Diplomatic sides were sometimes straightforward: since the British decided to support Chile, Peru and Bolivia had to turn to France and Austria for support.

International trade is only a minor issue, and the South American countries are so small in these years that the great powers would not have paid attention to them if it were not for the abundance of resources and the need to promote monetary hegemony.

If you 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 such a small number of people, and they are all agricultural countries, it is obviously impossible to count on how large an internal market there is.

Chile is relatively wealthy, mainly relying on saltpeter exports, and has the strongest military power of the three countries.

Peru has silver, but unfortunately the price of silver has fallen year by year over the years, and the Peruvian government's wallet has dried up.

Bolivia can be said to be the worst, finally discovered saltpeter mines, and only a few years after a good life, the war broke out.

There is no doubt that none of the three countries can afford to come up with huge sums of money for the war at once, and loans are inevitable.

At the Vienna Palace, Franz was approving a special loan, and the debtor was very generous with the Atacama Desert minerals as collateral.

"As things stand, what are the chances that Peru and Bolivia will win the war?"

Chief of the General Staff Albrecht: "Purely from the analysis of military strength on paper, the General Staff conducted a quantitative analysis based on the number of troops, weapons and equipment, training, past achievements, logistical support capabilities and other factors of the three countries.

The military strength of the three countries is: 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, it is the Chilean army that oppresses Peru and Bolivia.

Bolivia and Peru, which have the advantage of military strength, are only nominally united, and there is no cooperation on the battlefield, and sometimes they are holding each other back.

If the problem of the coordination of the Peruvian and Bolivian armies is not resolved, the chances that they will be able to win this war will not be more than half. ”

This is a common problem in all joint operations, with Bolivia, Peru and Chile all swearing sovereignty over the Atacama Desert.

The fact that Bolivia and Peru are now united does not mean that the territorial dispute between the two countries has disappeared, but that they have been forced to unite only because of their common enemy, Chile.

Against this background, it is normal to stab each other on the battlefield.

Franz: "Tell the Bolivians that we're not interested in saltpeter in the Atacama Desert and ask them to put up some other collateral."

If there is no suitable collateral, you can mortgage domestic minerals to us, gold, silver, copper, iron, oil, and natural gas can all be considered. ”

The lack of optimism about Bolivia winning the war did not prevent Austria from supporting Bolivia in this war. Just the "Boliviano" and the Aegis are linked, and it is worth Austria to stand behind them.

If it weren't for the fact that the minerals of the Atacama Desert had already been promised to the British by the Chileans, and Austria could not compete with John Bull in South America, Franz might have sent someone over to enclose the land first.

Of course, the most important thing is that the interests are not enough. Although the Atacama Desert is the world's largest saltpeter mine, it does not mean that there are no saltpeter mines anywhere else, and there is also artificially produced nitrate.

Originally, Franz was going to pull Peru on board, but unfortunately the French took the lead. Austria's tentacles have penetrated into South America for too short a time, and its influence is still too weak.

If it weren't for the fact that Chile and Peru were the first to embrace Britain and France, Franz suspected that Bolivia would not necessarily choose Austria.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Karl reminded: "Your Majesty, Bolivia's domestic precious metal mines have long been mortgaged.

Although a lot of common minerals such as copper and iron have been discovered, they have no development value. Oil and gas are both new energy industries, and it is unknown whether Bolivia has it or not.

If you want to take these mortgages, the risk of the loan will be greatly increased, and domestic banks may not accept it. ”

Franz woke up to the fact that Bolivia's industrial strength was limited, not to mention heavy industry, which was infinitely close to zero.

It is not possible to smelt on the spot, and the developed ores have to be shipped out and sold, and with the traffic conditions of this era, these minerals naturally lose their economic value.

Needless to say, oil and gas have just begun to be utilized, and their importance is completely unknown, so naturally no one spends a lot of money on exploration.

After thinking about it, Franz found that these things were really not needed for a short time. It may not even be used in a hundred years, and the layout in advance is complete nonsense.

Austria had already declared its neutrality in the war, and this time the loan to Bolivia was naturally carried out in the form of a private commercial loan, and the government only threaded the needle to collect a guarantee fee for the performance of the contract.

Judging from the current situation, the probability of the Bolivian government winning the war is very small, and most of them will follow in the footsteps of the original time and space, and if it loses the war, it will naturally have no money to pay off its debts.

If the collateral has no value, private banks will not buy it. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if the government negotiated the terms and ended up with no bank willing to lend?

