Chapter 107: The one who owes a debt is a great master
Chapter 107: The one who owes a debt is a grandpa
Vienna
Prime Minister Felix said with a worried frown, “Your Highness, right now the Hungarian rebellion has ended. However, there is a part of the nobles, who did not participate in the rebellion, but were divided up in the war and land.
If we follow the Land Redemption Act that we enacted earlier, the Austrian government will now have to pay a total of 23.7 billion guilders for land redemption.”
(1 guilder = 11.69 grams of silver)
“How is it so much?” Franz asked in surprise
You know, after this rebellion, nearly seven layers of Hungary’s nobility are finished, including those who have already received their boxed lunches, and the nobles involved in the rebellion who were stripped of their titles.
Felix explained, ”Your Highness, several of Hungary’s great nobles did not participate in the rebellion, and nearly half of this ransom was paid to them.
On top of that, there are also some enlightened nobles in the country who are willing to give up their lands and also need us to pay the ransom money.
In addition, there were also some nobles in the Italian region who were loyal to us and had their lands divided up during the war.
All of these bits and pieces add up to a preliminary estimate that we’ll need twenty-three point seven billion guilders in land redemption money, and if there are still people who continue to give up their land, then that number will increase.”
Franz rubbed his forehead, in order to encourage the nobles to give up their land, this redemption money was all assessed at market value. If converted, this would be equivalent to 550 million taels of silver.
This amount of money was obviously not something that the Austrian government could take out in one go, even though because of the plagiarism, the Austrian government now had a large amount of assets in its hands.
But these real estate is not the same as cash, in the short term there is no way to realize, the Austrian government is still poor.
According to the provisions of the Land Redemption Act, the land redemption money paid by peasants was collected on behalf of the government, and the government was responsible for directly compensating the nobles who gave up their land.
This huge debt fell on the head of the Austrian government. It was impossible for Franz to pay this huge debt at once, and it was even more impossible to renege on the debt, which concerned the credibility of the government.
Franz asked with concern: “How much land redemption money can we collect each year?”
Prime Minister Felix thought for a moment and said, “Around 180 million guilders.”
This 180 million guilders is not just for these lands, but also includes a large amount of land seized by the government, as well as the lands of the extinct nobles.
If it was just these lands, and the ransom was extracted at the rate of thirty percent of the output, it would be at most forty to fifty million rupiahs.
After calculating, Franz helplessly realized that planting land is really not a good deal, even without calculating the cost of capital time, it will take ten to twenty years to be able to return to the capital.
The land redemption money collected by the government might not be enough to cover the interest cost of the capital.
Franz thought about it and said: “Pay in installments, explain it clearly to the nobles, tell them our difficulties, let them sympathize.
Enlightened nobles in the country who voluntarily gave up their land, pay them half of the redemption money first, and pay the rest in installments within twenty years.
A few big nobles in the Hungarian region, tell them that the government will not pursue their small actions in this rebellion, but as punishment for their land redemption money, it will be extended to be paid in installments of forty years.
The rest that have pigtails will be warned and have their ransom payments extended, and those that have no problems at all will be dealt with according to the program of voluntarily giving up their land!”
Franz felt it for once – the one who owes the money is the one who owes the money.
After a revolution, the interest groups within Austria were reshuffled, and these aristocrats who were forced into land redemption naturally belonged to the losers.
Money in the hands of the Austrian government, land in the hands of the peasants, they simply have no choice.
Before this, the Austrian government is afraid of them, that is because each big noble hand has a large amount of land, serfs, and a large group of small and medium-sized nobles dependent under them, at any time can arm thousands, or even tens of thousands of troops out.
Now, this situation has changed, the serfs are free and not under their control, and the small and medium-sized nobles under their command have been hit hard.
A tiger without teeth is only a tiger. The reason for the lack of extermination was that Franz was part of the vested interests and did not want to break the rules.
“Yes, Your Highness!” Prime Minister Felix replied
On the issue of cracking down on local powerhouses, both the Austrian cabinet and Franz were on the same page.
The so-called installment payment, but it does not contain half a cent of interest, divided into forty years to pay, in fact, even the interest is not enough.
Even if the payment is made in installments, when exactly the money will be available is an unknown, as long as the payment is completed within the promised period, it is not considered a breach of contract.
The specific situation depends on whether these nobles are smart or not. If they are willing to cooperate with the government’s actions, then everything is fine, the Austrian government will pay back the money as soon as possible.
If, continue to know no death and the government against, estimated that their lifetimes will not necessarily see this money.
Not everyone is so optimistic, Metternich is on the sidelines of the worried eyebrows, half a sound before hesitantly said: “Your Highness, so many nobles suddenly no land, lost the source of income, want to transform is not easy.
If we can’t find a way out for them, I’m afraid that it will become a social hazard in the future.”
This was a realistic problem, it was impossible to turn all the nobles into capitalists, doing business would also lose money, if they really transformed blindly, most of them would lose money and vomit blood.
Don’t expect these people to go bankrupt and just honestly turn into workers and go to the factory in peace.
The greater likelihood is that after going bankrupt, they will join the revolutionary army in an attempt to break the social order and redistribute social wealth.
The Minister of Education, Count Leo, thought for a moment and said, “Our Ministry of Education can hire a portion of the nobility to serve as language teachers, the vast majority of the nobility are capable of doing so, but this will require a higher salary package!”
For the same position, the salary package is different between nobles and non-nobles, don’t find it strange, this is the general status quo of the European continent.
“This is just a drop in the bucket, small nobles without ambition might accept a teaching position, but the vast majority of nobles are unlikely to give up their rackets to become a village teacher!” Felix said with a shake of his head
Archduke Louis proposed, “Why don’t we open up a colony and let them go overseas to colonize, so that they don’t have to be unsettled at home?”
The fact that Austria didn’t open up colonies overseas during the Metternich era doesn’t mean that Austria didn’t have the strength to open up colonies.
As one of the top four powers in the world, as long as the government let go, it wasn’t hard to get a colony overseas.
Watching Britain and France attacking and plundering overseas, even small countries like Holland and Portugal had a piece of colony, how can the nobles inside Austria not be hot?
(End of chapter)