Chapter 246: Land and Nobility

Seeing the new and old nobles of Greece gathered in the same room, Constantine said to everyone: "First of all, I know that everyone is very concerned about the income of the Purple Robe Foundation."

When Constantine mentioned the Purple Robe Foundation, the originally relaxed and casual crowd subconsciously focused on the words of the crown prince.

According to the royal family's announcement, the investment of the Purple Robe Foundation, each noble has a certain proportion of investment dividend income.

This is another way for the royal family to increase wealth for these Greek nobles in addition to the fiefdom.

Of course, everyone initially saw that the dividend ratio of each noble would not exceed 1%, and they were a little dissatisfied with the Purple Robe Foundation.

According to this dividend ratio, even if the Purple Robe Foundation earns more, how much can a 1% share be?

Unexpectedly, the Purple Robe Foundation, which invests in the oil business, is the main shareholder of the Greek Petroleum Company. With the rapid increase in the demand for Greek oil, the nobles can't help but calculate the income they can share according to the operating rules of the Purple Robe Foundation every time they see the sales of the Greek Petroleum Company in the newspaper.

There is no way. Although they are all nobles, they are limited by their income. After becoming nobles, the economic pressure is even greater.

After all, they are now nobles, and they must pay attention to the face of nobles, and pay attention to every aspect of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

For example, as a means of transportation, they were just civilians before, and it didn't matter whether they had a carriage or not.

Now it is different. As a noble, they can't rent a carriage to deal with social occasions. If they are exposed, it will be a great loss of face.

This is just one aspect. In fact, after being conferred as a noble, their daily expenses have risen rapidly. With their originally generous senior military officers' salaries, they are now complaining.

Not long ago, the Athens Daily used the headline "Down and Out Nobles" on the front page, ridiculing the so-called Greek nobles, who had just been canonized as nobles and had already fallen.

The photo in the newspaper is the scene of Yannis, who had just been canonized as a noble, and his family riding a public carriage when traveling.

Yannis is the Minister of Armaments of the Greek Army, so he is naturally also among the canonized.

The democratic newspapers in the society also ridiculed and directly named some so-called Greek nobles, whose income could not afford the life of nobles at all. They had just become nobles, but they were already in poverty.

The whole Greek noble class was in disgrace.

As for the fiefs granted by the royal family, these lands are indeed vast, basically hundreds of hectares, but distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

First of all, the development of these lands takes time after all.

At the instruction of Constantine, the fiefs of these nobles were intentionally placed in the Macedonian region.

The Macedonian region has been ravaged by wars for a long time, with serious population loss, a large area of ​​wasteland and undeveloped land, and enough land for rewarding nobles.

The arrival of these nobles can also enhance Greece's control over this area.

Hundreds of hectares of land are indeed a rich fortune, but a large part of these lands are wastelands, which need to be reclaimed by the nobles themselves.

In a short period of time, these lands, let alone providing income for the nobles, will require everyone to spend a lot of money to develop.

Therefore, one of the purposes of this gathering is that Constantine intends to let the Purple Robe Foundation distribute dividends urgently to ease the nobles' dry pockets after hearing too many complaints from nobles recently.

"Jacob, come and introduce the situation of the Purple Robe Foundation to everyone," Constantine said to Jacob, the manager of the Purple Robe Foundation.

Jacob, standing behind Constantine, took out a form from his pocket and reported to everyone: "Since the construction of the Greek Petroleum Company's factory has slowed down this year, there is a profit of 42 million drachmas in the oil company's account."

"Huh"

Hearing this number, the nobles present couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It seems that the oil business invested by the Purple Robe Foundation is indeed profitable.

"According to the 60% shareholding of the Purple Robe Foundation, a dividend of 25.2 million can be obtained."

As soon as Jacob's voice fell, everyone couldn't help but be surprised. According to the ratio of 1%, each person can also get a dividend of about 250,000 drachmas.

250,000 drachmas, even for them, is not a small amount of money.

The salary of senior officers in Greece is generally about 6,000 to 8,000 drachmas per month, which is several times that of ordinary workers.

The Purple Robe Foundation mainly invests in oil, and Constantine naturally understands the lucrative income of the oil business.

The reason why the Purple Robe Foundation was established was to unite the Greek nobles through this foundation and gather around the royal family.

If the Purple Robe Foundation does not have a high income, this goal cannot be achieved.

"You will receive a check from the Royal Bank of Greece later, and then we will talk about something else," Constantine said.

"As you all know, although your fiefdom is huge, it can provide you with a lot of income every year after successful development. But I want to remind you that it is too whimsical to want to make a fortune by farming."

The situation of the Greek grain market is somewhat special.

First, Greece imports a large amount of rice and other grains from Congo every year.

Since Greece has no grain import tariffs, a large amount of Russian wheat has also poured into the Greek market.

Secondly, the agricultural cooperative movement in Greece is ongoing. After several years of development, the model of agricultural cooperatives, which relies on farmers' joint operation, is gaining recognition from more and more Greek farmers.

These agricultural cooperatives adopt the way of operating companies to carry out agricultural production and purchase a large number of various tools for agricultural production, including tractors, with extremely high production efficiency.

Even if the nobles have large fiefdoms, it may not be easy to compete with these cooperatives that have developed for many years.

Under the fierce competition between foreign imported grain and domestic agricultural cooperatives, the price of agricultural and animal husbandry products in Greece is low, which means that even if the nobles develop the land in their hands, the benefits are very limited.

"Yes, the domestic grain prices are too low. Even if our fiefdom is developed, it is not profitable."

"Although the dividends from the Purple Robe Foundation can ease everyone's tense economic situation, compared with the current huge daily expenses, it is still a bit insufficient."

Manujianaski understood that Constantine had a plan when he mentioned the land issue at this gathering, so he took the initiative to ask: "Your Highness, do you have any suggestions?"

Seeing the inquiring eyes of the crowd, Constantine did not hide it: "I hope that you Greek upstarts can take the initiative to join the agricultural cooperative movement. Taking advantage of the gap that Macedonia has just returned, you nobles with large land areas can take the initiative to lead the development of Macedonia's agricultural cooperatives."

"Not only that, you must also play an active role in the development of agricultural cooperatives."