As time went by, the private activities of the generals of the army became more and more frequent.

However, despite the frequent activities of those generals, the results achieved were not good. Prime Minister De Pretis, who is the main target, has not expressed his position so far, but the generals are not discouraged and will continue to work hard.

Of course, the activities of these generals have always been under the supervision of well-intentioned people, and of course, as the number of their activities increases, their purpose is gradually revealed.

"Your Majesty, this is the content of the army generals' private contact with other ministers."

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

Carlo opened it and looked at it, and spoke. "Thank you for your hard work, keep watching them."

"It's all for the kingdom."

After waiting for this one to leave, Cakallo looked seriously.

The Admiral's conversation with his contacts was recorded, and Carlo looked at the content of their conversation and gradually relaxed.

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

Relieved, Carlo returned to his office, where the statistics for this year were on his desk, and the height was by no means comparable to what it used to be.

And Carlo looked at these data files that represented the Italian economy and sighed, this year's economic situation is written on it, it is a mule or a horse, it is always necessary to take a look.

Flipping through the top document, which is from the Ministry of Finance, it lists the various expenditures of the Italian government this year, and Carlo looked at it carefully.

This year, the Italian government's total fiscal revenue reached a new high of 1.478 billion lira, which is 58 million lira higher than last year's 1.420 billion lira. The main reason for the growth is that the development of overseas markets has gradually restored the Italian industry, and the tax revenue increase it has brought is still very considerable. Because nowadays, enterprises have to pay government taxes if they don't enter, and they also have to pay a tariff when they export to foreign countries. Although Italy encourages exports, the tax is not much and only about 2%, but it is still very considerable.

Although the income looks gratifying, if you look at this year's expenses, it is even more scary.

Italy's fiscal expenditure this year is as high as 1.829 billion lira, and this year's gap between the balance of payments and payments has been pulled down the most, resulting in a huge deficit of 351 million lira. You must know that this era was a gold standard, and the banknotes printed by the government had gold content. Such huge spending has put a lot of pressure on the government, so Chancellor of the Exchequer Tejera has repeatedly warned Carlo that Italy's finances are in a dangerous situation and that spending must be reduced in order for the fiscal balance to gradually return to normal.

And a large part of the 1.829 billion lira spent was used to repay the maturing government bonds and interest. This year, Italy cashed in its national debt of 197 million lire and paid more than 83 million lire in interest, totaling 280 million lira, which is higher than the expenditure of the Abyssinian war.

You know, the war that laid the foundation for Italy's victory in East Africa cost only 194 million lira.

And Italy's annual repayment of the national debt and interest is more than enough to fight a colonial war. Under such pressure, where can the Italian government come up with money to invest in the country, so Italy's industrial development depends more on its own or foreign capital. This has also led to a slower industrial development in Italy compared to the development of other powerful countries.

Of course, with Carlo's guidance to Italy to open the Far East market, Italy's industrial development finally recovered, although the gap with other powers is still large, but at least people can see the hope of catching up.

Although Italy's industry has recovered, the main force for Italy's exports is still agricultural products, and the main force of Italy's exports is various agricultural products, so which agricultural products are the ones that contribute the most?

It's wine, and many people can't imagine that the wine exported by Italy is the main force for earning foreign exchange. The soil in Italy is very favorable for the growth of grapes, so the Italians have been making wine since ancient Roman times, and Italian wine has always been famous in Europe.

It's just that by the time of Napoleon III's reign, the French implemented the world-famous wine hierarchy, which made French wine famous in the world.

Of course, among them, the French continue to improve the quality of grapes is also the key, what Cabernet Sauvignon, Ugni Blanc, Semillon, Syrah, Sinan, Carni and other excellent grape varieties are basically developed by France, and it is with such grapes and excellent origins, coupled with exquisite technology, that French wine is famous all over the world.

And the best in France in this regard is Bordeaux, whose soil and topography are suitable for the growth of grapes, so Bordeaux wines are the most famous.

Italian wines, on the other hand, were defeated by the combined fist of the French, and the export of wines was also decreasing, and if it were not for the support of the government after the reunification of Italy, the oldest Italian wine would have to retract to the country.

Although Italy has the largest number of grape varieties (said to have more than a thousand), Italian varieties are very old, complex and varied, and have not been improved at all. In response to this, the government has increased capital investment and reopened the 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 2.31 million tons now. This is an eleventfold increase, which cannot be described as an unsuccessful success. Considering that only 2.6 million tons of French wine are exported, it is enough to see how much Italian wine production has surged.

However, although the export volume of Italian wine has increased significantly, it is basically based on volume, and the products are mainly concentrated in the middle and low end, and there are few Italian products of high-end brands.

Of course, the government is also very aware of this, so the next step of the Ministry of Agriculture is to come up with high-end Italian red wine products that are recognized by the world.

Of course, in addition to wine, Italy's other big export fist is citrus.

？？？？？

That's right, it's citrus, Italy exports various varieties of citrus, accounting for 65% of the European citrus market, although the overall scale is not large, but it can still allow Italy to export more than 100,000 tons per year.

Don't think that this number is less, you must know that the current cost of fruit transportation is very high, and if you can transport it to other countries, the price will be doubled. The biggest export benefit of citrus is the farmer, because this is the most direct reflection of their income increase.

This year, Italy's agricultural exports reached 440 million, mainly because of the sharp increase in wine exports this year, which drove Italy's agricultural exports.

Italy's exports this year totaled 1.674 billion lira, up 7.1% from last year. Imports amounted to 1,711 million lira, an increase of 6.2 percent, and total imports and exports amounted to 3,385 million lira, an increase of 6.6 percent.

