saint petersburg

Nicholas II was worried about the next war costs, and now the war has been carried out, not only the Russian Empire has been impoverished, but even the wealth accumulated by the Tsarist family for hundreds of years has been exhausted.

Even the nobles and officials who supported him, the families of these people have become real estate. In order to raise funds, Nicholas II took everything he could and sold it.

For example: state enterprises in St. Petersburg, confiscation of the opposition's property, mines, ......

These properties are being sold at a discount, and these things that used to be worth a lot are now worthless.

Originally, the export of grain and mineral resources, which was the largest source of revenue for the Russian Empire, no longer exists.

Years of war have reduced their food production to an all-time low, and if it weren't for the fact that the Russians had not had their land large enough and fertile enough, they would now be grain importers.

The same is true for the development of mineral resources, under the influence of the war, the output can not be guaranteed, and the international market is gradually lost, and now this is the only buyer.

However, after the end of the World War, Bulgaria expanded too much, and the vast colonies were able to provide most of the resources, and as the colonies continued to develop, the mineral resources imported from Russia continued to decline.

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

The Baku oil fields became the largest foreign exchange earner of the tsarist government, and after the outbreak of the civil war, Tsar Nikolai Jr. also stationed heavy troops in the Baku region, fearing that Bulgaria would attack the idea of attacking there.

Soon he was disappointed, and as new oil fields were discovered, 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 it could not sell oil, and because of the cost of transportation, 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 Ferdinand's deliberate control, international oil prices have been at a very low level, and many oil fields with high extraction costs have been forced to close, such as the British oil field company in Persia, which closed down because of a long period of losses.

The Baku oil field is no exception, when Nicholas II's army conquered the Caucasus, it seized the Baku oil field for the first time, only to find out that it was embarrassing.

Due to the backward extraction technology, the outdated refining technology, and the poor transportation hub of the Russians, the oil produced in the Baku region was transported to St. Petersburg and then refined into a finished product, which was more expensive than the refined oil imported directly from Bulgaria.

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

In the end, in order to save money, Nicholas II had to reduce the production of the Baku oil field, and the oil produced was only for the use of the Caucasus, and there was no need to lose money by transporting it.

Without these sources of foreign exchange, the tsarist government would of course not have a good time, and weapons and ammunition would have to be imported. Self-reliance or something, it's 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, and in any case, we must ensure the smooth progress of the spring offensive, and this time we cannot continue to do so under any circumstances.

Otherwise, after this spring, these traitors will be rejuvenated again, and the damned John Bull will not allow us to easily complete the reunification.

Now we must be fast, otherwise weapons and ammunition from Europe will be delivered again to our enemies! Nicholas II said cautiously

Now that the war had been fought, he had understood that his greatest enemies were no longer these traitors, but the European countries that supported them behind the scenes.

Among them, the British were the most prominent, and it was thanks to the appearance of the British that the Tsarist government of Little Nicholas was able to support it until now, otherwise they would have compromised long ago.

"Your Majesty, Great Tsar, I'm afraid this will not work, now more than 70 percent of our government's expenditures are 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 embezzled a lot of funds, even the funds for the repayment of Bulgarian loans, we have misappropriated! The prime minister said with a wry smile

The government's financial crisis had already appeared, and as early as half a year ago, he suggested to Nicholas II that he should borrow another loan to come back, but unfortunately Nicholas II had a fluke mentality, he thought that it would be possible to end the war this winter.

Then stick to it, and you don't have to borrow international loans anymore, after all, the interest rate is really high! The tsarist government was already heavily indebted, and once the whole country was unified, Britain and France should also come to the door to force debts.

When the time comes, just to repay the loans of Britain, France and Bulgaria, the government will have to squeeze every ruble out of the treasury, and it will save a fortune, after all, the loans now are usury, and there are no preferential international loans.

If it weren't for the debts of the French, most of which were low-interest or interest-free loans, the tsarist government would not have been able to repay its debts, and they would probably not have been able to pay off the hundreds of billions of francs of debt.

