Chapter 646 Disintegration of the Russian-Austrian Alliance

Diplomatic siding is sometimes simple, since the British decided to support Chile, Peru and Bolivia had to turn to Fao for support.

International trade is only a small problem. The size of South American countries is very small these days. If it is not rich in resources and the need to promote currency hegemony, the powers will not pay attention to them.

If you look at the population of each country, there are about 2.2 million in Chile, 2.75 million in Peru, and 1.3 million in Bolivia.

With so few people, and they are all agricultural countries, it is obviously impossible to expect a large internal market.

Chile is relatively rich, mainly relying on saltpeter exports, and its military strength is the strongest among the three countries.

There is silver in Peru, but unfortunately the price of silver has fallen year by year, and the wallet of the Peruvian government is also drying up.

Bolivia can be said to be the worst. The saltpeter mine was finally discovered, and after a few years of good life, the war broke out.

There is no doubt that the three countries are unable to come up with huge amounts of war funds at once, and loans are unavoidable.

In the Vienna Palace, Franz was approving a special loan, and the debtor generously took out the Atacama Desert minerals as collateral.

"As things stand now, how likely are Peru and Bolivia to win the war?"

Albrecht, Chief of the General Staff: "Based on the analysis of military strength on paper, the General Staff conducted a quantitative analysis based on factors such as the number of troops of the three countries, weapons and equipment, training conditions, past records, and logistical support capabilities.

The military strengths of the three countries are: Bolivia 1, Peru 1.8, and Chile 2.1.

In theory, Bolivia and Peru have an absolute advantage; however, most of the time on the battlefield, the Chilean army is pressing Peru and Bolivia to fight.

Bolivia and Peru, which have military superiority, only joined forces in name, and there was no cooperation on the battlefield, and sometimes they held back each other.

If the issue of cooperation between the Peruvian and Bolivian armies is not resolved, their odds of winning the war will not be more than half. "

This is a common problem for all joint operations. Bolivia, Peru, and Chile all swore sovereignty over the Atacama Desert.

Now that Bolivia and Peru are united, it does not mean that the territorial disputes between the two countries have disappeared. They are only forced to unite because of their common enemy, Chile.

In this context, stabbing each other with knives on the battlefield is normal.

Franz: "Tell the Bolivians that we have no interest in the saltpeter of the Atacama Desert, and have them come up with other collateral.

If there is no suitable collateral, you can mortgage domestic minerals to us, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, oil, and natural gas. "

It is not optimistic that Bolivia will win the war, nor does it prevent Austria from supporting Bolivia in this war. Just because "Boliviano" is linked to Aegis, it is worth Austria to stand behind them.

If it weren't for the minerals in the Atacama Desert, which had been promised by the Chileans to the British, and Austria couldn't compete with John Bull in South America, Franz might have sent people to the enclosure first.

Of course, the most important thing is that the interests are not enough. Although the Atacama Desert is the largest producer of saltpeter in the world, it does not mean that there are no saltpeter mines in other places, and there are artificial nitrates.

Originally, Franz was going to pull Peru aboard, but unfortunately the French took the lead. Austrian tentacles penetrated into South America for too short a time, and its influence was still too weak.

If it weren't for the fact that Chile and Peru were the first to embrace the thighs of Britain and France, Franz doubted that Bolivia would not necessarily choose Austria.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Carl reminded: "Your Majesty, the precious metal mines in Bolivia have been mortgaged for a long time.

Although many common minerals such as copper and iron have been discovered, they have no development value. Oil and natural gas are both new energy industries, and it is unknown whether Bolivia has it.

If you want to take these mortgages, the risk of the loan will be greatly increased, and domestic banks may not accept it. "

Franz came to his senses. Bolivia's industrial strength is limited, let alone heavy industry, which is infinitely close to zero.

It cannot be smelted on the spot, and the developed ores have to be shipped and sold. With the traffic conditions of this era, these minerals naturally lost their economic value.

Needless to say, oil and natural gas have just begun to be used, and the importance of it has not been seen at all. Naturally, no one has spent a lot of money to explore.

After thinking about it, Franz found that these things were really useless for a short time. It may not even be used within a hundred years, and the advance layout is completely nonsense.

Austria has declared its neutrality in the war. This time, the loan to Bolivia is naturally carried out in the form of a private commercial loan. The government only charges a fee for guaranteeing the performance of the contract.

Judging from the current situation, the possibility of the Bolivian government winning the war is very small.

If the collateral has no value, private banks will not buy it. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if the government negotiated terms and no bank would lend money in the end?

