International food prices plummeted sharply, Austria's domestic food prices were also impacted, and food prices plummeted.

The food prices in Austria have always been lower than those in the international market, and this time it has finally been in line with the international market.

Not only is the price of grain falling again, but the prices of other agricultural products also fall. Capitalists are already working hard to drag the market, but they are still futile in the face of huge supply.

With the turmoil in the international grain market, a large amount of raw grain was sold on the market, which also impacted the export of finished grain.

Taking flour exports as an example, not only did the price fall by 9% compared with the same period last year, but the total export volume also shrank by 4%.

This is the sequelae of the Vienna government dumping old grains into the UK. British capitalists who obtained cheap raw materials worked hard to produce them, squeezing the original market.

There is no way to do this, flour cannot be stored for a long time. If you want to disrupt the grain transactions in Britain and Russia, you can only use raw grain to impact it.

Prices have fallen and exports have shrunk, and companies engaged in agricultural product exports have had a hard time, especially in processing industries with low technical content.

In the Austrian agricultural product processing industry, a huge industrial chain has also been formed. The number of industrial workers exceeds three million, and the number of enterprises engaged in flour processing exceeds 800,000.

This also involved tens of millions of farmers. The impact of the grain processing industry will inevitably affect the purchase of new grain.

At the Vienna Palace, Franz put down the information in his hand and picked up the teacup. A faint smoke rose and the fragrance filled the air.

"The domestic market must be stabilized as soon as possible. The international raw grain transaction prices plummeted, and the finished grain transaction prices will plummet soon.

Capitalists can't last long. In the face of interests, few people can maintain rationality, and the finished grain market cannot last long.

The international market cannot be controlled, so how much share can be kept is calculated. There is no need to worry about temporary gains and losses, but we must stabilize the local and colonial markets.

The growth rate of domestic food consumption is nearly two percent. As long as we last for two or three years, we can survive the crisis when the bankruptcy wave of farmers in European countries breaks out.

However, the government still needs to adopt more active policies and cannot wait for the market to adjust itself. We don’t waste so much time, otherwise the advantages accumulated in the early stage will be wasted.”

The main reason for increasing consumption is population growth, followed by economic development. People's income increases, and consumption increases accordingly.

Franz's previous proposal to absorb immigrants from European countries is actually a means to increase food consumption.

Of course, the main purpose of absorbing immigration is to labor. Austria's colonies are already huge, and it takes a large population to open these places.

Even the most valued African 6, after so many years of hard work to immigrate, the total population of Austria Africa has exceeded 10 million.

This number is far from enough. Other colonies are even worse because they are too small to even be able to open the most basic ones.

The Minister of Agriculture Halls stood up, took out a report from the folder, walked up and handed it to Franz.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture recommends raising the import tariffs of agricultural products to avoid impacting the local market from foreign agricultural products; at the same time, implement the minimum purchase protection price of grain, and implement the recommended guiding price for domestic finished grain prices.

For finished grain export enterprises whose interests are damaged, the Ministry of Agriculture recommends that they be given tax refund subsidies to the export part to make up for part of the losses.

This is a specific measure and a corresponding supporting plan. After the plan is implemented, the sales price of local agricultural products will stabilize in the shortest time."

The tariffs on agricultural products were raised, which targeted the Russians. In recent years, the Russian Empire's grain exports have only decreased, not completely disappeared.

However, this part of the grain did not directly enter the international raw grain market, but was sold to Austrian grain processing companies. After the processing is completed, it will be sold to the international market, including returning to the Russian Empire.

Austria can occupy up to 70% of the international agricultural product export market, and the contribution of the Russians is indispensable.

Now that the Russians have a huge production capacity, Austria can no longer eat it. In addition, in recent years, countries have been crazily increasing their grain output and oversupply in the international market, the Ministry of Agriculture naturally gives priority to protecting the interests of their own nobles and farmers.

The minimum grain purchase protection price is also one of the measures to protect the interests of farmers. Including the subsequent local finished grain sales guide price, it is also a link.

Simply put, the government sets a retail price range for finished grain, and enterprises can only price within this range.

Before this, the Vienna government had the highest sales limit for agricultural products, and now it has added the minimum limit.

"Free market economy", unfortunately Austria has a market economy, but there is no free market economy. It has not been once or twice since the government intervened in the market.

Of course, if it is an industry that has nothing to do with international people's livelihood, the Vienna government never interferes, such as: crafts and luxury goods, it is very free.

After reading it briefly, Franz nodded and shook his head.

"The subsequent plans are good, but raising tariffs on agricultural products cannot be implemented for the time being. If we raise tariffs, the Russians will definitely take countermeasures to increase tariffs on Austrian industrial and commercial products.

This storm is enough to limit it to agriculture, and it will affect other industries, and the consequences it will be more difficult to control.

We can limit the minimum grain purchase price when implementing the minimum grain purchase price, only for local food, this year's new grain; tax refund subsidies for enterprises are limited to products processed with local grain.

In order to avoid companies fraudulent subsidies, once they apply for tax refund subsidies, enterprises are prohibited from purchasing foreign agricultural products within half a year."

