"Commissioner, Benito Mussolini, who is now Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, came to power by leading the riots. The party that supports him is called the National Fascist Party. The main supporters are veterans and nationalists of the World War. The party pursues militarism, which is somewhat similar to Japan today. He is determined to build a powerful army and navy, dominate the Mediterranean, and restore the glory of the Roman Empire in the past. The fascist Party also has a military organization called the Blackshirt Army. The main force of the "March into Rome" in October last year was the Blackshirt Army. However, the Italian king and army actually supported Mussolini. They were mainly worried that GCD would threaten their interests when they came to power..."

Huang Yun, with a pale face, was very diligent in the cabin of the heavy cruiser of the Haitian cruiser, and was very dedicated to introducing the situation in Italy to Chang Ruiqing. After the German Revolution was suppressed in March, he was assigned to Italy as ambassador. It has been 10 months since then. The scene of the Blackshirts seizing power in October last year was half an Italian connection. However, in his tone, he seemed to have no favoritism towards Mussolini and the fascist party.

Although he had already known what Huang Hui said, Chang Ruiqing was still listening to the other party very seriously - this very seasick ambassador was on the Shanghai Sky in Alexandria, Egypt. He was already in a very bad spirit when he boarded the ship. He lay in his cabin for almost two days. It was not until the Seas and Sky drove into the port of Naples that he recovered a little, so he came to tell Chang Ruiqing about the situation in Italy.

"Italy has been very weak since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It has been in a state of fragmentation for more than a thousand years. It was ruled by foreign rulers from France, Germany (referring to the Holy Roman Empire), Spain and other countries, the Roman Catholic Church, and the native Italian nobles. It was not barely unified until decades ago. However, in Europe, it is still a second-rate country, which is not as good as Britain, France, Germany and the Soviet Union. Moreover, Italians are not easy to fight and like a comfortable life. They probably don't have much interest in the set of things Mussolini claimed..."

Huang Hui was quite familiar with the situation in Italy. Chang Ruiqing nodded slightly in his heart and looked at the "Chengdu" figure. In fact, he didn't know that what Huang Hui said now was not the result of his personal observation of Italy. It was a recognized view in the Roman diplomat circle. There is no real major country in Europe that takes Italy seriously. The reason why they can now unite and maintain the status of a second-rate power is probably due to many religious and historical reasons.

However, Chang Ruiqing, a "weak country in Europe", is still willing to make friends. Because no matter how bad Italy is, it is also an industrialized European country, and is at a relatively leading level in steel, shipbuilding, aviation, chemistry, etc. In particular, Italy's technology in building submarines is very attractive to Chang Ruiqing - Germany is unwilling to provide any help in this regard. They are now under tremendous pressure on land. Therefore, they will not consider developing the navy for the time being, so as not to cause any stimulation to the UK. Even in exporting naval technology, the Germans are very cautious. Therefore, it seems that it is not realistic to cooperate with Germany to develop the navy, and the restrictions on the output of submarine technology by Britain and the United States are very strict. Therefore, Italy has become the only possible source country for submarine technology.

Moreover, due to the fascist system in Italy, Mussolini can make a decision on the issue of technical output, so the friendship with Mussolini, the great Italian leader, needs to be strengthened.

Just as Chang Ruiqing was thinking about what method to use to bring closer friendship between China and Italy, the long whistle whistle sounded, accompanied by a rumbling anchor and a roar of salutes. Then there was a thud footstep outside the officer's room. In a blink of an eye, Chen Shaokuan, the captain of the heavy cruiser of the Haitian heavy cruiser, walked in in a snow-white naval uniform. He saluted Chang Ruiqing: "Chairman, the Haitian has arrived safely at the port of Naples in Italy. There is a welcome team organized by the Italian side on the dock, which is very large in scale!"

Chang Ruiqing stood up, tidied up his military uniform, and smiled at Huang Hui: "Brother Yingbai, you are finally going to set foot on the land of Europa. Let's go down together."

...

Naples, Capodimonte Palace.

"Dear Mr. Chairman. You know, I used to be a socialist, a Marxist, and Marxism is actually an economics. Of course, most of the content is unfounded - I saw through this. So I took another path. But there is still a small part of it, such as the Marxist despise gold. This metal has no great value. I don't understand why gold becomes the basis of currencies in all countries around the world and becomes a tool for international trade settlement. Why is this? A country does not rely on the surface value of currency to maintain life, but depends on real production. Production can enable currency to obtain value. Production is the real preparation for currency. It is meaningless to store gold in a bank safe. Gold should not become an obstacle to prevent international trade and production.

