Chapter 587

St. Peter's Castle. Ever since Crown Prince Alexandrovich's trip to Austria failed, the Tsarist government had realized that the Russo-Austrian Alliance had come to an end.

Rome wasn't built in a day. As time went by, the contradictions between Russia and Austria accumulated day by day.

Previously, the two governments relied on the alliance to suppress the discordant voices, but now it couldn't be suppressed anymore.

The relationship between Russia and Austria had changed since the succession of Alexander II Of Russia. The personal inclination of the emperor of a monarchy couldn't be underestimated.

After the outbreak of the Prussian War, Austria didn't fully support the Russians. In addition to interests, it was more to express its dissatisfaction with the Tsarist government.

No big country was willing to be someone else's underling, especially after the difference in strength between the two sides. The initial game between Russia and Austria was actually a battle for dominance of the alliance.

Alexander II Of Russia's approach was right, but the bureaucrats of the Tsarist government were disappointing and lost the Prussian War. From then on, the Russian Empire went from prosperity to decline and lost the dominance of the alliance.

If the Tsarist government was willing to admit defeat, then the matter would be over. The Russo-Austrian Alliance would still be the most important political group in Europe.

Obviously, this was impossible. The pride of the Russian Empire couldn't be destroyed in one war. Looking at the long history of the Russian Empire, worse times than now had passed. How could Tsar really give up the European hegemony?

Franz wasn't interested in the European hegemony, but Austria's geographical position had already determined that it couldn't avoid the battle for hegemony.

With Austria's size, no one would believe it even if they said they weren't interested. Since that was the case, they could only bite the bullet. Now that the Fao and Russia were dividing the European hegemony, it was under this background.

For the Tsarist government, the collapse of the Russo-Austrian Alliance was indeed a blow, but the alliance between the two countries would expire in a few years, so there was no threat in the short term.

The most important thing now was to find a financial backer in time, otherwise Alexander II Of Russia's reform wouldn't be able to continue.

The ideal choice was of course Austria. The Tsarist government could use the debt to bind the two countries closer. The Government of Vienna dared to give up the Russo-Austrian Alliance because they didn't owe enough.

If the Tsarist government owed Austria a debt of 1.83 billion DND instead of 183 million DND, the Vienna government would probably have no choice but to hang on no matter what.

Based on the current situation, when the Russo-Austrian Alliance expired, the Tsarist government would have to pay back the debt.

This was not something that Alexander II could delay. The Austrians only took a cut from Russia's tariffs, which amounted to more than 12 million DUN every year.

The higher the Tsarist government set the tariff, the faster the repayment would be. Russia had Russia's Due Plus, there was some mineral resources. Russia was able to Russia.

With a mortgage loan, Alexander II Of Russia couldn't renege on the debt. Otherwise, Russia and Austria would immediately turn against each other. At that time, Austria would close the trade channel between the two countries, and Russia would immediately have an economic crisis.

There was no other way. This was determined by geography. If Austria blocked the door, more than 70% of Russia's exports would be finished.

The food in Ukraine couldn't be transported through the Dardanelles Strait. They couldn't be transported to St. Peter's Castle by land and then shipped out.

Based on the current international situation, if Russia and Austria really turned against each other, the Russian Empire would be completely blocked. Austria would instigate behind them and sponsor two ironclad warships. Prussia would dare to block the Baltic Sea.

Now it was the era of ironclad warships. The Russian Navy's old ships could be dismantled and used as firewood. Most of them were wooden warships that hadn't been updated for more than 20 years. What else did they want?

It wasn't that Alexander II Of Russia didn't value the Navy and didn't know that warships needed to be updated. It was because the government didn't have the money. Since the outbreak of the Near East War, the Tsarist government's finances had never been good.

Prussia didn't worry about Prussia getting close to Alexander II Of Russia. Although the Kingdom of Prussia had given up the strategy of unifying the German Region, Austria hadn't. This was a hurdle that couldn't be crossed.

Alexander II Of Russia asked with concern, "How's the talk with the British? Are they willing to provide us with a loan?"

This loan was unusual. The Russians were repaying with food. If the British agreed to provide this loan, the Tsarist government would have to send 1.2 million tons of wheat, 400,000 tons of corn, 300,000 tons of barley to England every year …

It seemed like a loan, but it was actually a food export. However, in the international agricultural market, the competitiveness of Russia's agricultural products was too low.

If they directly dumped it at a low price, then the international food price would go down. Russia's agricultural products, which had relatively high planting costs, would become unprofitable.

To avoid the worst situation, Russia's economists proposed bundled sales with loans to contract a country's food imports at a price lower than the international market.

The reduced profits would be used as the cost of the loan. It was better than fighting a price war with competitors and losing money in the end.

"Your Majesty, the British asked for the loan amount to be reduced by half, and they also want to reduce the food price by one-fifth, which is equivalent to 70% of the current international food export price."

Foreign Minister Clarence Ivanov's answer made Alexander II Of Russia's face change. Food export was not a profit-making industry. If they gave a 30% discount, they wouldn't even be able to recover the cost.

Alexander II Of Russia didn't give up and asked, "What if we agree to join the free trade system and let the ruble be linked to the pound?"

Clarence Ivanov replied, "If that's the case, the loan is not a problem, but the food price is still not up for discussion.

