Richard knew

Germany paid a heavy price in the war with nearly 6 million casualties and more than 7 million people lost their lives to starvation and pestilence, adding up to more than 13 million people, setting back 20 years in national economic development.

The opportunity to learn that the nation can rise again stems from the education for all policy formulated during the Bismarck period.

This provided Germany with a supply of highly qualified industrial and military personnel, with more than 10 million students enrolled in the school before the war.

in this area

With 68 years of economic prosperity and continuous and vigorous investment in the field of national education, the Tang Empire has reached the world's top level and achieved universal compulsory education in 5 years + 2 years.

According to statistics;

In 1914, the total number of students in the Tang Empire reached more than 3,370,000, which was the sum of the five countries of Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria, and nearly half of the world's high-level talents and engineers were trained every year.

This is the basic factor for the continued prosperity of the Tang Empire.

Richard looked out the window at the dark Berlin night and sighed with emotion.

There are seven thermal power plants around Berlin, but the vast majority of this electricity is supplied to thousands of factories on the outskirts of the city, giving the city lighting a low priority.

Today, the world's largest power supply equipment supplier is Siemens of the Tang Empire, which has the world's most advanced DC power generation technology, which is the best choice for the construction of thermal power stations.

The maritime arms race between Germany and Britain inevitably affected Germany's imports of the world's most advanced power equipment and also affected its industrial development.

In the field of complete sets of thermal power plants, German companies are far from growing.

Once the war comes, the power shortage becomes the most troublesome problem, and many factories have to often cut off power, let alone supply electricity for urban lighting.

Compare it to

The vast territory of the Tang Empire is full of thermal power and hydropower, and at night the city is brightly lit, a beautiful scene of a city that never sleeps.

In a peaceful environment

The sustained rapid economic growth of North America has brought prosperity to urban and rural areas, and even the night market economy has developed impressively, which is unimaginable in Europe.

Richard lit a cigar, took a deep breath, and exhaled the smoke, and the room was soon filled with a strong smell of tobacco.

His mind was carefully considering

The Tang Empire has made every effort to develop the second wave of industrial revolution represented by the electrical and chemical industries, and has reached the forefront of the world in most fields, and has the advantages of large-scale industry.

One step at a time, one step at a time.

Compared with China, which is still in chaos, the Near East, South Asia and Southeast Asia during the colonial period, and Europe where all-out war broke out, the whole of America is now the only peaceful and peaceful place, as if it were a paradise.

Today's chaotic international situation is a historic and major development opportunity for the entire Tang Empire.

Richard had the most detailed economic data at his disposal, which could be fully verified.

After the division of the United States of America, the Republic of New York, the Republic of Connecticut, the Republic of Maine, the Kingdom of Massachusetts, the Kingdom of Ohio and other North American countries, after independence, they each took on the debts of different previous regimes.

After the outbreak of the full-scale European war in 1914, these countries made huge profits in their exports to Europe, and successively changed from the original debtor countries, got rid of their original debts, and became creditor countries one after another.

As the world's largest economy and the most economically powerful country, the Tang Empire was originally the first economic power with 11.3 billion Tang yuan in debt, and it reaped the richest part of it.

After the outbreak of full-scale European war

In just half a year, the creditor's rights in hand have risen sharply, and now the scale has exceeded 15.7 billion Tang Yuan.

It is expected to be by the end of the year

It is possible to break through the 20 billion Tang Yuan mark, and the main debtor countries are Britain, France, Fuso, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and the Ottoman Empire, almost all over Europe, except for Tsarist Russia.

This is because the southward policy of Tsarist Russia really annoyed the Tang Empire, which imposed economic, industrial and financial sanctions on it and imposed a relatively comprehensive economic blockade.

Even if the European war broke out, it did not shake the Tang Empire's sanctions policy against Russia.

Britain, France and other countries have coordinated many times, but on this issue, the government of the Tang Empire has a very bad impression of Russia, and its policy has never broken the ice.

Helpless

Financial aid to Russia has always been led by the French, and franc loans account for more than 70% of Russia's total foreign loans, totaling more than 60 billion francs. (One says 10 billion francs, the other says 100 billion gold francs, and the other says more than 62 billion francs, which is basically reliable if you calculate the interest for several decades.) ）

In a few years, all this money will have to be wasted.

As soon as he thought of this, a hint of schadenfreude appeared on the corner of Richard's mouth.

This can't be blamed for his unkindness, it's really that the pit of Tsarist Russia is too deep, and the French and British don't want to be pitted, it's just disgraceful.

Britain, France and other countries have been crisscrossing the world for hundreds of years, and they have never suffered such a big loss.

When it comes to French loans to Russia, it has a history of 35 years, which can be traced back to the time of former German Prime Minister Bismarck.

After the formation of the "Triple Alliance" between Germany, Austria and Italy under the leadership of Prime Minister Bismarck, great strategic pressure was formed on France, forcing it to take the initiative to seek new allies.

Then

Due to their respective expansionist ambitions, Germany and Russia not only continued to deepen the existing contradictions, but also the tensions between Germany and Russia were exacerbated by new conflicts of economic interests.

Germany was originally the main market for Tsarist Russia's agricultural products and industrial raw materials, and its industrial products were mainly sold to Russia.