When he came to his senses, Franz was not embarrassed at all, and immediately changed his words: "Since the precious metal mines are gone, these latter things can only be considered as the first thing, and let the Bolivian government take out other things as collateral."

No collateral? it's out of the question. After all, it is also a country, how can it be without any family background? It's really not possible, there is no land.

"Delinquent", let alone worry. It is still the 19th century, and there are more than one incidents of armed debt collection. unless it's a Russian giant

Mac, the cost of debt collection is too high, and everyone can only admit it.

...

Foreign Minister Weisenberg: "Your Majesty, our covenant with the Russians expires in only three months. The negotiators sent by the tsarist government have arrived in Vienna."

The Vienna government also has different opinions on whether to do another Russian-Austrian alliance. Franz, including Franz, shook his position several times in the middle.

It's not that everyone's will is not firm, but in the final analysis, it is still the interests of the people. Whether it is to continue the alliance or abandon the alliance, there is a lot of interest in it.

After so many years, the Russian and Austrian economies have been essentially tied together. Austria imported industrial raw materials from Russia, processed them into products, and sold them back to the Russian Empire.

Since 1854, Russia and Austria have been each other's most important economic partners. At its peak, trade with Russia accounted for two-thirds of Austria's total foreign trade.

With the rapid development of the Austrian economy, Austrian industrial and commercial products continue to open up new markets, and this number begins to decline year by year.

Even now, trade with Russia is still the most important part of Austria's foreign trade, accounting for 29.7% of Austria's total import and export trade.

If it weren't for the fact that the Russian economy did not keep pace and the domestic market grew too slowly, this proportion would have been even greater.

There is no doubt that the Russian-Austrian alliance has made important contributions to the economic exchanges between the two countries and promoted the trade exchanges between the two countries.

There are advantages and disadvantages, and the Russian-Austrian alliance also restricts Austria's expansion. For example: During the Russian-Prussian War, the Vienna government lost the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to bring down the tsarist government.

Constraining further expansion, this can only be regarded as a small problem. The European continent is not big, and the expansion will not be much, but it is a lot of trouble.

It's mainly an international image issue, and the Russians are too hateful. The existence of the Russian-Austrian alliance allows Austria to share the pressure.

This has constrained the Vienna government, which has always been good at flexible diplomacy, and often has no room to play.

The economic gains are not for nothing, and Austria is still the biggest creditor of the Russians.

Borrowing money is fine, but the tsarist government has a bad reputation. It was often unable to perform the contract normally, and it also owed a lot of Austrian debts.

Unpaid debts are definitely the most hated. Austrian financial circles are staunchly anti-Russian, and even the people have a bad impression of Russians.

In agriculture, the two countries are again in a state of competition. The peasants in Austria hated the Russians, a market-destroying competitor.

Austrian peasants are not rural peasants who have no right to speak, and there are a large number of nobles among them. These people were all victims of Alexander II's policy of reclamation, and naturally hated the tsarist government.

Franz asked blankly: "Do you think we still need to renew the contract now?"

History seems to be repeating itself. The former two empires of time and space have conflicted with the Russians because of agricultural friction, and Austria is similar now.

Of course, there are differences. In addition to the anti-Russian aristocracy and peasants in Austria, the financial community also hates the Russians because of the debt problem. Only the domestic business community supports the renewal of the contract.

In a similar position, Franz somewhat understood the foreign policy of Wilhelm II alienating Russia.

In the face of interests, personal strength cannot make up for it. The emperor must also consider the position of the people in the country and cannot oppose the majority of people.

Prime Minister Felix hit the nail on the head: "Continuing to renew the contract has a little effect on the economy, but it is worthless strategically!"

Agriculture Secretary Halles: "The economic value is not great, it's the era of free trade, and the tariff advantage we used to have is no longer there.

Even without the Russian-Austrian alliance, at most a portion of the Tsarist government's purchases would be reduced, with minimal impact.

After so many years of hard work, many aspects of Russian industry have to rely on us. Even if the tsarist government wants to kick us out, it depends on whether they can afford this loss. "

This is the main reason for the reassurance of the Vienna government. Austrian industry is a self-contained system, and the standards adopted by Britain and France are different, and they are completely unsuitable.

Russian industry was heavily influenced by Austria from the very beginning, and the capitalists, greedy for cheap, adopted Austrian standards directly.

Adopting Austrian standards is nothing, the key is that the Russian industry has not formed a complete industrial system, and machinery and equipment rely on imports from Austria.

To withdraw now means that most of the industrial equipment in this area will be scrapped. This loss is simply beyond the tsarist government's ability to bear.