Chapter 398: Catalyst for Benefits
Chapter 388 – Catalyst of Interest
A dozen kilometers outside of Venice, in an ancient castle, Viscount Oraby was holding a grand welcome banquet, and the host of the feast was none other than Baron Fikeni, who had just returned not long ago.
This wasn’t the first time Fikni had come here, only unlike the last time he had come, the welcome banquet had much higher specifications.
It was obvious that Viscount Oraby was very enthusiastic this time, unlike last time, when it was just a ceremonial banquet.
Poor in the city no one asks, rich in the mountains have distant relatives.
Baron Fikeni deeply experienced it. Ten years ago when he went to the colony with debts to develop, he was not less mocked; to this day, the mockery of the past has turned into praise.
Even if he was far away from the African continent, to the well-informed nobles, these were not obstacles.
Today’s times are different, ten years ago, the African continent in everyone’s eyes is: poisonous insects and beasts, disease and plague rampant; now the African continent has become: the field of hope.
Successful people are not to be blamed, and Baron Fikeni filled the wind to enjoy the treatment of successful people for once, so that his vanity is satisfied.
There were a lot of Austrian nobles who developed in the African continent, but after spreading out in the vast Africa, it was impossible to meet a few of them.
Moreover, everyone is busy getting rich, and how many have the leisure to organize banquets every day?
Fikeni’s participation in the banquet was not without purpose, to promote the localization of the colony, it is indispensable to have the support of the local nobles.
Now support the colonial localization, in addition to the development of the African continent, the local capitalists is also a major force, however, this is far from enough.
Austria was not England or France, and the capitalists had very little say in politics. Even Baron Fikeni, an aristocrat who developed in Africa, had a higher political voice than the capitalists.
The main force behind the push for colonial indigenization this time was them, the nobles.
Getting involved with everyone in this world through five people was perhaps too much of a stretch; however, stringing together all the nobles in Austria through five nobles would not be difficult.
……
Baron Fikeni said with a smile, “Oraby, it’s been ten years since I’ve seen you, I didn’t realize that Harrington, Gardner, and Derwington are all so old, I can see that they will all become excellent soldiers.”
Viscount Oraby rightfully replied, “Yes, I am proud of a few of them.”
Joining the army was a tradition of the Austrian nobility, noble children were required to receive military training from a young age, and becoming an excellent soldier was the pursuit of many noble children.
Modesty, in Europe was not a virtue, it would only be seen as a sign of hypocrisy.
Viscount Obira thought that his son would become an excellent soldier, and would admit it openly and honestly, this was what he really thought in his heart.
Baron Fikeni asked with concern, “Are you going to send them to serve in the Army or the Navy?”
In the last few years, the Austrian Navy’s status had increased drastically, and was almost on par with the Army.
Many noble sons who chose to enter the navy at the beginning seized the opportunity of the navy’s great expansion to rise up the ranks.
Now, when a nobleman’s son serves in the army, he has one more option – the navy.
Oraby proudly said: “Harrington and Derwenton went to serve in the army, Gardner went to serve in the navy, they all went to the military school.
Harrington is at the Artillery Command College in Vienna and has graduated and will be enlisting in a week or so, and Gardner and DeWinton came back this time to send him to enlist.
DeWinton was at the Infantry Command Academy in Munich and was only in his third year; Gardner was at the Austrian Naval Academy just outside his home and was only in his first year.
Fickney, you’ve come back just in time; if you’d been any later, you wouldn’t have seen them.”
It was a typical bet on both ends of the spectrum, as the overseas colonies continued to open up, the well-informed nobles, had recognized the importance of the navy.
Without being sure of the country’s future strategic center of gravity, many nobles were betting on both ends. Anyway, the Austrian army and navy were not in much conflict, so there was no harm in doing so.
With all three sons enrolled in the military academy, Oraby did have a proud capital.
Although the nobility is born with a higher starting point, the Austrian military academy is also not so easy to get into. There are nine military schools in the country, the number of admissions each year is only more than 3500 people, and the number of applicants has not been less than 100,000 people.
