Greece to roman road

"The development level of education is closely related to the destiny of the country and nation. In the field of education, a large amount of money has just been invested in the field of education in recent years. It is a good time for Greece's education to make great strides in development. The phenomenon of wastage of talents among college graduates Worthy of attention”

Ikios continued: "I think the main reason why this phenomenon occurs is that Greece's industrial level is relatively low, it is at the end of the international division of labor industry chain, and it has limited number of high-end talents to absorb."

"Many companies have tasted the sweetness of the stock market. The funds raised from issuing stocks are not used to improve and upgrade the technical level of the factory, but are squandered and wasted. This completely violates the original intention of developing the capital market in our country and is a waste of money." The securities market is a channel for companies to quickly raise funds.”

Hearing that the discussions in the conference room were becoming more and more unfavorable to himself and the Athens Exchange, almost everyone was pointing the finger at him intentionally or unintentionally. Georges had beads of sweat on his forehead and was panicking inside. He quickly interjected: "Athens The stock exchange has played a lot of positive roles. In the previous war, with the help of the Athens Stock Exchange, the government quickly raised hundreds of millions of drachmas in national debt, which eased the government's financial constraints and favorably supported the Army's War in the Balkans"

"You think so too, Prime Minister Venizelos?"

Although he was aware that the Athens Exchange was the target of public criticism at today's meeting, Georges still did not want to let the situation slip into an unfavorable situation, so he asked Prime Minister Venizelos for help.

He hoped that the other party would help him to say a few words to the Athens Exchange for the sake of helping him issue national bonds and solving his urgent need.

Seeing that Georges brought the topic to himself, Venizelos looked at Georges and said calmly: "Mr. Georges, it is precisely because the Athens Exchange has developed to such a point that it can help the government in a short period of time. After raising huge funds of hundreds of millions of drachmas, the government had to pay attention to the formalization of the capital market. It could not allow private organizations to manage and control such an important stock exchange as before. Otherwise, like this national debt incident, Such severe and widespread financial cases will continue to occur."

After hearing this, Georges suddenly understood that the government had made up its mind to intervene in the securities market. It was not that the Athens Stock Exchange was not developing well, so the government had to intervene.

It was the Athens Stock Exchange that developed too rapidly and could raise a large amount of funds in a short period of time, forcing the government to intervene.

The frustrated Georges remained silent, obviously unwilling to lose control of the fruits of his half-life struggle.

"Is the government's plan to carry out reforms in the financial sector too hasty? Financial stability is related to every Greek. Should we be more cautious? Alfa Bank and National Bank of Greece play an important role in the Greek financial sector and are of great importance to the government. Don’t you have any objections to the plan?”

Royal Bank of Greece, National Bank of Greece, and Alfa Bank are the three major commercial banks in Greece. In the Greek financial field, the three major banks are the real mainstays and financial giants.

Almost all Greek companies, large and small, have direct or indirect business dealings with them.

The Royal Bank of Greece has a close relationship with the royal family, and most of the shares are in the hands of the royal family. Therefore, the royal family has a huge influence on the Royal Bank of Greece and will definitely be consistent with the government’s views and stand on the same position. Georges directly ignored the Royal Bank of Greece. , asked the meeting representatives of the remaining two major banks.

In Georges' impression, the two major banks are vested interests in Greece's current financial system, and the government's decision to carry out reforms in the financial field will more or less affect the interests of the two major banks.

In this current situation, apart from the two major banks, there is no better choice for the intervener who can change the situation.

As long as the two major banks express opposition, even the government and the royal family will have to carefully consider their opinions.

As the chairman of the Athens Stock Exchange Committee, Georges had countless dealings with the three major banks. He naturally understood this and planned to recruit them as reinforcements.

The managers sent by the two major banks to attend the meeting looked at each other and said with a smile: "Mr. Georges, the government's financial reform plan has been decided by us after consultation with our three major banks."

"Our three major banks unanimously believe that at this stage, the Greek financial sector should indeed undergo some rectification."

Georges, who originally had a hint of luck in his heart, turned ashen when he heard this.

It is something that the three major banks have always supported. No wonder the Greek government is so confident that it has not made any noise in the society to test the response of all sectors of society to the financial reform.

Seeing that Georges, who seemed to have resigned himself to his fate, remained silent, even though he couldn't bear it, Venizelos still took up the topic and continued: "There are currently two relatively mature financial models in the world, namely the free market represented by the United Kingdom and the United States. Economy, advocating that the government should minimize its intervention in the economy, advocating Adam Smith's "invisible hand" and believing that the market will operate spontaneously."

"The other is the financial model represented by Germany and Japan, which emphasizes relying on the power of the state to develop industry and believes that the government should play a proactive role in financial life."

After saying that, Venizelos nodded to Commerce Minister Karamanlis.

Karamanlis understood, and ended with the topic: "After private discussions between the Ministry of Commerce and all walks of life, as well as discussions with scholars in the financial field, the preliminary conclusion is that the financial model represented by Germany and Japan is more suitable for the current Greece. China’s national conditions have many similarities with the current Greece. Compared with the British and American models, the German and Japanese financial models are more suitable for Greece’s national conditions.”

"After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan, which learned from Germany's financial model, unexpectedly defeated Russia, the traditional power in Europe, and became an emerging power."

(Russian-Japanese War 1904-1905)

"Greece has many similarities with Germany and Japan. Compared with Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Germany and Japan are both latecomers, just like Greece."

"It is particularly worth mentioning that in 1871, Japan sent a very high-level Iwakura mission. More than a hundred senior government officials traveled around the world for more than a year to inspect the rise of Western developed countries and find a national solution for Japan. A good medicine to enrich and strengthen the people.”

