After inspecting the results of this operation, Edel returned to the palace.
As for Milok and Kalust, they naturally need to be busy with their work. There are still many finishing touches for this gold operation, and the current situation in Europe also requires attention. They are busy with all of these.
However, not long after Eder returned to the palace, a guard came to report, and the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance requested to be summoned.
After hearing the news, Edel smiled. He must have come here for this windfall.
This is understandable. After all, Romania was relatively wealthy before. It accumulated a lot of wealth entirely due to its neutrality in the early stages of the war, and these basically made up for the many previous debts for industrial development. For example, investment in higher education,
The construction of primary medical facilities, the improvement of transportation, etc. These are all gold-swallowing beasts, and they can swallow up no matter how large the investment is.
When Romania was preparing to join the war, its finances only had a balance of 1.6 billion lei (just over 300 million US dollars). This was the result of Edel's advance greeting, otherwise there would not be much left. Of course, as the head of the government, Bühler
Prime Minister Tianu also knew the importance of this war to Romania, so the government strongly supported the Kingdom's participation in the war.
However, as the war began, the money slipped away from the government like a tide. The purchase of weapons and ammunition, military pensions, repairs and construction of newly captured territories, etc., all made the government feel that the funds on hand were completely insufficient.
use.
The most important thing is to support Romanian industry, which also costs a lot of money. Because of Romania's rapid change in diplomatic attitude (from being close to the Allies to being neutral and then declaring war), a large number of companies engaged in exporting to the Allied camp suffered a lot.
Losses. The losses of these affiliated companies account for 70% of the total number of companies in Romania.
This also shows how much losses Romania, a country with close economic ties with the Allies, suffered in order to join the Allied camp.
Although the Allied Powers gave Romania some economic compensation and preferential policies, how much benefit could Britain and France, which were inherently dependent on American loans, provide. The United States, which had no urgent pressure, mainly provided assistance to Romania in materials. This made it difficult to get used to it.
Large and small companies that were left alone in the Allied camp had limited benefits in the fiercely competitive markets such as Britain and France.
Fortunately, Romania's current participation in the war has alleviated this downward pressure on the economy. A large number of laborers have been incorporated into the huge machine of the war, allowing these enterprises to rely on the war to sustain themselves for a period of time.
The government can selectively support this situation, and enterprises with technology and capabilities can develop and grow. This will allow Romania to shorten the post-war depression period as much as possible.
So after Eder inspected this batch of gold, Prime Minister Bretianu immediately came to the door with the Minister of Finance.
In one sentence, it’s all about money.
So within a few minutes, Eder met Prime Minister Bretianu in his office, as well as Lord Albert, the finance minister who accompanied him.
Lord Albert succeeded the old Chancellor of the Exchequer who retired due to illness in 1916. His experience was also very inspiring. His father was a famous banker in Romania at the time, and he had shown extraordinary financial abilities since he was a child.
However, as his father was defrauded and bankrupted due to a financial fraud case, Albert's life also changed greatly. The rich and elegant life left him, and he had to drop out of school to do business because of the dilemma of life.
helper.
However, this could not dispel his thirst for knowledge. He studied by himself while helping others and was admitted to college. His efforts in studying allowed him to receive support from the family where he worked. After graduating from college, he first worked as a clerk in a bank.
He worked as a branch president until he was introduced to the Ministry of Finance because of his outstanding performance, and then began a career in the Ministry of Finance that lasted nearly twenty years.
Through his own efforts, he successively served as the Director of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, Assistant to the Minister of Finance and Director of the Financial Department. Among them, he was responsible for the establishment of the Reserve Bank. It can be said that he is not clear about finance and finance.
"You two, what's the matter with coming here this time?"
In his office, Edel leaned on his chair and smiled and asked the two important ministers about their visit.
Facing the king's inquiry, Prime Minister Bretianu first took out a document from himself and handed it to Edel. "Your Majesty, this is a report on the reconstruction work in northern Moldavia."
Edel took this document and he knew about the reconstruction of the northern part of Moldavia. Regarding this matter, it all needs to start with the recovery of lost territory by General Courtois.
As a territory occupied by the German army, the fall of several cities and vast rural areas in northern Moldavia caused Romania a lot of losses. Moreover, because of the occupation, Romania also had a large flow of war refugees. It amounted to more than 200,000 people.
Unwilling to be disturbed by the war, people rushed to the rear with their families and families, scattering the fleeing people, maintaining order, and providing supplies, which put a lot of pressure on the government.
Now, as the old general leads the Moldavia Army to regain the lost territory one after another (mainly because the German army took the initiative to retreat in the face of the return of Romania's main force, and the Allied troops reinforced after the defeat of Bulgaria), then for this area occupied by Germany.
The reconstruction of occupied territories is also included in the schedule.
In terms of cities, Suceava, which had almost half of its buildings destroyed by the war, needs to be rebuilt. The two cities of Homan and Iasi, where no fierce fighting broke out, were also severely damaged by the German army. Even the city of Bacau,
There are many buildings damaged by German artillery.
In the countryside, the Germans who were severely short of food could not let go. Countless villages had their food confiscated by force. Faced with heavily armed soldiers, a large number of villagers who were reluctant to part with their property or unable to leave could only obediently hand over their own.
However, these bandits in military uniforms had some conscience and did not confiscate the villagers' food rations. Looking at the fully loaded German grain collection team leaving, the villagers could only look at the German marks in their hands and burst into tears.
tears.
Before the German army planned to withdraw, many rural farmers were forced to harvest the food that was about to mature in advance and transport it away. This phenomenon also reflected the extent of the food shortage in Germany. At the same time, it also caused the Romanian government to
Relief supplies have increased a lot.
All these add up to a loss of about 800 million lei for Romania, and the current government can only provide it with material assistance of about 50 million lei first.
So when the Prime Minister took out the document, Edel read it briefly and signed the word "agree".
