Chapter 532 Gold

In the relative calm of the international community, time quickly came to 1

During this period, the war in Russia was very intense. The warring parties fought fiercely around Poland, Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia. Three battles broke out in the battle for Kiev, which was successively occupied by the Polish army, the Soviet army and the intervention army.

The World Alliance also increased its aid to Tsarist Russia again, and even Hungary, which had just gained independence, joined the intervention army.

Although it seems that the World Alliance has been doing its best to stop the expansion of the Soviet Union, if you have a deep understanding of how much benefit the Russian Civil War has brought to the World Alliance, you will not think so.

Even Nicholas II and the Tsarist government, who had not seen it before, clearly realized the ambitions of the World Alliance, especially Britain and France. Their aid was not free. After all, the Russian Civil War could bring greater benefits to the World Alliance and allow many countries to have enough income when the economic recession came.

June 12, 1920, St. Petersburg, the Imperial Conference of the Tsarist Government.

Although he avoided the risk of being overthrown in World War I, Nicholas II was not in a good condition.

Because of the worries of the civil war, Nicholas II had many more wrinkles on his face, and many of his hair turned gray. He looked more than ten years older than a few years ago.

Although he was only 52 years old, which was the peak of his political career. But Nicholas II looked old, like an old man in his sixties or seventies.

The civil war had been going on until now, and it was no longer something that either Soviet Russia or Tsarist Russia could stop.

The civil war in Russia made other countries smell business opportunities. It was related to their own interests, and other countries could not support Russia to end the civil war.

Russia's minerals, assets, and even the wealth accumulated by the population and the empire for hundreds of years were used by Nicholas II as collateral and exchange for loans, which allowed Tsarist Russia to persist from the beginning of the civil war to the present.

According to the incomplete statistics of Tsarist Russia, from the civil war to the present, the fiscal expenditure of Tsarist Russia has reached more than 1 billion pounds, and the fiscal debt has reached about 2 billion pounds. The country's finances are not far from collapse.

If it weren't for the occasional assistance from the World Alliance, and if Nicholas II had not mortgaged his family's century-old savings, the Tsarist government would have collapsed before its finances.

In order to win this war, Nicholas II did everything he could. Some capitalists and nobles who opposed Nicholas II were all confiscated by Nicholas II, and all their property was used in this war. [ ]

This also caused many nobles to flee abroad. After all, no one wanted the money that their family had worked so hard to accumulate to be wiped out in an instant.

The property and industry held by the Romanov family, including the government's state-owned industries, are basically on the sale list of Tsarist Russia.

If you have money, you can not only buy factories and minerals in Tsarist Russia, but also state-owned enterprises, including oil and military factories.

Although military factories can play a good role in war, judging from Russia's current situation, it is impossible to organize manpower for production.

What's more, military factory production requires a supporting system, but Russia's industry has completely collapsed so far, and it is almost impossible to reopen military factories.

What's more terrible is that compared with the loss of industry, the loss of this civil war to Russian agriculture is a huge blow.

In 1913, Russia's total grain output was about 92 million tons. From the perspective of the total scale of grain production, it is a major grain-producing country.

But last year, that is, 1919, Russia's total grain output dropped sharply to less than 60 million tons. Most of the Russian civilians were hungry, more than one-third of the Russian civilians were in a food crisis, and hundreds of thousands or even millions of Russians starved to death every year.

If Nicholas II had not sold his pot and iron to buy a large amount of grain from Australasia and Europe, I am afraid that the sharp decline in Russia's population would have been an extremely exaggerated number.

To be honest, most of the civil war took place in the western part of Central Europe, that is, Poland and Ukraine.

Otherwise, the blow to Russian agriculture would be even more fatal. At that time, Russia was not even a major agricultural country, and relying on grain imports was not enough to save Russia's situation.

The grain output of Poland and Ukraine combined only accounted for one-ninth of Russia's grain output, and other vast areas could still grow grain.

