Chapter 22: January Revolution

  Chapter 22 January Revolution

The sudden economic crisis also blindsided the Austrian government, this is the first time they’ve experienced this stuff, and no one has much experience with it.

Ordinary economic crisis is just, the problem is that this industrial crisis caused by the economic crisis, the traditional response program is obviously out of date.

A government-funded bailout?

That’s clearly impossible, and Metternich would not be trying to figure out how to save these capitalists unless he was out of his mind.

Of course, the necessary measures were in place, such as the tariffs that the government had lowered because of the price spikes, which were immediately restored to normal.

But the crisis in the country was not lifted, and the people who did the harm ended up hurting themselves; the capitalists and aristocrats who had hoarded large quantities of goods lost their pants this time.

Taking daily necessities as an example, the price on the retail market in Vienna now is only 66 percent of the price in the first half of 1847, less than one-third of the retail price in December, when prices were at their peak.

The price drop is only one aspect, the most critical is still the decline in purchasing power, even now such prices, the people do not have the money to buy.

This is tragic.

Under normal circumstances, the wholesale price of daily necessities is thirty to forty percent lower than the retail price, the retail price drop, the capitalists big deal to lose a fortune to leave the market, this loss most people can still afford.

The problem now is that there is a price but no market, a bunch of commodities are piled up somewhere but no buyers can be found.

Strong capitalists can still hold out, not strong enough to have broken the capital chain, owed the bank a debt and ran away.

Austria’s financial institutions, too, have been hit hard, the financial crisis has broken out, and the vicious circle continues to fester.

The Great Depression era has come, not only Austria, the entire European continent in addition to Russia, no one can survive.

Undoubtedly, the Labor Protection Act introduced by the government in Vienna was suspended, and there were no jobs left, so what kind of treatment was there to talk about?

The bourgeoisie’s aim was achieved, the Vienna government did make concessions, the Labor Protection Act was suspended, but this is not what they wanted.

The sudden economic crisis had devastated the bourgeoisie. Because the competition in the market became brutal, the internal conflicts among the capitalists intensified.

Prime Minister Metternich became the biggest winner and the biggest loser. He succeeded in thwarting the conspiracy of the bourgeoisie, but unfortunately he still had to clean up the mess after the victory.

Franz, the melon eating crowd, froze, he did not expect it to end up like this, the bourgeoisie, the aristocracy, and the government were all losers in this political struggle.

If there is a victor, Ferdinand I, who did nothing in the palace, is one of them, but it is a pity that he can’t feel it himself.

In the following, the working class was the winner and the loser, the economic crisis in Austria was worse than in history, and their life was more miserable, the only gain was a “labor protection law” which was not yet known when it would be honored.

In short, the future is bright, the reality is cruel.

“Archduke, last night, revolution broke out in Sicily!”

The head of intelligence, Tyrone, hurriedly ran in and brought this shocking news to Franz.

Franz was indeed stunned, didn’t the 1848 European Revolution start in France in February? How did a Sicilian revolution pop up?

Well, Franz admitted that his knowledge of Sicily is limited to the beautiful legends of Sicily, the land here is very fertile, suitable for food production, located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, the strategic location is very important.

Then there was no then, carefully recalled, Franz remembered the history books seem to raise a sentence, before the outbreak of the February revolution in France, Italy first broke out in January revolution.

The original text is the Italian January Revolution, which opened the prelude to the European Revolution of 1848, just a passing remark, no superfluous explanation, Franz did not pay attention to it.

It’s a sinkhole! Italy wasn’t even unified yet, and now Sicily is still an independent Kingdom of Sicily, so what does that have to do with Italy?

For this reason, he also sent someone to keep an eye on the Kingdom of Sardinia, who let them unify Italy in the end?

Soon Franz recovered, he is not specializing in historical research, in the history of the small events that are not valued, it is normal not to be familiar with.

“Was this revolution big? Did it overthrow the Kingdom of Sicily?”

Why did the revolution break out, this he could guess without asking, the economic crisis broke out, the people of the Sicilian Kingdom couldn’t hold their days!

“Grand Duke, this is still unclear, our intelligence personnel in the Sicilian Kingdom are too few, so there is no way to figure out the situation in such a short period of time!”

Tyrone explained in a difficult way, it really wasn’t that he didn’t try hard, it’s really that intelligence work can’t be accomplished overnight, being able to receive news in such a short period of time is good enough.

In this era, wireless telegraphy has not yet been invented, the big cities only laid the wire telegraph, what happened in Sicily, to go through a series of transit before it can be transmitted to Vienna.

If we wait for the news to spread naturally, the news will probably lag for three or five days, or even a week or two is not strange.

“Well, forget it then, it’s better to focus our efforts on Vienna, Milan, Venice and Budapest, the revolution in the Kingdom of Sicily might cause a chain reaction!” Franz said thoughtfully

He had already figured it out, he couldn’t care less about things outside, let’s stabilize the country first, let’s put other things aside, at least we should receive the news before the revolution breaks out and be prepared, right?

“Yes, Grand Duke!”

Seeing Franz didn’t blame, Tyrone breathed a sigh of relief, the fighting power of the intelligence organization had dropped a lot compared to back then, and he, the person in charge, had an unshirkable responsibility.

Well, he still didn’t know how low Franz’s expectations of them were. As the saying goes, cheap is not cheap.

In the intelligence organization, more than ninety-five percent of the personnel, are all voluntary labor, without a penny of pay, what else can Franz ask for?

These are the results of many years of operation of the Habsburg family, with the lower half of the body to conquer Europe is not a joke, the network has long been all over the European continent.

Utilizing these relationships, communicating news with each other can be, to order people to do things, Franz does not think that he has so strong king of the air.

As for Tyrone, there is no doubt that it is a temporary substitute, when Franz himself to build the intelligence organization is completed, they are put on the surface to attract the attention of the outside world.

The Sicilian revolution has broken out, Franz is also starting to prepare for it, he would not dare to put his life on others.

Using this as an excuse, Franz carried out an entire training of the Royal Guard, the indiscriminate presence of a separate integration.

(End of chapter)