Greece to roman road

"Your Majesty the Duke, your request will be implemented," Banning said respectfully.

"I hope you can all achieve great success in the Congolese Kingdom," Constantine said goodbye to these two people earnestly.

Watching the ship going away, Constantine stood at the dock for a long time.

"Your Excellency, it's time to go back," Schmidt reminded.

Constantine turned and climbed into the carriage, and the convoy drove slowly down the street.

Arriving at the Prime Minister's Palace, Constantine walked into the office of Prime Minister Trikupis.

"Mr. Prime Minister, I am here to discuss with you the issue of compulsory education in Greece," Constantine said bluntly.

Trikupis stood up from his desk and guided Constantine to sit down.

"Do you need the cooperation of the parliament?" Prime Minister Trikupis asked, sitting on the sofa in the guest room.

"Yes, as you know, almost all European countries have implemented compulsory education systems in recent years."

“We in Greece cannot be dragged too far behind.”

The compulsory education system originated in Prussia.

In the words of German Marshal Moltke; "Prussia's victory has been decided long ago on the podium of primary school teachers."

Who could have imagined that as early as the early 19th century (probably during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty), German elementary schools would have wall charts of the Great Wall of China hanging in their nature classes, and their teachers would tell them what the Great Wall of China looked like thousands of miles away.

Children in Prussia will also learn about the different living environments of people living on the five continents.

After seeing the benefits of Germany's compulsory education system, Britain and France have also established compulsory education systems in the past two years.

The quality of German soldiers has been greatly improved through compulsory education, which is one of the foundations for Germany's strong combat effectiveness in a series of wars.

Greece itself has a sparse population. It would be unimaginable if the quality of its population were to lag behind that of European countries.

After all, contemporary competition is conducted on a national basis, and low quality of the population will be a huge shortcoming.

Therefore, Constantine could not count on the heavily indebted Greek government. He collected part of it directly from Congo's fiscal revenue and also had to provide compulsory education in Greece.

Compulsory education in Greece cannot be delayed without delay.

The reason why Constantine established the Greek Educational Foundation and believed that an educational foundation without direct involvement of the government could successfully implement compulsory education is simple.

Implementing compulsory education in Europe is not as difficult as in Asian countries.

This is decided by both parties using words.

Ideographic characters are used in Asia, and phonetic characters are used in Europe and America.

I’m afraid many people have a problem with learning ideograms:

Teacher: “Copy these new words a hundred times”

Ideographic characters like Hanzi, because there is no direct connection between their pronunciation and meaning, can even have one word with multiple sounds (polyphonetic characters), and one sound with multiple characters.

Therefore, there are not many convenient ways to learn Chinese characters, other than rote memorization.

Phonetic characters are different. There is a connection between the pronunciation and the text. If students are familiar with dozens of basic letters (like abcde), each letter has a corresponding pronunciation. According to the pronunciation, proficient students can The pronunciation spells out the word, or reads the word based on it.

If we only consider the convenience of learning, phonetic characters have a huge advantage over ideographic characters.

Therefore, it is more convenient for European countries that use phonetic characters to implement compulsory education.

This is also the reason why so many countries in modern times have changed their writing to pinyin writing. The huge advantage of popularization and convenience is far inferior to that of ideographic writing.

“I need parliament to amend the compulsory education law and make it compulsory for children of school age to attend school,” Constantine said.

Although Constantine's upcoming compulsory education was free, this did not mean that parents were willing to send their children to school.

The poorer the family, the more reluctant they are to send their children to school.

For example, a considerable number of families in rural Greece do not believe that there is any benefit for a farmer's child to learn to read, especially girls.

In their superficial understanding, even if they are illiterate, they can still farm.

It is impossible for teachers in schools to persuade short-sighted parents one by one, so it is necessary to amend the compulsory education law and enforce it.

"Yes, Your Majesty the Duke, I will inform the meeting and let them put the revision of the law on compulsory education on the agenda," Trikupis said happily.

As a reformist in the Greek government, Trikupis' progressive political ideas were also the reason why Constantine was willing to cooperate with him.

"Also, you should solve the land problem in Thessaly as soon as possible. It is too wasteful to use good land for grazing sheep and horses," Constantine said.

The original Thessaly landowners, wealthy overseas businessmen, exchanged their land for shares in the corresponding Greek Congo Corporation.

Constantine gave up a considerable part of his shares for this purpose.

"Let local farmers get land as soon as possible and put it into agricultural production," Constantine said.

"By the way, I have learned about the raisin export issue that His Highness mentioned a few days ago," Trikupis said.

"Compared to the French and Italians who export finished wine, Greece can only export raisins, the raw material for winemaking."

"Compared to the price of finished wine, the profit from raisins is really low."

"So, I would like to ask the Duke for your opinion. Can you ask the royal family to support the country's wine industry?" Trikupis asked in a low voice.

"The royal family supports the wine industry?" Constantine frowned and pondered Trikupis's words.

"How can the royal family support this?"

"Can the royal court collect and consume more Greek red wine?" Trikoupis said.

After saying these words, Trikupis carefully looked at Constantine's expression.

After hearing this, Constantine also understood the Prime Minister's plan, which was to use the royal family's stage to advertise Greece's own wine.

Among the Greek royal family, King George from Denmark and King Olga from Russia prefer French wine in their daily meals. For example, King George likes French red wine very much, and it is essential to accompany his meals.

Therefore, a lot of French wine is stored in the underground wine storage room of Tatoy Palace. In addition to the royal family's own purchases, there are also many French wines received as gifts in courtesy exchanges.

Why are French wines so popular?

Is it because French wine has the best quality and taste?

That’s not necessarily the case. Whether it’s Italy, Greece or other European countries, there may not be wines with better quality than French wines.

Without him, he is just more famous.

For example, the well-known meme of "get a bottle of 1982 Lafite" has been widely circulated.

France, as the traditional hegemon of the European continent, has long been the economic and cultural center of Europe. This kind of soft power cannot be compared with other European countries.

Therefore, French wine naturally benefits a lot from France’s cultural advantages.

Trikoupis wants the Greek royal family to support the country's wine industry, consume more of the country's wine in daily life, and increase the popularity of Greece's wine.

For example, when interacting with other European dignitaries, giving Greek wine as a gift.