing their parents”. Franz can already imagine how the Tsarist government will react when it learns about the British style of eating alone.
After a few moments of contemplation, Franz asked suspiciously, “Do you know the reason why the British did this?”
The more he thought about it, the more Franz felt that the British were operating strangely. Eating alone is good, but you have to consider the consequences.
Russia and Austria is not a soft persimmon, forced to completely turn over the table, no one wants to live well.
There is no way the British government didn’t know this, but they did it anyway. It can’t be a deliberate attempt to create conflict and lure Russia and Austria into attacking Persia, can it?
Foreign Minister Weissenberg explained, “It may have something to do with the Central Asian conflict, the British government has repeatedly protested to the Russians to no avail, taking countermeasures.
As for the spillover to us, it is mostly because the British government thinks that we are the ones encouraging the Russians to provoke the Central Asian conflict, and wants to teach us a lesson.”
Hearing this answer, Franz only felt speechless.
Where was the trust between people?
Purely unwarranted, even if he wanted to encourage the Russians to do something in Central Asia, he wouldn’t pick now to do it!
It’s not true that the Russians are warlike, but they are not stupid. Now in a critical moment of recovery, how could they start a war at this time?
Explanation is a cover-up, even if you know that you have been wrongly accused, Franz is powerless to defend himself.
There is no need for evidence in international politics, as long as it is considered to be, then targeted action can be taken.
“How is the Foreign Ministry going to respond?” Franz asked
Foreign Minister Weissenberg, “The Anglo-Polish is only a secret pact, it’s still a long way from becoming a reality, and it’s not yet worthwhile for us to take direct action against the British.
The Foreign Ministry plans to first poke the Anglo-Persian secret pact out, agitate the Persian public to rise up against this traitorous treaty, and then join forces with the Russians to jointly pressure Persia to force them to give up this secret pact.”
Austria can’t do anything about the British, and the Russians can’t do anything about the British, but that doesn’t mean that the two countries can’t do anything about the Persian Empire either.
Frankly speaking, Franz could not understand the operation of the Persian government. Is it “ignorance is fearless”, or are the bureaucrats in the Persian government in over their heads.
The British, Russian and Austrian powers are all deep in, any one wants to dominate the area, will be resisted by the other two.
With such a stable structure, as long as the Persian government doesn’t mess around, and takes advantage of the conflicts between the powers, retaining sovereignty is not a problem at all.
Such a good hand of cards, but actually played thin. Now it is still foolish to sign a treaty of sale with the British.
The threat of British might?
The big deal is a war, it’s not like we haven’t fought before. With Russia and Austria behind them, no matter what, the country can’t die.
In case of luck, you will also be able to use this opportunity to train an elite force to revive the Persian Empire’s bath of fire.
There was no doubt that the opportunity for revival had been perfectly missed. From the moment the treaty was signed, the Persian government was not far away from being turned against its own people.
The populace could not tolerate such a traitorous government, and even if it did not revolt, the Persian government’s popularity among the people would hit rock bottom.
As a result of the treaty, the relationship between Persia and Russia and Austria would also drop to the freezing point.
As for the British, just by looking at the content of that treaty alone, they knew that it was to annex Persia, and any sane person would know that they were the enemy.
Sure enough, an empire doesn’t fall without a reason. Putting aside the messy objective factors, just look at the rulers alone: there is no such thing as the dumbest, only dumber.
All kinds of ludicrous policies, not because of accidents, but they really only have that level.
Deep in his heart, after severely despising the rotten Persian government, Franz made the decision, “Let’s do what the Foreign Ministry plans!”
……
(End of chapter)