My Italian Chapter 160

Over time, the private activities of the army generals became more and more frequent.

However, although those generals are active, the results they have achieved are not very good. Among them, Prime Minister Depretis, who is the main target, has not expressed his position so far, but the generals are not discouraged, and they will continue to work hard.

Of course, the activities of these generals have been under the monitoring of those who are interested. Of course, as the number of their activities increases, their purpose is gradually exposed.

"Your Majesty, this is what the army generals contacted other ministers privately."

Also in this secret room, a middle-aged man dressed in ordinary clothes handed a document to Carlo.

Carlo opened it, glanced at it, and said. "Thank you for your hard work, continue to monitor them."

"Everything is for the kingdom."

After waiting for this person to leave, Kakalo looked seriously.

The conversations between these admirals and the contacts were recorded above, and Carlo gradually relaxed as he watched the content of their conversations.

Since this group of generals is going to play politics, that's good, let them feel the strength of professional players.

Relieved, Carlo returned to the office. The statistics about this year have been put on his desk, and the height is by no means comparable to before.

And Carlo looked at these data files representing the Italian economy and sighed. The economic situation this year was written on it. It is a mule or a horse, and it is always necessary to take a look.

Opened the top document, which was from the Ministry of Finance. It listed the various expenditures of the Italian government this year, and Carlo took a serious look.

This year, the Italian government's total fiscal revenue has reached a new high of 1.478 billion lire, which is 58 million liras higher than last year's 1.420 billion lire. The main reason for the increase is that the expansion of overseas markets has gradually recovered the Italian industry, and the tax increase brought by it is still very considerable. Because the current enterprises do not have to pay the government tax, and also have to pay a tariff when exporting. Although because Italy encourages exports, the tax paid is not much, only about 2%, but it is still considerable.

Although the income looks gratifying, it is even more frightening to look at this year's expenses.

This year, Italy's fiscal expenditure is as high as 1.829 billion lire. This year's revenue-expenditure ratio gap has been pulled down the most, resulting in a huge deficit of 351 million lire. You must know that this era is the gold standard, and the banknotes printed by the government have gold content. Such a huge expenditure has put pressure on the government. For this reason, Finance Minister Tejera has repeatedly warned Carlo that Italy's finances are in a dangerous state and must reduce expenditures in order to gradually restore the fiscal revenue and expenditure to normal.

And a large part of the 1.829 billion lire expenditure is used to repay mature government bonds and interest. This year, Italy cashed in 197 million lire of national debt, and paid more than 83 million lire in interest, a total of 280 million lire in two items, which was higher than the expenditure on the Abyssinian war.

You must know that this war for Italy's victory in East Africa only cost 194 million lire.

The national debt and interest that Italy needs to repay every year is more than enough to fight a colonial war. Under such pressure, where can the Italian government take out the money to invest in the country, so Italy's industrial development relies more on its own or foreign capital. This has also led to a relatively slow industrial development in Italy compared to the development of other powerful countries.

Of course, with Carlo guiding Italy to open up the Far East market, Italy's industrial development has finally recovered. Although the gap with other powers is still large, it can at least give people hope of catching up.

Although the Italian industry has recovered, the main source of foreign exchange earnings for Italy is still agricultural products. At present, the main source of foreign exchange earnings from Italian exports is various agricultural products. So which agricultural product makes the greatest contribution?

It's wine. Many people can't think of it. Italian wines are the main source of foreign exchange earnings. The soil in Italy is very favorable for the growth of grapes, so since ancient Rome, Italians began to make wine, and Italian wine has always been famous in Europe.

It's just that when Napoleon III came to power, the French implemented a world-famous red wine hierarchy, which made French red wine famous in the world.

Of course, among them, it is also the key that the French continue to improve the quality of grapes. The excellent grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Yuni Blanc, Semillon, Syrah, Chenin, and Carignan are basically developed by France. It is with such grapes, excellent origin, and superb technology that French wines are world-renowned.

The best in France in this regard is Bordeaux, whose soil and terrain are suitable for the growth of grapes, so Bordeaux wine is the most famous.

The Italian wine was defeated by the French, and the export of wine was also decreasing. If it weren't for the support of the government after the reunification of Italy, the Italian wine with the longest history could only linger in the country.

