Greece to roman road

Since Europe is in a period of peace, at least on the surface, the possibility of a war in the Balkans is slim if the overall political and military landscape of Europe does not change.

Moreover, the king of Greece is still alive after all. King George, who is over 60 years old, is still in his prime as a politician. As the crown prince, Constantine interferes everywhere in political and military affairs, and is suspected of overstepping his authority. ,

Therefore, in June 1901, Constantine and Crown Princess Sophie went to the Kingdom of Congo.

Although Constantine is the king of Congo, the monarch has never visited his country since the Kingdom of Congo was established in 1885.

Coincidentally, two Esmeralda-class battleships, the Congo and the Banning, also need to be transferred to the Congo to continue to protect the smooth route from Congo to Europe in the Atlantic.

After twelve days of sea travel, the fleet finally arrived at the port of Matadi in Congo.

After resting for a day in Matadi, the group took the train from Matadi to Constantinople.

The so-called Constantinople was originally named Kinshasa. After the establishment of the Kingdom of Congo, the colonial authorities changed it to Constantinople. This name was named after Constantine himself, which means Constantinople. The city of Tandin.

In this way, a city called Constantinople appeared in central Africa, the capital of the Kingdom of Kongo.

The train was traveling on the railway track heading to Constantinople, and the vast tropical rainforest on both sides of the railway was retreating rapidly.

"It is really a miracle to build a long-distance railway in such a wild land," Crown Princess Sophie, who was sitting in the box, sighed as she looked at the scenery outside the window.

The railway, a human engineering project, runs through the vast Congolese rainforest, which makes people feel a sense of wonder.

"This is a miracle created by capital," Constantine replied.

"In order to build this railway, it is said that thousands of people were injured or killed, including dozens of European technical and engineering personnel, so that in the end, no one wanted to come here to build the railway."

The next morning, the Constantinople railway station was waiting for the arrival of the king and queen.

After arriving at the station, the luxury carriage carried the group to the Constantine Hotel.

In order to receive the king and queen, the Congolese government specially built such a luxurious high-end hotel.

On both sides of the hotel door, heavily armed soldiers lined up to protect the safety of the hotel. Senior officials of the Congolese government and army officers stood in front of the carriage.

After Constantine and Sophie stepped out of the carriage hand in hand, they walked into the hotel surrounded by people.

The trip from Athens to Constantinople lasted more than ten days.

The next day, Constantine summoned the main officials of the colony and his entourage in the conference room of the Grand Hotel.

"This trip to Congo is to solve a series of problems in Congo," Constantine said.

"For example, Congo's currency problem"

Legally speaking, the Kingdom of Congo is an independent sovereign country. The king is Constantine and has no relationship with Greece.

Therefore, Congo’s currency problem has never been resolved.

You can see a variety of currencies in Congo, such as francs, pounds, US dollars, marks, etc., it’s very confusing.

Currency uncertainty has made the government's tax issues very confusing.

Moreover, a large amount of foreign currencies are circulating in the market, which also causes the seigniorage that Greece should obtain from Congo to flow into the hands of other countries.

Recently, the Greek government has planned to take back the minting rights from the National Bank of Greece.

Seigniorage is the income obtained after deducting the costs of issuing currency.

Previously, after independence from the Ottoman Empire, Greece's economy had been in turmoil, with a sparse population and limited currency issuance. Therefore, the revenue from seigniorage was also limited. The seigniorage received by the government from issuing currency may not cover the costs.

Issuing currency in the gold standard era requires reserves, and the benefits are not as great as in the paper currency era. The printing cost of a hundred-dollar banknote is one yuan, and the net profit is ninety-nine yuan.

So the Greek government granted the right to mint money to the National Bank of Greece, the largest bank in Greece.

With the development of the Greek economy and the existence of the Congo, the revenue from seigniorage became increasingly considerable.

When the Greek government obtains the right to mint money, it can legally collect Congo's seigniorage tax.

Greek currency circulates in the Congolese market, and as the only legal tender, every drachma in circulation can earn part of the income for Greece.

Before leaving for the Congo, Prime Minister Alexandros came specifically to discuss the matter with Constantine.

“After currency unification, it will be easier to collect taxes in Congo, which is a good thing,” Banning agreed.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Constantine continued: "The other thing is our form of rule in Congo."

"Since the establishment of the Congolese colony, it has always pursued a free trade policy, and we will continue to adhere to this policy."

Belgium in the original historical time and space was an industrial country when it acquired the Congo. From this perspective, the Congo under Belgian rule needed to provide cheap raw materials and commodity markets.

Belgium is the world's second industrialized country after the United Kingdom.

However, unlike Belgium, Greece is not an industrial country, so Greece does not need Congo to supply a large amount of cheap raw materials, and its commodity market is not as urgent as Belgium.

Historically, the "blood rubber" under Leopold's rule - the indigenous people in the Congo cut off their palms when they could not collect enough rubber, almost became a typical example of the evil colonial system.

Greece's current pillar industry is the cotton textile industry. However, although Congo has a population of 20 million, it seems that it needs a large amount of textiles.

However, Congo’s year-round high temperature of 25-35 degrees means that textiles do not have such a large sales volume in Congo.

Due to the commitments made at the Berlin Conference when it acquired Congo, Congo has always pursued a free trade policy. Greek industrial products other than textiles are not very competitive in the Congolese market.

Therefore, until now, Congo has only provided Greece with a large amount of raw materials, while Greek industrial products have a very limited market share in Congo.

"You must remember that Congo is an independent country. When governing Congolese affairs, you must be more flexible and try to respect local customs and habits," Constantine reiterated.

This is not because Constantine is hypocritical, but because it is already the 20th century and colonialism has entered its final stage.

The rapid economic rise of the United States and Germany, which do not rely on colonies, while the slow economic growth of Britain and France, which have huge colonies, is a very obvious signal.

For Greece, which is in urgent need of industrialization, Congo is of greater significance as a source of raw materials, which does not require high-cost governance.

If Greece encountered the original historical time and space, due to the Belgians' bone-breaking and marrow-squeezing, and then the Congolese popular uprising, it would face very embarrassing results.