The British food merchants think that the current international food price is too high and will fall sharply in the near future. They insist on only accepting 30% of the current market price. "

According to the current market price, the total value of the agricultural products that Russia planned to send to England was as high as 38 million pounds. If there was a 30% discount, then it would only be 26.6 million pounds. The difference in the middle was as high as 11.4 million pounds.

Alexandrovich said with a livid face, "The British are blackmailing us. We absolutely can't accept such conditions!

According to the market price of 30%, not only will we not be able to make a profit from the food export, but we will also lose money.

Unless we further reduce the purchase price of the food, but the domestic food price is already very low. If we continue to reduce the price, the people will be losing money from farming. "

Food was a comprehensive commodity, and transportation had always been a big problem. The transportation in the Russian Empire was inconvenient, and the transportation cost was high. These costs had to be taken into account.

Usually, this part of the cost would eventually fall on the farmers who produced the food. Now, if they were to export the food at 30% of the market price, then it would fall on the farmers, and they could only go bankrupt.

The farmers were the biggest supporters of Tsar, and they were the cornerstone of his rule. If they were forced to go bankrupt, the rule of the Tsarist government would also be unstable.

Alexander II Of Russia sighed and shook his head, saying, "The international food price plunge has become a foregone conclusion. The British's judgment is correct.

The international market is only so big, and we have increased the production of food. Once it is put on the market, the international food price will plummet.

To put it bluntly, if Russia's surplus food can be transported out, even if other countries stop exporting, Europe will not have a food shortage. "

This was the sequelae of the great reclamation. Although the domestic land problem was solved, the overproduction of food had also become a serious social problem.

What was more tragic was that the farmers who had just obtained the land were very enthusiastic about producing food, and the food production in Russia was still rising.

As the price of food fell, the food brewing industry in Russia began to flourish. However, this kind of high-end wine was simply not affordable for ordinary people, and the market was very limited. It was impossible to rely on the wine brewing industry to consume the excess food production capacity.

Alexandrovich thought for a moment, then said, "Then we will guide the farmers to change to cash crops. We will plant whatever the market lacks.

If we don't reduce the domestic food production, the international food market will explode sooner or later. As far as I know, the Government of Vienna has already decided to abolish the agricultural tax.

Their food production cost is already lower than ours, and they have a complete supporting industrial processing chain, so their ability to resist risks is definitely better than ours. If a price war breaks out, I'm afraid there will be millions of people going bankrupt every year. "

Alexander II Of Russia nodded, he didn't doubt that Alexandrovich was exaggerating. This was the truth. Other than the Ukraine region, the production cost of food in other lands in Russia was relatively high.

Even in the Ukraine region, because of the lack of development and utilization, the agricultural production technology here was backward. It was clearly a black land, but the production per mu was still not as good as Austria.

This was the sequelae of the insufficient market. No matter what, the total population of Europe was less than 300 million, and the food produced by each country could meet most of the demand.

To expand the food export market, the only way was to first hit the market with low price food and destroy the agricultural production of each country.

Alexander II Of Russia originally planned this. As long as the agriculture of each country was destroyed, then Russia would control the lifeline of Europe.

The plan was a good plan, the only problem was that the Tsarist government didn't have enough financial resources. The strength of the competitors was too strong, and if they played low price dumping, while destroying the agriculture of each country, it could also destroy the agriculture of Russia.

In fact, not only did Alexander II Of Russia have this plan, but Franz also made a similar plan, but he gave up in the end.

There was no other way, it was the colonial era, which power lacked a piece of land to produce food? If the local food production was insufficient, couldn't they find a way to colonize?

If they couldn't achieve a monopoly, playing low price dumping would be against their wallets. Agriculture was still profitable now, so there was no need to make it without any profit.

Alexander II's mood was a bit down, and he said earnestly, "Reducing food production and changing to cash crops is a must, but this can't be done in a short period of time. Food planting is relatively simple, and the farmers are used to it.

If we want to change this traditional planting model, we must learn from Austria. Alexandrovich, you have been to Austria, so you should know how developed their agriculture is. Where is the difference, have you found it? "

Alexandrovich was deep in thought. He didn't stay in Austria for too long, and his understanding was limited to Vienna. Most of the time, it was through the newspapers.

"There should be climate, transportation, agricultural technology, and supporting processing industries. We can't make up for the difference in climate, but we can slowly catch up with the other three. "

Alexander II Of Russia nodded and said, "If that's the case, then we have to take this loss.

If we don't reach an agreement with the British now, I'm afraid that after a few months, after the autumn harvest, our food won't even be able to sell at 30% of the current market price. It's better to sell it at a lower price than to lose it.

If there isn't a large-scale natural disaster, when our harvest enters the international market, this year is destined to be an agricultural winter, and a large amount of agricultural products will be unsalable.

Since we will lose money when the time comes, it's better to get the loan first. At that time, we can also reduce agricultural taxes and reduce the farmers' losses.

Only when the railway is built and the domestic transportation problems are solved, the Russian Empire will have a future. For now, let the British be proud!

If it wasn't to attack Austria, perhaps the British wouldn't even make this condition. They don't lack this batch of cheap food, and the British food processing industry isn't very developed.

If the Government of London doesn't give preferential policies, these food merchants won't invest in agricultural products. After all, Austria is the leader in this field, and they have no advantage. "

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