St. Petersburg, since receiving the news of the Great Farm program of the French, Alexander III rarely had a smile on his face anymore.

Now that the news of the approval of the "Food Self-Sufficiency Plan" by the British Parliament has been received, one can imagine the mood of Alexander III.

There is no way, grain exports are too important for the Russian Empire. It not only accounts for the largest proportion of the country's foreign exchange earnings, but also involves the livelihood of tens of millions of people.

From the beginning of Alexander II's agricultural reforms, the Russian Empire was in a state of oversupply, and the tsarist government had to worry about the availability of grain every year, except for the years of the Russo-Prussian War.

This is related to a decree in the time of Alexander II.

At that time, in preparation for the Second Russo-Prussian War, the government needed to raise military rations, and it happened to coincide with the agricultural crisis, and the people had no money to pay taxes when civilian grain was unsalable, so Alexander II ordered that the peasants should be allowed to pay taxes with grain.

This policy allowed the tsarist government to raise enough military rations in the shortest possible time, laying the foundation for winning the Second Prussian War.

The aftermath was that the tsarist government had to receive a large amount of grain every year, especially in remote areas, and almost all the peasants paid taxes on the grain.

It's impossible to change it back. Transportation in Russia is very bad, and grain in remote areas cannot be sold at a high price, and in some areas it is not even sold at all, so it is far more cost-effective than paying directly in kind.

If this decree was to be abolished, it would be against tens of millions of peasants, and Alexander III naturally did not dare to do such a thing.

If it had been decades ago, when the tsarist government had so much food in its hands, it would have swept across the European continent by killing gods and Buddhas.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, and what the current tsarist government wants most is to cash in on grain.

There is no need to think about it in China, the price of grain in the market itself is not high, and if so much grain is released again, the grain market will have to collapse.

Internationally, there is also overcapacity in grain, and coupled with political factors, Russia's grain export road is not smooth.

If it weren't for Austria taking the lead in setting up a grain export alliance, everyone would have worked together to reduce grain exports and stabilize grain prices, and it is estimated that the international market would have been ruined long ago.

After international food prices stabilized, the tsarist government was only slightly relieved, and the share allocated to them was actually unable to absorb the grain that the government received every year.

Of course, the rest is not all wasted. The tsarist government also came up with a number of methods, such as raising livestock and making wine......

The former is naturally a failure, it is easy to raise livestock, but unfortunately it is difficult to sell.

The domestic market looks very large, but it is a pity that ordinary people are poor, and it is not easy to fill their stomachs, and they cannot afford to consume at all.

Although the international market is larger, the problem is that it is difficult to transport live livestock, and it cannot be kept fresh after slaughter, so cured meat cannot be sold at a high price in the international market.

In the past few years, food safety has been full of hidden dangers, and if you hear the words "made in Russia" again, it is estimated that 99% of consumers will be scared away.

That's the branding effect, and Russian food is so reassuring.

Other countries export food, but there may be problems; And the food exported by Russia is basically problematic.

This is the conclusion that the European people have come to with their own experience.

The tsarist government also made efforts to change this image, but all of them came to naught thanks to the joint efforts of the bureaucrats and capitalists.

Specifically, you can refer to the sales of meat products in the Russian market, the high prices are imported, and the domestic ones cannot be sold at a high price.

But as soon as the economy allows, everyone will buy imported food that is more reassuring. Not only meat products, but also flour.

Even if many people know that this flour is wheat produced in Russia and exported to Austria, and it is sold back after processing, everyone would rather pay a high price to buy one with confidence.

As a result of the development of animal husbandry, farmers in the border areas have benefited from the fact that they can drive their livestock to neighbouring Austria for sale.

Industrial development should not be counted on, because these animals have been labeled from the beginning - imported from Russia.

Once an inherent perception is formed, it is not so easy to change.

With this label, there is no market for this part of the meat product in Austria. Many of them are processed into cured meats, canned food, and finally returned to the Russian market.

In contrast to the farming industry, the tsarist government's winemaking industry flourished, and it is now the largest supplier of liquor in Europe, and it sells cheap liquor.

It's really cheap, and even if someone wants to follow suit, it's impossible for them to follow suit. Because according to the price of grain in the market, after the grain wine is sold, it is not enough to recover the cost.