This is because the Russians are big and powerful. For example, in Hungary, although the civil war lasted for a short time, it only lasted for more than three months.

But these three months dealt a fatal blow to Hungary's agriculture, and the grain production in the year of the civil war was directly cut in half.

There is no way, because Hungary has a relatively small land area. The civil war originally summoned a large number of farmers, and the war also affected agricultural production, so the reduction in grain production became a matter of course.

It is worth mentioning that long before the invention of the car, Russia was one of the important exporters of oil.

As the price of oil became higher and higher, Russia did make a fortune from oil exports and increased a lot of foreign exchange income.

But after the outbreak of the civil war, Russia's oil could not be transported out, so it was naturally impossible to earn income for the Russian government.

Even in order to raise loans, Nicholas II has sold the mining rights of several important oil fields in the country in recent years, including not only Australasia, but also Britain, France and some European countries.

Although the mining rights were only sold for a few years, there was no restriction on the scale of oil field mining.

This actually means that if there are enough oil mining equipment, other countries can frantically mine oil in Russia in recent years, and the Russian government will not have any income.

The Russians should be thankful that Arthur has no intention of exposing the Persian Gulf oil fields for the time being. Otherwise, the discovery of a large number of oil fields is bound to cause a sharp drop in oil prices. Even if the Russians want to auction the mining rights of the oil fields, the amount of loans they get will definitely not be too high.

"Prime Minister, when will the next batch of aid from the World Alliance arrive? How much money does the government have? Can it support us to launch the entire summer offensive?" Nicholas II rubbed his brows and looked at his confidant, the current Prime Minister of the Tsarist Government.

The so-called summer offensive is actually a plan for a major counterattack jointly discussed by the World Alliance Intervention Army Headquarters and Poland and Tsarist Russia.

As early as when Poland became independent, Nicholas II disagreed. But there was no way. Russia could not afford to lose foreign aid at the moment, so Nicholas II had to bow his head and acknowledge Poland's independence.

Of course, this is not necessarily good or bad news for Tsarist Russia. In addition to not being able to obtain a complete territory after the victory of the civil war, Tsarist Russia can still have one more ally in the current civil war.

And Poland's location is also very important. It is in the west and north with St. Petersburg. In addition to Kiev, which was captured by the World Alliance, it is just in a situation of encirclement for Moscow. A siege has been formed.

The summer offensive is a comprehensive encirclement of Moscow by the three armies, striving to capture all Soviet troops in a trap, so as to quickly end this civil war.

"According to the news from Britain and France, a new batch of aid in weapons and equipment should arrive in two weeks." The Prime Minister responded: "Domestic finance is a big problem. More than 60% of our annual fiscal revenue is used for war, and 20% is used for the purchase of materials. Only 20% is used to maintain the operation of the government and other matters. The funds of various departments have been reduced to the lowest point. This will sooner or later be a hidden danger. If we can get another loan, we may be able to survive this summer."

The entire Russian financial situation is not too good, not to mention the current Russia divided into four parts (Soviet Russia, Tsarist Russia, Poland, Ukraine).

Although there is assistance from other countries and a large amount of loans, the current Russian finances can only be described in one sentence, that is, grit your teeth and persevere.

If any foreign loan is cancelled in the middle, Russia's finances will have no room for turnover, and bankruptcy is inevitable.

"Yeah." Nicholas II nodded silently, and said lightly that he understood.

After thinking for a long time, he sighed and said, "I will solve the problem of funds, and I will strive for a loan of at least 20 million pounds. Prime Minister, with these, can the government last until the end of the summer offensive?"

"If there is 20 million pounds, then of course there is no problem, Your Majesty." The Prime Minister nodded hurriedly, fearing that Nicholas II would go back on his word.

That night, the Russian ambassador to Australasia urgently asked to see Arthur and explained his intentions.

Arthur still met with the Russian ambassador, looked at the new Russian ambassador Levgeny with a little curiosity, and asked, "Is there anything urgent for His Majesty Nicholas?"