For example, Italy needs Chinese resources, and you China needs advanced Italian industrial equipment, which is enough to allow our two countries to trade in exchange for trade... What does this have to do with gold? What does it have to do with the US dollar and the pound? Why is the trade between our two countries subject to gold? This is really absurd thing, it is really ridiculous. I think we must not let such things continue to exist!"

The person who spoke was a very small Italian middle-aged man who was not much taller than Sun Yuexun, wearing a blue-gray naval uniform. He was Benito Mussolini, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Italy. Although he did not go to the port of Naples to greet Chang Ruiqing in person, he still rushed over from Rome and entertained Chang Ruiqing in the palace of Naples to eat Italian-style meals. While dining, the Italian leader began to rush to Chang Ruiqing in English with obvious Italian accents.

"Neither of our countries is a big gold producer. China has more gold mines, while Italy basically does not produce gold. Most of the world's gold production is controlled by a few countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. The largest share is the United Kingdom. Britain controls gold, and most of the currencies of countries around the world are linked to gold, and world trade is also linked to gold. So controlling gold is equivalent to controlling the currencies of countries around the world! It is equivalent to controlling world trade and economies of countries! They can push up the gold price by manipulating gold production, so that they can exchange us for useless stones

Wealth. To this day, they don’t even have to pay for gold, just use paper money linked to gold... This is a total scam, we all know. This is a scam. No central bank in any country in the world can have enough gold to recover the currency it sends out! So this is a kind of plunder. When gold is produced, it has generated high profits, and then plunders more wealth by issuing paper money linked to gold! And no matter how hard we don’t work, we can only be poor countries and can only become the targets of their exploitation! Chairman of the Standing Committee. Can you understand what I mean?"

To be honest, Chang Ruiqing didn't understand very much. He was proficient in history in his previous life, but he was a soldier in this life. He could only be said to have a slight understanding of the economics set. What Mussolini is talking about now is a bit like the view of "Currency War", but he turned the US dollar into gold and pounds.

The reason why he and Mussolini talk about gold was the economy and trade of the two countries. Italy led by Mussolini is already a relatively developed capitalist country. According to Marxist viewpoint, Italy now needs to export excess products, such as the excess Mashatila sports car, Prada's handbags, Bulgari's jewelry, Bologna's leather shoes, etc. Of course, there are machines. Italy's machinery industry is still very developed, not much worse than the Germans. Moreover, Italy's machinery industry does not mainly serve heavy industry and military industry, but light industry. This is just that.

It is urgently needed by the rapidly developing Chinese industry, but China does not have enough foreign exchange and gold to pay to Italy. However, Italy now also needs to import a large amount of industrial raw materials, which China can provide almost all of them, so this has led the Italian leader who is eager to explore overseas markets to discover another way of trade that does not require gold as a means of settlement - bartering. In fact, this method of trade was proposed by Dr. Alma Schacht, a German Minister of Economic Affairs who just visited Italy not long ago. Mussolini thought it was good, so he used it to solve the settlement problem of Sino-Italy trade.

Of course, barter trade is not as simple as it seems. This is not about using eggs to exchange rice in rural markets. It is about bilateral trade between two countries, so it is impossible to let importers and exporters exchange things for things themselves. In that case, the transaction cannot be done. The so-called barter trade is actually a means of international settlement, which requires the two countries to sign a "exchange settlement agreement" based on the principle of rough balance of bilateral trade. This is a new thing that Dr. Yarma Schacht thought of. The roughly means that the trade between the two countries will be settled in their respective currencies, and the importers and exporters of both sides cannot directly obtain the currency of the other country, and the entire settlement will be carried out through the central banks of both sides.

To put it more specifically, after Chinese exporters sell goods to Italian importers, Italian importers pay lira to the Bank of China. The Bank of China pays Min Yuan to its own exporters. The lira obtained by the Bank of China cannot exchange gold and foreign exchange for Italian banks, nor can it be carried away from Italy. It can only be used as payment tools for Chinese importers when purchasing Italian goods.

This kind of transaction is indeed a bit complicated. Moreover, neither China nor Italy will gain a surplus because of their trade. However, it will allow two countries with certain economic complementarity to expand the trade scale between the two sides in the shortest time, allowing Italian-made machines to seize the Chinese market. At the same time, it will allow China to obtain advanced foreign machinery and equipment without consuming precious gold and foreign exchange!

"Mr. Mussolini, what do you mean is that China can buy Italian machinery and equipment, but does not pay gold and foreign exchange?" The question raised is Song Ziwen, the Minister of Commerce of the National Government, who is also a member of Chang Ruiqing's delegation to visit Europe. He will be responsible for the business negotiations with Germany and Italy in the plan.

