I am Peter III, Emperor of the Hexagon of the Goose Kingdom

Chapter 116 Population plan, potatoes?
"Ivanovic, these agreements will be handed over to you. Keep them safe and pay attention to your people. If the agreement is leaked, I will be the first to find you, and I will establish a second agency. Not only will you not be so important by then , I'm afraid there is still a crime to suffer."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Ivanovic's face was tense, and he responded respectfully.

Then Peter let out a long breath, his eyes lit up and said:

"The meeting with you is now officially started. You have your own responsibilities before, and I don't care what you are responsible for. If it is outside my focus, you can continue."

Hearing this, Vorontsov couldn't help being a little surprised.

He looked at Bestutev, but Bestutev didn't look at him. Vorontsov snorted coldly. With Bestutev as Deputy Minister of General Affairs, few people think that he is the Minister of General Affairs. Bestutev is proud I'm used to it, isn't His Majesty suppressing you right now?

Peter said:

"Let me briefly talk about the direction of the national strategy, population, military, economy, culture, administration, people's livelihood, defense, and war reserves."

"Population, if anyone wants to talk, please speak."

Peter put his hands on the table and looked at the ministers.

Everyone's expressions became strange, and Bestutev's rigid expression finally changed. He looked at Peter and was surprised.

Is this what teacher Peter taught?
wrong.

Romanosov and Andernov are here, and they are surprised to see their expressions.

And this classification is quite interesting.

The eyes of Duke Dalier were already glowing with fiery light. He was very excited and screamed wildly in his heart.

He knows it!He knows it!
Peter is definitely not what the rumors say, and now it really is!
If it was the rumored Peter, how could he write such a shocking book as "Peter Love"?How can there be such a clear and firm thinking?

"Your Majesty, the old minister has lived most of his life, and finally he will be reused one day!"

Although Dalier didn't know how the emperor would arrange himself, he also knew that it was impossible to just teach him to attend the meeting.

At this level, who is qualified to attend?

After a moment of hesitation, Lieutenant General Apraksin spoke first:

"Your Majesty, do you mean the number of people by population?"

Peter nodded: "Yes."

Lieutenant General Apraksin immediately regained his spirits and said:

"Your Majesty, the population of our Russia is already very powerful. Besides France, who else can compare to our country?"

Trubetskoy also nodded in agreement.

Bestutev glanced at Peter and said:

"Your Majesty, the Lieutenant General is right. France has the largest territory and the most developed agriculture, which is beyond our comparison."

Bestutev sighed, envious of France's geographical environment, which is as large as Russia's territory, but with so little arable area.

There is one sentence he didn't say, the population can't be increased by just talking.

Everyone knows that when the population increases, wars are fierce, but how can it be possible to increase the population out of thin air?

What to feed?
After looking around, based on these opinions, Peter frowned and said:
"Let you put forward your opinions on increasing the population, and you will show me the reality?"

Seeing that Peter was dissatisfied, Vorontsov immediately said:
"Your Majesty, do you think otherwise, can we use tax cuts to let the serfs greatly increase the population?"

"And your Majesty, you have just ascended the throne, so you also need grace in this regard."

Hearing what Vorontsov said, Trubetskoy immediately expressed his opposition. The use of funds from the state treasury needs to be approved by the parliament.

Of course, in the past, the queen used it as soon as she wanted to, and the parliament dared not say anything.

Trubetskoy said:
"Tax reduction now? Your Majesty! You don't know that there are only 560 million rubles left in the treasury, and the money for the front-line war has not been distributed to the soldiers for two months. Your Majesty, if you want to show favor to the people, it is completely Some prisoners can be pardoned, but tax cuts are definitely not acceptable!"

Everyone was surprised to hear the money left in the treasury. Peter said:
"Can't the annual poll tax collect more than 800 million yuan? Why is there only this little money left?"

Trubetskoy smiled wryly:
"Your Majesty, the more you receive, the more you spend. Every year, you live on a tight schedule..."

Then he said a lot of bitterness, and Peter interrupted after listening for a while:

"Not to mention the state treasury in advance, it is not feasible to increase the population and reduce taxes. Russia has not been extravagant to this point, so there is no other way?"

Romanosov hesitated, Peter looked at him and said:

"You said."

Although Romanosov and Andernov had a teacher-student friendship with him, he had already ascended the throne and called him emperor, and there was no reason to use the honorific title on this occasion.

Here, everyone is his courtier.

Romanosov said:

"Your Majesty, there are only two factors to increase the population. One is that the living conditions are better and the people are stable, so they are willing to have children. The other is..."

Romanosov was a little reluctant to say authentically:
"Waging war to plunder people."

As a lieutenant general, Apraksin immediately objected:

"Your Majesty! Now we are fighting for Austria, France, and Prussia. Although they are not the main parties involved in the war, we have not taken advantage of it. The soldiers are tired of fighting, and there are too many powerful countries participating in the war. It is impossible for us to start from here." side to start."

Peter agrees:

"That's right, don't think about helping Austria fight France and Prussia for the time being. It is true that the benefits of launching a war to plunder the population are huge, but the premise is that it is successful and there is no future trouble."

"Although Frederick took away more than 150 million people from Teresa, it was eye-catching, but he made himself a target of public criticism. Another good point mentioned by Romanosov is to improve the living conditions of the people if there is no war. .”

Hearing Peter say this, everyone looked at each other in blank dismay.

Doesn't improving living conditions also require money?

But the problem is that there is no money.

The millions of rubles in the treasury are a drop in the bucket compared to the whole of Russia.

Seeing the expressions of the crowd, Peter sighed. He was really envious of France, but at the same time he was a little contemptuous.

Envy is because France has the most fertile land in Europe, and its food self-sufficiency rate reached 300% in the eighteenth century.

In 1740, the population of Louis XIV exceeded 2150 million. At that time, the population of Great Britain was 545 million, the number of local tyrants in the Netherlands was only 195 million, that of Spain was 740 million, and that of Russia was 1300 million.

Now 40 years have passed, and the population of Russia has reached about 1600 million.

What I despise is that France introduced potatoes before Russia, but they were only used as ornamental plants.

Potatoes are an artifact of population boom. In previous life novels, potatoes were planted as soon as they traveled through history. Although it is clichéd, it does make sense.

This thing can be planted in large quantities on land that is not suitable for cultivation. If he remembers correctly, the population of Tsarist Russia rose to 1800 million in 3500, and the volume skyrocketed. In the absence of colonies, it relied on potatoes.

　In order to participate in international affairs, including wars, some eras have been changed. For example, Russia only participated in the War of Austrian Succession in the later period, but it has not yet.

　　Calvin, I don’t really want to write about development, but it’s essential. I will update twice today, and I will try to update tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)