Franz still remembers an important reason why Germany and Russia turned against each other in the original time and space was because of agricultural product tariffs. Of course, the situation is different now, and the Russians do not have the confidence to turn against each other with Austria.

It is not beneficial to just blindly intensify the contradictions. Although the market of the Russian Empire is not very good due to poor economic development, it is also an important sales market for Austrian industrial and commercial products.

Moreover, the Russian-Austrian alliance has not collapsed yet, and the trade agreement signed by the two countries is still valid. Unless it is a breach of the contract, raising tariffs is a joke.

There is a clear provision within the scope of the agreement that each additional tariff shall not exceed 5% of the original tax rate, and the same commodity can only be adjusted once within three years.

The tariff on agricultural products trade between Russia and Austria is 4%, which is 5% higher than that based on this tax rate, which is 4.2%. If it increases this little, Franz might as well not adjust it.

The Tsarist government has repeatedly raised taxes on Austrian industrial and commercial products, but has not changed the fact that Austrian goods are covered with shelves in Russian stores, which is enough to illustrate the problem.

Within the scope of the treaty between the two parties, no commodity can exceed 10%, and most of them only have a few points.

If you want to go beyond it, it is to break the contract. This kind of treaty was signed by Franz after finally fooling the Russians. How could it be that it was possible to break the contract actively?

From this perspective, the overall view of the Minister of Agriculture still needs to be improved. However, Franz is very generous and tolerant of this small problem, and the technicians cannot demand too much.

Halls performed very well in other abilities, but was very good in professional fields. In the years he presided over the Ministry of Agriculture, Austrian agriculture has improved qualitatively.

Optimizing the agricultural industrial structure, promoting new agricultural technologies, improving the agricultural industrial chain, etc. were all done under his leadership.

Now that Austria has overcapacity in agricultural production, Halls has made a contribution. Of course, it cannot be blamed for him. It is too difficult to change farmers' planting habits when they can still make money.

This agricultural crisis in the original time and space lasted for more than 20 years, forcing one farmers after another to break down, and then it reached a balance again. The difficulty can be imagined.

Growing cash crops is not a matter of one sentence, but also a guarantee of profits. Unfortunately, due to the opacity of market information, no one can make this guarantee.

Austria is not a planned economy, and farmers plant whatever they want. This year, the market is out of stock, and next year it may rot in the fields and no one wants it.

In contrast, grain is a stable product. Perhaps the return rate may be a little lower, but it will not lose all your money.

After a moment of pause, after digesting Franz's words, the colonial minister Stephen took out a document and handed it to Franz.

"Your Majesty, in recent times, the gold mines that have been discovered have been quite amazing in terms of quality and reserves.

This is a report submitted by Viscount Ficney, the Governor of South Africa. It is preliminarily judged that this is a larger gold mine group than West Africa, and its reserves may exceed that of the United States."

This is good news. Austria has lost in the battle for monetary hegemony and insufficient gold standard is also an important reason.

Franz naturally knew how rich South Africa's gold reserves were. No matter how rich they were, they could not explain clearly what they said.

The religious atmosphere in Austria is already very strong, and Franz doesn't want to continue to build momentum for the church. After so many years of rebirth, he has not revealed any flaws, just relying on caution.

Anyway, gold is buried underground and cannot escape. South Africa is occupied, and these gold mines will sooner or later be discovered, and will eventually flow into Austria.

In fact, Austria's golden fate is also very good, and almost every colony has gold. This is not specifically chosen by Franz, but it is entirely a reality that leads Austria's expansion direction.

When the African colonies were initially expanded, Franz did not expect that he would have the foundation he is today. If European countries had not paid attention to the African Greater 6, how could it be cheaper in Austria?

The expansion to the South Ocean was a totally unexpected and unexpected success; the existence of Central American colonies only aimed at interfering in the South African war and being able to reach its current scale, which also came out of Franz's plan.

Before the action, Franz didn't know that the small countries in Central America were so bad.

Originally, he just planned to borrow a place to settle down, but he accidentally fooled a group of German immigrants from the United States and turned his back on the spot.

Of course, those who are in power in those small countries will probably be dissatisfied with this statement. There are only tens of thousands of white people in a country, and the army is never just one regiment. What can we use to resist Austria?

Not to mention Alaska, it can be regarded as being forced by the Russians. If Franz ignores the secretly sending people to public relations, that's the truth.

At the point where Austria has reached its present day, in addition to hard work, the component of luck is also very important. Franz can only sigh that reality is full of legend.

I picked up the documents and searched them without any surprises. The historical mission of the two republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State has ended and can now return to the arms of Austria.

There is nothing wrong with this, and the local people have become supporters of Austria. The republicans may have gone to see God. What was going on? The report did not say that, and Franz didn't know.

"Be ready, then stage a farce and let these two republics dissolve! Since you want to open South Africa, you can't keep them in the dark."

Franz is shameless and will not do anything to directly annex the sovereign state. If Transvaal and Orange Free States are dissolved and the local people return to Austria's embrace, then no problem will exist.

Franz believes that Viscount Ficney can handle this problem well. After so long, if the local powerful people did not go to see God, they would definitely be their own people.

Even if there is chaos, it is not a problem. These days, African colonies are very chaotic, and any accidents are normal.

...
Chapter completed!