Bulgarian Empire

War is the continuation of politics, and there is no doubt that this world war is no exception!

The capitalist economy has developed to a certain extent, and all countries have accumulated a large number of social contradictions. In order to divert internal contradictions, this world war was finally triggered!

In contrast, the contradictions between Germany and France, Britain and Germany, the contradictions between Austria, and Russia and Austria are only an inducement for the outbreak of a world war, and it only determines who will fight with whom!

As for whether to fight or not, when will it start? These are not determined by these contradictions, but by the internal contradictions of the major powers. When the internal contradictions cannot be suppressed, the war will break out!

And the older the empire, the more serious the internal conflicts, and some countries have even reached the point of irreconcilability. If there is no war, just wait for the revolution!

A series of social problems such as inflation, uneven distribution of social wealth, polarization between the rich and the poor, solidification of social classes, unscrupulous exploitation of the working class by capitalists, overproduction, and rising unemployment rate have plagued governments of all countries.

In this context, everyone chose to transfer domestic conflicts by default, so a world war broke out.

Bulgaria is naturally no exception. As a rising star, the domestic contradictions naturally do not exist because of class solidification. Even the problems of wealth distribution and the gap between the rich and the poor are not very serious. The capitalists have no courage to exploit workers unscrupulously. One is already very serious!

Since Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, in order to increase the domestic industrial strength, three five-year plans have been formulated. As the saying goes, if the central government tries its best to increase the country's industrial strength, the local governments will naturally follow suit.

Of course, in order to enhance the overall national strength, Ferdinand was naturally happy with the local government's vigorous development of industry and commerce. Instead of stopping the behavior of the local government, he encouraged it!

When the domestic overcapacity crisis is about to explode, the world war will also break out. During the war, all industries are serving the war, so naturally there will be no overcapacity!

Once the war was over and the economy returned to normal, however, these troubles began. Of course, as long as the war is won, these crises can be overcome by war dividends!

However, preparations in advance are still indispensable. On January 6, 1917, the Bulgarian government held an economic seminar in the Capitol, with the purpose of studying the issue of post-war economic transformation and avoiding the post-war economic depression as much as possible. !

...

On January 15, Ferdinand also held a cabinet meeting in the palace to discuss the new problems Bulgaria would face after the war, including economic transformation.

Ferdinand directly raised the following questions:

1. How to deal with the Allies after the war?

2. How should the newly added territories be governed after the war?

3. Bulgaria's diplomatic strategy after the war?

4. Ethnic issues in China after the war?

5. How did the domestic economy transform after the war?

6. What about the resettlement of soldiers rehabilitated after the war? And the placement of "mercenaries"?

...

Of course, with so many problems, it cannot be solved in a short while!

Ferdinand just threw it out in advance to let everyone have a mental preparation. If we really want to come up with a specific solution, we have to wait until the end of the world war to make a decision according to the actual situation!

The current domestic economic situation in Bulgaria can no longer be described as good or bad. Due to the war, many enterprises have turned from civilians to the army, even Ferdinand's own industries are no exception.

Under this background, the production of civilian goods has naturally been greatly reduced. For ordinary people, except for the most basic necessities of life, other goods have risen or fallen to varying degrees!

For example: the price of luxury goods has plummeted, and the Rose Industrial Park, one of Bulgaria's pillar industries, has had a great impact, and the sales of many of its brands have dropped sharply.

During the war, everyone's spending power was reduced, and the sales of perfumes, skin care products, health care products, beverages, etc., which were popular in ordinary times, were greatly reduced.

Of course, it is not an increase in output. It is a pity that these increased products are strategic materials purchased by the army, and they can only charge cost prices, and there is no profit at all.

This is determined by Bulgaria's special mobilization mechanism. In order to prevent the possibility of capitalists' national distress, Ferdinand specially issued the "Strategic Materials Procurement Law during Wartime". All strategic materials are purchased at cost and are also mandatory!

Therefore, since the outbreak of the World War, capitalists in many countries around the world have made money, but only Bulgarian capitalists are doing voluntary labor.

Of course, there's nothing unbalanced about them, and many of them have a blast doing it!

Anyway, they are all treated equally. All enterprises in the country are treated the same regardless of their size, regardless of the size of their backstage. Even the royal family's enterprises have been expropriated without compensation.

Even the loans granted to them by the bank before were directly postponed, and they did not have to pay interest during the war!

Therefore, the interests of many enterprises have been seriously affected, and even the survival of enterprises has been threatened. However, capitalists are not worried. They believe that the government cannot sit idly by.

