After the auction, Konstantin, who was in a good mood, personally attended the banquet in the evening and had a close communication with the capitalists who participated in the auction.

Of course, that's all, in order to put an end to the collusion between officials and businessmen, the Bulgarian government prohibits officials from having in-depth contacts with capitalists, and Konstantin naturally will not really become friends with capitalists.

He personally attended the banquet in order to show goodwill to the Russian capitalists, saying that the Bulgarian government would treat all equals and would not suppress foreign capital.

As for the preferential treatment? I'm sorry, but Bulgaria has never been preferentially treated by the capitalists, not at home, and naturally not abroad!

The Russians are well aware of this, and the economic integration of Russia is not just a slogan, the economies of the two countries were really connected before the outbreak of the world war.

Now, of course, it has been divided, taking advantage of the opportunity of the world war, the Bulgarian government has taken over more than 90% of the country's enterprises, and it is not easy to adjust?

More than two years have passed, and the economic ties between the two sides are naturally not so close, but the broken ties are still indispensable.

Bulgaria's economic policy has always been the target of criticism by the Russian capitalists, especially the government's forced intervention in the market, strict enterprise laws, and labor protection laws, which they deeply hate.

But now they want the Bulgarian laws to be stricter, because they protect them, although they harm them!

It is precisely because they know too much that the Russian capitalists dare to invest here. Without Ferdinand's butterfly effect, most of them would have fallen under the butcher's knife of the Soviets, and most of the rest would have been exiled to the United States, where they would have been largely devoured in the end.

……

Konstantin said happily: "Your Majesty, this is the details of our auction, which is fifteen percent higher than estimated by the Ministry of Finance, raising a total of 5.75 billion leva (about 230 million pounds)!" ”

Ferdinand smiled and nodded, took the file and looked at it carefully.

For the government, it doesn't matter if these companies are all in their own hands! Even if they were sold to the capitalists, these factories remained in Bulgaria and did not affect Bulgaria's national strength.

Instead, the government was freed from these burdens and was able to recoup a sum of money through auctions and invest it in new areas of nation-building.

This is the helplessness of state-owned enterprises, they have many advantages, and there is only one real fatal shortcoming - it is not economically cost-effective!

Many enterprises that can make money in the hands of capitalists will lose money in the hands of the government, no matter how strict the supervision is, as long as it is not a profiteering industry, he will lose money!

If it weren't for the government's control over the state, Ferdinand wouldn't mind turning all state-owned enterprises into private ones, so that the annual tax revenue could increase a lot.

Of course, just think about it, if you really sell it all, something big will happen to the storage!

For example, if the Bulgarian railway company is handed over to the capitalists to operate, the profit is estimated to increase by three or five times, and the consequence is that many unprofitable railway lines will be suspended.

However, since these lines that have no economic value have been built, they are naturally for the sake of national defense and security, and the military value is often more important to the government than the economic value.

There is not a lot of information, and after a cup of tea, Ferdinand read the information, and then smiled and said, "Well, not bad!" The restructuring of state-owned enterprises is progressing smoothly, but you will continue to make further progress in the later stage to ensure the smooth handover and transition of the enterprise! ”

"Yes!" Konstantin replied

After thinking about it, Ferdinand asked with concern: "How does your government plan to use the funds from the sale of the company?" ”

For a country, the money in hand is not money, only when it is spent and produces benefits, is it real money!

Konstantin replied confidently: "Your Majesty, this fund is planned to be invested in infrastructure construction, which mainly includes three aspects:

First, the Balkan Ring Railway plan will connect all the Balkan Peninsula by rail, mainly Romania, Transylvania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Ministry of Transport is expected to build 12,000 kilometers of new railways to complete this plan;

Second, in the development plan of the peninsula of Asia Minor, we will continue to build the Baghdad Railway, which was not completed by the Germans, and extend it to the Persian Gulf region, and if we count the branch lines along the way, the total length of this section of the railway will reach 42,000 kilometers;

Third, after the end of the world war, our government has added a lot of land in its hands, and to develop them, capital investment is indispensable in the early stage! ”

Sure enough, the money is still so unspent! There were tens of thousands of kilometers of railways to be built, and hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land to be developed, and this huge amount of money was quickly swallowed up.

Even, Ferdinand thought that even if he sold all the claims for war reparations, the money he got would not be able to withstand the government's toss, and there was no way for him to want to develop Asia.

