Chapter 509

St. Peter's Castle. Ever since Alexander III received the news of the French people's farm plan, he rarely smiled.

Now that he received the news that the British Parliament had passed the Food Self-Sufficiency Plan, one could imagine how Alexander III was feeling.

Food exports were too important to the Russian Empire. Not only did it occupy the largest proportion of the country's foreign exchange income, but it also involved the livelihood of tens of millions of people.

Ever since Alexander II Of Russia completed the agricultural reform, the Russian Empire had been in a predicament of food supply exceeding demand. Other than the years of the Prussian War, the Tsarist government had to worry about food sales every year.

This was related to a decree from the time of Alexander II Of Russia.

At that time, they were preparing for the second Prussian War, and the government needed to raise military food. It happened to be an agricultural crisis, and the people had no money to pay taxes. Alexander II Of Russia ordered that farmers be allowed to pay taxes with food.

This policy allowed the Tsarist government to raise enough military food in the shortest time possible, and it laid the foundation for winning the second Prussian War.

The aftermath was that the Tsarist government had to receive a large amount of food every year, especially in remote areas. Almost all farmers paid taxes with food.

It was impossible to change it. The transportation in Russia was terrible, and food in remote areas could not be sold at a high price. In some areas, it could not even be sold at all. It was far more cost-effective to pay taxes in kind.

If this decree was abolished, it would be against tens of millions of farmers, and Alexander III naturally did not dare to do this.

If it was decades ago, the Tsarist government would have had so much food in their hands, and they would have swept across the European continent.

Unfortunately, times were different now. What the Tsarist government wanted the most was to cash in on the food.

There was no need to think about the domestic market. The price of food in the market was not high, and if so much food was released, the food market would collapse.

There was also an overproduction of food internationally. Coupled with political factors, Russia's road to food exports was not smooth.

If Austria had not led the food export alliance, everyone would have reduced food exports and stabilized food prices. It was estimated that the international market would have been ruined.

After the international food prices stabilized, the Tsarist government was only slightly relieved. The share given to them was actually not enough to digest the food received by the government every year.

Of course, the remaining part was not completely wasted. The Tsarist government also thought of many ways, such as raising livestock, brewing wine …

The former naturally failed. It was easy to raise livestock, but unfortunately, it was difficult to sell them.

The domestic market seemed to be huge, but it was a pity that ordinary people were poor. It was not easy for them to fill their stomachs, and they could not afford it at all.

Although the international market was larger, the problem was that it was difficult to transport live animals, and they could not be kept fresh after slaughter. Cured meat could not be sold at a high price in the international market.

There were many hidden dangers in food safety these days. If they heard the words "made in Russia," 99% of consumers would be scared away.

This was the brand effect. Russian food was so reassuring.

Other countries may have problems with their food exports, but Russia's food exports basically have problems.

This was the conclusion drawn by the European people through their own experience.

In order to change this image, the Tsarist government had also made efforts, but they were all in vain under the joint efforts of bureaucrats and capitalists.

In order to change this image, the Tsarist government also tried, but it was all in vain under the joint efforts of the bureaucrats and capitalists.

As long as the economic situation allowed, people would buy more reassuring imported food. Not only meat products, but flour was also the same.

Even if many people knew that the flour was wheat produced in Russia and exported to Austria, they were still willing to pay a high price for it.

The development of animal husbandry finally benefited the farmers in the border area. They could send their livestock to the neighboring Austria to be sold.

There was no hope for industrial development because the livestock was labeled from the beginning – imported from Russia.

Once the inherent perception was formed, it was not easy to change.

With this label, this part of the meat had no market in Austria. A lot of it was processed into cured meat, canned food, and finally returned to the Russia market.

Compared to the failure of the animal husbandry industry, the Tsarist government's brewing business was booming. It was now the largest alcohol supplier in Europe, and it was selling cheap alcohol.

It was really cheap. Even if someone wanted to imitate it, it was impossible. Because according to the market price of food, the alcohol was not enough to cover the cost.

