Lack of money; this is an embarrassing statement for King Charles Albert. The Kingdom of Sardinia is located in northwestern Italy and is considered to be the strongest state in Italy. Unfortunately, this cannot change the nature of Sardinia, which has never been a wealthy state.
Sardinia has a territory of just over 70,000 km², and a population between 5-6 million. It lacks natural resources, while the process of industrialization has just begun. Despite its poverty, Sardinia had always strived to unify Italy. In order to unify Italy, wars are necessary. The military expenditures have led to their finances remaining in a perpetual deficit.
As a result, due to its ambitions, the Kingdom of Sardinia has always remained poor. It wasn't until 1852 when Camillo Benso, the Count of Cavour, became the Prime Minister and reformed the fiscal and taxation system to increase Sardinia's income through a series of measures including laying down railroads, port construction, and the development of industry and commerce.
Prime Minister Azeglio echoed, "His Majesty is correct, we are truly out of money. The war came too suddenly and we were not adequately prepared.
Through the occupation of Lombardy, we consumed a lot of financial and material resources, which greatly exceeded our budget. So far, we have spent over 28 million liras on this war!
Due to the war, we can't expect to collect tax in Lombardy this year, so we will have to continue to invest more money for reconstruction in Lombardy during the second half of the year, as well.
The French abruptly terminated their previously promised material and ammunition assistance. As a result, we have to squeeze a sum of money out of the already limited war funds to purchase weapons and equipment. This alone will cost us at least another 17 million liras.
Together, these two costs have used up nearly 45% of our war funds. Not to mention, we still have nearly 200,000 troops on whose food and wages we have to spend at least 1 million lira per day. If this war continues to drag on, we will go bankrupt within two months."
After listening to the Prime Minister's explanation, the Minister of War Ferrere was left in disbelief. He instinctively questioned, "Lord Prime Minister, how did you spend so much money? According to our plan, the 100 million lira was enough to support us for half a year!"
"Lord Minister of War, do you mean to accuse me of corruption?" retorted Prime Minister Azeglio, enraged.
Minister of War Ferrere inwardly sneered and thought, 'Corruption? I doubt there's anyone in the government who isn't corrupt.'
Nevertheless, he didn't make his thoughts known to others. Corruption amongst government officials was an open secret, but it was best not to continue this topic or he would unnecessarily make many enemies.
Minister of War Ferrere quickly shook his head and explained, "Of course not, Lord Prime Minister. I wasn't accusing you of any such thing. I was just a little curious about the expenses."
After hearing those words, Prime Minister Azeglio slowly calmed down and explained, "I'll give you a rough calculation, so you can see where the money went.
In Lombardy, the Liberals spent 8.65 million liras, the food crisis cost 10.5365 million liras, relief for the refugees of war cost 3.637 million liras, and the establishment of administrative agencies cost 3.862 million liras.
In addition, due to the ongoing revolution throughout Europe, the price of weapons and ammunition on the international market has increased by 37% compared to last year. Your Ministry of War should be aware of the specific costs of feeding and arming your army.
Finally, in our original plan, we had never planned to recruit another 70,000 troops in Lombardy. With so many more soldiers, the cost will naturally increase!"
After hearing the Prime Minister's explanation, Minister of War Ferrere had nothing to say. The problem was obvious: the Sardinians had no confidence in defeating the Austrians. In order to increase their odds, they adopted the simplest method- expanding the size of the army.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the strength of an agricultural nation was not high enough to train and arm its entire population for a war. Sardinia had mobilized more than 100,000 people, which had basically reached its limit. Since the people of Lombardy were so enthusiastic to fight against the Austrians, the Army had no reason to refuse them.
Nevertheless, Minister of War Ferrere could not openly accept that the responsibility for the exorbitant spending lay with the Army. As the Head of the Army, he had to take its side at all times.
Minister of War Ferrere wanted to change the topic so he quickly asked, "Lord Prime Minister, the British have stated that they support us in this war, so can't we ask them for another loan?"
Prime Minister Azeglio smiled bitterly and said, "It is not easy to get a loan from the British. For the previous £3 million loan, we have already agreed to many of their harsh conditions.
Now that the war has broken out, if we ask them for another loan, I am afraid their conditions will be nothing short of outrageous! "
This was the usual ploy used by the British during the 19th century and the Americans during the 20th century. First, they would give a loan to lure one to enter the "boat." Once one got on the boat, however, one would find that there were no "oars" on the "boat." It was easy to get on the "boat" but difficult to get off it, so, now, in the center of the river, one had to agree to all outrageous demands in exchange for "oars" to get out of the river.
"So what about the French? Didn't they want us to expel the Austrians from Italy?" asked Minister of War Ferrere.
Suddenly, King Charles Albert snorted and coldly said, "Huh! The French are a bunch of unscrupulous bastards. Even the weapon and material assistance that they previously promised hasn't been sent. Do you think we can still count on them?"
The ministers remained quiet. The French had originally provided some assistance, but when they learned that Sardinia had annexed Lombardy, they quickly reneged on their promise.
The French had put forward the condition that Lombardy must be made an independent nation, which was undoubtedly unacceptable to Sardinia. After all, independence was easy, but reunification was difficult. If they missed this opportunity, Sardinia might never come across another opportunity to annex Lombardy.
Minister of War Ferrere said, "Your Majesty, the one guarding Venetia is the old fox Radetzky. He must've learned from his defeat, so it won't be easy to defeat him again.
If he insists on simply defending Venice without fighting against us, it will be impossible for us to end the war in two months. In fact, if the Austrians are unwilling to end the war, even if we capture Venice, they will continue to threaten us, so we must find a way to finance the war."
He wanted a decisive battle to end the war quickly, but that was not simply up to him. It might be possible to end the war quickly if the Sardinian army managed to strike at Vienna and force the Viennese government to surrender. However, no one thought this was possible, not even Minister of War Ferrere.
Even if he was confident in the Sardinian army, he didn't think that it could topple Vienna, something which even the Ottoman Empire at its peak had failed to achieve. Thus, if the Sardinians wanted to win this war, the government had to find a way to raise military funds for the army.
Prime Minister Azeglio replied with a wry smile, "Lord Minister of War, I will find a solution for the lack of funds, but you must also guarantee victory. We cannot afford to lose this war!"
"Lord Prime Minister, rest assured. Marshal Franzini has already defeated the Austrians once, so I believe he will do it again!" assured Minister of War Ferrere.
King Charles Albert, who had been quietly listening, suddenly asked, "Prime Minister, from where are you going to obtain the war funds?"
-TO BE CONTINUED-
That neocolonial predatory lending still happens to this day though. The IMF and World Bank forces countries(such as my own) to enact "structural adjustment programs" to payback their loans. China is in the action too with their Belt and Road Initiative.
Yep, China is committing atrocities at home and in Africa and the Middle East through neocolonialism while cursing the West as Imperialists
Nevertheless, needless to say Britain, but America did partake in a lot of neocolonialism during the 20th century in Cuba and the West Indies, South America and the Middle East.
Thank you for the chapter.
Thank you for this chapnya!