Chapter 656

Affected by the agricultural crisis, farmers in European countries had a hard time. Families with savings were fine, but families without savings could only borrow money.

The food was grown at home, so the cost of living was not high. The biggest expense was the government's taxes. In most areas, agricultural taxes were not high, so they could just find a way to make up for it. If they really did not have the money, they could just owe the government.

Some countries also reduced taxes or accepted goods to offset taxes. Only a minority of farmers went bankrupt, and most people could still live.

If the agricultural crisis ended in 1873, it would only be equivalent to a year's harvest of agricultural products, causing prices to fall, and it would not shake Europe's small farmer economy.

Obviously, this was impossible. In the spring of 1873, everyone enthusiastically went into production again. In addition to some countries and regions reducing the area of grain planted, there were many areas where the area of grain planted did not decrease, but increased.

It was not that farmers did not know the price of grain was not high, but mainly because their ancestors were used to this way of farming. If they did not grow grain, they did not know what to grow.

Austria was one of the countries that reduced grain production more vigorously. The farms under the state-owned agricultural companies were ordered by Franz to stop growing grain and change to cash crops.

If it was more than a decade ago, this administrative order alone would have allowed Austria to overcome the agricultural crisis.

Unfortunately, it was not the same as before. Many people joined in the land redemption. After so many years, the Government of Vienna held less than 3% of the country's arable land.

In order to pursue higher profits, agricultural companies rarely grew grain. In addition to growing a small amount of food for their own consumption, most of them grew cash crops.

These cash crops did not need to be taken out. Agricultural companies had their own processing plants, and they played with production and processing, integrated agriculture.

Not only state-owned agricultural companies, but many big nobles also developed in this way. In the face of profit, everyone's learning ability was very strong.

Everyone adjusted their planting model according to market demand. Relatively speaking, integrated agriculture was less affected by the agricultural crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture originally planned that grain production this year would fall by 5.2% to 8.6%, but the reality was very embarrassing. Even though the government had wantonly publicized and called on people to reduce the area of grain planted, the data after the end of the spring plowing told them that it was too wishful thinking.

In the spring of 1873, Austria's grain planting area only fell by 1.3%, which was the result of the Government of Vienna's fine adjustments.

The data may not be accurate. In such a short period of time, the Government of Vienna could not make comprehensive statistics. This was only the result of a sample survey.

Franz did not think the error would be too big. Even if the error was as high as double, it was only 2.6%, which was more than double the target.

If Austria had this result, other countries could imagine. Franz felt that if they didn't increase the area planted by the government, it would be considered that the government's regulation was strong.

The agrarian crisis would continue. Franz was prepared for it, and the Vienna government had planned it as well.

The agricultural crisis was used to attack the agricultural production system of Europe, promoting land acquisition, and creating a large number of bankrupt farmers.

The Department of Colonization was ready to accept a total of ten million immigrants from the European continent in the next fifteen years to provide labor for the development of the Austrian colonies.

This was something that could not be helped. Those who wanted to immigrate in the German region had long been tricked away, and it was almost the same in Austria.

At its peak, there were hundreds of thousands of immigrants per year. Now, there were only 40,000 to 50,000 immigrants per year in Austria. The German Confederation could provide about 5,000 to 6,000 immigrants per year, and other European countries and regions would contribute about 20,000 to 30,000 immigrants.

Of course, the number of immigrants per year in Europe was more than that. The problem was that these people could not all go to Austria's colonies. England, France, and France were fooling immigrants in Europe. There was also the group of countries in the Americas, which were also the choice of immigrants.

Seventy to eighty thousand immigrants per year would be scattered across Austria's more than 20 million square kilometers of colonies. It would not even cause a ripple.

From this point of view, Franz fooled the German Confederation and Prussia into opening overseas colonies. He was also fighting with himself for immigrants.

Looking at the European countries, Russia had the most potential to become a major exporter of immigrants. The German Region's potential had basically been squeezed out.

The agricultural crisis was the best method. Alexander Ii Of Russia's great reclamation did solve the farmers' land problem.

But the Tsarist government's release of serfs was too short. These people did not have time to accumulate wealth before they encountered the agricultural crisis.

In terms of risk resistance, these Russia farmers who had just obtained land and owed the government a lot of debt were undoubtedly the lowest.

The land was newly reclaimed, and the yield was relatively low. Russia's natural environment was not good. Many places could only grow one season. The cost of growing food was high. Restricted by transportation, food transportation was difficult, and it was difficult to create economic value.

Preliminary estimates showed that the agricultural crisis of 1872 created tens of thousands of bankrupt farmers for the Russian Empire. Such a small number of people naturally could not set off a storm. As soon as they came out, they were absorbed by Russia's industry and commerce.

It was still too early for them to absorb immigrants. Only when there was a large-scale wave of bankruptcy, which exceeded the absorption limit of Russia's industry, could there be a large number of emigrants.

Otherwise, going to Russia and fighting with Russia's local capitalists for labor, wouldn't that be stupid? They were the local tyrants. They guaranteed that people would learn to be human again.

This plan did not include Austria. Although with the development of the times, in order to reduce production costs, land acquisition was the best choice, Franz was not prepared to do this in Austria.

Stability trumped everything. In the face of "stability," everything else had to be pushed back. The best choice was to cook a frog in warm water and subtly influence it. Directly letting the farmers go bankrupt and increasing immigration was the worst plan.

