The knight in the big world of American TV series

The situation in Little Overlord is not good, but how about the situation in Egypt?

The answer is worse than Little Overlord! The Little Overlord has nothing, and the same goes for Egypt. Perhaps the only thing better than the Little Overlord is that they don’t lack water, which is gratifying... But the problem is that there are more people in Egypt!

Egypt's population has exceeded 100 million!

yes! Egypt has water, but it does not mean that it is not short of water. In fact, except for the Nile River, Egypt is basically covered with yellow sand. This is going to kill you!

In the past, Egypt could even be the granary of the entire Mediterranean. As one of the four ancient civilizations, Egypt was the granary of the Mediterranean during the Roman era. There is a saying, "Egypt's food can feed half of Rome." This shows its role in the Roman Empire. plays an important role in the system. Egypt also relied on its developed agriculture to become stronger and stronger, and it once became a powerful country. However, today's Egypt is gradually moving away from the word "breadbasket", and has even become a country with "high rates of poverty and hunger". Today, Egypt's food self-sufficiency rate is only half, and it needs to import a large amount of food every year to meet domestic demand. Even so, 30% of the population is still hungry.

Why is the once "Granary of Ancient Rome" so short of food now?

Chinese culture pays attention to "heaven, earth, and man", and the development of all things is inseparable from these three.

First of all, let’s talk about “heaven”, which means weather and climate. Egypt's climate has undergone major changes. In the early days, Egypt's climate was relatively humid, and the area of ​​the Nile Oasis was wider than it is now. However, with climate changes, most of Egypt now has a tropical desert climate, with very low annual precipitation. Low and high evaporation, the lack of water conservancy is extremely detrimental to agricultural production.

Secondly, the area of ​​agricultural land is also shrinking. 96% of Egypt's land is covered by desert, leaving only 4% available for use. And the remaining 4% of the land is not all arable land. As cities continue to develop, the land continues to be developed and destroyed. For example, between 1952 and 1980, approximately 20.3 hectares of agricultural land were converted to urban land, resulting in a significant reduction in agricultural land in the Nile Delta. Nowadays, land development in Egypt has almost reached its limit.

Finally, there is population explosion and improper policies. The population of ancient Egypt was not large, and the agricultural conditions at that time could fully support it. But starting from the 19th century, Egypt's population began to gradually increase, and by the mid-to-late 20th century, the population surged. Data show that in the 90s, Egypt's population was about 3500 million, and by around 2010, Egypt's population reached 8300 million, more than doubling in 30 years. By 2022, Egypt's population will exceed 1 million.

Secondly, there is a policy in Egypt, pie subsidy!

In Egypt, flatbread has always played a very important role in the country. Egyptian flatbread has two basic characteristics: first, it is cheap. Calculated in RMB, you can buy one for 2 cents, and 20 Egyptian flatbreads can be bought for one cigarette. Those flatbreads are quite big and can be said to be cheap and affordable. For Egypt, which basically relies on imported food, the price is really cheap.

The second is monopoly. Egyptian flatbread is not something you can just buy if you want. This two-cent special cake can only be bought at a special place with a meal ticket. In addition, Egyptian flatbreads are also divided into black cakes with average taste, which cost 2 cents each; white cakes made with good flour, the price is several times, even ten times higher. To put it simply, Egyptian flatbread is a food specially provided by the Egyptian government to its citizens, with the purpose of filling the stomachs of ordinary people. For more than 30 years, Egyptian flatbreads have been priced at 2 cents each.

The fact that prices have not increased for more than 30 years is not because there is no inflation in Egypt, but because the Egyptian government is spending money on subsidies. From production to sales, only government subsidies can ensure that businesses do not lose money and keep people full. According to Egyptian President Sisi, the actual cost of each flatbread is 0.60-0.65 Egyptian pounds (approximately 0.25-0.27 yuan). In other words, for every piece of Egyptian flatbread sold, the government will subsidize more than 0.2 yuan. Because Egypt has a large population base and many poor people, the sales volume of Egyptian flatbread is high. Taken together, the Egyptian government's annual subsidies for flatbread account for about 15% of the country's income, and even reach 25% in some years.

This is quite a burden. For a long time, although Egypt has a relatively complete industrial system compared to other African countries, Egypt's manufacturing industry is mostly light industry and its international competitiveness is not strong. Egypt's main sources of foreign exchange come from oil and gas exports, tourism, remittances and Suez Canal tolls. Among them, the largest foreign exchange income comes from the Suez Canal tolls... basically billions of dollars every year.

