War is a 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 a large number of social contradictions have accumulated in all countries, and in order to divert internal contradictions, this world war has finally been triggered!

In contrast, the German-French contradictions, the Anglo-German contradictions, the Bulgarian-Austrian contradictions, and the Russian-Austrian contradictions are only one of the triggers for the outbreak of a world war, which only determines who fights with whom!

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

And the older the empire, the more serious the internal contradictions, and some countries have even reached the point where they cannot be reconciled, if there is no war, wait for the revolution!

A series of social problems, such as inflation, unequal 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, plague governments around the world.

Against this background, everyone tacitly chose to divert domestic contradictions, and a world war broke out.

Bulgaria is no exception, as a rising star, the domestic contradictions naturally do not exist class solidification, even the distribution of wealth, the gap between the rich and the poor and other problems are not very serious, the capitalists do not have the courage to exploit the workers unscrupulously, but the overproduction is already very serious!

Since Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, in order to increase the country's industrial strength, three five-year plans have been formulated, which is the so-called upward and downward effect, and the central government has tried its best to increase the country's industrial strength, and local governments have naturally followed suit.

Of course, in order to enhance the comprehensive national strength, Ferdinand was naturally happy to see the local government's vigorous development of industry and commerce, and not only did not stop the local government's behavior, but encouraged it!

When the domestic overcapacity crisis was about to break out, the world war also broke out, and all industries were in the service of the war during the war, so naturally there was no overcapacity!

However, once the war is over and the economy returns to normalcy, these troubles arise. Of course, as long as the war is won, these crises can be overcome by the dividends of the war!

On January 6, 1917, the Bulgarian government held an economic seminar at the Reichstag to study the post-war economic transformation and avoid the post-war depression as much as possible!

……

On 15 January, Ferdinand also convened a cabinet meeting in the royal palace to discuss the new problems that Bulgaria would face after the end of the war, including the question of economic transformation.

Ferdinand directly threw out the following questions:

1. What is the problem of dealing with the Allies after the war?

2. How should the new territories be governed after the war?

3. What was Bulgaria's diplomatic strategy after the war?

4. What is the national question in the post-war period?

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

6. What is the problem of resettlement of demobilized soldiers after the war? And the question of the placement of "mercenaries"?

……

Of course, there are so many problems, and naturally they can't be solved in a while!

Ferdinand just threw it out in advance so that everyone had a mental preparation, and he really had to come up with a specific treatment plan, and he had to wait for the end of the world war to make a decision according to the actual situation!

Now the economic situation in Bulgaria can no longer be described as good or bad, because of the war, many enterprises are civilian to the army, even Ferdinand's own industry is no exception.

In this context, the production of civilian materials is naturally greatly reduced, for ordinary people, in addition to the most basic necessities of life, other materials have risen to varying degrees, or fallen!

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 significantly.

During the war, everyone's spending power decreased, and the sales of perfumes, skin care products, health products, and beverages, which are usually popular, were greatly reduced.

Of course, it is not an increase in production, but it is a pity that these increased products are all strategic materials purchased by the army, and they can only be charged at cost price, and there is no profit at all.

This is determined by the special mobilization mechanism of Bulgaria, in order to eliminate the possibility of capitalists making it difficult for the country to make money, so Ferdinand specially introduced the "Law on the Procurement of Strategic Materials in Wartime", according to the law, once it enters the national mobilization, all strategic materials purchased by the government in the country are purchased at cost price, and it is also mandatory!

Therefore, since the outbreak of the world war, the capitalists of many countries around the world have made a fortune, but the capitalists of Bulgaria are doing voluntary labor.

Of course, there is nothing unbalanced about them, and many of them are still having a good time!

Anyway, they are all treated equally, all enterprises in the country are treated the same regardless of their size or the size of the background, and even the royal enterprises have been requisitioned without compensation, what else is there to say?

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

As a result, the interests of many companies have been seriously affected, and even threatened their survival, but the capitalists are not worried, they believe that the government will certainly not sit idly by.

This is also the result of the Bulgarian government's frequent intervention in the economy, every time there is an economic crisis, the government comes forward to clean up the mess, everyone is used to it, and there is a sense of security!

In the face of this situation, of course, Ferdinand could not let the government sit idly by, if these enterprises were bankrupt due to the war, it would inevitably cause very serious social adverse effects!

To put it simply, it will make the capitalists miserable, and then become staunch anti-war factions, and even resist the government's expropriation of their factories without compensation!

After all, if a company goes bankrupt, some people will inevitably lose their jobs, and some of these people will have a strong fear of war in the coming days because of the damage to their personal interests, and they will instinctively want to avoid war!

None of this was what Ferdinand wanted, and wasn't World War II France a living example? Because of the people's fear of war, they first allowed the rise of the Soviet Union, and then the rise of Germany, and finally escaped by playing dead!

……

Ferdinand asked with concern: "Mr. Kennedy, how many enterprises in the country are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the war?" And how much is due to our government's wartime procurement laws? ”

Kennedy thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, there are now more than 1,800 enterprises in the country that are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the war, and a total of 765 are due to the government procurement law!"

Among them, there are 8 large enterprises, including Bulgarian Machinery Group, Bulgarian Automobile Group, Bulgarian Iron and Steel Group, Bulgarian Railways Group and other giant enterprises, these eight enterprises have a total assets of 5.86 billion leva before the war, and have 1.76 million supporting industrial workers, with huge social influence!