Coming to his senses, Franz was not embarrassed at all, and immediately changed his words: "Since the precious metal mine is gone, these latter things can only be regarded as a tie-in, and let the Bolivian government take out other things as collateral." ”

No collateral? It's impossible. It's a country anyway, how can it not have a little family background? It's really not good, don't you still have land?

"Default", let alone worry. It was still the 19th century, and there was more than one case of armed debt collection. Unless it is a giant like the Russians, the cost of debt collection is too high, and everyone can only admit it.

……

Foreign Secretary Weisenberg: "Your Majesty, our covenant with the Russians expires in only three months. Negotiators, already sent by the tsarist government, have arrived in Vienna. ”

Whether or not to do the Russian-Austrian alliance again, the Vienna government is also divided. Including Franz, he wavered several times in the middle of the way.

It's not that everyone is not determined, in the final analysis, it is still the interests that make trouble. Whether you continue to form alliances or abandon alliances, there are a lot of benefits involved.

After so many years, the economies of Russia and Austria have become essentially tied together. Austria imported industrial raw materials from Russia, processed them into products, and sold them back to the Russian Empire.

Since 1854, Russia and Austria have been each other's most important economic partners. At its peak, trade with Russia accounted for two-thirds of Austria's total foreign trade.

With the rapid development of the Austrian economy, Austrian industrial and commercial products continue to open up new markets, and this number has begun to decline year by year.

Even now, trade with Russia is still the most important part of Austria's foreign trade, accounting for 29.7% of Austria's total import and export trade.

If it weren't for the fact that the Russian economy has not kept up with the pace and the domestic market is growing too slowly, this proportion would have been even greater.

There is no doubt that the Russian-Austrian alliance has made an important contribution to economic exchanges between the two countries and has promoted trade between the two countries.

There are pros and cons, and the Russian-Austrian alliance has also constrained Austria's expansion. For example, during the Russo-Prussian War, the Vienna government lost the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to defeat the tsarist government.

Constraints on further expansion can only be regarded as a minor problem. The European continent is not big, and it can't expand much, but it has a lot of trouble.

The main thing is a matter of international image, the Russians are too hateful. The existence of the Russian-Austrian alliance allowed Austria to share the pressure.

This has constrained the Vienna government, which has always been adept at flexible diplomacy, and in many cases has no room to play.

The economic gains were not taken for nothing, and Austria was still the largest creditor of the Russians.

It's just a matter of borrowing money, but the tsarist government has a bad reputation. He was often unable to fulfill his obligations, and he also lost a lot of Austrian debts.

Not paying off debts is definitely the most hateful. Austrian financial circles are staunch anti-Russians, and even the people do not have a good impression of the Russians.

Agriculturally, the two countries are again in a state of competition. The peasants in Austria hated the Russians, a market-destroying competitor.

The Austrian peasants were not country peasants without a voice, and there was a large part of the aristocracy among them. These people were victims of Alexander II's policy of opening up the wilderness, and naturally hated the tsarist government.

Franz asked expressionlessly: "Do you think that by now, we still have to renew the contract?" ”

History seems to repeat itself, the former Empire of Time and Germany had a conflict with the Russians because of agricultural frictions, and Austria is now about the same.

Of course, there are also differences, in addition to the aristocracy and peasants in Austria who are anti-Russian, the financial circles are also hostile to the Russians because of the debt problem, and only the domestic business community supports the continuation of the contract.

In a similar position, Franz somewhat understood Wilhelm II's foreign policy of alienating Russia.

In the face of interests, it is not something that can be compensated by personal strength, and the emperor must also consider the position of the people in the country and cannot go against the majority.

Prime Minister Felix hit the nail on the head: "Continuing to renew the contract has a bit of a role in the economy and is strategically worthless!" ”

Agriculture Secretary Halls: "It's not much value economically, it's the era of free trade, and the tariff advantage we had is gone."

Even without the Russian-Austrian alliance, at most some of the tsarist government's purchases would be reduced, and the impact would be minimal.

After so many years of hard work, many aspects of Russian industry have to rely on us, and even if the tsarist government wants to kick us out, it depends on whether they can afford this loss. ”

This is the main reason why the Vienna government has no fear. Austrian industry has its own system, and the British and French use different standards, which is completely unsuitable.

From the very beginning, Russian industry was heavily influenced by Austria, and the capitalists, greedy for cheapness, directly adopted Austrian standards.

It is not a big deal to adopt Austrian standards, the key is that the Russian industry has not formed a complete industrial system, and machinery and equipment depend on imports from Austria.

Withdrawing now means that most of the industrial equipment will be scrapped, and this loss is simply not something that the tsarist government can afford.