Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 78 Attention
In another house in Istanbul, British Ambassador Canning and French Ambassador Maurice were drinking tea brought from the East.

"To be honest, you guys are pretty generous. You gave me an £800 million loan without hesitation."

Morris's sarcastic tone made Canning inwardly despise these loan sharks. At the current exchange rate, £800 million was 2 million francs. Such a large loan would be enough to make many French banks rich, but France was currently experiencing a financial crisis, with hundreds of banks collapsing. The Bank of France was also standing by and watching, while the big bankers seized the opportunity to acquire valuable assets.

"Please don't say that. Our country's policy has always been to maintain world peace. Two years ago, the Russian Emperor went to see Her Majesty the Queen and said that he wanted to treat the Ottomans like Poland did."

Good heavens! Russia gained 50% of Poland in the partition, and now it's likely to gain another 50% in the partition of the Ottomans. The entire Black Sea will be itss; the Third Rome will be realized in one fell swoop.

"After all, Russia saved you. Back then, only your country was left to continue the struggle overseas. If it weren't for the war of 1812, you would probably still be abroad."

This tone displeased Canning, who retorted, "Everything Britain does is for the peace of Europe and the world. Our country is willing to coexist peacefully with any country, no matter which one it is."

Does this include France?

“Of course,” Canning said confidently.

"If that's the case, then why don't you withdraw from the Holy Alliance?"

The Holy League was an alliance of several major European powers, including Russia, Austria, and Prussia. It was founded after Tsar Alexander I's final victory over Napoleon, with the aim of suppressing liberalism and secularism that had risen in Europe through the brutal French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, and, most importantly, preventing France from taking over.

"I think you may not have noticed that our country withdrew from the alliance 25 years ago."

At the Congress of Verona in 1822, the Holy League resolved to send troops to Spain, at a time when King Ferdinand VII of Spain was troubled by liberals. Austria's successful intervention in Naples convinced a host of conservative nations that similar action could be taken in Spain.

This order, however, displeased then-British Foreign Secretary George Canning, causing an irreparable rift in Britain's relations with authoritarian states led by Russia. From then on, Britain adopted a policy of splendid isolation to avoid aligning itself with the conservative nations of continental Europe. Lacking the support of Britain, then its most powerful nation, the coordination mechanism disintegrated.

"So that's how it is. Russia is too arrogant. They have gained their glory today by stepping on the bones of millions of our people. Their rulers are brutal and ignorant, as if the whole world belongs to them."

Maurice made no secret of his anger towards Russia, a common sentiment in France. The French left viewed Russia as a reactionary bastion of the aristocracy, while the right wing harbored deep resentment over the War of 1812. It could be said that virtually no one in France did not hate Russia.

Canning was prepared; he had received the latest instructions from Downing Street: to forge an alliance between the Ottomans and Persia to jointly confront Russia.

Britain's navy was the strongest, but its army was a different story. If the Ottomans and Persians could be sent forward as cannon fodder, Britain could control the situation with minimal losses.

Yes, as expected of the British; their balancing act is masterful.

Iran is already celebrating Nauruz, and the wounds of last year's civil war have healed, with hopes for a good start to the year.

The results of this year's reforms are also in, with total fiscal revenue reaching a record 1800 million riyals. The majority of this comes from new taxes and revenue from the sale of special products.

The juice tax increased by more than 60 rials. Immediately after the juice decree was issued, hundreds and thousands of juice shops suddenly appeared in Iran, and various juices began to be sold and exported, especially grape juice, which was even exported to Russia and India.

Although the Quran forbids it, I can't resist the urge. After all, enjoying a glass of juice after work is such a wonderful thing. Since I can't do it myself, they can buy it for me, right?

Exports of various fruit juices have increased significantly, and it is believed that they will soon become important export products.

In addition, there were monopolies on salt and tobacco, both of which are commodities with very high consumption. Because this was the first year of the policy, the quota was only 300 million riyals. The new year will be better.

Sugar was originally intended to be subject to a monopoly, but due to the great difficulty in development, it was changed to a consumption tax, a new tax introduced from the West.

The revenue statement also shows a positive performance in tariffs, with Iran collecting a total of 500 million rials in tariffs last year. This significant increase in tariffs is attributed to both strong growth in Iran's imports and exports, and a crackdown on smuggling and tax evasion.

The crackdown on smuggling also benefited from the government's emphasis on customs, allocating considerable manpower and vessels to the customs service. Customs lived up to expectations, intercepting 146 smuggling vessels and seizing illegal goods worth 1100 million riyals last year, severely curbing the arrogance of smugglers.

Then there are property taxes, business taxes, land-related taxes, and so on. These taxes support Iran's finances, allowing Iran to have more funds to strengthen its national power.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce's statistics also came out: there were 68 new factories nationwide, with 70% in Tabriz and 28% in Tehran. Tabriz's industrial growth slowed down after a previous boom, while most of the factories in Tehran were established by royalty and powerful merchants, who were relatively few in number, and consequently, there were fewer factories there as well.

Furthermore, they were still somewhat uneasy about it, so they invested relatively little money, just to see how things went. The industrial association promoted the benefits of industry and commerce everywhere, and the local atmosphere was improving.

Of course, the vast majority of enterprises are concentrated in foreign trade services, export processing, and import substitute manufacturing. The carpet industry, for example, is driven by exports. Moreover, these factories are basically in a state of coexistence of old and new, either transformed from handicraft workshops or combining manual and machine production. They cannot be compared with the large European companies, but they are already quite remarkable for their respective countries.

The direct result of Western trade expansion and domestic policy initiatives is the growth of Iranian agricultural exports. The monetization of taxes and land rents is also a significant factor accelerating the marketization of agricultural products. The production of cotton, raw silk, sugarcane, and tobacco shows a clear upward trend, and the marketization of agricultural production is gradually increasing accordingly.

The large-scale export of agricultural products brought in a lot of money. Some farmers who grew cash crops used the money they earned to get rid of their tenant farmer status. They bought land and tools, planted cash crops on a large scale, and some even opened workshops to engage in industry and commerce.

(End of this chapter)