Don't think that a few billion dollars is too small...you have to analyze it in the specific environment. A few billion dollars doesn't sound like much to a country, but Egypt's GDP in 2015 was only 3294 billion U.S. dollars. Do you think these billions of dollars are important?

And these billions of dollars are pure profits. Except for a few maintenance fees, all of them belong to the government!

Just tell me whether this is important or not!

Of course it looks like a lot, but there’s also a lot of money to spend. In addition to food, Egypt also imports many industrial products. This has stretched Egypt's foreign exchange reserves and forced it to borrow money to buy grain.

Ever since, this policy, which was originally intended to benefit the people at the bottom, has become the heaviest burden on this country!

What is even more regrettable is that the country has made such great efforts to ensure that its citizens have enough to eat, but some people do not know how to cherish it at all. Because Egyptian flatbread is so cheap, some people just throw it away if they can't eat it, and some people even use it to feed their livestock. The price is too low, which invisibly creates waste. Egypt's former Supply Minister Hanafi had already recognized this problem when he was in office. He had warned many times that Egypt's current financial subsidy system had caused huge waste and must be reformed.

Unfortunately, it can’t be changed!

Because this involves too many people, of course rich people will not care about these few cents. But there are too many poor people in Egypt!

Many families rely on this to have enough to eat!

This is also one of the reasons for the population explosion in Egypt... Who would control having children when you can eat enough for a small amount of money anyway? Isn’t the cost of living high? If you try it in developed countries, the cost of raising a child is so high that people are not willing to have children.

Is it okay to produce more food?

Or not!

Egypt’s agricultural policy changes have also hindered the development of agriculture to a certain extent. Egypt's fragmented small-scale peasant economy cannot concentrate on production, and its policy of focusing on industry and neglecting agriculture has led to a long-term shortage of funds for agricultural development and even a gradual decline. Therefore, Egypt's agricultural infrastructure has always been relatively backward. Insufficient land investment means insufficient output. Faced with a growing population, Egypt has to import a large amount of food every year. Over-reliance on imports has caused Egyptian agriculture to increasingly lose flexibility and initiative, further restricting agricultural development.

At the same time, market reasons also have to be mentioned.

Under the lobbying of the United States, Britain and other countries, Egypt, which had just used the Soviet Union to build the Aswan Dam, took the initiative to break up with the Soviet Union, unilaterally terminated the "Soviet-Egypt Friendship and Cooperation Treaty", and completely turned to the Western world. Egypt, which turned to Britain and the United States, has not found its own development route. Egypt, which owns oil and the Suez Canal, has little interest in earning more foreign exchange. It can achieve good operation of the country by relying on the tolls from the Suez Canal, and there are also the United States and Britain. Waiting for state support, industrial development will no longer be considered by the Egyptian government. At the same time, in response to the call of the United States and Britain, Egypt gave up the principle of self-sufficiency in food. With the commitment of the United States, Egypt began to purchase food from the United States at low prices and opened up the Egyptian market.

As soon as the Egyptian market was liberalized, all Western capital and products poured into Egypt. Egypt, which was already lacking in industry, was basically paralyzed under the continuous attacks of Western capital. The industrial output value barely accounted for a quarter of the total output value, and was After the rampage of Western products, Egypt's food self-sufficiency has further declined and is now less than 20%. However, the food self-sufficiency rate of European and American countries that deceived Egypt into giving up food self-sufficiency and instead buying food has never fallen below 100%.

If someone grabs the food, I will be the one to eat it.

Domestic people no longer value food because food cannot be sold at a high price! As a result, domestic farmers can only grow high-value crops, such as cotton, sugar cane, etc. These crops are more profitable than food, but they cannot be eaten.

The domestic food self-sufficiency rate has further declined. As Egypt's population increases, the food crisis gradually emerges. More importantly, Egypt has few employment opportunities and the arable area is extremely limited. With the explosive growth of population, food shortages, Increased unemployment has become the sword of Damocles over Egypt's head. In response to the food crisis in Egypt, the first thing that comes to mind when there is a shortage of food is buying a large amount of grain. The first thing that comes to mind when there are few job opportunities is the crazy introduction of Western capital. The annual food demand of up to 1500 million tons accounts for the vast majority of Egypt's expenditures. Almost all of the oil sales and Suez Canal crossing fees are invested in the purchase of food. There is no extra money to build infrastructure, and the development of industry has become a utopia. .

