Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 84, Artifact

Time flies by, and it's time for year-end inventory again.

In 1925, it can be said that it was a watershed. The opening of the Baghdad Railway marked the consolidation of Bulgaria's rule in the Persian Gulf region.

The influence in world history is also far-reaching, and it laid the foundation for the rise of Bulgaria.

Economically, in 1925, Bulgaria's gross national income was as high as 94.6 billion levs. With the rapid economic growth, the government's fiscal revenue also rose, exceeding 14.2 billion levs.

Of course, this is the lev after inflation. If it is converted to the purchasing power before the World War, then it will be more than 74 billion lev, which has just surpassed Germany at its peak. (1914)

Not only is Bulgaria's economic development speed unsurpassed, the economic development speed of all countries in the world is very fast, especially the victims of the World War in the European continent, the economic recovery growth rate is faster.

Affected by the de-industrialization of Britain and France, a large amount of cash in the hands of the consortium circulated in the market, and the global economy was booming.

How about the growth rate of the world economy? Ferdinand did not have the economy to make statistics, and it is difficult to make statistics. The data currently collected by the Bulgarian Statistical Office are only limited to a few countries.

The first is the British. In 1925, the economic growth rate was as high as 6.5%, setting a new high in fifty years.

Followed by the French, the economic growth rate in 1925 was as high as 7.1%, and the speed of economic recovery was impressive.

The economic development speed of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also hit a record high. By the end of 1925, their economic aggregate had returned to the level of 1914, and they had maintained high-speed economic growth for five consecutive years.

Germany and Italy were affected by the World War. At present, the domestic economy has not returned to the normal track. At present, it is due to the transfer of industries from Britain and France that the economy has hit an abnormal growth rate.

In essence, the speed of their economic growth has nothing to do with the people of the two countries. Anyway, the British and French capitalists do not pay a penny of tax, and the profits they earn have nothing to do with them.

In the Far East, Japan's economic growth rate is also very fast, setting a record of 8%, but this is based on the premise of the rapid depreciation of the yen.

Generally speaking, in 1925, except for a few countries that were in civil war, the economic growth rate of the remaining countries was very fast, and the world economy was entering an era of false prosperity.

"The era of false prosperity", this is the definition given by Ferdinand. The main reason is that the current rapid growth of the world economy is based on inflation.

In the short term, the economies of all countries in the world are growing, and people's incomes are also increasing. Everyone's pockets seem to be bulging, and they have more money to spend.

But as time goes by, more and more problems will be exposed.

When Britain and France complete deindustrialization, the funds of the consortium will return to their own pockets again, continue to speculate in the financial stock market, and the currency circulating on the market will become tight again.

What to do in this situation? Or, don't care about inflation, continue to print money, put it into the market to let it continue to prosper, and delay the crisis.

Or, attack the virtual economy industry, so that the consortium has to transfer funds from the financial market to the real economy, and then increase the vitality of currency circulation in the market.

There is no doubt that in the capitalist world, the government's choice is very small, as long as the politicians are not stupid enough, they will choose the first way.

Those who chose the second method all went to see God. Anyway, their term of office is only a few years, as long as they survive, there is no need to work hard for the next government.

Even the next government that takes over Pan Xia has no choice. If you are lucky, you can continue to throw the blame to the next government

If you are unlucky, you can only let the economic crisis break out.

For their own people, the capitalists will not treat them badly. After stepping down, they can become consultants for the company, and they can also write books to say that even if they write all rubbish, they will become bestsellers.

In short, in this era, politicians who cooperate with capitalists will have a bright future for money, and they still obtain it through legal channels.

...

In terms of agriculture, Bulgaria's total grain output in 1925 was 42.84 million tons, an increase of five percentage points compared with the previous year's output.

In the ten-year plan, the plan to increase grain production by 10 million tons can already be declared invalid, and it is not a problem to double this figure.

Ferdinand still underestimated the people's enthusiasm for growing grain in this era. Although the profit of grain planting is no longer comparable to that of industry, it is still profitable. If the amount of land is large enough, the profit is still considerable.

Purely from the perspective of investment, the current average profit margin of grain cultivation in Bulgaria is less than 8%, which is not comparable to the 23% industrial profit margin.

But in the eyes of many people, farming is still very promising. For example, the annual income of an ordinary worker in Bulgaria is about more than 1,500 levs, and if growing food, this is equivalent to the profit of two hectares of land.

