1895 was a fruitful year for Italy. From every aspect, it was a harvest.
First of all, in terms of influence, Italy taught Japan a lesson through the expeditionary force in the Far East, allowing other countries to see Italy's long-distance intervention capabilities. Of course, Italy's greed for money and its desire for money rather than life was also exposed.
However, it is still unclear whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least in the eyes of various countries, Italy is no longer a dispensable role, and various countries will give some consideration to Italy.
Of course, the expansion of influence is an additional gain for Italy, and the most important gain is economic gain.
Although Italy's direct monetary gains from this Far East War were not much, the indirect gains were very substantial. (During the entire Sino-Japanese War, the total casualties of the Italian navy and army were 4,217, of which 1,721 were killed, 2,470 were injured, and 26 were missing. Casualties
It doesn’t look small, but it is mainly used in naval battles.)
Among them, the most profitable one is the military industry. In just over half a year, the arsenal worked overtime to produce artillery shells that were simply not enough to meet the needs of the Far East. A batch was also urgently transferred from the navy and army reserve warehouses to be shipped there.
And in addition to the military industry, war-related industries such as the maritime transportation industry and the steel industry have all benefited from this dividend. And it is precisely with the help of this war dividend that all related industries have been fully developed.
The dividends brought by this war alone are not enough. The key is for Italy to obtain the right to build the Qing Railway. However, Italy cannot monopolize these benefits, but in terms of the crucial procurement of materials, Italy used its relationship with the Qing Dynasty and
He occupies a sufficient share to ensure the procurement rights of the railway.
At present, the Daqing Railway Company has launched the construction of three railways at once, the Luhan Line, the Guangdong-Hankong Line, and the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Ring Railway. In addition, it is said that the railway company is exploring the directions of the Jinpu Line and the Longhai Line.
The Daqing Railway Company's urgent and continuous start of construction is actually driven by shareholders from various countries. The powers of various countries have a strong interest in promoting the construction of railways in the Qing Dynasty, especially through private acquisitions, most of the shares of the Daqing Railway Company have been
This is even more true after it falls into the hands of various countries.
And I heard that in addition to these two railway lines being explored, various countries are also interested in the Kanto Railway from Tianjin to Shengjing. Especially Russia, they also want to extend a branch railway from the Siberian Railway to connect to Shengjing and Shengjing.
Port Arthur has a very strong interest. This is just the idea of the Russians, and the British pulled Italy to boycott it. No one knows what this polar bear has in mind.
In addition to the Guandong Railway, which has caused constant conflicts among various countries, France is currently very interested in the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and the British are also very interested in the Sichuan-Hankou Line. Of course, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Line, the Sichuan-Yunnan Line and the Changjiang-Ningxia Line,
Also in the plans of various countries.
It's ridiculous to say that other countries are more anxious to build railways than the Qing Dynasty, but this is also based on the fact that railways can help them expand their influence and penetrate into the inland areas. Therefore, all countries come with different ideas, but the Qing Dynasty has this
Even if he knows, he can't do anything. The combined pressure from all countries is unstoppable.
Of course, Italy is the happiest about the Qing Dynasty's large-scale railway construction. After all, except for the Hanyang Iron Works, Italy owns the rails and steel needed for the railway. This is at least the demand for 100,000 tons of steel per year, which is very important for the railway construction.
There is nothing to say about the promotional role of the Italian steel industry.
Thanks to such a favorable time, place, and people, Italy's fiscal revenue reached a record high of 1.827 billion lire in 1895.
Yes, it is such a high total fiscal revenue. Compared with the government's total fiscal revenue in 1893 two years ago, it is 317 million lire higher.
From this figure we can see how much this Far East war stimulated the Italian economy.
In this fiscal income statement, the number one ranking is tariffs. Italy achieved a total of 374 million lire in tariffs in 1895. The ability to receive such a large amount of tariffs was due to the strong growth of Italy's imports and exports on the one hand;
Thanks to the severe crackdown on smuggling and tax evasion.
The crackdown on smuggling also benefited from the government's emphasis on customs, which allocated a lot of manpower and ships. The customs lived up to expectations. Last year, it intercepted 146 smuggling ships, arrested 1,123 suspects, and seized illegal goods worth 32.69 million lire.
Goods, a heavy blow to the arrogance of smugglers. (Of course, to a certain extent, how frequent smuggling activities are in Italy has a lot to do with the topography of Italy. There are too many coastlines across the country, which is very conducive to smuggling activities.)
In addition to tariffs, the second largest fiscal revenue category is salt and tobacco monopoly taxes.
Yes, it is the monopoly tax that everyone understands. This industry monopolized by the state provided the government with 326 million lire in fiscal revenue, which is comparable to the tobacco and salt monopoly tax of a certain country in later generations, which is directly called military expenditure.
Of course, in addition to these two major types of taxes, the next one is the consumption tax. This kind of tax was placed directly on the goods in some later countries, so it is not obvious. However, if you go abroad, you will find that it is listed separately. The consumption tax is
The Italian Treasury provided 215 million lire in revenue.
Then there are property taxes, business taxes, land-related taxes, stamp taxes on securities transactions, etc. These taxes support Italy's finances and allow Italy to have more funds to enrich its national strength.
When it comes to national strength, the most direct one is the steel industry. In 1895, the Italian steel industry produced a total of 2.7 million tons of steel. What allows Italy to produce so much steel is, on the one hand, domestic demand;
In terms of tariffs, Italy has increased tariffs on imported coal, iron ore and steel products, directly increasing them by 21% without charging any taxes.
Although this caused dissatisfaction between Germany and France, in order to protect the domestic steel industry, Italy gritted its teeth and withstood the pressure. Although Germany and France subsequently increased tariffs on Italian wine, figs and other agricultural products, there was nothing they could do to protect the domestic steel industry.
worth.
After the tariffs were raised, coal and iron ore from Libya and Kosovo immediately became very attractive, making mining and railway transportation in the two places extremely busy.
Of course, it is not just the steel industry that reflects Italy's national strength. As a representative of light industry, Italy's textile industry is also developing very well. Currently, Italy has nearly 300,000 textile workers, and Italy produces 148,000 tons of cotton yarn and 42,110 tons of woolen fabrics.
As a representative of light industry, the textile industry is booming in Italy. Of course, agriculture, which is the foundation of Italy, has also made great progress. Taking pesticides and chemical fertilizers as examples to promote agricultural development, Italy's current annual output of phosphate fertilizer is 21,000 tons, and potassium fertilizer is 1.72
10,000 tons, including 1,571 tons of pesticides.
Although this does not seem to be much, in this era when chemical fertilizers have not yet been used on a large scale, being able to produce so much chemical fertilizers is the result of Italy's vigorous promotion. With the emphasis on its own agriculture, Italy is very interested in any improvement in crop yields.
Fertilizers are given great importance.
Although due to various reasons, Italy has a shortage of resources and an overpopulation compared with domestic arable land. However, the Italian government is also working hard to change all this. Italy immigrate nearly 100,000 people to various colonies every year in an effort to alleviate the population pressure in the country.
.In addition, Italy's current efforts to search for various resources in various colonies have continued. For example, in the Somali region of East Africa, Italy discovered a good copper mine. And around the development of this copper mine, the East African colonial government also raised funds.
Overall, 1895 was a very memorable year for Italy.
