Agriculture accounted for too much of the economy, with tens of millions of people working in the entire industry chain. If they couldn't withstand the impact, Austria's economy would be hit hard.
Despite the flood from the colonies, the mainland was still the core. It was far from the time to shift the primary industry. Before the advent of fertilizers, the dividend period of Austria's agriculture would not end.
Forced by reality, Franz could only promote the development of the livestock industry in advance and artificially increase food consumption.
The reason why it was advanced was mainly because the income level of the people had not yet increased, and the demand for meat in the market was relatively small.
According to the original plan, Franz was going to put the livestock industry after 1875, which was determined according to the economic development of the European countries.
Economic researchers were used to putting 1870 to 1890 in a cycle, mainly due to the outbreak of the second industrial revolution. During this period, the European and American economies were growing rapidly, and the income of the people had also greatly increased.
The increase in income was accompanied by an increase in consumption level. According to the data analyzed by economic experts, the golden period of promoting the livestock industry would be five years later.
Due to the limitations of the times, there was no need to worry about the impact of beef and mutton from Argentina, Canada, and Australia, at least not in the fresh meat market.
The refrigeration technology was not up to standard, and if they wanted to send fresh meat to Europe, they must send it alive.
It was not an easy task to transport live cattle and sheep from thousands of miles to the European continent. Any accident at sea would result in heavy losses.
Amortizing the transportation costs, even if it was transported to the European continent, the price would not be cheap. At most, they could sell beef jerky or cured meat.
In the short term, there were no strong competitors, and it was another agricultural dividend period. However, this dividend period would only occur when the market demand was strong.
Now that the livestock industry was developed in advance, there was still a certain degree of difficulty in the early market.
In fact, the development of the livestock industry was not thought of by Franz himself. The Ministry of Agriculture had already made plans, but they did not expect the Russians to return to the agricultural export market so quickly.
After the Tsarist government announced that they would not pay the debt, the European countries took retaliatory measures. The more aggressive ones directly confiscated Russia's exports to pay off the debt, and the more moderate ones also imposed a debt tax.
Well, this debt tax was created by Franz. It was a certain percentage of taxes from Russia's imports to pay off the debt.
Due to the relationship of the Russo-Austrian Alliance, Austria only took a symbolic amount of this debt tax. Other European countries did not give this face.
The specific percentage depended entirely on everyone's mood, and generally, it would not be lower than 30%. Because of this, in the last two to three years, the Russian Empire's exports had shrunk by 80%.
Now that the Tsarist government had proposed to pay off the debt with grain, it was actually to break these restrictions. Otherwise, no matter how cheap their grain prices were, it would be very difficult for them to compete in the market.
It was easy to find the problem, but difficult to solve. After noticing the Russians' movements, the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture became busy.
Agriculture Minister Christian, who was nearly seventy years old, had no choice but to withdraw his vacation report.
In another two or three years, Austria's leading position in the export of agricultural products would no longer exist.
The international market was only so big. As long as the Russians transported food from Ukraine and Moscow, they would be able to occupy a large market share.
In this era, there were only a few major food importing countries. Britannia, Regions of Italy, German Federal Empire. Although Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland were also importing food, the demand was not high.
Overall, the European food market was about 30 million people.
Of course, this was only referring to staple food. The demand for other agricultural products varied greatly, and it was difficult to calculate.
This market was still increasing at a rate of 2 million every year. This was brought about by the population growth of each country. Before the agricultural technology improved, the population growth and food production did not increase at the same time.
Currently, 24.6% of Austria's agricultural products were exported, and this was the sector that suffered the biggest impact.
Christian heaved a sigh after he sorted out the information. It was not easy to be the minister of agriculture. It was too difficult to achieve results, but it was too easy to have problems.
The export proportion was too big, and it was easy to be impacted by the international market. This was the biggest problem. If he wanted to shift to domestic sales, the domestic market would not be able to consume it.
It was still snowing. This winter in Vienna, the weather seemed to like to be dressed in silver. The cold wind blew, and Christian, who just got out of the carriage, shivered.
Without pausing, Christian quickly entered the palace and switched to another carriage.
The Belle Spring Palace occupied a large area. After Franz succeeded to the throne, the unfinished project began to rebuild, and now the area was even larger.
Of course, the main reason was a hunting ground. This was strongly requested by Duke Carr. The reason was that Empress Dowager Sophie was worried about his health and did not allow him to go hunting. In order to make it convenient for his old father to hunt, Franz naturally agreed.
Anyway, Vienna was the territory of the House of Habsburg. Most of the land belonged to the royal family. There was no land cost, and adding a wall didn't cost much.
Franz did not like the original palace, so he took the opportunity to add a few more buildings as daily living areas.
