Holy Roman Empire

Now Austria's agricultural industry technology has risen to the top of the era and has become the presence of the guard.

Fortunately, the agricultural products of the Russians are relatively simple, nothing more than potatoes, wheat, corn, fruits and vegetables, unless they are processed into cans, they will rot before they are shipped out.

Obviously, Russia's industry has not caught up. The development of these industries is not very good, and the products produced cannot be sold locally, let alone the international market.

At this point, it is imperative for Austria to adjust its agricultural industry, such as reducing the output of agricultural products that will obviously be affected, and replanting other cash crops that are in short supply in the market.

easy to say, hard to do.With so many farmers in Austria, it is not possible to change their planting habits in one sentence.

Because market information is opaque, even Franz cannot accurately judge what agricultural products will be lacking in the future market.

No one knows what is lacking in the market, which makes the government's guidance in the cultivation of agricultural products an empty talk.

Unless it is a planned economy, otherwise, there will be chaos in the cultivation of agricultural products for a long time to come.

This is an unsolvable problem. The agricultural products that are in short supply this year may rot in the ground next year, and no one cares about them.

Farmers are also adjusting the direction of planting agricultural products according to their own judgment. There are too many people involved, and it is impossible to coordinate at all.

Franz had a headache.

Chapter 62 Promoting Pork

Agriculture accounts for a large proportion of the total economy, and the entire industrial chain employs tens of millions of people. If it fails to withstand the impact, the Austrian economy will be hit hard.

Despite the colonial flood, the homeland is still the core.It is still far from the time to transfer the primary industry. Before the birth of chemical fertilizers, the dividend period of Austrian agriculture will not end.

Due to practical needs, Franz could only advance the development of the breeding industry and artificially increase food consumption.

The reason why it is said to be ahead of schedule is that the income level of the people has not yet increased, and the demand for meat products in the market is relatively small.

According to the original plan, Franz planned to put the breeding industry after 1875, which was determined according to the economic development of European countries.

Those who study the economy are accustomed to putting the period from 1870 to 1890 in a cycle, mainly because of the outbreak of the second industrial revolution. During this period, the economies of European and American countries were growing rapidly, and the income of the people also increased greatly.

The increase in income is also accompanied by the increase in consumption levels. According to the data analyzed by economic experts, the golden period for the promotion of animal husbandry will be five years later.

Restricted by the times, there is no need to worry about the impact of beef and mutton from Argentina, Canada, and Australia in this era, at least in the fresh meat market.

The refrigeration technology is not up to standard, and if you want to send fresh meat to Europe, you must send live meat.

It is not an easy task to transport live cattle and sheep from thousands of miles away to the European continent. Any accident at sea will cause heavy losses.

Amortizing these transportation costs, even if it is shipped to the European continent, the price is not cheap.At most, they sell beef jerky or bacon.

There will be no such powerful competitors in the short term, and it will be another period of agricultural product dividends.However, this bonus period must be generated at a time when the market demand is strong.

Now that the development of the breeding industry has begun ahead of schedule, it is still difficult to establish a market in the early stage.

In fact, the development of animal husbandry was not thought of by Franz himself.The Ministry of Agriculture had planned for a long time, but it did not expect that the Russians would return to the agricultural export market so soon.

After the tsarist government announced its repudiation, European countries took retaliatory measures, directly confiscating Russian export products to repay debts if they were more aggressive, and imposing debt taxes if they were less lenient.

Well, this debt tax was initiated by Franz, which is to extract a certain percentage of taxes from imported goods from Russia to repay the debts owed before.

The relationship between the Russia-Austria alliance, this debt tax Austria is only a symbolic collection, and other European countries do not give face like this.

The specific ratio depends entirely on everyone's mood, and generally it will not be lower than 30.00%.Affected by this, in the past two or three years, the export trade of the Russian Empire has shrunk by eight layers.

Now the tsarist government's proposal to pay off debts with grain is actually to break through these restrictions, otherwise their grain prices will be difficult to be competitive in the market no matter how cheap they are.

