Blackstone Code Chapter 765: Borrowing money to live
When the emperor said he would use the treasury to deal with the current crisis, the first person to come forward was not the Prime Minister, nor the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the Minister of Defense.
His Majesty the Emperor did not immediately argue with him, but looked at the others. He needed to find out if the attitudes and positions of each of these ministers had changed.
When his eyes touched the Minister of War, the Minister of War met his gaze with some hesitation, "Your Majesty, I have the same opinion as the Minister of Defense. The end of the year is coming soon."
"The end of the year?", the corner of His Majesty's mouth twitched, "What happened at the end of the year?"
He knew this was just an excuse, and he felt a sense of urgency. Only an emperor who had a firm grip on power was the real emperor.
Those emperors who didn't seize all power were just a puppet. Although he was not a puppet that could be manipulated by people at will, he was very angry when he saw that these people always opposed his ideas. .
The anger did not show on his face, neither his expression nor his tone of voice seemed to contain anger.
A little indifferent, a little indifferent.
The Minister of War showed some embarrassment on his face, and he said softly, "In order to uniformly distribute pensions for soldiers who died in battle in the second half of the year, the troops stationed in the local area need to be replaced with the local troops, and the ordnance also needs to be maintained, plus some Change of gear..."
One sentence made His Majesty the Emperor, who was still thinking of refuting the Minister of War, shut his mouth. He remained silent for a long time. There was not a single sound in the ruler's hall, and even his breathing was so weak that he could not hear it.
Yes, pensions are due.
The number of soldiers killed in Amelia is now almost catching up with the number of soldiers killed in the world war. These wastes will die when they die. His Majesty thinks that they are wasting food if they don't die.
Holding the Empire's most advanced standard weapons and enjoying the most perfect logistics, it turned out that they couldn't defeat a group of armed civilians!
But no matter how much he hates these armies, he must face this unavoidable problem.
Although they were trash, they gave their lives for the country.
According to the current pension system implemented by the Gafra Empire, they need to pay a one-time death pension of 3,500 yuan to the family of each fallen soldier, and then pay an additional salary every quarter. .
The salary standard is based on 80% of the current military rank salary. This money will be paid for three to six years. It can be regarded as helping these families who have sacrificed their families to get through the most difficult time at the beginning.
This is not a small expense, and in addition to this expense, there are other military expenditures, which are a headache.
His Majesty's head started to hurt again. He endured the pain and looked at the others, "Who else wants to say something?"
He looks at the others to see if anyone else wants to contradict him.
The results were disappointing, or in other words, as he expected, and others expressed different opinions.
The one who stood up was the Minister of Construction. He bowed slightly to show respect for the emperor, but standing up was the greatest disrespect to the emperor.
The emperor looked at him calmly, but he did not hesitate to oppose the emperor's idea, "Your Majesty, many reconstruction projects are underway in Ameria, and after the spring, there may be a need to raise money as soon as possible. Money for spring sowing.”
"In addition to these, the reconstruction of the city, the reconstruction and repair of important public facilities and military facilities, all require a lot of money."
"If we use the money that is left in the treasury, it is very likely that the development of the province of Ameria will be slowed down, and there may even be a back-and-forth on some policy issues."
"The local people are desperate for some good changes, and if we can't make everything happen quickly, it may lead to a second round of confrontation."
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is not nonsense either. The shift in the focus of the empire's development is also one of the most central contradictions between the emperor and the aristocracy, the privileged ruling class and the middle and lower classes of society.
Under such great pressure to develop Amelia, if the financial support for that side is temporarily suspended now, it is very likely that the situation that has been improved will start to erode again.
Backwardness and poverty are the biggest incentives for people to take risks. Once the local development cannot keep up, people have no expectations for the future, and they are in a state of insufficient food and clothing, and some of them are very likely to suffer They will again be tempted by external forces to form or join a resistance organization.
Besides, the investment in Amelia has been so large in recent years, and it is impossible to lose the chain at this time. These words of the Minister of Construction are indeed factors that need to be considered.
His Majesty the Emperor knew that he was right, but he was still unhappy.
He said, "There is also a shortage of money here, and there is also a shortage of money there. If it really doesn't work, let's issue another batch of currency..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Prime Minister raised an objection. Whether or not this is the emperor's temptation, at this time, the Prime Minister must come forward.
