Chapter 298: Diverting the Crisis

  Chapter 288 – Transfer Crisis

After the economic crisis erupted, the mines Franz had planted blew up, and with bad projects popping up all over the place, the Vienna government went around cleaning up the mess.

There is no way, the economic crisis is too destructive, as the first global economic crisis, this crisis can be much more serious than the previous economic crisis.

Only in 1857, the United States bankruptcy enterprises up to more than five thousand, the stock market was directly cut, individual industries with serious overcapacity, stock prices fell ninety percent.

European countries are not much better, only the economic crisis to the time to a little later, the governments have time to react.

Unfortunately, there is no government intervention in the economy in this era, everyone is waiting for the outbreak of the crisis, the loss is naturally inevitable.

Affected by the economic crisis, many capitalists have broken their financial chains. With no money in their pockets, even if they are no longer willing to do so, they can only bear the pain and cut their flesh.

The previous investment is considered to be charity, and the performance bond has directly hit the water.

Government projects are rotten, this is still only a small problem, anyway, these projects are not fire, a few years at night construction will not kill people.

Besides, the powerful capitalists still bite the bullet. The more you invest the more you can’t afford to give up, and these projects, in and of themselves, are still quality projects.

This kind of persistence is crucial to the stormy Austrian economy. Directly let a lot of related industry chain in the enterprise survival, avoid the economy continues to deteriorate.

Prime Minister Felix said in a deep voice, ”Your Majesty, as of now, the number of bankruptcy enterprises filed in the country has reached as high as 1,800, and the number of enterprises on the verge of bankruptcy has reached as high as 2,000, which also includes the five major railroad companies.

The stock market market directly fell forty-two percent, of which the railroad stocks fell the most serious, by the influence of the U.S. railroad bubble, so that many investors have lost confidence in the railroads, the market value evaporated seventy-two percent.

The textile industry, manufacturing industry, financial industry, iron and steel industry all suffered heavy losses, affected by the economic crisis, even the export of agricultural products have shrunk by a quarter.

The value of industrial output has dropped by nearly thirty percent compared to the same period last year, and is still in a state of continuous decline.

The number of unemployed people in the country has reached as high as nine hundred and eighty thousand, and it is only a matter of time before it exceeds one million. If the economic situation doesn’t improve, this situation will continue to deteriorate.”

Various industries were hit by the economic crisis, enterprises went bankrupt on a large scale, Franz was not at all concerned, these were all expected.

How could a wild model of economic development not have its after-effects? If not for the Near East War, which allowed Austria to seize the British and French markets in the Russian Empire, the economic crisis would have erupted long ago.

The Austrian crisis began to emerge when the post-war economic transition took place.

Had it not been for the opening of overseas colonies, the reform of the gold standard, the influx of gold from the colonies which brought in a large amount of money, the government’s increase in infrastructure construction and other measures, then this economic crisis would have started not in the United States, but in Austria.

All other problems can be solved slowly, but only the unemployment problem is imminent and must be solved immediately, otherwise it will cause very serious social problems.

Franz thought for a moment and said, “According to the original plan, the government took over the rotten construction projects and let the workers return to work first.

At the same time, the government interviewed the railroad companies that had already stopped work, either they themselves find a way to solve the funding problem and immediately resume construction; or accept the government’s contribution to the shares, in short, construction must be resumed as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Colonization must also act as soon as possible. The economic crisis is the best opportunity to organize emigration, not only in Austria, but also in the whole German region is the scope of your work.

You have to find a way to encourage the bankrupt people to emigrate to the colonies, at this time the Americans are also in the economic crisis, there is no one to grab the immigrants with you.

Order the colonial government to speed up the expansion into Nigeria and the Congo region, I authorize that they can organize civilian armies to fight in the battles and expand our sphere of influence as soon as possible.”

As soon as these projects resumed normal construction, then the related upstream and downstream enterprises, too, survived, and the unemployment problem in the country was solved for the most part.

Industry was actually still relatively homogenous in this era, and the surrounding industries of these projects already encompassed most of the country’s industries.

Franz swallowed the rotten infrastructure projects, that is because these projects can not find a receiver, only by the government to take over to continue to build.

Did not eat the railroad company in one bite, in addition to the higher market value of the railroad company, the acquisition of a more important reason is that the railroad company is a loss-making business.

