Father of France

Chapter 177 Sub-landlord

At the East Asia Bank building on the Saigon embankment, Coman arrived with great interest to find Guo Cheng, the Guo family's representative sent to investigate the French African colonies, and asked him what he had gained this time.

"It has the air of a great power." Guo Cheng complimented Koman after learning the purpose of his visit. "Aside from the desolation and loneliness of the north, the land near the equator has a lot in common with the Indochina Peninsula, especially the island of Madagascar, where the locals actually grow rice. It has the potential to become a rice center."

"Oh, Mr. Guo has made a great discovery." It's true that one should get out and about more often. Koman had forgotten that the staple food of the Austronesian people in Madagascar is rice, and rice is cultivated on the island as the foundation of agriculture.

He had clearly mentioned Madagascar when he was with Bokassa, but he had completely forgotten about it. So sometimes you can't just talk the talk; no matter how much useless knowledge you have, you still need to put it into practice.

The ethnic distribution in Madagascar is quite interesting. Austronesian people live in the central highlands of Madagascar, while the descendants of African immigrants live along the island's coastline. They live not just along the African side of the coastline, but along the entire coastline of the island. The side facing the Indian Ocean is also inhabited by people of African descent.

This is because after the Austronesians arrived in Madagascar, they found the land in the coastal areas to be barren, so they gradually moved inland and began to build terraces to grow rice on the central highlands of the island.

So later, Austronesian people from Southeast Asia lived in the middle, surrounded by ethnic groups of African immigrant descent.

Koeman thought of a second question: could Madagascar rice be grown in French equatorial Africa? Madagascar is part of the South Asian plate, but that was tens of millions of years ago. Over such a long period of time, the soil should be similar to that of Africa.

However, we cannot be too optimistic. Coman felt that transplanting the seeds to the nearby Portuguese colonies would certainly not be a problem, but French Africa was too far away, and Louis Fyde still needed to take care of the seed cultivation.

Because of Guo Cheng's recent investigation in French Africa, which revealed rice cultivation in Madagascar, Coman recognized Madagascar's value. He expressed his gratitude to Guo Cheng under his questioning gaze and went further, saying, "France faces many difficulties in protecting its territory, or rather, in developing the French Federation. The biggest difficulty is that we need a reliable, hardworking, and intelligent group to help us develop other parts of the French Federation."

To put it bluntly, if the French Federation were a house, the French landlord would be missing a sub-landlord to help collect rent. Corman felt his analogy was very apt.

French colonies did not have this role, but the Commonwealth did; within the British Empire, British India was essentially the British's sub-landlord.

When Britain lacked sufficient manpower to solve problems, it would employ Indians to help manage its colonies. As a result, there was a large population of Indian immigrants in British colonies, especially in British Africa.

For a long time, especially before the 1970s, the influence of the great Eastern power in Africa was not necessarily comparable to that of the prominent and influential India.

It should be noted that the major Eastern power's policy initiatives far surpassed those of India, which considers itself the leader of the Third World, yet it expended countless human and material resources to achieve its later success.

France's policy toward its colonies was direct administration without the assistance of other ethnic groups. Therefore, the Chinese in French Indochina did not play a role in assisting administration, which was completely different from the Indian population in British colonies.

However, direct French administration was not a problem during the colonial era, but it is no longer appropriate now. There are not many people in France who are unlikely to emigrate, and maintaining influence has always been the mission of the French military.

However, maintaining influence cannot rely solely on the French military; there must always be a group responsible for exchanges in the economic sphere.

You can't expect the French to grow rice in Africa. Louis Frye is a grain trading company, but that doesn't mean they can grow it themselves. Besides, France doesn't grow rice, so there's no relevant community to rely on.

A few months ago, after making initial attempts to win over the wealthy Chinese in the embankment, Corman began to try to guide this group, which was destined to be intolerable to Le Duan, to help France develop an equatorial African colony with an environment similar to Southeast Asia.

In another world, France actually accepted a large number of immigrants from French Indochina after it withdrew from French Indochina.

There were two waves of immigrants. The first wave was when France evacuated, and the second wave was after the fall of South Vietnam, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. After being accepted by France, these refugees lived in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. This group has an interesting name: Cambodian Chinese.

However, a significant proportion of this group is Vietnamese, and they have little to do with Cambodia. It is more like a general term for a region, such as French Indochina.

As representatives of the prominent families along the embankment, the Guo family members were very optimistic about the potential of the current French Federation, which was exactly what they wanted. Corman directly hinted that since Madagascar had the potential for rice cultivation, the harvesting and sales could be handled by these Saigon families, and then they could directly connect with Louis Fyda.

No one was more friendly to the Chinese on the Embankment, especially the wealthy, than Corman. He personally endorsed the view that the wealthy Chinese on the Embankment could play a greater role in the French Federation and work with the French people to make the French Federation better and better.

Guo Cheng had already gained a lot from his months-long investigation, and the scales in his mind had already tipped. This was an opportunity for the Guo family, and even more than just the Guo family, to have a bigger stage.