Putting down the information in his hand, Franz looked at Hols and asked, "The grain reduction plan has failed. What is the Ministry of Agriculture going to do?"

If they could not reduce production, they could only increase consumption. Prior to this, the Government of Vienna had a plan to develop the livestock industry, which was now beginning to take shape.

The main reason for not being able to develop and grow was that the market's consumption power did not keep up. Compared to the data of the per capita meat consumption of later generations, the current Austria only reached a third.

It was not that the people did not like to eat meat. The problem was that everyone's income was limited, and they could not afford meat at all. Being able to provide enough bread was already a brilliant achievement of the Government of Vienna's reform.

Franz's promise of an additional meal plan for compulsory education students had been implemented. After the price of agricultural products fell, the students received an additional 300 grams of pork every week.

Coupled with 550 grams of fish and 100 grams of chicken or goose, this intake was enough to meet the nutritional requirements. If the number of people continued to increase, Austria might be full of fat people.

The per capita amount of meat was actually a fallacy. It was usually averaged out. As far as Franz knew, the highest consumption of meat in Austria was by sailors and fishermen, followed by capitalists and nobles.

It was not that sailors and fishermen were richer, but it was relatively easy to obtain meat products at sea. The cheapest thing in their hands was probably fish, and most of the time, fish was their staple food.

The people in coastal areas ate more meat than those in inland areas. Take the Port of Venice for example, the price of fish was less than a tenth of the price of beef, and the main meat product of civilians was fish.

If it was inland, the difference would not be so large. Especially in the Hungarian Steppe, the price of beef was only five times that of fish, and the people ate a relatively high amount of beef.

This was actually very limited, and most people still could not eat to their heart's content. Even in Vienna, the most economically developed city, the average annual consumption of beef did not exceed 20 kilograms.

However, the average annual consumption of meat in Vienna had exceeded 85 kilograms, which was in the top five of all cities, and greatly increased the per capita level in Austria.

In terms of cost, increasing fishing was actually the cheapest way to increase the people's meat consumption.

Many problems could not only consider the cost, but also the chain reaction. Blindly increasing the supply of fish would destroy the domestic livestock industry. That was not a joke, but a real possibility.

There was only one reason — poverty! For most ordinary workers, the most important thing was cheap. It was not like their eating habits could not be changed.

Agriculture Minister Holls said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture is planning to promote livestock farming, increase food consumption, and enrich the farmers' table."

Franz heard between the lines, which was to sacrifice the livestock industry. Once the number of livestock farming increased, there would be excess production capacity in the livestock industry.

However, farmers usually did not raise livestock on a large scale. If they could not sell it, they could only eat it themselves.

In short, it was artificially increasing food consumption. At the same time, the price of meat products would be lowered, and the people's meat consumption would be increased.

However, this would cause a tragedy for the farmers involved in livestock farming. It was inevitable that their profits would be squeezed, and they might even lose money.

There was no other way. There would always be people whose profits would suffer. The livestock industry in Austria was much smaller in scale than the extensive agriculture industry, and there were even fewer of them in scale.

This was only feasible in theory, and there were many practical problems. After pondering for a moment, Franz shook his head. "Has the Ministry of Agriculture done any in-depth investigations?

As far as I know, a lot of farmers have the habit of raising livestock, especially poultry. Even if it was promoted, would the farmers be willing to feed it with food?

For example, geese can be raised with grass even if they don't feed them with food. It's the same for cows and sheep. If it's a small-scale farming, just feeding them grass is fine.

This way, the production of meat products will increase, but the food consumption might not increase. What is the Ministry of Agriculture going to rely on to complete the plan? "

Franz was not someone who could be easily fooled. In his previous life, he came from a village. When he was young, economic conditions were poor. No one used food to feed chickens, cows, and pigs.

Even though this would require more labor, and the livestock would take longer to grow, everyone still persisted.

In this era, the economic conditions of the Austrian farmers were not much better. Everyone had just started eating for a few years, and saving food was almost instinctive.

If the economic conditions were better, the Ministry of Agriculture's plan would not be a problem. If it really did not work, they could still use food to brew wine.

Europe consumed a lot of beer and wine, and the consumption of white wine was low. Other than Russia, most European people were not interested in white wine.

Otherwise, Franz would have used food to brew wine. Even if the market could not consume it in a short period of time, it could be stored for a long time. The longer it was stored, the better the taste.

Unfortunately, beer, which consumed the most, was not suitable for long-term storage. White wine could be stored, but there were no customers. Russia also had a surplus of food, and they had already made it themselves. There was no need to buy it from others.

With the current domestic consumption level, Franz felt that burning all the food was more cost-effective than using it to brew wine on a large scale. At least the losses would be lower.

Agriculture Minister Holls was dumbfounded. There was such a big loophole in the meticulously prepared plan. If it was really implemented, the agricultural crisis would not be solved, and the livestock crisis would be ignited.

This was the era of imperialism. What could they do if they could not solve the crisis? The most common method was to transfer the crops to other countries. Reality was cruel. This was the style of the superpowers these days.

Among the superpowers, Austria paid the most attention to their table manners. But Austria was still one of the superpowers. Now that there was a crisis, the Government of Vienna could not help but find an unlucky person to bear the losses.