It's a new day, and the Prime Minister's Office is extremely busy again.
People come and go in the Prime Minister's Office, and people are everywhere.
“This is the Ministry of Transport’s new plan for the port of Durrës, and it needs to be given priority to the Prime Minister.”
“The Kosovo coal mine construction plan is waiting for the Prime Minister’s signature and funding from the Ministry of Finance.”
Documents that required the Prime Minister's signature were slowly piled up on his desk, making Prime Minister Despretis unable to raise his head at all.
"Prime Minister, Your Excellency Tejela is here."
The secretary's words made Despretis finally raise his head.
The 61-year-old finance minister is not much younger than the prime minister, and with the same silver hair, he shows his age.
But despite this, it is still a little worse than the Prime Minister.
Wrinkled and tired, this is the current image of Prime Minister Despretis.
Everyone, especially those close to the Prime Minister, know that the Prime Minister is aging very quickly after entering this year.
However, Depretis did not bring the Chancellor of Finance to discuss this matter. The Prime Minister raised his head and asked the Chancellor of Finance to sit down first, and then said, "This time I am looking for you.
Governor Antonio, who took office, reported a plan to me..."
From the Prime Minister's narration, Finance Minister Tejela found out why the Prime Minister invited him here. Sure enough, he came to the Three Treasures Hall for no reason, and he wanted money.
Antonio, the newly appointed Governor of Borneo, had his own ideas after taking office and initially getting to know the Borneo colony.
Knowing that he could not compete with the old prime minister economically, so in order to leave his mark, he thought of another way out: to expand the colony of Borneo.
Yes, Antonio wants to cause trouble!
And his goal is to still hold the Netherlands, which is half of Borneo.
And he also has good reasons. Compared with the prosperous Italian Borneo, Dutch Borneo is simply a backwater. The total investment of the Dutch in Dutch Borneo in recent years has not even been 10 million lire.
Among them, the largest investment was to build the road from Machen to Nahabuan. The main reason for building this road was to prevent the infiltration of Italian forces next door.
In addition, Antonio didn’t make this plan just by snapping his head, he also had practical needs.
Although the construction of Italian Borneo is in full swing, there is one key factor that has shrouded the minds of the local people, that is, the places suitable for development in Italian Borneo have almost been developed. Especially for cash crops such as rubber pepper, currently
The land suitable for these cash crops has already been developed. If you want to continue to develop it, you will need to pay additional costs, especially in the primitive areas in the interior, where the cost is even higher.
At this time, Dutch Borneo, which has almost stagnated development next door, seems so delicious and tempting.
When faced with Antonio's taking office, Depretis, as Prime Minister, should support Antonio's first request. However, because his plan requires a large amount of funds, in order to avoid opposition from the Ministry of Finance, Depretis, as Minister of Finance,
Tejela came first.
After listening to the Prime Minister's introduction, as expected, Tejela immediately expressed his objections.
"Prime Minister, I personally support Governor Antonio's plan in principle, but it costs too much. Isn't the annual investment of nearly ten million lire inappropriate?"
Facing the words of the Finance Minister, Prime Minister Depretis smiled and defended Governor Antonio. "The money is not too much at all. I have already calculated it. Both the personnel composition and the expenditure are very reasonable. After comparison,
The income is already pretty good.”
There is a reason for asking the Prime Minister to excuse Antonio. In Antonio's plan, it only takes four or five years of preparation to seize the territory of Dutch Borneo for Italy. Although these lands have basically not been developed, and the soil quality is not as good as that of the West.
However, it can still expand Borneo's income for Italy. According to his estimation, it only takes four or five years of development to make the Borneo colony provide Italy with an income of over 100 million lire every year.
Such a return on investment is one of the main reasons why the Prime Minister is willing to support Governor Antonio. Of course, diplomacy and other aspects need to be calculated separately.
But for Tejela, although this investment return is very attractive, it is difficult to meet the requirement of reducing the revenue of the Ministry of Finance by nearly 10 million liras per year within four to five years.
"Prime Minister, you are also aware of the current situation of the Ministry of Finance. Last year due to the war, we spent 2.471 billion lire, and this year due to the development of new territories, another expenditure of up to 514 million lire. And according to the plan, in
Next year we need to invest 429 million lire. Prime Minister, you
You should be aware of the fiscal gap in recent years. At present, the annual yield on our Italian ten-year government bonds has increased to 3.18%, which is already very high. Every year we need to pay 192 million lire in interest alone. If we continue to spend without restraint,
Then financial bankruptcy is not impossible. In addition..."
Depretis did not expect that the Chancellor of Finance would suddenly become furious and reveal all the bad things in the Ministry of Finance.
It’s not his fault. Anyone who serves as finance minister would be the same as this one when faced with Italy’s mounting debt.
Fortunately, Italy has developed well in recent years. Otherwise, as in history, it would have been on the verge of financial bankruptcy, leading to numerous domestic problems, and the past ten years would have been wasted.
Faced with the angry Chancellor of Finance, Despretis of course couldn't stand up to him, he could only go along with it.
"If that's the case, then why don't you reduce some expenses from other places and raise this money?"
After venting his anger to the friendly Prime Minister, Tejela also recovered. He said it with a bitter look on his face.
"My Prime Minister, where can the government currently reduce expenditures? The current expenditures of each department have been carefully calculated, and it is impossible to reduce them. And I am not saying that the only way to reduce expenditures is at present.
There is only one place where expenses are spent, and that is the expenses of the royal family. In other places, I really don’t think of where we can reduce expenses.”
Despretis was dumbfounded by Tejela's suggestion. Although it seems feasible to reduce the royal family's expenses, it is not easy at all to achieve. And this is not something that the king can just nod by himself. If he proposes
When they came out, the Savoy family still hated themselves to death.
Faced with this situation, Depretis' old habit of hesitation returned.
"Is there any other way?"
He was greeted by the finance minister who was shaking his head.
