A guard walked into Eder's office and said to the crown prince who was immersed in work. "Your Highness, the Prime Minister is here."
After hearing what the guard said, Edel raised his head and twisted his sore neck and said, "Invite him in."
Looking at the leaving guards, Edel took another look at the document he had just picked up. It contained the price index of raw materials that Romania needed to purchase in recent years. As the situation in Europe has become increasingly tense in recent years, the current prices of various raw materials
They are all affected to some extent.
For example, Romania imports a lot of rubber now. This tree species spread from the Brazilian tropical rainforest to all over the world. Now Southeast Asia is its main production area. The sap it secretes is rubber widely used in industry. The price of rubber now rises from 3 to 3 years.
The previous minimum was two shillings and eighteen pence, which has increased to six shillings and three pence now. This is due to the impact of increased industrial demand and the current tense situation in Europe.
"Your Highness, you are looking for me."
Prime Minister Bretianu walked in dusty and asked before taking a breath. There are still a lot of things waiting for him to deal with in the Prime Minister's Office, especially the personnel arrangements in the newly occupied areas, which is related to the ability of the territory captured by Romania.
Can you settle down quickly?
"How's it going now over there in our new territory?"
Edel asked in a routine manner after seeing Prime Minister Bretianu.
"Now the Bulgarian government personnel are inciting the local people to move to their newly acquired territory." Prime Minister Bretianu answered Edel's question, but he still asked uneasily. "Your Highness, we are just letting them incite.
People leave?”
"Yes, this can at least reduce the instability factors. Without these people who care about their motherland, the remaining local residents can at least live in peace."
Faced with Crown Prince Eder's answer, Prime Minister Bretianu still felt a bit at a disadvantage. Because now the Balkan countries are expelling each other's tribesmen, especially in Macedonia and Thrace. The local Bulgarian government sent about 200,000 Turkish
People rushed to their country, and more than 100,000 Greeks were driven back to Greece. However, the Greek government was also unambiguous. About 90,000 Bulgarians were also driven to Bulgaria. Several countries are now dividing the Ottoman Empire's European territories.
They are all doing the same thing, driving ethnic groups that do not belong to their own country to their respective countries.
This expulsion operation resulted in nearly one million people forcibly changing their nationality. Among them, the Ottomans accepted the largest number. About 500,000 nationals were expelled from Macedonia and Thrace to Ottoman territory. Faced with the unexpected
A large number of their own people were gradually resettled by the Ottoman government to live in various parts of Asia Minor.
Nowadays, evictions in various countries only allow the evicted people to bring their own clothes, banknotes, precious metals and other easily portable items. As for their houses, farmland and other items that cannot be carried, they are all directly expropriated. At that time, all countries were expelled
People can only give up their hard-earned family fortunes and flee to their respective home countries.
The more than 100,000 Romanians living in Macedonia have not been expelled, probably because Bulgaria is afraid of Romania's strength. However, Prime Minister Bretianu has sent people to encourage these local people to return to Romania. According to the Prime Minister's own
It is estimated that 50,000 to 60,000 people may be encouraged to move to Romania.
"I'm looking for you this time to find out how much money we have left in our finances?"
After Prime Minister Bretianu heard that the Crown Prince wanted to know about the government's financial situation, he secretly increased his vigilance, fearing that the Crown Prince would have another idea about the government's finances. However, Eder could also find out the financial situation by asking the Minister of Finance. He only informed the Crown Prince's government
financial situation, but he still made a foreshadowing.
"Due to the high expenditures of the war, our Romanian government now only has 20 million lei in emergency funds to spend. Now we still need to face the domestic situation. We need to wait until the food tax comes up in October before the financial situation can improve."
"Is there any other way we can do it?"
Edel also knew about the Prime Minister's words, but Romania's fiscal revenue has been rising steadily in the past two years, and there are many banks willing to lend money to Romania. It is obvious that Edel had this idea.
Hearing the Crown Prince's unabashed inquiry, Prime Minister Bretianu had to say truthfully. "If we need to borrow foreign debt now, there are several banks willing to lend us. In the short term, we can probably borrow 100 million lei."