Egypt has fallen into a strange cycle. It cannot be self-sufficient in food → buys food → uses up foreign exchange earnings → cannot be self-sufficient in food. Now with the rise in food prices and the continued growth of Egypt's population, Egypt's foreign exchange income will inevitably not be able to satisfy Egypt. food needs!

This is the situation Apocalypse will face when he takes over this country!

Much worse than Little Overlord!

He has no choice but to negotiate! Because the current situation in Egypt is even more serious than what was just mentioned. What I mentioned before are all situations that Egypt will face when international trade is normal... But what if international trade is abnormal?

This is also true, not only is it abnormal, but it has not been normal for several years!

That little test in Atlantis not only caused the United States to fall from its dominance in one fell swoop, it also changed the entire world.

Big countries like the United States have been so affected, but what about small countries like Egypt?

Worse!

In the year when Atlantis launched the attack, not a single ship passed through the entire Suez Canal for a day... This means that the Egyptian government has lost billions of dollars in funds that can provide stable income every year and are completely at the government's disposal for several years!

Therefore, Egypt, which Apocalypse took over, can be said to be completely impoverished!

The stagnation of international shipping forced them to spend more money to buy food... You must know that the freight costs of land transportation and sea transportation are very different!

The Egyptian government was helpless, which led to turmoil throughout Egypt. This is why Apocalypse was able to seize power so quickly, because even without Apocalypse, the government would not be able to hold on and would be overthrown sooner or later...

This time Tianqi launched a war, which meant that he had taken out all his family wealth.

According to his original idea, he would naturally destroy the little bully in one go, but after looking at his family's financial resources, he knew that it was impossible, because no matter he won or lost, he was bankrupt, and the country did not even have enough basic food.

No food.

No matter how powerful your Apocalypse is, you still have to be overthrown!

As an ancient Egyptian, Tianqi knew the importance of food very well. When Apocalypse squeezed the entire ancient Egyptians so much, the reason those people didn't rebel was because they had enough food! They have food to eat and will not starve to death, so naturally no one will rebel.

But if there is no food... we will die anyway, why should we be afraid of you Apocalypse?

That's why Apocalypse starts a war because it must be fought.

So why stop?

Because it must stop!

He now needs benefits from the nations.

International recognition, and food!

The latter is more important than the former!

The country is still immersed in the joy of continuous victory in the war, so no one has noticed that something is wrong for a while, but in fact the country is already too poor to open the pot.

Food reserves are almost at their lowest, and even the price of flatbread has increased.

It’s really impossible not to increase, because the subsidies can’t be moved anymore.

The country is out of money.

So there must be a truce!

He needs to use Little Overlord's compensation to replenish foreign exchange... They have no foreign exchange.

At the same time, we need to use the Overlord to get a large amount of food from European countries!

Food is not expensive at all in those European countries. Especially in Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas, there is so much food that it is almost dumped into the sea.

There is no way, with the stagnation of shipping, many grain-producing countries cannot sell grain... The current international grain prices are simply as high as the sky.

Food prices in grain-producing countries have fallen below historical lows. This is also due to the activities of the Titans. After the Titans caused a few troubles, the climate around the world has become very good, and there have been a lot less extreme weather. That is called a The weather is going well, and all kinds of output have exceeded historical highs, but if they can't be sold, then won't grain prices fall below historical lows?

Many third world countries are severely short of food. There have been several rounds of famine in the country, and food prices are extremely high.

But there is no way to do it, the transportation capacity is only so much... The grain cannot be shipped, and even if it is shipped, the price will be ridiculously high... After all, the price of a ship of grain may not be enough to pay for gas. If we don’t sell it more expensively, the grain merchants will suffer losses!

So those countries definitely have food! It’s enough for Egypt too!

So Apocalypse must cease fighting.

Tianqi should have been depressed enough. After all, it would be a pity to miss such a good opportunity. After all, this time the little bully became such a coward, which was caused by many factors. It is really difficult to get such a God-given match again.

Unexpectedly, Nick Fury is here!

I also gave him such a big gift! Let his God-given marriage be renewed. As long as Nick Fury doesn't lie, not only can he proceed according to the original plan, but he can also get greater benefits!

He really didn't expect that Egypt would be so poor...