In a quaint castle in Prague, an elderly man in his fifties asked solemnly: "Holst, are you really ready?"

Once you accept the government's allocation, you will have to live a hard life for a long time in the future, and it will be too late to regret it. ”

Holst replied earnestly: "Father, the Vickers family has declined, and in the last power struggle, our network in the government was greatly damaged.

If you want to get a job in the government, you can only pass the civil service exam. There are too many competitors on this road, and besides, our family has always developed in the army, so there is no advantage in this area, and I am not sure that I will come out of the mix.

The situation on the European continent was stabilizing, and there would be no war in Austria for a long time to come, which again cut off the opportunity for a fight on the battlefield.

Now is an opportunity, and with the military merits accumulated on the battlefield, I will now remain in the country and become a knight of glory at most.

The family can make up a little money to exchange it for a manor house from the government, but now they can go to the Balkans to become a hereditary knight and directly own a manor that has doubled in size.

Under normal circumstances, I may not be able to succeed in 20 years of struggle in China. In that case, why not take the plunge? ”

In order to strengthen its control over the Balkans, the Vienna government mobilized at home. As Prime Minister Felix expected, the low-level aristocracy who wanted to go further could not resist this temptation.

Compared with the opening up of overseas colonies, the Balkan Peninsula is still at the doorstep, even if it is a little poor now, the future development can still be expected.

As one of the strongholds of conservatism, Austria still maintains an ancient tradition of the eldest son inheriting the family business and the second son going out.

The big nobles still have the ability to provide enough titles for the direct descendants, and the children of the side branches or the small nobles can only fight on their own.

In order to limit the number of nobles in the country and ensure the quality of the nobility, the Vienna government is also considering the introduction of a "Law on Nobility".

Once this law is implemented, the inheritance of the nobility must be assessed by the noble council, and it will be difficult for the children of the gentlemen to inherit the title.

In addition to the eldest son who inherits the title, even the children of the great nobles will lose the ability to inherit the non-military meritorious title.

Because the impact is too great, it is still being discussed in the noble council. After all, this law is too unfriendly to the declining aristocracy, and it is too difficult for them to pass the assessment.

Franz was going to put this law into practice when he opened up the colony, so that these declining nobles could go to the colony to fight for wealth.

The domestic plate is so big, it is obviously not enough for everyone, and even if the territory of the Balkan Peninsula is increased, the cake is still not big enough.

The collapse of the British and French colonies was largely due to the uneven distribution of interests, how could it be that the capitalists took too much of the benefits but needed others to work for them?

Since ancient times, the sub-feudal system has been a powerful weapon for expansion. The counties that were directly administered by the Central Dynasty were often lost; But the land that was divided was seldom divided. Even if it is independent, it is inseparable from the influence of local culture.

Of course, this is only one factor, and the bigger reason is class solidification. Either make a big cake and leave an upward channel for everyone, or you can only revolution, this multiple-choice question is very easy to do.

The old man pondered for a while and then said, "Okay, I respect your choice of child. The family can't give you much help now, but you can recruit a group of people from the manor to leave, which is just right to relieve the population pressure.

These people have been attached to their families for generations, loyalty is not a problem, and with their help, I believe you can open up the situation soon. ”

The influence of the aristocracy in this era was great, not only because of their status, but also because they had a group of vassals.

Although serfdom was abolished, the influence had not yet dissipated.

Now the Austrian government is encouraging these nobles to go to the Balkans, but not just to let the nobles go there. If you are alone and go to a place where you are not familiar with life, you may not be able to say who will rule anyone.

Besides, everyone's early industry is land now, and the nobles can't go down to the land to cultivate it, right?

It was much easier for these people to organise the immigrants than for the Austrian government.

The densely populated regions of Germany, which had reached the limit of its population capacity in the era of an agrarian country, now diverted some people to relieve internal contradictions.

In any case, the demand for labor in this year of industrialization is not very large, Austria is still the second most populous country in Europe, and the population of the Balkans is already approaching the 50 million mark.

Now the most important thing is to promote ethnic integration, in the context of the unification of language and writing, the next generation has a large number of mixed-race children, who can still use nationalism to do things?

It can be said that the current new Holy Roman Empire, as long as Franz does not wave, the future is promising.

Another unexpected benefit of developing the Balkans is the reduction in immigration to the United States.

After all, it is also risky to cross the ocean in this era, compared with the unknown United States, the risk of the Balkan Peninsula at the doorstep is much lower, and it is connected by the Danube River, and the transportation is convenient, and you can come back in ten days and half a month.

Especially if you have a small family, you can also drag your family with you when you immigrate to the Balkans, and if you go to the United States, it will be a parting of life and death.

Since the Revolution, there has been an upsurge of emigration in Germany, with an average of 60,000 or 70,000 people leaving each year, and about 20,000 or 30,000 people leaving Austria every year.

These immigrants caused the population of the United States to skyrocket, in 1850 the United States received 310,000 immigrants, in 1851 the United States received 379,000 immigrants, while the national population of the United States in 1850 was only 23.192 million, and in 1860 it increased to 31.443 million.

The immigrants of this era are all young and strong, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled can not withstand the turbulence of the sea, and all of them are high-quality labor.

