Romanian Eagle

As a victorious country, Romania also sent a team headed by Foreign Minister Barnosk to participate in the London negotiations, but it was just a show. When negotiating with Bulgaria, Romania's deserved spoils of war had already been negotiated. Sending people there now just shows that Romania is also a Balkan confederate.

In the face of the current situation, the countries in the Balkan League asked the Ottoman Empire to cede all European territories west of the Midia to Enez line, and all the islands in the Aegean Sea.

Faced with this situation, the Ottoman government did not dare to readily agree. Because if it is divided in this way, the Ottoman Empire will lose all its territory in Europe except for the small area of ​​Istanbul. There are 6.5 million people of all ethnic groups living in the lost European territories, of which 1.5 million are native Ottomans. This is the reason for their delay in making up their minds.

In Eder, Romania, it doesn't matter whether Ottoman can make up his mind or not, it has little to do with Romania.

Now his concern is that Romania's economy is not affected by the war, and after the armistice came into effect, Eder brought in Prime Minister Bretianu to understand the situation.

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

Prime Minister Bretianu handed him an investigation report in the crown prince's office.

Edel took the report and looked. In this report, from October 21, when the war was declared, to November 21, when the armistice was ended, the total import and export volume of Romania 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, Romania's main importer of machinery, was previously transported by rail, and only a few parts that could not be transported by rail were shipped by sea. The resource importing country Russia is on the Black Sea. In addition, Romania has declared war, but it has not sent troops. Ottoman does not want to provoke Romania. The transportation in the Black Sea is not affected, so the decrease in imports is not obvious.

The export value was 430,000 lei, which was a decrease of 6.28 million lei compared to the 29.71 million lei in September, which still has a considerable impact. The main factor is that Romanian exports are faced with wealthy regions such as Western 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 cars, petrochemicals and grain.

Taking the UK as an example, Romanian Model Ts have generally risen in price by around £10 in Europe. In Romania, food has also risen from £8 and 6 shillings to 9 pounds 1 shilling. This has made Romanian exports less competitive across Europe. At present, car manufacturers in European countries have a market share. Taking advantage of this period of time, the price of T-type vehicles has increased by 2 percentage points, reaching a market share of 31%. And Romania's traditional grain exports have also been squeezed a lot by Russia. The same is true for petrochemicals. Oil companies such as Shell and Standard have seized a lot of the traditional Italian market in Romania, which also made Romane's Smith a little troubled.

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

Prime Minister Bretianu agreed. "Yes, Your Highness, we should be glad that this war was fought for a short period of time, otherwise the economic impact is really not small."

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

When Edel heard that there was a problem with the railway transportation, he couldn't sit still. This is related to Romania's export in World War I. If there is any problem, it will have a great impact. he asked quickly. "Anything wrong with rail transport?"

Seeing the anxious expression of the crown prince, Prime Minister Bretianu said it truthfully even though he did not know the reason. "We didn't take the personnel factor into account before. In the actual railway transportation, due to the lack of professional loading and unloading tools, a large number of goods were piled up in the freight yard of the railway station. Later, we increased the level of loading and unloading by adding stevedores. , although the efficiency has improved in a short period of time, the cost has increased a lot. And 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 a link. It seems that I want to solve the problem of loading and unloading in the large-scale railway transportation as soon as possible.

In fact, the loading and unloading problem is more serious than Eder thinks, with the largest port in Romania, 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 goods and transport 800 tons of oil per hour.

However, railway transportation only has a small number of specialized loading and unloading tools. Under normal conditions, it can handle 500 tons of cargo per hour and 300 tons of oil transportation. Romania had previously recruited an additional 4,000 stevedores to ensure the transportation of goods by rail. This makes the already high cost of rail transportation even worse, adding to their cost problem.

After thinking for a while, Edel asked Prime Minister Bretianu. "Has the transportation department considered improving the loading and unloading of railways?"

Bretianu doesn't understand why the crown prince is so concerned about mass transportation by rail. But still answered truthfully. "The transportation department has not considered it before, but I will ask them to come up with such a plan when I go back. I don't know what step your Highness wants to improve railway transportation to?"

After secretly calculating in his heart, Edel told Prime Minister Bretianu. "I want to be able to make the railway fully meet Romanian exports."

The Prime Minister was stunned to hear the Crown Prince's request, which was to completely rebuild a Port of Constanta, and it was still a land-based port. Prime Minister Bretianu didn't think much, and immediately retorted. "His Royal Highness, now the Romanian railway can't meet the requirements you said. We can only do it in a short time in our previous situation. In the long run, the loss of the railway will be too great."

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

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

Hearing the Prime Minister's words, Eder himself knew that he said something stupid. Now that Romania's finances have just improved, it is really only possible to expand the railway after World War I.

After Edel eased the 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 Eder with a plan for the expansion of the railways by the transport department. Eder frowned when he saw that the gantry cranes, cranes, pipelines and other equipment listed in the plan cost a total of 14 million lei.

After Prime Minister Bretianu saw it, he explained to the crown prince. "These are calculated expenses and everything is reasonable."

Edel glanced at the words that he picked up the pen and signed the agreement.

The Romanian railway freight expansion plan officially started after Eder signed. According to the plan, the railway department will expand the freight capacity of 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.

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