It is easy to find problems, but difficult to solve them.After realizing the actions of the Russians, the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture got busy.

Agriculture Minister Christian, who is nearly seventy years old, also had to withdraw the leave report.If this problem is not resolved, he will not want to go on vacation with peace of mind.

This time is not far away, perhaps from the second half of the year, Russian agricultural products will appear in the international market again.

In another two or three years, Austria's painstakingly managed export dominance of agricultural products will cease to exist.

The international market is so big, as long as the Russians ship out the grain from Ukraine and the Moscow region, they can seize a large market share.

There were only a few major food-importing countries in this era, Britain, Italy, and the German Federal Empire. Although the remaining Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland were also importing food, the demand was not too large.

Overall, there is a market of approximately 3000 million people in the European grain market.

Of course, this only refers to the staple food, and the demand for other agricultural and sideline products varies greatly, so it is difficult to make effective statistics.

This market is still growing at a rate of 200 million per year, which is brought about by the population growth of various countries. If agricultural technology does not improve, and food production does not increase simultaneously with population growth, a gap will appear.

At present, 24.6% of the agricultural products produced in Austria are exported, and this part is the most affected.

After sorting out the information, Christian sighed.It is not easy to be a minister of agriculture. It is too difficult to make achievements, and it is too easy to make problems.

Exports account for too much and are vulnerable to the impact of the international market. This is the biggest problem.If you want to switch to domestic sales, the domestic market can't consume it.

The snow is still falling, and the weather in Vienna this winter seems to like silver clothes.The cold wind was blowing, and Christian, who had just stepped out of the carriage, shivered.

Without pausing, Christian quickly entered the palace and changed to another carriage.

Schönbrunn Palace covers a large area. After Franz succeeded to the throne, the unfinished project started to be rebuilt again, and now it covers an even larger area.

Of course, the main reason is that a hunting ground was enclosed, which was strongly requested by Grand Duke Karl, because Empress Dowager Sophie was worried about his health and did not let him go hunting.In order to make it easier for his elderly father to hunt, Franz naturally agreed.

Anyway, Vienna is the territory of the Habsburg family, and most of the land belongs to the royal family. There is no land cost, and it doesn't cost much to add a wall.

Franz didn't like staying in the original palace very much, so he took the opportunity to add a few more buildings as daily living quarters.

This made the palace gate farther away from the emperor.For safety reasons, the palace prohibits any foreign carriages from entering.Either transfer or walk.This multiple-choice question is easy to do, and Christian doesn't want to be frozen yet.

……

The phone is a good thing. As soon as Christian entered the palace, someone notified Franz.

Franz, who is sympathetic to the old minister, has already had coffee prepared according to his preference.

Of course, if someone knows that all kinds of drinks in the palace are always kept and changed every 15 minutes, perhaps the effect of buying people's hearts will not be great.

Of course, even if someone knew about it, they would probably pretend to be confused.It's good to drink some, but there's so much nonsense, if you tell the truth, you won't be able to live this day.

How could Franz remember the personal preferences of the ministers? Only subordinates have always paid attention to the preferences of their superiors. Which emperor ran to care about the personal preferences of the ministers when he was full?

Taste and hobbies, it's not like someone is keeping records.If you make a mistake, it's a big deal to change to a glass.The relationship between monarchs and ministers in Europe is not that complicated, and the details of daily life are not worth mentioning, so don't worry about accidentally losing your head.

After taking a sip of coffee to dispel the cold, Christian reported to Franz after resting for more than ten minutes.

"Your Majesty, this is the data calculated by the Ministry of Agriculture. At present, the supply and demand of domestic meat products are basically in balance. The best way to expand domestic demand is to lower the price.

It's not that the people don't like to eat meat, it's just that the current domestic meat price is still a bit high compared to their income.

