Chapter 128

As a victorious country, Romania also sent a team headed by Foreign Minister Barnosque to participate in the London negotiations, but it was just a look. When negotiating with Bulgaria, the trophies that Romania should get have already been negotiated. Sending people now just shows that Romania is also the identity of the Balkan Alliance.

Facing the prevailing situation, the countries in the Balkan League demanded that the Ottoman Empire cede all European territories west of the Midya-Enez line and all the islands in the Aegean Sea.

In the face of this situation, the Ottoman government did not dare to easily agree. Because if according to this division, the Ottoman Empire will lose everything in Europe except for a small area of ​​Istanbul. There are 6.5 million people of all ethnic groups living in the lost European territories, among them 1.5 million Ottomans. This is the reason why they have been unable to make up their minds.

In Romania, Edel doesn't care whether Osman can make up his mind or not. This has little to do with Romania.

What he cares about now is that Romania's economy is not affected by the war. After the armistice officially took effect, Edel invited Prime Minister Bretianu to understand the situation.

"His Royal Highness, this is the latest import and export trade situation."

Prime Minister Bretianu was in the Crown Prince's office and handed him an investigation report.

Edel took the report and looked. In this report, from October 21, when the war was declared, to November 21, when the armistice was declared, Romania's total import and export volume was 43.1 million lei. Among them, the import value is 20.67 million lei, which is not a big impact compared to the unaffected September's 21.19 million lei. This is because Germany, the main importer of Romanian machinery, used to transport by rail, and only a few parts that could not be transported by rail were shipped by sea. Russia, the resource importer, is on the Black Sea. In addition, although Romania declared war, it did not send troops. Ottoman did not want to provoke Romania. Transportation within the Black Sea is not affected, so the reduction in imports is not obvious.

The export volume was 430,000 lei, which was a decrease of 6.28 million lei compared with 29.71 million lei in September, which still received a considerable impact. The main factor is that Romania's exports are facing wealthy regions such as Western Europe and Southern Europe, and the cost of rail transportation is 5-7 times that of sea transportation. This has increased the prices of Romania's exports of automobiles, petrochemicals and grain.

Taking the United Kingdom as a column, Romania's T-cars have generally risen by around 10 pounds in Europe. The Romanian food has also risen from 8 pounds 6 shillings per meal to 9 pounds 1 shilling. This has reduced the competitiveness of Romanian exports across Europe. At present, the market share of European automobile manufacturers has taken advantage of the increase in the price of Model T cars by 2 percentage points during this period, reaching a market share of 31%. Romania's traditional grain exports have also been squeezed by Russia. The same is true for petrochemicals. Petroleum companies such as Shell and Standard have seized a lot of share in Romania's traditional Italian market. This also makes Smith of Romanian Petroleum Company a bit troubled.

After reading the documents of the investigation, Edel gave his opinion to Prime Minister Bretianu. "It seems that the economic impact is not small."

Prime Minister Bretianu also agreed. "Yes, your Highness, we should be thankful that this war has been fought for a short time, otherwise the economic impact is really not small."

Prime Minister Bretianu went on to talk about other issues. "And we were too optimistic about rail transportation."

When Edel heard that there was a problem with rail transportation, he couldn't sit still. This is related to Romania's exports during World War I. If there are any problems, the impact will be too great. He asked quickly. "Is there any problem with rail transportation?"

Seeing the crown prince's a little anxious expression, Prime Minister Bretianu told the truth even though he did not know the reason. "Before we did not take the personnel factor into consideration. In the actual railway transportation, due to the lack of professional loading and unloading tools, a large number of goods were stacked in the freight yard of the railway station. Later, we increased the level of loading and unloading by increasing the loading and unloading workers. Although the efficiency has improved in a short period of time, the cost has increased a lot. Moreover, in the later time, the level of loading and unloading is still slowly declining."

After hearing the Prime Minister's words, Edel knew that he had missed one link. It seems that I have to solve the problem of loading and unloading in the mass railway transportation as soon as possible.

In fact, the problem of loading and unloading is much more serious than Edel thought. The largest port in Romania is Constanta. With a large number of gantry cranes, cranes, conveyor belts, trucks and other specialized loading and unloading tools, the problem of manual loading and unloading has been completely abandoned. It can load and unload 1,500 tons of cargo and transport 800 tons of oil per hour.

Railway transportation has only a small number of specialized loading and unloading tools, which can handle 500 tons of cargo per hour and 300 tons of oil transportation under normal conditions. In order to ensure the transportation of goods on the railway, Romania has recruited an additional 4,000 stevedores. This makes rail transportation, which is already very costly, even more troublesome and adds to their cost problems.

After thinking about it, Edel asked Prime Minister Bretianu. "Have the transportation department considered increasing the loading and unloading of the railway?"

Bretianu did not understand why the crown prince was so concerned about the issue of rail mass transportation. But he answered truthfully. "The transportation department hadn't considered it before, but I will ask them to come up with a plan like this when I go back. I don't know how far your Royal Highness will improve rail transportation?"

After calculating in his heart, Edel told Prime Minister Bretianu. "I hope that the railway can fully satisfy Romania's exports."

The prime minister was stunned when he heard the crown prince's request. This is to completely rebuild a Constanta port, and it is still a land port. Prime Minister Bretianu didn't think much, and immediately retorted. "His Royal Highness, the Romanian Railways cannot meet the requirements you mentioned. Our previous situation can only be achieved in a short period of time. This will cause too much loss to the railways in the long run."

Hearing Prime Minister Bretianu's words, Edel asked subconsciously. "How about we upgrade the railway?"

Prime Minister Bretianu said. "His Royal Highness, the financial situation does not allow it. We can only increase the speed of loading and unloading on the existing rail transportation. Now it seems that the shipment of 1,200 tons per hour is the maximum limit."

Hearing what the Prime Minister said, Edel himself knew that he had said something stupid~www.mtlnovel.com~ Now that Romania's finances have just improved, it will only be possible to expand the railway after World War I.

After Edel eased his embarrassment and continued to chat with the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister also left with a wink.

A few days later, the Prime Minister came to Edel with a railway expansion plan made by the transportation department. Edel frowned when he saw that the gantry cranes, cranes, and pipelines listed in this plan required a total of 14 million lei.

After seeing this, Prime Minister Bretianu explained to the crown prince. "These are calculated costs, everything is reasonable."

Edel took a look at the pen and signed the agreement on it.

The Romanian Railway Freight Expansion Plan officially began after Edel signed. According to the plan, the railway department will expand the freight capacity of the railway stations in several important cities such as Bucharest, Constanta, Ploiesti, and Iasi. The construction period is nine months. After completion, it will meet 75% of Romania's export volume and can be transported by rail.