Chapter 832: Crisis
Chapter 815 Crisis
St. Petersburg, ever since he received the news of the French plans for the Great Farm, Alexander III’s face rarely smiled again.
Now received the news that the British Parliament passed the Food Self Sufficiency Program, Alexander III’s mood how, can be imagined.
There was no way around it, grain exports were simply too important to the Russian Empire. Not only did it take up the largest share of the country’s foreign exchange earnings, but it also involved the livelihood of tens of millions of people.
From the beginning of Alexander II’s completion of the agricultural reform, the Russian Empire was caught in the dilemma of food supply exceeding demand, except for the years of the Russo-Prussian War, the tsarist government had to worry about food sales every year.
This was connected with a decree under Alexander II.
In preparation for the Second Russo-Prussian War, the government needed to raise military rations, but also coincided with the agricultural crisis, the people’s grain stagnation of the people can not afford to pay taxes, Alexander II ordered to allow farmers to use grain to pay taxes.
This policy allowed the Tsarist government to raise enough food in the shortest possible time and laid the foundation for winning the Second Russo-Prussian War.
The aftermath was that the Tsarist government received a large amount of grain every year, especially in remote areas where almost all peasants took grain to pay taxes.
It was impossible to change it back. The transportation in Russia was very bad, and the grain in remote areas could not be sold at a good price, and in some areas could not be sold at all, so it was far better to pay the tax directly in kind.
To abolish this decree would be to fight against tens of millions of peasants, something Alexander III would not dare to do.
If the Tsarist government had this much grain in its hands decades ago, it would have swept across the European continent, killing God and Buddha.
Unfortunately, times have changed, and what the tsarist government wants most now is to realize the grain.
Domestic is no need to think about, the market price of food is not high, and then put so much food out, the food market must be collapsed.
Internationally, there is also excess food production capacity, coupled with political factors, Russia’s grain export road is not smooth.
If Austria did not take the lead in the food export alliance, we cut the volume of food exports, stabilized food prices, it is estimated that the international market would have been played bad.
After the stabilization of international food prices, the tsarist government was also only slightly relieved to share their share, in fact, still can not digest the food received by the government each year.
Of course, the remaining portion was not all wasted. The tsarist government also thought of a number of ways, for example: raising livestock, brewing wine ……
The former naturally failed; it was easy to raise livestock, but unfortunately it was harder to sell it.
The domestic market seems to be large, but unfortunately the general public is poor, it is not easy to be able to fill their stomachs, they simply can not afford to consume.
Although the international market is a bit bigger, the problem is that it is difficult to transport the living livestock, and after slaughtering, it is not possible to keep fresh, and cured meat does not sell well in the international market.
If you hear the words “made in Russia” again, it is estimated that 99% of consumers will be scared away.
It’s all about branding, and Russian food is so reassuring.
Other countries export food, just may have problems; but the Russian food exports, basically have problems.
That’s what the European people have learned from their own experience.
The Tsarist government also made efforts to change this image, but all of them failed due to the joint efforts of bureaucrats and capitalists.
Specifically, you can refer to the sale of meat products in the Russian market, where the high prices were imported and the domestically produced ones couldn’t be sold at the right price.
But wherever the economic situation allowed, people bought more reassuring imported food. This is true not only for meat products, but also for flour.
Even if many people know that these flour is the Russian production of wheat exported to Austria, processed and finished back to the market, but everyone is willing to pay a high price to buy a peace of mind.
The result of the development of animal husbandry, in the end, only the border area farmers benefited, can be driven to the next door in Austria to sell livestock.
Industrial development or do not expect, because these livestock from the beginning was labeled – Russian imports.
Inherent perceptions, once formed, are not so easy to change.
With this labeling, it directly leaves no market for this meat products in Austria. A lot of it was processed into cured meat, canned, and ended up back on the Russian market.
In contrast to the farming industry’s flop, the Tsarist government’s brewing business was booming, and was now the largest supplier of alcohol in Europe, and sold cheap wine.
