Chapter 341 From Bavaria (2)

The spring plowing in 1842 had just ended.

Fest Laubing was a German civilian from Bavaria. This was not his first time to work in Austria. Compared with the pitiful income from farming in his hometown, the treatment of being a laborer here was relatively advantageous.

Bavaria has always been based on bad land among the German states. It is difficult to cultivate due to many insect pests, and the harvest is extremely unsatisfactory.

Although there are many river basins, its government is simply unable to regulate the frequent diversions and floods, let alone build water conservancy.

Another point is that the agricultural reforms that have taken place in neighboring countries such as Austria and Prussia have made extensive use of agricultural machinery and new fertilizers, and adopted new farming methods to rapidly increase crop yields.

As a result, the income of Bavarian farmers has become even lower.

Due to the establishment of the German Customs Union, the market connection in the German region has been greatly strengthened. The already overwhelmed landlords are no longer able to resist the influx of foreign agricultural products. In order to maintain their own income, they can only further exploit farmers (or serfs).

With the meager income from farming, Raubin not only had to support his wife and children, but also had to give more than half of his harvest to the landlord, leaving only the remaining fifty or sixty florins for himself.

In order to save food and reduce the burden, he and his wife often fell into the difficult situation of having no food for the next meal. The children were as thin as fledglings without hair, and even the bones could be seen through the skin.

They once gave birth to six children in total, but only two survived in the end.

In addition to eavesdropping on other people's privacy, the priests in the church even publicly solicited prostitutes and brought mistresses into the house of God. In addition, what they are best at is collecting tithes.

Merchants and officials are in collusion, and the more disaster years there are, the higher the price of food. It is not uncommon for the relief food issued by the upper level to appear in the store in the blink of an eye.

Jackals are in power, rats are rampant, the rich have fields and fields, and the poor have no place to stand. Officials, churches and merchants are a trinity, and there is no way to redress grievances.

After nightfall, the roads were completely dark, even in the streets and alleys of the city. At that time, the public lighting time in Bavaria was generally less than 2,000 hours per year, and drunkards and hooligans often besieged innocent passers-by.

Similar vicious wounding incidents occurred frequently, and the perpetrators often went unpunished, resulting in few residents daring to go out at night.

Of course, this situation is very common nowadays, and Bavaria is not an exception. Except for the four countries of Britain, France, Austria and Belgium, public lighting facilities in other places are very poor.

Even today, going out late at night in France or a certain area in southern Italy still tests the courage of pedestrians.

Back to the book

Since the food crisis in 1838, Fister Laubin has traveled back and forth between Austria and Bavaria almost every year.

Over the years, he has experienced a significant change in this country-people's income is getting higher and higher. From the initial fifty florins to his current annual income of more than one hundred florins, it is almost twice what he earned from farming in the past.

What is even more commendable is that workers with similar backgrounds can even use their rest time to go to church schools to receive literacy education.

Every week, the factory invites priests to preach. Although the content of the sermons is the same old three things, loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, and worship of God, the enthusiasm of the workers has not diminished at all.

On the one hand, the level of pastors in big countries is indeed higher than their counterparts in rural areas. On the other hand, using leisure time to receive spiritual baptism can at least help relieve tense nerves and tired bodies.

According to the provisions of imperial law:

Any organization with a size of more than ten people must conduct a patriotic sermon (loyalty education) once a week. The duration must not be less than one hour, and it must not occupy the employees' rest and meal time. The first offender will be fined 10 florins per person, and the fine will be doubled for subsequent offenses. At the same time, the person responsible will be flogged.

Because the empire's fiscal revenue is much stronger than the same period in history, the government's power in law enforcement and supervision has been greatly enhanced. The overwhelming secret police made no factory owner dare to neglect it.

Of course, they are smart and have thought about starting with the church, but who would have thought that the latter would also issue a ban on pure teams, and violators would take off their robes.

If the case is serious, the scalp blessed by holy oil will be cut off and sent to the gendarmerie for handling.

What surprised Fister Laubin the most was the public lighting system in Austria, which was not only bright all night but also had mounted police patrolling the roads.

(Austria's annual public lighting time is 4,000 hours, which is twice that of Bavaria, higher than France's 3,500 hours, and lower than London's 5,000 hours.)

Not to mention drunkards and hooligans, even gangsters dare not easily do whatever they want on the streets.

Killing may not be the intention of the mounted police, but it is often not easy to hold back a running mount. Even if you are not hit, the blow of nearly half a ton of inertia of the horse and the man is not something that anyone can withstand.

The number of homeless people and beggars seen with the naked eye on the streets of Vienna is also decreasing, and even the group of "talented people" engaged in artistic creation can find their own pure land in the park.

A rule of the Imperial Capital store also successfully ignited Laubin's interest - as long as the customer has collateral as a guarantee, he can get the goods first and then slowly replace them in installments.

Usually the price of the former is several times that of the latter, but for ordinary people like him who do not want to sell a bag of gold beans (actually a bag of gold teeth) and try to get what they need temporarily without the financial resources, installment payment provides great benefits.

In times of war, farmers or refugees often join the ranks of corpse snatchers, and one of the most profitable businesses is stealing teeth.

Dentures in this era are expensive, and most of them are made of human teeth or metals such as gold. So it is not surprising that some families of generations of farmers have hidden gold teeth.

The well-informed cashiers in department stores have seen even the strangest collateral, let alone a few gold teeth.

When Fister Laubin was about to leave after a visit, he was stopped by a diligent businessman.

The well-dressed gentleman introduced him and boasted wildly about the huge potential of the stocks of the second phase of the Neletania railway project in the name of patriotism, and even used the first phase of the project that had been completed and opened to traffic as an example to prove the foresight of the royal family and the imperial government. They are far-sighted and will definitely cover it.

Although it was hard to refuse the kindness, the farmer from Bavaria still said honestly.

"I appreciate your kindness, sir. I am very sorry that I have no spare energy to pay attention to the stock market now because of the purchase of this harvester. I plan to go back to my hometown and buy two mules to use this harvester to harvest wheat for people to make money."

However, the other party was not discouraged, and even seemed to have prepared a set of rhetoric.

"It doesn't matter. If you don't mind, you can use your harvester as collateral first. Then we will provide you with a loan. Anyway, it is still spring now, and the harvester will not have a market until the harvest season.

You can buy the second phase project stock first, and it is not too late to sell it and buy a harvester if you can't make money. Of course, if you have the intention to support this country and want to get rid of your current predicament, why not try your luck in the stock market?"

For a low-level civilian who can only write his own name in his twenties, this argument has to be said to be very attractive.

Seeing that the other party was hesitating, the gentleman immediately added fuel to the fire.

"The stock has risen 100% in a month. At this rate, your assets will at least increase sixfold by the time autumn comes. Just imagine, you can then join forces with your brothers and sons to harvest."

"Laubin Harvesting Company!" He followed the gentleman's thinking and even gave his own harvesting team a resounding name.

Thanks to the book friends Shang Jia Suo Xin, Zi Ying Hua Fen Fei, Zhan 6 Jiang, Zi Mu, book friend 20200510022929734, Sao Mou Xi, Tang Seng Washes Hair with Rejoice 00 for their rewards, as well as the support of all the readers.