"Your Majesty, the Arabian Peninsula Ring Island Railway has been completed and opened to traffic, and our major railway plan, all the main lines will be completed, and the remaining branch lines will be completed in the next two years!" This was stated by Transport Minister Beshir Ivanov

"So fast?" Ferdinand asked, somewhat surprised

"Your Majesty, this person has a lot of strength, and his speed is naturally faster!" Beshear explained

Ferdinand nodded, he didn't need to know what was going on, and it was estimated that there was a rebellion in the colony again, and then a large number of laborers were added.

For the sake of their own interests, the military is very active in arresting laborers.

The railway company also needs to pay the labor they provide, but this salary is not paid to the laborers, but directly paid to the military to make up for the lack of military spending.

Now the Bulgarian Railways are on the verge of becoming the largest slave owners in the world, but they are cloaked in a veneer of legality, and without the selfless dedication of these laborers, Bulgaria would not be what it is today.

Not only Bulgaria, but many other countries have risen in this way, but they have all put on the cloak of legitimacy.

Of course, Ferdinand has to pretend not to know about this kind of thing, the people under him are all good courtiers, and they will automatically carry the black cauldron, and they will definitely not let him, the king, be stained.

The history books will only record their great achievements, and at most they will mention that the grassroots law enforcement is too violent, and then there will be no more.

The primitive accumulation of capital is all bloody, everyone is the same, and no one is cleaner than the other.

"Well, this time your Ministry of Transportation is doing a very good job, and the next focus of work is the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba, how is the progress over there?" Ferdinand asked with concern

"Your Majesty, please rest assured! The work of the Gulf Canal in Aqaba is progressing very quickly, and we have mobilized 2,000 excavators, 10,000 transport vehicles of various types, and 150,000 laborers, and we will dig through the Grand Canal in the shortest possible time! Beshir replied confidently

Ferdinand was not engaged in engineering, so he didn't know if such an allocation was reasonable, but he didn't just make a preliminary calculation, based on the length of the Grand Canal of 318 kilometers:

On average, there are 6.2 excavators, 31.44 vehicles, and 471.7 people per kilometer, which is a large density.

The planned route of the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba is not very high, and there are very few places above sea level of more than 200 meters, most of which are less than 30 meters above sea level, and many places are below sea level.

It should take two or three years to dig out a canal, which should not be a big problem.

In the face of such a large-scale earthwork, the work efficiency of an excavator is a hundred times that of manual efficiency. At that time, the French could dig the Suez Canal by hand, and the Americans could dig the Panama Canal by hand.

"Is this already the fastest speed?" Ferdinand asked with concern

"No, theoretically we can be faster, but the cost will be greatly increased, and at the moment we are using the most reasonable combination.

At the same time, we can take into account the construction period and cost, and we can even cut the construction period in half if it is not at any cost! Beshir thought for a moment and said

"Then let's do it according to the current plan, if the cost is too high, the cost performance is not worth it!" Ferdinand thought for a moment and said

The Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba was dug in order to get rid of the Suez Canal, which was controlled by the British, and to take this lifeline into their own hands.

The most direct reason was that the toll collected by the British was too high, which prompted the Bulgarian government to rush into the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba, and if the cost was too high, the gain would outweigh the loss.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Beshear replied

……

"Your Majesty, under the influence of the war in Southeast Asia, the world's rubber production has been greatly reduced, and the price of rubber has tripled in 1927.

At the end of 1927, the price of rubber in the international market was already 3.6 times that of the pre-war period.

Although the rebellion in Indonesia ended, the price of rubber did not fall, but rose further, and was already seven times the price of rubber in 1924.

The high price of rubber has seriously affected the industrial development of our country, and the rubber plantations opened up in China have not seen the harvest in a short period of time.

Our synthetic rubber, the current quality is not enough, can not play a large-scale role in industrial production, now the price of domestic rubber products, has risen sharply!