(Note: After the French government abandoned the gold standard, the franc depreciated, but international loans were pegged to gold, and inflation was borne by the debtor in full)

Now Nicholas II also knew that he regretted it, but it was too late. When you are most short of money, isn't it to send money to the door for people to rob?

If possible, Nicholas II least wanted to borrow money from Bulgaria, mainly because the cost of defaulting was too high, and with what he knew about Ferdinand, once the Russian government announced defaulting, the probability of Bulgaria directly sending troops to occupy Ukraine was as high as nine to nine.

You can't just fight with others because you have defaulted on your debts and someone else comes to take away the collateral, right? If this war were to be fought, the Russian Empire would lose a lot, not only would it lose its last ally, but its international credibility would also be completely ruined.

Therefore, even if you want to repay the debt, you must choose a good object, for example, Ferdinand organized a group to repay the Americans' debts, which is reasonable and well-founded. There are no hidden dangers, and now the graves of the US government are covered with grass.

Compared with Bulgaria, it is safer to borrow the debt of Britain and France, anyway, everyone is far away, and it is impossible for them to fight, if it really reaches the point where they can't afford to pay it back, everyone can slowly rip off.

If it really doesn't work, it will be dragged back, and it will be a big deal to repay a part of the interest every year, and slowly grind with the British and French governments, waiting for them to compromise.

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

"Then speed up the contact with the international consortium, and strive to get a loan back as soon as possible!" Nicholas II thought about it and said

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this won't work! All the consortia we have approached have rejected our loan applications!

Even through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have directly contacted the governments of various countries, without the consent of any of the governments! The prime minister said with a wry smile

"Isn't it okay to issue bonds and let them sell them for us?" Nicholas II asked angrily

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

Nicholas II's face turned pale, and it was a deep shame when he talked about the bonds issued by the tsarist government back then.

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

Even what was sold, most of them were sold in Russia, and his subordinates were afraid that the tsar's face would be too ugly, so everyone gritted their teeth and bought some of them, and no one cared about them in the international market.

Of course, this is mainly due to the fact that there is no support from the bank consortium, and no one is willing to help them issue bonds, even if no one takes over the high fees, the Russians whimsically go to the international market to sell bonds.

Leaving aside the issuance of bonds by banks, and then the decision of the consortium of banks in various countries to teach them a lesson, they ended up with sales of less than 10,000 pounds on the international market.

Even this was not brought back, and the people who bought the debt finally ran back and asked for a return, and if they did not return the goods, they would sue the Russians for fraud, and in order not to continue to lose face, they could only settle the matter in the end.

From then on, the issuance of bonds became a taboo for Nicholas II, and no one dared to do so in front of him.

Now the prime minister reminded him, mainly to tell him not to be ashamed. A few years ago, the credibility of the Russian Empire was gone, and now it is not funny to issue bonds?

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 collapsed.

A large number of depositors' funds were swallowed up by the bankers, which not only hurt the Russians, but also killed many foreigners doing business in Russia, who protested to the tsarist government, but in the end to no avail.

Against the backdrop of governments joining forces to trap the Russians, it became a collusion between the tsarist government and the bankers to swallow up the depositors' money, and the international credibility of the tsarist government was bankrupt.

This did not wrong them, and when Nicholas II reacted, he seized a number of banks and set off an anti-Semitic wave in Russia, retrieving a large part of the funds that had not yet had time to be transferred.

It's a pity that all this money was spent on the war and was not returned to the depositors.

Even Ferdinand, an outsider, admired the discipline of the tsarist government a little, it was really taboo to eat meat and vegetables, and he dared to swallow any money!

At that time, the ruble had depreciated hundreds of times, and it was a big deal to print more tickets and return the money to the depositors, which was worthless in cash anyway, and could throw all the blame on the traitorous party.

Now the tsarist government is about to pay the price, and it was the French who were the most ruthless in the first place, who let them invest the most in Russia?

