Chapter 819 The Struggle of Napoleon IV

The constant victories on the African battlefield did not make the French happy for long. Defeating the rebels does not mean that the matter is over, the aftermath is the real trouble.

Leaving aside the scattered soldiers scattered in the countryside, the Egyptian region has already been devastated, and the French immigrants who escaped the disaster have all fled to the city to avoid the disaster, so there is nothing to worry about.

But the flooding Nile River can't be ignored. Now is the dry season, the destructive power is not too amazing.

If the river is not dredged in time, until the peak of the flood season, including the most fertile delta, there will be no harvest along the Nile.

Looking at the reconstruction plan of Egypt in his hand, Napoleon IV's face became gloomy, and even the good news that the front line defeated the main force of the rebels could not make him feel relieved.

"Why spend so much money?"

Napoleon IV has also seen big scenes, and it is naturally not a small number that can move him.

The cost of Egypt's post-war reconstruction plan is approaching one-fifth of that of France's post-civil war reconstruction plan, requiring billions of francs to be invested.

This is a colony, not a native land. At such a high price, it can only restore the social order in Egypt, and it is not a real development.

The new Prime Minister, Terence Bulkin, hastily explained: "Your Majesty, the rebels have done a great job.

The Nile River, the largest river in Egypt, was devastated and blocked up to more than 100 places, forming 73 dammed lakes of various sizes.

Seriously blocked by the river, the river continued to flood on both sides, and many farmlands along the Nile River were destroyed.

The cost of dredging the rivers alone will require hundreds of millions of francs, and the restoration of these farmlands will require even greater investment.

Because of the war, most of the small towns and plantations in Egypt were devastated, and the local economy was completely destroyed.

Affected by this, many domestic companies engaged in agricultural insurance have fallen into crisis and need government assistance.

Capitalists, plantation owners and ordinary migrants who have suffered heavy losses in Egypt all need government assistance.

In addition, the biggest expense is relief for refugees.

According to incomplete statistics, two out of every three people in Egypt are refugees, and the total number of refugees may exceed the two million mark.

If these problems cannot be resolved, the situation in Egypt will be difficult to stabilize.

The government included these necessary expenditures, along with military expenditures to maintain local stability after the war, into the post-war reconstruction funds. "

After listening to this explanation, Napoleon IV was still not relieved. No amount of reasons can change the fact that money is still spent.

Without waiting for Napoleon IV's statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Vernon preemptively denied: "This is impossible!

Egypt is just a colony, and no matter how important it is, it is not worth the cost.

The government's financial resources are limited, we have more meaningful things to do, and we can't waste precious funds. "

This is the truth, the French government really has no money. Affected by the Egyptian rebellion, the French economy suffered heavy losses, and its fiscal revenue also declined.

Revenue has decreased, but financial expenditure has not decreased, especially military expenditure has increased substantially.

Not long ago, the Paris government also launched a large farm plan, and has planned more than 100 farms in French Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and other regions.

At present, one-third of the farm projects have started, and some farms have completed land leveling and are ready for spring ploughing.

These results are all made with money. No surprises, all farm projects are government-funded.

As for private capital?

It is a pity that the plantation owners in Egypt are the representatives of France who are most enthusiastic about agriculture. Now they are busy licking their wounds. Who dares to use money to fill the bottomless pit of agriculture.

Prime Minister Terence Bulkin glared: "It's okay! Other projects can be postponed, but the Nile must be dredged as soon as possible.

Agriculture in Egypt this year is less than a third of what it would normally be in a normal year, and the autumn crops along the Nile River are almost dead.

According to estimates by the colonial government, the population of Egypt has dropped by at least a quarter due to war, hunger, and disease.

If the river can not be cleared before May, the food along the Nile River will fail again next year, and the famine will continue for another year.

Once this kind of thing happens, the situation in Egypt, which has been stabilized with great difficulty, will fall into chaos again.

When the matter is over, it is unknown whether one-third of the local population will remain.

Without enough population, there is not enough labor, what about our cotton plantations? "

Having just suffered from the shortage of cotton supply, a large group of capitalists in the domestic cotton spinning industry are now urging the government to stabilize the situation as soon as possible in order to resume production.

Just look at the people who are demonstrating outside and know that seven or eight out of ten are workers in the cotton textile industry chain.

Because of the lack of raw material supply, most factories cannot operate normally. Businesses are struggling, and workers’ lives are even worse.

Terrence Bulkin could not care about the lives of the Egyptians, but he had to consider the consequences of a labor shortage.

The current French Egypt, including half of Sudan, has a territorial area of ​​2 million square kilometers.

However, on such a large site, including the indigenous tribes living in the deep mountains and forests, there are only less than five million people.

This was before the rebellion

When the situation stabilizes, there will be 3.5 million people who will survive, and that will be considered a blessing from God.

If the famine continues, it will not be a dream for thousands of miles to be uninhabited. After all, in the rich land of Egypt, there is only one Nile delta, and most of the rest are deserts.

