Chapter 479: Labor Agreement

Gao Da was certainly aware of the shortage of military supplies appearing within Russia. It was not just a shortage of military supplies; Russia also faced a problem of food shortages.

As the competition between the two major military blocs became more intense, the scramble for European resources also became a problem that European powers like Germany and France focused on.

Russia sat on the East European Plain and the black soil of Ukraine, so its food production was not low. But the problem was that Russia's population was also the largest in Europe, which also greatly increased Russia's internal food consumption.

In years with relatively good harvests, Russia could still export food, and agricultural income was also one of Russia's main sources of income.

But once natural or man-made disasters occurred, Russia was no longer a food-exporting country, but instead became a major food-importing country.

Compared to other European countries, Russia's food yield per acre was also relatively low. On one hand, it was because most of Russia was relatively cold and not suitable for planting food.

On the other hand, it was because Russian farmers rarely used chemical fertilizers; the reason was very simple: they simply could not afford them.

Russia's own chemical industry was limited, and most of the chemical fertilizers in the market were imported from abroad. With the original price plus tariffs, the price of chemical fertilizers naturally could not be low.

Russian farmers were originally dependent on the weather for their livelihood. Although chemical fertilizers could increase food yield per acre to a certain extent, that also required God's blessing, provided no natural or man-made disasters occurred.

Once an accident happened, not only could the food not be harvested, but the purchased chemical fertilizers would also be a total loss, which was unacceptable to many Russian farmers.

Since their annual income was limited, they naturally could not afford the extra cost of chemical fertilizers.

After all, chemical fertilizers at this time were not the relatively mature fertilizers of later generations; the effect obtained was still limited, and because the production was relatively low, the price would be higher.

Gao Da knew very well that if he did not find a way to help the current Russia, Russia's future fate would inevitably be the same as in history: a revolution would break out due to the failure in the World War, and in the end, not only would the Romanov family be overthrown, but they would also be forced to withdraw from the World War.

Once Russia withdrew from the World War, the situation in Europe would undergo earth-shaking changes. Gao Da did not want Russia to withdraw from the war too early; at the very least, they had to persist until the late stages of the war.

How to help Russia was also very simple: it was actually some support in terms of materials, such as the weapons, equipment, and food that Russia was currently scarce in.

Of course, even if he wanted to help Russia, it was certainly not free for the Russian government.

Russia was currently lacking everything, but it was not lacking in population. In addition, Russia's domestic mineral resources and energy were relatively abundant; these could also be used as collateral to pay Spain to purchase Spain's weapons, equipment, food, and other materials.

Although Spain had signed the Neutral Nations Treaty, normal trade could still continue; after all, Spain did not reject trade with the Alliance either.

Spain could sell weapons, equipment, and food to Russia; of course, it could also sell weapons, equipment, and food to Germany. However, Germany's industrial production capacity was completely sufficient, and they were also a major food-producing country themselves, so they naturally did not need these materials.

Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire went without saying. Although the industrial sector in southern Italy was backward, its food production was quite good.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had the Hungarian Plain; not only were they not short of food, but they were also one of Europe's main food-exporting countries.

On June 12, 1911, the Spanish government and the Russian government officially signed a labor agreement, agreeing to use labor as the main body, supplemented by some mineral resources and energy materials as collateral, to purchase Spanish weapons, equipment, food materials, and some industrial products of equal value.

These laborers were of no great use to Russia, and some of them were even quite dissatisfied with the current Russian government; keeping them would only be a disaster.

Of course, for Spain, these cheap laborers from Russia exerted even greater value than ordinary Spaniards.

Spain needed a large number of laborers domestically. Besides the laborers needed for daily industry and infrastructure construction, Spain also needed to build a large number of water conservancy facilities to combat drought; the construction of these water conservancy facilities also required a large amount of manpower.

This was not the era of advanced machinery of later generations; currently, the construction of infrastructure and water conservancy facilities basically relied on manpower.

Although Spain could also provide enough labor domestically, using Spaniards as laborers was not a wise choice for the Spanish government.

First of all, after so many years of development, Spain's per capita annual income had reached the upper-middle level in Europe.

Spain's per capita annual income had already exceeded 500 pesetas, and the income of most workers had already exceeded 600 pesetas.

Under such circumstances, if tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of laborers were used, the labor cost alone would already be a huge financial burden.

On the contrary, for these laborers transported from Russia, calculated according to Russia's local per capita annual income, the salary that needed to be paid to these Russian laborers was very little, much lower than Spain's local per capita annual income.

In addition, more importantly, letting these Russian laborers fill those positions with high casualty rates was something the Spanish government would not feel sorry for at all.

As long as no large-scale death events occurred, even if a portion of the Russian laborers died, it would not affect Spain's reputation or its relationship with Russia.

Regarding the destination and role of these Russian laborers, the Russian government was basically well aware. This trade was almost the same as substantial human trafficking; although it was not explicitly stated, European countries also had a corresponding tacit understanding.

On June 28, with the arrival of the first batch of materials at Russian ports, the labor cooperation between Russia and Spain officially began.

On July 2, the first batch of 100,000 Russian laborers also successfully arrived at Spanish ports.

Spain expressed a warm welcome to these Russian laborers who had come from afar, and even on the day the Russian laborers arrived at the port, they distributed rich food and settlement allowances to these Russian laborers for free.

Such measures indeed soothed the slightly worried mood of the Russian laborers, making them calm down, at least not so resistant to life in Spain.

And on the second day, Spain began to classify these Russian laborers.

As early as when the Spanish government and the Russian government signed the labor agreement, the Spanish government had specifically requested that the Russian government classify these laborers by different ethnicities and regions to facilitate further subdivision by the Spanish government.

To give the Russian government more motivation to classify these laborers, Spain also promised that as long as these laborers were roughly classified, the value that could be offset for each laborer could be increased by 10%.

For the Russian government, this was the best motivation, and the Russian government did indeed perform a simple classification of these laborers to facilitate the Spanish government's further distribution of these laborers.

First of all, Russian laborers from the same city or region would not be assigned to the same work area.

Doing this was also to prevent them from gathering and huddling together, forming a force sufficient to confront the Spanish government by huddling together for warmth in a foreign land.

Breaking up and reorganizing these Russian laborers could minimize the probability of these Russian laborers causing trouble. Of course, Spain was not very afraid of these Russian laborers causing trouble.

After all, after these laborers were broken up, the number of Russian laborers working in each area was at most only a few thousand; what kind of commotion could these few thousand people cause?

Spain had a certain degree of precaution against these laborers; near their work areas, a military force of over a thousand people would be stationed.

Once these Russian laborers rioted, the Spanish military would suppress them at an extremely fast speed and ensure the news would not be leaked.

Even if thousands or tens of thousands of Russian laborers died, it was not a big deal; after all, in this day and age, people dying while engaging in infrastructure and water conservancy construction was simply too normal. ===== CHAPTER 480 =====