Chapter 1009: Transformation

  Chapter 989 Transformation

Affected by the sudden change in the situation in Paris, the restoration movement of the Bourbon dynasty directly evolved into a civil war, and the political situation in Europe was once again tense.

“Tension” is not because of the French civil war, countries are most concerned about the debt problem. Especially Belgium, Spain, Russia, Italy states these poor people, but also pay special attention.

If not for the Bourbon dynasty firmly opposed to alliance intervention, stationed outside Paris Russian troops would have killed in. Can not directly interfere, does not mean that you can not pull the side.

The Paris Revolutionary Army took the initiative to attack several times, but was blocked by the Russian army on the pretext of military exercises, providing strong support for the private army of the nobles who ran away.

Not only that, even the prisoners of war released in batches by the Anti-French League were now prioritized by the members of the royalist party. As for the unlucky ones who are politically inclined towards the Revolutionary Party or the Republican Government, it is estimated that they are ready to sit in jail.

The Antifa League did not want these guys to come out and obstruct the restoration, and the Bourbons were even less likely to welcome these opponents. Maybe in the future, when the situation is stabilized, they will have a chance to get out of jail, but who knows about politics?

If you want to fight, let’s fight, anyway, since the failure of the Continental War, the French people’s discontent is accumulating, venting a little is good.

According to past experience, after each emotional outburst, the situation in France will be stabilized for a period of time, just so that the Bourbon dynasty can sit on the throne.

Everything is under control, Franz does not have the extra effort to pay attention to the outside world of the flurry of disturbances, the immediate focus of the work is still in the country.

After the initial integration, the Holy Roman Empire was finally united in the true sense of the word. Although there is still a long way to go before it can become one, it is still enough to scare people.

The paper figures of the unified Holy Roman Empire were undoubtedly horrifying. The total economic output of the Empire plus its colonies amounted to 38.2% of the world’s total economic output, the total industrial output amounted to 54.8% of the world’s total industrial output, the financial income exceeded that of all the European countries, and coupled with the world’s No. 1 land force and No. 2 naval force, the Holy Roman Empire was practically speechless.

In fact, Franz was so stunned by this figure that for a moment he thought he was having an April Fool’s Day.

After calming down and carefully studying the data, Franz realized that the data was not exaggerated, and even had a great potential to be dug out.

The continental war hit France, Belgium, as well as the Italian region, the world’s total economy, the total amount of industry has shrunk.

As the victor of the war, the Holy Roman Empire not only completed the unification of the country, but also further seized a large part of the French colonies.

The mines, railroads, ports, and plantations that the French had painstakingly managed on the African continent all became the spoils of war for the Holy Roman Empire. With the influx of immigrants, all this wealth was transformed into economic data on paper.

Yes, it was only “paper” wealth, and it would take a long time for these assets to be put to use and transformed into real national power.

The expected post-war depression did occur, but the hardest hit countries were not the Holy Roman Empire, but France, Belgium, and Sardinia, which were the countries that suffered the most from the war.

In order to reduce the pressure of post-war demobilization and to lower the government’s financial expenditure, Franz once again offered the partition law, tempting the meritorious officers and soldiers to emigrate to Africa.

As a generous emperor, land, mines, plantations, unimportant ports and harbors were all taken out by Franz as fiefdoms, and certain officers with great merit even directly obtained a city with jurisdiction of the kind.

Let’s put it this way, most of the colonies that the Holy Roman Empire had taken from the French were now private property, and what belonged to the Emperor was either sand or poor countryside that no one looked at.

Since they were private property, local development was no longer an issue. This emerging group of military aristocrats, themselves, called on their friends to go over and develop it.

As the government collects a little business tax to keep the local administration running, that’s all. Other problems are not a problem, as long as there is no big mess, Franz will pretend not to see.

In short, it was very characteristic of Shinra. Franz can tolerate the big lords on the European continent, let alone the small lords on the African continent.

Besides, if you don’t play like this in such a large territory, how should you rule?

One can’t learn from the British colonial rule, can one?

If colonial rule is adopted, it would be better to adopt the feudal system, at least the foundation of the rule is more stable, and there is no need to suppress national uprisings every now and then.

If you look at history books, you will see that basically no region ruled by feudal nobles has ever become independent; on the contrary, the newly occupied regions under the jurisdiction of the central government are often recurring.

As for the possibility of local nobles becoming bigger in the future, Franz could no longer care that much. If it gets bigger, it will only be a self-governing territory, and the size of the fiefdom will limit the upper limit of development.

The national culture has already decided that no matter how much the aristocracy grows, it is not possible for them to rebel with the slogan of “the king and his vassals would rather have seeds”, and it is even more unlikely that they would send the emperor to the guillotine.

Their class position had already decided that they had to be members of the royalist party, which was the foundation for them to maintain their position. Even if there were individual rebels, they would be suppressed by other nobles.

The one who was most hurt was probably the central government, with a bunch of nobles checking and balancing below it, its power was severely limited.

Of course, in the Holy Roman Empire people would not care about this problem, since the central government has never been strong. The current government in Vienna is already an anomaly, and can be considered the strongest government since the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire.

