Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 157: 17) Loan

Consider that twenty years ago, the Franco-Prussian War caused France more than 20 billion francs of economic losses. With more than 5 billion francs of war reparations to be paid, the usurious empire did not wait to breathe, to pay back.

The German attempt to use the war reparations to drag across France was just beginning to end!

After the war, there was another bourgeois revolution in France, a firefight, still have can come up with enough money to restore vitality, you can see the old empire's bottom.

Ferdinand turned his attention to France. The main reason is that after the Franco-Prussian War, the newly established French Republic moved on the road to the usury empire!

The second is the existence of the Russian-Bulgarian alliance and the Franco-Russian alliance. In the international arena, Bulgaria has been tacitly recognized as Russia's sphere of influence. Even if the conditions proposed will mostly be within the economic scope, France is unlikely to destroy the Franco-Russian relations for Bulgaria!

At the end of the 19th century, when they established the Franco-Russian alliance, the French needed the Russians much more than the Russians needed the French, so in the international arena, many times, the French had to take into account the Russian attitude!

Until 1905, the Russian Empire was in its prime, the Franco-Russian alliance held down the Triple Alliance, and the British position was biased in favor of the Germans.

It was not until the Russo-Japanese War that the weak nature of the Russian Empire was exposed and the power of the two sides was reversed and different. In order to suppress the rising Germans, the British balanced the continent's foreign policy changed and joined the Entente.

Ferdinand also knew that, even so, the loan to France was not so simple! The French are not a charity society. The conditions attached to it are absolutely inevitable!

"Now what is the government's financial deficit for the next three years that adds up to?" Ferdinand asked.

Minister of Finance Kennedy's face changed, and he was tempted to say, 'Your Highness, you're not following the usual rules! Under normal circumstances, shouldn't you ask what the current fiscal gap is?'

Kennedy mentally calculated a moment and said with some hesitation: "Your Highness, this year's fiscal deficit is about 50 million Leva, next year and the year after, the preliminary estimate will be between 150 million Leva and 200 million Leva!

All of this is based on the case that the government is going after it, and there are no new big construction projects, and there is no war!"

Ferdinand nodded. In fact, the 'Second Five-Year Plan' period is the most difficult period for Bulgaria's finances. Once passed, the government's revenue will increase exponentially!

Moreover, there was a "Bulgarian-Serbian war", which increased the war expenses and expanded the scope of the 'Second Five-Year Plan'. The financial expenditure will naturally go up!

If one considers the coming 'Greek-Turkish War', Ferdinand also wanted to make a snake swallow an elephant, so it would be possible to spend an astronomical amount of money on the war!

After thinking about it, Ferdinand asked, "So if, in the meantime, we had a war with the Ottoman Empire, taking into account the war expenses, what would be our financial shortfall?"

The crowd's faces changed slightly. They knew Ferdinand was planning a war with the Ottoman Empire. Looking at the Minister of Finance with a blank face, Ferdinand knew he had slipped up!

Even if you want to calculate the war funding, you must get the military first, follow the strategic plan, the scale of the war, the number of people mobilized, etc., a series of complex factors to calculate!

Nothing is known, even the scale of the war is a local conflict, or full-scale war has not yet been determined, and it is too difficult for the Ministry of Finance to calculate the war expenses.

Ferdinand grinned and added: "Of course, I'm not asking you to tell me now. When it comes down to your Ministry of Finance and General Staff in touch, estimate a rough figure and report it to me!

In addition, the Prime Minister's government must now do a good job in advance of the strategic material reserves. It must be done so that in the event of an emergency, we have a strategic reserve that can support 300,000 troops and continue to fight for more than a year!"

Konstantin was first stunned, then he reacted instantly and stammered, "Your Highness ~ I'm afraid there are difficulties with this! We are already working on war preparations, but the government is in financial difficulties and we still lack sufficient funds!"

Well, the final difficulty still comes back to the word 'money'! In fact, without a detailed budget, Ferdinand can also roughly define Bulgaria's next shortage of funds. In order to detonate the Balkan war in advance, ensure victory, and take into account the domestic construction, it is impossible to fight without 400 to 500 million Leva!

Ferdinand thought about it and then said without question, "In that case, the Ministry of Finance contact the national banking groups, talk about the terms of borrowing, this time the shortage of funds is too large, or be prepared to borrow from the countries!"

Ferdinand's monarch mind is becoming quite good, and now he can do it quickly, hiding his mind at will.

Though the decision has been made to get a loan from France, no sign of tendency has been shown.

As prime minister, Konstantin is the most obvious sense, he has clearly found that Ferdinand's authority is gaining strength, and many times once a decision is made, it will not allow people to change.

It is both good and bad!

The good side of it can increase the awe of the people under them. The bad side of it is easy just to use themself, which is also a common problem of the monarch!

What the final result will be, no one can say anymore. Ferdinand's order, anyway, was carried out quickly.

Since the Berlin Conference of 1878, the Balkan states have turned their prying eyes to the European part of the Ottoman Empire.

Austria-Hungary was the first to include Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia have added their tentacles to the Macedonian region, with all three governments expanding their schools and churches in a big way.

Bulgaria was at the forefront in this regard. From the end of the 19th century, they spent twenty-five percent of the Bulgarian government's revenues on work in the Macedonian region.

In 1885, three hundred and six schools were established in the Macedonian region; in 1890, the number increased to eight hundred and seventy-one. On the other hand, Serbia and Greece had just over two hundred schools by the end of 1890 and were left far behind by the Bulgarians.

At the same time, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia were all engaged in a fierce struggle with the Church over the schools founded by such ecclesiastical schools, which were generally organized by the consuls of the three countries and supervised by them!

During this period, the Serbs openly promoted the idea of Macedonian national separatism due to the fear of the Bulgarian monopoly of the Macedonian region.

The main reason why Serbia was so eager to expand was the pressure from Austria-Hungary.