Crisis

In Saint Petersburg, ever since receiving news of the French Great Farm Plan, smiles had rarely appeared on Alexander III's face.

Now that news had arrived that the British Parliament had passed the Food Self-Sufficiency Plan, one could well imagine Alexander III's mood.

There was no helping it. Grain exports were simply too important to the Russian Empire. Not only did they account for the largest share of the nation's foreign-exchange earnings, they also affected the livelihoods of tens of millions.

Ever since Alexander II completed his agricultural reforms, the Russian Empire had been trapped in the embarrassing predicament of grain supply exceeding demand. Apart from the years of the Prusso-Russian War, the Tsarist Government had to worry every year about finding markets for its grain.

This was connected to an edict issued during Alexander II's reign.

At the time, preparations were underway for the Second Prusso-Russian War. The government needed to raise military provisions, while an agricultural crisis happened to strike at the same time. Private grain sales were sluggish, and the people had no money to pay taxes, so Alexander II ordered that peasants be allowed to pay their taxes in grain.

This policy enabled the Tsarist Government to gather sufficient military provisions in the shortest possible time, laying the foundation for victory in the Second Prusso-Russian War.

The aftereffect was that the Tsarist Government received huge quantities of grain every year. In remote regions especially, nearly all peasants paid their taxes in grain.

There was no longer any possibility of changing it back. Russia's transportation system was notoriously terrible. Grain from remote regions simply could not fetch a good price; in some places, it could not be sold at all. Paying taxes in kind was far more worthwhile.

Abolishing this edict would mean setting themselves against tens