Greece to roman road

There were only whispers of discussion in the conference room, and everyone was touched by the crown prince's proposal.

Obviously, they are very tempted by the news that Thessaloniki will become the main production area of ​​Greek agriculture and industry in the future.

The reason why Constantine was so eager to encourage Greek nobles to join and develop agricultural cooperatives and develop the Macedonian region was also because time was tight and there was not much time left for Greece to develop agriculture.

It is conceivable that once a war breaks out in Europe, the price of food will rise in the entire international market. Compared with the price in peacetime, it is very likely that the price of food will double or triple during the war.

When the time comes, Greece, which is short of food, will have to be ripped off by grain merchants and buy grain at high prices from the international market.

Although Greek agriculture has made great progress in the past few years with the help of new agricultural organizations such as agricultural cooperatives, due to the short time and lack of strong guidance from the government, agricultural cooperatives operating on their own have only focused on cash crops. Made some achievements.

Previously, under the shadow of the Balkan War, all Balkan countries were paying attention to the progress of quietly infiltrating the Macedonian region. The turmoil in Macedonia under the Ottoman rule firmly attracted the attention of the Greek countries.

The entire country's financial and material resources were busy preparing for war and had no time to think about anything else.

Under such circumstances, government departments simply do not have enough energy to help guide the agricultural cooperatives formed voluntarily by the people.

Since Greek customs does not levy grain tariffs, cheap wheat from the United States and Russia and Ukraine has entered the Greek market in large quantities.

Since the agricultural production conditions in Greece are far inferior to those of the two countries, under the impact of cheap foreign wheat, Greek farmers who grow wheat cannot resist at all and have switched to other crops.

Cash crops such as grapes, sugar beets, and olives are favored by farmers because they are of higher value and have smooth sales.

Agricultural cooperatives in Greece, except for the wheat and corn needed by the members themselves and for raising livestock, have no plans to sell these staple crops to the outside world, because compared with imported food, there is no profit at all.

Under this circumstance, the development path of Greek agricultural cooperatives is also very peculiar. Driven by profits, they invariably began to develop the breeding industry, raising dairy cows, pigs, chickens, ducks and other poultry and livestock, and then selling them to the market to obtain profits. High profits.

Greece now relies on imports for 65% of its food sources, with the remainder coming from rice imported from Congo.

In the past, Constantine also had a premonition that the situation in Greece needed to be corrected. After all, it was dangerous for a country to rely heavily on imports of staple food from the international market, but he was powerless.

The land in Greece is barren, the fertilizer industry is also backward, and the wheat yield is extremely low. This is a natural weakness that cannot be changed without human intervention.

Whether it is an agricultural cooperative or an individual farmer, they have just chosen a method that is more beneficial to themselves in the market economy.

Forcing farmers to grow staple foods through administrative means will inevitably cause public resentment. After all, it goes against economic laws and the will of the people. Secondly, it may not have any good results.

I had no choice but to give it up.

But things are different now. Although the Macedonian region is not a fertile wilderness with abundant water and grass and fertile land, compared with other regions in Greece, the farming conditions are relatively good.

Now that the suitable conditions were in place, Constantine naturally wanted to change the original agricultural status quo in Greece.

Greece needs to prepare for shocks not only in industry but also in agriculture.

After Greece obtained the Macedonian region, Constantine discussed the status of the Macedonian region with Prime Minister Venizelos and reached an agreement, which was to maintain the status quo of Greece's small peasant society.

First of all, according to the government's population encouragement plan, farmers have a higher desire to have children than workers.

This is an obvious social phenomenon discovered when the government distributes maternity subsidies.

The explanation of relevant personnel is that farmers live a relatively leisurely life and live in remote villages for many years. They lack information and have fewer entertainment activities. They work at sunrise and rest at sunset. The pace of life is relatively slow and they have more children.

From the perspective of encouraging population fertility, maintaining a society with a larger number of farmers is more beneficial to Greece's rapidly growing population.

Secondly, the land in Greece is relatively scattered and the plots are small, which is more suitable for intensive farming and requires more labor force to work.

There are no conditions for large-scale mechanized farming like in the United States.

In addition, maintaining a society with a relatively large number of agricultural producers has an invisible benefit, that is, it is relatively stable.

One of the characteristics of the market economy is that there will be an economic crisis every other cycle.

During an economic crisis, many factories will go bankrupt, a large number of workers will be unemployed, social chaos will occur, and the public security situation will deteriorate.

During the economic crisis, although farmers' lives will be affected, their situation is much more stable than that of workers.

Because the living cost of farmers is relatively low compared to workers.

In the worst case scenario, farmers can ensure their families’ food rations.

Therefore, during the economic crisis, farmers are the ballast of society.

Greek farmers, except for a few large landowners, generally own no more than a hundred acres of land.

In the future, the Greek government will continue to introduce policies as a long-term national policy in Greek agriculture: maintaining an appropriate number of farmers in Greece, severely cracking down on and suppressing land acquisition activities, and encouraging and safeguarding the interests of small and medium-sized farmers.

Constantine told all the agricultural information to the nobles present.

Emmanuel looked at Constantine who was silent. After listening to Constantine's proposal and reasons, and thinking for a moment, he understood Constantine's purpose.

After the long-term turmoil, the Macedonian region has a sparse population, a backward economy, a vast territory and a sparse population, and is in urgent need of development.

He called on the nobles to develop the territories in Macedonia, and also considered developing Macedonia as soon as possible to enhance the national power of Greece.

This is actually a movement to advance northward, calling on the people to carry out the development of Macedonia.

Emmanuel has already had a hunch that the government will soon introduce policies calling on Greeks to go to Macedonia.

After discussing with everyone, Emmanuel stood up and said to everyone: "Since the development of Macedonia is the next basic national policy of the entire Greek country, we, as Greek nobles, should naturally support it."

After speaking, he looked at Constantine and said: "We have just agreed that in order to better develop agriculture, we will join forces to jointly invest in establishing a seed company, a fertilizer company, and a company to cultivate high-quality livestock in Salonika. A variety of biological companies can better fill Greece’s agricultural shortcomings and quickly develop the agricultural potential of Macedonia.”