Chapter 782 Dalmatia
Dalmatia is the most desolate region in the Austrian Empire at this time, and its population is still not as large as that in the ancient Roman period.
Dalmatia is the most desolate province in the Austrian Empire, even the newly conquered mountainous areas in the east are not as good.
The area is 13,000 square kilometers, and the population is less than 100,000 at this time. In the ancient Roman period, the local population once reached hundreds of thousands, but no one thought that was the peak of the local area.
In the thousands of years since then, the Dalmatian region has been in constant war, and various conquerors have come in turn. War, massacres, and famine have almost become the norm.
(The population size in 2023 is about 730,000.)
Dalmatia has the second lowest literacy rate in the country and the lowest tax contribution rate in the country.
But this does not mean that this land has no value. In fact, Dalmatia has a precious coastline and relatively fertile land, otherwise it would not be possible to feed so many people in the ancient Roman period.
The local climate is warm and the sunshine is sufficient, which is very suitable for the growth of economic crops such as olives, grapes, and tobacco. However, the locals prefer hunting and herding sheep because this kind of property is easy to transfer.
The Austrian Empire once wanted to use Slovenians and Croats to develop this land, but they were a relatively backward nation, and the way of development was to herd sheep and raise donkeys, but there was no effect for decades.
Franz thought that the Poles could be allowed to develop this land. After all, people in other parts of Austria did not like to live on this desolate land.
After seeing these outsiders make a fortune, the locals should choose to follow suit, and the Austrian government can revitalize the entire region with appropriate intervention.
In fact, there is no need to worry about the Poles becoming too big, because although Dalmatia has a long coastline, it lacks truly excellent ports, and the local agricultural and animal husbandry ceiling is not high, and it lacks industrial production capacity.
In Franz's plan, Dalmatia should be built into a tourist resort dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry.
The Dalmatian region is actually quite dependent on the market of the Austrian Empire and all products except agricultural and sideline products. The Polish nobles of several thousand people cannot cause too much actual impact on the local society.
If the local development has a pro-Polish tendency, then continue to mix sand and hit the first bird. If it doesn't work, you can continue to change the cage.
The members of the Regency Council had no objection to Franz's proposal, because the land in Dalmatia was naturally not as fertile as Galicia, and the area was mountainous and swampy, which gave the Austrian government a lot of room for maneuver.
In fact, everyone knew that the Austrian nobles were concerned about their own interests, not the lives of the Poles.
As long as the whole plan was acceptable in form, it didn't matter what would happen in the future.
At the same time, Count Korolav and Metternich knew that Franz would become emperor in the future, and this future was not far away.
At this time, the opinion against Franz was to submit a resignation in advance, but the old foxes would not do it too obviously.
The two made some minor repairs to Franz's plan, and at the same time, based on their own experience, they put forward some relatively feasible suggestions for Franz to discover for himself.
Although Franz has been in this world for more than ten years, his understanding of the country is still not as good as these two old men who have been running it for decades.
For example, how to monitor the movements of these thousands of Poles, and how to divide them so that they cannot be linked to each other to form new interest groups.
In fact, the simplest way is to divide by parish, and the priests are the best supervisors. There are usually conflicts between different parishes in the lower class society, and these small parishes are usually small interest groups.
It is impossible for priests to tolerate their believers (herds) running to other parishes to connect, and this situation is more serious in poorer places.
In addition to using religion, the government cannot stand idly by, and it happened that the funds of the Austrian Empire were relatively abundant at this time.
They also planned to take advantage of the famine after the locust plague to relocate another group of Italians, because there were too many Italians in Austria.
At the same time, the size of the local government will be expanded by 50%, which will also solve the unemployment problem of college students piled up on the streets of Vienna.
College students are indeed very precious in this era, but official positions in the Austrian Empire are even more scarce. This is not because the total number of official positions in the Austrian Empire is small.
It is because of the traditional system of bestowing officials and the aristocratic families accumulated for hundreds of years, they have occupied most of the official positions, and there are not many positions available for newcomers.
Franz had previously recruited a large number of supporting teachers, as well as colonial managers and administrators. This type of secondary civil servants was also intended to solve the employment problem of college students in the Austrian Empire.
These highly educated people find it difficult to accept simple, dull manual labor, and even look down on jobs such as accountants and calculators.
However, if this society is to be stable and develop continuously, they are indeed indispensable. The era of the policy of simply restricting the spread of knowledge has passed, and the quality of the people has become an important indicator for measuring the strength of a country.
It's just that this indicator has not been accepted by all countries at this time, and some countries are already benefiting without knowing it.
So far, the top leaders of the Austrian Empire have no opinion on Franz's behavior of increasing the number of imperial civil servants, because he has increased low-level clerks and non-staff personnel, and has not touched the interests of the upper class.
Moreover, for the top leaders, the increase in manpower, in addition to improving government efficiency, is actually a way to increase their power in their hands, so naturally there is no reason to oppose it.
As for government spending, this is not a problem they need to consider. In comparison, it is troublesome that some nobles are jealous. Fortunately, Franz has also increased the jobs of nobles in disguise.
Overall, the various classes in the country are relatively satisfied. However, Franz knows very well that this infinitely expanding game cannot be played forever-
This is a lengthy imperial government announcement-
In fact, this announcement is thankless, because no matter how it is handled, some people will be dissatisfied. First of all, those Polish nobles who were coerced, it is useless even if you give Vienna to them.
Secondly, those soldiers who bleed on the front line and ordinary people who transport supplies in the back, their simple sense of justice makes them feel that the evil people have not received the punishment they deserve.
The traditional nobles of the empire do not actually care about the life and death of the Polish nobles. They just want to prove that they still have the power to influence national policies and ensure that the power of the royal family and the government will not be too great.
In this feast of performance, not only the nobles who lived in Vienna, but also nobles from all over the country and all nationalities came to put pressure on the government, and even Hungarians participated in it.
They had only one purpose, which was to put the royal family on the fire, to ensure that the royal family would stand on the same front with them.
They had no burden about this, after all, they had been doing this for thousands of years, letting the royal family trample on the law and public opinion, so that they could only rely on them.
However, Franz was not going to play this little game that had lasted for thousands of years with them, and of course he had no intention of confronting the entire old era.