Continuing to strengthen the authority of the central government, even if the people below had no opinion, Franz did not agree ah!

Just kidding, if the power of the cabinet continues to expand, it will be upside down. Once a powerful minister appears, the emperor will become a rubber stamp.

This is also considered lucky, if encountered hand black, maybe even the rubber stamp position do not give you stay, directly overturned the table when the boss himself.

Power once lost checks and balances, that is a cannibalistic monster. Countless cases have proved that human nature can not stand the test, loyalty is never as reliable as interest.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of winning the continental war, Franz directly milked a wave of military aristocrat group, rooting them in the African continent.

From this moment on, the core of maintaining the unity of the Holy Roman Empire became the Emperor. The states and nobles all came into existence because of their allegiance to the Emperor, not because of the Empire first.

Playing it that way in other countries would surely cause a lot of resentment. But the Holy Roman Empire was an exception, the following states and nobles were the beneficiaries of this system, and the political system was played this way from the beginning.

What seems to be a definition without much difference is in fact the origin of the legal system.

Being loyal to the Emperor meant that the vassals were on equal footing with the central government and had the highest level of autonomy; if they were loyal to the government, it meant that the central government could take back everything they owned at any time.

It took decades to realize the ideal political system, and there were so many twists and turns that Franz felt physically and mentally exhausted.

What hidden dangers and aftermaths, he didn’t even want to bother with them now. Anyway, this world was never perfect, and the painstakingly managed Holy Roman Empire was also centered around the Habsburg Dynasty.

If the Habsburg Dynasty collapsed one day, what does the death of the Empire have to do with him? Franz was not so noble as to do the grafting for others.

According to the current political structure, as long as the future generations do not die, the continuation of one or two hundred years is not a problem, and then later – I’m sorry to say that the traveler is not omnipotent.

By putting pen to paper and issuing the document in his hand, the ruling system that uniquely characterized Shinra was officially established. Not only the African continent, the colonies far away in the Americas and the South Seas would also copy this model in the future.

The difference is that these too far away areas, whether to throw a son over to be the king, or let the nobles play with local autonomy, Franz has not yet made up his mind.

Sometimes too much territory can be a nuisance. One or two generations of immigrants still have a sense of belonging to the country, but after three or five generations, it’s bullshit to talk about belonging.

In addition to cultural affinity, the rest is all about interests. If the economic ties are strong and the strategic direction is the same, then it is a family. If there is a conflict of core interests, the family should be separated.

Looking at the world map on the wall, Franz made up his mind that he could not continue to expand.

The first rough calculation, the Holy Roman Empire controlled the territory, actually has exceeded Britain, looking at the breakthrough 40 million square kilometers.

From the current situation, no effort is needed, as long as Franz does not stop, after ten or eight years, the Holy Roman Empire’s control area will exceed 40 million square kilometers.

However, this expansion makes no sense. The benefits of colonial expansion are not enough to compensate for the negative political effects of expansion.

Today is not the same as in the past. The days of ship-running are over, and the unclaimed territories have long been divided up. Continuing to expand will only result in a struggle between you and me, and the costs and benefits are completely disproportionate.

“Prime Minister, tell the governors below that we need time to digest the results of the war. Don’t expand by force in the coming years if you don’t have to.

It has become clear in recent times that the warlike culture in the country has gone a bit too far. We’re not war-mongers, so don’t clamor for war at every turn.

The Cabinet should do a better job of educating government officials on their ideology, so that they will use their heads more when things go wrong, and that arrogance is a sign of a lack of upbringing.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should also do a good job of changing its mindset, from now on we will no longer be bystanders in international affairs, you should be prepared to act as arbiters.”

It was not that Franz was making a fuss, but the present Vienna government had drifted a little. Victory had come so easily that many had lost their eyes and become arrogant.

Well, it was all right for the Powers to be a little wild, but the rulers themselves must keep their heads.

After such a long time, Franz have realized the problem, the top government actually no one raised it, which in itself is not normal performance.

Even if the authorities were confused, then the think tanks under everyone should have thought of it, right? If everyone couldn’t think of it, then what was the point of keeping them?

This was obviously impossible, one person two people drifted away from normal, everyone was lost in thought, it simply wasn’t possible. There is only one answer, people knew but didn’t pay attention to it.

Sensei no matter what the reason, anyway, the emperor has discovered the problem, the cabinet actually has not realized the seriousness of the problem, that is the fault.

Prime Minister Karl replied bitterly, “Yes, Your Majesty!”

As the prime minister of the empire, to be directly pointed out by the emperor as a problem was a very humiliating thing. There were only a handful of similar things that had happened in the successive prime ministers of the Holy Roman Empire. Pro-retirement came with such a wave, and Karl’s self-esteem was strongly impacted.

Of course, that was all. Politicians have thick skin, even when they are pointed at their noses and scolded, they can still smile. A little bit of embarrassment, it couldn’t hit Prime Minister Karl yet.

In a sense, it also reflected that the Emperor trusted them, and only his own people would be directly knocked in politics. If there is a problem and still smile, that would be a political disaster.

(End of chapter)