(The data was wrong before, Italian imports and exports did not reach 5.137 billion lira, I will see 1895 as 1885 data, I am sorry book friends, I apologize here)

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

Then the number one tax in Italy, needless to say, is the agricultural tax. Italy's agricultural tax revenues amounted to 191 million lira, and it can be said that the peasants supported the Kingdom of Italy.

Unfortunately, Italy simply does not have the strength to allow industry to reverse agriculture, because Italian industry is too weak to support government finances. Of course, there are only a few countries in Europe that can support industrial tax revenues (except for small countries such as Luxembourg).

Of course, Italy is not without good news, in the Far East Italy and the Qing Dynasty officials are becoming more and more harmonious, so the Italian agent of raw silk, tea, tung oil, pig bristles and other Far Eastern specialties are also increasing, of course, this also leads to the increase in the trade gap between Italy and the Qing Dynasty.

This year, the total trade between Italy and the Qing has reached 412 million lira, and the Qing has risen to become the third largest trading country in Italy. Among them, Italy's total exports reached 131 million, 15 million lira less than last year, mainly because the arms trade volume from the Qing Dynasty was decreasing, and Italy's exports of machinery and other products could not resist the decline in arms trade volume at all.

Of course, this is also within the government's tolerance, because of the Sino-French war last year, the Qing governors were greatly favored, and the arms ordered increased significantly. And this goodwill came and went as quickly as possible, and besides, it was impossible for the governor and the Qing government to keep an eye on the Italian arms purchase, no, this year it will basically return to the scale of 30 or 40 million lire.

However, fortunately, Italy's other exports are still strong, so that the export value will not fall ugly.

However, compared to exports, imports increased by 281 million lira. Italian merchants acted as transit merchants, wantonly importing the specialties of the Qing Dynasty and selling them to countries all over the world. Italian merchants imported from the Qing Dynasty on a large scale, hurting the interests of merchants from other countries, and for this reason, the ministers of several countries put pressure on the Qing State to stop the special treatment of Italian merchants. In the face of the protests of the ministers of various countries, the Qing government only came out and said that this was a commercial act, and they could not let the merchants appoint sellers.

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

Because Italian merchants never default on their payments, they don't take the opportunity to undercut prices too much, and they don't make all sorts of excessive demands (depending on what, you're talking about the British).

Of course, there is a reason why Italian businessmen are able to do business in the Far East so kindly. Because of the support of the Italian government, the White Glove Howard businessmen relied on their relationship with the governors and with the abundant capital in their hands to establish the Italian-Chinese Friendship Business Alliance with other Italian businessmen in China, the full name of which is the Italian Merchants Mutual Aid Alliance in China (referred to as the Italian-Chinese Alliance).

The alliance mainly set several rules, all of which are to ensure the principle of fair trade, which basically these merchants who come to make money will agree. 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-Chinese 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 trades with the members of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, if something happens that is cheated, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance will fully compensate the Chinese businessmen who have suffered losses.

And there is a precedent for this promise, a member of the Italian-Chinese Alliance, who may have only been here for a short time, did not understand the alliance's skills, so he played a trick in dealing with Chinese merchants, defrauded them of up to 1.2 million lire of goods, and then disappeared.

The deceived Chinese businessman then approached the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance and demanded that it fulfill its promise, and Howard, who was in charge of the affairs of the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance, immediately went to investigate in person, and after listening to the testimony of many witnesses, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance compensated the Chinese businessman in full for his losses.

And for the person who disgraced the business alliance, he stepped up his search.

Three months later, the Horston family in Liverpool had just moved in to Italy, and a fire broke out in their home, leaving no one in the family to escape. Such a tragedy even appeared in the local newspaper, asking everyone to pay attention to fire safety.

It's just that from the body of the male owner who was not too burned, it can be vaguely discerned that it looks like the former alliance member who played missing.

The move of the Italian-Chinese business alliance made it more respected by Chinese businessmen, and the business of Italian merchants in the Far East became better and better.

Of course, there are more and more Italian businessmen who want to join the Italian Chinese Federation, but if they want to join the alliance, they must pay a deposit, a deposit of 100,000 lira each, which discourages many businessmen. Of course, this did not stop the Italian businessmen from joining first.

At present, the most important thing for the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance is to crack down on those who pretend to be Italian-Chinese business alliances. That's right, because many Italian businessmen can't afford to pay the deposit, the professional began to use the crooked brains of impersonation, not only Italian businessmen, but also businessmen from other countries pretending to be members of the Italian-Chinese business alliance, which is simply not too much.

For this reason, the Italian-Chinese Business Alliance has sent several messages in a row for those Chinese businessmen to pay attention to. In addition, the Chamber of Commerce has given each member a numbered badge, and has also stepped up its crackdown on these impersonating thieves.

After brutally disposing of more than a dozen impostors, this wave of impersonation was barely suppressed.

And Italy has made a lot of money in the ring of being a transit businessman. Because behind these businessmen there are more or less people. Even the head of the business alliance, Mr. Howard, is not doing things for others?

Okay, let's put aside the grievances of Italian merchants in the Far East and move on to the woodwinds at home.

At the moment, energy is the primary concern for Italy.

With the development of industry and the construction of thermal power plants, there is a growing shortage of coal in Italy, and the value of coal imported from Germany alone is approaching 200 million lira.

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

The only good news from energy is that after expert investigation, the 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. (by the standards of the time)

And this news made the Italian government also breathe a sigh of relief, 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 will produce 5 million tons within two years. In the next five years, it will reach the production of 8 million tons.

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

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

I'm in a good mood