Although everyone seems to have the same income on the surface, in fact, the life of the workers must be more difficult, and most of their income is consumed by food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Farmers, on the other hand, do not have to spend so much. Food, vegetables, and meat can all be produced by themselves, and houses are also built by themselves. This part of the cost saves a lot of money.

Anyway, in Bulgaria, a country with private ownership of land, if you want to build a house, you just need to report to the local government. Even if you use a million-acre homestead on your own land, the government will not interfere.

Owning land is self-willedness. Now many rich nobles in Bulgaria are building castles, and their fiefs are large enough to be tossed around.

Ferdinand originally planned to interfere, but later gave up. According to the Bulgarian constitution, private property is sacred and inviolable, and people have the right to decide what to do on their own land.

As long as it does not affect other people's interests or endanger public safety, the government has no right to intervene. Moreover, he is also the largest landowner in Bulgaria. The royal family may still own the most land in the world, even though most of it is desert.

In terms of education, there has not been much change. This is a long-term investment. It is nothing more than an increase in the number of new students enrolled in the compulsory stage. In the field of higher education, two universities have been added in 1923. It is only necessary to wait until 1927 to continue to expand later.

Between quality and quantity, Ferdinand still chose quality. After all, higher education resources are limited, so he can only choose to cultivate geniuses.

It is worth mentioning that there are no so-called aristocratic schools in Bulgaria, and Ferdinand never thought of separating classes in education to create unnecessary social conflicts.

Bulgaria's education is very tight in terms of time. The main thing is more than one month of military training every year and two hours of physical education every day, which occupy a lot of time, but this is the traditional culture of the Balkans.

Apart from other factors, at least in terms of personal physical fitness, Bulgarians in this era are far superior to other nationalities. That alone makes these workouts worth keeping.

In terms of medical care, this was the item Ferdinand was most dissatisfied with. Limited by the times, Bulgaria's medical level was still improving at a slow pace.

Immediate results are impossible, and it has reached a bottleneck period. If medical technology cannot make breakthroughs, it will be difficult for Bulgaria's medical system to make great progress.

In terms of population, as of the end of 1925, Bulgaria had a total population of 56.1486 million, ranking third in continental Europe after Russia and Germany.

In this regard, Ferdinand had to admire the French. After the signing of the Treaty of Verdun, the total population of France soared to more than 50 million. After all these years, they not only did not grow, but fell by more than 300 Ten thousand.

A big reason for this is the political chaos in France. After the Great Depression, favorable measures were not taken in time, the unemployed population increased significantly, and many people from the new territories were repatriated.

This is the result of experts’ analysis. In Ferdinand’s view, the main reason for the decline in France’s population growth rate is the invention of the condom. Since the birth of this contraceptive artifact, the population growth rate in developed countries has plummeted.

We must know that before the large-scale use of condoms, the birth rate of European countries usually remained above 5%, and now it is less than half of the peak period.

For this reason, Ferdinand also conducted a special survey. He was surprised to find that more than 95% of the adults in Britain and France had used condoms, and 50% to 60% had used condoms. Crowd, in the long-term use of condoms.

In this way, can the birth rate still be high? On the contrary, Eastern European countries are not so developed, and everyone is relatively poor. They have no money to buy this artifact, and the birth rate has been preserved.

After seeing this set of data, Ferdinand rejoiced secretly. Fortunately, this thing was banned, otherwise Bulgaria's birth rate would not have been so high.

When other conditions remain unchanged, a high birth rate will naturally lead to a high population growth rate, and the two are directly proportional.

Of course, it has nothing to do with the government's financial subsidies. Otherwise, if people really don't want children, they don't have other methods of contraception.

Compared with France, the population growth rate of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent years is still very good. They have climbed out of the huge pit of the world war, and the current total population has exceeded 54 million.

However, there are more people, and there are more social conflicts, and ethnic conflicts are still the biggest enemy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In order to deal with these problems well, they even used the theory of national origin compiled by Bulgaria as a textbook for compulsory education, but the time was short and the effect was not obvious.

In terms of industry, Bulgaria's steel production has exceeded 16 million tons. The era of rapid growth has passed. The future growth rate of steel production depends on Bulgaria's economic development.

The current steel output can already support domestic consumption, and the rest depends on changes in social demand.