Mussolini's face was filled with an exaggerated Italian smile and lit her head hard. "That's right, it's basically the case. China does not have to pay for gold and foreign exchange. The dollar obtained by Italy's exports to China will be stored in a special account opened by the Italian Central Bank in the Central Bank of China, specifically used to pay for the goods imported from Italy from China."

Song Ziwen helped him with his small round glasses and nodded slightly at Chang Ruiqing - the method proposed by Mussolini is feasible. With the current measures of the National Government's supervision of the economy, this plan can basically be ensured to be successfully implemented.

"But what can Italy buy from China?" Chang Ruiqing frowned slightly, as if he was still hesitating. "Prime Minister, China's main export products are soybeans, bristles, tung oil, silk and other agricultural products. The market for such commodities in Italy is very small..."

"This is not a problem. It is not a problem at all." The Italian dictator knew that Chang Ruiqing had been moved. He took a sip of champagne and then said: "China has many things to export, such as oil and various non-ferrous metals, such as manganese, black, zinc, lead, etc. These are all urgently needed for Italy's economic development. By the way, you are building a large oil field, right?"

"Yes, in Manchuria, China," said Chang Ruiqing. "But the mining of non-ferrous metals is still in the preliminary preparation stage. Although many mines have been discovered, there is still a process before large-scale mining."

"No problem, we can provide a large loan of lira to China first, but these liras must be used to purchase Italian machinery and equipment." Mussolini made another suggestion. "When China's oil fields are put into production, then repay them with oil."

Chang Ruiqing glanced at Song Ziwen, who nodded and said to him in Chinese: "Committee, Mr. Mussolini's suggestion is feasible, and this method of barter can be used not only between China and Italy, but also our trade with other countries."

"With other countries..." Chang Ruiqing smiled excitedly. "This is good news. Ziwen, can you be responsible for negotiating Italy in this regard?"

Song Ziwen thought for a moment, nodded with certainty, and replied: "There is no problem, the economic delegation I led can be responsible for the negotiations."

"It may be necessary to have similar negotiations with Germany." Chang Ruiqing said again.

"No problem," said Song Ziwen. "Germans will be willing to enter the vast Chinese market by barter trading."

Chang Ruiqing nodded and turned to Mussolini. He said in English: "His Excellency Prime Minister, I fully agree with the use of barter trade to expand trade cooperation between China and Italy. Moreover, the cooperation I expect is not just trade. Our two countries should carry out broader cooperation, especially in military projects."

When he heard about military cooperation, Mussolini did not show any belligerent expression. The shrewd little man seemed to know very well that his Italy was actually a weak country. He pondered for a moment before speaking with a serious expression. Chang Ruiqing heard what he meant was that he clearly recognized the threat of the Soviet Union to the entire Europe and the world, and that Italy was willing to provide some help to China and Germany's anti-Soviet cause. However, the current Italian government still had to focus its main energy on the domestic. Saving Italy's economy, which was actually bankrupt, was the main task of him, as the prime minister.

"Developing the economy is also China's top priority." Chang Ruiqing was slightly surprised by Mussolini's clear mind at this time, but he did not express anything in terms of face. "The China-Italy military cooperation I expected was not aimed at any third country. It was just some military and technical cooperation, such as transferring the most advanced submarine manufacturing and torpedo manufacturing technology from Italy to China, and helping China design a medium-sized submarine suitable for ocean-breaking diplomatic relations."

"Can I understand that China wants to obtain the latest submarine manufacturing technology from Italy?" Mussolini said with a frown.

Chang Ruiqing nodded. "Yes, it can be understood so." He actually didn't want to carry out too much military cooperation with Italy.

Mussolini closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then nodded and opened his eyes. "Ah, I can meet your requirements. We can secretly send engineers to China to guide your people in producing and designing submarines. I promise to send quite professional engineers. However, this cooperation can only be carried out under extreme confidentiality. Mr. Chairman, I think you know that the United Kingdom and the United States do not agree with other countries' development and output submarine technology, and Italy's economic revival depends on their loans." He then said to Chang Ruiqing in a very sincere tone: "In addition, I personally make a little more suggestions. China should keep a low profile when building submarine forces. After all, the major naval powers in the world don't like this weapon very much. Your plan to build 50 submarines has already made them worried."

"Thank you very much, I will pay attention." Chang Ruiqing guessed that China's pursuit of submarine technology everywhere during this period may have made some naval powers feel unhappy, although they themselves once sold two submarines to China. But two and fifty and one hundred were not the same thing after all!
Chapter completed!