This is the impact of compulsory education. The number of people who have received basic education has increased dramatically, and students with good grades who go on to secondary school can apply for student loans to continue their studies, which directly leads to a sharp increase in the number of secondary school students.
Austrian military school enrollment and university enrollment are separate, and candidates can apply for both, and anyway, with three months staggered in between, they will not affect each other’s admission results.
There is no doubt that this is the era of a thousand soldiers crossing a single bridge. Whether it’s a university, or a military school, students enroll first.
The grassroots students who were able to rush all the way out were not far behind if they weren’t schoolmasters, at least in the cultural classes.
Even though the education they received couldn’t be compared to the children of nobles due to resource constraints, there were always geniuses and lucky ones that popped up.
If they were just competing with the grassroots students, then it wouldn’t be a big deal. The problem was that the competition within the nobles’ children was also very fierce, this era in Austria was not popular with only children, every family basically had three or five to start with.
There are also a large number of noble side children, although these people do not have a title to inherit, but it does not mean that their children’s education is poor.
Nowadays, the middle class in Austria is basically these people. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, small and medium-sized merchants, most of them have noble ancestors.
Too few of the truly pure grassroots have been able to rise to the top. The lucky ones who were able to grow up without the knowledge base and social connections were the children of destiny.
Currently the percentage of noble students in Austrian universities is only 31.1%, and even less than 1.2% of students from ordinary families, the rest being this middle class group.
The military academies are still dominated by the sons of nobles, accounting for about 64.8% of the total number of students, the middle class occupies 34.3% of the total number of students, and students from ordinary families are negligible, and there are not as many as international students.
There’s no way around it, it’s the result of fair competition. The reality is so cruel that one loses at the starting line from the beginning of compulsory public education.
In elementary school, students from ordinary families are in the majority, but in secondary school, they are in the minority. On the face of it, the chances of moving from primary to secondary school in Austria are around 8%.
However, when compulsory schooling ends, the children of the rich are almost 100 percent able to go on to secondary school, and this percentage is just stretched up.
Grassroots schoolchildren from ordinary families who are not academically inclined basically don’t have much of a chance. They had to be in the top one percent of the entrance exams to get a grant.
This was supposed to be for geniuses, and in an era of limited educational resources, Austria took an elitist approach to education.
Military schools were the most obvious, and students who received rigorous military training from a young age naturally had an advantage, however, this required a large amount of investment, which was not something that ordinary families could afford.
Ordinary people with high cultural achievements, the results of various professional exams are added, or only eliminated from the fate. It can be said that the more subjects, the more ordinary students have no chance.
Improve the quality of teaching in public education and increase the teaching of these specialized subjects. Unfortunately, this seems to be a good idea, just think about it.
Adding one more subject means increasing an education expenditure. Compulsory education at the standard of the children of the nobility would be enough to bankrupt the government of Vienna ten times over.
Unless the demand for ordinary talent in society increases, university expansion is impossible; higher education in this era is too expensive.
Now even for the children of nobles, those who can receive university education, or military school education, will not exceed 35%.
Of course the next best technical colleges, or pheasant universities, then there is no limit, money can be read.
Baron Fikeni said calmly, “Really, looks like I’m really lucky!”
Viscount Oraby replied affirmatively, “Of course!”
Baron Fickney took a small sip of wine and continued, “What unit is Harrington serving in, and are there any preparations to move to the African continent area, where the chances of making a war record are much higher?”
This was Baron Fikeni making conditions. There was no way around it, to gain the support of the native nobles for colonial integration, it was natural to speak with benefits.
Most nobles would face a problem, there were many descendants, but there was only one knighthood.
The eldest son inherited the title, so what about the arrangement for the second son behind him?
According to the custom of the German region, those who have money can still share a fortune with them. Those who had no money could either let them go out on their own or send them to the church to become priests.