Although Italy has the most grape varieties (there are said to be more than a thousand), the Italian varieties are very old, complex and numerous, and have not been improved at all. In response to this, the government has increased capital investment, and abruptly opened a new way for Italian wine.

At present, Italian wine has come out of the trough, from the lowest export volume of 210,000 tons in 1861 to the current 2.31 million tons. This is an elevenfold increase, which is not a failure. To know that the export volume of French wine is only 2.6 million tons, which is enough to see how much Italian wine production has surged.

However, although the export volume of Italian wine has increased greatly, it is basically dominated by volume, and the products are mainly concentrated in the middle and low end, and there are fewer Italian products of high-end brands.

Of course, the government is also very clear about this, so the next step of the Ministry of Agriculture is to produce high-end Italian wine products that are recognized by the world.

Of course, in addition to wine, Italy's other major export punch is citrus.

Yes, it is citrus. Italy exports various varieties of citrus, accounting for 65% of the European citrus market. Although the overall scale is not large, it can still allow Italy to export more than 100,000 to 200,000 tons per year.

Don't think this number is small, you must know that the current cost of fruit transportation is very high, and if it can be shipped to other countries, the price will directly double. The biggest benefit of citrus exports is the farmers, because this is the most direct reflection of their increased income.

This year, the export of Italian agricultural products reached 440 million, mainly because the export of wine has increased significantly this year, which has driven the export of Italian agricultural products.

And Italy's total exports this year reached 1.674 billion lira, an increase of 7.1% over last year. The import value reached 1.711 billion lire, an increase of 6.2%, and the total import and export value reached 3.385 billion lire, an increase of 6.6%.

(I made a mistake in the previous data. The import and export of Italy did not reach 5.137 billion lire. I regarded the data in 1895 as the data in 1885. I am very sorry for the book friends. I apologize here.)

The increase in imports and exports in Italy has naturally led to the increase in customs tax revenue, which reached 174 million liras this year. Make it the government's second largest tax.

Well, the number one tax in Italy, needless to say everyone knows it, is the agricultural tax. Italy's agricultural tax revenue reached 191 million lire, and it can be said that farmers supported the Kingdom of Italy.

Unfortunately, Italy does not currently have the strength to turn the industry against agriculture, because the current Italian industry is too weak to support the government's finances. Of course, in Europe, there are only a few countries that can support industrial taxation (except for small countries such as Luxembourg).

Of course, Italy is not without good news. In the Far East, the relationship between Italy and Qing officials has become increasingly harmonious, so the raw silk, tea, tung oil, bristle and other Far East specialties represented by Italy are also increasing day by day. Of course, this also led to the trade gap between Italy and Qing. increasing.

This year, the total trade volume between Italy and the Qing country reached 412 million lire, and the Qing country has risen to the third largest trading country in Italy. Among them, the total export volume of Italy reached 131 million, which was 15 million lira less than last year. The main reason is that the arms trade volume from the Qing Dynasty was decreasing, and the machinery and other products exported by Italy could not resist the decline in arms trade volume.

Of course, this is also within the government's tolerance. Last year, because of the Sino-French war, the favor of the Qing governors greatly increased, and the number of arms ordered increased greatly. And this good feeling comes and goes quickly, and besides, it is impossible for the Governor and the Qing government to focus on Italian arms purchases. No, it will basically return to the scale of 30 to 40 million lire this year.

But fortunately, other goods exported by Italy are still strong, so that the export value will not fall unsightly.

However, compared with the export value, the import value increased by a large margin, reaching as high as 281 million lire. Italian businessmen act as transit dealers, importing the special products of Qing Dynasty wantonly, and selling them to countries all over the world. The large-scale imports of Italian businessmen in the Qing country hurt the interests of businessmen in other countries. For this reason, the ministers of several countries put pressure on the Qing country to stop the special treatment of Italian businessmen. In the face of protests by ministers from various countries, the Qing government only came out and said that this was a commercial act, and they could not let the merchants designate the seller.

Of course, the Italian merchants were able to fight so well, thanks to the good credit of Italian merchants in the Far East, and the Qing merchants were more willing to sell their goods to Italian merchants (at the same price).

