Chapter 530

Affected by the agricultural crisis, farmers in various European countries are having a hard time. Families with savings are fine, those without savings are left with debt.

The food is grown at home, and the living expenses are not large. The biggest expense is the government tax. In most areas, the agricultural tax is not heavy. If you can find a way to collect it, you can owe it if you don’t have any money. on.

Some countries have also reduced or exempted taxes, or accepted tax offsets in kind. The bankrupt peasants are only a few, and most of them can live on.

If the agricultural crisis had ended in 1873, it would have been nothing but a blip in the equivalent of a year of bumper harvests, driving down prices and not shaking the small-scale farmers' economies in Europe.

Obviously, this is not possible. In the spring of 1873, everyone went into production with enthusiasm again. In addition to the decrease in the grain planting area in some countries and regions, there are many regions where the grain planting area has not decreased but increased.

This is not because the farmers do not know that the price of grain is not good and the income from growing grain is not high. The main reason is that the ancestors have been used to this way of planting. If they do not grow grain, they do not know what to plant.

Austria is a country that has cut its grain production capacity more aggressively. The farms under the state-owned agricultural company were ordered by Franz to stop important grains and switch to commercial crops.

If it was more than ten years ago, this executive order alone would have allowed Austria to survive the agricultural crisis.

It is a pity that the present is not what it used to be. Many people have joined the land redemption. Over the years, the state-owned arable land held by the Vienna government has been less than 3% of the country's arable land.

In order to pursue higher yields, agricultural companies actually rarely grow food. Except for a small amount of rations for their own consumption, most of them grow cash crops.

There is no need to take out these cash crops. Agricultural companies themselves have processing plants, and they play with production + processing, integrated agriculture.

Not only state-owned agricultural companies, but also many aristocrats follow this development model. In the face of interests, everyone has a strong ability to learn.

Everyone adjusts the planting model immediately according to market demand. Relatively speaking, this integrated agriculture is less affected by the agricultural crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture originally planned that grain production this year would drop by 5.2% to 8.6%, but the reality is very slapped. Even though the government has made a hype, calling on the people to reduce the area of ​​grain planting, the big data of the end of the spring ploughing tells them that it is too beautiful.

In the spring of 1873, the area of ​​grain cultivation in Austria fell by only 1.3%, which was the result of fine-tuning by the Vienna government.

The data may not be accurate. In such a short period of time, the Vienna government has not been able to make comprehensive statistics. This is only the result of a sample survey.

Franz doesn't think the error will be large. Even if the error is as high as doubling, it is only 2.6%, which is more than double the booking target.

Austria is the result, other countries can imagine. Not to mention the reduction in production, Franz feels that they will not increase the area of ​​grain planting, even if the government has tightened control.

The agricultural crisis will continue, Franz is prepared, and this is also planned by the Vienna government.

Using the agricultural crisis to impact the agricultural production system of European countries, promote the land annexation movement in various countries, and create a large number of bankrupt farmers.

The Colonial Ministry has made preparations and plans to accept a total of 10 million immigrants from the European continent in the next fifteen years to provide labor for the development of the Austrian colonies.

This is also something that can’t be helped. Those who want to immigrate in the German region have long been fooled away, and the same is true in Austria.

From the peak period of hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year, to the current number of 40,000 to 50,000 immigrants in Austria, the German Confederation can provide about 5,000 or 6,000 immigrants every year, and other European countries and regions will contribute about 20,000 to 30,000 immigrants.

Of course, the annual immigration of the entire European continent is not only a little bit, the problem is that these people cannot all go to the colonies of Austria, and the British, French, and Hopsy are all flickering immigrants in Europe. There are also a group of countries in the Americas, which are also the choice of immigrants.

Every year, 70,000 to 80,000 immigrants are scattered over the 20 million-square-kilometer colony of Austria, and not even a single wave can hit it.

In this regard, Franz is also robbing himself of immigrants by fooling the German Confederation and Prussia to open up overseas colonies.

Looking at European countries, Russia has the most potential to become a major exporter of immigrants at present, and the potential of the German region has been basically drained.

The agricultural crisis is the best means, and Alexander II's land reclamation really solved the farmers' land problem.

But the tsarist government liberated the serfs for too short a time, and before these people had time to accumulate wealth, they encountered an agricultural crisis.

In terms of anti-risk ability, these Russian farmers who have just acquired land still owe the government a lot of debt, which is undoubtedly the lowest.

The land is newly cultivated, and the output is relatively low; the natural environment in Russia is not good, and many places can only be planted for one season, and the cost of food cultivation is high; restricted by traffic, it is difficult to transport food, and it is difficult to create economic value.

According to preliminary estimates, the agricultural crisis in 1872 created tens of thousands of bankrupt farmers in the Russian Empire. With such a small number of people, it is natural that they cannot make waves, and they were absorbed by Russian industry and commerce as soon as they came out.

Want to absorb immigrants, is it too early? A mass exodus is possible only if there is a massive wave of bankruptcies, exceeding the absorption limit of Russian industry.

Otherwise, go to Russia and compete with the local Russian capitalists for labor. Isn't that a brain-dead? Others are local snakes, and taking care of them makes people learn to be human again.

This plan does not include

Local location. Although with the development of the times, in order to reduce production costs, land mergers are the best choice, and Franz is not prepared to do so on the mainland.

