Chapter 1076: Best Allies
Chapter 1055 The Best Ally
Along with the economic rebound, the Vienna government’s financial revenue, also followed the rise. The government will not keep the money for the next child, the fiscal revenue is to spend out.
Less than halfway through the year 1897, the various departments had already begun to sharpen their fists and prepare to compete for the coming year’s budget.
With the Emperor out on vacation, the decision-making power for budget allocation fell to the Crown Prince. Everyone could see that this was clearly the emperor paving the way for his son.
There was nothing to object to. Even though the Emperor was still in good health, that was at the ripe old age of 67. In this era of less than 50 years of life expectancy per capita, completely called “high life”.
No one can guarantee that the aging emperor will not suddenly meet God one day. From this point of view, exercise in advance of the Crown Prince, so as not to be in a hurry when the time comes is also very necessary.
Different from the bloody struggle for imperial power in the East, Europe’s inheritance law is relatively perfect, even if there is an occasional struggle, that is not to the point of cruelty.
At least the Habsburg dynasty internal struggle is not so intense, or Franz’s uncle Ferdinand I, it is impossible to inherit the throne.
Against this background, the Crown Prince was allowed to act as the Emperor in advance, although it did not occur many times, but it was not without precedent.
The most typical example is Franz himself, since the Revolution, as the Crown Prince to act as Emperor, the Regency Council or obediently handed over the power.
Rules are rules, and as long as everyone sticks to them, nothing will go wrong.
In Frederick’s case it was the same, and the situation was even a little better.
After all, Franz was still alive and well and had just run out on a vacation. Even though the vacation was a little long, that didn’t hurt.
There is a respected emperor in the upper pressure, the following no matter what ideas, have to be held back first.
Don’t look at Franz seldom tossed, but the Vienna government bureaucrats will never forget the wonderful scene of “ten thousand people all dismissed, a hundred people cremation factory”.
If someone is really attentive to statistics, will find that Franz era of bureaucrats to fall, than the Habsburg dynasty was founded a few hundred years of time are more than the sum of time.
Of course, the times are not the same there is no comparison. The Holy Roman Empire also has far more public officials now than at any time in the past.
In the face of an emperor who dared to break the practice of “not blaming the public”, and also to increase the punishment, no one dares to make a mistake.
These are the lessons learned with the blood of our predecessors.
From the establishment of the civil service examination system, anyone has a bunch of replacement candidates. The former supremacy of the bureaucratic group has long since disappeared.
……
Putting down the official document in his hand, Frederick asked with a helpless face, “Honorable Minister, can you tell me what is the purpose of the Navy’s shipbuilding this time?”
“Respect” two words is obviously aggravated tone, it can be seen Frederick to the Ministry of Navy submitted “shipbuilding program”, that is very uncomfortable.
On the surface, just a few battleships, dozens of cruisers and destroyers. With the scale of the Shen Luo Navy, every year to renew and replace part of the warships, one-time construction of so many warships is not excessive.
The problem lay in the “renewal of warships”.
The decommissioning of warships is also strictly regulated, either the performance really can’t keep up with the times, or it is able to sell the second-hand warships, or else it has to wait until the completion of the service period.
After a few years of continuous renewal, it is now in a window of opportunity, there is no main ship retirement within the next three years.
Without decommissioning, there will be no replacement, and with the naval establishment unchanged, the government will not allocate additional funds for the construction of main ships for the next two years.
Without additional funding, the Navy’s annual military spending is limited, and naturally cannot support this shipbuilding program.
If you just build a few dozen more warships, it’s only a matter of ten or twenty million guilders, as a master who personally manipulated the listing of billions of dollars worth of oil companies, Frederick would not have such a big reaction.
The problem was that the navy was never just about warships, once the number of warships increased, then the naval establishment would have to follow suit.
It may seem like they just want to build a few more ships, but in reality they want to expand the army. Then it wouldn’t be something that could be handled with 10 or 20 million dollars, but rather an increase of tens of millions of divine shields in expenses every year.
