Bulgarian Empire

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Nicholas II was worrying about the funds for the next war. The war has progressed to the present. Not only is the Russian Empire poor, but even the wealth accumulated by the tsarist family for hundreds of years has been exhausted.

Even the families of nobles and officials who supported him have become real estate. In order to raise funds, Nicholas II sold everything that could be sold.

For example: state-owned enterprises in St. Petersburg, confiscation of opposition property, mines...

These real properties are being sold at a discount, and these things that were originally priceless have become worthless now.

Originally, the export of food and mineral resources was the largest source of income for the Russian Empire, but they no longer exist.

The long years of war have reduced their food production to a historical low. If the Russians hadn't had a large and fertile land area, they would now become a food importing country.

The same is true for the development of mineral resources. Under the influence of the war, the output cannot be guaranteed, and the international market has gradually been lost. Now there is only this one buyer left.

But after the end of the World War, Bulgaria expanded too much, and the vast colony could also provide most of the resources. With the continuous development of the colony, the mineral resources imported from Russia continued to decline.

The most obvious is oil export. Before the World War Bulgaria was the largest importer of Russian oil, and half of the countries in the entire European continent were importing oil from the Russians.

The Baku oil field became the largest foreign exchange-earning industry of the tsarist government. After the outbreak of the civil war, Tsar Nicholas Jr. stationed heavy troops in the Baku area, worried that Bulgaria would make plans there.

It soon disappointed him. As new oil fields were discovered one after another, international oil prices fell again and again, and then never rebounded.

The Russian Empire, which was originally the largest oil exporter in Europe, suddenly found that its oil could not be sold. Because of transportation costs, the oil produced in Baku gradually lost its competitiveness.

Bulgaria, which was originally the largest buyer, developed oil fields in Romania, Iraq, Syria and other regions after the World War, and changed from an oil importer to an oil exporter.

And under the deliberate control of Ferdinand, the international oil price has always been at a very low level, and many oil fields with high production costs were forced to close down. For example, the British oil field company in Persia closed down due to long-term losses. up.

The Baku Oilfield is no exception. When Nicholas II's army conquered the Caucasus region, they seized the Baku Oilfield for the first time, but they were embarrassed to find that it was a chicken rib.

Due to backward mining technology, outdated refining technology, and the poor transportation hub of the Russians, the oil produced from the Baku area was transported to St. Petersburg, and then refined into finished products, which were more expensive than the refined oil directly imported from Bulgaria.

In this era, the Russians did not build oil pipelines, and oil transportation was carried out by trains, camels, and horse-drawn carriages. It is no wonder that the cost is low.

In the end, in order to save money, Nicholas II had to reduce the production of the Baku oilfield, and the oil produced could only be used in the Caucasus region, and there was no need to transport it out to lose money.

Without these sources of foreign exchange, the life of the Tsarist government would of course be difficult, and weapons and ammunition would have to be imported. Self-reliance is not suitable for the tsarist government to play now, otherwise it will go bankrupt.

"Prime Minister, where else can the government divert a sum of money, no matter what, we must ensure the smooth progress of the spring offensive, this time no matter what, we can't support it any longer.

Otherwise, after this spring, the rebels will come back to life again, and the goddamn John Bull will not make it easy for us to complete the reunification.

Now we must be quick, otherwise the weapons and ammunition from Europe will be sent to our enemies again! " Nicholas II said cautiously

Now that the war has been fought, he has understood that his biggest enemy is no longer these rebels.

It is the European countries that support them behind the scenes.

Among them, the British are the most prominent. It is precisely because of the emergence of the British that the Nicholas Tsarist government can support it until now, otherwise they would have compromised long ago.

"Your Majesty the Great Tsar, I'm afraid this won't work. Now more than 70% of our government's expenditure is spent on the war, and the funds of other departments have been suppressed to the lowest point.

You know, in order to support the war, we have misappropriated a lot of funds, even the funds to repay the Bulgarian loan have been embezzled by us! ’ said the Prime Minister with a wry smile.

The government's financial crisis has already appeared. As early as half a year ago, he suggested to Nicholas II to borrow another loan. Unfortunately, Nicholas II had a fluke mentality. He thought it might end this winter. drop this war.

Then stick to it, and you don't need to borrow international loans anymore, after all, the interest is really high! The tsarist government is already heavily in debt. Once the country is unified, Britain and France should also come to press for debts.

When the time comes to repay the loans from Britain, France and the three countries, the government will squeeze out every ruble in the treasury, which can save a lot of money. After all, all the borrowings are usury loans, which are international loans without any preferential treatment.

