Chapter 121 Royal Territory
"Did the two of them do anything strange to you last night?" Mrs. Sophie asked cautiously, perhaps for fear of hurting Franz's self-esteem.
"No." Franz showed an obviously impatient attitude. It was obvious that he knew what Mrs. Sophie was talking about.
But Mrs. Sophie was not reassured and asked again.
"Then you didn't do anything weird to the two of them."
"." Franz was speechless for a while.
When Thalia returned, she found Madame Sophie asleep on Franz's bed.
It seems that in the continuous high temperature weather, no matter who it is, the quality of sleep is greatly affected.
"Talia, if you are in a bad mood, you can go to the academy to see more. Palace life is still too depressing for you. The academy will open next year at the latest, so you can pay more attention. I have given you permission to pass. Let mother write it."
Franz handed the pass to Talia. Talia was still very excited, because "being an official" had always been her dream, but she was not happy.
Franz didn't pay too much attention to Thalia. He had always had very low requirements for Thalia, because Thalia was his only helper and his only friend in the past.
In the past, many things that Franz could not do directly had to go through the hands of Thalia. But now Franz has his own attendant. Although the loyalty of this attendant is not yet known, his ability is still the same. Nothing to say.
As Franz grows older, there will be more and more people around him, and Franz’s layout is too big. Thalia and Adjani are both very outstanding women, but they want to assist Franz. Ci is still a lot worse.
What Franz needs is a complete team and professional talents.
After the Royal Academy for Women in Vienna opens, Thalia may be able to provide Franz with some talents, but of course that will only happen in a few years at the earliest.
As for whether or how many talents can be provided, Franz doesn't know yet, and he doesn't care. After all, this is just one of the many big nets he has cast.
The most severely affected by drought in the Austrian Empire was Hungary, but there was no trouble among the Hungarian nobles at all.
In fact, the drought in Hungary is a good thing for Hungary's large landowners.
Because serfdom has lagged behind the times, the real nobles have long adopted a new model.
They hired professional farm agents from Austria to take care of the farm for them.
The crops grown are no longer simple wheat and rye, but a rotation system is adopted to grow fodder in addition to grain, as well as corn, rapeseed, sugar beets, sunflowers and potatoes, instead of a single grain crop.
At the same time, large-scale mechanization has also greatly reduced the demand for agricultural labor. A skilled worker with two donkeys and a harvester can complete the work of fifty serfs in a day.
Agriculture in Hungary during this era was extremely rough. Dirty, earthy-smelling Hungarian grain and greasy, dirty wool of varying lengths were rarely seen on the market and could only be sold cheaply.
The utilization rate of cultivated land is low. Due to poor market sales, one-third of the cultivated land has been idle for many years. There is also a large amount of land suitable for farming that is artificially prohibited from being reclaimed and used as hunting grounds for nobles.
In addition, due to the impact of Austria's joining the German Customs Union, Hungary can hardly make any money from food, so it is better to grow some cash crops such as sugar beets.
Farmers harvest crops with sickles, thresh grains with horse-drawn rollers, and hide grains in cellars. This place is no different from the Middle Ages.
Starvation of serfs was a felony in Austria, but peasants were not protected by this law. That's why there was such a bizarre scene where Hungarian landowners encouraged serfs to escape and then paid to hire landless peasants.
So in order to save costs, the great nobles drove the serfs into bad land that was not suitable for large-scale production and left them to fend for themselves.
As for the methods of annexing land, they are also very simple and crude. For example, instead of collecting taxes in kind, farmers are required to pay in money.
Or they may first forcibly purchase farmers' crops at low prices, and then require farmers to pay taxes in kind. If they fail to pay, they will impose high fines. Or they may require farmers who grow grain to pay for cattle and mutton meat, and so on.
In this way, the great nobles could acquire large tracts of land and turn landed peasants into their farm laborers.
It is not only the free peasants who are persecuted by the big nobles, but also the small nobles. They are simply unable to resist agricultural risks. As long as there are a few agricultural fluctuations, they will become the so-called "single-clothed nobles".
What makes the great Hungarian nobles hate the most is their obligation as slave owners. They must treat the serfs when they are sick. They must provide relief to the serfs when they suffer disasters. If a serf dies of starvation, they must be severely punished and even have to set aside enough money. The woodlands and pastures were used by serfs to cut firewood and graze livestock.
If this natural disaster could be used to get the serfs to give up their identities, it would be of great help to them.
But why did the great nobles oppose the emancipation of serfs? Because the Austrian government is not a fool. It has long stipulated in the law that liberated serfs must receive a share of land.
Because serfs will definitely not be able to survive without land. If a large group of people who cannot survive are allowed to wander within the country, there will only be one final result, and that is a peasant uprising. Austria, which has experienced the Hussite War, does not want to experience it again. .
For Hungary's big landowners and nobles, once the land is distributed to farmers, it will be difficult for the farms to be connected together for large-scale production. The so-called redemption policy of the Austrian Empire was as far-fetched as the debt of the Austrian Empire. The serfs simply could not afford to pay it off in one lump sum, which often took decades.
Another very strange thing about Hungary is that until World War II, they still had large areas of uncultivated wasteland.
This is why after the Soviets took over, Hungary’s agriculture experienced a miraculous sixfold increase.
The price of Hungarian wasteland is frighteningly low, but due to various reasons such as policy and ethnicity, ordinary people simply do not dare to buy land in Hungary, and even if they do, they dare not go there.
However, the Franz family's status is very special. Even if they purchase land in Hungary, there will not be any indifferent officials to tell them what to do, let alone any robbers who want to invade the royal territory.
For example, Vojvodina was once an area full of mourners, hungry people, bandits and wild beasts.
However, after Austria took over Vojvodina in the early eighteenth century, Vojvodina, a royal territory, became one of the richest regions in the entire Balkans.
Franz wanted to buy land in Hungary and establish a royal estate. This would not only solve the refugee problem, but also increase food production. Why not?
What’s even more strange about Hungary is that not only are there a lot of wastelands, but there are even many wastelands that have no owners. These wastelands belong to Hungary, but not to the king of Hungary.
So Franz still needs a little help, such as a nobleman willing to claim these wastelands and sell them to the royal family.
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