Chapter 609

International food prices suddenly plummeted, and Austria's domestic food prices were also affected. Food prices also plummeted.

Austria's domestic food prices had always been lower than the international market. This time, it finally caught up with the international market.

Not only did food prices fall again, but other agricultural products prices also followed suit. The capitalists had been trying to delay the market, but in the face of a huge supply, it was still futile.

With the turbulence of the international food market, a large number of raw grains were dumped on the market, and it also impacted the export of finished grains.

Take flour exports as an example. Not only did the price fall by 9% compared to the same period last year, but even the total export volume shrank by 4%.

This was the aftermath of the Government of Vienna dumping old grain to the UK. The British capitalists, who got cheap raw materials, worked hard to produce, squeezing the original market.

This was something that could not be helped. Flour could not be stored for a long time. If they wanted to disrupt the Anglo-Russian food trade, they could only attack with raw grains.

Prices fell, exports shrank, and enterprises engaged in the export of agricultural products had a hard time, especially in the processing industry with low technical content.

In Austria, the agricultural processing industry had also formed a huge industrial chain. There were more than three million industrial workers, and there were more than 800,000 people engaged in flour processing alone.

This also involved tens of millions of farmers. The impact of the food processing industry was bound to affect the purchase of new grain.

In the Palace of Vienna, Franz put down the information in his hand and picked up the teacup. A faint smoke rose, and the fragrance filled the air.

"We must stabilize the domestic market as soon as possible. The international raw grain trading price plummeted, and the finished grain trading price will also plummet soon.

The capitalists will not be able to hold on for long. In the face of interests, few people can remain rational, and the finished grain market will not be stable for long.

The international market cannot be controlled. How much can be maintained is the most important. There is no need to care about temporary gains and losses, but we must stabilize the domestic and colonial markets.

Domestic food consumption is growing at a rate of nearly 2%. As long as we can hold on for two or three years, when the farmers in Europe go bankrupt, we can survive the crisis.

However, the government still needs to adopt more active policies and can't wait for the market to adjust itself. We don't have so much time to waste, or the advantages accumulated in the early stage will be wasted. "

The main reason for the increase in consumption was population growth, followed by economic development, and the increase in people's income, which increased consumption.

Franz's previous proposal to absorb immigrants from Europe was actually a means to increase food consumption.

Of course, the main purpose of absorbing immigrants was still for labor. The area of Austria's colonies was already very large. If they wanted to develop these places, they would need a large population.

Even the most important continent, Africa, after so many years of hard work and immigration, the total population of Austrian Africa barely broke ten million.

This number was far from enough. The other colonies were even worse off. Because the population was too small, even the most basic development could not be carried out.

Agriculture Minister Holls stood up and took out a report from his folder. He walked over and handed it to Franz.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture proposes to raise the import tariff on agricultural products to prevent foreign agricultural products from impacting the local market. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture proposes to implement a minimum protective price for the purchase of grain and implement a recommended guiding price for domestic finished grain.

"For finished grain export enterprises that had their profits damaged, the Ministry, Grain, and Minister suggested tax rebates to be exported goods.

These were the specific measures, as well as the corresponding supporting plans. After the plan is implemented, the selling price of local agricultural products will stabilize in the shortest time possible. "

"After the implementation, the domestic prices will stabilized." In recent years, the Russian Empire's food exports had only decreased, not completely disappeared.

However, this part of the grain did not directly enter the international raw grain market. Instead, it was sold to a grain processing company in Austria. After processing, it was sold to the international market, including the Russian Empire.

Austria was able to occupy up to 70% of the international agricultural export market, and the Russians also contributed a lot to this.

Now that the Russians had increased their production, Austria could no longer keep up with them. In addition, various countries had increased their food production crazily in the past few years. The international market was oversupplied, and the Ministry of Agriculture naturally prioritized protecting the interests of their own nobles and farmers.

The minimum food purchasing price was also one of the measures to protect the interests of farmers. Including the local grain sales guidance price is also a part of it.

Simply put, the government would set a retail price range for finished grain, and companies could only set prices within this range.

Before this, the Government of Vienna already had a maximum sales price for agricultural products. Now, it added a minimum price.

"Free market economy." Unfortunately, Austria had a market economy, but not a free market economy. This wasn't the first time the government interfered in the market.

Of course, the Government of Vienna never interfered in industries that had nothing to do with the people's livelihood. For example, handicrafts, luxury goods, they were all free.

Franz glanced through it, nodded, and then shook his head.

"The rest of the plan is good, but the increase in agricultural import tariffs can't be implemented for the time being. If we increase tariffs, the Russians will definitely take countermeasures and increase tariffs on Austrian industrial and commercial products.

It's enough that this storm is limited to agriculture. If it spreads to other industries, the consequences will be more difficult to control.

We can impose restrictions on the minimum grain purchase price, but it will only be for local and new grain this year. The tax rebates for companies are also limited to products processed with local grain.

In order to prevent companies from cheating subsidies, once they apply for tax rebates, companies are prohibited from purchasing foreign agricultural products for six months. "

Franz still remembered one of the main reasons why Germany and Russia had a falling out. It was because of agricultural tariffs. Of course, the situation was different now. The Russians didn't have the courage to fall out with Austria.