If we are willing to pay a higher interest rate, we can borrow 200 million lei, but this requires tax collateral."
After hearing what Prime Minister Bretianu said, Eder, combined with the royal family's own funds of 110 million lei, can completely reserve raw materials that Romania's industry urgently needs for external use for two to three years. He is excluding coal and iron ore.
In subsequent calculations, since both of these can be imported from surrounding Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottomans, the impact on them will not be too great.
Edel was filled with emotion when he thought that eight years ago, he had to rely on Germany for 300 million lei to start up industry and reorganize the army, but now Romania can easily borrow 200 million lei.
"Then let's borrow foreign debt based on 200 million yuan."
Prime Minister Bretianu was shocked when he heard that Crown Prince Eder wanted to borrow 200 million in foreign debt. In his mind, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had only borrowed so much money to finance Romania's industrialization 8 years ago. Fortunately, Romania used
His own advantages have been greatly developed, and with the completion of the reorganization of the army, he has only been relieved during the two years he has been in power. Now he has to borrow foreign debts. What does His Highness the Crown Prince want to do?
Looking at Prime Minister Bretianu with a question mark on his face, Edel had no choice but to tell him his plan. After all, without government support, Romania's raw material reserves cannot be built.
"Your Excellency Prime Minister, the situation in Europe is getting more and more tense now. Most of our imports now have to go through the Ottoman Strait. I am afraid that the situation will change like the Balkan War and interrupt our imports. You must know that by then we will not be just a few small people in the Balkans."
It’s so easy for a country to fight a war, it’s probably a European war.”
Hearing the worries of the Crown Prince, Prime Minister Bretianu also thought about the scene where he worked hard to transport Romania's export goods by land at that time. However, 200 million lei to prepare raw materials was not too much. You have to know that now countries
He can reserve the raw materials he needs for up to half a year, and the 200 million lei is almost enough for Romania to reserve raw materials for a year. He didn't know that Crown Prince Eder did not plan to reserve coal and iron ore due to lack of funds, otherwise he would be even more surprised.
"Is there too much money? The amount of the loan is enough for us to need for a year?"
"When the war starts, none of us know how long it will last. It is not a bad thing at all for reserves."
Edel could not tell the Prime Minister that this war would last more than 4 years. It is now generally believed in Europe that the war between the Allies and the Entente would last from June to a year. No one thought that due to the advancement of science and technology, the war would take longer.
be extended.
Faced with the Crown Prince's remarks, it was hard for the Prime Minister to say anything. After all, no one could say how long the fight would last.
"Okay then, I will ask the government to start stocking up on the raw materials we urgently need."
"No need, I'm already ready here."
After Edel finished speaking, he took out a list from the drawer, which he made privately with Industry Minister Karaturi. Now the nephew of the former Prime Minister Struer has completely hugged Edel's lap and let him
It is of course a piece of cake for him to prepare the reserve of industrial raw materials in advance.
Prime Minister Bretianu received this list, which marked the various raw materials that Romania needs to import, such as copper ore, manganese ore, saltpetre, rubber, etc., which are indispensable to Romanian industry, most of which
They all have a storage capacity of three to four years, but in this list, Prime Minister Bretianu found that there was no reserve of coal, iron ore. Even with these preliminary calculations, he found that the raw materials on this list also require 2.5
-300 million lei in funds, and the government borrowing 200 million lei is not enough.
Seeing the prime minister's puzzled expression, Eder came up with his own solution. "The royal family can purchase the 100 million lei foreign debt issued by the government to help the government purchase these raw materials."
After hearing what the Crown Prince said, Prime Minister Bretianu was still a little worried and asked, "Can we use up all the money we bought?"
"Just do as you are told. Even if we can't use it all, we can continue to use it after the war is over."
Seeing that the Crown Prince decided everything forcefully, Prime Minister Bretianu suppressed his displeasure and nodded. "Okay, I will arrange for the government departments to start purchasing."
In the following period, Romania borrowed heavily from banks in various countries, and then purchased all the various industrial raw materials it needed. None of the countries could understand why the Romanian government did this. Thanks to Romania's large-scale purchases, various raw materials became smaller and smaller.
