Chapter 569

It was not only the Government of Austria who enjoyed the dividends, but the European governments also made a fortune from this "anti-Semitic movement."

Even Russia, which had a smaller profit, achieved a profit from this movement. This was the second time in nearly 40 years that the Tsarist government had a financial surplus.

It was worth noting that the last time the Tsarist government had a financial surplus was also because of anti-Semitism. Once again, the facts proved that anti-Semitism was the way to get rich.

Alexander III felt refreshed as he looked at the increase in his financial assets every day.

Tsar was in a good mood, and the Gatchina Palace was filled with joy.

After the joy, Alexander III began to worry again. This was the first time since he succeeded the throne that he had so much money. He had no experience in how to spend this money.

It was not that there were few areas that needed money. On the contrary, the Russian Empire needed money in too many areas.

Whether it was reducing government debt, investing in domestic infrastructure, or upgrading armaments, they all needed money.

Because the last anti-Semitic movement was too close, the leeks did not grow very well. The Tsarist government's income was relatively limited, and it was unable to support multiple projects at the same time.

Minister of Finance Alisher Gurov: "Your Majesty, although there are billions of rubles in the assets seized this time, most of the money is from depositors. Only a small part belongs to Jewish capitalists.

Foreign exchange and gold account for even less, with a total value of about 100 million rubles.

Considering that the government still has nearly 43 million rubles of international debt due this year, and more than 38 million rubles of debt due next year, the Ministry of Finance suggests that the foreign exchange should be used to repay the debt.

In addition, there are nearly 80 million rubles of domestic debt that is about to mature, and this part of the funds also needs to be set aside.

After subtracting these expenses, theoretically, there are still 640 million rubles of assets available for the government to dispose of.

However, among these assets, only 80 million rubles of stocks and bonds can be quickly converted into cash. The rest are mostly loans and a small part of real estate.

The Ministry of Finance has already started to deal with the real estate, and strives to sell all of them within a year. The loans that have been released are troublesome, and can only be recovered after maturity. "

There was no other way, the favorite investment of Jewish capitalists was usury.

Especially in Russia, a country with underdeveloped industry and commerce, usury was more profitable than investing in manufacturing, so Jewish capitalists naturally flocked to it.

In a sense, this was also the reason why the Tsarist government dared to be so unscrupulous in anti-Semitism. After all, Jewish capitalists had entered the banking industry. Even if they wanted to do something, the impact on the country's economy would be relatively small.

If Jewish capitalists were keen to invest and had millions of workers at their beck and call, any government would think twice before acting.

It is a pity that the Jewish capitalists have not yet realized this. All of them wanted to secretly control other industries through banking and financial means and reap huge profits from it.

Alexander III frowned and asked, "In other words, the only money we can use now is the 80 million rubles, right?"

Minister of Finance Alisher Gurov: "A little more. Before this, we also prepared a sum of money to repay the debt, but the amount is not too large.

Originally, we had planned to negotiate with the bank to borrow another loan to repay the old debts, but now we don't need it anymore.

Originally, we planned to negotiate with the bank to repay these old debts, but there is no need for that now.

Considering that there may be an agricultural crisis in the next few years, the Ministry of Finance suggests reducing debt as much as possible, or setting aside some funds to deal with emergencies. "

Of course, in the next few years, there may be an agricultural crisis. The Ministry of Finance recommends reducing debt as much as possible, or setting aside a part of the funds to deal with emergencies. "

Of course, the debt that had already been reneged was not counted. It was naturally impossible to continue to repay it.

Now, the debt was mainly repaid to Austria and the Nordic Federation, which were good neighbors of the Russian Empire.

Under the efforts of Alexander III, the total debt of the Russian Empire decreased by nearly one-fifth from its peak, and the financial situation had improved.

In a short period of five years, such brilliant results were naturally due to "international trade."

Relying on the sale of the spoils of war from the Third Near East War, and contracting the resettlement work of the Osman Empire, the Tsarist government successfully reduced its debt.

Even after reducing the debt, the Tsarist government's financial situation was still not good. This anti-Semitic movement could be said to be a timely rain.

Unfortunately, the bureaucracy was a bit corrupt, or else Alexander III would not be so worried.

It was simply an insult to the ability of the Jews to accumulate wealth. No one would believe it even if they said it.

Seeing that the Minister of Finance intended to keep the money, the Minister of Navy, Anand Nicholas, hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, the warships promised by the Austrians can already be delivered.

