The incomparably brilliant and gorgeous blazing sun in the sky; the gentle and valiant breeze that stirred one's heart; the ancient, melodious, and endless ringing of bells; the vast and silent night sky; the dazzling, gorgeous, and dazzling stars … These were the common points that embellished the beauty of early summer.
The Palace of Vienna was holding a concert. It was one of the few entertainments of this era, and it was also the highest music festival in Austria.
Originally, Franz was going to hold an award ceremony, but after considering his level of appreciation, he decided to give it up.
Music awards were very troublesome. Everyone had different tastes, and it was easy to make a fool of oneself if one did not handle it well.
After the Great Revolution, it was the peak of Austrian music creation, and many classical music came out.
Franz was not familiar with the European and American music scene. He did not know which ones existed in the original time and space, and which ones were produced by the butterfly effect.
In any case, he just listened to it. Being qualified to perform in the Palace of Vienna was a kind of recognition in itself. In this regard, the late Marshal Radski had to be mentioned. The signature of every concert was the Radski March.
It was composed by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss Sr. in 1848. The background of the story was the Austrian army's great victory in the Austro-Hungarian War.
The march itself had an element of showing off the military power of the House of Habsburg. Coupled with the name of the old marshal, it was a natural plus in politics.
Under the promotion of the Government of Vienna, the Radski March had now spread to more than half of the world, and had become the representative of Austrian music.
Franz also liked this march very much. Every concert in the Palace of Vienna was used as the finale, and its status in the Austrian music scene was evident.
The economic crisis was imminent, and Franz was not in the mood to enjoy the concert. Including the senior officials of the Government of Vienna, they could only regret missing this music festival.
They were next door to the concert, and they could still enjoy the music, but everyone was still discussing.
Franz asked in a deep voice, "Has the situation gone out of control?"
Prime Minister Felix replied, "The situation in the country is generally stable. The strike is subsiding, and most enterprises have reached a consensus with the workers and have begun to resume production.
The world is in chaos, and many countries have sent troops to suppress the strike. The situation is very tense. Now that a stock market crash has occurred, I'm afraid an economic crisis is inevitable. "
The use of the army to put down a strike was not an exception; it was a common occurrence in the nineteenth century. In the original universe, Bismarck's title of "Prime Minister of Iron and Blood" came from the suppression of strikes.
There were many things involved in this, and it couldn't be simply summed up with right and wrong. Unlike Austria, which had strong local control, the police arrived at the scene immediately to maintain order.
Many countries did nothing after the strike broke out. If the capitalists were allowed to deal with it on their own, it was inevitable that the conflict would escalate in the quarrel. In the end, there would be smashing of machinery and equipment and destroying of infrastructure …
Some of them were brutally suppressed by the capitalists, while others were won by the workers. Obtaining victory did not mean that it was over. Human nature could not withstand the test.
It would be fine if there were people among the workers who could restrain everyone and fight for their rights rationally. However, if there were no restraints, as long as one or two of them were impulsive, the situation would quickly go out of control.
In order to stabilize the situation as soon as possible, the government would inevitably choose to suppress them. At this point, right or wrong no longer mattered. The bureaucrats just needed to calm the chaos and stabilize the situation as soon as possible.
If anyone were to be held accountable, the unlucky ones would most likely be the ordinary workers who had no right to speak. Even if there were people in the government who sympathized with them, they would fall under the capitalists' silver bullet offensive.
In Franz's view, the main culprit that led to the tragedy was actually the government's inaction or deliberate bias towards the capitalists.
Under his butterfly effect, European countries basically had labor protection laws. If the government intervened in advance and mediated labor conflicts within the legal framework, it would not be difficult to avoid riots.
However, in this way, it would be difficult for the capitalists to obtain greater benefits. Most companies could not meet the standards of the labor protection law. Otherwise, there would not be a major strike that affected all of Europe.
The strike wave in Austria was contained. In addition to the capitalists' concern that the strike would affect production, they were also worried that the government would intervene after the strike broke out and find out that they had violated the labor protection law.
Many capitalists took timely measures when the signs of a strike appeared, increasing some of the benefits and appeasing the workers.
As for the companies that broke out in the strike, some of them were not smart enough to realize the danger; others were hesitant in the face of benefits and reacted a step too slowly.
In fact, the labor treatment usually followed the market. If other factories increased the treatment and continued to stay the same, it would not be long before the capable workers ran out.
With the development of the economy, the increase in labor costs was inevitable. This was also the driving force for productivity progress. Without these pressures, capitalists would not take the initiative to carry out technological innovation.
The strike not only affected the production of enterprises, but also the shrinking of the consumer market. There was no salary during the strike, and everyone had to live frugally, so their purchasing power naturally decreased.
Coupled with the stock market crash, it caused the capital chain of enterprises to break. In serious cases, it might directly go bankrupt, and the unemployment rate would rise for a certain period of time.