“When they came to the newly unified Germany, they found that German industry and commerce were very prosperous, and they believed that they had found the secret of the power of late-developing countries, which was to learn from Germany’s development model and rely on the power of the country to develop industry and commerce, rather than relying on Adam. The "invisible hand" advocated by Smith. Therefore, unlike the free market economy represented by the United Kingdom and the United States, Germany and Japan chose a development model different from the United Kingdom and the United States from the beginning. They particularly emphasized the role of the government and the state, especially the Emphasis on order and freedom, planning, cooperation, consensus, compromise, unity, etc.”

Karamanlis spoke faster and faster. As the newly appointed Minister of Commerce, he was able to participate in high-level government meetings and explain his political views so quickly. This made Karamanlis excited: "The success of the Japanese also means This proves the correctness of late-developing countries learning from the German model.”

Hearing Commerce Minister Karamanlis talk about learning from the German model, Georges finally understood why in addition to Royal Commercial Bank, Alfa Bank and National Bank of Greece also agreed to the financial reforms led by the government.

Germany is a typical bank-dominated country. Banks are at the core of its financial system, but the financial market is not very developed.

The government-led financial reform will learn from the German model, and the three major banks will benefit from it and further stabilize their central position in the Greek financial system. It is no wonder that Alfa Bank and the National Bank of Greece support the government's reforms.

German banks are all-round banks that can provide enterprises with short-term and long-term loans, securities underwriting, financial consulting, and other comprehensive services; they also provide individuals with a series of products and services such as savings, consumer loans, insurance products, and securities trading.

If Greece learns from Germany's financial model, the Greek banking industry, represented by the three major banks, will usher in a period of rapid development.

"Specifically in the securities market, the government will take the lead in establishing a Securities and Exchange Commission. The committee members will come from the government, the securities market, and listed companies to jointly supervise the circulation and issuance of securities, crack down on insider trading, and no longer encourage individuals to buy stocks. "

Despite his expectations, Karamanlis still sighed after he announced the specific reform measures for the securities market.

After the meeting, Constantine noticed that his brother, Prince Andreas, seemed unhappy.

Andreas works for the Royal Bank of Greece and serves as a director of the Royal Bank. He is currently the only member of the royal family to serve in the Royal Bank except Crown Princess Sophie.

At this financial meeting between government officials and social and business people, Andreas attended on behalf of the Royal Bank as a director.

Although the two are brothers, they are nearly twenty years apart in age and do not have many interactions in daily life.

Andreas was born in 1882. He is twenty-five years old and has just graduated from the University of Athens.

Constantine stepped forward, patted Andreas on the shoulder and asked: "What's the matter, Andreas?"

When he turned around and saw that it was Crown Prince Constantine calling him, Andreas said at a loss what to do: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince"

"As a representative of the Royal Bank, why did you say nothing at the meeting? What happened?" Constantine asked with concern.

In the meeting just now, Andreas's mind was obviously not on the topic.

“I just don’t understand why I was assigned to work in a bank. I don’t like this kind of job. I sit in the office every day, check the bank’s financial statements, and supervise the reduction of daily operating expenses. These tedious and boring things make people feel sad. "Bored" Andreas was probably really disgusted with the job at the Royal Bank, and complained while Constantine was asking.

"Everything is related to money. I am not a person who loves money. Your Highness, can you let me serve in the army?" Andreas begged softly with a flattering look.

"What about after entering the army?" Constantine asked, following Andreas's wishes.

The princes of the royal family have all received professional military courses. As for Andres, in addition to military courses, he also studied political science, economics and other courses.

Andreas is now twenty-five years old and has received complete military training. How could he not have the dream of being a general? Leading the army to gallop across the battlefield, defeating the enemy, and becoming a hero admired by thousands of people is a dream that almost every young person has had.

Especially just after the war, the heroic deeds of the Greek army on the battlefield were spread to almost every corner of Greece under the publicity of the public opinion media, and Andreas was just one of the people who was inspired.

Andreas was born in the royal family and had never been short of money. In other words, he did not have an accurate concept of money, so he naturally did not realize how rare his position as a director of the Royal Bank was in the eyes of ordinary people.

Thinking of this, Constantine smiled gently: "The war has just ended. It is impossible for Greece to participate in the war in a short period of time. Even if you are allowed to join the army now, you will not be able to participate in the war."

Frankly speaking, his younger brother does not have particularly outstanding military talents. This is the comment given by his military teacher.

"But I'm really not interested in becoming a businessman, Your Highness the Crown Prince. I hate business. I rack my brains and plan all day long, just to make more money," Andreas said depressedly.

"Why do you attach so much importance to the business community? Although the content of the meeting just now was boring, I still heard that there are many policies that are beneficial to the business community."

The aversion to business revealed in Andreas' tone made Constantine frown, and then he thought of Andreas' entry into the Royal Bank and the importance of the Royal Bank in the royal family's financial layout. status, and felt the need to explain something to Andreas.

"Andreas, the Royal Bank of Greece is very important to the royal family. Through the Royal Bank, the royal family has established extensive ties with all walks of life in Greek society. And you are, in addition to Sophie, the royal family in the Royal Bank. Representative of China, your work is very important, do you understand?" Constantine said solemnly.

Sensing the serious warning in Constantine's words, Andreas frowned: "Your Highness, why did merchants have a low status in feudal times, but their status is high now?"

Andreas' question made Constantine startled. After thinking about it, he realized that the change in the status of merchants between feudal times and modern society is a very interesting phenomenon.

The transformation of the status of businessmen groups should be marked by the Industrial Revolution.