fertiliser Internal Revenue

[Derthalen]

Somewhere in an Imperial Requisition Centre

Random Government Worker: *crunch, crunch, crunch* - Excuse me sir, I believe I have found an *gulp* oversight in one of our reports.

Supervisor: Oh what is it man, shouldn't you be on break?

Random Government Worker: Well sir, according to this report we failed to fulfill a requisition request from the local government. It says here that they requested a total of 500,000 tonnes of fertiliser be made ready and transferred to their care but instead they were only given 115,000 tonnes. I already checked our records, and it would seem that we have more than enough to satisfy their demand.

Supervisor: We are not in the business of playing favourites here. Their requisition would have reduced our current stockpile by a third, and we need to keep some of it back for the other states and emergencies.

Random Government Worker: Should I make a report to the factories sir? We have seen a steady increase of fertiliser production in response to the demands of the agricultural sector in Rukonen & Konn already, so I am certain they will be able to adjust. Projections from their ministry of agriculture show how vitally important this is for their continued growth.

Supervisor: Right, but how are we going to cover for the drop in other areas? The Southern Army's still angry that three of their weapon plants were converted  to the production of pesticides and plastics, and a memo came down for us to stop pouring resources into Rukonen. Apparently they have been driving down food prices in the Free Cities in some trade war between them. 

Random Government Worker: Excuse me sir, but isn't that a good thing?

Supervisor: Good? Hardly, the damn peasants have been leaving their farms to try and get better jobs in the cities! They are all just criminals in waiting who are too incompetent to hold any real job and live in the meat packing districts or in the slums. It is all a conspiracy by those Goths to ruin the southern lands in my opinion. If the Senate had any sense, they would never have helped rebuild that country. 

Now, please go back to your dinner. We will be getting some more reports to deal with soon.

Random Government Worker: Right away then sir... I will be going.

---

*To put things into perspective, Germany uses roughly 3,577,514 Imperial Tonnes of fertiliser a year. If each of Derthalen's states were turned over to high intensity agriculture like Rukonen und Konn, the total usage would be roughly 3,500,000 Imperial Tonnes. 
*This could very well just be a one off, I am not sure how I am going to explore the workings of government or the political issues present within this confederation.

Edited January 5, 2018 by Derthalen (see edit history)

[Andalla]

OOC and sorry for disturbing the silence : Love the Comic Sans, man.

[Derthalen]

Inside of the Imperial Army High Command

Member of the General Staff: *flop* I have retrieved the troop readiness reports you asked for sirs. Would you care for me to read them out?

General on the right: Yes, please proceed.

Member of the General Staff: The Third Infantry Division reports that of their six regiments, only two were capable of passing inspection. The fifth, third, second, and first regiments appeared to lack combat experience with their weapons, with one colonel being unable to form a proper firing line once the soldiers had been exposed to small arms fire during a live fire exercise. Several of the officers have complained that the sudden increase in the number of regiments being formed and the longer periods spent in the rear lines has hampered their ability to properly train and condition their soldiers. Several of them have even gone so far as to request that their units be transferred to the Afropan Expedition for combat experience.

Instructors from the Imperial War Academy say that the four year officer training course could possibly be compressed into three years, but they do not believ-

General on the right: *raises hand to stop him* As you can hear already, we have a problem. Our old models for expansion were not designed for these numbers, and are currently floundering. As such, I have drawn up a plan on how to increase our military activity overseas while placating the politicians.

General on the left: All right, what is this miracle plan then?

General on the right: I am glad you asked. After receiving reports of the ongoing civil unrest in the Hellenic-Rus and the foreign invasions, I have drawn up a proposal -*passes over a large document*- in which we will solve our current issue by offering to send volunteers there. To get around the issues with transporting our troops by sea, we will have to construct a railway to @Ahrana, which will have the added benefits of securing a trade route and also allowing greater connectivity with our colony there. We will also need to secure an agreement from them for the construction of the line into their territory, but that will be for the politicians to deal with.

I have also added in proposals for multiple extension lines being built to the other local nations. They will provide revenue through access fees, and should allow the railway to pay for itself over the following years.

General on the left: This is all fine and good, but how does this solve our immediate problem exactly? It will take five and half years at the minimum for us to build this thing. In that time, we will have probably already gotten past our current bottleneck by then.

General on the right: Protecting the line as it is being built, subduing local tribes, and pacifying unruly factions along the way will provide our troops with plenty of experience! With roughly seven-hundred leagues of line to protect, we will be fighting off barbarians to our hearts' content.

General on the left: All right Georg, but who is going to convince the Senate of this? We are already using most of the army's budget on rebuilding our border regions. They are not going to take kindly to us asking for more money.

General-Brigadier Georg van der Oosthuizen: I will present it to them personally if I have to! I just need you to sign off on this, if it has your blessing it is sure to be heard out.

General on the left: Go forth then and spread this headache. *scribbles a signature and a note*

---

*This is a list of references I have used to justify this project:

http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/trans-siberian-railway-completed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_in_the_nineteenth_century
http://factsanddetails.com/russia/Education_Health_Transportation_Energy/sub9_6d/entry-5156.html http://blogs.umb.edu/buildingtheworld/railways/trans-siberian-railway-russia/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/places/commonwealth-independent-states-and-baltic-nations/cis-and-baltic-physical-geography/trans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway

*Quotes from those sources:
'In 1904, except for the section around Lake Baikal, the Trans-Siberian was completed. The greatest engineering feat of its time, it employed 70,000 workers who moved 77 million cubic feet of earth, chopped down 108,000 acres of forest and built bridges over half a dozen major rivers. To put the achievement in perspective the 1,934-mile Baikal-Amur Millennia Railroad, which parallels it, took 35 years and cost $18 billion to build.'

'Moreover, the estimated costs in U.S. dollars ranged from $770 million to $1 billion, which represented one-fifth of Russia's national debt at the time. During its construction, the Trans-Siberian was a serious drain on the Russian economy and, between 1914 and 1916, on the war effort. Despite the criticism, the great railway more than paid for itself during the twentieth century. Still the only transportation artery to span Siberia and the Russian Far East, the Trans-Siberian has solidified Moscow's hold on Russia's eastern periphery.'

'The longest railway in the world, the Trans-Siberian project was mired in controversy from the moment Tsarevich Nicholas shoveled an inaugural spade full of dirt into an awaiting wheelbarrow in Vladivostok on May 31, 1891, until the completion of the Amur River Bridge at Khabarovsk in 1916. A technological marvel at the time, it soon bore the reputation of "a monument to bungling." The rails and crossties were too light, causing frequent derailments; the wooden bridges were flimsy; and, since the builders were mostly exiles and convicts, there was justifiable reason to believe that much of the line had been sabotaged.'

'Russia's systems for agricultural production influenced the attitudes of peasants and other social groups to reform against the government and promote social changes. “At the beginning of the twentieth century, agriculture constituted the single largest sector of the Russian economy, producing approximately one-half of the national income and employing two-thirds of Russia’s population”.[6]'

*Now just a word from me: According to Iverica, the distance between me and Ahrana is only 2,100 miles give or take in comparison to the 5,772 miles of the Russian Trans-Siberian Railroad. The main line of the railroad started construction in 1891 and was finished on July 21st, 1904. As such, I decided that the construction of the main line between me and Ahrana would take a bit less than half of the time the Russian main line took to account for the decreased distances. Before anyone starts about my GDP, I wish to direct you to my second source. The Russian GDP in 1890 was roughly 106 billion strong, in comparison to mine which is 227 billion strong. Anyway, that is all I have to say on this.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Derthalen (see edit history)