This made the palace further away from the emperor. For safety, the palace prohibited any outside carriages from entering. You could either change or walk. It was an easy choice, and Christian didn't want to freeze yet.
…
The telephone was a good thing. As soon as Christian entered the palace, someone informed Franz.
Franz, who sympathized with the old minister, had already asked someone to prepare coffee according to Christian's preferences.
Of course, if someone knew that there were all kinds of drinks in the palace and that they were changed every 15 minutes, perhaps the effect of buying people's hearts wouldn't be that great.
Of course, even if someone knew, they would most likely pretend not to know. It was good enough to have drinks. Why did they talk so much nonsense? If they all told the truth, they would not be able to live.
How could Franz remember the personal preferences of the ministers? It had always been the subordinates who cared about the preferences of the superiors. Which emperor would care about the personal preferences of the ministers?
There were people who specially recorded the preferences of the ministers. If there was a mistake, they could just change to another cup. The relationship between the monarch and his ministers in Europe was not so complicated. The details of daily life were not worth mentioning, and they did not have to worry about losing their lives.
After taking a sip of coffee to dispel the cold, Christian rested for more than ten minutes and reported to Franz.
"Your Majesty, this is the data from the Ministry of Agriculture. At present, the domestic supply and demand of meat products are basically balanced. If you want to increase domestic demand, the best way is to lower the price.
It's not that people don't like to eat meat, but the current domestic price of meat is a little high compared to their income.
The international market is even worse. Although the supply and demand of fresh meat market is still balanced, the supply of beef jerky and cured meat is a little high, and most of these products come from the United States of America.
According to the preliminary judgment, an annual increase of 600,000 tons of beef, 400,000 tons of mutton, 400,000 tons of pork, and 350,000 tons of other meat products is the limit that the market can bear.
If the supply exceeds this amount, it will have a huge impact on the market, and it is likely to cause the price to plummet. "
Obviously, Franz would not do something that would destroy the market. As the largest exporter of agricultural products, Austria suffered the most from the impact on the market.
After thinking for a moment, Franz asked, "What if this time is one or two years later?"
Animal husbandry also needed time. In this era, fodder was not popular. It was all fodder and grain, and it would take a long time to produce, at least a year or more.
The Minister of Agriculture, Christian, thought for a moment and replied, "Your Majesty, although the population in Europe is growing steadily, and the livestock industry is also expanding its production capacity. If this time is two years later, it will only increase by about 10% at most. "
After pacing back and forth in the room, Franz made a decision, "The Ministry of Agriculture is going to promote the breeding program, and it will be calculated according to the increase of two million tons of meat products.
First, he had to push down the price of meat products and cultivate the market. If the market can't absorb it, we will increase the strategic reserves. It will only take about two or three years, and it won't require a lot of funds. "
The direct food consumption of cattle and sheep was not large, but the planting of fodder would inevitably occupy the land that was originally used for growing food, thus reducing food production.
Unlike in the future, pork was not very popular in this era. This was determined by people's eating habits, and it would take a long time to change.
In fact, in this era, the per capita consumption of meat products in Europe was not too low. Perhaps it was pulled up by the rich. Take Austria for example, the per capita consumption of meat products was 82 pounds. (about 37 kilograms)
After a pause, Franz added, "We can increase the production of pork. Compared to beef and mutton, the price of pork is relatively cheaper, and the people are more willing to accept it.
If the production of pork goes up, I am prepared to add 300 grams of pork to the table of compulsory education children every week. "
Regardless of whether they liked it or not, the picky eaters would all go to private schools. Compulsory education schools in Austria did not have facilities comparable to private schools, and the students were all commoners at the bottom.
It was good enough to have meat to eat, and the school only provided meat once a week. Don't even think about beef and mutton, unless it was a festival or Franz's birthday, then it would be available.
During normal times, the only meat provided by the school was fish. There was only one reason, and that was because it was cheap. The same amount of money could buy more meat, and the frugal Ministry of Education could only provide this kind of cheap meat.
There was no way to promote pork, and the price of beef and mutton was too high. This was not something that could be reduced at will. Pork was cheap, so it should be promoted.
Before this, the government had already promoted fish, and only saltwater was popular in the market.
This was the aftereffect of industry. With the development of industry, it inevitably brought environmental pollution, and many mutated fish and shrimp appeared in many rivers.
Mutated fish and shrimp were not good things, and after there was food poisoning, no one dared to eat them. The Government of Vienna also legislated to ban the sale and consumption of mutated fish and shrimp.
This affected the entire freshwater fish population, making them unwelcome. Unless it was in the inland mountains, almost no one ate freshwater fish.
