The Growing Agricultural Proprietor Class

"Why is the budget so high?"

Franz was not making a fuss. The preliminary investment for the Near East development plan had already reached 200 million Divine Shield. At this rate of spending, the originally planned 1 billion Divine Shield would not even be enough to complete the infrastructure.

Without infrastructure, the immigrants would not arrive; without immigrants in place, private capital naturally would not come. If private investment could not be drawn in, and development relied solely on government funding, the Vienna Government would be dragged into bankruptcy.

Prime Minister Felix explained, "The war caused far more severe destruction to the Near East than the government had anticipated.

"The vast majority of cities are in ruins, and repairing many of them would cost even more than rebuilding them from scratch.

"Mines, roads, bridges, and waterworks were all destroyed by the flames of war and must be rebuilt.

"The most troublesome part is that local production has been completely wiped out. Many of the raw materials needed for the initial construction must be transported from the homeland."

Franz had nothing to say. Building a new city was no great matter, but the vast Near East was hardly something that could be handled with a single city.

To settle immigrants, they could not all be kept in the cities. The easiest sectors to take root and recover were still agriculture, mining, and factories.

Only with jobs could people be kept. The tertiary sector had not developed at all in this era; the primary sector remained the core pillar.

The money had to be invested. The Ottoman Empire had been taken precisely to secure a stable rear area. If it was not developed, an empty rear area would be like Alaska to Russia.

After hesitating for a moment, Franz slowly said, "Release