"Your Majesty, if we bring in a large number of laborers from Russia, the expense is likely to be enormous!" Finance Minister Kennedy said awkwardly.
Kennedy had no objections to Ferdinand recruiting "mercenaries." Europe had always had a tradition of employing mercenaries; no one found that difficult to accept.
Oh, Ferdinand's idea of using the Russians as cannon fodder had been directly understood by them as recruiting "mercenaries." Of course, there was essentially no difference. Even if they were recruited as cannon fodder, Ferdinand would still have to pay them military wages—there would merely be more restrictions than with recruiting "mercenaries."
The only difference was probably that mercenaries generally formed their own independent units, whereas the cannon-fodder troops Ferdinand recruited would have Bulgarian officers assigned to command them in battle!
In Kennedy's view, if Bulgaria could employ two or three million "mercenaries," then given Bulgaria's population base, it could also possess an army equal in size to those of the great powers Britain and France, placing it in a more advantageous position when postwar benefits were divided!
At the same time, by making extensive use of mercenaries, Bulgaria could reduce its mobilization numbers once war broke out and preserve its domestic industrial and food production.
Although the cost of bringing in laborers from Russia was not high on an individual basis, the agency fee was only 250 Lev—roughly 10 pounds sterling—the average travel expense was around 50 Lev, and employment placement costs were around 200 Lev. Altogether, the cost per laborer came to no more than 500 Lev.
In any case, the Bulgarian government advanced the money first, then deducted it from their wages in installments afterward. There would be no losses. Therefore, when Bulgaria had previously brought in large numbers of Russian laborers, the Ministry of Finance had