Chapter 815: crisis

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St. Petersburg, since receiving news of the French ranch plan, there has been little smile on Alexander III's face.
Now that I have received news that the British Parliament passed the Food Self-Sufficiency Plan, I can imagine how Alexander III was feeling.
There is no way that grain exports are too important for the Russian Empire. Not only accounts for the largest proportion of the country ’s foreign exchange income, but also involves the livelihoods of tens of millions of people.
Since the completion of the agricultural reforms of Alexander II, the Russian Empire has fallen into the predicament of oversupply of grain. Except for the years of the Russo-Prussian War, the tsarist government had to worry about the sale of grain every year.
This is related to a decree during the period of Alexander II.
At that time, in preparation for the Second Russian-Russian War, the government needed to raise military food, and it just happened to catch up with the agricultural crisis. The non-selling non-governmental people had no money to pay taxes. Alexander II ordered farmers to pay taxes with food.
This policy allowed the tsarist government to raise enough military food in the shortest time and laid the foundation for winning the second Russian-Russian war.
The sequelae is that the tsarist government receives a large amount of grain every year, especially in remote areas, where almost all farmers pay grain tax.
It is impossible to change it back. Transportation in Russia is very bad. Food in remote areas can't be sold at all, and in some areas it can't even be sold. It's far better to pay in kind directly.
If this decree were to be abolished, it would be against tens of millions of peasants, and this kind of thing Alexander III dared not do.
If there were so many grains in the hands of the Tsarist government decades ago, the gods and gods would have been killed and swept away by the Buddha.
It is a pity that different from the past, what the current tsarist government wants most is to monetize the grain.
Don't think about it at home, the price of grain in the market itself is not high. If so much grain is released, the grain market must collapse.
Internationally, there is also surplus grain production capacity, coupled with political factors, Russia's grain export road is not smooth.
If it were not for Austria to take the lead in the Food Export Alliance, everyone would reduce the amount of food exports and stabilize the price of food. It is estimated that the international market would have been broken for a long time.
After the international food prices stabilized, the tsarist government was only a little relieved to share their share, but in fact it was still unable to digest the food the government received every year.
Of course, the rest is not wasted. The Tsarist government also thought of many ways, such as: raising livestock, making wine ...
The former naturally failed and it was easy to raise animals, but unfortunately it was difficult to sell them.
The domestic market looks very big, but it is a pity that ordinary people are poor, and it is not easy to fill up their stomachs, and they simply cannot afford it.
Although the international market is larger, the problem is that it is difficult to transport live animals, they cannot be kept fresh after slaughter, and cured meat cannot be sold in the international market.
Originally, food safety has been a serious problem these years. If we hear the words "produced by Russia", it is estimated that 99% of consumers will be scared away.
This is the brand effect, and Russian food is so reassuring.
Other countries export food, but there may be problems; while Russia exports food, basically there are problems.
This is the conclusion drawn by the European people through their own experience.
In order to change this image, the tsarist government has also made efforts, but all of them have been eliminated by the joint efforts of bureaucrats and capitalists.
For details, you can refer to the sales of meat products on the Russian market. Those with high prices are imported goods, and those made in China cannot be sold.
However, whenever the economic situation permits, everyone will buy more reassuring imported food. Not only meat products, but also flour.
Even if many people know that these flours are wheat produced in Russia and exported to Austria, the same will be the case when the processing is completed and then sold back. Everyone would rather pay a higher price to be assured.
As a result of the development of animal husbandry, in the end, farmers in the border areas have benefited and they can rush their animals to the next Austrian market.
Industrial development should not be expected, because these animals were labeled from the beginning-imported from Russia.
Once the inherent cognition is formed, it is not so easy to change.
With this label, this part of the meat product has no market in Austria. Many were processed into cured meat and canned food, and finally returned to the Russian market.
Compared with the thriving of the aquaculture industry, the wine-making business of the Tsarist government is booming. It is now Europe's largest wine supplier and sells cheap wine.
It's really cheap, even if someone wants to follow suit. Because according to the price of grain in the market, after these grain wines are sold, they are not enough to recover the cost.
