Chapter 714 Secret Appointment in the Honeymoon
George does not care whether the French are used to eating Russian pies. The purpose of the expo is to promote bulk commodity trade and show a brand new Russia to other countries.
Russia in the imperial era was full of chaos. On the one hand, it was the largest resource country in the world, and on the other hand, it imported a large amount of materials from European countries. Siberia claimed to have endless trees, but the Russian Empire still had to import goods from the United Kingdom. Imported wood is simply contrary to Tiangang.
The same goes for food. While Russia exports grains to Europe, it also imports butter and eggs from Europe. It seems that as long as it has something to do with industry, the Russians cannot do well.
This is actually not surprising.
Although Russia has abundant resources, its development efforts are seriously insufficient. Siberian timber is limited by high transportation costs and cannot reach St. Petersburg at all.
As for why transportation costs remain high, that is another question.
After the railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow was restored, transportation costs were cut in half compared to the Russian Empire. It was a miracle that Felix was still making money.
Felix estimates that after the Siberian Railway is fully reopened, transportation costs will drop by at least 60% compared to the Russian Empire, and Russia will no longer need to import timber from abroad.
Compared with the imperial Russian era, Russia’s export commodities have also undergone tremendous changes.
Before the outbreak of the World War, the Russian Empire was in financial difficulties. As of 1914, loans from France alone reached 11.3 billion francs.
As of the end of 1919, Russia's foreign debt owed a total of 18.5 billion rubles.
On December 19, Clemenceau led the French delegation to Constantinople.
Clemenceau is here to press for debt.
In one month, France will hold a presidential election. Clemenceau is very ambitious and hopes to be elected as the president of France and lead France to move forward.
If Russia pays off France's foreign debt, it will make Clemenceau's resume even more dazzling.
George settled accounts with Clemenceau.
Most of the money Russia owes France is bonds issued through the capital market. It owes money to the French, not the French government. This is completely different.
The money that Russia owes the French government has been almost repaid through barter trade during the World War.
Now the French government owes George money.
During the World War, France only purchased weapons and ammunition from Amur, with a total value of more than 11 billion rubles, and there is still a balance of about 2 billion rubles that has not been settled.
Seeing that there was no money left, Clemenceau immediately changed his strategy.
The situation in France is very dangerous now. It is expected that France will experience a large-scale economic recession within the next year.
In other words, it is an economic crisis.
Clemenceau wants to follow Russia's lead and use reconstruction to drive investment and restore the economy.
The problem is that the French government cannot come up with funds for reconstruction.
George suddenly realized that you were here to borrow money after doing this for a long time.
The situation in Russia is similar to that in France. The government has no money, but the capital has money.
Relative to French domestic reconstruction, French capital is more inclined to invest in Russian natural gas pipelines.
So since French capital invests in Russia’s reconstruction, why can’t Russian capital invest in France?
George wanted to vote.
But when he thought of World War II 20 years later, George's eyes immediately became clear.
This time, French lives were good. With the support of the Russian Empire, France survived.
If Clemenceau was smart, he should find ways to build a good relationship with Russia now so that Russia would continue to take the blame for France in 20 years.
This 20 years was not said by George, but by French Marshal Foch.
After the signing of the "Contract of Versailles", Foch was full of pessimism that the "Contract of Versailles" would not bring peace at all, but a 20-year armistice agreement.
When the next generation of Germans grow up, the Germans will definitely retaliate against the Allies for their perfidy.
Now I can see some clues.
Representing Germany at the expo is Prince Carl, George’s old friend.
Compared with Clemenceau, Prince Karl is much more frank. Not only did he sign a trade agreement with Russia early, but he also bought a lot of Russian bonds on behalf of the German Junkers aristocratic group.
Amazingly, Germany, which had run out of gas during the World War, still had money to buy Russian bonds——
This is not surprising.
It is the German government that is running out of gas, not the Juncker aristocratic group.
Karl even said that if Russia is willing to deepen cooperation with Germany, Germany can provide loans to Russia.
The cooperative approach is also very beneficial to Russia.
The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany was not allowed to develop military industry.
After signing the Treaty of Versailles, Friedrich Ebert, the first president of the Weimar government, said worriedly: If they take away all our weapons, once war breaks out again, our children will You can pick up a stick and fight them.
Just as Foch was worried, almost all Germans believed that Germany lost the war not because of the war, but because it was deceived by Wilson's "Fourteen Points" and betrayed by the Allies.
In addition to increasing the import of grain from Russia, Carl also wanted to test George's attitude during this trip.
