Chapter 532 Gold

Amid the relative calm in the international community, time quickly came to 1

During this period, the war in Russia was very anxious. The two warring parties fought fiercely around Poland, Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia. Three battles broke out in the battle for Kiev, which was successively occupied by the Polish army, the Soviet army and the intervention army.

The World Alliance also once again increased its assistance to Tsarist Russia, and even Hungary, which had just become independent, joined the intervention force.

Although it seems that the World Alliance has done its best to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union, if you have a deeper understanding of the huge benefits that the Russian Civil War has brought to the World Alliance, you will not actually think so.

Even Nicholas II and the Tsarist government, who had not seen it before, were clearly aware of the ambitions of the World Alliance, especially Britain and France. Their assistance was not free. After all, the Russian Civil War could bring greater consequences to the World Alliance. Only by doing so can many countries still have enough income when the Great Economic Recession comes.

1. St. Petersburg, Imperial Conference of the Tsarist Government.

Although he avoided the risk of being overthrown in World War I, Nicholas II was not in good condition.

Because of the worries of the civil war, Nicholas II had many more wrinkles on his face, and many of his hair had turned gray. He looked more than ten years older than a few years ago.

Although he is only 52 years old, he is at the peak of his political career. But Nicholas II looked very old, like an old man in his sixties or seventies.

The civil war has progressed to this point, and it is no longer something that either Soviet Russia or Tsarist Russia can stop if they want.

The civil war in Russia has given other countries a sense of business opportunities, and it is related to their own interests. It is impossible for other countries to support Russia in ending the civil war.

Russia's minerals, assets, and even the population and the wealth accumulated by the empire over hundreds of years were all used as mortgages and exchanges for loans by Nicholas II, allowing Tsarist Russia to persist from the beginning of the civil war to the present.

According to the imperfect statistics of Tsarist Russia, since the civil war, Tsarist Russia's financial expenditure has reached more than one billion pounds, and its financial debt has reached about 2 billion pounds. The country's finances are not far away from collapse.

If it were not for the assistance from the World Alliance from time to time, and if Nicholas II used his family's century-old savings as a mortgage, I am afraid that the tsarist government would have collapsed financially before it collapsed.

In order to win this war, Nicholas II did everything he could. Some capitalists and nobles who opposed Nicholas II had their homes confiscated by Nicholas II and all their properties were used in this war. 【】

This also caused many nobles to flee abroad. After all, no one wanted the money their family had worked so hard to save to disappear in an instant.

The properties and industries held by the Romanov family, including government-owned properties, are basically on the sale list of Tsarist Russia.

If you have money, you can not only buy factories and minerals in Tsarist Russia, but you can even buy state-owned enterprises, including oil and military factories.

Although military factories can play a good role in the war, judging from Russia's current situation, it simply cannot organize manpower for production.

What's more, military factory production also requires supporting systems, but Russia's industry has completely collapsed so far, and it is almost impossible to reopen the military factories.

What's even more terrible is that compared with the losses of industry, the losses of this civil war to Russian agriculture were a huge blow.

1. With an output of about 100,000, it is a large grain-producing country in terms of the total scale of grain production.

But last year, the total output dropped sharply to less than half, and Russian civilians did not have enough to eat. More than one-third of Russian civilians were in food crisis, and hundreds of thousands or even millions of Russians starved to death every year.

If Nicholas II had not bought a large amount of grain from Australasia and Europe, I am afraid that the sharp decline in Russia's population would have been an extremely exaggerated figure.

To be honest, most of the civil wars were fought in the west of Central Europe, in Poland and Ukraine.

Otherwise, the blow to Russian agriculture would be even more fatal. At that time, Russia was not even a major agricultural country, and food imports were not enough to save Russia's situation.

The combined grain production of Poland and Ukraine only accounts for one-ninth of Russia's grain production, and grain cultivation can still be carried out in other vast and lush areas.

This means that the Russian people have a great cause. Like Hungary, although the civil war lasted very short, it only lasted for more than three months.