This is also the result of the Bulgarian government's frequent intervention in the economy. Every time the economic crisis occurs, the government will come forward to clean up the mess. Everyone is used to it and has a sense of security!

Faced with this situation, Ferdinand certainly cannot let the government sit idly by. If these enterprises go bankrupt due to the war, it will inevitably cause very serious adverse social effects!

To put it simply, it will make the capitalists sad, and then become a staunch anti-war faction, and even resist the government's expropriation of their factories for free!

And there will also be extreme anti-war factions. After all, if a company goes bankrupt, some people will inevitably lose their jobs. Some of these people will have a strong sense of fear of war in the days to come because of personal interests being damaged, and they will instinctively Want to avoid war!

These are obviously not what Ferdinand wanted. Isn't France in World War II a living example? Because the people are afraid of war, they first let the rise of the Soviet Union, and then let the rise of Germany, and finally they can only escape by pretending to be dead!

...

Ferdinand asked with concern: "Mr. Kennedy, according to your financial crisis statistics, how many enterprises are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the war? And how many are caused by our government's wartime procurement law?"

After thinking for a while, Kennedy said: "Your Majesty, there are more than 1,800 enterprises that are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the war, and a total of 765 enterprises are caused by the Government Procurement Act!

Among them, there are 8 large-scale enterprises, including Bulgarian Machinery Group, Bulgarian Automobile Group, Bulgarian Steel Group, Bulgarian Railway Group and other giant enterprises. The total assets of these eight enterprises before the war totaled 5.86 billion levs, and they had 1.76 million supporting industrial workers. Social influence is huge!

The other more than 1,800 small and medium-sized enterprises have a combined total assets of 2.56 billion levs and nearly one million employees! "

Ferdinand frowned, but luckily he realized it in advance. If these companies really went bankrupt, the economy belonging to Bulgaria would explode. This is also a sequela of this deep mobilization.

But all of this is worth it. Now that the Bulgarian government spends less than one-third of John Bull's purchase of the same strategic materials, it is because of the advantages of this extreme mobilization mechanism!

After all, this starts from the production of raw materials, all at cost price all the way, without adding a penny of profit!

Of course, materials purchased from overseas will naturally not have such benefits.

If there is no cost advantage, why would Ferdinand dare to raise so many troops?

If it is purchased at market prices, even if Britain and France provide loans of more than 300 million pounds, plus more than 400 million U.S. dollars borrowed from the Americans, it will not be enough for a year's war expenses!

Ferdinand pretended to be surprised and asked: "These companies are the leading industries in Bulgaria? How could they be on the verge of bankruptcy?"

Kennedy quickly explained: "Your Majesty, these enterprises are engaged in heavy industry production, and basically all production lines have been requisitioned by the government.

In order to be suitable for military production, we have carried out a large number of modifications to a large number of production lines and workshops inside. After the war, civilian products will be produced, and these must be modified again, and the cost must be indispensable.

There is also the wear and tear of the machinery. In order to meet the construction deadline, we did not take into account the maintenance of the machinery. Therefore, after the war, their machinery and equipment basically have to be replaced.

As a result, they were unable to resume production in the first few months after the end of the war. In addition to the wear and tear of these equipment, the money needed was beyond the capacity of the enterprise itself.

Although our laws have also formulated a compensation plan, because this war lasted too long, unlike the previous two short-term wars, the losses caused to the enterprise this time are too great, and these compensations are simply a drop in the bucket! "

Ferdinand nodded, how could he not know these things? You must know that the companies here are basically his industries. Doesn't he understand what's going on?

Heavy losses are inevitable. Although it has not yet reached the point of bankruptcy, it will be soon. If the war continues, it will not be far from bankruptcy!

Especially for the Bulgarian Railway Group, the transportation of military supplies is free. This loss is even greater. The annual loss in freight costs alone starts at least 500 million levs.

Of course, they are state-owned enterprises, and no one will complain, but it is inevitable to reach out to the government if they have no money!

Since the separation of government and enterprises has been completed, they are now holding bank loans to maintain operations, plus the previous loans for railway construction,

They now owe a huge loan of 3.19 billion levs to the three major domestic banks, and they are already insolvent. If the government does not allocate funds in the future, they will go bankrupt!

Moreover, the bank provided them with loans, which were also coordinated by the Bulgarian government. Otherwise, who would dare to lend them? Naturally, the government cannot let them go bankrupt now!

