Colonel Sponsz's Current War Office, Bvordsha
Gregor the Bloody entered the room, his bones whistled with pain and dread. He took this as an omen, as he looked at many of the unnecessary men packed into this supposedly secret meeting. The two bodyguards didn't re-assure him either, they looked extremely unintimidating and could be taken out easily by one man. He wanted to ask Colonel Sponsz to switch room, but he was already seated and that could have made Sponsz jumpy. He could have thought Gregor was going to execute him, perhaps on one of his underling's behest. No, he had to sit and grunt. He leaned forward toward the Colonel closely, clearing invading a personal space that Firmadores culture held dearly. Gregor paused, he couldn't get the thought of finally ridding his country of the dirty campesinos, over three hundred million of them deported on 'hell ships' to the small cluster of islands they now had sovereignty over next to Noxerra. On the journey half of them would die from mostly disease and lack of food. It was a quiet genocide, officially of negligence (as in paper burning), but unofficially premeditated. Nonetheless, over twenty thousand rural Firmadores were killed extrajudicially by reservemen, militias, police, military and civilians in a year prior to the mass deportation. None of these cases have been followed up on, besides several military and police matters.
In a hushed tone Gregor spoke, though an audio-amplified device would easily detect his voice he was old fashioned and would be scanning the room for anyone overly interested. "I can give you more than security. But this is a delicate matter. You see, we can directly subsidise your industries, exclude tariffs on textile and heavy manufacturing imports from Bvordsha. We can flood your cities and rural hamlets with doctors, fill your warehouses to the brim with material orders for further urban development. In ten years we can erect the first of a series of vertical farms inside of your major cities. We can help you make sure each child has a laptop for school, that each child has access to pre-school and nursery, that each rural child is paid a wage based on their grade performance (to keep them out of the fields but their families still fed), that the urbanites receive a lower compensation for inflation purposes. A brand new oil refinery plant on your major coastal port will mean you can import crude oil and create the demand for high-end jobs domestically. All the while cutting private business import/input and internal transport costs with efficiency. The most immediate step, however, is a total general strike. In absolutely every industry, in solidarity."
Gregor exhaled heavily, his breath stank of rot. "How does one accomplish this?" He smiled, "With gold. We have a Vonverian company, a nation friendly to us, establish a private equity fund based on 100,000,000$ in gold, most of which was purchased inside of Vonver and the rest imported from many lands. They use this wealth to leverage their capital to one billion dollars, a political contribution from our civilian sympathetic friends in Vonver. The 900,000,000 will be bankrupted, but to prevent an economic collapse the Vonverian government will step in (at secret Firmadores cost) and bail out these troubled investors. Once we have one billion dollars in capital, funnelled threw Vonver, you can use that to actually pay people to strike," He popped his head up away from the Colonel's face, looking around. His spine tingled again. He looked around, some of the workers had left new ones had come. They seem mostly disinterested. He kept an eye on one blonde haired member however.
"See the number one issue here the lack of indepedence. What better way to say you want your independence than by refusing to work when any of your wage goes to a foreign power unwilling from you. Symbolically, they will be saying that they'd rather starve than fund the force that occupies them. But now, we can say all that, with a guarantee that all strikers (or those in industries more sensitive for Austoria) will have bread in their stomachs. The money, however, will be somewhat useless until stores open (or black markets?). So we could trade in goods like wood, milk, cotton, silver or fish. The fish will be at the cost of our own Homeland. You see, we have had an acute food shortage since the end of our civil war in 2007. Nothing wealth, and especially our booming logging industry (Bowasas rainforest, second largest after the Amazon in America) which has kept housing costs down making shelter (with subsidies) down to 14% of after-tax wages. Our only mass source of domestic food are the fish especially from the Gulf of Fonesca and the pacific. On a side note, for this sacrifice, we ask your new country signs an exclusive cotton-purchase agreement with Firmador promising 50% (after-tax) profit margins for private cotton producers. Supply can be outsourced if Firmador cannot meet your national demand."
Gregor leaned in closer, "And lastly comes the very serious problem of CCTV monitors. We must seize the electrical station and hold it hostage for national liberation. If they storm the building, forcing our elite troops to blow it and give themselves to National Martyrdom then the population of Bvordsha should love you. It will, obviously, polarise political relations with Commonwealth dependents but we can guarantee you open preferential markets to one billion people each. Al-Assad, Vonver, Firmador, Aloristan and Roulnik. That's five billion, probably upwards to nine billion consumers rapidly chomping at the bit for your goods. Obviously each nation has their own domestic markets that should also receive as compared to global prices a lower rate. But these can be lifted or introduced independently, Firmador will be open to your most important national industries. We would also like to introduce a new in, as fast as possible. Probably the easiest of all industries. Ammunition factories. We can provide technical and material support if necessary."
Gregor looked around, the blonde had gone away. The shuffle of workers was constant. He whispered, almost impossibly hard to hear even with a luckily angled amplifier. "If you can declare your Indepedence and Self-Determination (even without Havograd) Firmador, Al-Assad, Vonver, Aloristan and Roulnik will immediately recognise you and build embassies. Firmador, and likely Al-Assad, will begin troop deployments to supplement your National Defence Forces... From there, what do you know of Treneria, this Borneo based uprising?"
