Chapter 250: Macedonia and Agricultural Policy

There were only whispers in the conference room, and everyone was touched by the Crown Prince's proposal.

Obviously, they were very excited about the news that Thessaloniki would become the main production area of ​​Greek agriculture and industry in the future.

The reason why Constantine was so eager to encourage Greek nobles to join and develop agricultural cooperatives and develop the Macedonian region was also because time was tight and there was not much time left for Greece to develop agriculture.

It can be imagined that once a war broke out in Europe, the price of food in the entire international market would rise sharply. Compared with the usual price, it is very likely that the price of food would rise by one or two times during the war.

At that time, Greece, which was short of food, would have to be slaughtered by food merchants and buy food at high prices from the international market.

Although Greek agriculture has made great progress in the past few years with the help of new agricultural organizations such as agricultural cooperatives, due to the short time and the lack of strong guidance from the government, the self-operated agricultural cooperatives have only made achievements in cash crops.

Previously, under the shadow of the Balkan War, the Balkan countries were concerned about the progress of quietly infiltrating the Macedonian region. The Macedonian riots under Ottoman rule firmly attracted the attention of the Greek nation.

The financial and material resources of the entire country were busy with military preparations, and there was no time to take care of other things.

Under such circumstances, government departments simply did not have enough energy to help guide the agricultural cooperatives spontaneously formed by the people.

Since the Greek customs did not impose grain tariffs, cheap wheat from the United States and Russia's Ukraine region entered the Greek market in large quantities.

Since Greece's agricultural production conditions were far inferior to those of these two countries, under the impact of foreign cheap wheat, Greek wheat farmers were completely unable to resist and switched to other crops.

Cash crops such as grapes, beets, and olives were favored by farmers. They were of higher value and had smooth sales.

In addition to meeting the wheat and corn needed by members themselves and livestock, agricultural cooperatives in Greece had no plans to sell these staple crops to the outside world, because compared with imported grain, there was no profit at all.

Under such circumstances, the development path of agricultural cooperatives in Greece is also very strange. Driven by interests, they all began to develop the breeding industry, raising dairy cows, pigs, chickens, ducks and other poultry and livestock, and then sold them to the market to obtain high profits.

65% of Greece's current food sources rely on imports, and the rest is rice imported from Congo.

Although Constantine had a premonition that Greece's situation needed to be corrected, after all, it was a dangerous thing for a country to rely heavily on international market imports for its staple food, but he was powerless.

Greece's land is barren, the fertilizer industry is backward, and the wheat yield is extremely low. This is a natural weakness that cannot be changed by human power.

Whether it is an agricultural cooperative or an individual farmer, they just chose a more favorable way for themselves in the market economy.

Forcing farmers to grow staple food through administrative means will inevitably cause public resentment, after all, it violates economic laws and the wishes of the people, and secondly, it may not have any good results.

So I had to give up.

But now it is different. Although the Macedonia region is not a fertile land with abundant water and grass and fertile land, the farming conditions are relatively good compared with other parts of Greece.

Since the suitable conditions are available, Constantine naturally wants to change the original agricultural status of Greece.

Greece needs to prepare for shocks not only in industry but also in agriculture.

After Greece obtained the Macedonia region, Constantine and Prime Minister Venizelos discussed the status of the Macedonia region and reached a consensus, that is, to maintain the status quo of the Greek small peasant society.

First of all, according to the government's population encouragement plan, farmers have a higher willingness to give birth than workers.

This is a very obvious social phenomenon discovered when the government issued fertility subsidies.

The explanation of the relevant personnel is that farmers' lives are relatively leisurely, and they have lived in remote villages for many years, with a lack of information and few entertainment activities. They work from sunrise to sunset, have a slow pace of life, and have more children.

In terms of encouraging population fertility, maintaining a society with a large number of farmers is more beneficial to Greece's rapidly growing population.

Secondly, the land in Greece is relatively scattered and small, which is more suitable for intensive farming and requires more labor to work.

There is no condition for large-scale mechanized farming like the United States.

In addition, maintaining a society with a large number of agricultural producers has another invisible benefit, which is stability.

One of the characteristics of a market economy is that there will be an economic crisis every other cycle.

During an economic crisis, many factories will go bankrupt, a large number of workers will lose their jobs, society will be in chaos, and public security will deteriorate.

During an economic crisis, although farmers' lives will also be affected, their situation is much more stable than that of workers.

Because the cost of living for farmers is relatively low compared to that of workers.

In the worst case, farmers can guarantee the food supply for their families.

Therefore, during an economic crisis, the peasant group is the ballast of society.

Except for a few large landowners, Greek farmers generally own no more than 100 acres of land.

In the future, the Greek government will continue to introduce policies as a long-term national policy in Greek agriculture: maintaining an appropriate number of farmers in Greece, severely cracking down on and suppressing land acquisition activities, and encouraging and safeguarding the interests of small and medium-sized farmers.

Constantine told all the agricultural information to the nobles present.

Emmanuel looked at Constantine who was silent. After listening to Constantine's proposal and reasons, he thought for a moment and understood Constantine's purpose.

After the long-term turmoil, the Macedonian region has a sparse population, a backward economy, a vast territory and a sparse population, and is in urgent need of development.

He called on the nobles to develop the territories in Macedonia, and also considered developing Macedonia as soon as possible to enhance the national power of Greece.

This is actually a movement to advance northward, calling on the people to carry out the development of Macedonia.

Emmanuel has already had a hunch that the government will soon introduce policies calling on Greeks to go to Macedonia.

After discussing with everyone, Emmanuel stood up and said to everyone: "Since the development of Macedonia is the next basic national policy of the entire Greek country, we, as Greek nobles, should naturally support it."

After saying that, he looked at Constantine and said: "We have just agreed that in order to better develop agriculture, we will join forces to jointly invest in establishing a seed company, a fertilizer company, and a company to cultivate high-quality livestock in Salonika. A variety of biological companies can better fill Greece’s agricultural shortcomings and quickly develop the agricultural potential of Macedonia.”