The production capacity has increased to a certain level, and Ferdinand has no intention of continuing to rage, as long as it is enough, blindly increasing production capacity, in the end, he can only cheat himself.

If only the mainland is counted, Bulgaria's steel production is already the first in the world. If the colonies are included, the British are still the number one in the world, but the gap is very small.

If there is no accident, it will be overtaken by Bulgaria within two years. The main problem of this problem is the industrial adjustment of the British themselves. Just like the steel production of France after the First World War in history, it has surpassed the British.

Cars, Bulgaria is now the world's largest car producer and the largest car user.

Bulgaria already has an advantage in this field, and it won't be long before the grand occasion of cars everywhere will appear in Bulgaria.

However, agricultural vehicles and large trucks have been fully used, and the original transportation tools of horse-drawn carts and ox carts have been eliminated.

With the advancement of industrial technology, the overall price of Bulgaria has shown an upward trend. Cars are one of the exceptions, and the price remains unchanged.

...

Transportation, whether it is railway or road, Bulgaria has made further development. By the end of 1925, most of the work on the railway project in the ten-year plan had been completed, and it was almost inevitable that it would be completed ahead of schedule.

As for the road construction, the progress is even smoother. After all, the technical content required for road construction is still lower. With sufficient labor force, the progress will naturally be faster.

By the end of 1925, the road network in the ten-year plan had basically completed all foundation construction, and most road sections were waiting to be concreted.

The speed of concrete pouring in this era is a bit cheating. Basically, it is all on-site mixing construction, lacking corresponding machinery and equipment, and can only be carried out slowly by hand.

In the field of culture, in 1925 Bulgaria exported 36 films, 15 films, some stage plays, radio programs and so on.

The results are remarkable, but it is a pity that it cannot be seen on the books, and the total loss is as high as 10 million levs. There is no doubt that although these cultural products have been exported, the circulation of pirated copies is much higher than that of genuine ones.

It was originally for the purpose of expanding its influence, so it was naturally impossible for Ferdinand to fight against piracy. Anyway, he has no plan to make money on this, as long as he spreads his influence, his goal will be achieved. As for whether it is a pirated version or a genuine version, it doesn't matter.

In the future, the largest film and television base in the world has already appeared. It is located in the Rose Industrial Park in Bulgaria. Now Bulgarian directors like to go there to shoot scenes.

There is also the mysterious Ankara, which has now become a ghost town, and the Ottomans who huddled in Ankara back then have slowly left.

Then Ferdinand waved his hand, and Ankara became the horror capital of the world and the first choice for shooting horror movies.

The ruins of the broken walls and the overgrown weeds do not need to be decorated. It is a natural horror place and has become the favorite of horror film directors.

It can be said that the Bulgarian people in this era are happy. Outdoor movies only cost one shilling to watch all night. Of course, they can only go to the cinema during the day, otherwise the video tapes will not be projected.

In addition to this, there are free radio programs.

It's true that many radio programs in this era are charged. Due to the problem of communication, the audience is usually very limited and can only be supported by fees.

Since Ferdinand established a national radio station, this situation has changed. The more people listen to it, the higher the advertising fee will naturally be.

In other words, it was fired by him. When the radio station was first established, there was not much advertising money. After all, advertisements in Bulgaria are forbidden to exaggerate, and you must pay full responsibility for the content of the advertisement.

Therefore, many manufacturers do not pay much attention to advertising, especially before seeing the effect of broadcasting.

It wasn't until Ferdinand drove up the advertising fee that it caused a sensation, and the initial advertising space was monopolized by himself.

The current bidding for advertising space is still calculated on an annual basis. The advertising fee during the prime time was directly raised by Ferdinand himself to 15 million leva per second, and then the Bulgarian Automobile Group became the bidder.

From then on, everyone began to pay attention to the advertisements of radio stations. After all, people follow blindly. There are so many big companies participating in bid rigging, which is enough to prove the value of advertisements.

When the radio station has money, it is natural to produce programs carefully. Although there is no competitor yet, the higher the ratings, the better the effect of the advertisement, and the higher the advertising fee.

Ferdinand was very clear about such a simple truth. In order to cultivate everyone's sense of competition, Ferdinand created seven broadcasting channels at once.

If the internal evaluation is carried out, the salary of the program with high ratings will naturally be high; if the ratings of the program are always at the bottom, it is necessary to consider whether it will be unemployed.

...

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