This is not the most serious, for a long time in the future, many of our enterprises may be forced to stop production because they cannot buy qualified rubber! Industry Secretary Lauren said with a headache

"What's going on? Does someone sit in the international market and speculate on the price of rubber? Ferdinand asked with concern

"Your Majesty, it's not a matter of speculation about the price of rubber, but that there is a shortage of goods in the market, and since the outbreak of the rebellion in Southeast Asia, the world's largest rubber producer, the rebel-controlled area has reduced its export of rubber to the outside world.

After the rebellion in Indonesia was crushed, the rebels who were unwilling to defeat destroyed the rubber plantations, and now there are fears that rebels in other parts of the country will follow suit.

Once the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia are gone, the global rubber crisis will erupt.

Now there is a lot of uproar in public opinion, and everyone is worried that they will not be able to buy rubber by then. In addition, there are consortiums that have raised the price of rubber in the international market, and the current sky-high price of rubber has appeared! Industry Secretary Lauren explained

Ferdinand frowned, if the price of rubber continues to rise, then Bulgaria will have to replace it with inferior synthetic rubber, otherwise this sky-high rubber company can't afford it!

Natural rubber has high elasticity at room temperature, slightly plastic, has very good mechanical strength, small hysteresis loss, low heat generation during multiple deformations, so its flexural resistance is also very good, and because it is non-polar rubber, it has good electrical insulation performance.

Synthetic rubber is not good, in addition to the low cost, most of the performance is not as good as natural rubber.

Of course, synthetic rubber is not without good performance, but unfortunately the performance has improved, the cost has gone up, the cost performance is too low, and there is not much use in industry in this era.

Faced with this real problem, Ferdinand was also powerless to either sacrifice quality or reduce production.

"When will the rubber plantation we have established in China be fully put into operation?" Ferdinand asked with concern

"Your Majesty, some of the rubber plantations that were opened up first are already being harvested one after another, and some of them will have to wait until two years later!

It is precisely because of this batch of harvested rubber that we have persevered until now, otherwise the rubber crisis would have happened last year.

Originally, we thought that after the end of the rebellion in Indonesia, rubber production in Southeast Asia would recover and rubber prices in the international market would be normalized, but the government ignored this issue before.

The biggest problem now is that even if all our domestic rubber plantations are put into operation, they can only meet about 70% of the demand of our domestic industrial production, and the rest still needs to be imported! Konstantin replied

This problem is fundamentally unsolvable, rubber is different from other products, at least five or six years of planting, if you want to immediately increase rubber production, it is impossible in a short period of time.

"Then let's increase the production of synthetic rubber, we give priority to solving the supply of rubber in special industries, and if synthetic rubber can be replaced, we will replace it with synthetic rubber, and then get through the current hurdle first!

At the same time, we also have to open up some more rubber plantations, and we can't let the rubber get stuck in our necks! Ferdinand thought for a moment and said

Of course, Bulgaria is not the worst, but there are still some crops in the colonies, and the supply of important domestic industries can be guaranteed, which is nothing more than the sacrifice of some less important enterprises.

Let these ordinary enterprises use inferior synthetic rubber to ensure industrial production, and they can always withstand it.

The worst is of course the industrial countries that do not produce rubber, such as Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Sweden and other countries without colonies.

Without their own rubber industrial park, now the price of rubber in the international market has skyrocketed, they have to grit their teeth and buy it, but unfortunately it is not a problem of money, the bigger problem is that they can't buy goods even if they have money!

The main suppliers in the rubber market in this era have always been Britain, France, and the Netherlands, followed by Thailand, and then there are none.

The main production areas are in Siam (Thailand), Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

All of them are concentrated in Southeast Asia, and this colonial rebellion is precisely in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and only one of them can be exported normally.

This problem is very serious, the supply of rubber in the international market is less than four layers in a normal year, and the demand for rubber in various countries in the world has not decreased, but has increased.