They have urged us several times. If we continue to delay and don't receive the ships, the Navy will be ashamed. "

The Navy was a gold-swallowing monster. Once the warships were taken from the Austrian Navy, the subsequent maintenance costs would have to be paid by the Russians themselves.

The Russian Navy was a typical poor navy. Most of the warships were built during the Nicholas I Of Russia period, and the age of the warships was even older than the average age of the Navy.

No one would believe it. Now, the Russian Navy did not even need to board the ships, let alone go out to sea. The training was exactly the same as the army.

The reason for all of this was not that the Navy was stupid, but mainly because the warships could not be operated at all.

Most of the warships had long passed their service life. Now that they left the port, no one knew when they would sink.

Not to mention the live firing at sea. It was estimated that a round of artillery fire would cause the warships to fall apart.

In this context, what else could they do other than pawning the army's training?

According to the Navy's training standards, if the warships sank after a round of live firing, the Russian Navy would be wiped out.

No one could bear such a terrible consequence. The Tsarist government tacitly chose not to see the subtle changes in the Russian Navy.

In order to be able to get new warships as soon as possible, the Russian Navy often launched petitions, which made Anand Nicholas, the Minister of Navy, afraid to inspect the Navy for fear that he would be blocked by the Navy soldiers.

Now that the opportunity was here, he naturally had to actively fight for it. He didn't need a lot. As long as he allocated a few million to bring back the warships promised by Austria, so that the Russian Navy could have warships to go out to sea, he would be satisfied.

They looked at each other. In the face of the Minister of Navy's eager eyes, Alexander III really couldn't say anything to refuse.

The Russian Empire was also the fourth most powerful country in the world. If the Navy didn't even have the assets to decorate the facade, it would be unreasonable.

If it was to buy warships, Alexander III would definitely refuse. The Tsarist government couldn't afford these luxuries. But if it was a free warship, it would be unreasonable to refuse.

Alexander III was also ambitious, and he had heard of the term "century-old navy" before. If the current situation continued, it wouldn't be long before the Russian Navy's seeds were cut off.

He secretly clenched his fists and seemed to have gone through a mental struggle. After a long while, Alexander III slowly said, "Let's bring back the warships first!

The warships promised by the Austrians are all active equipment. They are at the advanced level in the world. The Ministry of Finance will allocate another 8 million rubles for warship maintenance. We can't let these warships go to waste. "

Everything depended on who it was compared to. With the appearance of the pre-dreadnought, the battleships offered by Austria were naturally not the most advanced.

But now the only countries with pre-dreadnought were Britain and Austria, and they only had one experimental ship. The French slowed down their progress because of the civil war, and their pre-dreadnought was still under construction.

Looking at the world, the active warships offered by Austria were still at the top level.

In fact, only the United Kingdom, Fao, and Russia could mass-produce this level of warships.

After the Russians got this batch of warships, in theory, they had returned to the world's fourth most powerful navy, at least from the perspective of the tonnage of their main battleships.

Minister of Finance Alisher Gurov reminded, "Your Majesty, Austria promised us a lot of warships. After all of them are brought back, it will increase the maintenance cost by tens of millions of rubles every year.

This is still a big pressure on the government's finances. Why don't we take some of the warships first and talk about the rest later. "

As soon as he finished speaking, Alisher Gurov realized that he had made a slip of the tongue. It was possible to take over some of the warships first, but in doing so, the Russian Empire's face would be lost.

Losing face was a small matter, but the key was that it would expose their weak nature to the outside world.

When other countries were weak, they could pretend to be weak, but the Russian Empire couldn't.

For a country with poor relations, high hatred, and many enemies, the weaker they were, the more they had to hold on. Otherwise, a pack of wolves would devour the tiger.

Without any surprise, Alexander III decisively chose to refuse.

"No! We must take all the warships back, and the government's profits this time must be kept strictly confidential.

When necessary, we can release some false news to let the outside world think that we have recovered.

Next month, we will move another 50,000 Cossacks into Central Asia. We can have some conflicts with the Central Asian Khaganate, but we must control the degree and not really start a war. "

The minister of finance's words still aroused Alexander III's vigilance. It would definitely arouse suspicion if they didn't take over the warships for more than a year.

At this time, they must find a way to make up for it, and the best way was naturally to show their strength to the outside world. Looking around, the best countries to bully and establish dominance were the Central Asian Khaganates.