Really? Well atleast Fry might get a deal with the Anglo-Iranian Oil company, this could have some economic growth in Albania? Hmm, Albania falling even earlier to the italians because of king Fry wasn't what I expected...
Yeah...unfortunately there's no easy fix for Albania's economic woes...the more things change the more they stay the same it seems....
Before we even get to the political problems (main thing IMO) let's deal with the economics of the situation. Would Albania be better off economically under C.B. Fry? Of course, this almost goes without saying. Albania was an economic basket case during the interwar period, almost anything is better than OTL. Assuming Fry continues to be subsidized by Ranjitsinhji for his rule the annual income of 10,000 pounds will certainly be welcome. The question is how effectively will it be used? Corruption was and remains a HUGE problem in Albania. With Fry not knowing the language and relying on translators etc. with no firm base of support (like a tribe etc.) it's going to be almost impossible to crack down on corruption within the bureaucracy and government. I think a good portion of that annual income is going to be lining the pockets of everyone and anyone that can get their hands on it.
Now we get to the oil rights. In OTL King Zog attempted to sell these rights in order to get a stream of finance independent of fascist Italy and in so doing break away from their attempts at economic colonization. However for his entire reign Zog remained ignorant of the true value of Albania's oil resources...and not in the good way. Frankly, he thought that Albania's oil resources were far superior to what they actually were. Now true enough Albania's oil resources have been developed in the past by Italy, Germany, and the Hoxha regime but all of these attempts were born out of a lack of alternatives due to war/ideology. Simply put the Albanian oil deposits aren't large enough or of a high enough quality to merit their development. Even today with oil prices being as high as they are, Albanian oil has been largely left alone, it's just not profitable.
Now the APOC made an offer for Albania's oil rights but Zog was appalled at it's size. It was hardly what he needed to break away from Italy. Ultimately, he accepted the Italian government's offer which was much higher (purposely so to continue their economic colonization of Albania) in the hopes that he could buy more time to figure something else out.
Now in TTL, Fry might be a bit more pragmatic and accept APOC's deal (thoroughly angering the Italophile faction). This small sum plus his annual income is certainly much better than what Albania had in OTL but a good chunk of it's going to be wasted. Furthermore it might provide the government with enough capital for them to create a semblance of a real economy given enough time. If Fry was astute enough and could survive the politics of the region during the period Albania might be a good deal stronger come 1939.
But that's the problem with this scenario, I just don't see any evidence that Fry's politically astute enough to make a serious go of all this. To say that Fry's over his head in this scenario is an understatement. The man has absolutely no experience in governing whatsoever, no knowledge of the country, it's culture or politics, or language. Furthermore the man has little actual connection to the country other than pride. If worse comes to worse I don't really see him sticking around.
Add to this the cutthroat nature of Albanian politics during the period (numerous assassinations/assassination attempts. King Zog had something like 27 assassination attempts in his short career and many of these times he actually traded fire with the gunman himself!) and Fry's likely attachment to Fan Noli and the Liberal Vatra party and you've got an ugly recipe. Though it's true that these men did succeed in overthrowing the conservative government in 1924, they themselves were overthrown and kicked out of the country 6 months later after trying to institute a comprehensive series of reforms. Essad Pasha and other conservative types aren't going to be pleased at all and neither will the Italians. Furthermore I really don't think much if any help is going to be forthcoming from Britain to prop him up.
Had he accepted Noli's offer, I give Fry's reign as Karli i Parë (Charles the First in Albanian) 6 months, roughly the same amount of time as Noli's government had in OTL. After arriving he'd probably set up court in Durrës and attempt to bring all the various factions in to create a semblance of a government, amend the constitution etc. Initial euphoria over a king and foreign recognition plus some good campaigning by Noli will probably get the Vatra party enough seats to from a government. However they're going to be heavily contested. Some of the conservative factions may even have to be exiled from the country. As time progresses, resistance to the liberal agenda of Fry and Noli builds before some kind of coup forces them to flee the country/ or exiles/kills them. But depending on what comes afterwards...things could be quite interesting.
Karli I? I'm glad that there was an albanian equivalent, Charles did look rather out of place in Albania.
Still...Karli isn't an Albanian name rather it's a foreign name that's been "Albanianized" to make sure it works with their grammatical system (almost all names have to be able to end in a vowel). Burgess on the other hand sounds a good deal like "Bujar" which means generous and given the rationale behind Fry's selection it makes sense. Though Fry himself probably would go with Karli.