Although the policy measures to stimulate the economy are somewhat crude, they are simple and effective. As soon as the Vienna government unveiled plans for the "Ring Railway", the market reacted.

On April 26, 1894, when the Vienna stock market opened, the infrastructure sector led the market by 7 points higher, and once exceeded 20 points in the middle, and finally closed with a sector increase of 11.6%.

Steel, cement, construction machinery and equipment, banks and other sectors related to railway construction have also rebounded upward.

As a result, the Vienna stock market rebounded 3.62% upward, the largest rebound since the outbreak of the stock market crash.

And then there was no then, since the outbreak of the stock market crash, the Vienna stock market has been all the way down, the worst time is as high as 74.3% from the peak, even if there is a rebound, the market index is only 30% of the peak.

The market has fallen so badly, and the market's confidence has collapsed to what extent, you can imagine. There is no way, the free development of the stock market is so capricious.

Relatively speaking, the infrastructure steel sector is quite good. As a mature industry, the ceiling of the market is in front of everyone, and its valuation is not high, and it is supported by large projects for post-war reconstruction, so it naturally cannot fall anywhere.

After this wave of rebound, it has basically recovered to three-quarters of its peak market value, barely out of the crisis.

The hardest hit area of the stock market crash is actually the emerging technology industry, which is not supported by performance, only a "good story" to support the market value, and once the bubble is punctured, it will fall so much that you don't even know your mother.

Fortunately, he put on a vest, otherwise Franz would not have dared to go out to meet people now. Technological progress also comes at a cost, and relying solely on the power of individuals is too small.

In order to speed up the scientific and technological development of the empire, Franz chose to let the company go public and raise funds without hesitation. Scientific research requires luck, so often there are multiple research groups in a single project.

Catching a sheep wool, the light efficiency is too low, obviously not enough to meet the demand. But this is not difficult for Franz, anyway, there is no Internet these days, and it doesn't matter if you tell a story a few times.

From Vienna to London, every big financial market in Europe has a royal consortium of technology companies listed. If it weren't for the immaturity of the overseas market, it is estimated that all five continents would be pastures.

Although the wool is a bit strong, compared to his peers, Franz is definitely a conscientious entrepreneur.

Unlike the high-tech winner-take-all of later generations, it is just getting started, and you can become a "great enterprise" by clearing customs on any track.

In the past 30 years, there have been no less than 2,000 technology companies invested and listed by the royal consortium, of which a quarter of them have gone bankrupt and closed, and 70 percent of the companies are struggling hard, and only less than 5 percent of the companies are doing well.

Just look at the data to see how pitty these high-tech projects are. No way, who let Franz be a scumbag in his previous life?

Many times when the project is launched, it is the emperor's head that has an idea. There is definitely no specific technology, most of the time there is not even a concept, there are only functional requirements.

For example, a refrigerator that can refrigerate food, an air conditioner that can cool and heat, a television that can play videos, and a computer that you can't understand......

A series of "high-tech" projects, no matter how many years ahead of them, Franz simply put forward the requirements and then the scientists evaluated them. If you can't find a clue and don't know where to start, then package it up and go public for financing.

Anyway, the stories are good stories, every family needs machines for refrigerating food, and machines that can adjust the indoor temperature also have huge market potential.

As for whether it can be done, when will it be done?

Sorry, this is sacred scientific research. As long as it is theoretically achievable and the story told is convincing to investors, that's enough.

The end result is very obvious, the more advanced the project, the worse it will die. Only a handful of lucky people can stand out. And a large part of these enterprises have deviated, and they have achieved profitability by undoubtedly making by-products.

For example, the refrigerator did not come out, but the ice storage technology made a breakthrough; Television sets were not built, and movie projectors were first introduced; The shadow of the air conditioner is not seen, but the fan technology has been improved......

The lucky ones are always a minority, and the vast majority of enterprises have no breakthroughs in the technology of their main business, and they have not started a side business, so they can only rely on continuous financing to survive.

