Although the Prime Minister interrupted, the scale of the shipbuilding still attracted the attention of everyone present, especially Tejela, who was the Minister of Finance.
"Admiral Yagir, what is the total scale of the warships you plan to build?"
As soon as the Finance Minister opened his mouth, Admiral Yagir knew that the core issue was coming, and money was the core issue.
"Our Ministry of the Navy estimates that the total tonnage of building these warships should be between 550,000 and 600,000 tons, and the total cost should be between 1.354 billion and 1.421 billion lire."
Admiral Yagir's words made all the ministers present take a breath. Isn't this cost too high? On average, the government needs to invest 130-140 million lire in shipbuilding every year. Is this investment too much?
Even though Italy's annual fiscal revenue is 1.7-8 billion lire, its expenses are also huge. Infrastructure, industry, education and health, payment of principal and interest on national debt, government personnel salaries, etc. are basically fully booked, and there are basically overspends of 100 to 200 million lire every year.
Lira. This allows the government to spend more than 100 million more to build ships every year, which will definitely put more pressure on the government. Not to mention whether the newly built warships require personnel training, daily maintenance, etc., which also costs money.
So what he said to Admiral Yagir immediately aroused everyone's rebuttal.
"This investment is too big."
"Does your navy plan to concentrate twenty years of expenditure into ten years?"
However, in the face of opposition from the government, Admiral Yagir was mentally prepared. "This is the result of careful consideration by our navy, because the current situation the navy is facing is more difficult, and we need so many warships to protect our country's security and interests.
"
"This is still too much, and it has jeopardized financial security. Our Ministry of Finance believes that only 80 million liras of annual shipbuilding funding can ensure fiscal rationality."
Finance Minister Tejela's answer can be regarded as a blow to the main artery of the shipbuilding plan, directly reducing the total funding of the shipbuilding plan by 5.6 billion lire.
The finance minister is very smart. The shipbuilding cost is 80 million lire per year. It can be easily solved by the government by moving here and there. First of all, doesn’t the navy have a shipbuilding budget of 20 to 30 million lire every year? It can be directly merged into
Together, the Ministry of Finance only needs to settle over 50 million.
Then it is feasible to focus on some unimportant funding items, coupled with the annual increase in fiscal revenue, to maintain a healthy financial situation. As for the increase in naval funding after the warships are commissioned, let’s talk about it at that time, and squeeze out the total.
Yes.
However, Tejela's beautiful idea was shattered, and Admiral Yagir immediately replied. "This is not possible at all. The annual shipbuilding cost of 80 million lire is simply not enough to meet the needs of the navy. The shipbuilding costs given by our navy
The plan is a minimum plan to protect our country’s interests.”
Having said this, Admiral Yagir looked at the Minister of Finance and said, "Your Excellency Tejela, our country can earn at least 200 million lire in fiscal revenue from the Far East and Borneo colonies every year. Such huge revenue is based on naval superiority.
In order to protect these interests, our navy must have a sufficient sense of presence. If the scale of the navy's shipbuilding is reduced, if tensions arise in the Far East and on the mainland, the navy may not be able to spare warships for deterrence operations."
This is a threat, absolutely a threat. You must know that the relationship between Japan and Russia is currently very tense in the Far East. Especially after Russia refused to implement the second and third phases of withdrawal from the Northeast, the relationship between the two countries has entered a hair-trigger situation.
state.
Not to mention anything else, Japan has a huge navy with 6 battleships and 6 patrol ships in the Far East. Of course, this huge refers to the Far East. And Russia is not bad either, with 7 battleships and 8 patrol ships.
It is slightly better than Japan in terms of quantity, but the Russian warships are limited by their tonnage, so in terms of actual combat effectiveness, they are slightly inferior to Japan's combined fleet.
As for why the tonnage is restricted, it is because Russia can only maintain 13,500-ton warships at the largest shipyard in Lushun, so Russian warships can only choose to be below this tonnage.
One more thing, the two Genoa-class battleships purchased by Russia in Italy were assigned to the Pacific Fleet, and the number one ship, the Crown Prince, became the flagship of the Pacific Fleet.
Because the two Genoa-class battleships are slightly better than the current Pacific Fleet battleships in terms of fire protection and speed. This shows how much the Russian Navy recognizes Italy's purchase of two Genoa-class battleships. This also fully demonstrates Italy's
In terms of shipbuilding strength, of course, conversely, Russia’s shipbuilding capabilities are impressive.