The international market is even worse. Although the relationship between supply and demand in the fresh meat market is still tending to balance, the supply of beef jerky and cured meat is a bit too large. Most of these products come from the Confederate States of America.

According to preliminary judgments, an annual increase of 60 tons of beef supply, 40 tons of mutton supply, 40 tons of pork supply, and 35 tons of other meat products is the limit that the market can bear.

If this supply is exceeded, it will have a huge impact on the market, which is likely to cause the price to plummet. "

Franz obviously couldn't do something that would destroy the market.As the largest exporter of agricultural products, the market has been hit, and Austria has suffered the most.

After thinking about it, Franz asked, "What if we put this time in one year or two years?"

Animal husbandry also takes time. Feed is not popular in this era. It is all forage plus grain, and the time for slaughtering is relatively long, and the shortest time is more than one year.

Minister of Agriculture Christian thought for a while and replied: "Your Majesty, although the European population is growing steadily, the breeding industry itself is also expanding its production capacity. If you put the time in two years, it will increase by about [-]% at most."

After wandering a few steps indoors, Franz made a decision: "The Ministry of Agriculture is going to promote the breeding plan, which is calculated based on the increase of 200 million tons of meat products.

First, lower the price of meat products and cultivate the market.If the market cannot digest it, we will increase strategic reserve materials.It will take about two or three years, and it will not take much money. "

The direct grain consumption of cattle and sheep is not large, but planting forage will inevitably occupy the land originally planted with grain, thereby reducing grain production.

Unlike later generations, pork is not very popular in this era. This is determined by eating habits, and it will take a long time to change.

In fact, the per capita consumption of meat products in Europe in this era is not too low, perhaps it was pulled up by the rich.Taking Austria as an example, the per capita meat consumption is 82 pounds. (about 37 kg)

After a pause, Franz added: "The production of pork can be increased. Compared with beef and mutton, the price of pork is relatively cheap, and the public is more acceptable.

If the pork production goes up, I plan to add 300 grams of pork to the tables of children receiving compulsory education every week. "

Don't say whether you like it or not, those who are qualified to be picky eaters have gone to private schools.The compulsory education schools in Austria are not as good as private schools in terms of facilities, and the students are all the children of the common people at the bottom.

It would be nice to have meat, but now the school only provides meat once a week.Don't think about beef and mutton, unless it is a festival or Franz's birthday, it can only appear.

In normal times, the only meat provided by the school is fish.There is only one reason, and that is cheap.The same money can buy more meat, and the budget-conscious Ministry of Education can only provide this cheap meat.

There is no way to promote pork, the price of beef and mutton is too high.This is not something that can be lowered if you want to. Pork is cheap, so let’s promote it.

Prior to this, the government had already promoted fish meat, and only sea fish was popular in the market.

This is a sequela brought about by industry. With the development of industry, the inevitable environmental pollution has caused fish and shrimp to mutate in many rivers.

Mutated fish and shrimp are not a good thing. After food poisoning, no one dares to eat them.The Vienna government also legislated to prohibit the sale and consumption of mutated fish and shrimp.

This drags down entire freshwater fish populations, making them less desirable.Unless it is an inland mountain area, almost no one is eating freshwater fish.

Chapter 63 Conspiracy - Yang Conspiracy

While adjusting the industrial structure, Franz did not forget to make trouble for the Russians and disrupt Alexander II's plan as much as possible.

There are no allies in front of interests, and it has nothing to do with right or wrong, and identity determines the position.Franz has restrained himself by confining his troubles to destroying Russian food exports.

It is unrealistic to completely block Russian food exports.Just setting up some obstacles is not difficult to do.

For example: Switzerland next door, after a little activity by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decisively gave the Russians a high tariff.

Another example: the German Federal Empire is still wrangling at this time whether to accept the Russians' food debts.The reason is very simple, the states that did not lend money to the Russians objected.

Of course, there is the diplomatic influence exerted by Austria behind this, but the Russians are more upset.That's right, the displeasure of the Russians can also be a reason, and it is the main factor.