But there was no benefit in blindly intensifying the conflict. Although the Russian Empire's market wasn't good because of the poor economic development, it was also an important sales market for Austrian industrial and commercial products.

Moreover, the Russo-Austrian Alliance hadn't collapsed yet. The trade agreement between the two countries was still valid. Unless it was a breach of the agreement, raising tariffs would be a joke.

There was a clear stipulation in the agreement that each increase in tariffs must not exceed the original tax rate by 5%. The same product could only be adjusted once every three years.

The agricultural trade tariff between Russia and Austria was 4%. If the tax rate was increased by 5%, it would be 4.2%. Franz might as well not raise it at all.

The Tsarist government raised taxes on Austrian industrial and commercial products several times, but it didn't change the fact that Austrian products covered the shelves of Russia's stores.

Within the scope of the agreement between the two countries, there wasn't a single product with a tariff rate that exceeded 10%. Most of them were only a few points.

If he wanted to get over it, he would have to break the contract. Franz spent a lot of effort to trick the Russians into signing this kind of agreement. How could they break the agreement?

In this regard, the minister of agriculture's overall view still needed to be improved. However, Franz was very tolerant of this small problem. Technocrats couldn't ask too much of a technocrat.

Holls performed very well in other areas, but he was very good in the professional field. During the years he was in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, Austrian agriculture had improved qualitatively.

Optimizing the agricultural industrial structure, promoting new agricultural technologies, improving the agricultural industry chain, and so on were all completed under his leadership.

Holls was a part of Austria's agricultural overcapacity. Of course, he couldn't be blamed. It was too difficult to change farmers' planting habits while they could still make money.

The agricultural crisis in the original space-time lasted for more than 20 years, forcing farmers to bankruptcy one after another before achieving a balance. The difficulty in this could be imagined.

Planting cash crops wasn't a problem. They also had to be able to guarantee profits. Unfortunately, due to the lack of transparency in the market, no one could make this guarantee.

Austria was not a planned economy, and the farmers could grow whatever they wanted. If there was a shortage in the market this year, it might rot in the ground next year.

In contrast, food was a stable product. The return might be lower, but it wouldn't be a loss.

After pausing for a moment and digesting Franz's words, the Colonial Minister Stephen took out a document and handed it to Franz.

"Your Majesty, there have been frequent discoveries of gold mines in South Africa recently. These discovered gold mines are quite amazing in terms of quality and quantity.

This is the report submitted by the Governor of South Africa, Viscount Ficney. The preliminary judgment is that this is a larger gold mine than West Africa, and the reserves may exceed that of the United States. "

This was good news. Austria had lost the battle for monetary hegemony, and the lack of gold standard was also an important reason.

Franz naturally knew how rich South Africa's gold reserves were. Knowing was one thing, but if he said it out loud, things couldn't be explained clearly.

The religious atmosphere in Austria was already very strong, and Franz didn't want to continue to promote the church. After so many years of rebirth, he hadn't revealed any flaws. He relied on caution.

Anyway, the gold was buried underground and couldn't run away. South Africa was occupied, and the gold would be discovered sooner or later. In the end, it would still flow into Austria.

In fact, Austria was also very popular with gold. Almost every colony had gold. This wasn't specifically chosen by Franz. It was completely the reality that led Austria to expand in that direction.

When he first expanded the African colony, Franz didn't expect to have today's foundation. If it wasn't for the fact that Europe didn't value Africa, how could Austria benefit so easily?

The expansion into Southeast Asia was a complete accident, and an unexpected success. The existence of the Central American colony was only to interfere in the Civil War. For it to have today's scale was also beyond Franz's plan.

Before the operation, Franz didn't know that the small Central American countries were such scum.

Originally, he only wanted to borrow a place to settle down. In the end, he accidentally tricked a group of German immigrants from the United States and directly turned the tables.

Of course, the rulers of the small countries would probably not be convinced by this statement. There were only tens of thousands of white people in their country, and their army never exceeded one regiment. How could they resist Austria?

Not to mention Alaska, it could be said that the Russians forced them over. If one ignored the fact that Franz secretly sent people to do public relations, this was the truth.

For Austria to develop to this point, in addition to hard work, luck was also very important. Franz could only sigh that reality was full of legends.

He picked up the document and flipped through it. There were no surprises. The historical mission of the two republics, Transvaal and Orange Free State, had ended, and they could now return to Austria's embrace.

There was nothing wrong with this. The local people had become Austria's supporters. The Republicans probably went to see God. As for what exactly happened, the report didn't say, and Franz didn't know.

"Ready, then let's put on a farce and let these two republics disband! Since we're going to develop South Africa, we can't let them continue to be an eyesore. "

Franz wanted face and wouldn't do something like directly annexing a sovereign country. If the Transvaal and Orange Free State were disbanded, and the local people returned to Austria's embrace, then there wouldn't be any problems.

This problem, Franz believed that Viscount Fickney would be able to handle. After such a long time, if the local power hadn't gone to see God, then they must be on the same side.

Even if there was a mess, it wouldn't be a problem. This year, the African colonies were very chaotic, and any accidents were normal.

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