Fortunately before the stock market crash, investors were relatively tolerant of high-tech companies. Including many capital consortia, they have fooled into the pit.

After all, the high-tech enterprises created by the royal consortium are indeed engaged in scientific research. The financial accounts are also clear, in addition to not making money, it is a proper conscientious enterprise.

After the stock market crash broke out, it was suddenly revealed. Suddenly, everyone realized what kind of goods they had invested in.

A huge amount of money has been invested, and it has not made a profit for several years or even decades, or it is only a company that only maintains a small profit, is not garbage?

If that's it, after all, there are still a series of special train technologies in it, and maybe it will be used one day. However, the valuations of these companies are still high, with a price-to-earnings ratio of hundreds of times, except for bubbles or bubbles.

In fact, this non-loss is the result of deliberate manipulation by the royal consortium. Use other vests to allow these businesses to earn income on side hustles.

It's too big a hole to settle the accounts, or if the R&D team is really capable, it will be abandoned and let go bankrupt.

One patent this month, another technological breakthrough in a few months. Good news emerges one after another, constantly stimulating market confidence. More and more companies are raising money, and their market value is also expanding.

If it weren't for the stock market crash, this game of catching drums and passing flowers could have continued. Until one day there was a technological breakthrough, and then another story.

It's a pity that there is no if in reality, and now that the bubble has burst, this kind of enterprise without performance support will naturally fall into a mess.

"Cut in half" and then "cut in half", that is only the treatment of those who are five percent successful. The overall decline in the technology sector was 80 percent or higher, and some individual stocks even fell as high as 99.9 percent.

If the net worth is calculated in terms of market value, after the stock market crash, Franz's paper wealth has evaporated at least 8 billion Aegis, which is more than the total annual financial income of all countries in the world.

The foam that you blow out will naturally swallow the bitter fruit by yourself. Of course, this is only on the surface. If you dig deeper, you will find that from the outbreak of the European War, the major shareholders of these companies began to reduce their holdings.

The majority shareholder is still the majority shareholder, and only a small part of the shares are reduced. However, it is this small part that can now buy the entire company.

Franz, who had made a lot of profits, was not happy at the moment. In the past, I was picking wool and using other people's money to engage in scientific research, so I naturally didn't feel distressed when I burned it.

Now the situation is different, there is no financing in the market, and these high-tech companies are on the verge of bankruptcy and are about to be smashed into their own hands.

Franz had only two options in front of him: either he could save the companies at his own expense; Either the strong man will break his wrist and shake off these gold-swallowing beasts.

There is no doubt that neither path is a good choice. "Funding" is easy to say, but it is definitely tears to do.

You must know that this is not one or two, but thousands of companies all need money, and Franz can't afford such a loser even if he is rich.

"Strong man broke his wrist" really has no loss in the short term, but the previous efforts have been wasted. And, with this lesson, it's not so easy to make up stories in the future.

There is no way, the stock market crash came too quickly, and as a major shareholder, I couldn't run out at all. What's even more tragic is that in this stock market crash, Franz missed his own property when he was shorting because of his conscience.

A momentary misstep has created a hatred for the ages. Franz, who missed a lot of billions, suddenly found himself a poor ghost.

After hesitating again and again, Franz said helplessly: "Gong Xiang, find someone to carefully screen and reorganize all the enterprises with serious losses and no results."

The remaining enterprises should also reduce their expenses, cut scientific research funds, and develop money-making side businesses as much as possible.

The royal consortium secretly gave some help to these companies when they could. In principle, priority should be given to helping our domestic enterprises, and overseas enterprises should be abandoned.

In addition, people were sent to acquire the shares of high-quality domestic enterprises from the secondary market. It's not far from the bottom, and it's time to rebound after that. ”

The stock market that has squeezed out the bubble is just a piece of chicken feathers. Compared with the valuation of dozens or hundreds of times before the stock market crash, the valuation of several times now looks much more pleasing to the eye.

