Father of France

Chapter 172 The Sahara Railway Project

France was, after all, a notorious usurious imperial power. As the governor of the Bank of France in Saigon, De Lajou could easily sense the risks of this rapid expansion with a little extra thought.

The subprime mortgage crisis was caused by lending institutions relaxing lending standards and launching various high-risk loan products in pursuit of higher profits, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Therefore, Koman's requirement for Thai farmers to use their land as collateral is essentially a form of insurance.

Based on land mortgage, the loan interest rate is extremely low in the first year, but the interest rate will be significantly reset and soar in the second loan, which will begin next year.

This is easy to explain. It can be said that France also needs to make a normal profit, but in reality, it is also screening out unqualified borrowers, thus reducing the risk of a subprime crisis.

Thailand is, after all, an independent country. France cannot simply take away 100 yuan worth of supplies without any qualms, as it did with Niger, and then give them a mere 2 yuan as a token gesture, like giving alms to a beggar.

Coleman could absolutely understand Delajo's desire to prevent losses for the National Bank of France. The worst-case scenario was the rampant lending that occurred during the subprime crisis, where loans were issued without restraint because lenders could immediately sell them for cash without caring whether borrowers would be able to repay them in the future.

However, the success rate of this project is still very high because it is tied to rice exports, which are currently Thailand's only major consumer goods industry. If something like the subprime mortgage crisis were to occur, the entire consumer goods industry in Thailand would be affected, and these Thai banks would not be able to fill the gap even if they sold themselves.

After persuading the governor of the Bank of France in Saigon, the main task for the next period of time was to immediately expand rice cultivation in Thailand and restore previous rice exports.

The Thai government had no objection to this. Compared to France's past practice of always wielding power, this time France genuinely paid money, demonstrating unprecedented sincerity.

What if Thailand thinks France is too easy to talk to, and France suddenly reverts to the "weapon-to-talk" approach?
Given Thailand's size, the French army of just over 100,000 men in French Indochina was quite influential. The fact that France was willing to help Thailand made the Thais feel like they were dreaming.

For half a month, people from all walks of life in Thailand praised France's generosity and learned for the first time about the French tricolor flag's symbolism of freedom, equality, and fraternity.

In fact, for countries like France, where the franc is heavily over-issued and doesn't have the same widespread circulation as the British franc, investing the franc in countries like Thailand is a win-win situation.

France is referred to as a usurious imperialist power, rather than Britain, which clearly had more powerful capital, because France's capital export was more purely manifested in public and national debt. In other words, France's capital export was concentrated in the realm of debt.

Although Britain had stronger financial power, it still insisted on investing in industry, and its exports were mostly directly related to its domestic industry, trade, and colonial expansion.

Instead, France prefers to participate in other countries' bond markets and profit from a country's most stable public and domestic bonds, which is why it is called usury imperialism.

In this respect, France is actually more like Britain and the United States in the field of investment, and this "more like" refers to the United States in the 21st century.

How did French usury imperialism come to an end? It was because the collapse of Imperial Russia left France with a psychological scar.

This time was similar; Koeman chose a pillar industry that is now almost as important as the country.

The act of hijacking this rice deal is almost as significant in terms of security as the situation in Thailand. If a 19th-century French banker knew of Koman's actions today, he would surely have exclaimed that he was indeed a worthy successor to the imperialist usury system.

As Thailand reverses its decline and begins a vigorous recovery of its pillar industry, exports, Prime Minister Priti Panomrong once again expressed his gratitude to France for its great power demeanor. He noted that Thailand's civilian government is not stable, and as a country that has just transitioned from a feudal dynasty to a modern nation, Thailand still faces significant challenges.

Koman firmly believes this, as it is rare for a country to retaliate after transitioning from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, but Thailand has done just that.

With the military's involvement, Thailand has seen frequent military coups, and the military has even gradually restored the monarch's real power, even though Rama IX had previously been rendered powerless.

Therefore, Koman absolutely believed that the Thai Prime Minister's gratitude was well-deserved. However, even close brothers should keep clear accounts; he wasn't there to demonstrate internationalism. He reiterated to Bili Panonrong, "Regardless of the transaction price, the funds received are equivalent to an indefinite, interest-free loan. Once our investment in Thailand yields profits, we will repay it by donating it to a foundation. I only need a promise—a promise to purchase these companies' products at a preferential price in the future."

Koeman didn't spell it out too clearly, but Prime Minister Billy Panonon naturally understood the real meaning and nodded in promise, "The investment from the National Bank of France will definitely return to your hands quickly."

