The busiest of the economic crisis was probably the Colonial Ministry's Immigration Department, which in just over a year from late 1857 to early 1859 achieved more than the previous years combined.

In the face of survival, many people have to choose to leave their homes, among which the largest number of immigrants are in the Balkans, occupying four layers of the total number of immigrants.

This is the result of the government's deliberate control, otherwise more than 80 percent of immigrants would choose to go to the Balkans.

There were only two kinds of people who volunteered to go to the African colonies: those who had ambitions to get rich; The other is the jingle of poverty, where survival is a problem, and they are forced to go for their livelihood.

Immigrants to the African continent can sign employment contracts with the government, or plantation owners or mine owners, have a stable income, and do not have to worry about the livelihood of their families.

Many people think of going to the African continent as a migrant worker. Anyway, it's not mandatory to immigrate, the contract expires, you can stay if you want to stay, and you can come back if you don't want to stay.

For those who have eaten the last meal but not the next, as long as they can have an income to support their families, it is good, and the place is farther away.

After completing the personnel adjustments, Franz said: "Colonial Department, talk about the development of the colonies. ”

The Colonial Chancellor, Josip Jelačić, replied: "Your Majesty, we have already opened up colonies in Guinea Bend, Nigeria, Congo, Cameroon, Libya and other regions.

It has established 68 colonial strongholds, owns 18 cities, and has more than one million immigrants to the colony, directly controlling more than 3 million square kilometers of colonial territory.

Among them, the Gulf of Guinea has 25 colonial strongholds, including 8 cities, and the actual territory under its control is about 700,000 square kilometers. The total population of the local area is 1.848 million, of which 284,000 are immigrants, and the rest are local aborigines.

The Congo region has 14 colonial strongholds, including 4 cities, and the actual territory under its control is about 680,000 square kilometers. The total population of the jurisdiction is about 3 million, of which about 318,000 are immigrants and the rest are local indigenous people.

The colony of Nigeria had just been established, and we had only established eight colonial bases in the region, including three cities, with a territory of about 280,000 square kilometers. The total population of the jurisdiction is about 2.18 million, of which about 185,000 are immigrants.

Cameroon was developed even later, with only five colonial strongholds, including two cities, and more than 100,000 square kilometers of territory under its actual control. The total population of the district is about 560,000, and there are only 58,000 immigrants.

The Libyan region is also continuing to implement the cage-for-bird strategy, which has been much slower than expected due to local resistance, with about 150,000 people still stranded and likely to be delayed until next year.

We have taken control of all the cities in the region, transported 86,000 migrants, and the coastal oases have been fully controlled, nominally more than a million square kilometers of desert.

The Sinai Peninsula is so barren that we didn't develop it, and we only sent 2,000 immigrants to nominally rule the peninsula of more than 60,000 square kilometers.

The islands of Europe are directly under the rule of the mainland and are not counted in the colonies.

Further overseas, colonial strongholds were established spontaneously by the private sector and have not yet been incorporated into the government's administration.

So far, with the exception of the Gulf of Guinea Colony, which has made a balance and has a small surplus, due to the discovery of gold mines, the rest of the region is in a state of loss.

On the whole, in 1858 the total income of our colonies was minus 9,850,000 Aegis, and the expenditure on immigration and foreign military expenditure still accounted for the lion's share.

It is expected that in the next two to three years, the earlier developed Congolese region will be able to break even. The rest of the colonization will take some time, at least five years, before it can be replenished. ”

Franz nodded, it was obvious that the Austrian colonies still had a lot of potential to be tapped, and now the colonial government controlled only a small part of them, and there was still a lot of land waiting for them to occupy.

Relying on colonial revenues to supplement the central government's finances, Franz was not so optimistic. As long as the colonies can break even, it's blood.

After a moment's hesitation, Franz said: "The proportion of the population of the colonies is a big problem, and there are too many natives to be detrimental to our long-term rule.

In the future, the focus of the Colonial Department can be on immigration, and send these natives to the countries of the Americas as much as possible, so as to alleviate the hidden dangers of our rule.

If it doesn't go well, then expel them, and that's up to you.

Anyway, I don't care what method you use, within five years the indigenous population will be reduced by three layers, and within ten years we will have more immigrants than the local indigenous people. ”

Under normal circumstances, this is a near-impossible task. However, it is not difficult to do this in this era, after all, there is no need to doubt the discipline of the colonists.

Even if they don't know what to do, they can learn from their British and French counterparts, especially the British, who are most experienced in this area.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Colonial Chancellor Josip Jelačić replied in a deep voice

Knowing that this task was not easy to do, but the emperor had already ordered it, Josip Jelačić would not refuse. After all, if you can't do it, it doesn't mean you can't do it, how do you know if you can't do it if you don't try?

To Franz's laughter, after the economic crisis broke out, the enthusiasm of the aristocracy to invest in plantations suddenly increased.

Compared with unfamiliar industry and finance, people are still more willing to invest in industries they are familiar with, after all, the income of plantations is relatively stable, and the risk is not so great.

There are so many immigrants on the continent today, and many of them are not just organized by the government, many of them are recruited by these plantation owners.

The royal family was the best of them, as the first investment colony, and now tens of thousands of hectares of plantations have been developed.

Everyone is keen to grow wheat, cotton, cocoa, coffee, and some of the industries that can see returns in the short term.

In contrast, Franz, who focuses on investing in rubber plantations, has become an alternative. Now the use of rubber is not as wide as that of later generations, and the investment cycle is long, so it is naturally unpopular.

If there were enough manpower, Franz would also be willing to grow cotton and coffee with faster returns, but unfortunately there is a real shortage of people now. In a hurry, you can only plant rubber trees first.

At present, the royal plantation has recruited more than 30,000 workers, which is still a drop in the bucket, and has to use some local indigenous labor.

Recruitment of high-quality workers from overseas is still underway. In this era, it takes more than half a year to go to Asia, and it is difficult to think about it quickly.

Franz was now very worried that, if left unchecked, plantation owners and mine owners would soon become obsessed with the use of cheap local labour, and he did not want to see slavery revived in the colonies.

It is only because of the lack of experience, the lack of domestication of these indigenous peoples, and the frequent incidents of injuring and fleeing, that farmers and plantation owners are suspicious of the massive use of indigenous labour.

The gold miners had begun to use local labour on a large scale, and the resistance was suppressed by the force at their disposal.

Franz did not believe in how high everyone's discipline would be in the face of interests. Paying attention to eating is nothing more than learning from the royal plantations, employing people from indigenous tribal chiefs with salt, cloth and other supplies.

If you are ruthless, you will directly send someone to catch slaves. The continent was so chaotic that there were many places that the colonial government could not control. Gold mine owners and slave owners were not uncommon.

In the short term, this is indeed a good thing, reducing production costs and allowing for more benefits.

In the long run, the use of a large number of slave laborers will seize the jobs of immigrants, which will not only seriously hinder the economic development of the colonies, but also increase social contradictions.

Another reason that cannot be said is that Franz wants to trap his biggest competitors and weaken their development potential.

Historically, nearly half of the immigrants to the United States during this period came from Germany, Italy, and southern Europe, and most of these immigrants were now diverted by Franz.

The labor shortage in the United States is worse than it has historically. Against this backdrop, the conflict between the industrial owners of the North and the plantation owners of the South was even greater.

Franz, who was helpful, naturally wanted to help them. If there are not enough white immigrants, black immigrants are used to make up for it; If the quality is poor, use quantity to make up.

Just think about it, half of the population who immigrates to the United States every year is black, and the future must be very interesting. What's the point of paying a small price for this?