Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 822 - 85: Show-Off Techniques

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The beneficiaries of the windfall were not just the Austrian Government, but governments across Europe, which made a fortune from this "Anti-Semitic Movement."

Even the Russians, with relatively modest profits, turned a deficit into a surplus in this campaign, marking the second time in nearly forty years that the Tsarist Government had a fiscal surplus.

It is noteworthy that the last time the Tsarist Government had a fiscal surplus, it was also due to an anti-Semitic incident. History once again proved that anti-Semitism is indeed the royal road to wealth.

Seeing the assets on the financial statements increase every day, Alexander III felt invigorated. Experience new stories on empire

When the Tsar was in a good mood, joy permeated throughout the Gatchina Palace.

After the initial joy, Alexander III began to worry again. This was the first time since his accession that he had such ample funds at his disposal, and he had no experience in how to spend this money efficiently.

It wasn’t for a lack of places to use the money, quite the opposite, the Russian Empire needed funds in many areas.

Be it debt reduction, investment in domestic infrastructure, or modernization of military equipment, money was needed.

Since the last anti-Semitic campaign happened too recently, the "crops" hadn’t had time to grow well, and the profits of the Tsarist Government were relatively limited, unable to support several projects at the same time.

Finance Minister Alisher Gurov: "Your Majesty, although the liquidated assets included cash totalling tens of billion rubles, most of that money belonged to depositors, and only a small part was actually owned by Jewish capitalists.

The portion that is foreign currency and gold is even smaller, with a total value of about one hundred million rubles.

Considering that the government has nearly forty-three million rubles in international debt maturing this year, which needs to be discharged, and another thirty-eight million due next year, the Ministry of Finance suggests using these foreign currencies to repay the debt.

There is also nearly eighty million rubles of domestic debt maturing soon, and funds also need to be reserved for this.

After deducting these expenditures, theoretically, the assets available for the government to utilize are about six hundred and forty million rubles.

However, among these assets, only eighty million rubles worth of stocks and bonds can be quickly liquidated; the rest are mostly loans that have been made and a small portion of real estate.

The Ministry of Finance has already started handling the real estate, striving to sell it all within a year; the loans given out are more troublesome, as they can only be collected once they mature."

There was no other way; lending at high interest rates was what Jewish capitalists preferred most.

Especially in a country like Russia where industry and commerce were undeveloped, high-interest lending was much more profitable than investing in manufacturing, so Jewish capitalists naturally flocked to it.

In a sense, this was also a reason the Tsarist Government dared to target Jews without restraint. After all, Jewish capital was concentrated in the banking sector, and even if there were disturbances, the impact on the national economy would be relatively small.

If Jewish capitalists were passionate about investing in industrial enterprises, having millions of workers depending on them for their livelihood, any government would think twice before taking any action.

Regrettably, Jewish capitalists had not yet realized this. Each one of them was thinking of using financial means through banks to covertly control other industries and obtain huge profits from them.

Alexander III, frowning, asked, "Does this mean that the funds we can actually use right now amount to just that eighty million rubles?"

Finance Minister Alisher Gurov: "It will be a bit more than that. Prior to this, we also prepared some funds for debt repayment, though the amount wasn’t substantial.

We had planned to negotiate with the banks to borrow another loan to pay off these old debts, but that is no longer necessary.

With those funds included, the current cash available for the government to use is about one hundred and ten million rubles.

Taking into account the possibility of an agricultural crisis in the next few years, the Ministry of Finance suggests reducing our debt as much as possible or reserving some funds to handle emergencies."

The era of Alexander III was a turning point. From the time of his ascension, the Tsarist Government had been working to improve its international image, including punctual debt repayment.

Of course, this excluded the already defaulted debts, which were irrecoverable as the reputation was already damaged, and it was naturally impossible to continue repayment.

The current debt repayment mainly involved the Nordic Federation and Austria, both significant creditors and good neighbors of the Russian Empire.

Through Alexander III’s efforts, the Russian Empire’s external debt was reduced by nearly one-fifth from its peak, and the financial situation had somewhat improved.

In just five years, such brilliant achievements were mainly due to "international trade."

By selling off spoils of the Third Near East War and undertaking the resettlement work for the Ottoman Empire migrants, the Tsarist Government successfully reduced its debt.

Even after reducing the debt, the finances of the Tsarist Government were still tight. This anti-Semitic campaign was a timely rain indeed.

It was unfortunate that the bureaucratic corruption was beyond measure; otherwise, Alexander III wouldn’t have had to worry so much.

Because of the corruption, the confiscations yielded only modest assets, an insult to the acclaimed wealth-gathering abilities of Jews; such results would hardly be believed if made public.

Seeing the Finance Minister intending to save the funds, Naval Minister Anand Nicholas promptly said, "Your Majesty, the battleships promised by the Austrians are now ready for delivery."

