Chapter 908: Grabbing Grain
Chapter 890 – Grabbing Grain
The tense international situation not only pushed up prices, but likewise affected international trade, with almost all countries experiencing a decline in trade volume.
Especially in the center of the storm France and Austria, the most heavy losses. Between France and Austria engaged in international trade enterprises, are busy collecting accounts, and no longer accept reservations, must be cash transactions.
There is no way, who does not know the war time will fight. Once a belligerent, do not expect the other side to pay.
Contracts have no role here, the destructive power of war is amazing, even if you win, the other side does not have the money to pay the final payment; if you lose, it is even worse, there has never been a winner to pay the loser.
This is true of countries, and it is also true of businesses. An armistice treaty could erase all previous arrears.
Foreign trade is down, anyway, the outbreak of the Continental War is imminent, the capitalists have long wanted to make a fortune, and do not care about the small profits in foreign trade.
At Versailles, Napoleon IV was in high spirits since the implementation of the Central European strategy.
Confident as he was, the lessons of Napoleon’s failures lingered in the back of his mind.
Napoleon IV asked expectantly, “How far has diplomacy gone, and how many countries have accepted our goodwill?”
Pulling allies Napoleon IV is not expected, obviously with the tiger for the skin of things, European countries simply will not do.
France also did not have enough benefits to buy everyone into the war, the best option was to divide the European countries and not let them unite against France.
Foreign Minister Karel Kadlec replied calmly, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has initially accomplished its mission, we have convinced Portugal, Spain, Holland, and the Nordic Confederation to remain neutral.
If the military has no plans to send troops from Switzerland, then Switzerland will also remain neutral in this war.
The British are supporting us, and the Russians tried to mediate this war, and after our refusal, the Tsarist government is very angry and will probably side with Austria.
But until the war is decided, they will be neutral and wait and see what happens, and only after the Austrian army is defeated will the Russians come out to intervene.
It may affect our gains, but it will not affect the outcome of this war. For the Tsarist government, a strong Austria is not in their interest.
Apart from these somewhat influential countries, the remaining Greece and Montenegro have very limited strength, are not qualified to influence this war, and are so heavily influenced by Austria that they have no value to pull in.
The only enemies we really need to face are the three countries of Belgium, the German Confederation and Austria, and the specific gains are all up to the military to take on the battlefield.”
It was evident that Karel Kadlec was the optimist, and even though he was outnumbered by three, he was still certain that the French army would be able to achieve victory.
As for diplomacy, it had been hard enough to make it this far. Even with the help of the British, Karel Kadlec deserves a lot of credit for being able to achieve such results in a period of time.
Belgium and Germany were the targets of French expansion, Austria was France’s biggest rival, and these three enemies were simply impossible to bypass.
As a matter of fact, the French government also thought of dividing the three countries, for example: annex Belgium first, digest it and then seize the Rhineland region.
Unfortunately, the British, who were hidden behind the curtain, did not agree, and Austria, who had signed an alliance with Belgium, would likewise not tolerate such a thing.
Of course, if the German Confederation first, the possibility of Belgium’s neutrality is still very large, after all, as a small country’s primary task is to survive.
Unfortunately, Belgium’s geographic location is good ah, to attack the German region, it is best to borrow the road from Belgium, or you have to go over the mountains.
Not only is the delay long, but the success rate is also very low. In contrast, it would be better to take out Belgium together, anyway, their plan also includes the annexation of Belgium.
Napoleon IV nodded and affirmed, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has done a good job this time, your next job is to stabilize these countries so that they don’t add to the chaos.”
Dealing with Belgium, Germany and Austria alone, France would have to bear the pressure of fighting on two fronts, and with other European countries joining in, the battle would be impossible to fight.
It was not that the French army could not fight, it was that it could not take care of so many places. Although the French army has mobilized millions of people, but the main force is still the original hundreds of thousands of other newly formed troops will follow the wind war is okay.
Once the multiple lines of troops, the French army’s combat strength advantage will not be obvious. If the number of elite troops is not enough, they will be worn out on the battlefield.
Without being overwhelmed by Napoleon IV’s verbal praise, Karel Kadlec analyzed, “Your Majesty, we are about to encounter a new trouble.