Of course, "cheapness" alone was not enough to make the Russians the largest supplier of alcohol in Europe, and more importantly, the Russian Empire itself was the largest consumer of alcohol in Europe.

Austria, with a population of about the same size, consumes less than half as much alcohol per year as the Russian Empire. When you count alcohol consumption, the gap is even greater.

In a sense, the overcapacity of grain has promoted the development of alcohol culture among the Russian people, making the "land of barrels" a well-deserved name.

This was all forced, and the tsarist government did not want to be so extravagant, but if the surplus grain was not used for brewing and cash, it could not be piled up in the warehouse and rotten!

It was with great difficulty that the excess food was disposed of, and now Britain and France began to toss again.

Although the impact was not great in the short term, once their plan became a reality, the tsarist government's biggest foreign exchange earning project was completely gone.

Alexander III, with a gloomy face, asked: "The British Parliament has passed a plan for food self-sufficiency, and it does not take into account our withdrawal from the free trade system, so who can tell me what the Austrians are doing?" ”

This is a very obvious problem, and the Austrian government certainly did not do its best to prevent the proposal from being passed by the British Parliament so smoothly.

With Austria's influence, even if it was impossible to influence the decisions of the British, it was still fine to delay it for a while in Parliament.

Combined with what happened during this time, Alexander III had reason to suspect that the Austrian government was secretly trading with Britain and France, betraying the interests of the Russian Empire.

Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez: "Your Majesty, not long ago the Vienna government issued an announcement on the upgrading of agriculture.

According to the above, in the next five years, Austria will cut the area under 5 percent of the area under wheat and 3 percent of the area planted with potatoes...... in response to a new round of agricultural crisis.

If this plan is fully realized, their domestic market will be enough to consume domestic grain production capacity and basically get rid of dependence on the international market. ”

In essence, Franz was forced to do this. Needless to say, the importance of grain is self-evident, and if he can monopolize the grain export market, even if he loses money, he will die to the end.

Unfortunately, Austria is not in a position to monopolize grain exports.

Even though it occupies the largest share of the international agricultural export market and its market share is close to monopoly, this hegemony is not stable.

If we want to consolidate our hegemony, we must first suppress several food-producing countries, especially the Russian Empire next door.

The international situation is changing, and Britain, France, and Russia are enemies today, but tomorrow they may become friends.

With the ability of the Russians themselves, it is not necessary to worry about the development of the agricultural processing industry, but with external support, it is different.

In case one day the Russians and the French, or the British, come to an agreement that will attract a group of British and French capitalists to come and invest.

The consequences of building agricultural product processing factories in coastal cities are serious, after all: "advanced technology + cheap industrial raw materials + cheap labor + vast market = success." ”

When encountering such a combination, Austria can only passively follow the price war and rely on financial resources to hurt others.

Knowing that the "money road" was dark and the interests of tens of millions of peasants were involved, Franz naturally could not rush on this road of no return for the sake of anger.

In order to minimize the losses, it is natural to promote the transformation of domestic agriculture before overturning the table.

In this era of rapid scientific and technological development, reducing the area under grain cultivation is not the same as reducing the total grain production capacity, which are two completely different concepts.

Of course, in the eyes of the outside world, the Vienna government is running out of skills and has no choice but to reduce grain production capacity in order to cope with the next agricultural crisis.

There was a "bang", and the coffee cup in front of Alexander III had already flown out. Austria is now retreating, which is not a good thing for the Russian Empire.

Since grain production can be withdrawn, so can the agricultural product processing industry. Once Britain and France were really self-sufficient, Austria could also give up this part of the interest.

As the economy continues to grow, the proportion of agro-processing in the Austrian economy is decreasing.

Moreover, the loss of some foreign markets does not mean that the agricultural product processing industry is finished, and the real impact is on some flour mills and other raw grain processing enterprises.

Other agricultural and sideline products processing enterprises will basically not be impacted, and for the entire agricultural product processing industry, it is actually not big.

The real unfortunate ones are the exporters of raw materials like Russia, after all, the processing enterprises can be transformed and can also pass on the losses, but the tsarist government has no way to pass on the losses.