The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1161 Sky-high compensation
Since the vast majority of the invited nations were on the silver standard, Prince Schwarzenberg suggested.

"Your Majesty, if you want to resolve this matter before the peace conference, it would be best to adopt a gold and silver dual standard.

This keeps resistance to a minimum.”

"Mr. Prime Minister, do you know how much damage this will cause our country?"

Prince Schwarzenberg immediately pulled out a thick stack of encrypted documents from his briefcase.

“Your Majesty, I have asked the Ministry of Finance and our country’s experts to do a professional assessment.

If the dual standard is implemented, my country will need to increase related expenditures by 5 to 15 million florins each year, and the total losses from arbitrage, attrition, etc. during this period will be around 50 million florins. "

The loss of 60 million florins a year was definitely an astronomical figure for most countries in the world at that time, but Prince Schwarzenberg did not show any worry on his face.

“Although we will suffer certain losses, according to the Ministry of Finance’s estimate, the monetary union will significantly reduce the difficulty for our goods to enter other countries.

With our country's current advantageous position in the market, our trade volume will increase by billions of florins in the future, and it will not be difficult to make up for the losses.

At the same time, our economic influence in Europe will extend to politics, and Austria’s influence on European affairs will increase significantly in the future, which is a far more important benefit than increasing fiscal revenue.”

Prince Schwarzenberg paused and spoke excitedly.

“We also have large quantities of silver brought back from Japan and Mexico, and gold from Africa and California.

According to estimates by Chinese economists, in theory, my country can manipulate the exchange rate within the alliance to achieve reverse arbitrage results. "

Franz sighed. This idea was very beautiful, but the current level of technology did not allow it.

“Just because something can be done in theory doesn’t mean it can be done in practice. The market at this moment is a blind box for all countries. It is easy for us to overestimate our own strength and underestimate others.

Once we start a wrong action based on a wrong understanding, we may not only fail to make money, but also lose the trust of our allies and give people the impression that we are bad and stupid.

In addition, the exchange rate is volatile, so what should we do about the financial tsunami that arises from it? We need to integrate the European market, not let it become fragmented.”

Prince Schwarzenberg is indeed a very strong person, but he is not like Li Kui, who is so reckless that he would argue with everyone he sees and is stubborn in his opinions.

"Your Majesty, what do you think we should do? We will discuss and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance."

Franz still held the original view that the gold standard was imperative, but decided to take a step back because the Europa Monetary Union was too important for Austria's future strategic planning.

“In the early stage, we can adopt the gold and silver dual standard mechanism, but we must design a transition route from now on and make every effort to transition to the gold standard.

And I don’t want you to have any more useless operations that could damage international relations.”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

In the following days, the negotiating parties were apparently at a stalemate, but they had all adjusted their expectations.

The Austrian Empire's annexation of Albania encountered little resistance, except for the Ottoman Empire's demand that Austria must safely evacuate the local Ottomans. This might have seemed like a loss-cutting move to the Ottoman Empire, but it was a double blessing to the Austrian Empire.

After the agreement was reached, both parties felt that they had made a good profit.

The land of Thessaly also became Greek territory with the support of Austria, but the Greek government had to pay the Ottoman Empire a fee of about 150 million florins in return.

Egypt's demands were also met, and all parties are very clear about what happened during this period.

The Russians' demands on the Western Front were rejected, but they were compensated with two provinces on the Eastern Front.

Nicholas I did not accept Duke Uvarov's plan. Establishing the Principality of Armenia was obviously not as straightforward as directly annexing the land.

In fact, Duke Uvarov's design was very clever. According to his idea, he would first establish an Armenian Principality and then give the title of Duke of Armenia to the Tsar, thus solving the legal problem.

Moreover, an Armenian principality would help appease the emotions of local Armenians, and on the other hand, it would give Russia a new excuse for war - protecting Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

However, such a cumbersome plan was obviously not to the taste of the Russian ruling group. At the same time, the British, as veterans of inciting civil strife in the country and Russia's old rival, were well aware of Duke Uvarov's tactics and immediately instigated the Ottoman Empire to oppose it.

On the issue of the Strait, the Austrian Empire stood firmly on the side of Russia, and the two provinces of Trabzon and Erzurum were indeed too small for Russia.

In desperation, the Ottoman Empire, at the instigation of Britain, had to pay a huge compensation of 1.45 million rubles (about million taels of silver).

The Russian people were very satisfied with the compensation of 3.4 million rubles. After all, the Russian government's annual fiscal revenue was only million rubles.

With this money, Nicholas I could continue to expand his arsenal and army. The nobles could continue to invest in the land around the Black Sea, growing more cotton and cash crops.

Reshid Pasha looked as if he had lost all hope in life. What the Ottoman Empire lacked most now was money. If he were allowed to make a choice on his own, he would definitely abandon Diyarbakir and save 300 million rubles in compensation.

Diyarbakir is not just a poor, backward and inconveniently transported agricultural province as it appears. In fact, it is related to the stability of the entire Arabian Peninsula and even the big game between Britain and Russia.

Once Diyarbakir falls into Russian hands, it will no longer be just the Ottoman Empire that will be threatened. Persia will also be shrouded in Russia's shadow. Russia's offensive route will become even more difficult to predict, and it will be much more difficult for Britain to contain Russia.

Therefore, the Ottoman Empire had to use money to shut the Russians up. As for the issue of money, the British would consider lending to the former.

However, the interest rate on the British loan was too high, so Reshid Pasha became cautious and began to have his men frequently contact other European countries.

The Ottomans soon came to the conclusion that loan interest rates in Europe were much lower than in Britain.

But if you want to enjoy this convenience, it seems that you can only seek help from France or join the European Monetary Union.

In fact, the Ottoman Empire was no stranger to financial issues, or rather, they started out in the financial industry.

The Ottomans were well aware of the benefits that a monetary union would bring, and during the Tanzimat Reforms, the biggest benefits and changes the Ottomans felt were brought about by foreign investment.

Foreign investment brought economic development, increased employment, and even made society stable and "civilized." Therefore, the Ottomans at this time had an almost crazy enthusiasm for attracting foreign investment.

Coupled with the sky-high indemnity paid to Russia, the Ottoman Empire became one of the most loyal supporters of the monetary union.