Education

The cabinet meeting ended smoothly, and Ferdinand was quite pleased with how responsibilities had been divided. He had gained oversight of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education.

Compared with other industries, the cabinet clearly paid too little attention to agriculture. Few of its plans involved agricultural development, giving Ferdinand an opportunity to step in.

The Ministry of Education was even simpler. Bulgaria's treasury was out of money. Besides the opposition, the education sector was now the fiercest critic of the government. Teachers had gone unpaid for months.

Since Ferdinand, the king, was willing to take it over, the cabinet naturally had no objection to dumping the mess on him. Besides, education expenses were already in arrears.

Ferdinand had taken on two hot potatoes, but he was delighted.

Bulgaria was an agricultural country with few mineral resources. In the short term, agriculture was the easiest sector in which to achieve results.

Compared with the way Hua used its land, Bulgaria and the other European countries lagged far behind. If Bulgaria were in the East, its arable land could be expanded by half again.

Of course, Ferdinand had no intention of doing that. There was no need. The country covered about as much area as Jiangsu Province, yet had only a little over three million people—less than a tenth of Jiangsu's population at the time.

Ferdinand planned to build water conservancy projects on a large scale, promote advanced farming techniques, and increase grain production. That would be enough. (Agriculture in the Balkans lagged behind, and grain yields per mu during the same period were less than two-thirds of those in Western Europe.)

As long as he did those things and won the support of the peasant class, which made up nine-tenths of the population, he would be invincible. For that, Ferdinand would not hesitate to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds.

As for the education sector, that was even easier to handle. History had taught him that whoever controlled the schools controlled public opinion. Whoever held the reins of the next generation held the country's future.

The most pressing task was to establish a university. Historically, Bulgaria's first university—the Sofia University—had been founded in 1888.

That same university had also given rise to Bulgaria's earliest socialist organization, the Science Society, laying the groundwork for a proletarian revolution.

Ferdinand's efficiency was enough to make the cabinet hang its head in shame. Even knowing the treasury was empty, he did not go to the Stam Cabinet for help.

On January 10, 1888, as soon as the cabinet had clarified the division of responsibilities, Ferdinand, in his capacity as Prince of Bulgaria, issued his second decree: "Issuing 5 Million Levs in Education Bonds." (Note: 1 lev = 1 franc = 0.2903225 grams of gold.)

The whole country was stunned. Because of the civil war, Bulgaria's fiscal revenue in 1887 had been less than 40 million levs.

The move quickly won strong support from members of the education sector and the enlightened bourgeoisie. Though the interest rate was only slightly higher than bank deposits and the term stretched to ten years, people still opened their wallets generously. Half the bonds sold in just one month.

The astute Ferdinand knew how to maximize his advantage. He not only publicly subscribed to 300,000 levs' worth, but also invited the media to monitor how the money was spent. His reputation soared overnight.

In any case, he had no intention of skimming the education funds. No matter how closely the media watched, only the people below him would suffer. He had no objection to catching a few parasites along the way.

Once the funds were secured, he used them to pay the teachers' long-overdue salaries, then allocated money to build Bulgaria's first university—the University of Bulgaria.

The remaining funds had yet to be touched. The cabinet tried several times to get its hands on them, but Ferdinand fended them off each time with the words "earmarked funds only."

Desperate for money, Stam followed Ferdinand's example and issued bonds. But his appetite was nothing like Ferdinand's. The funds required for the Five-Year Plan were astronomical by the government's standards.

He started with 50 million levs in railway bonds, then followed up with another 30 million levs in industrial bonds.

The Bulgarians were not that wealthy, and the government did not have that much credibility. They could muster a little patriotic spirit and grit their teeth to buy a few million levs' worth of education bonds.

But when it came to the government's industrial and railway bonds, they were powerless. Only a paltry few hundred thousand sold before the effort ended in embarrassment.

Ferdinand did not concern himself with the cabinet's troubles. He was still fretting over who should become the university's first rector. The candidate had to be a respected figure who could win the confidence of the education sector.

As it happened, there was no clear favorite among Bulgaria's educators. Like the country itself, the more capable scholars had mostly studied abroad and were still young, without the credentials for the role. The older generation was conservative in its thinking, lacked an international perspective, and could not keep up with the times.

Unable to find anyone suitable, Ferdinand turned his attention to the Ministry of Education.

"Minister Chekhov, what does your ministry think about who should become rector of the University of Bulgaria?" Ferdinand asked.

"Your Highness, the education sector is already in an uproar. Three people are qualified to be nominated, but it's hard to convince anyone that they're capable enough," Minister of Education Chekhov said with a troubled look.

Ferdinand understood that ability was only a minor issue. The real problem was that all three were opponents of the Stam Cabinet. They were old-school educators and pro-Russian, so the cabinet would never let them take office.

"What about someone else? We have to find a suitable candidate. We can't drag this out forever. The school is still just an empty shell! What are we going to do when the time comes? Go back and think it over," Ferdinand said, passing the pressure to Chekhov.

Chekhov was in a bind. If he chose one of the three, how would he explain it to the cabinet? If he chose someone else, how could he win the education sector's confidence?

Suddenly, Chekhov's eyes lit up. He had thought of a suitable candidate: why not have the king serve as rector? Once the idea struck him, he could not let it go.

First, the cabinet would not object, and the opposition could be kept down. Second, it would be acceptable to the education sector. At the very least, they would no longer have to worry about education funding. That alone was enough to make the three stubborn old men withdraw of their own accord.

On the way back, the more Chekhov thought about it, the better it seemed. If Ferdinand became the university's rector, the Ministry of Education would surely become far more prominent. Whenever it needed funds, it could put the king out front, sparing Chekhov from having to bear the cabinet's pressure himself.

No, such a major decision was too much for him to make alone. He might as well reach out to the education sector and let them take the lead. Anyone who objected could be put in charge of solving the funding problem!

Just as Chekhov had expected, once the news got out, the education sector's endless debate came to an immediate halt.

For the sake of everyone's interests—or perhaps simply to keep their jobs and receive their pay on time—nearly all the teachers publicly declared their support for Ferdinand's appointment as rector.

Ferdinand was dumbfounded. So he was the candidate everyone wanted. He had thought it impossible. He was an outsider, had been on the throne for only half a year, and had done nothing significant. How could he have won everyone's support?

Even Chekhov's repeated assurances could not convince Ferdinand. He did not want to become rector only to be cursed out by that pack of educators.

"Karl, send someone to find out what's going on," Ferdinand said, still determined to understand the situation.

"Your Highness, it's actually very simple," Karl said calmly.

"Oh? Let's hear it," Ferdinand said.

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