War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

"Nana is so cute!" little Maria replied. Although Franz himself was only 10 years old, it was obvious that she and his innocent sister were not on the same page.

Mrs. Sophie looked at Franz suspiciously and said.

"Nana is very beautiful and well-behaved, but it's a pity that her background is not very good."

It can be seen that Mrs. Sophie still cares about this niece, just like her poor mother Ludwika (Mrs. Sophie's sister).

"Mother, don't talk about this now. I have one thing to ask of you." Franz could only rely on Mrs. Sophie now. After all, it was unrealistic to go to the North Pole to find Archduke Franz Karl.

"There are some Hungarian nobles who are seeking cooperation, but with the efficiency of the Regency Council, it may be difficult to satisfy them."

"Just say what you want to say, don't beat around the bush." ​​Mrs. Sophie's face looked a little impatient. She didn't like those Hungarian nobles very much. To be precise, she rarely looked at others except the royal family.

“I think we can work with them to develop the Hungarian land.”

Mrs. Sophie has long been accustomed to her son's behavior of seeking skin from a tiger.

"Franz, why did you buy so much wasteland? Do you still think you don't own enough land now? You know, if calculated by area, you are now the largest landowner in the empire."

Mrs. Sophie really couldn't understand the significance of Franz buying so much land. In her mind, wasteland was land without any value, and the cost of development was too high.

But what she didn't know was that those swamps were actually not difficult to deal with. As long as there were a few pumps to drain the muddy water inside, the first step of the problem would be solved. After all, machinery is much more efficient than human means. .

In addition, under the guidance of Franz, the disc plow came out ahead of schedule, which made farming on those sticky black soils much easier than before.

Although the many difficulties in opening up wasteland in Transletania were not a problem in Franz's eyes, they were almost fatal to ordinary farmers and small and medium-sized landowners.

For the big nobles and big landowners in the usual sense, developing wasteland is not a good deal. After all, they can get considerable income without any extra effort. But once they invest a lot of financial and material resources to develop a large area However, it is very likely that it will get into trouble due to market fluctuations.

In fact, they have to blame themselves for this. Not only did they set tariffs domestically, but they also refused to build railways. As a result, the high-cost products they produced could not be shipped out through effective channels. Therefore, it is natural to expand production in this case. Meaningless.

Back to the topic, Franz’s ultimate purpose of purchasing land is to use the land to support the people. By directly investing in setting up factories in the royal estate, and then selling the products directly to the locals, he can avoid Hungarian tariffs, but this is just that. This will greatly arouse the resentment of the local nobles.

"Mother, what's wrong with this? If we could buy Hungary step by step through such peaceful means, wouldn't we need to fight with the Magyars all day long?" Franz said.

"Are you kidding! 8 million hectares, isn't that 120 million acres?" Mrs. Sophie was a little unbelievable.

"It doesn't need to be that much. That's the total area of ​​arable land. In fact, it is absolutely impossible to develop all of it. According to my estimate, the area of ​​land that can be developed should stay at about six million hectares."

"But what's the use of having so much land? Now Hungary's grain is sold as feed, and what you grow in the manor are cash crops such as rape, sugar beet, and flax. But the market in Hungary is really too small. It will become saturated soon.”

Franz stared at Mrs. Sophie with wide eyes. It was unbelievable that even this woman who had been losing money in business could see the crux of Hungary's problem. He really didn't know what those adults were thinking in their minds.

"Mother, why are you so smart and put one hundred thousand hats on the market at once?"

Mrs. Sophie had previously set up a hat factory, produced 100,000 hats at one time, and then put them all into the Vienna market. As a result, not only did he lose money, but he also bankrupted the entire Vienna hat market.

Madame Sophie paid no attention to Franz's sarcasm.

"Failure is the mother of success! Without my failure, there would be no success for you. Are you right? Franz."

Mrs. Sophie pinched Franz's arm and spoke word by word. Maria, who was watching the fun, also took the opportunity to jump on him and cause trouble.

"Mother, you are always right."

Franz still understands the principle that a good man should not suffer the immediate consequences, not to mention that at this time he also needs to get Mrs. Sophie to come forward and establish a cooperative relationship with the pro-Austrian faction among the Hungarian nobles.

The method of cooperation is simple and clear. They will release the land, and then the royal family will come forward to classify it as royal territory, and then attract immigrants to develop it. After deducting the cost, the proceeds will be divided into 28%.

Prince Elthazy was very satisfied with the 20% profit he could get. After all, as one of the most influential nobles in Hungary, he had countless ways to acquire wasteland at extremely low prices.

And as long as the Habsburg family still rules Austria, he can take money every year. This kind of good thing only happens once in hundreds of years.

The reason why Franz wants to give 20% of his profits to these guys is not because they have made much contribution. There is only one purpose for doing this, and that is to tie it firmly to the Austrian tank.

No promise is as convincing and sincere as actual benefits.

This bond of interest will make them the most loyal supporters of the Austrian Empire. Of course, there is a prerequisite, that is, Franz must solve the problem of development. As long as the benefits are big enough, they will give it a try even if they have to be shattered to pieces.

Most of the great nobles were very happy to be tied to the interests of the royal family.

Of course there are exceptions, and that is Count Szechenyi. I have to say that his character is indeed very noble. Others are here to hedge their bets, but he is the only one who is here to stop the war.

Franz read his works specifically and found that this man, like Hugo, believed too much in the power of morality.

In fact, they never understand one thing. Morality is just a social ideology. It is the norms and norms for people to live together and behave. Different eras and different classes have different moral concepts, and no morality is eternal.

Even in the ancient East, Tao and virtue were originally separate.

Laozi said: "Tao is born, virtues are animals, things are shaped, and forces are formed. Therefore, all things respect Tao and value virtue. The respect of Tao, the nobleness of virtue, and the destiny of the husband are always natural."

Among them, "Tao" refers to the common truth between the operation of nature and the human world; and "De" now refers to the virtue, conduct, and royal way of the human world. However, the original meaning of virtue is actually something that develops and changes in accordance with the laws of Tao.

Szechenyi hoped that the wealthy nobles and businessmen would lend money to the poor serfs and help them wholeheartedly, so that "everyone in Hungary would be like a dragon."

This idea is of course unrealistic, so Franz is ready to introduce him to the path that the Russians later traveled.