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18-November-1920
The instability within Europe seemed to do nothing but continue. Recently, Finland had entered a civil war between conservatives and Bolshevik/Mensheviks. Apparently, some remnants of the Red groups from Russia had moved into the area and organized themselves to launch a coup d'état against the Finnish government.
Finland remained immersed in a very long political debate, since they were still deciding whether to keep their German monarch in order to maintain good relations with Germany or move toward democracy and try to establish better relations with the Western countries, while at the same time trying not to anger Berlin too much.
That lack of a stable government left the door open to civil war. They remained that way for several days, until the Tsar did not take long to seize the opportunity to secure a quick victory.
In the middle of the civil war, Russian troops entered Finland and, within days, had ended its independence without too many problems. Afterward, they immediately began pursuing and purging the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.
Finland had fallen.
And that represented a major problem, since it had been a country capable of being troublesome for Russia, but now it had practically returned to its old status as the Grand Duchy of Finland.
According to our intelligence reports, Russia was preparing to move south.
It was completely unknown whether they had already begun some operation against Azerbaijan or whether they were simply preparing to launch an attack against Baku during the coming spring. However, it was quite evident that their objective was the oil wells of the region.
It was known that the Tsar was desperately searching for new resources with which to pay Russia's international debts and, of course, finance the importation of all those products the country still lacked.
Although Russia had managed to partially develop its agriculture in the central regions, it had previously depended enormously on Ukrainian grain to maintain large food reserves that could later be delivered to the people.
Now they faced the problem of having to meet certain production quotas simply to have enough grain by the end of the year. Even so, they still needed to import part of our surpluses to feed their population.
That was why it was not strange that they were now setting their eyes on the oil wells of Azerbaijan.
Those resources could quickly fill their coffers. The price of oil continued to rise at the same time as production increased, with both factors counteracting each other to a certain extent. In addition, because of Azerbaijan's political and economic crisis, its oil was not flowing into the markets in the quantities it could have.
Under a relatively efficient Russian administration, they could probably increase production considerably and reduce the price of that dinosaur nectar.
But that was not even the greatest of our problems.
While we watched Russia slowly rise again from the ashes of its civil war, we had managed to provoke an enormous political crisis inside Germany.
My book, even amid the severe economic crisis striking the country, the inflation and the effects caused by the release of the German mark's exchange value, had managed to sell an enormous number of copies in both Germany and Austria-Bohemia.
That had caused numerous German nationalist sectors to begin taking to the streets using my name against the government and demanding accountability from the military leadership that had directed the war.
Attempts had been made to silence the book from military circles and even from the Kaiser's own entourage, since the publication had provided an enormous amount of political ammunition to his enemies.
Inside the Reichstag, demands began multiplying to remove various members of the army from their posts and bring them before tribunals to answer for the military negligence committed during the war.
The situation ended up deteriorating to such a point that the army mobilized internally again and declared martial law, reacting to the numerous protests that had spread throughout the Empire at the hands of both nationalists and socialists demanding answers for the defeat.
That ended up causing the dissolution of the Reichstag and the temporary suspension of numerous guarantees while the military desperately tried to save its own ass.
At the same time, they had begun burning an enormous number of documents related to their orders and decisions during the war, trying to destroy anything that could be used as evidence against them and prevent themselves from ending up locked in prison.
For the Kaiser had only signed the decree for the temporary dissolution of the Reichstag. They could not resolve the crisis of the riots with a Parliament that was doing nothing to end the situation, and there were politicians who even made the Kaiser's abdication a condition for voting in favor of military intervention.
That had led to the temporary dissolution. In reality, the Kaiser had only given the military some time to clean up its own shit before letting them fall.
And, naturally, I had received letters from some of our neighbors, as well as from the Kaiser himself, his son and other German monarchs, asking me to withdraw the book from circulation or, at the very least, make a public statement about the events, since thanks to its publication Germany had entered into deep political instability.
And that was even worse in Austria.
Apparently, Kaiser Karl had abdicated and left a provisional military government in charge. Parliament did not take long to begin approving legislation intended to prepare the Anschluss.
From what I understood, the Austrian Kaiser had managed to remain in power thanks to the conservative and German nationalist vote, but, for some reason, he had then begun governing according to centrist ideas and even adopting some proposals from socialist sectors, trying to increase the power and representation of cultural minorities within the reduced Empire.
Now that had cost him the throne.
Everything seemed to indicate that Austria would end up being annexed by Germany.
I did not know exactly what the result of such a territorial annexation would be. A Germany united with Austria would have an enormous population, something that would surely make the French and British extremely nervous.
Now all that population and a good part of Austria's resources would fall under German command which, despite all its flaws, was considerably more competent than the old Austro-Hungarian command.
That could once again alter the balance of power in Europe.
And, if France and the United Kingdom considered that Germany was recovering too much power too quickly, there was even the possibility that the entire crisis would end up provoking another war.
