Chapter 50 Supporting the Wine Industry

"Your Excellency, your request will be implemented," Banning said respectfully.

"I hope you can all achieve something in the country of Ganges," Constantine said goodbye to the two men earnestly.

Constantine stood at the dock for a long time, watching the ship gradually go away.

"Your Excellency, we should go back," Schmidt reminded.

Constantine turned and got on the carriage, and the convoy slowly drove on the street.

Arriving at the Prime Minister's residence, Constantine walked into the office of Prime Minister Trikupis.

"Mr. Prime Minister, I came here this time to discuss the issue of compulsory education in Greece with you," Constantine said frankly.

Trikupis stood up from his desk and guided Constantine to sit down.

"Do you need the cooperation of the parliament?" Prime Minister Trikupis asked, sitting on the reception sofa.

"Yes, you also know that in recent years, almost all European countries have implemented compulsory education systems"

"We in Greece cannot be left behind too far"

The compulsory education system originated in Prussia.

In the words of German Marshal Moltke; "Prussia's victory was decided long ago on the podium of primary school teachers"

Who could have imagined that as early as the beginning of the 19th century (probably during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty), a wall map of the Great Wall of China would be hung in the natural science class of German primary schools, and their teachers would tell them what the Great Wall of China, thousands of miles away, looked like.

Prussian children would also learn about the different living environments of people living on the five continents.

After seeing the benefits of Germany's compulsory education system, Britain and France have also established compulsory education systems in the past two years.

The quality of German soldiers has been greatly improved through compulsory education, which is one of the foundations for Germany to show strong combat effectiveness in a series of wars.

Greece itself has a sparse population, and it is unimaginable if the quality of the population also widens the gap with European countries.

After all, contemporary competition is carried out on a national basis, and low population quality will be a huge shortcoming.

Therefore, Constantine cannot rely on the heavily indebted Greek government. He directly collects part of the fiscal revenue from Congo and also conducts compulsory education in Greece.

Compulsory education in Greece is urgent.

The reason why Constantine established the Greek Education Foundation and believed that the education foundation, which the government was not directly involved in, could successfully implement compulsory education is very simple.

It is not as difficult to implement compulsory education in Europe as in Asian countries.

This is determined by the characters used by both sides.

Ideographic characters are used in Asia, and phonetic characters are used in Europe and the United States.

I am afraid that many people have shadows when learning ideographic characters:

Teacher: "Copy these new characters a hundred times"

Ideographic characters like Chinese characters have no direct connection between their pronunciation and meaning, and can even have multiple pronunciations (polyphonic characters) and multiple characters with one pronunciation

So there are not many convenient ways to learn Chinese characters, and they can only memorize them by rote.

Phonetic characters are different. There is a connection between their pronunciation and characters. If students are familiar with dozens of basic letters (such as abcde), each letter has a corresponding pronunciation. According to the pronunciation, proficient students can spell out words according to the pronunciation, or read them according to the words.

If we only consider the convenience of learning, phonetic characters have a huge advantage over ideographic characters.

Therefore, it is more convenient for European countries that use phonetic characters to implement compulsory education.

This is also the reason why so many countries in modern times have changed their writing to phonetic writing. The huge advantage of popularization and convenience is far beyond the reach of ideographic writing.

"I need the parliament to revise the compulsory education law and force school-age children to go to school," Constantine said.

Although the compulsory education that Constantine is about to carry out is free, it does not mean that parents are willing to send their children to school.

The poorer the family, the less willing they are to send their children to school.

For example, a considerable number of families in rural Greece do not think that it is beneficial for a farmer's child to learn to read, especially girls.

In their superficial cognition, can't they still farm even if they are illiterate?

It is impossible for teachers in the school to persuade those short-sighted parents one by one, so it is necessary to revise the compulsory education law and enforce it.

"Yes, Your Excellency the Duke, I will inform the parliament and let them put the revision of the compulsory education law on the agenda," Trikoupis said happily.

As a reformist in the Greek government, Trikoupis's progressive political propositions are also the reason why Constantine is willing to cooperate with him.

"Also, you should solve the land problem in Thessaly as soon as possible. It is a waste of good land to use for sheep and horses," Constantine said.

The original Thessaly landlords, overseas wealthy businessmen, exchanged their land for the corresponding shares of the Greek Congo Corporation.

Constantine gave up a considerable part of his shares for this.

"Let the local farmers get the land as soon as possible and invest in agricultural production," Constantine said.

"By the way, I have also learned about the raisin export problem that Your Highness mentioned a few days ago," Trikupis said.

"Compared to the French and Italians exporting finished wine, Greece can only export raisins, a raw material for winemaking."

"Compared to the price of finished wine, the profit of raisins is really too low."

"So, I would like to ask your opinion, Duke, whether you can ask the royal family to support the country's wine industry," Trikupis asked in a low voice.

"The royal family supports the wine industry?" Constantine frowned and pondered Trikoupis' words.

"How does the royal family support it?"

"Can the royal court collect and consume more Greek red wine?" Trikoupis said.

After saying this, Trikoupis carefully looked at Constantine's expression.

Hearing this, Constantine also understood the prime minister's plan. This is to use the royal stage to advertise Greek wine.

In the Greek royal family, King George from Denmark and Queen Olga from Russia prefer French wine in their daily meals. For example, King George likes French red wine very much, and it is indispensable for daily meals.

Therefore, a lot of French wine is stored in the underground wine storage room of Tatoi Palace. In addition to the purchases made by the royal family itself, there are also many French wines received as gifts in the exchange of gifts.

Why is French wine so popular?

Is it because French wine has the best quality and taste?

That is not necessarily true. Whether in Italy, Greece or other European countries, there may be better quality wine than French wine.

It is just more well-known.

For example, the well-known joke of "Bring me a bottle of 1982 Lafite" is widely circulated.

As the traditional hegemon of the European continent, France has long been the center of Europe's economy and culture. This soft power is unmatched by other European countries.

So French wine naturally benefits a lot from France's cultural advantages.

Trikoupis wants the Greek royal family to support the country's wine industry more, consume more of their own wine in daily life, and increase the popularity of Greek wine.

For example, when interacting with other European dignitaries, give Greek wine as a gift.