He has already mastered a certain amount of initiative. If he still doesn't say anything, do nothing, and don't express his position, like a mascot, then the nobles around him will be a little worried.
Worrying that their imaginary "prime minister's ambition" is not the same as the prime minister's real "ambition" is a terrible guess, with even more terrible consequences.
So at this point, the Prime Minister knew what to say.
"Your Majesty, it is not suitable to issue additional currency now..."
The emperor looked at the Prime Minister with a blank expression, "Tell me what you think."
The Prime Minister's face is tilted downward, which is a kind of promise, "The current run on our economy has caused turbulence in our economy, and the reason for these turbulence is the shortage of currency circulating in society."
"Actually, this problem was buried four years ago."
"When we fully take over the Ameria region, we should first issue an additional batch of currencies to meet the needs of market circulation."
"A whole province, more than a dozen cities, and a population of eight million, we forget that the shortage of space and people created by these will affect the local economic order."
“If we now issue more currency to allow everyone to receive their deposits, rapid currency depreciation will exacerbate market volatility and destabilize the market structure, and people will question us.”
“In principle, I fully agree to issue additional currency to deal with the new domestic and international situation. At the same time, we should be more cautious about issuing additional currency. At least at present, it is not suitable to do so when the external economy is damaged!”
Indeed, a lot of the raw materials in Gevra are currently imported. After the devaluation of the currency, people need to spend more money to import the same amount of raw materials in the past.
It will have a great impact on some industries that rely on imported raw materials, and some of them may directly experience losses from profits.
The same is true of people's lives. To print and distribute enough currency to cope with this run-on trend will inevitably lead to a rapid rise in market prices. People who could have enough to eat will soon be able to eat only 70% full.
Those who are not hungry will soon start starving.
The wages paid by the factory cannot support each family, and if the factory owner pays too much, there will be losses, so the Prime Minister will definitely not agree with His Majesty the Emperor's plan.
If he wants to hold power, he can't be too "stupid", the system of the Gafra Empire will not allow a mediocre and stupid prime minister to be in phase.
This is different from the Commonwealth. In the Commonwealth, it doesn't matter if the president is a fool. They have a whole system to keep the government running the way it was before, but Gefra can't.
He wanted to show his "integrity" by opposing the emperor, in order to gain the support of the people.
Fighting against the imperial power is not a simple matter, nobility and public opinion are indispensable.
"This won't work, that won't work either, so tell me what can be done, and how we can calm this turmoil?", the emperor threw the question to the ministers.
The ministers are silent, and it is not easy to solve the situation in one go.
But to say how complicated it is, it is not necessarily, as long as you have money, you can solve it.
In fact, there have been more than one runs in history, but the impact of previous runs was very small, and they were often aimed at a bank opened by a deceased noble, or some commercial banks.
This is the first time that there is such a big commotion.
But it is this "money" that embarrassed everyone.
No one spoke. A sneering smile appeared on His Majesty's face. He looked at the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "Minister of Finance, do you have any good ideas?"
After being silent for a while, the chancellor suddenly spoke up when the emperor was about to miss him.
"Your Majesty, we can borrow money."
Uh...
His Majesty the Emperor looked at the Chancellor of the Exchequer with some surprise, and the two of them thought of going together.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has absolutely failed, lost in this battle, who would have thought that the Prime Minister would rather let the economic order of the Empire turmoil but also bring him down, facing the Prime Minister who has gone crazy~IndoMTL.com~ The Chancellor of the Exchequer has nothing to do.
Like those ministers of finance who face their own death and die with everyone, they can only retreat step by step.
Now that the defeat has been determined, what the Chancellor of the Exchequer is fighting for now is not to find a way to stay, but to ensure that his family still has a chance, a slim possibility.
"Tell me what you think...", His Majesty the Emperor pondered and said.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer stood up and bowed to show his respect to His Majesty the Emperor, "The situation we are currently experiencing has many coincidences. This problem cannot be solved internally. We can try to solve it from the outside."
“There is a lot of hot money in the world. The bankers who are active in various countries, and even the governments of other countries, are also forces that can give us some help.”
"As long as we can make some agreements with people outside and get a sum of money, the situation will stabilize very quickly."
The emperor nodded noncommittally. He glanced sideways at the prime minister, who frowned, and asked, "What do you think we should do?"