The strong man broke his wrist and cut off some of the enterprises with serious losses, and Franz's heart was dripping blood, and he urgently needed to buy some high-quality assets to replenish it.

Palace Minister Mirabellon persuaded: "Your Majesty, now that we have reached the end of the economic crisis, large-scale bankruptcy and liquidation, our losses will be very large.

It is better to let these companies transform, and when necessary, the consortium can help them create performance to pull up the stock price, and find opportunities to lose to the receiver behind. ”

In fact, this is also the reason why consortia like to play finance. Not to mention the slow returns from engaging in industry by ourselves, the key is to suffer heavy losses when encountering an economic crisis.

In contrast, playing finance is much easier. The "economic crisis" is not only a "danger", but also an "opportunity".

It is a catastrophic crisis for ordinary people and businesses, but it is a big opportunity for financial consortia.

When a crisis breaks out, you can play short; After the crisis erupts, you can buy the bottom; After the crisis is over, you can turn around and sell the company that bought the bottom, and wait for the next round of crisis to continue playing.

In the capitalist world, an economic crisis every ten years or so is not only the self-regulation of the market, but also the fact that these guys behind the scenes see the fruit and want to reap it.

Otherwise, how could we not be aware of such a big thing as the economic crisis, and the signs before the outbreak were so obvious?

Franz shook his head: "I think you misunderstood, this economic crisis is not so easy to end. Although we are nearing the bottom, we are still far from the end.

The most optimistic estimate is that the empire will not emerge from the Great Depression until next year. As for other countries, it depends on their own circumstances. According to preliminary estimates, it will take at least two years or more to completely get out of the crisis.

It will take longer for the market to regain confidence and find a new receiver. If we do not close down these enterprises with serious losses, we will lose even more if we continue to survive. ”

Unlike in the past, this economic crisis has been artificially delayed. In the normal context of economic development in the capitalist world, the signs of an economic crisis appeared three years earlier, but initially in France.

If it weren't for the outbreak of the European War, it would have been the French who were the first to explode. Perhaps aware of the gravity of the crisis, the French chose to start the war before the bubble burst.

While the war diverts the crisis, it also brews a new one. If the European War had just ended and the crisis had been allowed to erupt, a year and a half would have passed.

Unfortunately, for the sake of their own interests, the British and Austrian governments have taken action to delay the outbreak of the crisis, the bull market has been artificially extended for more than a year, the market has doubled again, and the bubble has been blown to an incomparable level.

The bigger the bubble bursts, the more damage it causes, with the Vienna stock market evaporating by three-quarters, and the rest of the financial markets doing the same, far more lethal than the previous economic crises.

Hearing this bad news, Mirabellon's face changed drastically. The Great Depression, which lasted for more than two years, was as destructive as the Revolution of 1848.

If the Holy Roman Empire had not been able to take the lead in reviving the world economy, the European continent might have had to repeat the Revolution of 1848.

In a sense, the European world is now more equipped with the basis for revolution than it was in 1848.

The wave of unemployment that has affected the countries, the deteriorating economic situation, the complex international contradictions, the hatred between the countries of Europe are all hotbeds of revolutionary ideas.

The French, who were not willing to accept defeat, Spain, which was mired in the war in the Philippines, Portugal, where the monarchists and republicans were about to fight their brains, and the Italian states, which had just become independent and had not yet stabilized, all had the basis for a revolution.

The Holy Roman Empire, as the new boss, seems to be majestic, but in fact it has reached a crossroads. As soon as a revolutionary wave broke out on the European continent, the Vienna government was in great trouble.

In particular, there is a Britain who is secretly eyeing and wants to do things; and the seemingly restrained but ambitious tsarist government.

In this context, if the royal consortium does not quickly endure the pain of cutting meat, it may not even have the opportunity to cut meat.

……