Christmas

As the most important festival in the European world, it is natural that you can't be sloppy, don't you see that the officers and soldiers of the Papal States are in a hurry to come back for the festival?

Franz held a Christmas dinner in the palace as usual, inviting a group of people to the banquet.

This was the first Christmas after Franz ascended the throne, and everyone paid special attention to it, and everyone who was invited was able to arrive.

Relatives, friends, military and political dignitaries, plus their families, the guests directly exceeded four figures. The banquet was staggered, the words were cheerful, and the joy was harmonious.

Franz could see that everyone was giving him a happy face, but in fact they were bored to death, chatting about dry content.

The palace banquet pays attention to etiquette, and it can't be let go of playing at all. Children, in particular, are eager to end the party immediately and go out for a merry Christmas.

There is no way, even he, the emperor, is annoying. With the glittering tableware, Franz once wondered if it was gold-plated, but after experiments proved that he thought too much, it was indeed real gold, and the people below did not dare to fool him, the emperor.

Well, these cutlery Franz usually don't use, generally he uses silver cutlery, which is said to be sterilized and sterilized.

In this era, although Western medicine came out of the primitive treatment of bloodletting, the technology was still not good, and any disease could kill people, and Franz, who spared his life, made a decisive choice.

After a hearty meal, everyone went back to their own homes, and Christmas should be spent at home by themselves, and Franz did not mean to leave everyone to celebrate the holiday together, which meant finding guilt.

He bet that if it weren't for the fact that the palace banquet was a manifestation of the status of these people, the vast majority of people would rather not attend.

Although the banquet was extravagant, it cost tens of thousands of guilders (1 guilder ≈ 11.69 grams of silver) at a time. How can there be poor ghosts among those who can attend the banquet?

The guests are gone, the Franz family has their own Christmas Eve, and the younger brothers are instantly revealed.

To the envy of Franz, even though he was only 18 years old, he could no longer let go of himself. To make matters even more tragic, her mother's Christmas wish was for him to marry his daughter-in-law as soon as possible.

When the emperor is still urged to marry? Franz felt like a dog, and when he recalled the age of the royal princesses of Europe, he was relieved.

There is no need to worry in a short time, the original Princess Sissi has just turned 11 years old, and even her sister is only one or two years older. The other princesses of the same status are also young, and the eldest is already married.

However, Franz still didn't dare to let down his vigilance, for fear that if he was not careful, he would have an extra Lori fiancée.

Early engagement is also very popular among the aristocracy. As the emperor of Austria, Franz was the fifth largest diamond king among the European aristocracy, and there were many nobles interested in him.

Fortunately, Franz was now emperor and had a say in personal matters, and if he insisted on disagreeing, no one could force him to agree.

Under normal circumstances, the Queen Mother Sophie would discuss this issue with him, but as for his father, who was a tracheitis patient, he had no say in the family.

The bell struck twelve o'clock in the middle of the night and rescued Franz.

The family stood up, lit candles, read the Bible in unison, blessed each other, and sang Christmas songs.

……

Christmas in Vienna is particularly lively this year, as the earliest official holiday is confirmed, and the factory is closed early.

The capitalists are not willing to pay three times their wages and make the workers work overtime today. If you meet a generous boss, you may even get a Christmas gift.

The streets and alleys of Vienna are now full of children, singing Christmas songs and going from house to house to report good news.

At this time, it's time for everyone to show their demeanor. Those who are rich in wealth usually prepare some Christmas gifts in advance, such as candy, melon seeds, etc., and distribute them to the children who come to report good news.

This Christmas, Franz's wallet has dried up a little more.

Christmas gifts are a big head, and the servants and guards in the court who work hard and work overtime, he gave a Christmas gift.

Friends and family, government officials, soldiers still on duty, and even the orphans in the government received a Christmas gift from His Majesty.

It's all candy melon seeds and the like, each gift is worthless, but it can't stand the large number of people? In order to buy people's hearts, Franz also took great pains.