Of course, "cheap" was not enough to make the Russians the largest alcohol supplier in Europe. More importantly, the Russian Empire itself was the largest alcohol consumer in Europe.

Austria, which had a similar population, consumed less than half of the Russian Empire's annual alcohol consumption. If the alcohol consumption was calculated, the gap would be even bigger.

In a sense, the excess production of food promoted the development of alcohol culture in Russia. It made the "Country of Alcohol Barrels" worthy of its name.

This was all forced. The Tsarist government was not willing to be so extravagant. But if they didn't use the excess food to make alcohol, they couldn't just pile it up in the warehouse and rot!

It was not easy to get rid of the excess food, and now the British and French began to toss it around.

Although the impact was not big in the short term, once their plan became a reality, the Tsarist government's biggest foreign exchange earning project would be completely gone.

The gloomy Alexander III asked, "The British Parliament has already passed the food self-sufficiency plan. They don't care about us withdrawing from the free trade system. Who can tell me what the Austrians are doing?"

This was a very obvious problem. The British Parliament could pass the proposal so smoothly because the Government of Austria did not do their best to stop it.

With Austria's influence, even if they could not influence the British's decision, it was not a problem to delay the Parliament for a period of time.

Combined with what happened during this time, Alexander III had reason to suspect that the Government of Austria had secretly made a deal with Britain and France and betrayed the interests of the Russian Empire.

Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez said, "Your Majesty, not long ago, the Government of Vienna issued an agricultural upgrade announcement.

According to the content, in the next five years, Austria will reduce: 5% of the wheat planting area, 3% of the potato planting area … in order to deal with a new round of agricultural crisis.

If this plan is fully implemented, their domestic market will be enough to consume the domestic food production capacity, and they will basically get rid of the dependence on the international market. "

In fact, Franz did this because he had no other choice. The importance of food was needless to say. If he could monopolize the food export market, he would fight to the end even if he had to lose money.

Unfortunately, Austria did not have the conditions to monopolize the food export market.

Even if they occupied the largest share of the international agricultural export market, and their market share was close to a monopoly, this hegemonic position was not stable.

If they wanted to consolidate their hegemonic position, they first had to suppress the few food producing countries, especially the neighboring Russian Empire.

The international situation was constantly changing. Today, Britain, France, and Russia were enemies, but tomorrow they could become friends.

With Russia's own ability, if they wanted to develop the agricultural processing industry, it was not a problem. But with external support, it was a different story.

If one day the Russians reached an agreement with the French or the British, it would attract a group of British and French capitalists to invest.

The consequences of establishing agricultural processing plants in coastal cities were serious. After all, "advanced technology + cheap industrial raw materials + cheap labor + vast market = success."

Facing such a combination, Austria could only passively fight the price war and rely on financial resources to hurt others.

Knowing that the "future of money" was dim, and it involved the interests of tens of millions of farmers, Franz naturally could not be angry and rush on this road of no return.

In order to minimize the losses, he naturally had to promote the domestic agricultural transformation before flipping the table.

In this era of rapid technological development, reducing the food planting area was not the same as reducing the total food production capacity. These were two completely different concepts.

Of course, in the eyes of the outside world, the Government of Vienna was at its wit's end and had no choice but to reduce food production to deal with the upcoming agricultural crisis.

With a loud bang, the coffee cup in front of Alexander III flew out. Austria's retreat now was not a good thing for the Russian Empire.

Since the food production could be retreated, the agricultural processing industry could also be retreated. Once Britain and France were truly self-sufficient in food, Austria could also give up this part of the interest.

With the continuous development of the economy, the proportion of the agricultural processing industry in Austria's domestic economy was getting smaller and smaller.

Moreover, losing part of the foreign market did not mean that the agricultural processing industry was finished. The real affected were some raw grain processing enterprises such as flour mills.

Other agricultural and sideline products processing enterprises would not be affected. For the entire agricultural processing industry, it was actually not a big deal.

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