Chapter 153 The Reverser
"The whole world is turbid, but I am clear. Everyone is drunk, but I am sober."
"The saints are not stagnant in things, but can move with the world. Everyone is turbid, why not stir up the mud and stir up the waves? Everyone is drunk, why not drink the wine?"
————Qu Yuan
Hungary, Pest Hotel.
There are two ways in front of Franz now. One is to turn a blind eye and return to Vienna directly to continue planning his own world affairs. The other is to join in, participate in this decadent carnival together, and continue to make money.
The Hungarian government issued an announcement: As long as refugees are between 14 and 25 years old, regardless of gender, and pass the physical examination, they only need to pay 5 florins to apply for immigration.
It's just that the number of places is limited each time, and it's first come first served.
All this seems beautiful and fair.
However, Franz could tell what they wanted to do from the countries where they immigrated, such as the United States, Texas (French colony), Brazil, and Argentina.
The Hungarian government's final solution to the refugees was considered by Talia and Adjani to be a very kind way. It was not uncommon to make a living across the ocean in the 19th century, and many people had heard of the legend of the promised land.
Franz hoped that his guess was wrong, but things were very likely to be different from what everyone thought.
This was not a simple immigration, but a human trafficking.
These Hungarians would be sold to French colonies, and in the end, everything they produced would become bullets fired at their fellow Austrian empire compatriots.
At this time, the price of black slaves in the United States was close to $600, and even the price of Indians soared from $15 to $50, and the price of white indentured slaves naturally rose.
The "white slave trade" had never been cut off, even after the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the destruction of the Barbary pirates.
The British used false contracts to trick Italian workers into coming to Britain. The contracts promised them high wages, high benefits, and that they could choose to come back at any time.
In fact, these contracts were not recognized by Britain at all. The workers who were tricked into Britain could only work endlessly under the whip of the supervisors, and they could not even think about returning home. They were driven out of the factory and left in the corner of the street to die when they became sick or lost their ability to work.
At this time, each Hungarian refugee could be sold for between $100 and $150. There were nearly 300,000 refugees outside the city, and selling them to America would definitely be a considerable income.
As long as half of them could be sold, a huge return of $15 million could be earned.
The most terrifying thing about this move is that even if the whole thing is investigated, it is legal. Even if it is made public, it will only make the Austrian Empire lose face, but there is nothing wrong with it.
Because the Hungarian government can completely describe it as labor export, not slave trade.
If Franz tried to stop this by force, he might even be besieged by angry victims.
The most sensible thing to do now is to leave Hungary immediately, return to Vienna and pretend that nothing had happened, and then wait for an opportunity to act. After all, it is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge, and in 1848, these scums will be completely liquidated.
Another way is to choose to stir up trouble and become a tyrant. Franz can do what the Hungarians can do, and he can use his knowledge to do it better and more outstandingly.
This will not only weaken Hungary's strength, but also win a good reputation for kindness, and make a lot of money to do more useful things. You can even get a group of Hungarians to colonize Africa, and then drive them back to their country after they have completed the construction.
However, neither of these two paths is what Franz wants. Justice delayed is not true justice, and people's bottom line is often getting lower and lower. An ordinary person with no bottom line may live happily, but if a capable and powerful person has no bottom line, it will make many people very miserable.
This situation is not completely unsolvable. First of all, we need to reduce the number of people who may be harmed. Franz bought a lot of land during the famine. Although many German immigrants have been reclaiming it, they still cannot completely absorb it.
Originally, Franz planned to continue to attract German immigrants, but he had to change his strategy and open the royal estate to absorb refugees. This is the most effective means.
However, it should be noted that the proportion of Hungarians in the royal estate should not be too high. At the same time, neither the Germans nor the Hungarians should feel discriminated against. In addition, for the sake of safety, it is not appropriate to put Hungarians alone in a royal estate.
Franz spent 7.5 million florins to buy 3 million acres of wasteland in Hungary. At this time, only less than 300,000 acres have been developed. There are 120,000 German immigrants. Considering that more German immigrants will come to Austria in the future.
Hungarians can account for 50% of the royal estate, which means that Franz's estate can absorb up to 120,000 Hungarian refugees.
There were still 180,000 refugees left, and Franz could naturally hire them to reclaim the wasteland, but even if he paid 50 florins per person, it would cost 9 million florins, plus other expenses, and the total expenditure would probably exceed 12 million florins.
However, the actual situation was that the price of food was twice as high as before, and 50 florins was not enough to support a farmer's life for a year. The land that the farmers had just reclaimed had no income, and the crops on the land could not even support their livelihood next year.
So Franz needed far more than 12 million florins. Just to help these farmers get through the difficult times would require 20 million florins.
Franz also needed a second step, which was to crack down on speculators who were driving up prices. If this matter was handed over to the Hungarian government, it would probably end up in vain, and the Austrian imperial government could not reach Hungary.
Faced with this group of shameless people, Franz could only use magic to defeat magic.
Franz could import grain from Russia and sell it to the poor in Hungary at a low price. Although he would suffer some losses, it was much better than starving people everywhere, or buying grain in Hungary at double the price and letting those black-hearted businessmen make a fortune.
As long as there was enough profit margin for the Tsar, the food agreement between Russia and the United States would be a piece of waste paper, and the food crisis had reached its final stage, and high food prices could not continue.
Therefore, the Tsar would not miss this good opportunity to make money, because Russia was too poor.
The Austrian Empire did have to pay tariffs when importing goods through Hungary, but the royal family was not among them.
Although Franz offended the entire Hungarian aristocracy by doing this, he didn't care.
Compared with those shitty Hungarian aristocrats, he cared more about his own mood.
In order to make those human traffickers give up, Franz decided to send people to infiltrate the indentured slaves.
At the same time, in order to ensure that those human traffickers would die more thoroughly, he also pulled the church and the nobles.
In the aristocratic circle of Vienna, there are many people who like to die. Such an exciting thing as playing a slave being sold to America can naturally attract many neurotic people.
As for the church, it hates the trafficking of Christians, and with the relationship of Archbishop Rauscher, a group of devout clergy were soon arranged.
After hearing about Franz's plan, Archduke Albrecht also volunteered. His joining will definitely make those human traffickers die.
Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, I wish all book friends a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.