Chapter 75: Chapter 075: Launch of Second Five-Year Plan

After half a month of discussion with "experts" from various industries in Bulgaria, the "Second Five-Year Plan" finally took shape.

The Second Five-Year Plan focuses on economic construction, with the core of the military, educational, medical, and agricultural sectors.

The biggest difference with the First Five-Year Plan is that the Second Five-Year Plan focuses on both heavy and light industries; the government will focus on supporting the manufacturing industry.

Bulgaria's Second Five-Year Plan involves a total of two hundred and eighty-three projects, large and small. Among the core goals are the following:

First, the big railroad plan: 3,400 kilometers of new railroads will be built within five years. It will basically complete the series of major cities in the country.

Second, the Great Highway Plan: 20,000 kilometers of new roads will be built in five years to ensure that the roads reach every town in the country and connect half of the villages in the country.

Third, the big steel plan: to be built within five years, with an annual output of 56,000 tons of refined steel and an annual production of 124,000 tons of iron, basically to meet the self-use of Bulgaria.

Fourth, the military reform: learn from the German Army to create its own internal staff responsible for the daily life of soldiers and their ideological education (simply put: brainwashing).

The Great Reserve Program was launched, with 60,000 reservists recruited for one year of service each year for the next five years, starting in 1892. The standing army remained unchanged at 65,000, with qualified candidates selected from among the reserves for vacancies.

Fifth, agricultural reform: continue to promote mechanized farming, the promotion of new agricultural technology, the expansion of fertilizer production capacity of 200,000 tons, mainly phosphate fertilizer and urea. (Synthetic ammonia has not yet been made, only two simple technology) To organize farmers to build water conservancy projects and complete the goal of drought and flood protection for major grain-producing areas.

Sixth, education: In the Second Five-Year Plan, the government prioritized investment in education to technical colleges and encouraged the graduation of secondary schools for higher education institutions.

Seven, medical reform: increase efforts to train medical and nursing personnel by setting up other medical specialty colleges and encouraging veteran physicians to lead apprentices, with the state providing a portion of the subsidy. The government opens training courses and regularly organizes folk doctors to study and improve medical standards.

Eighth, the military industry: expand the arsenal, introduce new equipment and technology and increase the production line of heavy artillery. In five years, complete the localization of the army's weapons.

...

Ferdinand is in charge of Bulgaria's Second Five-Year Plan, which nominally started in 1893, but it did not start at the same time, and they started many projects earlier.

For example, the railroad program did not stop because of the completion of the First Five-Year Plan but still kept on working, for which the Second Five-Year Plan had already started. For them, the Second Five-Year Plan had already been launched. As for the military reform, it would also be launched in 1892.

But these do not affect the publicity "2-5 plan" which started in 1893. Anyway, the people do not care whether it started in advance. They only care about the final result. Besides, the income is not improved.

On February 6, 1892, Ferdinand officially approved the "Second Five-Year Plan for the Construction of Bulgaria", referred to as the "Second Five-Year Plan".

On the same day, the Ministry of Propaganda officially released the contents of the Second Five-Year Plan to the public.

As soon as the "Second Five-Year Plan" was released, public opinion erupted, and Bulgarians turned their attention to it, with newspapers selling out.

Of course, the focus varies from one industry to another.

Railroad workers, for example, focused on the Great Railroad Initiative, which means their livelihoods will be secure again for the next five years.

Farmers focus on "agricultural reform". Many of them benefitted from the First Five-Year Plan, so paying attention to this information is natural.

Capitalists are more concerned about the new economic policy whether the government will continue to increase infrastructure investment, which greatly impacts the direction of their future investment.

If you were to evaluate Bulgarians in 1892, many would say: "Busy"! That's right now the whole country of Bulgaria is busy!

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Once the "Second Five-Year Plan" is launched, all industries have become busy. Among all the busyness, cover up the hidden crisis.

Only Ferdinand knew that now the Bulgarian economy was at risk. Its industrial development, which lacks sufficient industrial raw materials, lacks a wide range of markets. The economic crisis will break out once the government stops investing in construction.

If it is a large country, you can still take tariffs to protect the market. However, Bulgaria can't make a market of fewer than four million people to support the industrialization of a country.

The alliance with Russia was Ferdinand's most effective strategy to avoid the crisis. The capitalist world's fourteenth economic crisis, or the third great economic crisis, had already broken out.

In March 1890, the German stock market plummeted, and stock prices declined for more than two years after that. From 1890 to 1891, there were about 15,000 bankruptcies, and the scale of railroad construction shrank by 60%. It coincided with agricultural failures, and the crisis became even more severe.

If history does not change, this economic crisis will have to spread worldwide. There are already some hints of it, and the whole body will be affected, and Bulgaria will not be able to do it alone.

As it entered 1893, the economic crisis was in full swing. From January to August in the United States, the average market price of industrial stocks fell by nearly half the price index of metals, metal products fell by 44%, and the price index of textiles fell by 26%.

However, it is worth mentioning that this economic crisis did not affect Russia so much. Due to its backward industrial development and its own large enough market, it passed this crisis smoothly.

Of course, while the Bulgarians now know that the economic crisis has broken out, they do not know that it will spread to the Balkans, not to mention that it will affect the situation in the Balkans in the future.

Ferdinand did not know this part of history very well. Anyway, he knew that after the economic crisis spread to the Ottoman Empire, a new wave of revolutionary outbreaks, somehow always related.

Ferdinand was ready to start dumping into the Balkan countries once it was certain that the economic crisis would affect Bulgaria. There were even a lot of companies from England, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia that were ready to take part.

As long as the speed is fast enough, in those days without internet, it makes a time difference to dump the crisis. As for the outcome, it does not care.

In fact, Bulgaria's "Second Five-Year Plan" has already caught the attention of those who are interested.

Even though Ferdinand dealt with the military reform on a low profile, they still noticed that at least the army's expansion was impossible to conceal. Even if it is a reserve, it still causes a lot of anxiety.

All Bulgarian folks are talking about it.

"I'm afraid there's going to be a war!"

"Eighty percent, come on, let's guess who is the one to fight?"

"This still needs to guess, but of course, it is Serbia. A few years ago, it did not yet settle the score! Surely now the government must take payback!"

"I do not think so. A few years ago, Serbia sneaked upon us, and we still beat the crap out of them later. Where do we need to expand our army to fight them! I think it's mostly the Ottoman Empire. The government is trying to rescue our brothers and sisters in the Macedonian region!"

"I don't think so! It must be Serbia. Osman is not to be messed around at all!"

"What are you afraid about them? If you are afraid, don't join the army and leave the task of fighting Ottomans to me!"

"Humph!!! How is this possible!!! I have always looked at Serbia with displeasure. This time, I must fight Serbia, and then I can go get revenge on those bastards!"

"Stop!!! It's not a solution for you guys to be so rowdy. How about we bet? Whoever loses will help the other side..."

...

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