The grievances and grievances in it are already difficult to sort out.In short, the Russians have enemies all over the European continent, and it is not difficult to target them at all.

Subsequently, Belgium and the Netherlands were also successfully publicized by Austria, and they gave the Russians high tariffs one after another. Spain and Portugal were no exception.

The reason is very realistic, who makes the Russians down now?

Perhaps the Russians will rise again in the future, but with Austria and Prussia in the middle, they don't have to worry at all.

The threat of Austria is in sight. Who knows what kind of retaliation will be encountered after rejecting the goodwill of the Vienna government?

The annexation of the Italian states by the French has already terrified these countries.Even if Austria has to pay attention to eating, it is unlikely to annex them directly, but it is still possible to find an excuse to beat them up.

After the news of the alliance between Britain, France and Austria came out, European countries no longer believed that they could rely on foreign powers to ensure their own security.

If so, then behave a little better.Maintain a good relationship with the neighbors around you, so that they are too embarrassed to do it.

Don't feel useless, this is the way for a small country to survive.It's okay to be emotional in normal times, but don't stand in line at critical moments.

For the rest of Britain and France, Franz was too lazy to do useless work.Don't think that everyone is forming an alliance, but if you take it seriously, then you will lose.

From the very beginning, this alliance was full of ghosts, because the interests reluctantly stood together, and there was nothing to talk about when it came to interests.

It is not difficult to persuade Britain and France, but the Russia-Austria alliance is about to be shattered.Frankly speaking, Franz no longer cares about this alliance, but it does not mean that he will take the initiative to tear up the alliance.

This is related to the credibility of the country. A country that ignores the covenant will not be respected internationally.

Once Austria tears up the Russia-Austria alliance, it will no longer be difficult to obtain its current detached status, and it will even be excluded in the upcoming Triple Alliance.

The friendship between France and Austria depends on the British, mainly because the British have too many criminal records of betraying their allies, which makes people subconsciously be wary.

Franz was not going to try. If he did, Austria would no longer be considered a reliable ally.

This character design is the result of years of painstaking efforts by the Habsburg dynasty and has been maintained for many years.From the Vienna Conference to the present, Austria had the right to speak in the European continent during this period, and this character set also played a key role.

When forming an alliance, everyone will have a reliable concept in their subconscious mind.Now Russia and Austria are only engaging in fair competition, and it is their fault that their diplomatic means are not enough. Franz has no means of playing beyond the rules.

Otherwise, a group of pirates suddenly appeared in the Aegean Sea, and they could block the door of the Russians.As for the broken sailboats of the Black Sea Fleet, they are really no match for pirates.

The Tsarist government has already created a record of annihilating a naval fleet by pirates. If it happens again, I wonder if Alexander II can withstand it.

The price paid to buy Britain and France is too high, and there is no need to buy it at all, so it is difficult for the Russians to do what they want.

Every time the situation changes, the interests of those with vested interests will be damaged, and these people are the biggest opponents.The nobles and peasants in Britain and France are the biggest opponents of cheap Russian food.

Casually provoking public opinion, with the "good" reputation of the Russians, it is estimated that the people will hold demonstrations and block the door again.

These means have not yet been launched, and the best time is when the Russian grain transport ship arrives.Encouraging a few junior high school boys to set a fire is more effective than saying anything.

Small tricks are still difficult to be elegant, and they will be intercepted for two or three years at most, so that the Russians will pay more.

In the later stage, there will always be capitalists who cooperate with the Russians for their own interests.As long as the two parties hook up, these small tricks will lose their effect.

This is the main reason why Franz doesn't like to use conspiracy. No matter how he calculates, it seems insignificant in front of his interests.

It wasn't just Austria who shot the Russians, the Prussians were even more active.The Berlin government was more worried about the reemergence of the Russian Empire than the Vienna government.

Seeing that Alexander II worked hard on his internal skills, reformed internal affairs, developed the economy and restored national strength, the Berlin government has not had it easy.