The minister in Vienna has sent word that a week ago the Austrian government reached an agreement with the Russians to buy out the Russian Empire’s planned grain exports this year at a direct premium of twenty-five percent.
Two days ago Austrian Foreign Minister Weissenberg privately held a secret meeting with the ministers of the two countries, and it is suspected that an agreement was reached.
All signs point to the fact that this agreement is definitely aimed at us. If nothing else, the three countries are going to embargo our supplies in the near future.
All other materials are fine, the problem is coal and food. Once the three countries impose a material embargo on us, we’ll have to rely on the British for coal, and we’ll have to find a way to get food from overseas.”
The French government does not have a perfect emergency reserve system, and even if there is grain and coal in storage, it is spontaneously hoarded by capitalists in order to make war fortunes.
For an individual, it might be an astronomical figure; but for a country, it was a drop in the bucket.
Problems with either energy or food can be fatal, let alone both together.
The lack of coal is fine, Britain and France are now allies, and the London government wants France and Austria to lose, so naturally they can’t watch the French collapse because of the lack of coal.
The big deal is to take advantage of the fire and sell a sky-high price. Sky price of coal and the French is not useless, earlier withdrawn from the free trade system, France was retaliated by the sky price of coal.
Not so with food, the British were food importers themselves and simply could not afford to support the French.
Of course, the food production cycle is not long, as long as the most difficult period of time, the back will be able to solve.
Roy Vernon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, exclaimed, “Twenty-five percent premium, are the Austrians crazy?
Could it be that the Vienna government has so much money that it has no money to spend, even if they want to bring the Russians into the picture, there is no need to toss them around like this.”
Because of the tension in Europe, the international food prices have soared substantially, this time and then a premium of twenty-five percent, the price of food bought than before was twice as expensive.
To know that food is a bulk trading commodity, the Russians exported every year the total amount of food are million tons for unit, the price doubled, it means that the Austrian government to lose tens of millions, and even hundreds of millions of guilders of money into.
Prime Minister Terrence Burgin shook his head, “No, the Austrians are not crazy. If they don’t grab the grain, there is a chance that this grain will fall into our hands.
If nothing else, the grain that was snapped up wasn’t just Russia’s, the grain from the American countries was also cut off by them in advance.
Not being able to win us on the battlefield, it is natural for them to resort to such despicable means. Besides, the cost they pay may not be as high as we think.
Both the Russians and the American countries are Austrian debtors, and as debtors they can take direct credit for their claims.
But they are still taking it too much for granted when they think that this will be able to crush us.
We have not been working for nothing in recent years. The big farm program has been carried out until now, and every year it can provide millions of tons of food for the country, enough to meet most of the domestic demand.
In times of war, we can also resort to extraordinary means. The government can call on the people to save food, while introducing temporary bills to prohibit the feeding of grain to livestock and the use of grain to make wine ……
As long as we hold out for a few months, when we defeat the enemy, these problems will be solved.”
With insufficient food reserves and the inability to buy enough food overseas, what else can we do but find a way to cut off the flow?
Wage war early, of course!
France is not not produce food, but the output is not enough to consume, does not mean that there is no imported food, will soon be out of food.
Domestic food can still support a few months, as long as the crisis before the outbreak of the war, then all the problems can be solved.
Hearing this bad news, Napoleon IV’s face immediately gloomy down.
At this time, he had to be glad that he insisted on promoting the large farm program, or else it would be a tragedy now.
He didn’t know how much grain the capitalists had stored, anyway, the storage time of a batch of grain usually didn’t exceed half a year.
On the one hand, the storage time is too long, increased storage costs and losses, if the food stagnation occurs, the new grain into the old grain that is not worth money;
On the other hand, squeezing too much grain in the hands will take up a lot of liquidity and increase the risk of operation.
After contemplating for a while, Napoleon IV slowly said: “The prime minister is right, now we must find a way to save food, the government as soon as possible to issue a public announcement.
The foreign ministry from now on, snatch up food all over the world, I don’t believe the Austrians can buy up all the food.”
……
(End of chapter)