Not only the railway group, but also several other companies are the same, they are all giants in the industry, each company has a large number of affiliated companies, which affects the whole body, and when a giant falls, it will also bring a large The gang's subsidiary companies are finished!

After pondering for a moment, Ferdinand said: "This is indeed a serious problem. We must increase support for heavy industry, which is related to our national defense cause!

Even these companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy, we can't let them go bankrupt, at least not because our government expropriated their factories or purchased their goods at cost prices to cause the companies to go bankrupt!

Does the Ministry of Finance have a corresponding rescue plan? "

Kennedy said with some embarrassment: "The Ministry of Finance does have a rescue plan, but because too many companies are involved, the amount of funds required is too large, and the finances cannot afford it.

Therefore, we have revised the plan, giving priority to saving these eight large enterprises, and then working hard to save small and medium-sized enterprises within the scope of our ability! "

Ferdinand's face became embarrassing. If he did this, wouldn't Bulgaria become a monopoly in the future?

Ferdinand started a monopoly before because Bulgaria's plate was too small. In order to avoid wasting resources, he had to concentrate on supporting a few Big Macs.

But it is different now. After the end of the world war, Bulgaria's plate has become bigger. In order to maintain the vitality of the market, it is necessary to break this monopoly mechanism!

Ferdinand did not rush to object, but continued to ask: "How much money is needed to save the market, and how much money is needed to save these eight major companies?"

Kennedy thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, since the war is still going on, the number of companies that may face crisis in the future will continue to increase.

Our Ministry of Finance preliminarily estimates that if we want to save the market, we need at least 3 billion levs of funds, and we need at least 2 billion levs to save these eight major companies, of which the railway group accounts for two-thirds! "

Ferdinand sighed, and said: "Get ready to rescue the market, it is estimated that the life of European countries will not be easy in the future, but we still have to keep these companies, otherwise the social impact will be too bad!

After this war is over, our domestic market will expand by at least one-third, and the market within our sphere of influence should be able to absorb our production capacity!

As for the funding gap, we can find a way to solve it, and we can abandon the gold standard when necessary! "

Well, Ferdinand is planning to print money to tide over the crisis. There is no other way. He knows that countries in history have abandoned the gold standard after World War I. At worst, Bulgaria will take the lead this time!

Kennedy's face changed drastically, and he asked in horror: "Your Majesty, why do you have such an idea? Once the gold standard is abandoned, Lev will become worthless, and the consequences will be very serious!"

Ferdinand smiled and said, "Go and find out. After the outbreak of the World War, the gold flows of European countries all converged in one place. After the war, whether everyone can keep the gold standard is a problem?"

Kennedy blurted out: "It's the United States! Your Majesty, even with the massive outflow of gold, Britain and France should still be able to hold on?"

Ferdinand shook his head and said, "Leave them alone, look at us first! Since the outbreak of the world war, more than 100 tons of gold have flowed from us alone!"

However, due to the trade with the Russians, we made up for this loss and added more than 100 tons of gold, but it still cannot change the fact that a large amount of our gold flows to the United States!

Of course, I did not count the gold seized by the military. This is an abnormal income and cannot be counted in the trade! "

Kennedy thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, I think we should be able to hold on to the gold standard. The military harvested nearly 200 tons of gold in Italy and more than 100 tons of gold in the Ottoman Empire. Once Ankara is conquered, there should be some income. , plus our original gold reserves, should be enough!

If we are lucky, if our army can gain another fortune in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then we will be more confident! "

Ferdinand shook his head, why stick to the gold standard? There is a price to be paid for reversing the general trend, why do it if there is no benefit? Does Bulgaria still want to become a financial hegemony?

"You think too well. For the sake of our harvest in Italy, the British and French ambassadors are still arguing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they can't show it in the short term.

And gold is not so easy to get. Our army is almost three feet high in the Ottoman Empire, isn't it still only a little gain?

Do you think we can do the same in the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

Besides, gold is not a big thing, as long as they want to hide it, just dig a hole in any place and bury it, can you find it? "

Kennedy nodded reluctantly, he had to agree with the fact, but he still didn't change his original thought.

In his view, although of course the gold standard can gain certain benefits in the short term, it does too much harm to the value of the lev.

And after the government abandoned the gold standard, the massive depreciation of the lev would cause severe inflation, and the wealth accumulated by many Bulgarians throughout their lives would shrink instantly, which would cause a very serious social crisis.

Didn't Ferdinand know all this? Of course not, the problem is that there is nothing he can do about it? European countries cannot give up the gold standard, let the Bulgarian family stick to it! Do you still want to export?

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