But more than three months dealt a fatal blow to Hungary's agriculture, and the grain output in the year of the civil war was cut in half.

There is no way, who makes Hungary have a smaller land area. The civil war had already summoned a large number of farmers. The war also had an impact on agricultural production, and it was natural that food production would be reduced.

It is worth mentioning that long before the invention of the automobile, Russia was one of the important exporters of oil.

As the price of oil gets higher and higher, Russia has indeed made a fortune from oil exports, increasing its foreign exchange earnings. ♙♦

But after the civil war broke out, Russian oil could not be shipped out, so it was naturally impossible to earn revenue for the Russian government.

Even in order to raise loans, Nicholas II has sold the mining rights of several important domestic oil fields in recent years. The sales targets include not only Australasia, but also Britain, France and some European countries.

Although the mining rights are only sold for a few years, there are no restrictions on the scale of oil field exploration.

This actually means that if there are enough oil extraction equipment, other countries can exploit oil frantically in Russia in the past few years, and the Russian government will not receive any income.

The Russians should be thankful that Arthur has no plans to expose the oil fields in the Persian Gulf for the time being. Otherwise, the discovery of a large number of oil fields is bound to cause the price of oil to drop sharply. Even if the Russians want to auction the mining rights of the oil fields, the loan amount they receive will not be too high.

"Prime Minister, when will the next batch of aid from the World Alliance arrive? How much money does the government have? Can it support us in launching the entire summer offensive?" Nicholas II rubbed his brow and looked at his own A confidant, the current Prime Minister of the Tsarist Government.

The so-called summer offensive is actually a plan for a major counterattack jointly discussed by the World Alliance Intervention Force Headquarters, Poland, and Tsarist Russia.

As early as the initial independence of Poland, Nicholas II disagreed. But there was no way. The current situation in Russia simply could not bear the loss of foreign aid. Nicholas II had to bow his head, hold his nose and recognize Poland's independence.

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Of course, this is not necessarily good or bad news for Tsarist Russia. In addition to not being able to obtain a complete territory after winning the civil war, Tsarist Russia can still have one more ally in the current civil war.

Moreover, Poland's location is also very important. One is to the west and the other is to the north of St. Petersburg. Coupled with Kiev, which was captured by the World Alliance, Moscow is in a situation of being surrounded, and an encirclement circle has been formed.

The summer offensive was a comprehensive siege of Moscow by the three armies, striving to capture all Soviet troops in the jar and quickly end this civil war.

"According to news from Britain and France, a new batch of weapons and equipment assistance should arrive in two weeks." The Prime Minister responded: "Domestic finance is a big problem. More than 60% of our annual fiscal revenue is used in the war. The remaining 10% was spent on the purchase of supplies. Only 20% was used to maintain the operation of the government and other things. The funds of various departments have been reduced to the lowest point. Sooner or later, if this continues, it will be a hidden danger. If we can get another loan, maybe we can Make it through the summer.”

The financial situation of Russia as a whole is not very good, let alone Russia, which is currently divided into four parts (Soviet Russia, Tsarist Russia, Poland, and Ukraine).

Although there are aids from other countries and a large number of loans, Russia's current finances can only be described in one sentence, that is, gritting one's teeth and persisting.

If any foreign loan is canceled in the meantime, Russia's finances will have no room for turnover, and bankruptcy is inevitable.

"Yes." Nicholas II nodded silently and hummed slightly to show that he understood.

After thinking for a long time, he sighed and said: "I will solve the funding problem and strive for at least a loan of 20 million pounds. Prime Minister, with this, can the government last until the end of the summer offensive?"

"If there are 20 million pounds, of course it will be no problem, Your Majesty." The Prime Minister nodded hurriedly, fearing that Nicholas II would regret it.

That night, the Russian ambassador to Australasia urgently asked to see Arthur and explained his purpose.