"Let's give it a try. With the French army as our backing, we have nothing to fear." Koeman didn't mention the French government at all. Who knew the French government would be in power for more than a few months?

Guo Cheng recounted many of his experiences in French Africa, which Coman listened to attentively. He himself had never been to any other places except for the overseas departments in North Africa, and his knowledge was not as extensive as Guo Cheng's.

Didn't they almost slip up not long ago? They completely forgot that Madagascar also uses rice as its staple food. Quemann finally left the East Asia Bank after a long while. At that moment, the future chief judge of the military tribunal, Lefebvre, rushed over, clearly having something on his mind.

"Did Ava send a message?" Koman was in a good mood and asked his subordinate with a smile.

"The Governor's Office received a telegram from Paris," Lefèvre said quickly, seeing that Coman was in a good mood. "General Dachanliu wants to ask for the commander's opinion."

"Oh." Upon learning that it wasn't Ava Gardner, Koman's smile gradually faded. This reaction was normal; at his energetic age, having nothing to do all day, he was a little unaccustomed to it.

As time goes by, I miss the days when Ava Gardner was around more and more. It seems that the idea of ​​being a lifelong monogamous couple was a bit of a miscalculation.

"What do you want me for? My work is still in North Africa, but I'm here temporarily because of the timber shortage." Koman couldn't help but mutter to himself. He was just a captain, the presiding judge of a military court, and from an overseas province.

General Dachanliu rushed to the Governor's Palace without stopping. He had obviously received a telegram from Paris congratulating the French army on regaining control of the major cities in French Indochina, which only occupied a small part of the telegram.

The main content of this telegram was actually an intention to establish a trade agreement with the Soviet Union, which seemed unrelated to French Indochina.

The reason Dassanliu summoned Coman was that he spent his days with Chinese rice exporters in Cholon and had previously taken Louis Fuda's men to Bangkok. At this point, no one knew the contents of the telegram better than Coman.

Koeman reached out and took the latest instructions from Paris. Upon seeing the figures, he perked up immediately. "Fifteen million tons of oil exports? The Soviet Union? Even if the Soviet Union could do that, where are we going to get the supplies we need for trade? This trade intention is far too risky."

Fifteen million tons of oil is more than France's annual demand, which is currently around twelve million tons.

The key point is that one ton equals seven barrels, meaning this oil is worth one hundred million US dollars. If the Soviet Union could supply it, it would certainly solve France's dollar shortage and franc exchange rate problem, which would be a good thing.

But what can France offer in exchange? Not to mention the export of timber and minerals. Is France supposed to export luxury goods to balance trade?
It seems that the Soviet Union in 1946 was not yet at the point of considering these things; it should have been during the Brezhnev era that exporting luxury goods would have been useful.

Georges Pitoure did make a responsible commitment to address France's financial burden, but this clearly meant that French Indochina would have to bear the cost.

Koeman quickly calculated that just to balance the oil trade, French Indochina would need to provide an additional 1.5 million tons of rice.

Currently, rice exports from the two rice centers in Bangkok and Saigon are around $40 per ton, which is roughly 5,000 francs per ton.

Therefore, to offset the Soviet Union's promised share of oil exports, French Indochina would have to deliver at least 1.5 million tons of rice to balance the oil trade.

Seeing Koman's face change like a chameleon, General Dashanliu couldn't help but ask, "Koman, is there a problem?"

Given the high rank and military status of the other party, Koeman certainly couldn't retort with "What do you think?" But he could criticize the government: "Prime Minister George finalized the trade agreement with unprecedented decisiveness, resolving the domestic issues. Then he left the rest to us."

"Can't solve it?" General Dashanliu frowned slightly, clearly dissatisfied with the answer, even though he knew that Koman had nothing to do with the matter. He was simply dissatisfied with the inability to solve the problem, not with any particular person.

"Extending the timeframe to a year is something we can try. French Indochina and Thailand are both arable year-round. If there's still a shortfall, we can't give all the rice from French Indochina to the Soviet Union, otherwise it might escalate the situation there and lead to the expansion of the Viet Minh's power."

Koeman had already guessed why the Soviet Union had agreed; it was probably because the Soviet Union was experiencing food shortages due to drought, but this was not known to other countries.

Georges Pitoure was probably too eager to alleviate France's foreign exchange reserves and other related problems. Remembering that he had personally gone to Moscow to sign the trade agreement as Foreign Minister, he set his sights on the Soviet Union.

Knowing that its own grain production was declining, the Soviet Union, faced with France's offer, generously set a high level for trade between the two countries, indicating that the Soviet Union would use its abundant resources to solve France's problems and that the Soviet Union certainly had the resources to trade with France.

Take timber exports as an example. As a defeated nation, Finland signed important trade agreements with the Soviet Union. Finland was required to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviet Union, part of which was paid in kind. Timber and wood products were among the important commodities for which Finland made these payments.

In this agreement, the price of timber is set to calculate the value of compensation; it is more of a political price than a market price. This price is usually lower than the international market price.

(End of this chapter)