The conditions for an economic crisis had already been met. Austria itself was already in crisis, and the international market was not good. Even God could not prevent the outbreak of the crisis.
Looking out the window, Franz made up his mind, "Then let's get rid of this tumor as soon as possible!"
For a tumor, the sooner it was treated, the faster it would recover. If it dragged on until the end, the tumor would grow out of control, and that would kill people.
The economic crisis also had its pros and cons. Every economic crisis would bring serious losses, and every economic crisis would also bring a large number of opportunities.
In essence, the economic crisis was the market's self-regulation and repair. To pull the deviated economy back on the right track.
Anyway, the Great Immigration Strategy had just begun. No matter how many unemployed people were added to the economic crisis, there would be a place to go.
…
With Franz's order, the Government of Vienna adopted conservative economic measures and abandoned the initial rescue plan.
On June 18, 1876, in order to stabilize the financial market, the Austrian Central Bank announced to tighten monetary policy and raise the benchmark deposit rate to 16%.
Tightening monetary policy when the market was most short of money, how was this "saving the market"? It was clearly hitting a person when they were down.
There were many banks in Austria, and the Central Bank was similar to the Federal Reserve in the future. They could regulate and influence the financial market. The Central Bank raising the benchmark interest rate was only a suggestion, but it could not force all banks to raise the interest rate.
In fact, in order to absorb deposits, most banks' deposit interest rate exceeded the benchmark interest rate.
Before this, the one-year benchmark interest rate in Austria was 1%. Even if it was raised by 16%, it was only 1.16%.
This figure was still lower than the deposit interest rate of major banks in the market, but the impact was huge.
Through the Central Bank's measures, everyone knew that the Government of Vienna would not provide funds to rescue the market, which made many investors feel desperate.
The smart people already realized that the economic crisis was inevitable, and they all raised funds to survive the winter. The stock market became even more depressed.
On June 24, 1876, the Vader textile factory in Munich applied to the Munich government for bankruptcy and reorganization due to a broken capital chain. It was approved, and the economic crisis began.
Within a short month, more than 200 companies, including 30 listed companies, applied to the government for bankruptcy and reorganization, and more than 400 companies directly declared bankruptcy. The economic crisis broke out in Austria.
With the large-scale bankruptcy of the companies, the strike wave naturally ended, and it was replaced by a wave of unemployment.
Public opinion also became chaotic, and the capitalists began to frantically shift the blame to the workers who went on strike for the economic crisis.
This was of no use. In the wind of the second industrial revolution, those who couldn't keep up with the times and chose to go against the wind would naturally be eliminated by the market.
The "strike incident" was only the fuse. At this point in time, crisis and opportunity came hand in hand.
Affected by the economic crisis in Austria, the Russian Empire and the German Federal Empire soon followed, and economic crises broke out one after another.
This was just the beginning, and the rest of the European countries were quickly implicated. By August, the economic crisis hit London, and all the industrial countries in Europe fell.
Franz was relieved to see that they were all in trouble together. This was in line with the market law of the capitalist economy. It had been almost ten years since the last economic crisis, how could the market not have problems?
Reality proved that the problem had been accumulating for a long time, and all that was left was to ignite the fuse.
Another round of the game of big fish eating small fish began. Watching the power of the financial groups continue to grow, Franz didn't know whether it was right or wrong.
However, the cruel reality told him that this was an unstoppable law of the development of the capitalist economy, and it wasn't something an individual could control.
Other than becoming one of the members and trying to control these new forces, Franz couldn't go against the flow and prevent the emergence of financial groups.
To put it bluntly, he could suppress the domestic financial groups, but he couldn't restrict the international financial groups. Some monarchs and nobles might have sensed it, and in the capital market, Franz also saw their figures.
Obviously, there was no lack of smart people in this world. If there weren't two world wars, the monarchy and nobles wouldn't have declined so much.
Of course, what the eyes saw wasn't necessarily true. In his previous life, Franz was just an ordinary person, and the circle he came into contact with was at the bottom of society, and he couldn't reach the upper echelons.
What he saw on the Internet could only be used as a reference. If he treated everything as the truth, he would've died a long time ago, and he wouldn't be living so comfortably.
The emergence of financial groups was the law of the market, but who was the leader of the financial groups, this was yet to be verified. At least in this era, the power of the nobles was far stronger than the capitalists.
As far as Franz knew, many of the big capitalists in Europe had the shadow of the big nobles behind them. Otherwise, in this dark era, they would've been swallowed long ago.
Well, Franz also played the same game. Other than the royal family's assets on the surface, most of the assets were also controlled in the dark, remotely controlled.
It couldn't be helped. These assets were all under the name of the royal family, and it would attract too much hatred, and even the emperor would be afraid.
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