Chapter 132: Investment Preparation (Request for Subscription)
Chapter 130 – Investment Preparation (Request for Subscription)
Christmas
As the most important holiday in the European world, naturally, it can not be sloppy, did not see the soldiers and officers of the Pope’s country, are anxious to come back for the holidays?
Franz as usual held a Christmas dinner in the palace, invited a group of people to participate in the banquet.
This is the first Christmas after Franz ascended to the throne, everyone is extraordinarily important, was invited to the object, can rush to come.
Relatives and friends, military and political dignitaries, plus their families, the guests directly exceeded four figures. There was a lot of mingling and merriment.
Franz could see that everyone was giving him face to show a happy look, but in reality, one by one, they were bored to death, chatting about dry content.
The court party focuses on etiquette, simply can not let loose to play. Especially the children, can not wait to end the banquet immediately, go out to have a happy Christmas.
There was no way around it, even he, the emperor, was annoyed. With the golden tableware, Franz once also suspected that it is not gold-plated, after experiments to prove that he thought too much, it is indeed real gold, the bottom of the people do not dare to fool him as the emperor.
Well, these tableware Franz usually do not use, generally he used silver tableware, it is said that can be sterilized.
In this era, although Western medicine from the bloodletting of the primitive therapy came out, but the technology is still not good, just any disease can kill people, life-threatening Franz made a decisive choice.
Eat a hearty meal, everyone went back to their own homes, Christmas or their own at home, Franz did not stay with the meaning of the holiday together, that means looking for sin.
He bet that if it were not for the fact that the palace banquet was a reflection of the status of these people, the vast majority of them would prefer not to participate.
Even though the banquets were extravagant, costing tens of thousands of guilders (1 guilder ≈ 11.69 grams of silver) at a time. How could there be any poor people who could attend the banquet?
With the guests gone and the Franz family having their own Christmas Eve, a few of the younger brothers were instantly in their element; it was a special day to get high.
Much to Franz’s envy, even though he was only 18, he couldn’t let go of himself now. To add to the tragedy, her mother’s Christmas wish was for him to get married quickly.
Being an emperor and being urged to marry? Franz felt simply like a dog in the sun, recalling the age of European royal princesses, he was relieved.
Short time is no need to worry, the original match Princess Sissi just turned 11 years old, even her sister is only a year or two older. Other princesses of comparable status, the age is also small, the older already married.
However, Franz still didn’t dare to let his guard down, for fear that if he wasn’t careful, he would have a loli fiancée.
Such things as early engagement are also popular among the nobility. As the Emperor of Austria, Franz was the biggest diamond in the European aristocracy, and there were quite a few aristocrats who were interested in him.
Fortunately, Franz is now the Emperor and has the right to speak on personal issues, if he insists on not agreeing, no one can force him to agree.
Under normal circumstances, this issue will be discussed with him by Empress Dowager Sophie, as for the father that is a bronchitis patient, there is no say in the family.
The clock struck twelve o’clock in the midnight hour and relieved Franz.
The family all rose to their feet, lit a candle, read the Bible in unison, and blessed each other before singing Christmas songs.
……
Christmas was particularly festive in Vienna this year, and as the earliest established legal holiday, the factories were closed early.
The capitalists were not willing to pay triple wages to make the workers work overtime today. If you meet a more generous boss, you may be able to harvest a Christmas gift.
The streets and alleys of Vienna are now filled with children singing Christmas songs and going from house to house to report good news.
This is the time of year when everyone shows off their manners. Those who are well off usually prepare some Christmas gifts in advance, such as candies, melons and so on, and distribute them to the children who come to report their good news.
This Christmas had dried up Franz’s wallet a bit more.
Christmas gift is a big head, the court of servants and guards who work hard overtime, he presented a Christmas gift.
Family and friends, government officials, soldiers who were still on duty, even the orphans that the government had taken in, all reaped a Christmas gift from His Majesty the Emperor.
They were all candies and melons, each gift was not worth much, but the number of people couldn’t be denied, right? In order to buy people’s hearts, Franz also took great pains.