Except for the two Genoa-class battleships, the other Russian battleships have a tonnage ranging from 11,000 to 12,000. On the Japanese side, except for the two 12,000-ton Fuji and Yashima, the others are
Britain’s latest 15,000-ton Shikishima-class battleship, the difference in tonnage alone can be imagined, let alone the performance of the two.
On Tejela's side, they were very angry at Admiral Yagir's shameless remarks. But no matter what, the annual financial revenue of nearly 300 million lire from the Far East trade route and the Borneo colony were important financial resources that the Ministry of Finance could not ignore.
Yes, Admiral Yagier's intelligence is outdated. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Finance, due to the substantial increase in rubber use and the continued expansion of trade routes in the Far East, the Italian Ministry of Finance will receive 294 million lire from the East this year.
Warehousing.
"Ninety million lire per year is the limit that our finances can accept."
"Your Excellency Tejela, the number of ships built by the Navy is based on careful planning and comprehensive consideration. It does not mean that you can do whatever you want."
"With 100 million lire per year, if it doesn't work, I, as the finance minister, will really have no choice but to choose someone else."
The finance minister's sudden words shocked everyone present. They were discussing the matter of naval shipbuilding in a normal manner, but why did the conversation suddenly change to the point of resigning?
Speaking of which, the Ministry of Finance is one of the top three most powerful departments in the government. However, due to Italy’s previous debt arrears and its heavy investment in industrialization in recent years, the seemingly powerful Ministry of Finance can only be aware of its actual difficulties.
And Tejeira, who has been in charge of the Ministry of Finance for more than ten years, has lost all his hair over the years due to Italy's financial problems, and he looks like a skinny old man in his seventies. You must know that Tejela is this year
He is only sixty-four years old, and when he became the Chancellor of Finance, he could still be described as being in the prime of life and being proud of himself. In more than ten years, he has cultivated this virtue in himself, which shows how hard he has worked.
In addition, what he said today was not actually an angry remark, but the result of Tejela's careful consideration to bring this topic up from the beginning. Because after entering this year, Tejela clearly felt that his energy was a little low, and he had a negative impact on the finances.
The processing of various affairs of the department is much slower.
Faced with the awkward situation caused by Tejela's sudden resignation, Prime Minister Antonio quickly came to the rescue and said, "Actually, the problem of naval shipbuilding funding is mainly due to financial difficulties, so I think we can't just let the Ministry of Finance figure out a solution.
, each department also needs to consider tightening the financial budget of each department, so that colleagues in the Ministry of Finance can breathe a sigh of relief."
Faced with the Prime Minister's rescue, the bosses of other departments also spoke up one after another. "The Prime Minister's proposal is very good. If we squeeze a little more from each department, we should be able to squeeze out some more funds from the budget."
"This is a good idea."
"I agree too.
After some preliminary estimates, other government departments can squeeze out a gap of 12 million lire per year.
Faced with the actions of the government departments, how could Yagier, as the Minister of the Navy, not be on the right track?
"Since the government is indeed in difficulty, our navy cannot force it, so our navy can only accept 112 million lire of shipbuilding funding per year. However, our navy has made it clear that we can accept that the government's shipbuilding funding is based on financial difficulties.
If the finances become better, I hope to make up for the previous debts. In addition, I hope the government will allow the navy to keep the money for the sale of warships."
Seeing that the Navy finally relented, the government was relieved.
After some discussion and research, the Navy's ten-year shipbuilding plan will build 12 new battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 21 new cruisers, 68 new destroyers, and 62 other special auxiliary ships, for a total of 45
-A large-scale shipbuilding plan of 530,000 tons.
Seeing that the two parties finally reached an agreement, Carlo, who had not spoken during the whole process, breathed a sigh of relief. You must know that he has spent a lot of energy to get the government to agree to build ships. As for how much they can talk about, it depends on the Navy.
I did it myself. And the result was not bad, and the talks were pretty good.
However, the only drawback is that the Chancellor of Finance is a bit reluctant to quit. This is a problem. Not everyone can be Chancellor of Finance. He must have sufficient ability and his approval. Such a person is difficult to find.
