African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1415 Benito's forbearance

Emperor Franz knew very well that this empire was hopeless and could collapse at any time if it experienced an impact.

Therefore, he had to say something to Rudolph in his heart, but this was equivalent to admitting his mistakes in governing over the years. However, it was not easy to achieve the position of Franz and maintain the continuation of this ancient empire for so many years.

Hearing Franz's explanation, Rudolph also felt a sense of melancholy in his heart. He comforted him: "Father, don't be too pessimistic. We still have the foundation of Habsburg. And with our deployment over the years, as long as we survive this most difficult day, the empire will definitely be stable in the future."

The Habsburg family naturally knew the difficulties they were facing, so they took many measures, but the effects of these measures were not significant.

The only thing to be gratified is the expansion of the German circle, which at least ensures that the number of supporters in Habsburg increased a lot in Venice and Dalmatia.

 …

After the initial unification of Italy, Benito's personal prestige reached an unprecedented level on the Apennine Peninsula, and many Italian nationalists regarded him as Italy's greatest saint.

Some radicals even took the initiative to persuade Benito: "Prime Minister, now that Italy is reunited, we should go further and regain Lombardy and Venice, so that Italy can be completely complete."

Benito did not directly refute the proposal of his subordinates, but said with a clear mind: "It is the responsibility of every patriotic Italian to recover Lombardy and Venice, but now we have more important things to do."

"We must first focus on economic development. The current economic situation in Italy is not optimistic. If the economic problems are not solved, let alone recover lost territory, I am afraid that the original Pope and Naples may also lose it again."

Benito's friend and subordinate Dino also agreed with this, saying: "What the Prime Minister said is very reasonable. Now that we have just unified the Pope and Naples, it has caused a stir in Europe. At this time, we should focus on digesting the two places."

"And, over the years, the three countries on the Apennine Peninsula have been deflated due to the division, and the combat effectiveness of the army is worrying. If we immediately face the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had experienced the First World War, it would be difficult for us to gain military advantage."

Since the failure of Italian unification in the last century, Italy has been split into three countries, which has also led to the division of the Italian army into three.

Italy, divided into three, obviously finds it difficult to pose a threat to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In addition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not allow Naples and the Pope to over-develop the army, so the only one that truly has complete sovereignty is actually the only one of the Italian kingdoms.

The Kingdom of Italy was not very attentive to the development of the army. After all, it was difficult to fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone. In addition, in order to operate the Red Sea colony, more resources were invested in the navy, and the army could obtain even less funds.

In addition, Italy has been peaceful for a long time. During World War I, the three countries on the Apennine Peninsula remained neutral and lacked the test of war. Even under the conditions of equal numbers and equipment, the Italian army is likely to have no advantage in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not to mention that the number and equipment of the Italian army are already at a disadvantage.

For these reasons, Benito said: "Dino is right. The situation in Lombardy and Venice is more complicated. It is not like the Pope and Naples. At least in these two countries, it is still managed by Italians, while Lombardy and Venice, even most of them have become citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

"If we want to regain the two places, peace means will not work. Only war can bring back everything we have lost from the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

"However, compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the gap in strength between the two countries is too huge, especially at the military level. In the final analysis, Italy has a small strength in recent years, and its economic level is low, so it is unable to support the strength of the army."

"Now, since I have made Italy initially unified, it has laid the foundation for our Italy to become a world power."

"But it is just the foundation. Although we have a population of 40 million, we lack agriculture to support these 40 million people, strong industrial production capacity, and lack the resources needed for the development of various countries."

Italy is a typical poor mine country, even more pitiful than Japan. Basically, Italy lacks the necessary resources in the early stages of industrial development.

This is also one of the important reasons why Italy's light industry is relatively developed, because Italy does not have the foundation for developing heavy industry in terms of resources.

Of course, this is not what Benito is most worried about. Compared with industrial shortcomings, agriculture may be more deadly to the Italian country.

Italy's arable land resources are extremely scarce, but Italy's population is so large, which leads to a serious consequence, that is, Italy's food cannot be self-sufficient.

More than 70% of Italy's territory is occupied by mountains and hills, especially after the eastern Po River plains were occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, arable land resources became even more tight.

Moreover, the land in southern Italy is barren and the climate is unstable, which makes Italy's agricultural problems worse.

This is also one of the important reasons why the people of the Pope and the Kingdom of Perse welcomed the Benito Division. Compared with the Kingdom of Italy, it is a problem for the people of the two places to eat enough. Every year, these two regions are also the most severe outflow of Italian population. In addition, economic difficulties in recent years have also led to their extreme dissatisfaction with the previous government.

Now that Benito has achieved the unification of Italy, these economic and social problems are naturally on his turn.

So, Benito said: "For the Italian economy, it is necessary to put a strong medicine to save our ill-fated country."

"The first thing is to achieve self-sufficiency in the country's grain production in agriculture as much as possible. Otherwise, once we conflict with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the future, we may face the risk of cutting off the food import channels."

"And, over the years, Naples and the Pope have chosen to import a large amount of food from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in order to please the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is to some extent unfavorable for our rule in both places."

"At present, we should consider changing the food import channels, such as importing food from France, the United States, or East Africa, to replace the food imported by the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

There is no country with a more serious food problem in Europe than Italy. In contrast, Italy's neighbors, except for Switzerland, which is not a climate-absorbing, France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are all major food producers in Europe and even the world.