Since there are more monks and less porridge, then it can only be strong. At such a time, a weak country will definitely not be able to seize a strong country.

Britain, France, and Bulgaria will undoubtedly exert political pressure on the Siamese government, relying on off-the-field advantages to grab the lion's share, and the rest will be shared by the rest.

You don't have to think about it to know that with such a small amount of output, the three major countries are not enough?

Now, despite the soaring price of rubber in the international market, everyone can still rush to buy. This is based on the premise that the governments of the three countries have not yet intervened, and once the domestic capitalists cannot buy enough rubber, government intervention is an inevitable problem.

"Your Majesty, we can communicate with the Siamese government and give priority to ordering a batch of rubber, there is no need to go to the international market to grab the goods!" Foreign Minister Metev proposed

"Yes, this issue will be handed over to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and all government departments will fully cooperate!" Ferdinand thought for a moment and said

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid we will have to cooperate with the military this time, our influence in Southeast Asia is too small, and the Thai government may not buy our account!" Metev explained

"Well, no problem, I will order the military to cooperate with your actions, and you can use special means when necessary!" Ferdinand said indifferently

Why are great powers called great powers?

If everything is done according to the rules, is it still called a great power?

Especially now that it is still the era of imperialism, as a qualified imperialist country, the Bulgarian government is mild-mannered, and that is only on the premise that there is no conflict of interest.

At this time, domestic enterprises are about to stop production because of the problem of raw materials.

However, Ferdinand's usual style is to salute first and then soldier, as long as the two sides negotiate, then everything is easy to say, even if the price is higher, and now the Bulgarian government recognizes it.

If the Siamese government wants to take advantage of the fire to rob, then it must be reasoned well, and warships are the biggest reason in this era.

Not only Bulgaria, but also Britain and France will certainly have to take action.

If you want to take advantage of the fire to rob, you must also keep your eyes open, not all objects can be blackmailed.

You must know that Bulgaria has been established for so many years, and Ferdinand has not taken the initiative to invade any country, and I have to say that this is also a miracle!

Of course, this is only on the surface, in fact, all the countries targeted by Ferdinand ended up with blood mold.

It's just that he was a little clever and created a reasonable excuse, and on the surface, Bulgaria was the side that was passively counterattacking, and it was nothing more than that the final counterattack was a little too ruthless.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Metyev replied

A diplomat who doesn't want to make things happen is not a good diplomat!

In this era, the ability of a diplomat is evaluated by how many things you have done and how much benefit you have brought to the country.

It's not the kind that ordinary people imagine, if you coordinate the direct relationship between countries, hello, hello, everyone, you are a qualified diplomat.

The kind of diplomats who are delicate in all directions are only suitable for living in small countries, and the foreign ministries of the major powers do not have soft persimmons, and when it comes to the ability to do things, everyone is not bad.

It's just that this method is worth noting, for example: the British Empire has done the most things, but they still control the situation, so their diplomatic ability is recognized by everyone as the world's first.

Another example: the negative example of Germany, they can also do things, but unfortunately their means are too poor, and they will get into it by themselves, and they are regarded by everyone as the worst diplomatic means among the great powers.

Now the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also not a fuel-efficient lamp, but there is too little room for them to play it.

When Bulgaria rose, the world was already divided, and there were very few independent countries left.

Either they are hard bones, or the interests are too small, or the international relations are too complicated, and Ferdinand is not interested in them, and the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry will naturally not go about it.

Everyone is just normal business cooperation, and on the surface, it seems that Bulgaria is already full and has no desire to continue expanding!

Now the situation has changed again, Ferdinand has no interest in Siam, but the Bulgarian industry needs Thai rubber, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs naturally has to take action.

In line with the principle of valuing peace, if you can talk about it, you can talk about it, and if you can't talk about it, you don't know what it will develop in the end, anyway, don't expect any international axioms in this era, he is just within the range of artillery.

……