Chapter 240: The Balkan Peninsula Development Program

  Chapter 234 – Balkan Peninsula Development Plan

Inside a quaint castle in Prague, an elder in his fifties asked solemnly, “Holst, are you really ready?

Once you accept the government deployment, you will have to live a hard life for a long time to come, and it will be too late for you to back out.”

Holst replied seriously, “Father, the Vickers family has already fallen, and in the last power struggle, we lost a lot of our network of connections in the government.

If you want to enter the government for a position, you can only pass the civil service exam. There are too many competitors on this path, besides, our family has always developed in the military, there is no advantage in this area, I am not sure of mixing it up.

The situation on the European continent is stabilizing, and there will be no war in Austria for a long time to come, which in turn cuts off the opportunity to fight on the battlefield.

Now is an opportunity, by virtue of the military achievements accumulated on the battlefield, now I stay in the country at most will become a knight of honor.

The family can only make up some money to the government in exchange for a manor, but now go to the Balkan Peninsula can cross the line to become a hereditary knight, and directly own the area doubled the manor.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be able to succeed even if I struggled for twenty years at home. If that’s the case, why not take a chance?”

In order to strengthen its control over the Balkans, the Viennese government mobilized at home. As Chancellor Felix expected, the lower nobility, who wanted to go further, could not resist the temptation.

In contrast to opening overseas colonies, the Balkans were at least on the doorstep, and even if they were a little poorer now, future development could still be expected.

As one of the strongholds of conservatism, Austria still maintains the age-old tradition of the eldest son inheriting the family business and the second son going out to make a name for himself.

The big nobles still have the ability to provide enough knighthoods to their direct descendants, and the side children or minor nobles are left to struggle on their own.

In order to limit the number of nobles in the country and ensure the quality of nobles, the Vienna government was also considering the introduction of a Nobility Law.

Once this law is in place, the noble succession must go through the examination of the Noble Council, and it will be difficult for the fop to inherit the title.

In addition to the eldest son who inherits the title, even the non-military titles obtained by the sons of great nobles will lose their hereditary ability.

Because the impact is too great, it is still under discussion in the Noble Council. After all, this law was too unfriendly to the fallen nobles, and it was too difficult for them to pass the test.

Franz was prepared to land this law when he opened up the colonies, so that these fallen nobles could go to the colonies to fight for riches.

The domestic plate was just this big, obviously it was not enough for everyone to share, even after adding the territory of the Balkan Peninsula, this cake was still not big enough.

The collapse of the British and French colonies was largely due to the uneven distribution of benefits, the capitalists took too much of the benefits, but they needed others to work for them, how is this possible?

Since ancient times, the feudal system has been a powerful tool for expansion. The counties that were directly managed by the central dynasty were lost from time to time; but the lands that were partitioned out were seldom divided again. Even when they became independent, they couldn’t stay away from the influence of the native culture.

Of course, this is only one aspect of the factor, the bigger reason is still class solidification. Either we make a bigger cake and leave an upward channel for everyone, or we can only have a revolution, this choice is a good one.

The old man pondered for a while before saying, “Alright, I respect your choice child. Now the family can’t provide you with too much help, but you can recruit a group of people from within the manor to leave, just enough to ease the population pressure.

These people have been living dependent on the family for generations, loyalty is not a problem, with their help, I believe you will soon be able to open up the situation.”

The influence of nobles in this era was not only because of their status, but more so because they had a group of vassals under them.

Even though serfdom had been abolished, this influence had not dissipated.

Now the Austrian government encouraged these nobles to go to the Balkan Peninsula for development, but not only let the nobles themselves go there. If they were to go alone, to a place they did not know well, who would rule who was not sure.

Besides, now everyone’s pre-existing industry is land, it can’t be cultivated by the nobles themselves, can it?

It would be much easier for these people to organize immigration than for the Austrian government to do so.

The densely populated German region, in the age of agricultural countries, has already reached the limit of population capacity, and now divert part of the people to leave just to ease the internal conflicts.

Anyway, these days the industrialization of labor demand is not very large, Austria is still the second most populous country in Europe, plus the Balkans territory of the population words, have approached the 50 million mark.

Now the most important thing is still to promote national integration, in the context of the unification of language and writing, the next generation and the emergence of a large number of mixed-race children, who can still use nationalism to make things happen?

It can be said that the new Holy Roman Empire now, as long as Franz does not wave, the future is promising.

Another unexpected benefit of developing the Balkans was the decrease in immigration to the United States.

After all, this era is also the risk of crossing the ocean, compared to the unknown United States of America, the Balkan Peninsula on the doorstep of the risk is much lower, and the Danube River is connected to the transportation is convenient, ten days and a half months can come back.

Especially with a small family, immigrant Balkan Peninsula can also drag the family, if you go to the United States, that is the separation of life and death.

Since the Revolution, the German region has exploded into a high tide of emigration, an average of 60,000 to 70,000 people left every year, and almost 20,000 to 30,000 people left every year in Austria.

These immigrants caused the population of the United States to skyrocket, in 1850 the United States received immigrants 310,000, in 1851 the United States received immigrants 379,000, and the United States in 1850, the national population of only 23,192,000, in 1860 it grew to 31,443,000, it is simply in the open.

The immigrants of this era are all young and strong, the old and sick can not withstand the sea bumps, through the quality of labor.