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"People have urged us several times, and we keep dragging our feet without collecting the ships; our navy department is almost too ashamed to show its face,"

The navy is a gold-guzzling beast, and once we get the warships from the Austrian Navy, the Russians will have to pay for the subsequent maintenance costs themselves.

The Russian navy is a typical poor man’s navy; most of its ships were built during the reign of Nicholas I, and the ships’ age even exceeds that of the average age of the naval soldiers.

It’s unbelievable, but now the Russian navy doesn’t even need to board ships, let alone go to sea; their training exercises are exactly like those of the army.

The reason for all this isn’t that the navy’s high command has water in their brains; it’s mainly because the ships simply can’t set sail.

Most of the ships are well past their service life, and now if we send them out of the port, no one knows when they might sink.

Not to mention live-fire exercises at sea; it’s estimated that a round of cannon fire could scatter the ships with its recoil.

In such a context, what else can be done if not using army exercises?

If we follow the navy’s training standards and one round of live-fire at sea sinks the ships, the entire Russian navy would be annihilated.

No one can bear such a terrifying consequence, and the Tsarist Government, from top to bottom, very tacitly chooses to turn a blind eye to these subtle changes in the navy.

To get new warships as soon as possible, the Russian navy often launches petition campaigns, making Naval Minister Anand Nicholas dare not inspect the navy for fear of being cornered by the soldiers and being unable to step down.

Now that the opportunity has arrived, of course, we must actively strive for it. We don’t need much; just allocate a mere seven or eight hundred million, bring back the promised Austrian warships, let the Russian navy have ships to go to sea with, and he would be content.

After exchanging glances and confronted with the eager eyes of the Minister of the Navy, Alexander III simply couldn’t find the words to say no.

The Russian Empire is also the fourth-ranked power in the world; it would be utterly ridiculous if the navy didn’t even have the means to put up a front.

If it were a purchase of warships, Alexander III would definitely refuse, as the Tsarist Government cannot afford such luxury. However, with warships being gifted for free, it would be too unreasonable to refuse.

Alexander III was also an ambitious man; he too had heard the term "Century’s Navy." If the current situation continued, it wouldn’t be long before the Russian navy would run out of seeds.

Clenching his fists to himself, as if he had gone through an internal struggle, after a long while, Alexander III slowly said, "Let’s bring back the warships first!

The warships promised by the Austrians are all active service equipment and are at an advanced level worldwide; the finance department will allocate an additional eight hundred million rubles for the maintenance of the warships so that we do not waste these ships."

Everything depends on the comparison. With the advent of pre-Dreadnoughts, the battleships offered by Austria naturally do not count as the most advanced.

But, currently, only the Anglo-Austrian two countries have pre-Dreadnoughts, and they each only have one experimental ship. Because of the civil war, the French have been delayed, and their pre-Dreadnoughts are still under construction.

Looking around the world, the active service warships offered by Austria are still top-notch.

In fact, the only countries capable of deploying warships of such caliber at scale are England, France, and Austria.

Once the Russians get ahold of this batch of warships, theoretically, they would be back among the world’s fourth strongest naval powers, at least in terms of the tonnage of their capital ships.

Finance Minister Alisher Gurov reminded, "Your Majesty, Austria promised us a significant number of warships. Once we receive them all, the maintenance costs will increase by more than ten million rubles per year.

This still represents a significant pressure on government finances. Perhaps we should first accept a portion of the warships, and we can discuss the rest later."

No sooner had he spoken, did Alisher Gurov realize his gaffe. It’s true that accepting only a part of the warships could work, but doing so would all but obliterate the dignity of the Russian Empire.

Losing face is a minor issue; the key point is that this would expose their inherent weakness to the world.

Another country might accept weakness and submit; but not the Russian Empire.

For a nation with poor diplomatic relations, high levels of enmity, and numerous enemies, the weaker it is, the more it must pretend to be strong, or else it risks a ’wolves preying on the tiger’ scenario.

Unsurprisingly, Alexander III decisively chose to refuse.

"No! We must bring all of the warships back. Moreover, the profits from this transaction for the government must be kept strictly confidential.

When necessary, we can release some false information, making the outside world believe we have regained our vigor.

Next month, we will move another fifty thousand Cossacks into Central Asia. It’s okay to have some conflict with the Central Asian Khanate, but we must control the situation to avoid actually causing a war."

The words of the Finance Minister nonetheless raised Alexander III’s vigilance; dragging our feet for more than a year without accepting the warships would certainly raise suspicion.

At this time, we must find a way to compensate, and the best way to do so is naturally to show strength to the outside world. Looking around, the easiest target perfect for establishing authority is the several Khanates of Central Asia.