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Five Year Plan (Constancia)

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The Five Year Plan is a national framework for development, and a term used in the governance of the Imperial State of Constancia.

Programme of works

1670/71 - "The Year of Mud and Brick"

  • 07.V.1670: Collectivisation of agriculture is introduced by the Permanent Standing Committee, restructuring rural society around the commune and the fulfilment of labour requirements for the Home Guard and Labour Battalions.
  • Dry Season, 1670: Without formal direction, but strongly encouraged by ideologues and planners associated with the Permanent Standing Committee, a water-conservancy campaign is launched, consisting of the repair of underground qanats and the construction of mud-brick retention walls. Hundreds of thousands of villagers, helots, and kul slaves, are compelled to work for months on end on remote projects without sufficient rest or food. The mass-mobilisation of corvée labourers required an expansion of the provincial bureaucracy, particularly around the offices associated with the Conscription Commissioners.
  • 24.VII.1670: In an effort to avert formal bankruptcy the Constancian finance ministry orchestrated the a disguised default on its existing debts through the devaluation of the Imperial Stater while continuing to price its assets, along with the holdings of favoured corporate partners, according to the former official exchange rates, utilising a new theoretical reserve currency. The devaluation effectively wiped out the remaining savings and purchasing power of citizens overnight, resulting in a barrage of criticism in the normally quiescent Synklētos, and a wave of protests focused in and around Aqaba - the commercial heart of Constancia.
  • 04.VIII.1670: Auxiliaries and Agrofilaki, directed by allied officers, crush pro-democracy and anti-Primokratía protests in Aqaba. Thousands of protesters - many of them students and intellectuals - were arraigned before drumhead court-martials, condemned for insurrection, and deported to Nísos Aigón to do hard labour. The Permanent Standing Committee, utilising provisions in the seldom-read Rules of Procedure, purged the Synklētos - expelling dozens of members critical of regime economic policies. Provincial governors availed themselves of the opportunity to eliminate local rivals and to appropriate lands.
  • XI.1670: Constancia attempts to fund initial workings of the Five Year Plan through negotiation of trade agreements and loans with Los Liberados, Shireroth, and interested commercial parties.
  • XII.1670: With the onset of the growing season, overseers who over-fulfil their quotas were promised new accommodation in the form of a: "two-storey adobe housing units with reinforcing steel ex-Bassarid railway tracks incorporated into the footing and stem wall, and prefabricated interior compartments designed around modified ex-ISO containers with ventilation shafts incorporated. Containers are installed on-site upon a raised mudbrick and rammed earth platform according to customary Babkhan building practice with the remainder of the housing unit being built up and around to enclose the containers entirely and form the completed structure. The housing unit, raised platform, and an outer courtyard, ideal for a tranquil paradise and adjoining victory garden, will be enclosed by cobbed retaining walls. All standing structures to be coated with a layer of wattle and daub, followed by a layer of lime plaster, topped by a coating of white wash".

1671/72 - "The Year of Lightning"

1672/73 - "The Year of Iron"

1673/74 - "The Year of Lead"

1674/75 - "The Year of Victory"

The Constancian Development Plan, 1694 - 1704

The death of Petros III and the assumption of the Basilinna Olympia provided fresh new impetus towards governance in the Imperial State. Having died a mere few days before the convocation of the 8th Imperial Synkletos, it initially brought the government and nation into confusion, but the steady, calming influence of Olympia, with the Autokrator of Constancia by her side, reassured the elite that the status quo would remain. Bureaucratic intertia took care of the rest.

The 8th Imperial Synkletos, although convoked on 14.I.1688, was ordered dissolved on 15.VII.1693, a mere five years later. The death of Petros III meant that Andronikas Cavazos, who had been appointed Mesazon in 1686 during the 7th Imperial Synkletos, remained in office with his administration until 1694, a long 8 years.

As soon as the dissolution of the 8th Imperial Synkletos was announced, reformists in government and civil society began planning accordingly.

1694

Inaugural Cabinet Meeting

Alexios Paxos, Imperial Senator and venerable former Mesazon during the 3rd Imperial Synkletos, former Minister for Molivadia, general officer and hero of the first Euran War, was reappointed to office, with a strong new cabinet.

