War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Vienna, Grabenstrasse.

This can be regarded as the busiest street in Austria. The attic of a watch shop on the corner is the home of Baron Brooke.

As the second-largest financial figure in the Austrian Empire and the former chief financial and tax advisor to the royal family, his home seemed a little shabby.

The only furniture was an old single bed and a simple set of tables and chairs. There was a stuffed bookshelf in the corner, and four sets of clothes and two hats hung on the hangers at the door.

Thalia felt uncomfortable stepping on the creaking floor, and the musty smell in the air made her cover her mouth and nose, but she respected Baron Brooke very much.

After all, with Baron Brooke's status and identity, if he wanted to, just like Friedrich List, it would not be difficult to earn one million florins a year.

After the death of the old emperor, he could live an easy life whether he joined the Metternich faction or the Korolav faction.

Baron Brooke took the letter and walked to the window. The sunlight shone on the letter through the window. He took out a monocle from his coat pocket and stuck it in his eye socket.

In this era, the way to wear monocles is to stick the lenses in the eye sockets. The disadvantage is that they can easily fall off if your expression is exaggerated.

Nose-pin monocles would not be accepted for another few decades. People of this era were not used to having glasses stuck on their noses because that would not look noble enough.

Baron Brooke was full of joy when he first received the letter, but soon he frowned, and his frown became even tighter after reading it for a while.

“I don’t doubt Archduke Franz Karl’s investment vision, but I want to be sure, is this a decision made by Archduke Franz Karl himself?”

"Of course, without the authorization of Archduke Franz Karl, I would not have been able to hand over so much money to you."

Although 6.3 million florins was expected, few people in Vienna could afford it. This money order from the Chartered Bank of the Austrian Empire could not be fake.

But this made Baron Brooke more confused, because he knew the handwriting of Archduke Franz Karl, and the signature on this money order was obviously not his. There was only Franz on it, and the handwriting was so neat that it looked like it was written by a child. of.

Baron Brooke handed the letter and check in his hand back to Talia.

"Miss Thalia, I want you to know that the price of food in the empire has been declining for six consecutive years. In Hungary, the land is even deliberately abandoned to prevent food from rotting in the ground."

The construction of the German Customs Union and railways had a great impact on Hungary, because the emergence of railways led to a decrease in transportation costs. In areas with developed transportation, Hungarian grain could not even compete with Prussian grain.

The unsalable situation of grain that Prussia had expected did not happen. Instead, due to the decline in transportation costs, Prussia opened up more markets. For a time, the Junker landowners were in short supply of grain.

The biggest contributors to this are the three South German countries. Bavaria itself is a piece of bad land. Although it is an agricultural country, its self-sufficiency rate is low and it relies on imported food all year round. After the opening of the railway, Bavaria discovered a new business opportunity, which was to transfer the German region The cheap grain was sold to the French at high prices.

At this time, French agriculture was at its lowest point in history, and urban worker uprisings continued. Louis Philippe had to order relief for the poor.

Although Thiers was dissatisfied with this, external France had to fight the Carlist counterattack in Spain and restore the glory of New France in North America. There would be no more trouble at home, so he had to accept using money to buy the poor." peaceful".

Guizot greatly appreciated this kind of tolerant policy. He felt that problems that could be solved with money were not problems. The economic situation of the Orleans Dynasty was much better than that of the Bourbon Dynasty, and this was also thanks to Guizot, an outstanding man. financial capitalist.

Although France's agriculture is currently in a slump, after decades of peace, France's trade has grown rapidly, coupled with the large amount of wealth plundered from the colonies, allowing the rich in France to live very well. He felt that as long as the rich's If a little bit of wealth is given to the poor, the crisis facing France can be solved.

In fact, in the initial stage of the relief law, the French government tried to give money to the poor, but this approach caused prices to skyrocket, and finally had to give up. After all, the wool must come from the sheep.

Later, the French government decided to collect taxes to purchase grain and provide relief to the poor, in order not to be exploited by domestic grain merchants, and also to prevent the price of domestic grain from being too high and creating more people who could not afford bread.

Guizot came up with a good idea, which was to import grain from foreign countries, and South Germany was their first choice.

First of all, during this period, grain prices in Germany were low due to the bumper harvest.

Secondly, trade with the three southern German countries will help increase France’s influence on the three southern German countries. From a historical perspective, the three southern German countries have been of great help to France.

In particular, France has never given up its ambitions in the Rhine region. After the discovery of large amounts of iron and coal in the Rhine region, the French could not sleep at night.

The home of Baron Brooke.

"Mr. Brooke, you have to know that the Harvest Goddess cannot always visit Austria." Thalia said.

"But in the past six years, the corpses of businessmen with ideas like yours have been piled up in the Alps." Baron Brooke replied.

Hoarding and price gouging have a long history. However, the abnormal weather has bankrupted countless businessmen who wanted to rely on hoarding, because the storage of grain has a shelf life, and beans usually only have a shelf life of about two years and cannot be used when the new year is approaching. Not selling at a low price further depresses the market price.

Six years is enough time for many people to go bankrupt several times.

"Mr. Brooke, please rest assured. We have found a way to extend the storage time."

"Oh? How many years can it be extended?"

"About a year."

"What about a year from now?"

"Right now, both Mexico and Spain are in civil war. After the war, they will be devastated, and they will need our food."

"In the civil war between Mexico and Spain, it's hard to say who will win and who will lose. How do we know who to sell to?"

"No matter who wins or loses, he needs food."

Thalia handed the letter and check back to Baron Brooke. Baron Brooke did not refuse. After thinking for a moment, he signed his name and handed the power of attorney in the letter back to Thalia.

"Since it is the Grand Duke's order, I will implement it well, but I want to know what it means to make the noise louder?" Baron Brooke asked.

"What the Grand Duke means is to use your influence to prepare for this acquisition as much as possible to get as many people involved as possible," Talia explained.

"But this is unreasonable. If there are more people purchasing, the price of food will rise, which will affect our income. This is not a wise move." Baron Brooke said.

"It's not a good thing for the individual, but it's a good thing for the country. The Grand Duke once said that it's about profit, why?" Thalia said.

"Is it because of profit?" Baron Brooke murmured, and couldn't help feeling that a person with such a broad mind and magnanimity was actually treated as a fool.

However, Baron Brooke seemed to finally understand the logic of Archduke Franz Karl's behavior. He was a fool, so he had nothing to fear and no need for logic.

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