If it weren't for the debts of the French, most of them were low-interest or interest-free loans. The tsarist government would have no choice but to pay off their debts. They might not even pay off the interest on the debts of hundreds of billions of francs.

(Remarks: After the French government abandoned the gold standard, the franc depreciated, but international loans were linked to gold, and inflation was fully borne by the debtor)

Now Nicholas II also knows to regret it, but it is too late. When you are most short of money, isn't borrowing money sent to your door to be robbed?

If possible, Nicholas II would not want to borrow money from Bulgaria, mainly because the cost of reneging on the debt is too high. Based on his understanding of Ferdinand, once the Russian government declares repudiating the debt, the probability of Bulgaria directly sending troops to occupy Ukraine is as high as ninety-nine Layer nine.

You can't just go to war with someone because someone else came to take away the collateral just because you reneged on the debt, right? If this battle breaks out, the Russian Empire will suffer a lot. Not only will it lose its last ally, but its international reputation will also be ruined.

So even if you want to renege on your debt, you must choose a good partner. For example, Ferdinand organized a group to renege on the American debt, which is justified. There are no hidden dangers, and now grass is growing on the grave of the US government.

Compared with Bulgaria, it is safer to borrow British and French debts. Anyway, we are far away, and it is impossible for them to call.

If it doesn't work, just postpone it, at worst, repay part of the interest every year, and slowly grind with the British and French governments, waiting for them to compromise.

Nicholas II is also very experienced in this regard. After all, this is an ancestral skill. The Russians have such a bad reputation in Europe, and it has nothing to do with their bad debts.

"Then let's speed up and contact the international consortium, and try to get a loan back as soon as possible!" Nicholas II thought for a while and said

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this won't work! All the consortiums we have contacted have rejected our loan application!

Even when we contacted the governments of various countries directly through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we did not obtain the consent of any government! ’ said the Prime Minister with a wry smile.

"Is it okay to issue bonds and let them sell them for us?" Nicholas II asked angrily

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten the bonds we issued five years ago?" the Prime Minister reminded

Nicholas II's face turned livid. Speaking of the bonds issued by the Tsarist government back then, it was a deep shame.

In 1919, the Tsarist government issued 200 million pounds of bonds to the world. The final result was very touching, and less than 1 million pounds were sold.

Even the ones that were sold were mostly sold within Russia. His subordinates were afraid that the tsar’s face would be too ugly, so everyone gritted their teeth and bought some, but no one cared about them in the international market.

Of course, this is mainly due to the lack of support from the banking consortium, no one is willing to help them issue bonds, no matter how high the handling fee is, no one will take over, so the Russians went to the international market to sell the bonds themselves in a whimsical way.

Leaving aside the issue of bonds issued by banks, the consortia of banks in various countries decided to teach them a lesson. In the end, the sales in the international market were less than 10,000 pounds.

They didn’t even bring it back, and the people who bought the debt eventually ran back and demanded to return the goods. If they didn’t return the goods, they would sue the Russians for fraud. In order not to continue to lose face, they had to calm down.

Since then, issuing bonds has become a taboo for Nicholas II, and no one dares to mention it in front of him.

Now the Prime Minister reminds him, mainly to tell him not to be ashamed. As early as a few years ago, the credibility of the Russian Empire was gone. Isn't it funny to issue bonds now?

When most of the banks in the Russian Empire declared bankruptcy, the Tsarist government at that time failed to take timely measures, and the credibility of the Russian Empire went bankrupt.

The funds of a large number of depositors were swallowed up by the bankers, which not only hurt the Russians, but also killed many foreigners doing business in Russia. They protested to the tsarist government, but ended in vain.

Under the background of the governments of various countries teaming up to cheat the Russians, it became a collusion between the tsarist government and the bankers to annex the money of the depositors, and the international reputation of the tsarist government was bankrupted.

This did not wrong them. When Nicholas II reacted, he seized many banks and set off an anti-Semitic wave in Russia, taking back a large part of the funds that had not been transferred in time.

It's a pity that all the money was used for the war and was not returned to the depositors.

Even Ferdinand, who was an outsider, admired the integrity of the tsarist government. He really didn’t shy away from meat and vegetables, and dared to swallow any money!

At that time, the ruble had depreciated by hundreds of times, and the big deal was to print more notes and return the money to the depositors. Anyway, the cash is worthless, and all the responsibilities can be dumped on the rebels.