However, there is always a reward for paying, in this era, people are simple, and in the face of sudden Christmas gifts, many people's loyalty to the emperor has skyrocketed.

In particular, orphans adopted by the government have received their first Christmas gifts, which has a particularly strong impact on them.

At the cost of a Christmas, Franz spent nearly 200,000 guilders. If it weren't for the Habsburg family's big business, the royal annuity alone might not have been enough for Franz to squander.

Austria's royal pension was determined not long ago, and it is withdrawn at the rate of 1.5 percent of Austria's fiscal revenue, which is about five or six million guilders per year.

The money was not spent by Franz alone, but by the royal family, including his uncle Ferdinand I and his wife, who had to take 1.5 million guilders.

Everyone in the other royal families also has a share, and in the end, there is only about three million guilders left for him, the emperor, at his disposal, and there is still such a large group to support in the palace.

It's not enough to be frugal, but it's obviously not enough to squander it.

After Christmas, Franz was ready to buy some more properties. What exactly to sit on, Franz had a headache.

There are a lot of quick money-making businesses, most of which are written in the law, and as a great emperor, it is obvious that you cannot take the lead in breaking the rules.

Franz once wanted to sell reference materials for the civil service exam, but he quickly dispelled this idea, which was too unproductive, not to mention that he couldn't make a lot of money, and the impact was not good if it was spread.

Agriculture is not a concern, and although the Habsburgs did not lack land, the rate of return in this area was too low. Even if you grow cash crops, this rate of return will not be able to make you rich quickly.

"Drugs" Franz will not touch, this is completely to darken his glorious image.

Arms can be sold, but unfortunately the arms trade is dominated by political factors, and Austria has been in Europe for many years, and its overseas influence is limited.

The rest is the financial industry, but unfortunately Franz lacks this knowledge, and the financial industry is shady in this era, and it will be too late to cry if he is cheated.

Don't think that no one dares to pit the emperor, for the capitalists, as long as the profits are enough, there is nothing they dare not do.

After picking and choosing, Franz felt that there was a future for investing in food refining, and the companies that usually followed the policy had a "money" way.

Once the Holy Roman Economic Alliance was established, it could immediately achieve explosive development, and with the connections of the Habsburgs, there was no need to worry about the sales network.

In later generations, all kinds of snacks could not be produced, and popcorn, chips, biscuits, canned food, and beverages, which had no technical content, were very simple to manufacture.

In addition, mining is also a very promising industry, which does not require much technical content, as long as the background is hard enough to find a rich mine, you can lie down and make money.

This is simply tailor-made for Franz, at least to open a mine in Austria, he only needs to find a mine to make money, don't worry, no one has dared to cut off the emperor's financial route.

……

After a while, Franz wrote a bunch of business projects in his notebook, how to implement them, and to do market research.

The common problem of all traversers is that they love to do one thing - to be at the forefront of the times. It is very dangerous and easy to become a martyr.

Franz was very wary of this and rarely acted arbitrarily. In his opinion, if even the elites of this era can't accept things, how can they be accepted by ordinary people?

"Jenny, give the information I have listed to Baron Cass, and ask him to do a market survey of these industries, collect as much information as possible, and I will select the projects suitable for investment." Franz commanded

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Jenny replied

This is the advantage of being an emperor, you can order others to do anything, and some people are willing to give him their lives.

For example, this Baron Cass is a retainer of the Habsburgs, whose ancestors have served the Habsburgs for five generations.

After the regency of Franz, in order to strengthen the control of the government departments, many people were stuffed in, and Baron Cass was just one of them, and he was installed in the Ministry of Commerce.

At this time, Franz asked him to do his own private work, and Baron Cass would be more attentive than officework.

If Franz had not let him do his personal work, but had left it to his peers, he would probably have been worried that he would have been abandoned by the emperor.

The problem of public and private use, sorry that in this era, everyone really can't tell the difference between the country and the emperor, in the eyes of many people, they are loyal to the emperor, not the country.

This was a common situation in the Austrian Empire, and the link that bound the many peoples of Austria together was not the government but the emperor.