Chapter 418 The Worst Times? The Best Times?

Prussia, Silesia.

In fact, compared with the weavers in Silesia, the workers in Lyon and the Chartists in Britain lived a life like a god.

The weavers here not only had to be ripped off by the factory owners, but also had to be exploited by the contractors (a legacy of the guild era) and the landlords and nobles.

The weavers even had to pay a special "textile tax" if they wanted to work in the factory.

The layers of exploitation turned this once richest region in Austria into a hell on earth, but it was not just exploitation that really turned it into hell.

Rather, the government ignored the lives of the locals, acquiesced to the factory owners constantly reducing the wages of workers, and acquiesced to the merchants raising the prices of food and materials.

At its peak, the Silesia textile industry had more than 100,000 workers, but by 1843 there were only 38,000 left.

In history, in 1842 alone, tens of thousands of weavers were starved to death, and countless others were imprisoned or died due to theft, robbery and other acts.

However, in this life, Austria joined the German Customs Union and also provided very generous immigration and labor policies.

Therefore, most of the weavers who should have starved to death in 1842 chose to go to Austria for survival, and the tragedy in history did not happen.

However, due to the increase in exchanges with Austria, the dissatisfaction of this group of people was aggravated. They felt that the Prussian government did not regard them as their own people.

However, what was even more embarrassing was that the Austrians in Lower Silesia, which was only separated by a river, would often patrol the river with guns to prevent Prussians from Upper Silesia from sneaking in.

Silesia was once a territory of the Austrian Empire, but Upper Silesia was lost to Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession.

Coupled with the experience of the Thirty Years' War, the mutual hostility between the Upper and Lower Silesians was very serious. Although only separated by the Oder River, the two sides never interacted with each other.

Especially in recent years, when the people of Upper Silesia had a bad life, as former compatriots, they were the most ruthless ones.

Of course, when Austria declined in the past, the people of Upper Silesia also behaved in the same way.

So when the Silesians were ready to go to Austria to make a living, they had to go through a big circle.

Since they could only go to Austria to work, the tragedy in history did not happen, but the reduction in taxes in the Silesia region was real.

This made the Prussian high-level officials very dissatisfied, and they threatened the local buyers and Junker nobles. If taxes continued to decrease, their privileges would be revoked.

In fact, the local buyers and Junker nobles were also worried about the reduction in income.

So, this group of people expressed their dissatisfaction to the Prussian government, that is, the weavers in Silesia all ran to Austria.

In fact, this itself is nothing, but it depends on how you understand it.

For example, it can be understood that these Silesians are unfaithful to Prussia, and they would rather build Austria than work hard on Prussian land.

Although it is a very crooked understanding, it just hits the heart of William IV and the Prussian high-level officials.

At this time, Prussia was obviously weaker than Austria in all aspects, especially in the Luxembourg crisis, and its chairmanship was almost unshakable.

Now even the headquarters of the German Customs Union has moved to Vienna, and it seems that sooner or later they will move the headquarters of the German Confederation there.

In fact, this is completely a coincidence. The headquarters of the German Customs Union and the German Confederation are temporarily rotated. It just happened to be Vienna's turn when Prussia and other countries forced the palace.

Of course, it is not ruled out that they forced the palace after Vienna's turn. After all, this way there will be more articles to do, and it can make Austria look more arrogant.

The complaints of the local Junker nobles in Silesia just hit the fragile self-esteem of the Prussian high-level officials.

The Prussian government immediately ordered a ban on unemployed workers in Silesia from going to Austria, and those who violated the order would be severely punished.

The original intention of the Prussian government was to keep people in the local area to extend the life of the local textile industry in Silesia, while preventing Austria from taking advantage of its cheap labor.

Then the livelihood of these poor weavers was completely cut off. The local factory owners, with the support of the government, desperately squeezed the last value of these people.

In fact, it was not that no one in the Prussian high-level saw the possible disadvantages of doing so, but Friedrich List was no longer the poor boy at that time.

He was a mature politician and naturally understood the principle that if you want to take, you must give first. Only when he helps others first can others help him.

This is the price that must be paid for integrating into a new collective.

Officials protect each other, and it has been so since ancient times.

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz gathered all his friends together, not for anything else but to spend money.

In fact, this is also a helpless thing, because Franz discovered a problem, the poor in Austria always spend more money than the rich.

Whether it is installment payment or dividends, the result is that the poor buy crazily, and then the rich deposit the money in the bank or continue to invest.

Compound interest is really terrible. Even 5% interest can make many people invincible.

The gap between the rich and the poor is widened unintentionally, and when you come to your senses and want to solve it, it has become an insurmountable gap.

Some people think that it must be the rule of law, and the establishment of individual tax will solve it? How dare you call yourself a time traveler?

Actually, Franz wanted to explain something that almost all time travelers would do throughout history, but they didn't know why they did it.

That is why you must do everything yourself, do business and enterprises yourself, instead of letting others do it and collect taxes yourself.

Because in fact, setting taxes has never been a problem, the difficulty is collecting taxes, how to collect taxes.

There are many laws in this world that have very good intentions and are well formulated, but they are counterproductive at the implementation level.

For example, Western inheritance tax, personal income tax, inheritance law, etc., but in fact they have become laws that restrict the transformation of the middle class into large assets.

Montesquieu said, "If the rich are not extravagant, the poor will starve to death."

Although this sentence is vulgar, it cannot be said to be wrong under the monarchy.

Because money does make money, and the result of letting capital and wealth continue to accumulate is either the destruction of the country or the destruction of the family. The nobles' land annexation and the merchants' alliances to monopolize the market will eventually lead to the same result.

Franz does not want to create a world that is the same as the millions of reincarnations, so for the time being he can only use hedonism and consumerism to help the development of the country's tertiary industry.

Speaking of playing, Franz decided to start a football league. After all, it is a relatively mature sport that can not only strengthen the body, but also enhance national cohesion.

And history has proved that Europe is relatively fond of football. As for other supporting facilities and publicity, they can be solved slowly.

As for other entertainment projects, it depends on Franz's friends.

After all, Franz does not belong to this era in a strict sense. Even if he was born in this era, he lived in seclusion and his research may be somewhat out of touch with the times.

I drank some wine in the evening and felt a little uncomfortable. What I wrote may also be a little floating. Just read it.