Greater Roumania

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ...for prisoners amounted to some 150 million francs. Roumania had also (under Article IX) to restore or pay for all river or sea vessels and all railway material belonging to the Central Powers. The Roumanian Government was also to reimburse the Germans for their expenses in harbour and wharf improvement, the new oil pipe-line to Giurgiu, railway repairs, etc. The support of the Army of Occupation (six divisions) was set at 300 million francs in December, 1916, but progressively raised to 700 million. All these financial burdens, with the losses of territory, were reckoned at fifteen billion francs by Roumanian financial experts. And how much German indemnity did the Allies assign Roumania? Lack of space forbids study of the very interesting banking plans of the Germans, which will be found detailed in Prof. G. D. Creanga's valuable " Les Finances Roumaines sous le Regime de 1'Occu-pation et de la Paix Allemandes," Paris, 1919. But their economic exploitation of Roumania deserves a brief exposition. The Economic Convention monopolized Roumanian production for the benefit of Germany and Austro-Hungary till 1926; all exports elsewhere were prohibited. The prices fixed in Article XII for 1918-19 were: for wheat and rye, 38 francs the quintal (2202 Ibs.; apparently about $65 per ton, but the Germans had an ingenious system of exchange, by which it came to considerably less); barley, oats and Indian corn, 29; dried beans, 47; dried peas, 43; colza, 65. These were about onehalf current market prices; the Roumanian State had fixed the price of wheat at 70 francs! The price for the years 1920 to 1926 was to be fixed by a German-Austrian-Roumanian Commission, the chairman to be appointed by the President of Switzerland. The Roumanian population was...