"Your Majesty! Russia needs your support!" The Russian ambassador said sincerely.

"Support? Haven't you received the weapons and equipment from Australasia? The latest weapons and equipment should have arrived last month, right?" Arthur seemed to be stunned for a moment, and asked in disbelief.

"The weapons and equipment have been received, Your Majesty, but Russia needs more support." The Russian ambassador hurriedly explained.

"We are planning a new offensive, and the government's funds are dwarfed by them. Please, Your Majesty, for the sake of the friendship between Australia and Russia, approve a batch of loans to help the Russian government alleviate the urgent need." The Russian ambassador continued.

Seeing that he was asking for a loan, Arthur did not refuse, and said with a smile: "Mr. Ambassador, you should understand. If you want to seek a national loan, you should look for the government, not me. If you need a loan from the private sector, I am happy to introduce you to the heads of major banks in Australasia, but you still need to discuss the specific loan matters in person."

The long-term assistance has made Arthur understand that Tsarist Russia is like a helpless Adou, and it is basically impossible to win this civil war.

This also means that if Australasia lends to Tsarist Russia, it is actually dangerous.

Before Nicholas II has any convincing collateral, Arthur will not be stupid enough to take the initiative to bring a loan to the Russian government. Therefore, kicking the ball is the best way.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with what Arthur said. I am willing to introduce the bank head to you. Whether you can get the loan depends on your own ability and eloquence.

“Your Majesty, His Majesty the Tsar once said that no matter what time, Australasia and Russia are in-laws and we have a good relationship. This is why I came to you.

If your majesty is willing to lend money, we can use the oil field mining rights as collateral, five to ten years is fine. "The Tsarist ambassador continued to persuade.

Arthur was still unmoved. It was useless to play the emotional card between national interests, and Russia's oil field mining rights could not attract Arthur at all.

Just kidding, aren't the oil fields in the Persian Gulf more fragrant than the Russian oil fields? You know, after the oil fields in Russia are mined, relevant oil pipelines need to be built to transport them overseas at a lower cost.

Otherwise, the cost of transportation and refining alone is far more than importing oil from other countries. What's the point of Russia's oil mining rights?

What's more, it's hard to say who will dominate Russia in the future. If Soviet Russia wins the final victory, will it recognize Australasia's oil mining rights at that time? I'm afraid not.

After seeing that all kinds of words could not move Arthur, the Tsarist Russian ambassador got to the point and said: "Your Majesty, His Majesty the Tsar is willing to use a batch of gold in exchange for a large loan from Australasia. If your majesty is willing, we can discuss the amount of this batch of gold in detail. ”

At this point, Arthur nodded.

It is very clear now. The ultimate goal of the Russians should be to exchange gold for loans. The various emotional cards and other requests in the past are just tests. After all, it is definitely better to exchange loans for the lowest price. No one is willing to sell their gold directly.

You must know that the monetary system of most countries still uses the gold standard, and the value of gold is still very high.

Basically, the amount of gold reserves a country has also determines how much currency the country can print at most.

Although the printing of currency can be unlimited, the amount of currency printed with an unbalanced ratio to gold can easily lead to the collapse of the paper currency system. Generally, no other country would do this.

After all, gold can still be accumulated through other channels, but if the credit of paper money collapses completely, it will not be easy to recover it.

At any time, gold is a country's hard currency. A certain big country also has a proverb that antiques are valuable in prosperous times and gold is valuable in troubled times, which is enough to prove that gold is precious in more chaotic times.

Although Nicholas II has traded gold with Australasia many times, the total amount is only a few hundred tons, which is still far from the amount of gold in the Tsar's treasure rumored in later generations. Arthur is still looking forward to whether the so-called Tsar's treasure is true.

This is the only update today. I feel a little dizzy after drinking. Tomorrow, I will update 10,000! Please vote for the monthly ticket and support!