Especially Naples and the Pope, as vassals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long time, importing food from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of the main ways to deal with their rapid population growth. If it weren't for this, their regime would have collapsed long ago. Now that Benito unifies Italy, this offended the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it also means that food issues may be disturbed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The reason why it is possible is that the Austro-Hungarian Empire may not adopt this approach of killing one thousand enemies and losing 800 on its own. After all, Italy still has many alternative options. Not to mention countries with overproduction of food in the United States, East Africa, and Argentina, French neighbors alone can meet their needs.

However, for Benito, who wants to lead Italy into a world power, if the food problem is subject to others, it is unacceptable to Benito, even if it is imported from other countries.

Before local food can be self-sufficiency, Benito can only actively place orders with other grain-producing countries, and then get rid of Italy's dependence on Austro-Hungarian food imports.

After all, in his opinion, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is now the enemy of Italy, so importing food from the Austro-Hungarian Empire is an act of capital and enemy. He would rather let other countries make this money than let the Austro-Hungarian Empire take advantage of this.

"Importing food is not a long-term solution. If you want to become an independent major country, Italy must build its own efficient agriculture and stable grain production base."

"So, I think we should use the strength of the country to promote large-scale land reclamation, such as building terraces in hilly areas with development conditions in the local area, and building large-scale water conservancy projects at the same time, so as to increase local grain output."

"At the same time, we should learn from Germany and East Africa to use pesticides and fertilizers, encourage the development of agricultural technology, and increase the increase in unit output."

"In addition to local agricultural construction, the agricultural development of colonies should also be launched on a large scale, especially the development of arable land in the western part of the Red Sea Colony, which can greatly alleviate the pressure on our food supply."

Benito's agricultural policies have not been innovated much, but they may not be ineffective. After all, due to the division in Italy, it was difficult for them to support the construction of some large-scale agricultural projects, but the situation changed after the unification.

The most typical example is that in water conservancy construction, many water conservancy projects, especially water diversion projects and reservoir construction, were difficult to coordinate due to division in the past, but now under the leadership of a government, there are basic conditions.

For example, if a river passes through the Pope and the Kingdom of Italy, the two countries will inevitably have conflicts in the proportion and division of water resources in the past. Now that it is a country, there is room for negotiation for the water use of residents along the coast.

  Benito’s emphasis on agriculture is also supported by his subordinates. After all, agriculture has always been an urgent issue that Italy needs to deal with in the past few decades, and it is directly related to the basis of Italy’s rule. The local contradictions among the Italians are very prominent, and therefore the various political problems extended are much more serious than those in other European countries.

In the past, Italian countries were not able to solve this problem, but the Benito government was not the case. After all, Benito was a dictator, which just facilitated him to promote some reforms.

After basically setting the tone of agricultural issues, Benito began to express his views on industry.

In terms of industry, Benito's focus is on two aspects: one is import substitution, and the other is vigorously developing the military industry.

Import substitution mainly lies in two levels. One is to replace imported industrial products with domestic industrial products as much as possible, thereby promoting the development of domestic industries. This means that Italy will inevitably build its own tariff barriers economically.

The second is to use some domestic resources to replace imports in industrial development as much as possible. After all, Italy is a poor mine country. Benito cannot generate resources for Italy out of thin air, so he can only think of ways from other aspects.

To give a simple example, for example, there are many types of meat, such as pork, beef, chicken, duck, etc. For countries like Italy with limited resources and land, there is no doubt that pigs or poultry are more cost-effective.

Therefore, the Benito government will obviously promote the development of these industries that can easily meet the basic needs of the Italian people in terms of economic development policies, so as to avoid being subject to others.

As for vigorously developing the military industry, there is nothing to say. Benito, as an extremist nationalist, launched a war and thus expanded the territory of Italy, was one of his personal goals from beginning to end.

However, this has not been shown yet. Although Benito likes to talk big, he is not stupid.

Italy has just been unified now, and in Benito's view, various fields are extremely backward. If this situation is not changed, Benito will not show his ambitions in the international community.

This can be seen from the comparison between Benito's performance after taking office in his previous life and now, Benito's previous life did not hide his ambitions for the Balkans, North Africa and East Africa, and attempted to build Italy into a powerful country along the Mediterranean coast.

However, Italy in the previous life and Italy are completely different concepts. Italy in the previous life was considered a major country worldwide, while Italy today can only be considered a major European country.

Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the mortal enemy of Italy in his previous life, had long been disintegrated by World War I, and thus lacked a major power in the Eastern Mediterranean that could interfere with and suppress its development. This is one of the reasons why Italy was aggressive in the political and diplomatic fields before World War II in his previous life.

Without the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy was the most powerful country in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region to a certain extent, so Benito could only attack neighboring countries in his previous life.

Now, let alone the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even the Ottoman Empire, Italy may not be able to settle it. Therefore, given the current situation in Italy, Benito deeply feels that the Italian country is poor and weak, and thus lacks support for realizing his political ambitions.

Benito buried these ambitions in the deepest part of his heart. He planned to rebuild the "Roman Empire" after he integrated Italy's resources and built a powerful army.

Before he opened his fangs, Benito was still harmless in front of Britain, France, Germany and other countries, except for the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was not natural and Italy could deal with.

So, Benito said to his confidants: "Now, the most important task of Italy is to accumulate our strength. Otherwise, if Italy wants to become one of the leaders of international affairs at this stage, it is likely to be crushed to pieces."

(This chapter ends)