Chapter 539: Obo Conflict
Chapter 527 – Aubo Conflict
The establishment of a grain reserve system by the British also affected the international grain trading market, and the grain prices that had been falling finally stabilized.
But this is of no use, the situation of oversupply still has not been resolved. Although the black pot of plummeting food prices fell to the Russians, smart people know that the Vienna government is also the culprit.
Since they were smart people, they naturally weighed the pros and cons. It didn’t matter if the Russians were blackmailed, even the Tsarist government itself was used to being blackmailed.
Austria is different, the Vienna government in the first half of the grain dumping, without the participation of capitalists within the countries, would not be so smooth.
Once this lid is lifted, the interest groups involved are much larger. This kind of thing that offends people, few people are willing to do.
As Christmas approached, Vienna already possessed a festive atmosphere. 1872 Vienna’s winter was exceptionally warm. There was no snow, and even the cold winds were rare.
It was at this time that trouble came to the door. On December 21, 1872, the Polish government sent a note to the Austrian diplomacy: it demanded that Austria hand over the land it had forcibly occupied in Poland, or suffer the consequences.
Well, upon receiving this diplomatic note, the government of Vienna was stunned, and Franz was so frightened that he just couldn’t figure out what horrible consequences would follow.
There had been a surge of anti-Austrian anger in Poland in recent times, and Franz was aware of it. But he didn’t take it seriously; the strong never cared what the weak thought.
In his opinion, the Poles, no matter how much trouble they made, would just shout a few slogans at home, and if they lasted, they would submit a few points of diplomatic protest, and then they would do what they had to do.
In order to recover the old land of Poland divided by Prussia, Russia and Austria in those years, the Polish government has been established, but also many times to the government of Vienna to make demands.
This behavior Franz is understood, no matter whether to recover or not, the government must make a show, otherwise how to explain to the people?
The Vienna government has never responded to the Poles, directly when they do not exist. What Franz never expected was that the Polish government would dare to submit a diplomatic note with such a strong tone.
This is not a small matter, the official diplomatic note and private whining is not the same, this is responsible.
There was nothing to say, Franz immediately convened a cabinet meeting, ready to find the Polish government’s bad luck.
“Are the Poles under some kind of stimulus, or has someone given them the courage of their convictions to think that they can be condescending to us?”
Anyone who knew Franz knew that this was anger. Poland can be independent, Austria is also secretly contributed to the effort, did not ask for return is just, and now the Polish government actually rubbed his nose in it.
If you look up the history books, you will find that the Austrian-Polish territorial dispute is a bad debt. In this case, naturally, whoever is strong has the right.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg explained: ”Your Majesty, Poland is a large agricultural country, and after the agricultural crisis broke out, Poland’s import and export of agricultural products dropped dramatically.
Some time ago, in response to the crisis, we raised the tariffs on the import of Polish agricultural products, which triggered strong dissatisfaction from the Polish government.
About 34% of Poland’s agricultural products are exported to Austria, processed and then sold to the international market, after raising the tariffs the trade volume of agricultural products between the two countries plummeted by two thirds.
This has directly led to a massive sell-off of agricultural products in Poland, which has caused a serious social crisis and destabilized the political situation in the country.
The fact that the Poles sent out a diplomatic note at this time may have something to do with their domestic situation, and the government wants to use the opportunity to divert domestic conflicts.”
This is something that can’t be helped, the international market is shrinking, Austria has to cut production capacity, and many capitalists engaged in the processing of agricultural products have begun to transform.
Against this background, it is definitely necessary to protect domestic agriculture, and it has become inevitable to reduce the import of agricultural imports.
As early as before the outbreak of the agricultural crisis, the Vienna government was ready to give up the agricultural product processing industry. There is no way, this industry does not have much technical content, can only be used as a primary industry.
In recent years, agricultural product processing enterprises have sprung up in all European countries, and the competition in the market has become more and more intense. Austria was able to retain its dominant position in the agro-processing industry, mainly because it controlled most of the raw grain production capacity.
Obviously this situation can not be sustained, from the outbreak of the agricultural crisis, the countries of the agro-processing industry is not worried about raw materials, Austria’s cost advantage no longer exists.
In this context, and then continue to increase investment in this deadlock, it is better to put the power into the emerging industries, promote the second industrial revolution to pull apart the gap between the strength of everyone.
Without the government’s key support, the higher profits of agricultural products processing manufacturing industry, can continue to survive, and flour mills within the lack of technological content within the enterprise day is not good.
This is the inevitable result of economic development, the higher the technological content of enterprises, the more obvious advantage in the competition. No technical content of the enterprise, can only fall into the price war circle, it is difficult to go further.
