Affected by the agricultural crisis, farmers in various European countries are not having a good time. Families with savings are fine, but families without savings will have to go into debt.

The grain is grown by one's own family, and the cost of living is not large, and the biggest expense is government taxes, and the agricultural taxes in most areas are not heavy.

Some countries have also reduced taxes or accepted tax offsets in kind. There are only a few bankrupt peasants, and most of them are still able to get by.

If the agrarian crisis had ended in 1873, it would have been a small episode of a year's worth of bumper agricultural harvests that led to falling prices, and would not have shaken the small-scale peasant economy in Europe.

Obviously, this is not possible. In the spring of 1873, everyone was once again enthusiastic about production. In addition to the decrease in the grain planting area in some countries and regions, the grain planting area in many areas has increased instead of decreasing.

This is not because farmers do not know that the price of grain is not good and the income from growing grain is not high, but the main reason is that their ancestors have been accustomed to this way of planting for generations, and if they do not grow grain, they do not know what to plant.

Austria is a country that has made a big reduction in grain production capacity, and the farms under the state-owned agricultural company have been ordered by Franz to stop important grain and switch to cash crops.

More than a decade ago, this executive order alone could have enabled Austria to survive the agricultural crisis.

Unfortunately, many people have joined in the land redemption, and over the years, the Vienna government has held less than 3% of the country's arable land.

In pursuit of higher yields, agricultural companies also grow very little food, and most of them grow cash crops, except for a small amount of rations for their own consumption.

These cash crops do not need to be sold, and the agricultural company itself has a processing plant, playing with production + processing, integrated agriculture.

Not only state-owned agricultural companies, but also many big aristocrats also developed in this way. In the face of interests, everyone's learning ability is very strong.

Everyone is according to the market demand, the first time to adjust the planting mode, relatively speaking, this kind of integrated agriculture, less affected by the agricultural crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture originally planned that grain production would fall by 5.2%~8.6% this year, but the reality was very slap in the face. Even though the government has hyped up the campaign and called on the people to cut the area under grain cultivation, the big data at the end of the spring ploughing tells them that they are thinking too beautifully.

In the spring of 1873, the area under grain cultivation in Austria fell by only 1.3 per cent, the result of a fine-tuning by the Vienna government.

The data may not be accurate, and in such a short period of time, the Vienna government has not been able to produce comprehensive statistics, which are only the results of a sample survey.

Franz doesn't think the error will be huge, even if it is as high as double, it is only 2.6%, which is more than double the booking target.

Austria is the result of this, and other countries can imagine it. Not to mention the reduction in production, Franz felt that if they did not increase the area of grain cultivation, even if the government was too strong to regulate it.

The agricultural crisis would continue, and Franz was mentally prepared, which was also planned by the Vienna government.

The agricultural crisis was used to impact the agricultural production systems of European countries, promote land annexation movements in various countries, and create a large number of bankrupt farmers.

The Colonial Ministry was ready to accept a total of 10 million immigrants from the European continent over the next 15 years to provide labor for the development of the Austrian colony.

There is no way to do this, and those who want to immigrate in Germany have long been fooled, and this is almost the case in Austria itself.

From hundreds of thousands of immigrants a year at its peak, to 40,000 or 50,000 immigrants a year in Austria itself, the German Confederation can provide about 50,000 or 6,000 immigrants a year, and the rest of Europe will contribute about 20,000 or 30,000 immigrants.

Of course, there are more than a few immigrants from the whole continent every year, but the problem is that they can't all go to the Austrian colonies, and Britain, France, and Hopsie all fool around in Europe. There are also those countries in the Americas, which are also the choice of immigrants.

Seventy or eighty thousand immigrants a year are scattered across Austria's more than 20 million square kilometers of colonies, and not even a single wave can be hit.

In this respect, Franz fooled the German Confederation and Prussia to open up overseas colonies, and he was also competing with himself for immigration.

Looking at the countries of Europe, Russia is currently the most likely to become a major exporter of immigrants, and the potential of the German region has been basically squeezed out.

The agrarian crisis was the best means, and Alexander II's great reclamation really solved the land problem of the peasants.

But the time for the emancipation of the serfs by the tsarist government was too short, and these people did not have time to accumulate wealth, and they encountered an agricultural crisis.

In terms of their ability to resist risks, these Russian peasants, who had just acquired land, still owed a lot of debt to the government, which was undoubtedly the lowest.

The land is newly cultivated, and the yield is relatively low; Russia's natural environment is not good, and many places can only grow one season, and the cost of grain cultivation is high; Constrained by transportation, it is difficult to transport grain, and it is difficult to create economic value.

According to preliminary estimates, the agrarian crisis of 1872 created tens of thousands of bankrupt peasants in the Russian Empire. Such a small number of people naturally can't set off the wind and waves, and they are absorbed by Russian industry and commerce as soon as they come out.

If you want to absorb immigrants, then it's too early? It was only when there was a wave of mass bankruptcies, which exceeded the absorption limits of Russian industry, that a massive outflow was possible.

Otherwise, if you go to Russia and compete with the native Russian capitalists for labor, isn't it brain-dead? People are the head snakes of the land, and keeping them makes people learn to be human again.

Austria itself may not be included in this plan. Although land acquisition was the best option in order to reduce production costs, Franz was not prepared to do so at home.

Stability overrides everything, and in the face of "stability", everything else must be leaned back. Boiling frogs in warm water, the subtle influence is the best choice. Directly bankrupting the peasants and increasing immigration is the next policy.

