Chapter 424: Colonial Indigenization – Tolerating Each Other as a Nation

  Chapter 414 Colonial Indigenization – Tolerating Each Other as a Nation

Vienna, after a long time of political games, on August 21, 1866, the strategy of African indigenization was finally submitted to the new Holy Roman Empire parliamentary discussion with an official motion, the time to decide the fate of the empire has come.

If passed in the Imperial Parliament, Africa would become the century-old strategy of the Holy Roman Empire, and even the center of gravity of the country might be shifted.

The comedy of the European Emperor turning into a non-European sheik is about to be staged in the 19th century.

Franz was not perverted, he had done enough. Once the African indigenization strategy was passed, the impact on the future was too great, both good and bad, and even this strategy had the potential to fail.

In this case, Franz naturally wouldn’t force the motion through, and the most suitable person to take the blame for this kind of thing was the Reichstag. The reason for leaving it so long was to allow the colonial interests to work their magic and convince the major state governments.

According to the Shen Luo constitution, this kind of major national policy, must obtain eighty percent of the parliamentarians support, this proposal can be passed.

There was no doubt that Württemberg, Bavaria, and Lombardy were definitely in favor of it, and as long as they still wanted cotton from the African continent, they would not be able to stop the process of African indigenization.

The resistance came mainly from within Austria, and the most likely to be affected by African indigenization were the Hungarian and Romanian regions, which were Austria’s two major breadbaskets.

Inside the Paklen estate, representatives of the various parties pushing for the indigenization of the African colonies gathered to business countermeasures. In exchange for the support of the opposition, Baron Fikeni offered:

“Gentlemen, the biggest opposition right now is the peasants in the country, a group so large that the Empire has to take their opinions into account.

I propose that a promise be made at the Imperial Council that Austrian Africa give up the right to export grain to Europe in exchange for the support of the peasant class at home.”

Not impacting the native agriculture, this was the countermeasure that Baron Fikeni had meditated on. Currently, Austrian Africa’s food production was not high, and it was basically self-sufficient, with exports of less than half a million divine guilders per year.

This was not a government restriction, it was mainly determined by economic benefits. Growing cash crops was obviously more lucrative, and for the sake of money everyone knew what to choose.

“Your Excellency the Baron, right now there is a lack of labor in Austrian Africa, not many people are growing food, we can make this commitment.

However, with the increase of immigrants, the land developed is also increasing day by day, if we give up the industry of food, the competition for everyone in the future will be very fierce.”

The one who raised the objection was Earl Daniel, who was one of the few big food producers in the African continent. Don’t look at the low profit of grain, but the victory is guaranteed.

The price of cash crops fluctuates a lot, although the profit is relatively large, but a bad will be stagnant, on the contrary, the price of food is relatively stable.

Because the Polish region fell to the battlefield, the Russians less a granary, the last two years, international food prices also increased by eight percentage points.

After the price increase, the profit of grain has caught up with cash crops. Count Daniels is expanding production capacity of, naturally do not want to lose Europe this big market.

Baron Fikeni patiently explained: “This is a future problem, the most important thing now is to change the status of the colony first, so that the bill of African indigenization passed.

The population of the country is growing rapidly, in order to develop the African continent, the Vienna government is also prepared to introduce a bill to stimulate population growth.

With a growing population, the demand for food was also increasing. If the native population doubles, then the Imperial government will take the initiative to let us deliver food without our pushing.”

If fertilizer hadn’t been invented, it wouldn’t have taken long for Baron Fikni’s prophecy to become a reality. At the current rate of population growth in the country, the Empire’s population would have doubled in thirty years or so.

The direct consequence would be that Austria would turn from a food exporter into a food importer, and by then all of Europe, except the Russians, would be short of food.

This bright prospect was the incentive to invest in their farms and plantations. Perhaps not as profitable as industry, but they were a long-term business, whereas the life cycle of a factory was less than ten years.

In the German region, which has always been small and densely populated, there was a great deal of emphasis on land, and many people were convinced that it would not depreciate in value.

After the opening of the colonies, this idea has been somewhat undermined, but most people still believe that land is the most valuable industry.

This is why Austrian Africa was full of farms and plantations, while most of the other European colonies in Africa were barren.

It’s not that governments didn’t try, the problem was that immigrants didn’t want to work the land, so what could be done?

After hesitating for a while, Count Daniels nodded his head to show his acquiescence. The big deal is to cut food production and plant cash crops instead, this loss is not big.

In order to localize the African colonies, this is a price he is still willing to pay. In order to turn the lifelong nobility into hereditary fiefdom nobility, he had already invested too much, and he absolutely could not afford to mess up at this time.

……

On September 1, 1866, just as the Imperial Council was arguing, the representative of Austrian Africa made a promise in the Imperial Council: after the indigenization of the African colonies, they would not export food to the European continent, which would affect the international price of food.

The turning point came, and even the parliamentarians who were most opposed to the indigenization of Africa had no opinion at this time.

As long as the domestic food prices could be preserved from the impact, then everything was negotiable. As for other industries, the African colonies were not yet qualified to impact Austria.

Under Vienna’s great immigration strategy, there is not so much cheap labor in Austrian Africa, labor costs are higher than even the mainland, the infrastructure is just starting, there is no industry to speak of.

In the future that’s even less to worry about. Being able to develop the African continent to the point where it catches up with the mainland, Franz estimates that he would be smiling in his dreams.

The big deal was that the European Emperor had turned into a non-European Chief, and there was such a large piece of the base that it was enough to support the Empire’s hegemony for a hundred years, and beyond that it was out of his consideration.

The world was changing so fast, who knew that mankind would break out of the solar system one day, or maybe it was just bad luck that the civilization died early?

The biggest obstacle no longer existed, and on September 1, 1866, the bill for the indigenization of the Austrian African colonies was passed unanimously in the Imperial Parliament.

The promises of the delegations were also written into the law as one of the prerequisites for indigenization.

From then on the legal obstacles to the indigenization of the Austrian colonies abroad were cleared, but of course this was only the first step, and the indigenization of the colonies still had a long way to go.

It is not possible for any remote corner of the country to have the qualification of localization. The specific restrictions need to be carefully studied by the government.

The decision of the Reichstag spread through the newspapers, from Vienna to Europe, and all over the world. The moody Franz put pen to paper and wrote a piece called “Tolerance for the Nation,” which highly praised the Austro-African delegation.

This was his true thought, it was not Franz’s remote control behind the scenes, but their own decision.

This concession, perhaps not a great price to pay, brought about a very noticeable effect, allaying the fears of the peasant class in the country. This group may not have a high political voice, but they are numerous.

The agricultural population of Austria now still numbered nearly thirty million, and only when this group was stabilized would the empire be stable.

Now that the problems are solved, it is natural that the masses of peasants will not object to the expansion of the empire proper some more, as long as it does not shock the price of food.

The birth of “Tolerance for the Nation” was quickly followed by people from all walks of life, taking the entire European continent by storm and becoming a propaganda slogan for many countries.

It wasn’t that the level of Franz’s article was so high, nor was he kissing ass. It was still mainly politically correct and helped to eliminate territorial conflicts.

Of course, this is based on the premise that Franz put forward, if it is put forward by ordinary people, it is estimated that the waves will not even splash up.

It’s the prerogative of the successful, just look at the map of Austria, and now he’s one of the greatest monarchs of our time.

Ps: The Shogunate of Takeda

(End of chapter)