I want to survive by hunting and picking wild fruits. Unfortunately, this is the wrong set. Most North African countries do not have this ability.

Whether it's dredging rivers, helping planters restore production, or repairing damaged towns, a lot of labor is required.

Essentially, these programs are disaster relief. Lest the locals starve to death, there is no cheap labor to continue exploiting.

Knowing the seriousness of the consequences, Napoleon IV could not sit still. In the context of heavy industry's difficulty to improve, France cannot live without cotton fields.

"The work of dredging the river must start as soon as possible. Order the troops on the front to speed up, and the rebels cannot continue to destroy the river upstream.

The National Bank issued low-interest loans to plantation owners to help them resume production as soon as possible, and the farms originally planned to be established in the Egyptian delta region were also launched immediately.

Generate electricity to the colonial government and let them distribute some of the relief food, so that the local people cannot starve to death. "

In a sense, Napoleon IV was really tough. Although he is a second-generation emperor, he was born with the emperor's life, but what he took over as an emperor was a super mess.

Napoleon III was an infinitely beautiful, and he had a smooth journey all the way, and finally won the "Great Emperor" title, but the sequelae were left to Napoleon IV.

Huge debts, complex ethnic conflicts, a declining economy, and international relations that were ridiculed were all exposed at once.

In such a bad situation, to be able to stabilize the situation and not let France collapse, Napoleon IV is already enough to rank among the top few contemporary monarchs.

Whether it is the African development plan or the current large farm plan, it is the measure taken by Napoleon IV in an attempt to reverse the decadence of France.

It's a pity that time waits for no one. Competitors have been causing trouble for him, and they have not given France a chance to make a comeback.

The African development plan has encountered an artificially created economic crisis, and even sparked a civil war, the outcome of which is self-evident.

The big farm plan this time was born during the war. Originally Napoleon IV was very optimistic, after all, this move hit the soft underbelly of Russia and Austria.

However, the plan has not changed quickly, this has just begun, and the government will run out of money first.

After a pause, Napoleon IV added: "The Ministry of Finance issues another five billion francs of government bonds to raise funds."

Opening the mouth is five billion francs. Even if the current French Empire is much larger than it was in the same period in history, this is still an astronomical figure, equivalent to the financial revenue of the French government for a whole year.

Hearing this news, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Vernon was stunned, and he was very doubtful that there was something wrong with his ears.

In recent years, the French government's debt has continued to soar upwards, and it is about to cross the 25 billion mark. At this time, if there is another 5 billion bonds, it will directly exceed 30 billion.

"Your Majesty, even if you put aside the government's financial pressure, do not consider the issue of interest on funds, and even ignore the sequelae of monetary tightening, the Ministry of Finance will not be able to complete this fundraising task.

In recent years, the government has issued a large number of bonds, absorbing a large number of idle funds in the market. In the short term, the domestic financial market simply cannot raise so much money. "

In the era of the gold standard, limited by the amount of gold reserves, the amount of currency issued by each country was very limited.

A major gold-producing country like Yingao is not bad. It has enough gold reserves and the market has enough confidence in them to increase leverage.

Even if some more banknotes are printed, the pound and the Aegis are international currencies, and the international market can digest them. As long as the game is not too much, it will not affect the currency value.

Gold importing countries like France will not be able to do it. If they do not control the proportion of issued currency and reserves, it is easy to be taken advantage of by international hot money.

The French have personally experienced it once. Before the financial turmoil, the French government followed the British and Austrian countries to play high leverage, and the franc even occupied an important position in the international monetary settlement system.

It is a pity that the French government's gold reserves are insufficient to deal with the run-on crisis, and the franc's international currency status was once knocked out of the dust.

Napoleon IV asked: "I can't do it at home, isn't there an international market?

I remember that Austria once issued a bond to the whole of Europe and got a lot of money.

It was with the funds raised from the international market that Austria completed the Industrial Revolution and revived again. "

Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Vernon shook his head: "Your Majesty, we are different from Austria, and the current international situation is also different from what it was back then.

What the Austrian government can do does not mean we can do it too. At least the political interference of various countries, we have no way to solve it. "

This year's money is not easy to borrow. International loans have conditions attached, so how can the issuance of international bonds be an exception?

Austria issued a huge amount of bond financing to the European world. In addition to the sufficient collateral provided by the Vienna government, the more important thing is a good international environment.

Most of the agreements between Austria and European countries were reached in that era. After a series of secret agreements, even if the relationship with European countries was not an ally, it was a quasi-ally.

It's okay, naturally

No one gets stuck in the neck. It would be impossible to change the French government. It is estimated that the bonds have just entered the markets of various countries, and there is no time to sell them, and political interference will come.

The ball was kicked to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and under the expectant eyes of Napoleon IV, Foreign Minister Karel Kadlec directly lowered his head proudly.