Something that did not interest us at all, since everything that had happened had affected our fledgling economy. Germany, once again in crisis, had fewer resources to continue buying products from us, products they had slowly begun to acquire, such as trucks, tractors, fertilizers and practically anything we could produce within our territories.
But now, with the new crisis, our exports to Germany had fallen practically to zero.
Only Russia remained, but at most we were selling them basic products. Giving them truly important resources, such as steel, tractors or industrial machinery, which could help them overcome their food problems, would only cause our current scarce exports to be replaced by products capable of producing real changes within the Russian economy.
And, at the same time, that would strengthen them.
So we were stuck in a problem.
Our only relatively reliable trade partners now were the United Kingdom, to which we sold some agricultural industrial machinery and fertilizers, as well as Hungary and Bulgaria. With the latter two, we maintained preferential trade treaties that forced us to sell certain products at discounts compared to international prices.
''This colony is already fully operational, mein Herzog. As you can see, around five thousand people currently live here and work is already underway on several expansions to accommodate more inhabitants. We are gradually expanding the residential infrastructure because, with the increase in the number of greenhouses, more labor is needed to fill them with workers'' one of the foremen explained while showing me the situation of that colony, which was mainly dedicated to agriculture.
''Remind me what this town produces'' I asked while beginning to walk and observing part of the infrastructure that had already been built and was still being expanded.
''Yes, of course… According to the reports, they are mainly dedicated to cultivating strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes and several medicinal plants selected by a doctor according to their healing properties'' the foreman explained while reviewing the documents he carried on his clipboard.
''Industry?'' I asked while placing my hands behind my back.
''Mainly subsistence agriculture. Almost all the food necessary to maintain the population is produced internally through the local greenhouses and the surrounding farms. There are also some workshops intended to repair tools, simple machinery and utensils belonging to the inhabitants''.
The foreman turned a page before continuing.
''The only truly important industry is a factory dedicated to producing canned soups. It currently employs around eight hundred workers divided into two shifts and uses a good part of the colony's agricultural surplus. Everything else depends on the central city of this colonial node'' he explained.
''And what about local private initiative? Are there cases of individuals who have tried to establish their own businesses?'' I asked while approaching my vehicle.
''Shoemakers, seamstresses, carpenters, some leather workers and the occasional local shop dedicated to buying products from other cities to resell them. The town has an average salary close to the national standard, although it is approximately four percent higher than in the rest of the Duchy. So far, the expected growth in the inhabitants' income has been maintained'' the foreman explained.
''Good. Continue with the work, then, and we will see what we can do with the increase in infrastructure. When the hydroelectric dam is finished, there will be much more electrical production in the area, which will allow us to considerably increase industrialization thanks to a cheap source of electricity'' I said while scratching my hair and beginning to climb into the vehicle.
The Baltic economy was finally beginning to show visible results. A good part of our own internal market and national demand was lifting industry.
To a great extent, that had been possible thanks to the system I had designed together with a group of people trained in economics whom we had managed to find among the migrants and army volunteers. Little by little, we had managed to create an economy capable of sustaining itself to a large degree.
Practically all industry had been organized to produce the food consumed by the inhabitants and a good part of the consumer goods they needed to maintain a decent life.
Slowly, that was beginning to be reflected in our macroeconomic statistics.
Our estimates indicated that the Duchy's GDP would grow by around sixteen percent that year. Of course, a good part of that corresponded to a rebound effect, since we could finally trade constantly with other countries.
They were not yet large volumes, but we were exporting products to Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The canned foods we produced in enormous quantities were finding good reception in neighboring countries, mainly because we managed to sell them at quite low prices.
Cheap food had become a characteristic of our governments, especially in the Baltic.
We had an enormous greenhouse industry that allowed us to obtain harvests during practically the entire year and, with workers constantly taking care of them, it was normal for food prices to be low.
Price controls had already stopped being applied, but, just as I had expected, instead of prices shooting upward, many foods had continued falling in value.
That was why we had begun offering export contracts to our state companies. Since practically all of them used the same standardized production system, a good part of the food surpluses could be grouped together, receive new labeling and be exported abroad.
That had managed to make many of our food companies incredibly profitable.
And now I expected that, with the coming distribution of dividends among the workers, an important economic boom would take place.
My intention was for that money to end up stimulating the private economy through the workers themselves.
For the moment, all state companies granted their employees the right to twenty-five percent of each company's social shares, so that proportion of the profits belonged directly to them.
And, so far, practically all those companies were generating profits that would soon have to be distributed among their workers.
''Mein Herzog, apparently a group of British investors has arrived. They want to know in greater detail what the conditions would be for investing under your government and what guarantees they could receive'' one of my men said while handing me a telegraphic message from Riga.
''Good… excellent. Any investment we can attract without having to use our own resources will be welcome, especially with all the instability currently existing in Europe'' I replied while taking the telegram and beginning to read it.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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