Now the tsarist government is about to pay the price. The French were the ones who were tricked the most. Who made them invest the most in Russia?

Secondly, it is Bulgaria. Bulgaria and Russia have the largest trade volume. Many businessmen have deposits in Russia. Fortunately, most of them have deposited their money in Ferdinand's bank.

Although the banknotes have depreciated, they finally did not renege on their debts. After the Russian Empire branch closed down, the head office continued to complete the payment.

As a result, the tsarist government and unscrupulous Russian bankers took the blame. Ferdinand not only made a fortune from the depreciation of the ruble, but also gave the bank a wave of reputation.

"All rejected? How is this possible? Could it be that Bulgaria rejected our loan request?" Nicholas II asked angrily

"Yes, Your Majesty! The Bulgarians have assessed our ability to repay the loan. They think it is too risky to lend us money, and they are worried that we will repay the debt!" the Prime Minister said anxiously

"Humph!"

Nicholas II snorted coldly. At this time, he didn't want to renege on his debt. Especially the loan with Bulgaria, the collateral is Ukraine, how could he default on this loan?

"Aren't the conditions we gave enough to tempt them? You know that we have put up so much tax money as collateral, and they are still afraid that we will default?" Nicholas II said angrily

"Your Majesty, according to the Bulgarians' assessment, the collateral we offer is worthless.

They think that even if all the taxes are mortgaged to them, the right to collect taxes is still in our hands. As long as we do some tricks, they will not get the money at all in the end! ’ the Prime Minister explained

Nicholas II was embarrassed. It seems that his predecessors have already done this kind of thing. He mortgaged the salt tax. When the final repayment was made, he shamelessly announced that the salt tax would be exempted, and then the salt tax would be levied.

What was mortgaged to the merchant was the salt tax, which had nothing to do with the salt tax. The collateral had already been handed over, so everyone was cleared.

With such a lesson learned from the past, it is obviously not easy to use when it comes to Nicholas II. No matter how much he promises, people have reasons not to believe it.

"Okay then, what conditions did the Bulgarians put forward? Prime Minister, just say it directly, I know Ferdinand will definitely take advantage of the fire!" Nicholas II said helplessly

"Your Majesty, without any conditions, they directly rejected our loan request, and also attached a detailed evaluation report!

I have also read that report. They listed all our debts, including the salaries of government officials and the casualty pensions of soldiers we owe now!

Adding all these debts together, the Russian Empire now owes a debt of 9.85 billion pounds, and we are no longer able to repay it! "The Prime Minister said embarrassingly.

"How is this possible? How could we owe so much money? It's all fake!" Nicholas II roared

"Your Majesty, the data given by the Bulgarians is very watery. It is estimated that their calculation methods are somewhat different from ours, but the data they gave is still of reference value.

We owe more than five million people in the casualty pension alone! If we follow the Bulgarian pension standard, we will have to pay more than 85 billion levs, which translates to 3.4 billion pounds.

If calculated according to our standards, this number is much smaller. For example, many family members of soldiers have already left Russia, and this part of the expenditure can be saved, which is about 1.5 billion pounds, which can be settled.

The second is our foreign debt, which we all know very well. It is about 2.33 billion pounds, of which one-third is interest-free loans, and about 40% is low-interest loans. The next one is a normal business loan.

The rest is our internal debt and the money owed by the government to various departments. This calculation is very complicated and changes every day.

The biggest sum of money should be the military salary. From the World War to now, we have owed a large amount of military salary, and the exact figure is difficult to calculate.

But now every year we add 80 million pounds to the soldier's salary debt, and now we can actually only pay about eight months of military pay.

There is probably nothing wrong with the 900 million pounds estimated by the Bulgarians, but in fact we don't need to pay so much money at all. Many creditors don't know where they went. This is a muddled account. ’ the Prime Minister explained

Nicholas II rubbed his forehead, he didn't know if he didn't stroke it, and he was startled when he stroked it. If calculated according to this figure, the debt of the Russian Empire has exceeded at least five billion pounds.

Even if the government is a bit thicker, slack off part of the pension and part of the military pay, and then deduct the internal debts that don't need to be repaid, then at least the debt of more than four billion pounds must be repaid.

With the current fiscal revenue of the Russian Empire, it is obviously impossible to afford this huge debt, even if it is just paying the interest on foreign debts.

"Damn Ferdinand, he wants to take advantage of the fire again!" Nicholas II complained helplessly

Obviously, he knew that there must be a reason for Bulgaria to give this detailed list. It is impossible to help them with financial statistics for no reason, right?

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