Chapter 646: Russia-Austria League disintegrates (1/2)
The diplomatic team is sometimes simple. Since the British decided to support Chile, Peru and Bolivia can only seek support from Fao.
International trade is only a small problem. The South American countries have very small bodies these days. If it were not rich in resources and needed to promote currency hegemony, the powers would not pay attention to them.
Just look at the population of each country. Chile has about 2.2 million, Peru has about 2.75 million, and Bolivia has about 1.3 million.
With just a few people and agricultural countries, it is obviously impossible to count on how big the internal market is.
Chile is relatively affluent, mainly relying on saltpeter exports, and its military strength is the strongest among the three countries.
Peru has silver, but unfortunately the price of silver has fallen year by year, and the Peruvian government's wallet is also drying up.
Bolivia is arguably the worst. After discovering the saltpeter mine, it was only a few years before the war broke out.
There is no doubt that the three countries were unable to provide huge amounts of war funding at once, and loans were inevitable.
In the Vienna Palace, Franz was approving a special loan, and the debtor very generously took out the Atacama desert minerals as collateral.
”From the current situation, how likely are Peru and Bolivia to win the war?”
Chief of General Staff Albrecht: ”Only from the analysis of military strength on paper, the General Staff carried out a quantitative analysis based on factors such as the number of troops, weapons and equipment, training, past records, and logistical support capabilities of the three countries.
The military strengths of the three countries are: Bolivia 1, Peru 1.8, and Chile 2.1.
Theoretically, Bolivia and Peru have an absolute advantage; however, most of the time on the battlefield, the Chilean army is now pressing Peru and Bolivia.
Bolivia and Peru, which have military advantages, have only joined forces in name, there is no cooperation on the battlefield, and sometimes they hinder each other.
If the cooperation between the Peruvian and Bolivian armies is not resolved, their chances of winning the war will not exceed half. ”
This is a problem common to all joint operations. Bolivia, Peru and Chile have sworn sovereignty over the Atacama Desert.
Now that Bolivia and Peru are united, it does not mean that the territorial dispute between the two countries has disappeared. It is only because of their common enemy Chile that they have been forced to unite.
In this context, it's normal for knives to fight each other on the battlefield.
Franz: ”Tell the Bolivians that we are not interested in saltpeter in the Atacama Desert and let them take out other collateral.
If there is no suitable collateral, you can mortgage domestic minerals to us, and gold, silver, copper, iron, oil, and natural gas can be considered. ”
Not optimistic about Bolivia winning the war will not prevent Austria from supporting Bolivia in this war. ”Boliviano” and Aegis alone are worth Austria's standing behind them.
If it were not for the minerals in the Atacama Desert that had been promised to the British by the Chileans, Austria would not compete in South America but John Cow, and Franz would probably send someone to the enclosure first.
Of course, the most important thing is not enough benefits. Although the Atacama Desert is the world's largest producer of saltpeter, it does not mean that there is no saltpeter elsewhere, and there is also artificial nitrate production.
Originally, Franz was going to pull Peru into the ship. Unfortunately, he was preempted by the French. Austria's tentacle penetration into South America was too short and its influence was still too weak.
If it wasn't for Chile and Peru who took the British and French thighs, Franz suspected that Bolivia would not necessarily choose Austria.
Finance Minister Carl reminded: ”His Majesty, Bolivia's domestic precious metal mines have long been mortgaged.
Although common minerals such as copper and iron have been discovered a lot, they have no development value. Oil and natural gas are both new energy industries. It is unknown whether Bolivia is.
If you take these collaterals, the risk of loans will be greatly increased, and domestic banks may not accept them. ”
Franz came to his senses, Bolivia's industrial strength was limited, let alone heavy industry, it was infinitely close to zero.
The ore developed cannot be smelted on site. The developed ore must be shipped out for sale. With the traffic situation of this era, these minerals naturally lose economic value.
Needless to say, oil and natural gas have just begun to be used, and the importance has not been seen at all. Naturally, no one has paid a large price for exploration.
After calculating it, Franz found that these things were not really useful for a short time. It may not even be used for a hundred years, and the layout in advance is completely nonsense.
Austria has declared its neutrality in the war. This time the loan to Bolivia was naturally based on a non-governmental commercial loan model. The government only used a needle to collect a contract to guarantee the cost of performance.
Judging from the current situation, the Bolivian government is very unlikely to win the war. Most of them will follow in the original time and space. After losing the war, they will naturally have no money to pay their debts.
If the collateral is worthless, private banks will not buy it. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if the government negotiated the conditions and no bank was willing to lend?
After awakening, Franz did not feel embarrassed, and immediately changed his mind: ”Since the precious metal mine is gone, these latter things can only be taken as a lead and let the Bolivian government take out other things as mortgages.”