Because Italian businessmen never owe money, they don't take the opportunity to lower prices too much, and they don't make all kinds of excessive demands (you see, you are British).

Of course, there are reasons why Italian businessmen can do business in the Far East so kindly. Because of the support of the Italian government, the white-glove Howard businessman, relying on his relationship with the governors, and with his strong capital, established the Italian-Chinese Friendly Business Alliance with other Italian businessmen who came to China. The full name is the Italian Merchants Mutual Aid Alliance in China ( Referred to as Yihualian).

The alliance has set several rules, all of which are to ensure the principle of fair trade. Basically, businessmen who make money will agree with them. Because the brand of the chamber of commerce alliance is very recognized by Chinese businessmen, as long as you say that you are a member of the Italian-China Business Alliance, they are very willing to do business with it.

Because the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance promises to the outside world that as long as it deals with the members of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, if there is a deception, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance will fully compensate the Chinese businessmen who suffer losses.

And there is precedent for this promise. A member of the Italian-Chinese Alliance may have only arrived soon and did not understand the alliance's capabilities, so it was a trick to trade with Chinese businessmen, defrauding their goods of up to 1.2 million liras, and then disappeared.

The deceived Chinese businessman then found the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance and asked it to fulfill its promise. Howard, who was in charge of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, went to investigate in person. After listening to the testimony of many witnesses, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance fully compensated the incident. loss of a Chinese businessman.

And for the man who brought shame to the business alliance, he stepped up his search.

Three months later, the Horston family in Liverpool had just moved to the Italian immigrants, and the house caught fire, and no one in the family escaped. Such tragedies even appeared in local newspapers, asking everyone to pay attention to fire safety.

It's just that from the corpse of the male owner, which was not too burnt, it could be vaguely discerned that it resembled the former member of the alliance who was missing.

The move of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance has made it more respected by Chinese businessmen, which has led to better and better business of Italian businessmen in the Far East.

Of course, there are more and more Italian businessmen who want to join the Italian Hualian. However, if they want to join the alliance, they must pay a deposit. The deposit of 100,000 liras per person makes many businessmen discouraged. Of course, this does not stop the idea of ​​Italian businessmen to join first.

At present, the most important thing for the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance is to crack down on those who pretend to be the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance. That's right, because many Italian businessmen couldn't pay the security deposit, they started to pretend to be crooked brains, not only Italian businessmen, but also businessmen from other countries pretending to be members of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance.

To this end, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance has issued several messages in succession, so that those Chinese businessmen should pay attention to distinguish them. In addition, the chamber of commerce also gave each member a numbered badge, and at the same time increased the crackdown on these impersonating thieves~www.mtlnovel.com~ After dealing with more than a dozen impostors, this wave of impersonation was barely suppressed. .

In Italy, many people have made a lot of money in the link of being a transit businessman. Because there are more or less people behind these businessmen. Even the head of the business alliance, Mr. Howard, doesn't help others.

Well, let's put aside the grievances and grievances of Italian businessmen in the Far East, and continue to look at the wooden pipe domestically.

At present, for Italy, the energy issue is the most concerned issue.

With the development of industry and the construction of thermal power plants, the current coal shortage in Italy is increasing. The value of coal imported from Germany alone is approaching 200 million lire.

Although the Cabos coal mine in Sardinia is the only coal mine in Italy this year, the lignite produced by this coal mine is not very useful in industry, but it can still be used for daily life and power generation.

And the only good news from energy is that after experts' investigation, Kabos coal mine is not a small coal mine with only 40 million tons as everyone thinks, but a medium-sized coal mine with nearly 500 million tons. (according to the standard at the time)

And this news made the Italian government relieved, otherwise, the development of Italian industry may be dragged down by just importing coal and iron ore.

Since the Kabos Coal Mine has such large reserves, it is inevitable to expand the scale of mining. According to the government's plan, the mine should reach a production capacity of five million tons within two years. In the next five years, the output will reach 8 million tons.

However, as long as anyone with foresight can see that the dilemma of Italy's lack of coal and iron ore resources has seriously dragged down the development of Italy to the point of urgency.

And this is also very clear to Carlo, who is looking at the information.

Chapter end