Arthur still received the ambassador of Tsarist Russia, looked at the new ambassador of Tsarist Russia Levgeny with a little curiosity, and asked: "Is there anything urgent about His Majesty Nicholas?"

"Your Majesty! Russia needs your support!" the Russian ambassador said in a very sincere tone, neither humble nor overbearing.

"Support? Didn't you receive weapons and equipment from Australasia? The latest weapons and equipment should have arrived last month, right?" Arthur seemed stunned for a moment and asked incredulously.

"We have received the weapons and equipment, Your Majesty, but Russia needs more support." The Tsarist Russian ambassador quickly explained.

"We are planning a new offensive, and the government's funds are dwarfed by them. For the sake of the friendship between Australia and Russia, Your Majesty, please approve a batch of loans to help the Russian government alleviate its urgent needs." The Russian ambassador continued.

Seeing that he was here to ask for a loan, Arthur did not refuse and said with a smile: "Mr. Ambassador, you should understand. If you want to seek a national loan, you should go to the government instead of me. If you need For private loans, I will be happy to introduce you to the heads of major banks in Australasia, but you still need to discuss the specific loan matters in person."

The long period of assistance made Arthur understand that Tsarist Russia was like a helpless man and it was basically impossible to win this civil war.

This also means that there is a certain danger in Australasia lending to Tsarist Russia.

Before Nicholas II had any convincing collateral, Arthur would not be stupid enough to take the initiative to give the Russian government a loan. Therefore, kicking the ball is the best way.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with what Arthur said. I am willing to introduce you to the person in charge of the bank. Whether you can get a loan depends on your own ability and eloquence.

"Your Majesty, His Majesty the Tsar once said that Australasia and Russia have been related countries at any time, and we have good relations. This is why I came to you.

If His Majesty is willing to lend, we can use the mining rights of the oil fields as collateral for five to ten years. ” continued the Tsarist Ambassador’s persuasion.

Arthur remains unmoved. It is useless to play emotional cards between national interests, and Russia's oil field exploration rights cannot attract Arthur at all.

Just kidding, aren’t the oil fields in the Persian Gulf better than those in Russia? You must know that when Russian oil fields are developed, relevant oil pipelines need to be built to transport them overseas at a lower cost.

Otherwise, the cost of transportation and refining alone is far more than the cost of importing oil from other countries. Why would Russia’s oil mining rights be used?

What's more, it's hard to say who will dominate Russia in the future. If Soviet Russia wins the final victory, will it still recognize the oil exploration rights in Australasia? I'm afraid not necessarily.

After seeing that all kinds of words could not move Arthur, the Tsarist Russian ambassador got down to the topic and said: "Your Majesty, His Majesty the Tsar is willing to use a batch of gold in exchange for a large loan from Australasia. If His Majesty is willing, we can Discuss in detail the quantity of this gold.”

At this point, Arthur nodded.

This makes it very clear that the Russians' ultimate goal should be to exchange gold for loans. The various emotional cards and other requests above are just tests. After all, it is definitely better to exchange loans at the lowest price. , no one is willing to sell the gold in their hands directly.

You know, the current monetary system of most countries still uses the gold standard, and the value of gold is still very high.

Basically, the amount of gold reserves a country has determines how much currency the country can print.

Although the printing of currency can be unlimited, printing an unbalanced amount of currency and the gold ratio can easily lead to the collapse of the paper currency system. Generally, no other country will do this.

After all, gold can still be accumulated through other channels, but if the credit of paper money completely collapses, it will not be easy to recover it.

At any time, gold is a country’s hard currency. A certain big country also has a proverb that antiques in prosperous times are worth gold in troubled times, which is enough to prove how precious gold is in times of relative chaos.

Although Nicholas II had used gold to trade with Australasia many times, the total amount was only a few hundred tons. There was still a big gap between the amount of gold in the Tsar's treasures and the rumors of later generations. Arthur was still looking forward to whether the so-called Tsar's treasure was real.

That’s it for today. I’m a little dizzy after drinking. Tomorrow will be even better! Please vote for me and support me!