My Italian: Chapter 359 1895 Summary

1895 was a fruitful year for Italy. No matter how you look at it, it is a successful harvest.

First of all, in terms of influence, Italy taught Japan a lesson in the form of an expeditionary force in the Far East, allowing countries to see Italy's long-distance intervention capabilities.

However, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is still unknown, but at least in the eyes of all countries, Italy is no longer a dispensable role, and countries will also consider Italy's attitude to some extent.

Of course, the expansion of influence is an additional gain for Italy, and the most important gain is economic benefits.

Although Italy did not have much direct monetary gain in this Far East War, its indirect benefits were very substantial. (During the Sino-Japanese War of 1888-1885, the total casualties of the Italian navy and army were 4217, of which 1721 were killed, 2470 were injured, and 26 were missing. The casualties do not seem to be small, but they were mainly caused by naval battles.)

Among them, the military industry was the most profitable. In just over half a year, the artillery shells produced by the overtime work of the arsenal were not enough for the needs of the Far East, and a batch was urgently transferred from the reserve warehouses of the navy and army to transport them there.

Moreover, in addition to the military industry, war-related industries such as the maritime transportation industry and the steel industry have all enjoyed this dividend. And it is precisely with the help of this war dividend that all related industries have been fully developed.

The dividends brought by this war alone are not enough. The key is that Italy won the road construction rights of the Qing Dynasty Railway. However, Italy cannot monopolize this benefit, but in terms of purchasing materials that are crucial, Italy uses its relationship with the Qing Dynasty and occupies a sufficient share to guarantee the procurement rights of the railway.

At present, the Daqing Railway Company has opened three railways in one go, the construction of the Luhan Line, the Yuehan Line, and the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Ring Railway. In addition, it is said that the railway company is exploring the direction of the Jinpu line and the Longhai line.

The unstoppable continuous start of construction of the Daqing Railway Company was actually driven by shareholders from various countries. The powers of various countries have a strong interest in promoting the construction of railways in the Qing Dynasty, especially after most of the shares of the Great Qing Railway Company have fallen into the hands of various countries through private acquisitions.

And I heard that in addition to these two railways that are exploring routes, other countries are also interested in the Kanto Railway from Tianjin to Shengjing. Especially Russia, they also want to extend a branch railway from the Siberian Railway, connecting to Shengjing and Lushun, and they have a strong interest. This was just the idea of ​​the Russians, and the British dragged Italy to resist it. Who doesn't know what the polar bear's idea is.

In addition to the Kanto Railway, which caused constant conflicts among countries, France is currently very interested in the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and the British are also very interested in the Sichuan-Han Railway. Of course, the Sichuan-Shanxi Railway, the Sichuan-Yunnan Railway and the Changjiang-Ningxia Railway are also in the plans of various countries.

It's ridiculous to say that countries are more anxious to build railways than the Qing Dynasty, but this is also based on the fact that railways can help them expand their influence and penetrate into inland places. So all countries came with different thoughts, but even if Qing knew about it, there was nothing they could do about it.

Of course, Italy is the most happy about the large-scale railway construction in the Qing Dynasty. After all, except for the Hanyang Iron Works, the rails and steel materials needed for the railway are all in Italy's pocket. This is at least the demand for 100,000 tons of steel per year, and it has nothing to say about the promotion of the Italian steel industry.

With the promotion of such favorable factors, Italy's fiscal revenue in 1895 also reached a record 1.827 billion lire.

Yes, it is such a high total fiscal revenue. Compared with the total government revenue in 1893 two years ago, it was 317 million lire higher.

From this figure, we can see how much this Far East war has stimulated the Italian economy.

In this financial income statement, tariffs rank first. In 1895, Italy realized a total of 374 million lire tariffs. The increase of so many tariffs is due to the strong growth of Italy's imports and exports on the one hand, and the severe crackdown on smuggling and tax evasion on the other hand.

The crackdown on smuggling also benefited from the government's emphasis on customs, which allocated a lot of manpower and ships to the customs. And the Customs lived up to expectations. Last year, it intercepted 146 smuggling vessels, arrested 1,123 suspects, and seized illegal goods worth 32.69 million lire, which dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of smugglers. (Of course, to a certain extent, how frequent smuggling activities are in Italy, of course, this has a lot to do with the terrain of Italy. There are too many coastlines in the country, which are very conducive to smuggling activities.)

In addition to tariffs, the second largest category of fiscal revenue is salt and tobacco monopoly taxes.

That's right, it is the monopoly tax that everyone understands. In this industry monopolized by the state, it provided the government with a fiscal revenue of 326 million lire, which was comparable to the tobacco and salt monopoly tax of a certain country in later generations, which was directly called military expenditure.

Of course, in addition to these two types of taxes, the next thing is consumption tax. This kind of tax is directly placed in the product in a certain country in later generations, so it is not obvious, but if you go abroad, you will find that it is listed separately. The excise tax provided 215 million lire for the Italian treasury.

Then there are property taxes, business taxes, land-related taxes, and stamp duties on securities transactions, etc. These taxes support Italy's finances and allow Italy to have more funds to enrich its national strength.

When it comes to national strength, the most direct one is the steel industry. In 1895, the Italian steel industry produced a total of 2.7 million tons of steel. For Italy to produce so much steel, on the one hand, it is domestic demand, and on the other hand, it is reflected in tariffs. Italy raised tariffs on imported coal, iron ore, and steel products from abroad by 21% without tax collection.

Although this caused dissatisfaction between Germany and France, in order to protect the domestic steel industry, Italy gritted its teeth and withstood the pressure. Although Germany and France subsequently raised tariffs on agricultural products such as Italian wine and figs, it is worthwhile to protect their own steel industry.

After the tariffs were raised, coal and iron mines from Libya and Kosovo immediately became very attractive, making the mining and railway transportation in the two places extremely busy.

Of course, it is not only the iron and steel industry that reflects Italy's national strength. Italy, as a representative of light industry, is also developing very well. At present, Italy has nearly 300,000 textile workers, so that Italy has ~www.mtlnovel.com~ an output of 148,000 tons of cotton yarn and 42,110 tons of wool fabric.

The textile industry, as a representative of light industry, is booming in Italy. Of course, agriculture, which is the foundation of Italy, has also been greatly developed. Taking pesticides and chemical fertilizers as an example to promote agricultural development, Italy currently produces 21,000 tons of phosphate fertilizers, 17,200 tons of potassium fertilizers, and 1,571 tons of pesticides.

Although this does not seem like a lot, in this era when chemical fertilizers have not been used on a large scale, the ability to produce so many chemical fertilizers is already the result of Italy's vigorous promotion. Because of the emphasis on its own agriculture, Italy attaches great importance to any fertilizer that improves crop yields.

Although Italy is due to various reasons, its shortage of resources and its overpopulation compared with domestic arable land. But the Italian government is also working hard to change all this. Among them, Italy immigrates nearly 100,000 people to the colonies every year, trying to ease the pressure on the local population. In addition, Italy's current efforts to find various resources in various colonies have continued. For example, in the Somalia region of East Africa, Italy discovered a good copper mine. Around the development of this copper mine, the East African colonial government also raised funds.

In general, 1895 was a very memorable year for Italy.

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