Proof of the impetus in the new administration was the appointment of a Minister for National Industrialization, in the person of Myles Hammonds. The first cabinet meeting was also different, as it was held not in the Mesazon's territory of Nirytos House, but at the Autokratorial Palace. In that stormy session, the cabinet was granted leave to speak their minds, and over lunch, tea, and a sumptuous supper, the following priorities were resolved:

1. Optimization of the Home Guard in training, materiel, and personnel, in light of the persistent Razjanian threat and the recent southern Eura developments.
2. National Industrialization to support the foregoing, and further technical education of the Constancian masses.
3. Improvement of the national logistics, specifically national lines of transportation and redundancy in state communications.
4. Clear skies over Eura: Ensuring air superiority over the Imperial State
5. Blue seas: Ensuring naval superiority around the Euran continent

Cori Singer, newly-appointed Minister of Finance, was the first to balk, stating that though the plans were sound and necessary, she expressed concerns regarding the capital requirements for all these measures, to which Imperial Senator Dietmar Schönbeck, Minister of Finance, confidently replied that the surplus capital of the Pact and its friends was more than sufficient for these requirements. To this end, a new series of Euran Solidarity bonds and Constancian Progress bonds would be issued, along with discreet quantitative easing measures.

Minister for Education Saundra Jacques noted that perhaps Constancian Future Bonds could be issued, to help fund the construction of more schools, and the hiring of more teachers. Finance Minister Singer agreed to this suggestion.

Ferdinando Albani, Minister of Munitions and Military Logistics, noted the lessons to be learned from the existing Second Elwynnese Civil War, and requested sufficient funding and governmental support for the establishment of an ammunition manufacturing plant in Molivadia. Josef Petr, Minister for Labor and Employment, expressed support for the measures, noting that these would assist in lowering the unemployment rate. National Industrialization Minister Hammonds stated that he would include the suggestion of Minister Albani in his priority program.

Tyler Bagley, Minister for Civil Defense, requested permission to have operational control of Home Guard units that were not otherwise utilized, to improve national and local Civil Defense efforts. Former Speaker and Defense Minister Garvin Hendriksson said that the appropriate orders would be issued accordingly.

The Autokrator declared that a National Priorities Office would be established under his purview to monitor and examine the progress of commitments resolved at this meeting.

The Constancian Development Plan, 1724 - 1729

Instituted in accordance with the command of the Autokrator of Constancia during the inaugural cabinet meeting of Ismail al-Osman as Mesazon. Strategic Defense Review, assessment of the present structure of the Imperial Constancian Armed Forces and establishing a suitable framework for it to adequately meet future challenges incorporated. Emphasis of economic development focused on Raspur, likewise incorporated. Improvement ofNeos to Port Aguilar railway and highway, as well as Nisyros to Varaz and Mitra, as well as Alyki to Edgardia railway and highway, approved. Increased economic ties with Oportia, Anahuaco, Mondosphere, Çakaristan and Nouvelle Alexandrie, mandated. Economic priorities: ensure economic growth, reduce inflation, improve rate of employment and increase quality jobs, drive efficiency across entire economy. Point raised that sports infrastructure sorely lacking within the Imperial State.

Subsequent meetings in light of the 1725 Constancian crisis included a review of the Constancian National Infrastructure Master Plan as well a periodic monitoring, evaluation, and proper project management of these ongoing programs. Prince Iñigo noted that a National Priorities Office was under his purview to do just that. Establishment of a Ministry of Sport likewise recommended, "...so that Constancians would have proper and approved leisure and entertainment diversions from their labors," as observed by the Basilinna Esmeralda al-Osman to her son the Autokrator of Constancia, Prince Iñigo.

The Constancian Development Plan, 1730 - 1735

The latest Constancian Development Plan was formulated during the term of Periklês Metaxas as Mesazon.

These included creation of a Northern Highway, running from Al-Ghabi in Shahzamin to Alyki in Molivadia, with a link to the Gulf of Aqaba. It was also strongly suggested to name this the King Manco Cápac I Highway.