The other more than 1,800 small and medium-sized enterprises have combined total assets of 2.56 billion leva and employ nearly one million people! ”

Ferdinand frowned, fortunately, he found out in advance, if these enterprises really went bankrupt, the Bulgarian economy would explode, which can be regarded as the sequelae of this deep mobilization.

But it's all worth it, and now the Bulgarian government spends less than a third of John Bull on the purchase of the same strategic materials, precisely because of the advantages of this extreme mobilization mechanism!

After all, this is starting from the production of raw materials, all the way to the cost price, without adding a penny of profit!

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

If there was no cost advantage, why did Ferdinand dare to raise so many troops?

If the purchase is made at market price, even if Britain and France provide loans of more than 300 million pounds, plus more than 400 million 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 all leading industries in Bulgaria?" How could they be on the verge of bankruptcy? ”

Kennedy hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty, these enterprises are engaged in heavy industrial 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, and to produce civilian products after the war, these must be changed back again, and the cost must be indispensable.

In addition, the machinery is worn, and many times in order to meet the construction deadline, we do not take into account the maintenance of the machinery, so after the end of 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, and the cost of the wear and tear of the equipment was more than the company could afford to lose.

Although we also have a compensation plan in our law, because this war lasted too long, unlike the previous two short-term wars, the losses caused to the company this time were too great, and these compensation costs were simply a drop in the bucket! ”

Ferdinand nodded, how could he not know about these circumstances? You must know that the companies in this are basically his industry, what is the situation he still doesn't understand?

Heavy losses are inevitable, although it has not yet developed to the point of bankruptcy, but it will be soon, and if the war continues, it will not be far from bankruptcy!

Especially for the Bulgarian railway group, the transportation of military materials is free, and this loss is even greater, and the annual loss in freight costs alone is at least 500 million leva.

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

Since the separation of government and enterprise has been completed, now they are all holding bank loans, maintaining operations, plus loans for building railways before.

They now owe a huge loan of 3.19 billion leva to the three major banks in the country, and they have long been insolvent, and once the government does not allocate funds in the future, they will go bankrupt!

And the banks provided them with loans, which were also coordinated by the Bulgarian government, otherwise who would dare to lend to them? Now the government can't afford to bankrupt them!

Not only the railway group, but also several other companies, are all giants in the industry, each company has a large number of affiliated enterprises, and the whole body is affected, and a giant falls, and a large number of affiliated enterprises will be finished!

After pondering for a moment, Ferdinand said: "This is indeed a serious problem, we must increase support for heavy industry, and this is related to our national defense!"

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

Does the Ministry of Finance have a plan to save the world? ”

Kennedy said with some embarrassment: "The Treasury does have a bailout plan, but because there are too many companies involved, the amount of money needed is too large for the treasury to pay."

Therefore, we revised our plan to save these eight large enterprises first, and then try to save small and medium-sized enterprises within our ability! ”

Ferdinand's face became embarrassed, if he did this, Bulgaria would not become a monopoly in the future?

Ferdinand had a monopoly because Bulgaria's plate was too small, and in order to avoid wasting resources, he had to concentrate on feeding a few giants.

But now it is different, after the end of the world war, the Bulgarian plate has become larger, and 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 enterprises?" ”

Kennedy thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, since the war is still going on, the number of companies that may face crises 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 leva of funds, and at least 2 billion leva will be needed to save these eight major enterprises, of which the railway group accounts for two-thirds! ”

Ferdinand sighed and said: "Prepare to save the market, it is estimated that the days 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 the end of this war, our domestic market will expand by at least a third, and together with the market in our sphere of influence, it should be able to digest our production capacity!

As for the funding gap, we can find another way to solve it, and if necessary, we can abandon the gold standard! ”

Well, Ferdinand is planning to print money to tide over the crisis, this is also a matter of no way, he knows that after the First World War, countries have abandoned the gold standard in history, and it is a big deal that Bulgaria will take the lead this time!

Kennedy's face changed drastically, and he asked in horror: "Your Majesty, how can 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: "You go and understand, after the outbreak of the world war, the flow of gold in European countries is converging in one place, and after the war, whether everyone can keep the gold standard is a question?" ”

Kennedy blurted out: "It's America!" Your Majesty, even if there is a large outflow of gold now, Britain and France should still be able to hold on, right? ”

Ferdinand shook his head and said, "Leave them alone, let's see us first!" Since the outbreak of the world war, more than 100 tons of gold have flowed out of us alone!

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

Of course, I didn't count the gold seized by the military, this is an abnormal income, and it cannot be counted in trade! ”

Kennedy thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, I think we should be able to keep the gold standard, the military has harvested nearly two hundred tons of gold in Italy, and more than one hundred tons of gold in the Ottoman Empire, once Ankara is conquered, there should still be an income, plus our original gold reserves, it should be enough!"

If we are lucky, our army will be more sure if it can reap another fortune in Austria-Hungary! ”

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

"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 will not be able to show it in the short term.

And gold is not so easy to obtain, our army is almost all three feet high in the Ottoman Empire, isn't it only a little harvest?

Do you think that when we reach Austria-Hungary, we will be able to do the same?

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

Kennedy nodded reluctantly, which he had to agree with, but he still didn't change his initial idea.

In his opinion, although of course the gold standard can gain some benefits in the short term, it will hurt the value of Lev too much.

And after the government abandoned the gold standard, the massive depreciation of the lev would cause violent inflation, and the wealth that many Bulgarians had accumulated throughout their lives would shrink in an instant, which would cause a very serious social crisis.

Didn't Ferdinand know all this? Of course not, the problem is that he can't do it? European countries can't give up the gold standard, just stick to Bulgaria! Do you still want to export?