In Vienna, after a long period of political games, on August 21, 1866, the African localization strategy was finally presented to the new Holy Roman Empire's parliament for discussion. It was time to decide the empire's fate.
If it was approved by the parliament, then Africa would become Shinra's century-long strategy. Even the country's center of gravity might shift.
The comedy of a lucky emperor turning into an unlucky emperor was about to play out in the 19th century.
Franz wasn't a pervert. He had done enough. Once the African localization strategy was approved, it would have a huge impact on the future. There would be both good and bad effects, and this strategy might even fail.
Under such circumstances, Franz naturally wouldn't force the bill through. The parliament was the most suitable person to take the blame for this. The long time left was for the interest groups in the colonies to use their powers and convince the governments.
According to Shinra's constitution, this kind of important national policy had to be supported by 80% of the parliament for the proposal to be approved.
Without a doubt, Württemberg, Bavaria, and Luba would definitely support it. As long as they wanted African cotton, they couldn't stop the process of African localization.
The main resistance came from within Austria. The most likely areas to be impacted were Hungary and Romania. These were Austria's two major granaries.
In the Paklen Manor, representatives from all parties who were pushing for the African localization gathered to discuss business strategies. In exchange for the opposition's support, Baron Fickney proposed:
"Everyone, the biggest opposition is the domestic farmers. This group is large, and the empire has to consider their opinions.
I propose to make a promise to the parliament that Austrian Africa will give up the right to export food to Europe in exchange for the support of the domestic farmers. "
Not impacting the local agriculture was the strategy that Baron Fickney came up with after much thought. Currently, Austrian Africa's food production wasn't high, and they were basically self-sufficient. The annual export was less than 500,000 DND.
This wasn't a government restriction. It was mainly decided by economic benefits. Planting cash crops was obviously more profitable. For the sake of money, everyone knew what to choose.
"Baron, Austrian Africa is currently lacking labor and there aren't many people planting food. We can make this promise.
However, with the increase in immigration, the amount of land being developed is also increasing. If we give up the food industry, the competition will be very intense in the future. "
Count Daniel objected. He was one of the few major food producers on the African continent. Although the profit margin was low, it was more secure.
The price of cash crops fluctuated greatly. Although the profit margin was high, it would be difficult to sell. On the contrary, food prices were relatively stable.
Because the Polish region had become a battlefield, the Russians had lost a granary, and in the last two years, the international food price had increased by eight percent.
After the price increase, the profit margin of food had caught up to cash crops. Of course, Count Daniel didn't want to lose the large European market.
Baron Fickney explained patiently, "This is a problem for the future. The most important thing now is to change the status of the colony and let the African Indigenization Act pass.
The population in the country was growing rapidly. In order to develop the African continent, the Vienna government was also preparing to introduce a bill to stimulate the population growth.
With the population, the population grew, the African of Continent. If the local population doubles, then the imperial government will take the initiative to allow us to transport food without us having to push. "
The Empire, of of of Of Empire, of the Empire of the population would of would of Africa. At the current rate of population growth, the Empire's population would double in thirty years.
Austria would go from a food exporter to a food importer. At that time, apart from Russia, the whole of Europe would be short of food.
This beautiful prospect was the motivation for them to invest in farms and plantations. Although the profit was not as good as industry, it was a long-term business. The life cycle of a factory was less than ten years.
In the German Region, the land was narrow and the population was dense. Under this background, everyone attached great importance to land. Many people believed that land would not depreciate.
After the establishment of the colony, this concept was impacted, but most people still believed that land was the most valuable industry.
This was why Austrian Africa was full of farms and plantations, while the African colonies of other European countries were mostly barren.
It wasn't that the governments didn't work hard. The problem was that the immigrants didn't want to farm. What could they do?
After hesitating for a while, Count Daniel nodded in agreement. At worst, they could reduce food production and change to cash crops. The loss wasn't big.
He was willing to pay this price in order to localize the African colony. In order to turn the lifelong noble into a hereditary noble, he had invested too much. He couldn't let anything go wrong at this time.
…
On September 1, 1866, while the Imperial Parliament was arguing, the Austrian African representative made a promise in the Imperial Parliament: After the African colony was localized, they wouldn't export food to the European continent and impact the international food price.
The turning point had appeared. Even the members of parliament who were most opposed to the localization of Africa no longer had any opinions at this time.
As long as the domestic food price wasn't impacted, everything was negotiable. As for other industries, the African colony didn't have the qualifications to impact Austria.
Under Vienna's immigration strategy, Austrian Africa didn't have that much cheap labor. The cost of labor was higher than in the mainland. The infrastructure was just starting, and there was no industry to speak of.
There was even less to worry about the future. To be able to develop the African continent to the point of catching up with the mainland, Franz would probably laugh in his dreams.
At worst, the lucky emperor turned out to be unlucky. With such a large foundation, it was enough to support the Empire for a hundred years. Anything else was not within his consideration.
The world was changing so fast. Who knew when humans would rush out of the solar system, or if they were unlucky and civilization died prematurely?
The biggest obstacle was no longer there. On September 1, 1866, the localization of the Austrian African colony was unanimously passed by the Imperial Parliament.
The commitment of the delegation was also written into the law and became one of the prerequisites for the localization.
Since then, the legal obstacles to the localization of Austria's overseas colonies were cleared. Of course, this was only the first step. There was still a long way to go to localize the colonies.
It wasn't possible for any remote corner to have the qualifications to localize. The specific restrictions needed to be carefully studied by the government.
The decision of the Imperial Parliament was disseminated through the newspapers, from Vienna to Europe and the world. In a good mood, Franz wrote an article titled "Mutual Forbearance for the Nation," which highly praised the Austrian African delegation's actions.
This was his true opinion. This wasn't controlled by Franz behind the scenes, but a decision they made themselves.
This concession might not have cost a lot, but the effect was very obvious. It dispelled the concerns of the domestic peasant class. This group might not have much say in politics, but they had a large number of people.
Currently, Austria's agricultural population was still close to 30 million people. Only when this group was stable would the Empire be stable.
Now that the problem was solved, as long as it didn't impact the food price, the majority of farmers naturally wouldn't oppose the expansion of the Empire.
The birth of "Mutual Forbearance for the Nation" was quickly pursued by people from all walks of life. It swept the entire European continent and became the slogan of many countries.
This wasn't because the standard of Franz's article was high, nor was it because he was flattering. The main point was that it was politically correct, which helped to eliminate regional conflicts.
Of course, this was based on the premise that Franz proposed it. If it was proposed by an ordinary person, it probably wouldn't even cause a splash.
This was the privilege of the successful. Just look at the map of Austria. Now, he was one of the greatest monarchs of the era.
