"His Royal Highness, since the government has decided to withdraw the coinage, does the Greek government need to increase its gold reserves?" Banning asked suddenly.

After the Greek government decided to withdraw the coinage, increasing the gold reserves came into the government's vision.

At present, when Greece issues currency, it relies on the foreign exchange it holds, such as pounds, francs or marks, and treats these foreign exchange as gold reserves in disguised form, and then issues a corresponding amount of drachma to circulate in Greece.

This is due to the limited gold reserves in Greece before, which were simply not enough to implement a real gold standard system.

Now that the government has withdrawn the coinage right, the implementation of the gold standard system is imminent, and a large amount of gold reserves must be required as a deposit for issuing currency.

In the middle and late 19th century, major countries in the world successively implemented the gold standard system.

The output of gold is limited and its value is relatively stable.

But silver is different. In the late nineteenth century, as the production of silver increased greatly, the value of silver continued to depreciate.

Therefore, countries that use the gold standard system, because their currency can be freely exchanged for gold, have high credit, and people are more willing to hold such currency.

With the increase in Greece's fiscal revenue in recent years, it has begun to repay the principal of its huge foreign debt, which has further reduced the domestic gold reserves.

"Recently, a lot of gold mines have been discovered in Congo. If there is a need in Greece, it can increase gold mining in Congo," Banning said.

"In recent years, with the initial completion of infrastructure construction, Congo's gold exports have surged, and gold mining companies from various countries have gone to Congo to pan for gold," Brute said regretfully.

"The import and export volume of yellow gold this year will reach 1.2 tons. If Greece can get the gold..."

When he obtained the Congo in 1885, due to the limited strength of Greece, the government itself had to rely on borrowing to maintain it, and there was simply no sufficient funds to invest in the Congo, which is thousands of miles away, and Constantine was eager to obtain benefits from the Congo, so he could only Borrow chickens to lay eggs.

In order to speed up the development of Congo and attract international investment, Constantine specifically instructed Banning to encourage people to develop Congo's gold mines.

It is relying on the attractiveness of gold that capitals from various countries are willing to come to Congo to overcome many difficulties and build railways and other transportation facilities in the tropical rainforest of Congo.

The first railway in the Congo, the Matadi-Constantinople railway, was completed, followed by the construction of the upper Congo River to Lake Tanganyika and Kayseri and the navigation terminal to the center of Katanga. The railway, the two lines are connected in Kamina, with a total length of 3,500 kilometers, has not yet been completed.

As the saying goes, there are both gains and losses. Greece does not have the strength to monopolize Congo’s gold. The flow of people and capital attracted by gold has greatly reduced Greece’s investment and difficulty in developing Congo.

"So far, the mining industry in Congo has mainly relied on gold mining and copper mining. Although other mineral deposits in Congo are also very rich, so far, little progress has been made, otherwise the Congolese government's fiscal revenue will grow rapidly," Banning added. .

Congo's minerals are mainly non-ferrous metals and rare metals. To be honest, it will take some time for these minerals to fully show their value.

There is not much demand for these metals at the moment.

........

After the afternoon meeting, Constantine and Sophie went to visit a rubber forest outside Constantinople, led by Banning and Costerbloom.

This rubber estate is the property of the Greek Congolese Corporation.

Stepping on the soft and thick fallen leaves, Constantine and his group strolled in the artificial rubber forests that were neatly arranged and equally spaced.

"This rubber plantation covers an area of ​​more than 1,000 hectares and can produce more than 100 tons of rubber every year," Costerbloom explained to Constantine.

While he was talking, the workers in the rubber plantation came to cut the rubber.

But the appearance of these rubber workers surprised Constantine: black hair and eyes, yellow skin.

Isn't this what a typical Asian looks like?

"What's going on with these workers? Asians?" Constantine asked, pointing to a few workers who were cutting rubber.

"Oh, these are workers from Southeast Asia," Costerbloom explained.

"No way, the Congolese natives are too lazy and love freedom. You also know that Congo is located in the tropics, rich in products, and there is no such thing as winter, which makes the Congolese natives very lazy. For them, they will not starve to death anyway. If it doesn’t freeze, if it’s a big deal, just dig into the rainforest, and you can always find something to eat.” Saying here, Costebro also felt helpless towards the Congolese natives.

"Get to work, hey, trying to find ways to be lazy and slippery, like a top, he will only turn if he has to whip a whip, but if the supervisors don't notice, they will fish in troubled waters"

Having said this, Costerbloom shook his head helplessly.

"Later we noticed that in the rubber plantations managed by the British, those workers hired from Southeast Asia worked diligently and efficiently, and we followed suit."

"In this way, we have also introduced workers from Southeast Asia to other plantations. Their efficiency is indeed much higher than that of the indigenous people."

Speaking of this, Costerbloom seemed to remember something and said: "We plan to hire some agricultural experts from Europe in the near future to come here to guide agricultural production."

"It is best to set up an agricultural research institute in Constantinople~lightnovelpub.net~ to guide the agricultural planting here for a long time"

........

The day after the visit, I heard the news that Constantine had come to Constantinople. The chiefs from all over the Congo gave Constantine a large number of gifts.

Like ivory, lion skin, rhino horn, etc., piled up in the room.

One of the chiefs of the Makulu tribe, probably specially inquired about Constantine's news from the Congolese authorities, and sent a lion hat in an ingenious way.

In Greek mythology, the son of Zeus, Hercules, is very powerful. After fighting a lion, Hercules turned the lion's head into a hat.

The famous Greek Alexander the Great in history worshipped Heracles very much and always regarded him as an idol.

In the portraits left by Alexander, it is common for him to imitate the image of Hercules wearing a lion hat.

It seems that the chieftain heard that Constantine was a soldier, so he was probably flattering by giving him such a hat, meaning that Constantine was a fierce general comparable to Alexander.

Constantine really liked this gift, so he specially returned the gift and gave the chieftain the ivory-carved pistol that he had always treasured.

Time came to 1908,

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