Putting down the information in his hand, Franz looked at Hall and asked, "How is the Ministry of Agriculture going to deal with the failure of the grain production reduction plan?" ”

If you can't reduce output, you can only increase consumption. Prior to this, the Vienna government had a plan to develop the livestock sector, which was already beginning to take shape.

The main reason for the failure to develop and grow is that the market consumption power has not kept up. Compared to the later figures of more than 100 kilograms of meat per capita, Austria now only reaches one-third.

It's not that people don't like meat, it's that people have limited incomes and can't afford to eat meat at all. To be able to do enough is already a brilliant achievement of the Vienna government's reforms.

Franz's promised programme to feed compulsory school students has been implemented, and students have increased their supply of pork by 300 grams a week since the price of agricultural products fell.

Add 550 grams of fish, 100 grams of chicken or goose and that's enough to meet your nutritional needs. If it continues to increase, Austria may be rich in fat people.

The amount of meat per capita is actually a fallacy, and it is usually averaged. As far as Franz knew, the highest consumption of meat products in Austria was made by sailors and fishermen, followed by capitalists and aristocrats.

It's not that sailors and fishermen are richer, the main thing is that meat products are relatively easy to obtain at sea, and the cheapest thing in their hands is probably fish, and many times the staple food is fish.

The amount of meat eaten by the people in the coastal areas is higher than that in the inland areas. In the port of Venice, for example, the price of fish is less than one-tenth of that of beef, and fish is the main meat product of the common people.

If you go inland, the difference is not so big. Especially in the Hungarian steppes, where the price of beef is only five times that of fish, the consumption of beef is relatively high.

This high is actually very limited, and most people still can't eat it with an open belly. Even in Vienna, the most economically developed country, the per capita annual consumption of beef does not exceed 20 kilograms.

However, Vienna's per capita meat consumption has exceeded 85 kilograms, making it one of the top five cities of all cities, significantly increasing the per capita level in Austria.

In terms of cost, in fact, increasing the amount of fishing is the cheapest way to increase the consumption of meat products by the people.

Many issues are not only about cost, but also about the ripple effects. Blindly increasing the supply of fish and meat, and crushing the country's livestock industry, is not a joke, but it may happen.

There is only one word for the reason - poor! For the vast majority of ordinary workers, cheapness is the most important thing, and eating habits are not impossible to change.

Minister of Agriculture Halls: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture is ready to promote livestock breeding, increase food consumption and at the same time enrich the farmers' tables. ”

Franz heard the implication that it was sacrificing animal husbandry. Once there is a large increase in livestock breeding, overcapacity in the livestock industry will appear.

However, the scale of farmers' free-range breeding is usually not too large, and if they can't sell it, they can only eat it themselves.

In general, it is an artificial increase in food consumption. By the way, the price of meat products will be lowered and the amount of meat eaten by the people will be increased.

It's just that in this way, the farmers who are engaged in animal husbandry and breeding will be in a tragedy. It is inevitable that profits will be squeezed, and if you don't do it well, you will lose money.

There is no way, there are always people whose interests will be damaged. Compared to agriculture, which is very broad, the livestock industry in Austria is much smaller and even less large.

This is only theoretically possible, and there are many more practical problems. After pondering for a moment, Franz shook his head: "Has the Ministry of Agriculture conducted an in-depth investigation?"

As far as I know, many farmers have the habit of raising livestock, especially poultry. Even if it is promoted, are farmers willing to feed it with grain?

For example, if you don't feed geese, you can grow them with grass even if you don't feed them. Cattle and sheep are similar, if they are small-scale farming, they can be fed just grass.

As a result, the production of meat products has increased, but the consumption of food may not be able to increase, so what is the Ministry of Agriculture prepared to rely on to complete the plan? ”

Franz is not a foolish lord, he came from the countryside in his previous life. When I was a child, the economic conditions were not good, and no one used food to feed chickens, cows, and pigs at home.

Despite the fact that more labor is required and the livestock takes longer to grow, everyone persevered.

Compared with the heart, the economic conditions of the Austrian peasants in this year are not much better, and everyone has only eaten enough for a few years, and saving food is almost an instinct.

If the economic conditions are better, then the implementation of the Ministry of Agriculture's plan is estimated to be less problematic. It's really not good, you can also use grain to make wine.

The consumption of beer and wine in Europe is large, but the consumption of liquor is small, and the vast majority of European people are not interested in liquor except for Russia.

Otherwise, Franz would have used the grain to make wine. Even if the market can't be consumed in a short period of time, it can be stored for a long time, and the longer the storage, the better the taste.

Unfortunately, the beer that consumes the most is not suitable for long-term storage. Liquor can be stored, but there are no customers. The Russians also have a surplus of food, and they have long made it themselves, and there is no need to buy it at all.

With the current level of domestic consumption, Franz felt that it was more cost-effective to burn the grain than to use it for large-scale winemaking, and at least he could lose less.

The Minister of Agriculture, Halls, was dumbfounded, there were such big holes in the carefully prepared plan. If it is implemented, the agricultural crisis will not be resolved, and the livestock crisis will be detonated again.

Now is the era of imperialism, what if the crisis cannot be resolved? The most commonly used method is, of course, to transfer to the outside world. The reality is so cruel, and this is the style of the great powers in these years.

Among the great powers, Austria was the most attentive to food. But in essence, Austria was still one of the great powers, and now that it was in crisis, it was natural that the Vienna government could not help but find an unlucky one to bear the loss.

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