Secondly, there was Bulgaria, where trade between Bulgaria and Russia was the largest, and many merchants had deposits in Russia, but fortunately most of them kept their money in Ferdinand's banks.

Although the banknotes depreciated, they were finally not in arrears, and after the collapse of the branches of the Russian Empire, the head office continued to complete the payment.

As a result, the black pot was betrayed by the tsarist government and unscrupulous Russian bankers, and Ferdinand not only made a fortune from the depreciation of the ruble, but also gave the bank's credibility a wave of prestige.

"Rejected them all? How is this possible? Did Bulgaria refuse our request for a loan? Nicholas II asked angrily

"Yes, Your Majesty! The Bulgarians assessed our ability to repay, they thought it was too risky to lend us money, and they were afraid that we would default! The prime minister said worriedly

"Humph!"

Nicholas II snorted coldly, the conscience of heaven and earth At this time, he didn't want to repay the debt. Especially with the loan with Bulgaria, the collateral is the Ukrainian region, how can he be on this loan?

"Isn't the condition we gave them enough to be tempted? You know, we have all taken out so many taxes as collateral, and they are still afraid that we will default on our debts? Nicholas II said angrily

"Your Majesty, according to the assessment of the Bulgarians, they consider the collateral we gave worthless.

They think that even if they mortgage all these taxes, the right to collect them is still in our hands, and as long as we do some tricks, they will not get any money in the end! The Prime Minister explained

Nicholas II was embarrassed, it seemed that this kind of thing had already been done by his predecessors, and he mortgaged the salt tax, and finally repaid the loan very shamelessly announced the exemption of the salt tax, and then announced the introduction of the salt tax.

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

With such a lesson from the past, it is obviously not good to go to Nicholas II, no matter how much he assures it, people have reason not to believe it.

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

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

I've also read that ~ report, and they list all our debts, including the salaries we now owe to government officials, and the casualty pensions of soldiers!

Add up all these debts, and the Russian Empire now owes a debt of ninety-eight and a half million pounds, and we are no longer able to repay it! The prime minister said embarrassedly

"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 wet, and it is estimated that their calculation method is a little different from ours, but the data they give is still of reference significance.

We owe more than 5 million people for the casualty pension alone! If we follow the standard of Bulgarian pension, we will have to pay more than 85 billion leva, which is equivalent to 3.4 billion pounds.

If we calculate by our standards, this figure is much smaller, for example, many of the families of soldiers have left Russia, and this part of the expenditure will be saved, probably around 1.5 billion pounds, and it can be done.

Then there is our external debt, which we know very well, about £2.33 billion, of which a third is interest-free loans, and about 40 percent of low-interest loans, and the rest is ordinary commercial loans.

The rest is our internal debt, and the money that the government owes to various departments, which is very complex to calculate and changes every day.

One of the largest huge sums of money should be military salaries, from the world war to the present, we have owed a large amount of military salaries, and the specific figures are difficult to calculate.

But now we have to add £80 million a year to our soldiers' salary debts, and now we are really only able to pay about eight months' salaries.

The Bulgarians' estimate of 900 million pounds is probably not a problem, but in reality we don't have to pay so much money at all, and many creditors don't know where to go, which is a confused account. The Prime Minister explained

Nicholas II rubbed his forehead, not knowing it, and startled. If calculated according to this figure, the debt of the Russian Empire has exceeded at least more than 5 billion pounds.

Even if the government were to be more generous, relying on part of the pension, part of the military salary, and deducting the internal debts that do not need to be repaid, then at least more than 4 billion pounds of debt would have to be repaid.

With the current financial revenues of the Russian Empire, it is obvious that it cannot afford this huge debt, even if it is enough to pay the interest on the foreign debt.

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

Obviously, he knew that Bulgaria must have given this detailed list for a reason, and it was impossible to come and help them do financial statistics for no reason, right?

……

https:

Genius one second to remember the address of this site:. Mobile version reading URL: m.