Chapter 380

The new Holy Roman Empire was a major importer and consumer of cotton, importing five to six million DL of cotton from the outside world every year.

Even so, it was still not enough to meet the needs of domestic industry and commerce. Austria was also a major importer of cotton.

Of course, this was also related to the economic development policies of the Government of Vienna. The cotton industry was not included in the key development projects.

In order to maintain its position as the top food exporter in Europe, the government did not advocate the planting of cotton locally. The lack of raw materials became an important factor restricting the development of Austria's cotton industry.

In this context, the promotion of cotton cultivation in the colonies could not only save a lot of foreign exchange, but it could also rope in domestic textile capitalists.

For example, Bavaria was the traditional center of the cotton industry in the German Region. Many capitalists had gone to West Africa to open plantations because of the lack of raw materials.

Everyone knew how to calculate the political and economic accounts.

Prime Minister Felix calculated and said, "Your Majesty, the biggest problem with cotton cultivation is the need for a lot of labor during the harvest. The colonies are different from the country. It is too difficult to hire a large number of people in a short period of time.

Unless we learn from the Americans and train a group of cheap black slave labor, we can't solve this problem.

But using a large number of indigenous labor is contrary to our long-term strategy and not conducive to long-term stability. "

This was the most realistic problem. Otherwise, Franz would not have gone to plant rubber trees. The main reason why the cotton planting area in the royal plantation could not increase was the lack of labor.

In fact, the rubber plantation also needed a lot of labor, but the rubber trees did not grow in a day. The demand for labor before the rubber harvest was much smaller.

At present, the number of immigrants was still limited. These people could not all go to grow cotton, and not all areas were suitable for cotton cultivation.

In addition to cotton, cash crops such as coffee, palm, cocoa, rubber, tobacco, soybeans, and peanuts were also the focus of development.

Although agricultural products such as wheat, corn, rice, and potatoes were not the focus of development, self-sufficiency still needed to be achieved. The plantation owners, who were meticulous in their budgeting, could not bear to fork out money to buy it.

These industries needed labor, and the colonies were sparsely populated. The labor shortage was not small. Franz had no doubt that even tens of millions of immigrants could be easily absorbed.

Franz said helplessly, "There is a lack of labor, so we can only rely on everyone to find a way. In addition to recruiting immigrants from the country, we can also recruit workers from overseas.

In short, there is only one principle. Foreign workers must complete the assimilation and meet all of our requirements before they can be registered. "

At this time, Franz suddenly hoped that Russia would abolish serfdom. Once the Tsarist government freed the serfs, it would not take long for a large number of bankrupt peasants to appear.

These illiterate, bankrupt farmers were all excellent immigrants. Those without cultural heritage would always be the easiest to assimilate.

Unlike the current serf society, where serfs were the property of the nobles, if they wanted to recruit labor in Tsarist Russia, they had to pay for it!

Human trafficking could not be carried out openly, but this market still existed in the dark. Unfortunately, the cost was too high.

Recruiting workers from overseas was easy to say, but it wasn't easy at all. Immigrants from the European continent had too many choices, and everyone had their own circles.

In addition to its own country, Austria was only able to recruit immigrants in the German and Italian regions. Austria. Austria Germans. in Germany, Austria European countries.

They had no choice but to turn their attention to the Far East. In any case, the labor force in these areas was better than the local natives.

In this era, Europe's per capita income was more than ten times that of Asia. It was cheap to hire East Asian labor.

This was not without hidden dangers. At least, it was several times more difficult to integrate. Of course, it was better than not being able to integrate the local natives.

Colonial Minister Josip Jelačić reminded, "Your Majesty, if we recruit a large number of overseas workers, the future security and labor conflicts will become serious social problems."

He was not worried about the local immigrants being bullied. On the contrary, Josip Jelačić was worried that the local immigrants would bully the foreign workers and cause social conflicts.

Never test the integrity of the colonists. Except for Franz, who had a big business and cared about his appearance, many farmers, plantation owners, and mine owners were unscrupulous for the sake of profit.

In this regard, the old aristocrats were better. Most of the workers they recruited were the original serfs of their family. They knew them well and restrained themselves for the sake of their family's reputation.

The nouveau riche who were still accumulating capital were different. Arrears, salary deductions, and even reneging on debts occurred from time to time. If this was the case for their own people, there was no need to mention foreign workers.

Because of these people's misdeeds, the workload of the colonial government increased. In the end, they had to establish a labor employment registration system.

The household registration system, which had not been implemented in the country, was first implemented in the colonies. If it were not for technical problems, Franz was ready to issue ID cards.

Now that there were fewer people in the colonies, it was manageable. As the population continued to increase in the future, the difficulty of management would also skyrocket.

After hesitating for a moment, Franz said fiercely, "In troubled times, the colonial government must establish social order and crack down on criminals.

Gangs, street thugs, and unemployed people who wander around for a long time, all of them will be thrown into the mines.

As for the problem of labor conflicts, make an example and kill one to warn others. Catch a few serious problems, deal with them seriously, and then publicize them. "

Frankly speaking, Franz's order was contrary to the law. However, the colonies were not the mainland, and the Government of Vienna had never said that they would use the mainland's laws.

The main cause of social security problems was employment. If everyone had a proper job, the survival space of the underworld would be small.

Franz's order was equivalent to cutting off the development of gangs from the source. Now that the rules had been changed, there was no need to wait for a crime to be committed before they could be arrested. As long as they were gang members, they would be sent to the mines.

Even the thugs who did small things and did not commit major crimes, the police did not need to look for criminal evidence and directly threw them into the mines for labor reform.

The same was true for the unemployed. In the colonies where there was a serious shortage of labor, if they could not find a job, then the government might as well arrange a job for them.

Don't worry, Franz had integrity. No criminal evidence was sent to the mines. Moreover, the government still had to pay the miners at the market price, so there was no such thing as injustice.

Criminals and potential criminals all went to the mines. If social security could still deteriorate, then the colonial officials could go to the mines themselves.

Compared to social security, labor conflicts were actually a small problem. The demand of the market determined the relationship between labor and management.

When there was a serious shortage of labor, they dared to deduct wages. Weren't they afraid that people would quit?

Franz did not think there would be many such idiots. The people who did this before were a bunch of idiots who did not have the right mentality, and now they had paid a painful price for it.

The real trouble was when there was a surplus of labor. Only then did these people dare to act recklessly. The government wanted to strictly regulate, but they also had to consider the resulting unemployment problem.