However, there is always a return for the effort, this era of simplicity, in the face of a sudden Christmas gift, many people’s loyalty to the emperor climbed straight up.
Especially the orphans adopted by the government, many of whom received their first Christmas gift in their lives, had an extraordinarily large impact on them.
The cost was that for one Christmas Franz expended nearly two hundred thousand guilders. If it were not for the Habsburg family, the royal annuity alone would not necessarily be enough for Franz to spend so lavishly.
Austria’s royal annuity is not long ago to determine, according to Austria’s financial income of one percent point five extract, about five or six million guilders per year.
These money is not Franz a person to spend, the royal family of a large family have a share, including uncle Ferdinand I couple will take one and a half million guilders.
Other close branches of the royal family also have everyone’s share, and finally left him as the emperor’s free disposal of only about three million guilders, the palace there is such a large number of people to be supported.
Frugality is not so bad, but want to spend recklessly, obviously is not enough.
After Christmas, Franz is ready to buy some more property. Specifically what to do, Franz headache.
Fast money business is a lot, most of them are written in the law, as a great emperor, obviously can not take the lead in breaking the rules.
Franz once wanted to go to sell civil service examination reference materials, but quickly dismissed the idea, this is too unproductive, not to mention earning a few money, spread the influence is not good.
Agriculture does not need to consider, although the Habsburg family does not lack of land, but this aspect of the rate of return is too low. Even planting cash crops, this rate of return is not possible to get rich quickly.
“Drugs” Franz will not touch, this is completely to his bright image of black.
Arms can be sold, but unfortunately, the arms trade is now dominated by political factors, Austria these years in Europe, overseas influence is limited.
The rest is the financial industry, but unfortunately Franz lacks knowledge in this area, the financial industry in this era is full of shady, if he was pitched he could not even cry.
Do not think that no one dares to pit the emperor, for the capitalists, as long as the profit is enough, there is nothing they do not dare to do.
After picking and choosing, Franz felt that it was better to invest in food refining and processing has a future, usually follow the policy of the enterprise, are “money”.
Once the Holy Roman Economic Union is established, it can immediately get explosive development, with the Habsburg family connections, there is no need to worry about the sales network.
The latter day that a variety of snacks can not be produced, popcorn, French fries, cookies, canned goods, drinks, these products have no technical content, but the manufacture is very simple.
In addition, mining is also a very promising industry, does not require much technical content, as long as the background is hard enough to find a rich mine, you can lie down and make money.
This is simply tailor-made for Franz, at least in Austria mining, he only need to find the mine can make money, don’t have to worry, no one dares to break the emperor’s financial road.
……
A moment’s effort, Franz wrote a bunch of business projects in the notebook, exactly how to implement, but also to do market research.
The common problem of all travelers, all love to do one thing – to walk in the forefront of the times. This is very dangerous and easy to become a martyr.
Franz was very wary of this and seldom acted arbitrarily. In his opinion if even the elite of this era, could not accept something, how could it be acceptable to the general public?
“Jenny, give the information I listed to Baron Cass and ask him to do a market survey of these industries, collect as much information as possible, I want to select projects suitable for investment from them.” Franz commanded
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Jenny replied
This is the benefit of being an emperor, you can order others to do anything, and there are people who are willing to work for him.
For example, this Baron Cass, is a vassal of the Habsburg family, his ancestors have been serving the Habsburg family for five generations.
After Franz’s regency, in order to strengthen the control of government departments, he stuffed a lot of people into it, Baron Cass is just one of them, was inserted into the Ministry of Commerce.
At this time Franz asked him to do private work for himself, Baron Cass will be more attentive than office work.
If Franz didn’t let him do private work, but instead gave it to his peers to take care of, it was expected that he would still be worried about being abandoned by the Emperor.
The issue of private use of public weapons, I’m sorry that in this day and age people really can’t tell the difference between the state and the emperor, and in many people’s minds their allegiance is to the emperor, not to the state.
This situation, which was very common in the Austrian Empire, the bond that held the many peoples of Austria together was not the government but the emperor.
(End of chapter)