Just before that, the famous Krupp had moved part of its arsenal to Denmark.
Although Krupp can continue to produce weapons, it cannot be shipped back to Germany. It can only retain part of its production capacity and does not fundamentally solve the problem.
Karl hopes to open a factory in Russia and send technical personnel and hire military officers to Russia in the name of foreign workers. There is no problem in sending technical personnel. Although the German ruling class is arrogant, German technical personnel are still quite reliable, especially those in the military industry.
When the World War broke out, Germany had few aircraft and few armored fighting vehicles.
At the end of the World War, Germany's aircraft production reached more than 1,000 aircraft per month.
This is also because Germany lacks raw materials, otherwise the output would be higher.
The progress of German automobiles is also rapid. Although it is not as good as Russia, it has surpassed France and is on par with the United States.
George was worried about the hired officers.
What Karl meant was to maintain the German officer group from being affected by the Treaty of Versailles by sending officers to Russia.
Although Carl vowed never to go to war with Russia again, George knew the future direction.
Carl may be sincere, the mustache is not related to George.
After all, this matter was of great importance, and George decided to brainstorm ideas.
"This is simply great! We should do our best to help the Germans regain their strength."
Little Nikolai healed his scars and forgot about the pain. He never thought that Russia might also be counterattacked.
“When cooperating with the Germans, we must be careful about raising tigers.”
Igor is scheming and thinks about defeat before winning.
“As long as we don’t make mistakes ourselves, we can naturally make the Germans retreat in spite of difficulties.”
Felix’s insistence on development is the last word.
“This may be conducive to our penetration into Germany.”
Guchkov, who has escaped from death, has completely darkened. The things he did in the past may be to please him. George, in the future——
It can only be said that subjective initiative is terrible.
"If the Germans can pay a sufficient price, that's not a bad idea."
Witt was curious and wondered how much more money could be squeezed out of the Germans.
The cumulative amount of Russian bonds purchased by the Germans some time ago has exceeded 150 million gold marks.
Karl promised that Germany could also provide Russia with an interest-free loan of 300 million gold marks as long as George was willing to help.
What George was thinking about was not how much money could be squeezed out of the Germans, but what he wanted to do was break the colonial system established by Britain and France through Germany.
With the development of Russia's economy, Russian industry's demand for overseas markets will be increasing.
The Commonwealth is self-contained, and it is difficult for Russian industrial products to enter the Commonwealth market.
The French colonies also had no need for Russian industrial products.
Since the end of the World War, the United States has begun to call America the America of Americans, making it clear that it will continue to pursue the Monroe Doctrine.
Although Russia still has huge influence in the Balkans, Korea and Japan have their own small thoughts, and Dongda is in a civil war, who would dislike the large market.
"How many workers are expected to return to Korea and Japan next year?"
George wants to fight for more benefits for Russia and squeeze out every bit of German surplus value.
“It’s hard to say now, but Goryeo’s call for us to withdraw our troops is getting louder and louder, and the King and government of Goryeo have not yet expressed their stance.”
Witt is still so naive, and not taking a stand is in itself a statement.
After the Sino-Japanese War, Russia has been stationing troops in Goryeo to protect Goryeo's security.
Li Tuo probably feels now that Goryeo has obtained hundreds of thousands of elite troops from Russia through the world war and no longer needs Russian protection.
Thinking further, since Russia and Britain have begun to withdraw their troops from Japan, Korea may also be able to embark on the path of expansion.
Coincidentally, the Japanese think so too.
So it’s hard to say how many workers will return to Russia next year.
George decided to increase cooperation with Germany.
When Germany surrendered, there were still more than 2 million troops capable of fighting.
Germany has not yet begun to rebuild. There is not enough food in the country and there has been famine for years. Bringing the German army to Russia in the name of workers not only reduces the pressure on Germany, but also provides more labor for Russia's construction, killing two birds with one stone.
As for training officers for Germany, this is actually not a problem.
The biggest feature of Russia is that it cannot be killed if it has a thick health bar. Napoleon failed to conquer Russia back then, and George did not think Mustache had the ability to conquer Russia.
If Mustache hadn't seen Russia's performance in the Soviet-Finnish War being too poor, he would not have dared to take action against Russia.
George really wanted to see how far Guderian and Rommel could go in this time and space.
On December 25, Witte signed the "Constantinople Agreement" with Karl on behalf of Russia.
There are 14 items in the agreement. Only the first 6 items can be made public. The second half is a secret agreement and will not be made public.
(End of this chapter)