Chapter 122 State Council Meeting

In the afternoon, luxury carriages drove into the gate of the Royal Palace in Syntagma Square. After receiving the notice from Prime Minister Venizelos, Greek military and political leaders came one after another.

At exactly two o'clock in the afternoon, Constantine received a notification from his servant that the Greek ministers and top military officials who came to attend the meeting had arrived one after another.

After arriving at the conference room, Constantine sat on the chair seat under the surprised gazes of everyone. He was at one end of the long conference table, directly opposite Prime Minister Venizelos.

In previous meetings, Crown Prince Constantine usually sat below the king.

"His Majesty the King has appointed me to preside over this state meeting with full authority. Everyone should know that Prime Minister Venizelos has already won over Ligocha and reached an agreement with the League of Slavic Countries to jointly deal with the Ottoman Empire." Constantine went straight to the topic and faced The crowd said loudly.

"The main purpose of calling everyone here this time is to find out the situation in all aspects of Greece so as to prepare for the upcoming Balkan war," Venizelos said.

"Oh, by the way, let me introduce to you, this is the director of the Greek Grain Reserve Bureau, Rofus." Prime Minister Venizelos introduced a middle-aged official in his forties to everyone.

"Well, Director Rofus, how much grain does your Grain Reserve Bureau have in reserve now?" Constantine asked immediately when he heard that the director of the Grain Reserve Bureau was also at the meeting.

Rufus quickly took out the document from his briefcase, glanced at it a few times and said: "So far, the Grain Reserve Bureau has reserved 480,000 tons of grain."

"This includes 90,000 tons of rice from Congo, 120,000 tons of wheat imported from Russia, 60,000 tons of wheat from the United States, and 210,000 tons of wheat purchased through orders from various agricultural cooperatives in Greece," Rofus said without panic. He hurriedly said to everyone.

"So, Director Rofus, how long can these grains last under extreme conditions?" Constantine asked.

"What do you mean by extreme conditions?" Rofus asked uncertainly.

"The worst situation is that Greece's channels for importing food from foreign countries are completely cut off, and due to the unrest in Greece, it is completely impossible to obtain food," Constantine said.

It's not that Greece will really encounter such a tragic situation, but Constantine wants to know how long Greece can endure under the worst conditions relying on these food reserves.

After thinking for a moment, Rofus responded: "In this case, 480,000 tons of grain will be enough to support Greece's domestic needs for two to three months."

Venizelos nodded and continued: "According to statistics from various departments of the Greek government, as of now, that is, in May 1912, the population of Greece has reached 4.4 million. Compared with the previous year's population, this number has The number increased by 6%, and in the long term, this growth rate will continue.”

The population of Greece has always been a headache for Constantine.

Although stimulated by Greece's population and fertility policy, the growth rate has always maintained a high number.

However, due to Greece's small population base, even if the growth rate appears to be high, the absolute number of population increases is small.

Population growth is like making money. Accumulation of funds in the early stage is the most difficult, and earning from 0 to 1 million is the most difficult.

When the second million comes, it will be much easier.

The same is true for population growth. When the population base reaches a certain level, even at a low growth rate, the actual number of population increases will be considerable.

"The reason why the growth rate is so high is that in addition to the natural reproduction of the domestic population, Greeks from the entire Balkan Peninsula have immigrated to Greece in the past two years," Venizelos explained.

"Last year alone, according to data left by customs, 80,000 people from the Balkans came to Greece."

Constantine frowned and asked, "What's the reason? Is it all about emigration?"

“Part of it is immigration, part of it is coming to Greece to work.”

"There are many job opportunities in Greece and the salary is good. In recent years, many people from Macedonia have come to work in Greece," Venizelos reported.

In recent years, the Macedonian region has been in chaos. Underground armed forces supported by Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece have been engaged in a long-term tug of war for control of Macedonia.

These guerrillas intimidate and threaten villages and towns that do not want to belong to them, often with violent means.

This led to the Macedonian region, where robbers and bandits could be seen everywhere.

The chaotic situation naturally affected the people living in Macedonia.

With the assistance of guerrillas affiliated with Greece, industrial products produced in Greece can be seen everywhere in Macedonia.

Greece's economy is developing rapidly and there are many job opportunities, which naturally attracts many Macedonians to come and work.

"As for fiscal revenue, the government's fiscal revenue this year is expected to reach 1.16 billion drachmas," Venizelos introduced the government's financial problems to everyone.

"Among them, 500 million drachmas are allocated to the navy to fund the construction of the navy. In the past three years, funds have been allocated in batches."

"The national debt of 30 million drachmas has been fully repaid."

"Generally speaking, Greece's financial situation is relatively healthy," Venizelos commented in a brisk tone.

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone present at the meeting became more relaxed.

Due to the haze of war, the originally tense atmosphere in the conference room also disappeared.

After all, no matter how troublesome the subsequent war is, as long as the Greek government maintains sufficient financial resources, they will be able to relax a lot.

"Greece's steel production last year was 420,000 tons, and it is estimated that it will remain at this number this year," said Minister of Industry Mioaris in a low mood.

There is no way. Due to the problem of raw materials, Greece's heavy industry has been growing slowly.

Before the restriction on the source of raw materials is resolved, Greece's heavy industry will not develop too fast.

It can only be said that for countries with scarce raw materials, it is really powerless to develop heavy industry.

"Last year, Greece's industrial output value reached 800 million drachmas, of which the textile industry created an output value of 500 million drachmas, of which 800 million drachmas of textiles were exported to the Ottoman Empire," Mioaris said with a strange look.

The textile industry has always played an important role in Greece's economy, and the main export market is the Ottoman Empire.

It's just that in recent years, after the opening of the railway from Berlin, Germany to Constantinople, with the roar of the train, a large number of industrial products from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have poured into the Ottoman Empire.

In the commodity market of the Ottoman Empire, the commodities of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have increased year by year, constantly eroding the commodities of other countries.

Originally, the largest cotton cloth sales market in Greece was the Ottoman Empire. In recent years, the sales volume of Greek cotton cloth has been declining year by year.

The reason why they can maintain a certain sales volume is that most of the owners of local tailors and clothing workshops are Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and have good relations with Greece and are willing to buy Greek textiles.

But last year, Greece exported 800 million drachmas of textiles to Austria, which is obviously not normal.

It's not too low, but too high.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Mioaris explained: "My opinion is that the reason for this is that the Ottoman Empire needs a lot of textiles due to war preparations."

"After all, the Ottoman Empire is now at war with Italy, and the possibility of a war in the Balkans is increasing. The Ottoman Empire may have already begun mobilization."

Hundreds of thousands of troops naturally need a lot of textiles.