At this time, the enterprise either for transformation, or technology upgrade. For example, the development of more new products, the latter day supermarkets in a wide range of various food products, are forced out by reality.
Agricultural products processing enterprises in order to survive, can not simply process a product, must increase the link, improve the technical content, increase the added value of the product.
In the long run, this agricultural crisis also prompted the upgrading of the Austrian agro-processing industry. 1872 Vienna’s market increase in cookies, canned goods, all kinds of junk food types, than the past five years of increase in the sum of all.
The emergence of these high value-added products plunged many enterprises into a new life and revitalized them. Businesses that were slow to react are still struggling.
From the perspective of later generations, competition in this era is nothing at all. Even the most competitive flour mills, as long as the proper management, there are still good profits, from the loss of money is still far away.
Prime Minister Felix said sternly, “No matter what the reason is, the Poles provoked us to give a tough response, so that they know how powerful they are. If necessary, we can take military action to make the Poles wake up.”
Taking military action, Franz frowned. He felt that things were not as simple as they appeared, even if the Poles had a brain fart, there was no reason to provoke Austria.
Without waiting for Franz to open his mouth, Finance Minister Karl raised an objection.
“It’s easy to teach the Poles a lesson, even if it’s not difficult to capture Warsaw, the question is what benefit can we gain?
The current international situation is not suitable for foreign expansion, and the Kingdom of Poland is so poor that unless we accept Polish agricultural products as compensation, I’m afraid we won’t even be able to recover our military expenses.”
To raise an army in anger is a major military taboo.
Although the land in Poland was good, Franz really couldn’t raise his ambition. After the War of Independence, Polish nationalism had risen, and it was too difficult to digest them.
For the sake of a piece of land suitable for growing food, it was completely unprofitable to sow the hidden danger of division in the empire. This untimely bomb could go to whoever wanted it, and Franz wasn’t going to keep it at home anyway.
Accepting Polish agricultural products as reparations was even more of a joke. Just as after World War I, Britain and France accepted Germany’s industrial products to offset their debts.
The Germans were not able to open up the British and French markets for their domestic industry and commerce by the war, but instead achieved their goal through post-war reparations.
Greedy for momentary profits of Britain and France, also paid a terrible price for this. By the impact of cheap industrial and commercial products from Germany, the British and French industries went into decline.
The opening of World War II, as the defeated side, German industry actually exceeded the sum of Britain and France, which has to be said to be an irony.
This kind of stupid thing, the Vienna government can not do. Protect domestic agriculture is too late, how can for some benefit, ignored the fundamentals.
“First warn the Polish government and order them to quell the anti-Austrian movement in the country before Christmas, or we will parade our troops in Warsaw.”
Just because there was no interest in Poland didn’t mean that the threat of force couldn’t be used anymore. If the Polish government was really out of its mind, then Franz didn’t mind fighting a hard battle.
Only then, it would be cheap for the Russians. If Poland was crippled, Franz was very skeptical about what the Kingdom of Prussia would rely on to fight in the next Russo-Prussian War.
Neither Alexander II, nor Alexander III were easy men, and the war potential of the Russian Empire was far above that of Prussia.
Having suffered a loss, it was difficult for the Russians to be greedy and adventurous. As long as the Tsarist government played steadily, the war became a war of attrition, and Prussia could not wear out the Russians.
The Kingdom of Poland, at this time, became crucial. If a little bit ruthless, from the Kingdom of Poland to recruit millions of cannon fodder, then in the face of gray livestock, Prussia is not drowned in a sea of men.
Franz was not sure about anything else, but one thing was certain, and that was that this time the Tsar’s government would not run out of food.
Even if the transportation in the Russian Empire remained insurmountable, the Tsarist government would stockpile enough strategic materials before war broke out.
This time the Prussians could not take the Russians by surprise, and it was impossible for the Tsarist government to take the initiative to start another war before completing its preparations.
The Russo-Austrian alliance still had a few years to go, and in the meantime the Kingdom of Prussia could not take the initiative to launch an attack without dragging Austria down with it.
Shaking his head, Franz dismissed these chaotic ideas. Why do you care so much, the international situation is ever-changing, no one can guarantee what will happen tomorrow.
Perhaps by the time the Russo-Prussian War breaks out, the situation will have changed again. Now Austria’s strength is also growing rapidly, perhaps when the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, Austria has been far behind them.
As long as one’s own strength was strong enough, any challenge would not be enough to worry about. Perhaps by then, the outcome of the Russo-Prussian War would also become irrelevant to Austria.
(End of chapter)