Chapter 25 The Troubles of Francis II
Schonbrunn Palace, banquet hall.
Today is the day of the royal dinner. Francis II is sitting at the main seat. The past year has given him a feeling of spring breeze.
The whole country is prospering, and even more people are bribing him.
Just seeing the eldest son Ferdinand who had to leave the game due to a sudden epilepsy and foaming at the mouth, he couldn't help but frowned.
Such an emperor seems unable to rule well, and it seems that imperial power is about to enter a period of decline.
Then he looked at the second son who was acting drunkenly and frowned even more.
Archduke Franz Karl did not yell when he was drunk. On the contrary, he was crying alone on the plate.
His gaffe made Mrs. Sophie very angry, but she could not get angry in front of Franz II and could only shake her husband's body gently.
Archduke Franz Karl seemed to feel very comfortable. Instead of getting up, he made an embarrassing sound.
"Take him out, Archduke Franz Karl is drunk." Franz II waved his hand impatiently, signaling the attendants to hurry up.
Franz Karl's attendants immediately acted and carried the Archduke out together with the attendants.
Mrs. Sophie stood up and wanted to apologize for her husband's rudeness.
But Franz II just waved his hand and asked her to leave too.
"Grandpa, I'm full." Franz also found an opportunity to run away.
At this time, the rules of a French meal were very troublesome. There were many dishes, they were served slowly, and they had to listen to the explanations from the chef next to them. The fat chef with spitting water really turned off Franz.
Moreover, French meals are not to Franz’s taste. Only rice is familiar to Franz.
Rice is served as a vegetable in French meals.
He didn't know how cooked the steak was, and Franz couldn't bite it at all. In the end, he had to cut it into small pieces with a knife and swallowed it. He almost choked, grabbed the cup next to him, and took a swig, only to find that it was red wine.
Franz now felt dizzy.
Franz II wanted to keep his grandson, the only person in the family who could make him comfortable.
It's just that he is very face-conscious, so he has no choice but to condone his grandson's rudeness.
The family members all left, and Franz II sat on the throne feeling lost.
Sanborn, the royal butler on the side, leaned into Francis II’s ear and said.
"Prince Metternich has sent the balance of one thousand gold bars to the palace. I counted the number and it was correct, but Prince Metternich said that the Bavarians want us to build a railway from Prague to Bayreuth."
Bayreuth was the economic center of Bavaria at this time, but it was difficult to build a railway on the hilly land between the Fichtel Mountains and the Frank Jura Mountains, and the cost would naturally increase a lot.
Nowadays, when mentioning Bavaria, everyone always thinks of BMW, football, beer, pork knuckle, developed economy and beautiful scenery.
However, Bavaria at this time was notoriously a bad place in Germany. It was obviously an agricultural country, but it was importing food like crazy and could not even be self-sufficient.
At the same time, it is a desert of knowledge and industry, with very few factories and universities.
The people at the bottom lived in poverty, but the people at the top were dissolute and extravagant, and two artist kings emerged one after another.
The current king, Ludwig I, was a philanderer. The 36 beauties in the beauty gallery in Nymphenburg Palace witnessed this history. The scandal with his mistress Laura Montes even caused him to lose the throne.
The Bavarian government hopes that Austria will build another railway to Bayreuth, firstly to promote trade and increase tax revenue, and secondly to allow Bavarians to work in Austria to increase Bavaria's wealth.
For Bavarians, Austria is the first choice to find a job abroad.
After all, Austria is big enough and has enough opportunities.
And everyone in Bavaria speaks German, but speaking German in Austria is a huge advantage.
Especially those young people who aspire to be officials can earn several times more salary for the same official position, and their German identity and German language are advantages that other ethnic groups in Austria do not have.
There are also religious factors. There are many opportunities in North Germany, but the religious beliefs are different from those in South Germany.
The shadow of the Thirty Years' War always hangs over Germany. They don't want to get up one day and be burned on the stake.
In fact, not only Bavaria, but the entire South German region has become much closer to Austria since learning about Austria's joining the German Customs Union.
However, the Bavarians' proposal to build another railway to Bavaria made Francis II very angry.
No one was optimistic about the trade between Austria and Bavaria, and the railway to Bavaria was built entirely for the purpose of doing business with the North German countries.
In the eyes of Francis II, building another railway to Bavaria was a complete waste.
From Prague to Bayreuth, with rivers and mountains in between, the total length is nearly 250 kilometers. At this time, the railway cost per kilometer was 60,000 to 70,000 florins.
That is, this railway will cost more than 10 million florins, but Francis II had another thought.
"Anyway, I'm not the one who paid for it. If you want to fix it, just let those Jews fix it."
So tell Sanborn.
"Tell Metternich to let Solomon Rothschild build them. Doesn't he like building railways? Let him build them as much as he can."
Sanborn turned around and left knowingly. Franz II looked at his schedule. He would go to meet his relatives in Italy tomorrow.
The craze for railroad building soon spread to Austria's back garden, Central Italy.
In addition to the Papal States, the four principalities of Tuscany, Parma, Lucca, and Modena all hope to strengthen trade with Austria.
The Italian countries that started out as commerce and trade inevitably went into decline during this period of decline in Mediterranean trade.
At this time, the countries of Central Italy had long lost their former glory. The people were living in poverty, their handicrafts were backward, and they lacked domestic resources. They were unable to compete with the industries of the surrounding powerful countries.
Countries in China, Italy, and Italy are all facing serious fiscal deficits and constant popular uprisings.
If Austria hadn't often sent troops to help suppress it, these small states would have been doomed long ago.
These small states hoped to build railways to strengthen trade with Austria, but domestic businessmen were unwilling to pay the money.
After all, if you are rich in the mountains, you have distant relatives, and if you are poor in the city, no one cares about you.
Really powerful investors are not willing to waste money on these small countries that have become a thing of the past.
They are not willing to pay for it themselves, after all, they just want to collect more taxes.
As for the so-called credit, they have long been used to buy luxury goods.
Now we can only place our hope on the Austrian emperor. After all, Francis II himself said "My Italian countries." This sentence, and after the Congress of Vienna, it was also determined that Italy was Austria's sphere of influence.
However, at this time, Francis II was having a headache because he had no money. After all, the decline of China and Italy had become a fact.
Continue to invest or maintain the status quo, that is the question.