Every time I think of this, Franz can only sigh South American countries do not compete, obviously their own conditions are not bad, actually do not know and the Americans grab immigrants.

Do not say that they act together, as long as a few countries pay attention to attracting immigrants, diverting the population of the United States, the Americans will not be able to develop so fast.

This situation, Franz also can not do anything, European countries have not yet realized the threat of the United States, simply did not take measures to limit the growth of their power.

Of course, he did not do nothing, at least every three days in the newspaper black a black American outbreaks, which also the European public enjoyable entertainment program, very popular with everyone.

In any case, the immigrants to the United States can be reduced by tens of thousands, counting tens of thousands, under the accumulation of days and months is not a small number, which is also considered to be weakening the competitors’ strength.

To know on the basis of these immigrants, the Germans later became the United States of America’s first major ethnic group, it can be said that the rise of the United States of America the Germans is a great deal of credit.

Vienna.

Franz was carefully reading the Cabinet’s submission of the Plan for the Development of the Balkans.

The strength of a country does not only lie in the size of its territory, the size of its population and the abundance of its resources, which are only one of the necessary conditions, but also in the degree of territorial development.

The Russian Empire was big enough, bigger than two Europe, purely from the point of view of land area, resources, population, their strength should be as strong as the Qin Dynasty to sweep the six kingdoms and invade the world.

The reality is, with so many advantages of the Russian Empire, not to mention the annexation of Europe, any two big countries to join hands, can make them eat and go.

The biggest problem is that the degree of local development is too low, if the Russian Empire has now completed the industrialization, then there is no doubt that the annexation of the European continent is not a dream.

The new Holy Roman Empire is not as bold as the Russians, but by relying on the rough management system, it can also leap to become a member of the top powers.

In Franz’s opinion, if the territories that he got his hands on could not be effectively developed, then these territories, which could not be transformed into national strength, would become a heavy burden.

It was difficult to continue to expand on the European continent, and it was the king’s way to cultivate and develop the existing land.

Prior to this, the Vienna government has formulated a lot of development plans, in addition to a few states with a high degree of autonomy, the rest of the region has entered the government planning outline, many places have begun to organize the implementation.

Now the Balkan Peninsula development plan, just a preliminary idea, from the real implementation there is still a long way to go.

Franz thought for a moment and said: ”Prime Minister, according to this development outline, the future of the two Danube River Basin principalities, is the second breadbasket of the Empire.

But we have to consider a problem, once the relationship between Russia and Austria deteriorates, the export of products from these regions will only be able to be sold along the Danube to the German region, or transported by land to the sea.

There are also supporting these industries, which look more like specialized customized businesses for the Russians, and I doubt that the Russians have such a strong purchasing power?

Right now they are still a serf empire, and even with future social reforms, I think the purchasing power of their general population is at most half that of the Austrian population.

If the industry targeting the Russian market, it would be best to take two routes, either high end to sell to their nobles; or low end to sell to the commoners, the price of these goods must be cheap enough.”

Because of their geographic location, the economies of the two Danube Valley principalities will inevitably be subject to both Austrian and Russian influences, internally in the Austrian home market and externally in the Russian market.

Economic development must also be centered on these two markets, and as for a little further afield, only then will other European countries be considered.

Prime Minister Felix explained, “Your Majesty, no one can say for sure about the future Russian-Austrian relations. But even if the relationship deteriorates, the likelihood of them blockading us is low.

Even if the Czarist government wanted to do so, their domestic interests wouldn’t agree to it, and with the Czarist government’s executive power, it wouldn’t be able to enforce it at all.

This is clear when you look at the current situation, because of the war, the Russians cut off trade with Britain and France, but in reality it’s only the Ukraine and central Russia that are really cut off.

The main reason for the cut-off is not because of the blockade order of the Tsarist government, but because the war has blocked the Black Sea transportation channel, and these regions have been robbed of their market by our goods.

The entry of Russian British and French goods from the Baltic Sea was never cut off, and the main reason it did not enter the south-central part of the country was that the cost of transportation was too high and lost its competitiveness.

As to the question of industry, these are only preliminary ideas, and the final choice is in the hands of the capitalists, whose sensitivity to the market is absolutely above ours.

The government will only formulate corresponding policies and will not directly invest in these light industries, I believe the capitalists will do a better job.”

Franz nodded, he never had any illusions about the executive ability of the Tsarist government, the possibility of being blocked was indeed very low.

Historically the Russians didn’t even blockade the Danube after the breakup of Russian-Austrian relations, it was obvious that this kind of practice that could provoke a war, the Tsarist government wouldn’t really be that reckless.

Industrial problems, not to mention, since the cabinet government is not prepared to personally invest, then let the capitalists on their own, profit and loss consequences of their own, which does not need him as the emperor to worry about.

From the point of view of development, the future of Russia and Austria in the economy, I am afraid that the two countries will also become competitors, the Russians are the pillar industry is the export of grain, which is also Austria’s pillar industry.

Only Austria exported the refined processed agricultural products, while Russia directly exported the original agricultural products, but the competition between the two sides is also there.

If this situation is not resolved, it is almost inevitable that the competing interests will affect the relationship between the two countries.

In this respect, Franz also had to be thankful that the Tsarist government was a dictatorship and that such conflicts would not break out in the short term.

(End of chapter)