Stability overrides everything else, and in the face of "stability", everything else has to fall back. Boiled frogs in warm water, the subtle influence is the best choice. To directly bankrupt farmers and increase immigration is the next best thing.

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

If you can't reduce output, you can only increase consumption. Prior to this, the Vienna government had a plan to develop animal husbandry, which has now begun to take shape.

The main reason for not being able to develop and grow is that the market consumption capacity has not kept up. Compared with the data of the later generations that the per capita meat consumption exceeds 100 kilograms, now Austria has only reached one-third.

It's not that the people don't like meat, the problem is that everyone has limited income and can't afford meat at all. Being able to manage enough bread is already a brilliant achievement of the Vienna government's reforms.

Franz's promised meal plan for compulsory education students has been implemented, with students boosting their supply of pork by 300 grams a week after agricultural prices fell.

With 550 grams of fish, 100 grams of chicken or goose, this intake is enough to meet nutritional needs. Continue to increase, maybe Austria will be rich in fat people.

Meat consumption per capita is actually a fallacy and is usually averaged out. According to Franz's knowledge, sailors and fishermen have the highest consumption of meat products in Austria, followed by capitalists and aristocrats.

It's not that sailors and fishermen are richer, it's mainly because it is relatively easy to obtain meat products at sea, and the cheapest thing in their hands may be fish, and most of the time the staple food is fish.

People in coastal areas eat more meat than inland areas. Taking the Port of Venice as an example, the price of local fish is less than one-tenth of that of beef, and the main meat product of civilians is fish.

If you go to the inland area, the difference is not so big. Especially in the Hungarian prairie, the price of beef is only five times that of fish, and the amount of beef consumed by the people is relatively high.

This height is actually very limited, and most people still cannot open their stomachs to eat. Even in the most economically developed Vienna, the annual consumption of beef per capita does not exceed 20 kilograms.

However, Vienna's per capita meat consumption has exceeded 85 kilograms, ranking among the top five in all cities, greatly raising the per capita level of Austria.

In terms of cost, in fact, increasing the amount of fishing is the cheapest way to increase the consumption of meat products by the public.

Many problems can not only consider the cost, but also consider the chain reaction. Blindly increasing the supply of fish and destroying the domestic animal husbandry industry is not a joke, but a real possibility.

The reason is only one word - poor! For the vast majority of ordinary workers, cheapness is the most important thing, and eating habits cannot be changed.

Minister of Agriculture Halls: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture is ready to promote livestock farming, increase food consumption, and enrich farmers' tables."

Franz heard the implication, that is, sacrificing animal husbandry. Once the number of livestock breeding increases greatly, the overcapacity of animal husbandry will appear.

However, the scale of farmers' free-range farming is usually not too large, and if they cannot be sold, they can only eat by themselves.

In general, it is an artificial increase in food consumption. By the way, reduce the price of meat products and increase the meat intake of the people.

Only in this way, the farmer who is engaged in animal husbandry will be tragic. It is inevitable that profits will be squeezed, and if not, they will lose money.

There is no way, there will always be someone whose interests will be damaged. Austrian livestock farming is much smaller, and even less so, than the extensive agriculture involved.

This is only possible in theory, and there are still many problems in practice. After pondering for a while, Franz shook his head: "Has the Ministry of Agriculture conducted an in-depth investigation?

As far as I know, many farmers have the habit of raising livestock, especially poultry farming more widely. Even if it is to promote, are farmers willing to feed it with grain?

For example, in raising geese, even if they are not fed with food, they can be raised on grass. Cattle and sheep are similar. If it is a small-scale farming, it can be just fed grass.

As a result, the output of meat products has increased, but the consumption of food may not be able to increase. What is the Ministry of Agriculture going to rely on to complete the plan? "

Franz is not a fool to be fooled, he came from the countryside in his previous life. When I was a child, the economic conditions were not good, and no one used food to feed chickens, cattle, and pigs at home.

Despite this, more labor was required and the livestock took longer to grow, so everyone persevered.

Comparing heart to heart, the economic conditions of Austrian peasants in this year are not much better, and everyone has just had enough to eat for a few years. It is almost an instinct to save food.

If economic conditions are better, then the Ministry of Agriculture's plan is expected to be implemented with little problem. It's really not possible, you can also use grain to make wine.

In Europe, the consumption of beer and wine is large, and the consumption of liquor is small. Except for Russia, most European people are not very interested in liquor.

Otherwise, Franz would have taken the grain to make wine. Even if it is not consumed by the market in a short time, it can be stored for a long time. The longer the storage time, the better the taste.

Sadly, the most consumed beer, not suitable for long-term storage. Liquor can be stored, but there are no customers. The Russians also have a surplus of food, and they have already made them themselves, so there is no need to purchase them.

With the current level of domestic consumption, Franz felt that burning the grain would be better than using it for wine on a large scale.

More cost-effective, at least you can pay less.

The Minister of Agriculture, Halls, was dumbfounded. There was such a big loophole in the well-prepared plan. If it is really implemented, the agricultural crisis will not be resolved, and the animal husbandry crisis will be detonated again.

Now is the era of imperialism, what if the crisis cannot be resolved? The most commonly used method is naturally to transfer externally. The reality is so cruel, this is the style of the foreign powers these days.

Among the great powers, Austria pays the most attention to eating. But in essence, Austria is still a member of the great powers. Now that it has encountered a crisis, the Vienna government will naturally want to find a hapless person to bear the loss.