Of course, "cheap" is not enough to make the Russians the largest supplier of alcohol in Europe. What is more important is that the Russian Empire itself is the largest alcohol consumer in Europe.
Austria, with a similar population, consumes less than half of the Russian Empire ’s alcohol consumption each year. If you calculate alcohol consumption, this gap will be even greater.
In a sense, the overcapacity of grain has promoted the development of the alcoholic culture of the Russian people and made the "land of wine barrels" deserved.
This is all forced out, and the Tsarist government is not willing to be so extravagant, but it can't be piled up in the warehouse and rotted without bringing the extra food into the wine for cash!
It took some time to dispose of the surplus grain, and now Britain and France have started tossing again.
Although the impact is not significant in the short term, once their plan becomes a reality, the Tsarist government ’s largest foreign exchange earning project is completely gone.
The gloomy Alexander III asked: "The British Parliament has passed the food self-sufficiency plan, regardless of our withdrawal from the free trade system, so who can tell me what the Austrians are doing?"
This is a very obvious problem. The British Parliament was able to pass the proposal so smoothly, and the Austrian government certainly did not do its utmost to prevent it.
With Austrian influence, even if it is impossible to influence the British decision-making, it will be no problem to delay it in Parliament for a period of time.
Combined with what happened during this time, Alexander III had reason to suspect that the Austrian government had secretly traded with Britain and France, betraying the interests of the Russian Empire.
Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez: "Your Majesty, the Government of Vienna recently issued an announcement on agricultural upgrading.
According to the above, Austria will reduce in the next five years: 5% of wheat planting area, 3% of potato planting area ... in response to a new round of agricultural crisis.
If this plan is fully realized, their domestic market will be enough to consume domestic grain production capacity, and basically get rid of dependence on the international market. "
In fact, Franz was forced to do so. Needless to say, the importance of food, if he can monopolize the food export market, he will die even if he loses money.
Unfortunately, Austria does not now have the conditions to monopolize grain exports.
Even though it occupies the largest share in the international agricultural product export market and its market share is almost monopolized, this dominant position is not stable.
To consolidate the hegemony, we must first suppress several grain-producing countries, especially the Russian Empire next door.
The international situation is changing. Today, Britain, France, and Russia are still enemies, and tomorrow they may become friends.
With the Russians' own capabilities, it is not a problem to want to develop the agricultural products processing industry, but it is different with external support.
In case one day the Russians and the French or the British reached an agreement to attract a group of British and French capitalists to run over and invest.
The result of serious agricultural products processing factories in coastal cities is serious. After all: "Advanced technology + cheap industrial raw materials + cheap labor + vast market = success."
Encountered such a combination, Austria can only passively follow the price war, relying on financial resources to hurt people.
Knowing that the "money road" was dim and involved the interests of tens of millions of peasants, Franz was naturally impossible to be arrogant, so he drove on this road of no return.
In order to minimize losses, it is natural to promote the transformation of domestic agriculture before overturning the table.
In this era of rapid technological development, reducing the area planted with grain does not mean reducing the total grain production capacity. These are two completely different concepts.
Of course, it seems to the outside world that the Vienna government is poor in technology and has no choice but to reduce food production capacity to cope with the subsequent agricultural crisis.
With a bang, the coffee cup in front of Alexander III had already flown out. Austria is now retreating, which is not good for the Russian Empire.
Since grain production can be retreated, so can the agricultural product processing industry. Once Britain and France are truly self-sufficient in food, Austria can also abandon this part of their interests.
With the continuous development of the economy, the proportion of agricultural products processing industry in Austria's domestic economy is getting lower and lower.
Moreover, the loss of some foreign markets does not mean that the agricultural product processing industry is finished. What is really affected is some raw grain processing enterprises such as flour mills.
Other agricultural and sideline products processing enterprises are basically not affected. For the entire agricultural products processing industry, it is actually not very big.
It is the Russian raw material exporter who is really unlucky. After all, the processing enterprises can transform and pass on the losses, but the tsarist government has no way to pass the losses on.
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