It wasn't that Koman was greedy; his investment in Thailand was just meant to reassure people, and he had many more important things to do. It was better to save the dollars for bigger things.

In Marseille, France's second-largest city, Martin leaned against a window seat in a café. Not far away, rice, having arrived at the port after a thirty-two-day voyage, was being unloaded by dockworkers. Martin, legs crossed with a relaxed expression, wasn't reminiscing about the Battle of Marseille, but rather holding a telegram from Bangkok. It contained Koeman's explanation for his inability to return to Europe for the time being, and also requested Martin's assistance with several tasks, including an inspection of the urban development progress in the overseas departments.

Another more macro-level task is to conduct an in-depth investigation of the Sahara Desert, including data on the tributaries of Lake Chad, the climate of French equatorial Africa, and even meteorological data and the environment along the way in French North and West Africa.

Martin is far away now, otherwise he really wanted to ask Coman what he was trying to do.
However, he did have some guesses about one of them: before the outbreak of the World War, France had a plan to build a railway covering French West Africa and North Africa overseas departments in order to better serve the power of the unified French African colonies.

France's colonies appeared to be a unified whole, but because of the Sahara Desert, it was not as easy for France to consolidate its forces as it seemed on the map.

Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco in North Africa, and French West Africa south of the Sahara, including present-day Senegal, Mali, and Niger, were physically separated by the vast Sahara Desert.

Building a railway would connect these scattered territories into a unified whole, strengthening central control in Paris.

Railways could quickly mobilize troops and effectively suppress resistance in various parts of the colonies, so the Sahara Railway project came into being.

Once this railway is opened, the land route from the Mediterranean coast of North Africa to the Atlantic coast of West Africa will reduce dependence on sea routes and promote commercial circulation within the empire.

The main route of this railway is laid along the coastline, and construction is carried out around the western edge of the Sahara Desert.

The plan was interrupted by World War I when it was first proposed. After the war, France picked it up again and began building railways in French North Africa, and then World War II broke out.

Currently, a railway connecting Algeria and Morocco has been established. The remaining section, yet to be built, is a planned line running between the West African coastline and the western edge of the Sahara Desert.

The plan was ultimately abandoned because Algeria gained independence, not because of the development of the shipping and aviation industries.

If France succeeds in retaining Algeria, the railway line connecting the French colony and ending in Algiers will inevitably be built.

But without Algeria, what incentive would France have to build a worthless railway for the prosperity and stability of its African colonies? That reason is insufficient.

In this telegram, Corman mentioned the need to investigate a route along the Atlantic coast that would not be swallowed by the Sahara Desert, which was clearly France's previous Sahara Railway plan.

"Are you crazy?" Martin rubbed his forehead, clearly not troubled by the progress of the overseas provincial city construction, but by the Sahara Railway project he had already guessed. If this project alone was so difficult, then what was the purpose of the other project, which involved investigating the tributaries of the Lake Chad system?
He always felt that this was a more awe-inspiring plan than the Sahara Railway project.

Martin didn't even have the courage to call Corman back; his biggest impulse now was to return to Paris and apply for discharge.

"Lieutenant Martin, the rice shipment from Bangkok has been unloaded, 15,000 tons. We are communicating with the railway authorities to allocate rail transport capacity." Just as Martin was contemplating whether to take off his uniform, a soldier entered and interrupted his dangerous thoughts.

“Let’s talk to the Marseille City Hall in the name of the Gendarmerie Command. Although there was a minor conflict before, those things are in the past, aren’t they?” Martin replied, looking up from his thoughts.

The plan to retire from the military naturally came to nothing. Martin was an optimistic person and quickly got over his worries. He couldn't just be the one charging ahead when it was time to eat meat and then retire when he was needed to do something.

Two of the world’s three major rice trading centers are shipping grain to France. The Georges Pitour government quickly recognized the value of this grain. This year’s unusually low rainfall in Europe has seriously affected the food security of post-war European countries. Production was already damaged by the war, and the weather was not cooperating.

The Netherlands, not far from France, began experiencing food shortages last winter, and after a dry summer, the entire country is on the verge of collapse.

Italy, another neighbor of France, is also under food control, but the situation is most serious in Germany.

The Allied policy was to prevent defeated Germany from achieving a higher standard of living than its neighbors. If other countries encountered difficulties, then Germany would only face even greater difficulties, making Germany's situation the most severe.

(End of this chapter)