Every time he thinks of this, Franz can only sigh that South American countries are not angry, and they don't know how to rush immigrants with the Americans, even though their own conditions are not bad.

Not to mention that they act together, as long as a few countries pay attention to attracting immigrants and diverting the population of the United States, Americans will not be able to develop so fast.

Franz was also powerless in this situation, and the European countries were not yet aware of the threat posed by the United States and did not take measures to limit the growth of their strength.

Of course, he didn't do nothing, at least every once in a while, he broke out in the newspapers, which is also an entertainment program that the European people like to see, and it is very popular with everyone.

In any case, the number of immigrants to the United States can be reduced by tens of thousands, and even if it is tens of thousands, it is not a small number over time, which can be regarded as weakening the strength of competitors.

You must know that relying on these immigrants, the Germans later became the largest nation in the United States, and it can be said that the Germans contributed greatly to the rise of the United States.

Vienna

Franz is poring over the Cabinet of Ministers' proposal for the development of the Balkan Peninsula.

The strength of a country lies not only in the large territorial area, the large population, and the abundance of resources, which are only one of the necessary conditions, but also in the degree of territorial development.

The Russian Empire is big enough, larger than the two Europes, and purely in terms of land area, resources, and population, their strength should sweep through Liuhe and encroach on the world like a strong Qin.

The reality is that the Russian Empire, which has so many advantages, let alone annexed Europe, can make it impossible for any two great powers to join forces.

The biggest problem is that the degree of indigenous development is too low, and if the Russian Empire has now completed industrialization, there is no doubt that the annexation of the European continent is not a dream.

The new Holy Roman Empire was not as bold as the Russians, and it was able to rise to the top of the great powers by virtue of its extensive management system.

In Franz's view, if the territory in his hands cannot be effectively developed, then the territory that cannot be converted into national strength will become a heavy burden.

It is already difficult to continue to expand on the European continent, and intensive cultivation and development of existing land is the king.

Prior to this, the Vienna government had already drawn up a number of development plans, and with the exception of a few states with a high degree of autonomy, the rest of the regions were included in the government planning outline, and many localities had already begun to organize their implementation.

The current plan for the development of the Balkan Peninsula is only a preliminary idea, and there is still a long way to go before it can be truly implemented.

Franz thought for a moment and said: "Prime Minister, according to this development outline, the two principalities of the Danube River basin in the future will be the second granary of the empire.

But we have to think about the fact that once Russian-Austrian relations deteriorate, the export of products from these regions can only be sold along the Danube to the German region, or transported to the sea by land.

There are also supporting industries, which look more like a customized business for the Russians, and I doubt that the Russians have such a strong purchasing power?

Now they are still an empire of serfs, and even if social reforms are carried out in the future, I think the purchasing power of their ordinary people is at most half that of the Austrian people.

If it is aimed at the industries of the Russian market, it is better to take two routes, either sell high-end to their aristocracy; Either go the low-end route and sell to civilians, and the price of these goods must be cheap enough. ”

Regardless of the geographical location, the economy of the two principalities of the Danube Valley will inevitably be affected by both Austria and Russia, with the Austrian domestic market at home and the Russian market at the outside.

Economic development must also be centered on these two markets, and further afield, other European countries will be considered.

Prime Minister Felix explained: "Your Majesty, no one can say clearly about the future of Russian-Austrian relations. But even if relations deteriorate, the chances of them locking us down are low.

Even if the tsarist government wanted to do this, the interest groups in their country would not agree, and with the executive power of the tsarist government, it would not be possible to carry it out at all.

This can be seen from the current situation, because of the war, the Russians cut off trade with Britain and France, but in fact, Ukraine and the central region of Russia were really cut off.

The main reason for the cut off was not because of the blockade order of the tsarist government, but because the war blocked the Black Sea shipping routes, and these regions were robbed of markets by our goods.

The entry of Russian and British and French goods from the Baltic Sea has never been cut off, and the main reason for not entering the central and southern parts is that the cost of transportation is too high and the competitiveness has been lost.

As for the question of industry, these are only preliminary assumptions, and the final choice is in the hands of the capitalists, whose sensitivity to the market is absolutely above ours.

The government only formulates corresponding policies and will not invest directly in these light industries, believing that the capitalists will do better. ”

Franz nodded, he had no illusions about the execution capacity of the tsarist government, and the probability of being blocked was really low.

Historically, after the rupture of Russian-Austrian relations, the Russians did not blockade the Danube, and it is obvious that this kind of practice that could provoke a war, the tsarist government would not really be so reckless.

Not to mention the problems of the industry, since the cabinet government is not ready to invest in person, then let the capitalists go on their own, and the consequences of profits and losses are at their own risk, which does not need to worry about him, the emperor.

From the perspective of development, Russia and Austria may become economic competitors in the future, and the pillar industry of the Russians is grain export, which is also the pillar industry of Austria.

It's just that Austria exports refined agricultural products, while Russia directly exports raw agricultural products, but the competition between the two sides also exists.

If this situation is not resolved, it is almost inevitable that the competition of interests will affect the relations between the two countries.

In this respect, Franz had to rejoice that the tsarist government was a dictatorship, and such contradictions would not erupt in the short term.

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