How can the cost of running a colony as if it were a local one? A traffic problem alone is enough to be devastating!

Fortunately, Bulgaria is also a big business now, unlike in the past, when thousands of kilometers of railways were built, they had to raise money everywhere, and now they are tens of thousands of kilometers of railways, if they were left behind, they would not dare to think of it before!

Ferdinand nodded and said, "Yes! The government's development ideas are correct, transportation is indeed a big problem, let the Ministry of Communications organize experts to conduct field exploration as soon as possible, determine the railway line, and strive to be able to start construction by the end of 1918! ”

The exploration of the railways in the Balkans was easy to complete, after all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a similar railway plan, and had already built some of the railways, and now Bulgaria needed to connect these branch lines.

The Asia Minor Peninsula, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf region are in big trouble, and the poor railroad left behind by the Ottoman Empire is simply negligible, even if Ferdinand is demolished, he will not feel distressed.

If within five years, Bulgaria can build the main railway line to the Persian Gulf, Ferdinand will issue a medal to the Ministry of Communications, and within ten years it will be able to penetrate the Arabian Peninsula, then this century will be the century of Bulgaria!

At the moment, Ferdinand is not sure if he can complete it. Now it will depend on how effective the Bulgarian bureaucracy is, and if they can still maintain the fighting spirit of the previous construction of the homeland, then this problem is not a problem!

Konstantin immediately replied: "Yes!" Your Majesty, please rest assured, we will implement it as soon as possible and strive to start construction before the end of the year! ”

Ferdinand thought for a moment and added: "The government has to prepare a new five-year plan, and if nothing else, we will be able to sell our debts within the year!" ”

How much money you have to do how much you do, that's the current situation of the Bulgarian government! It's not that Ferdinand didn't want to do the Great Leap Forward, but he didn't dare to do it!

Blindly developing industry, other domestic industries did not keep up, and when the economic crisis broke out, enterprises suddenly lost overseas markets, the domestic market did not grow, and the government still owed a huge amount of foreign debt, the consequences were simply unimaginable!

In Bulgaria's national conditions, in the event of a fatal economic crisis, prepare for war!

Ferdinand is not afraid to fight, but the question is with whom? What's the benefit of winning?

Ferdinand is sure that he can't fight with England and France!

First, there is not enough conflict of interest between the parties; Secondly, no one can do anything to whom.

This is determined by geopolitics, Bulgaria cannot hit the homeland of Britain and France, and Britain and France do not have the strength to hit the homeland of Bulgaria, and there is no substantial benefit to a war between the two sides except for adding an enemy!

Perhaps the Suez Canal looks delicious, but unfortunately, considering the naval power of both sides, Ferdinand did not think that Bulgaria would be able to break through the blockade of the Royal Navy.

This is troublesome, I finally grabbed the canal, and finally found that there is no way to navigate freely, so it is better to dig another canal myself, why go to war?

Since there are not enough interests, and there is no way to win the victory between each other, such a war will naturally not be fought!

The rest is left between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire, if the Russian Empire has been in civil war, then there will definitely be no fight between Russia and Russia, and Ferdinand will not be so kind to create a chance for reconciliation for them.

And Austria-Hungary had no offensive value at all, having brought down the Vienna government, Ferdinand did not find any benefit except to facilitate the rise of the Germans!

It's embarrassing, what if you can't find the enemy?

If you can't transfer the contradictions, then there is only one last way, to digest the contradictions internally!

Considering the risk of this operation, Ferdinand decisively chose sustainable development. After all, it is easy to provoke class struggle, but it is difficult to deal with the aftermath.

To put it simply, it is to rationally arrange the country's infrastructure construction, carry out infrastructure construction within its own ability, and not blindly embark on projects, but to carry out them step by step.

Then when the economic crisis breaks out, Bulgaria can continue to build infrastructure to relieve the pressure, but if it doesn't work, Ferdinand can still develop Africa, and if it doesn't work, he can still play afforestation to protect jobs!

The premise is that the government cannot incur huge debts, be hijacked by capital, and then be carried on the chariot!

Specifically, you can refer to the Germans in World War II, whether Hitler or not, they will provoke wars, and the capital behind them is forcing them to go to the battlefield, which cannot be changed by individuals.

Bulgaria was also pulled on board by capital in World War I, but because the interests were large enough, Ferdinand joined in with a half-push.

Let's do it again!