As early as 1879, Prime Minister Bismarck banned the import of Russian livestock under the pretext of quarantine. Immediately afterwards, Germany imposed a grain import tax, which dealt a heavy blow to Russia.

In order to confront Germany and make up for the emptiness of the treasury, Russia also introduced a new tax increase law, which sharply reduced the sales of German industrial products in Russia, which led to a rapid deterioration in German-Russian relations.

The French saw the opportunity, and in order to get out of the isolated situation, they used money to open the way to try their best to form a good alliance with Tsarist Russia and find a strong ally for themselves.

The rupture of Dezai created this opportunity for Russian-French collusion. In 1887 France appealed to Russia for an alliance.

The following year, France made its first loan of 500 million francs to a financially struggling Russia.

In 1889 two more contracts were renewed for a total of 1,900,000,000,000 francs. In the following years, a steady flow of French capital flowed into Russia, and a large number of franc loans contributed to the industrialization of Tsarist Russia, which deepened its dependence on French finances as a result of the lack of funds.

In 1888, Russia also ordered 500,000 rifles from France, all of which laid the foundation for an alliance between France and Russia.

In order to win over Tsarist Russia, a powerful ally, the French really spent a lot of money, and countless franc loans supported Tsarist Russia's industrialization process and invading armies.

It was during this period

Tsarist Russia invaded Central Asia on a large scale, completely annihilating several nomadic countries in Central Asia, including the Kokand Khanate, invaded Xinjiang, launched the Russo-Japanese War, launched the 10th Russo-Turkish War, and expanded its territory of millions of square kilometers.

Without the support of a huge franc loan, it would have been unimaginable.

Wanting to make the old man of Tsarist Russia sell his life, France paid a lot of money, and finally pulled it into the chariot of the Entente

The old man of Tsarist Russia has always borrowed but not repaid, and his credibility is a fart in the barbaric perception of the Russians, which is not a matter.

It's a joke, why should you pay back the money you borrowed based on your strength?

Richard now has the latest news;

Russia's backward economy was simply not enough to support such a large-scale war, and two months after the war began, Russia began to borrow money from Britain and France.

In order to allow Russia to continue to fight the war, Britain and France gritted their teeth and provided a large number of loans to Russia even though they still owed huge debts to the Tang Empire.

No way

The government of the Tang Empire did not bow to Tsarist Russia, the policy of financial blockade had not been lifted, and private banking consortia did not dare to issue war loans to Tsarist Russia.

If it violates the foreign financial policy of the Tang Empire, these rich and oily Chinese financial consortia will face complete liquidation at all times, and they will be beaten back to their original shape in minutes.

With such a big risk, no Chinese businessman dares to take a step beyond the thunder pool.

At the beginning of 1915, the Russian government was actually bankrupt, and in order to maintain the collapse of the Eastern Front, it tried to share the pressure of the German offensive on the Western Front.

Britain reluctantly agreed to provide a credit of £25 million a month to pay for Russian military orders. France also undertook part of the financial loans.

In the original world trajectory, until the end of the First World War

Britain lent Russia £568 million during the war, and France lent Russia 3.5 billion francs during the war. It was a war in which Britain and France paid for it, and Russia paid for it.

This is only government loans, and private loan sharks encouraged by countries such as Britain and France are not counted.

The tsarist government was corrupt and incompetent, and the backward economy was simply not enough to support a war of such magnitude.

The total expenditure of the First World War in Tsarist Russia amounted to 47 billion rubles, but the government's revenue was not enough to cover 1/10, and the domestic and foreign debts amounted to 42 billion rubles, most of which came from France.

In addition to borrowing heavily, Russia responded to its huge fiscal deficit by issuing paper money indiscriminately, and the circulation of the rupee in the summer of 1915 was 10 times that of 1914, which led to a sharp depreciation of the rupee.

Richard witnessed Britain and France jumping into the big pit of Tsarist Russia, he didn't squeak anyway, and watched the huge wealth of Britain and France drain away, and the Tang Empire made a lot of money.

Why?

Because the governments of Britain and France have long been unable to make ends meet because of the huge amount of war, they have relied on government credit to finance the major financial institutions and private consortia of the Tang Empire, including the eight royal funds.

The royal consortium led by the Eight Royal Funds of the Tang Empire has successively issued loans to Britain, France and other countries in just half a year, totaling no less than 3.3 billion Tang yuan.

A large number of British and French gold reserves were shipped to North America, and the total gold reserves of the Royal Oak Bank, the most powerful in the Tang Empire, have exceeded 2,170 tons, and there are three other banks with gold reserves of more than 1,000 tons, and a total of 9 banks with gold reserves of more than 500 tons.

Britain, France and other countries borrowed money from the major financial consortia of the Tang Empire, and then used the money to buy industrial and agricultural materials of the Tang Empire, which strongly promoted the economic growth and prosperity of the Tang Empire.

In the end, the money returned to the Tang Empire, and then the Tang Empire lent it to Britain, France and other Entente bloc countries, starting a new round of circulation, and so on.

This is like adding firewood to the bonfire of the economic development of the Tang Empire, so that the flame burns more and more vigorously.

How can you refuse such a good thing?

There is only one policy red line on the part of the Tang Empire, that is, it is strictly forbidden to develop finance, industry and trade with Tsarist Russia, and the measures of comprehensive sanctions against Russia have not been lifted.

Richard had 100 reasons to stay away from this big pit.