Chapter 479: Labor Agreement

Gao Da was certainly aware of the shortage of military supplies appearing within Russia. In fact, it was not just a shortage of military supplies; Russia was also facing a food shortage.

As the competition between the two major military blocs grew increasingly intense, the scramble for European resources became a matter of concern for European powers like Germany and France.

Russia sat upon the East European Plain and the black soil of Ukraine, so its grain production was not insignificant. The problem, however, was that Russia also had the largest population in Europe, which greatly increased internal grain consumption.

In years with relatively good harvests, Russia was still able to export grain, and agricultural income was one of Russia's main sources of revenue.

But once natural or man-made disasters occurred, Russia would not only cease to be a grain-exporting nation, but would instead become a major grain importer.

Compared to other European countries, Russia's grain yield per acre was also relatively low. On one hand, this was because most of Russia was quite cold and not well-suited for crop cultivation.

On the other hand, Russian farmers rarely used chemical fertilizers, and the reason was simple: they could not afford them at all.

Russia's own chemical industry was limited, and most of the chemical fertilizer in the market was imported from abroad; with the original price plus tariffs, the price of fertilizer was naturally quite high.

Russian farmers relied on the heavens for their livelihood; although chemical fertilizers could increase grain yield per acre to a certain extent, that still required God's blessing, provided no natural or man-made disasters occurred.

Once an accident happened, not only would the grain not be harvested, but the money spent on fertilizer would also be a total loss, which was unacceptable to many Russian farmers.

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

After all, chemical fertilizer at this time was not the mature product of later generations, so the results achieved were still limited, and because production was relatively low, the price was even higher.

Gao Da knew very well that if he did not find a way to help the current Russia, its future fate would inevitably be the same as in history: a revolution breaking out due to defeat in the World War, ultimately leading not only to the overthrow of the Romanov family but also to being 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, it had to hold on until the late stages of the war.

How to help Russia was also simple; it was essentially support in terms of supplies, such as the weapons, equipment, and grain that Russia currently lacked.

Of course, even if he were to help Russia, it certainly would not be given to the Russian government for free.

Russia currently lacked everything, but it did not lack a population. Additionally, Russia's domestic mineral resources and energy were relatively abundant, and these could also be used as collateral to pay Spain for purchasing Spanish weapons, equipment, grain, and other supplies.

Although Spain had signed a treaty as a neutral country, normal trade could still continue; after all, Spain did not reject trade with the Allied Powers.

Spain could sell weapons, equipment, and grain to Russia, and of course, it could also sell them to Germany. It was just that Germany's industrial production capacity was fully sufficient, and they were themselves a major grain-producing nation, so they naturally did not need these supplies.

Needless to say, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were in different positions; although the southern region of Italy had backward industry, its grain production was still quite good.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had the Hungarian Plain; not only did it not lack grain, but it was actually one of Europe's major grain exporters.

On June 12, 1911, the Spanish government and the Russian government officially signed a labor agreement, agreeing to use laborers as the primary subject, supplemented by some mineral resources and energy supplies as collateral, to purchase Spanish weapons, equipment, grain supplies, 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, the value exerted by these cheap laborers from Russia was actually greater than that of ordinary Spaniards.

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

This was not the era of advanced machinery of later generations; building infrastructure and water conservancy facilities now relied basically on human labor.

Although the Spanish mainland could also provide sufficient labor, 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 already reached an upper-middle level in Europe.

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

Under such circumstances, if tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of laborers were employed, the labor costs 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 wages that needed to be paid to these Russian laborers were very low, much lower than the per capita annual income on the Spanish mainland.

Furthermore, and more importantly, the Spanish government would not feel any heartache letting these Russian laborers fill those positions with higher casualty rates.

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

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

On June 28, as the first batch of supplies arrived at the Russian port, the labor cooperation between Russia and Spain officially began.

On July 2, the first batch of 100, 00 Russian laborers successfully arrived at Spanish ports.

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

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

And on the second day, Spain began the classification of 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 detailed classification by the Spanish government.

In order 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 increase by ten percent.

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

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

This was done to prevent them from gathering together and forming a force capable of resisting the Spanish government by huddling together for warmth in a foreign land.

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

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 stir could these few thousand people cause?

Spain had a certain degree of precaution regarding these laborers; near their work areas, an army of over a thousand soldiers would be stationed.

Once these Russian laborers rioted, the Spanish army would suppress them with extreme speed and ensure that the news would not be leaked.

Even if a few thousand or ten thousand Russian laborers died, it was not a big deal; after all, in this day and age, it was perfectly normal for people to die while building infrastructure and water conservancy facilities.