Since the Vienna government to a series of lines, all packages authorized to the railroad company, the railroad company’s “money” is not so bright.

Shrewd consortiums, as early as the outbreak of the economic crisis in the United States, the first time, the retreat left, and now are trapped are slow to respond to a step of speculators.

Franz naturally could not help them to unwind, to know that within the next ten years, the railroad company can not see profits. This kind of long-term project no one backing, just rely on the Vienna government investment, that financial pressure is also too big.

If possible, he would rather have private capital to repair all the railroads in the New Holy Roman Empire, rather than the present compromise of public-private partnership.

Relying on a series of capital operation down, Austria in less than ten years, has increased more than 14,800 kilometers of railroads, the entire new Holy Roman Empire railroad mileage, has exceeded 20,000 kilometers.

If the government investment, it is estimated that the Vienna government now even half of the project can not be completed, this is the power of money, the poor Vienna government can not afford to play this kind of big project.

Even now, the Vienna government can’t afford this kind of huge investment. The infrastructure construction now under way is all carried out with debt.

Directly let Austria become the world’s fourth largest debtor after the United Kingdom, France and the United States, the next few decades, the Vienna government will have to work hard to pay off the debt.

War is the best way to divert the crisis, but it is a pity that the African continent is a little far away, otherwise Franz would not mind taking a few indigenous kingdoms to get through this economic crisis.

However, Siddang’s expansion was still necessary, plundering wealth aside, at least the land to house the immigrants had to be snapped up first.

The German region is overpopulated, not a day or two, the Austrian region is still considered good, has sent hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the Balkans, and to the colonies snubbed tens of thousands of people, the population pressure is not too big.

The rest of Germany is different, every time the economic crisis outbreak of unemployment, is the time of foreign immigration.

This time it happens that the United States also broke out of the economic crisis, it is estimated that at this time they just want to immigrate, people will not welcome them.

Josip Jelacic replied: ”Your Majesty, our Colonial Ministry has already formulated an immigration plan, in order to attract immigrants from the German region, we have proposed two ways of immigration:

One, accepting employment from the government, immigrants will go to the colonies to open up farms, with the government arranging for specific locations, and all the costs of immigration will be borne by the government, so they don’t need to worry about work.

Of course, this requires a five-year labor contract, and I offered a salary twenty percent higher than that of the mainland, during which the government provides one free family visit.

Secondly, free immigration, anyone who chooses to settle in any of our colonial strongholds, the government subsidizes half of the cost of the boat ticket.”

Franz nodded, it was the best deal the Vienna government could offer. The main purpose of opening up these farms and plantations was reserved for rewarding meritorious service.

After all, there was limited land on the mainland, and even when nobles were ennobled, most of them were only nominally titled, and a lot of the land was owned by owners, so it was impossible to take it out and reward them.

Then taking colonial lands as fiefdoms, that would be inevitable. Not everyone had the family heritage to just authorize a piece of land for them and have the ability to develop it.

Commoners or meritorious officials from fallen nobles had limited wealth, they didn’t have the ability to develop a fiefdom in the past, so taking a developed farm or plantation as a fiefdom was also a good choice.

Developing it on their own, they might be able to obtain several hundred square kilometers, or even thousands of square kilometers of fiefdom, while obtaining a ready-made farm, it would be just a few dozen hectares, or a few hundred hectares of territory.

There is no such thing as a loss or a gain, and there is a cost to be invested in opening up the land. On this issue, Franz is not going to force the issue.

The earliest plantations opened in the Guinea colony, now can already see the return, after all, planting grain, cotton, peanuts, these one-year crops see the effect is still very fast.

After the output, the government of Vienna has made a big propaganda, claiming to open up the second home of the new Holy Roman Empire, emphasizing the fertility of the African land.

Many people’s perception of the African colonies, has changed, the concept of the continent of poisonous insects has been diluted, rich has entered everyone’s mind.

This is also not a lie, the African continent really has a lot of fertile land, the current colonies opened by Austria are relatively rich, and the climatic conditions are also suitable for human survival in a livable place.

Mobilizing the people to emigrate now can not only develop the overseas colonies, but also solve the unemployment problem at home, and also transfer the economic crisis, it is simply a one-two punch.

(End of chapter)