Really cheap, even if someone wanted to follow suit. This is because, based on the price of grain in the marketplace, none of the grain wines sold would be enough to recoup their costs.
Of course, just “cheap” is not enough to make the Russians become Europe’s largest supplier of alcohol, more critical is the Russian Empire itself is Europe’s largest consumer of alcohol.
Austria, with a population of about the same size, consumes less than half as much alcohol as the Russian Empire. If you count alcohol consumption, the gap is even bigger.
In a sense, the overcapacity of food has contributed to the development of an alcoholic culture in the Russian population, making the “Land of the Barrels” what it deserves to be.
The Tsar’s government did not want to be so extravagant, but the excess grain could not be left to rot in warehouses if it was not used for brewing!
It was not easy to get rid of the excess grain, and now Britain and France are starting to toss again.
Although the short-term impact is not great, but once their plans become a reality, the tsarist government’s largest foreign exchange earning program is completely gone.
With a grim face, Alexander III questioned, “The British Parliament has already passed the food self-sufficiency program, without the slightest regard for our withdrawal from the free trade system, so who can tell me what the Austrians are doing?”
It was a very obvious question, the British Parliament was able to pass the proposal so smoothly, the Austrian government must not have done everything in its power to stop it.
With Austria’s influence, even if it can’t sway the British decision-making, it’s still no problem to delay it for a while in the parliament.
Combined with what happened during this time, Alexander III had reason to suspect that the Austrian government was secretly making deals with Britain and France and selling out the interests of the Russian Empire.
Foreign Minister Oskar Jimenez: “Your Majesty, not long ago the Vienna government issued an agricultural upgrade announcement.
According to the above, in the next five years Austria will cut down: five percent of the area planted with wheat, three percent of the area planted with potatoes …… to cope with a new round of agricultural crisis.
If this plan is fully realized, their domestic market, will be enough to consume the domestic food production capacity and basically get rid of their dependence on the international market.”
In essence Franz did this because he was forced to. The importance of grain goes without saying, if he can monopolize the grain export market, he will die to the end even if he loses money.
Unfortunately, Austria does not have the conditions to monopolize the grain export now.
Even in the international agricultural export market occupies the largest share, the market share is close to monopoly, but this dominant position is not stable.
If you want to consolidate the hegemony, you first need to put down several food-producing countries, especially the Russian Empire next door.
The international situation is changing, today Britain, France and Russia are still enemies, but tomorrow they may become friends.
With the ability of the Russians themselves, want to develop the agro-processing industry, is not enough to worry about, but with external support is different.
If one day the Russians and the French, or the British reached an agreement to attract a group of British and French capitalists to run over to invest.
In the coastal cities to engage in agro-processing factories, the consequences will be serious, after all: “advanced technology + cheap industrial raw materials + cheap labor + vast markets = success.”
Encountered such a combination, Austria can only passively follow the price war, relying on financial strength to capital injury.
Knowing that the “money” is dark, and involves the interests of tens of millions of peasants, Franz naturally not in order to gamble, on this road of no return.
In order to minimize the loss, naturally, before overturning the table, first promote the transformation of domestic agriculture.
In this era of rapid scientific and technological development, cut the area of food cultivation, is not equal to cut the total food production capacity, which are two completely different concepts.
Of course, in the eyes of the outside world, the Vienna government is running out of technology and has no choice but to cut food production capacity in order to cope with the next agricultural crisis.
“The coffee cup in front of Alexander III flew out with a bang. Austria’s retreat is not good for the Russian Empire.
Since the food production can retreat, so can the agro-processing industry. Once Britain and France really food self-sufficiency, Austria can also give up this part of the interests.
As the economy continues to grow, the proportion of the agro-processing industry in the Austrian domestic economy is also getting lower and lower.
Moreover, losing part of the foreign market is not the same as the agricultural products processing industry is finished, the real impact is also some flour mills and other raw grain processing enterprises.
Other agricultural by-products processing enterprises, basically will not be affected by the impact on the entire agricultural products processing industry, in fact, not big.
……
(End of chapter)