Greece to roman road

However, the Greek cigarette market has long been controlled by foreign businessmen and has become a foregone conclusion. Read 520 official website

For example, in the city of Thessaloniki, long before the Greeks recovered from the Ottoman Empire, foreign goods such as cigarettes had already flooded the market there.

After the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the commodity market opened wide and gradually became a dumping ground for several major powers. The industrial products of the major powers flooded the market of the Ottoman Empire.

Thessaloniki, as the political and commercial center of Macedonia, is naturally no exception.

After Greece took over Thessaloniki, in order not to arouse opposition from various countries, and considering that Thessaloniki's recovery was still short, the Greek government did not dare to cause too much trouble.

Secondly, before the Balkans, there was no area suitable for growing tobacco leaves in the Greek-controlled areas. Macedonia, the main tobacco-producing area in later Greece, was controlled by Greece in the past two years.

Compared with the mountainous and hilly terrain of southern Greece, Macedonia has more plains and numerous rivers, making it more suitable for the development of agriculture.

For Greece, if the land in Macedonia can be developed to maturity and it relies solely on the land in Macedonia, the food produced in Greece will be enough to meet Greece's own needs based on Greece's current population of around 10 million.

As for ways to increase crop yields by improving planting techniques, Constantine had thought of ammonia synthesis technology.

One of the main components in the air is nitrogen, and this technology can fix the nitrogen in the air. However, this technology has just been developed by the Germans and is an absolute secret.

This may be humanity's most important technology of the twentieth century.

Before the invention of ammonia technology, hunger could be blamed on low food productivity and the public was very familiar with hunger.

But after the emergence of ammonia synthesis technology, it is not a problem of technology.

Synthetic ammonia can be used not only to produce fertilizers, but also to make explosives.

Such a vital technology as ammonia synthesis is naturally treasured by the Germans, and it is almost impossible to transfer it easily.

Now that Macedonia has become a Greek territory and has mastered the production areas suitable for growing tobacco, the current situation of Greece's domestic tobacco industry being occupied by foreign companies will also begin to change.

"As far as I know, no one in Greece is interested in the tobacco business. As a daily consumer product, cigarettes are addictive, the customer base is stable, and consumption is extremely certain. These conditions can make any businessman excited," Venizelos considered. Then he said.

"It's just a commercial competition, and it's not easy for the government to end it directly. It can easily cause diplomatic disputes. Even if the government intends to support it, it still requires the efforts of Greece's domestic tobacco companies."

Regarding the fact that the Purple Robe Foundation and the Royal Educational Foundation jointly invested in the cigarette factory, the news had been published in newspapers and spread throughout Athens within one day, and Venizelos was naturally aware of it.

In fact, there are countless people in the Greek business community who are secretly watching the progress of this matter, waiting to see what kind of sparks will be produced when the cigarette factory invested and established by the royal family collides with the foreign capital that dominates the Greek domestic cigarette market.

It is not that no one has tried to produce tobacco for sale in Greece in recent years, but they have all failed in the face of foreign cigarettes and are not competitive at all.

If the royal cigarette factory can really gain a foothold in the market, Greek businessmen will immediately rush in to get a share of the pie and follow suit.

Venizelos mistakenly thought that Constantine was asking the government for support policies for his business. After all, the royal family had just invested in building a cigarette factory, and now Constantine began to ask him for policies to support tobacco cultivation.

For example, we should do something about customs issues and raise import duties on foreign cigarettes at Greek customs.

Of course, if such measures are used, other countries will retaliate, such as increasing import tariffs on Greek wine and olive oil.

Greece may gain in the cigarette market, but at a cost elsewhere, with little gain overall.

Seeing Venizelos's indifferent attitude, Constantine did not force it. After all, Venizelos said it right. The revitalization of an industry cannot rely solely on the power of the government.

Of course, the power of the government is absolutely indispensable.

The leading industries of any country, behind the large companies with unlimited glory on the surface, embody the will of the government and the country.

Constantine just reminded Venizelos.

After the Prime Minister's meeting, Constantine sent a telegram back to Yakov who was far away in Kavala, telling him not to worry about sales. The main task now is to increase the enthusiasm of local people to grow tobacco and find ways to increase the scale of tobacco planting. , to solve the problem of raw material sources for cigarette factories.

It doesn't matter if you pay a deposit in advance if necessary, just make sure the farmer is willing to grow tobacco.

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At the telegraph office in Kavala, Yakov looked at the contents of the callback on the slip and sighed. Although he was still worried about the sales of the cigarette factory's products, he could only suppress his doubts. At present, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince only asked for cigarettes. The factory will start production as soon as possible.

On August 29, Yakov and Lundhardt, the middleman, came to the courtyard of the agreed hotel.

Representatives of several newly established agricultural cooperatives who heard the news in the courtyard gathered around the two men when they saw them.

"I heard that if you are willing to grow tobacco leaves, you can pay a deposit in advance. Is it true?"

"How much deposit are you willing to pay?"

Everyone's problems are mixed up. Some of them are newly established agricultural cooperatives, and a few are farmers in Kavala, independent of the cooperative.

One of them is Kaliya. Since Kaliya learned Greek under the guidance of a church priest when she was in Eastern Rumelia, and is able to read and write Greek normally, she became a member of the agricultural cooperative newly established by Bulgarian refugees. , Kalia is considered the person with the highest level of education, so she also came together for this consultation meeting.

Lundhart noticed Yakov's frown and quickly stopped everyone: "Don't be anxious, everyone, we can negotiate slowly."

Almost all of these people have been contacted by Lundhart, so they are still very convinced of him.

"Well, my name is Yakov, and I am currently the manager of the Thessaloniki cigarette factory. I invite you here to discuss the tobacco needed by our cigarette factory." Yakov explained the purpose of his visit.

"As long as you are willing to grow tobacco, our company can pay you a 60% deposit now, and the remaining 40% will depend on the quality of the flue-cured tobacco you deliver at the end of the year. If the quality is high, we can also increase the purchase price."

After the tobacco leaves are harvested, they need to be cured before being delivered to the cigarette factory. The price of the tobacco is determined based on the quality of the flue-cured tobacco after curing.

The same fresh tobacco leaves are roasted and processed differently, and the price after roasting is very different.