The Holy Roman Empire is a land power country, if the navy increases its military expenses, the army side will definitely not be ambiguous, and the air force will most likely follow suit.
Domestic these are just small problems, the most troublesome is the international. The British are staring at the dead, the Divine Roman Navy expansion of the Royal Navy will certainly follow.
No need to doubt, a new round of naval armament competition was ignited. At that time, whether willing or not, the Vienna government will have to passively follow the British to play “dumpling competition”.
A little use of the brain to think, Frederick knew that the Admiralty’s shipbuilding program was a huge pit, a huge pit that could swallow up all of the Vienna government’s new revenues.
Leaving aside the international impact, the money is spent on military expenses, he, the Crown Prince, how to get political achievements?
Franz let Frederick supervise the state, is to let him take the opportunity to brush the political achievements, to prove to the outside world his ability to rule the country, for the future successor to the throne to increase the prestige of.
If you take all the money to play with the British “dumpling competition”, it is expected that, in addition to the Navy, everyone will be dissatisfied with him as the Crown Prince.
Frederick is not William II, from childhood has a naval dream. Growing up in Vienna, Frederick was deeply influenced by continental culture and was a typical land rights.
The British maritime hegemony, Frederick has always been very disdainful. Maritime hegemony is no longer bullish, can be compared to the hegemony of Asia, Europe and Africa?
In the Holy Roman Empire, the most popular theory is still “whoever gets the world island gets the world”. As for the maritime hegemony, it is only a subsidiary of the continental hegemony.
When the Holy Roman Empire finished digesting the fruits of victory, the British maritime hegemony is to let also have to let, not to let also have to let.
So Frederick now look at the naval minister’s eyes, is “this is a bad man, actually want to harm me”.
As if he had already prepared for the Crown Prince’s dissatisfaction, Castagni replied unhurriedly: “Your Highness, the British have been too idle lately, so we must find something for them to do.
Seeing that the Central Asia Railway is about to be opened, it is necessary for us to create an opportunity for the Russians to use the Russians’ hands to consume the British national strength.
If things go well, we will be able to take over the role of sea lord from the British before the new Anglo-Russian war is over.
Until then, if we don’t build more warships, how can we fulfill our duties as the hegemon?”
I don’t know when the Viennese government took a liking to using its Russian allies as pawns.
Now that the British maritime supremacy was to be taken over, the Admiralty’s first reaction was: let the Russians go first.
A quick flip through the history books reveals that for all the great enemies the Vienna government has taken on in recent decades, the Russians have gone up first and helped to beat them up.
In the First Near Eastern War (Crimean War), they beat up the Anglo-French Ottomans, creating the basis for the Austrian annexation of South Germany;
In the two Russo-Prussian wars, helped to abolish Prussia, and succeeded in avoiding the outbreak of civil war for the unification of the Shenroe;
The latter several Near Eastern wars, also fought by Russia and Austria together, successfully finished off the Ottoman Empire;
The continental war Russians were absent, but in the issue of suppressing France, the Russians still made an outstanding contribution, and are now holding on to the fight;
Now when it came to the confrontation between Vienna and London, it did not occur to me that the Russians came in handy again. It was not even the moment of the decisive battle, and there were people in the Vienna government who wanted to provoke an Anglo-Russian war.
From the present situation, along with the opening of the Central Asian Railway, the chances of the Anglo-Russian war breaking out are also increasing day by day.
So it is inevitable that Russia and Austria will be friendly. Where can we find such a caring ally?
Although it is very costly to maintain the friendship between Russia and Austria, it is not worth mentioning in comparison with the contribution made by the Russians.
Frederick admitted that he was moved, but he soon reacted. The opening of the Central Asian Railroad was two years away, so what was the hurry now?
Even if you want to provoke the Anglo-Russian war, it must wait until after the railroad is open to traffic.
Before that, then let the British first idle good, the future has them busy, not in a hurry.
In particular, the recent actions of the London government, but also in the tsarist government’s bottom line is constantly challenged. Under the accumulation of time, these small contradictions, will evolve into the two countries can not be eased between the hatred.
……
(End of chapter)