After the Reformation, the churches were no longer so well oiled. The churches in the economically prosperous areas were lucky to have business to make money, but if they were unlucky enough to be assigned to the poorer areas, then they had to eat the chaff.
Going out on a limb, that was only for the ragtag. Most of them use their family connections to find them a decent job, and that’s how the noble sidekicks, or the ransomed middle class, came to be.
Opportunities were few and competitive on the mainland, but not in the colonies. If you have the family money, you can smash a knighthood if you are willing to smash resources.
If one gained the cooperation of the groundlings, then this difficulty could continue to be lowered. After all, war was something that happened every other day for the colonies.
In addition to raking in the military honors, it was also possible to enter and develop in the colonial government. Once the localization of the colony passed, these official positions also rose.
Or perhaps doing business in the colony, opening up plantations, these are all roads, and the success is still very high.
Oraby was moved, he received Baron Fikeni in such a high profile, in addition to the cousin relationship between the two, he was also prepared to invest resources to get noble titles for several of his sons.
Don’t look at the fact that several of his sons had entered the military academy and looked like they had a bright future. In reality, Oraby was clear that there were too few who were able to make a name for themselves in the age of peace.
Not to mention the descendants of viscounts, even if they enter the army with the title of duke, by the time they retire, they may not be able to mix into a general.
Without war merit, everyone can only simmer in seniority.
After all, everyone was brought up with military education, and no one’s ability is too bad. Without a way to prove that your ability is superhuman, why should you be promoted first?
The army is a place to speak with strength, and the best way to do that is to speak with war achievements. Unfortunately in this era of war, at best the colonies bully the natives, and there are still too many monks and not enough gruel.
Oraby thought for a moment and said, ”It’s not confirmed yet, right now he’s just an unenlisted recruit, there’s still at least half a year before he’s assigned to a troop.
If he arrives in the African colonies, then we will have to trouble this uncle of yours to take care of him.”
There was no doubt that Orabi had not yet made up his mind.
As an old aristocrat, he still had quite a few connections in the military, and using those connections to decide on his son’s service unit was still not difficult to do.
But pushing for the localization of the colony was not that simple. Like many people, Oraby was worried that his family’s industry would be impacted after the localization of the colony.
After all, the colony had little else, but a lot of land. Once so much land was developed, agricultural products were expected to be impacted to cabbage prices.
Without receiving an accurate answer, Baron Fikeni still replied with poise, “Of course, I’m his uncle!”
In his heart, he could only secretly sigh that he didn’t catch up with the good times, if only Oraby’s sons were a little older.
It would be best if they had just retired from the army and were worried about their future. Then without him opening his mouth, these boys would help convince their father.
In this banquet, Baron Fikeni had already convinced three nobles to support the localization of the colony, and these people basically supported it because of the next generation.
The colonies impacting native agriculture, that was only a worry for nobles with lots of land. If the land was gone, why worry about it?
After the land redemption, the land in the hands of the Austrian nobles was actually not much anymore. By now the land in the hands of the nobility had fallen to less than 20% of the total land area of the country.
Since the opening of overseas colonies, including the royal family, many big nobles are selling off their lands one after another.
This is a decision of interest, with the funds from the sale of land, to open up plantations overseas, often can obtain several times, or even a dozen times the previous land area.
Although the colonial land is not worth much, it does not affect the value of the cash crops produced by these lands. Perhaps the return per acre was not as high as on the mainland, but there was more land!
When the quantity goes up, so does the income. The emergence of large plantations also promoted the advancement of farming techniques.
Mechanized agriculture, the popularity of which was rising in Austro-Africa. Unfortunately, the internal combustion engine had not yet come out, and steam engine machinery was too bulky and not at all convenient.
Stimulated by interests, the real behind-the-scenes push for colonial indigenization was actually still the great nobility led by Franz.
Only people paid attention to the political influence and did not directly state their position. Instead, they launched Baron Fikeni and these minor nobles to charge forward and test the reaction of the domestic public.
(End of chapter)