Chapter 153 The Rebel
"The whole world is turbid, but I alone am pure; everyone is drunk, but I alone am sober."
"The saint is not stagnant in things, but can move with the world. Everyone in the world is turbid, why don't you clean up the mud and make waves? Everyone is drunk, why don't you clean up the dregs and wipe off the dregs?"
——Qu Yuan
Hungary, Pest Hotel.
There are two paths before Franz now. One is to turn a blind eye, return directly to Vienna, and continue to plan his own world affairs. The second is to join in, participate in this decadent carnival, and continue to make money.
The Hungarian government issued an announcement announcing that as long as refugees are between 14 and 25 years old, regardless of gender, and have passed the physical examination, they only need to pay 5 florins to apply for immigration.
However, the number of places is limited each time, first come, first served.
This all seems good and fair.
However, Franz can tell what they want to do from the countries where they immigrated to the United States, Texas (French colony), Brazil, and Argentina.
The Hungarian government's final solution to the refugees seemed to Thalia and Adjani to be a very benevolent approach. Crossing the ocean to make a living in the 19th century was not uncommon, and many people had heard the legend of the Promised Land.
Franz hoped that his guess was wrong, but it was very possible that things were different from what everyone thought.
This is not a simple immigration, but a case of human trafficking.
These Hungarians would be sold to the French colonies, and in the end everything they produced would become bullets fired at their fellow citizens in the Austrian Empire.
At this time, the price of black slaves in the United States was approaching US$600. Even the price of Indians had soared from fifteen US dollars to fifty US dollars. The price of white indentured slaves had naturally increased as well.
The "white slave trade" has never been interrupted, even after the decline of the Ottomans and the destruction of the Barbary pirates.
The British used false contracts to trick Italian workers into coming to the UK. The contracts promised the Italian workers high wages and benefits, and they could choose to come back at any time.
In fact, these contracts are not recognized by the UK at all. The workers who were deceived into the UK can only work endlessly under the whip of the supervisor. They do not even think about returning to their country until they are sick or lose the ability to work. He was kicked out of the factory and left on the corner of the street to die.
At this time, refugees in Hungary could be sold for US$100 to US$150 each. There were nearly 300,000 refugees outside the city. Selling them to the Americas was definitely a considerable income.
If you can sell half of it, you can earn a huge return of $15 million.
The most terrifying thing about this move is that even if the whole thing is found out, it is legal. Even if it is made public, there is nothing wrong with it except that it will make the Austrian Empire lose face.
Because the Hungarian government can completely describe it as a labor export rather than a slave trade.
If Franz tried to stop this, he might even be surrounded by angry victims.
The most sensible thing to do now is to leave Hungary immediately, return to Vienna, pretend that nothing happened, and then wait for the opportunity. After all, it is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge in ten years, and these scum will be completely liquidated in 1848.
There is another way to choose to be a tyrant by sweeping away the mud and making waves. Franz can naturally do what the Hungarians can do, and he can use his knowledge to do it better and better.
This will not only weaken Hungary's strength, but also win a good reputation for benevolence, and make a lot of money to do more useful things. You can even get a group of Hungarians to colonize Africa, and then drive them back home after they finish construction.
However, neither of these two paths is what Franz wants. Delayed justice is not real justice, and people’s bottom line is often lower and lower. An ordinary person without a bottom line may live a happy life, but a person with a bottom line may live a happy life. If capable and powerful people have no bottom line, it will cause many people pain.
This situation is not completely unsolvable. First, we must reduce the number of possible victims. Franz purchased a lot of land during the famine. Although many German immigrants were cultivating it, they still could not fully digest the land.
Originally, Franz planned to continue attracting German immigrants, but he had to change his strategy and open the royal estate to absorb refugees. This was the most effective method.
Just be careful that the proportion of Hungarians in the royal estate should not be too high. At the same time, neither the Germans nor the Hungarians should feel discriminated against. And for the sake of safety, it is not appropriate to put Hungarians into a royal family alone. manor.
Franz spent 7.5 million florins to purchase 3 million acres of wasteland in Hungary. At this time, only less than 300,000 acres were developed, and there were 120,000 German immigrants. After considering, there will be more German immigrants. Come to Austria.
Hungarians can account for 50% of the royal estate, which means that Franz's estate can absorb up to 120,000 Hungarian refugees.
There are still 180,000 refugees left. Franz can naturally hire them to reclaim wasteland, but even if he pays 50 florins per person, it will still cost 9 million florins. Plus other expenses, the total expenditure may be More than twelve million florins.
However, the actual situation is that the price of food is twice as high as in the past, and fifty florins is not enough to support a farmer's life for a year. The land that farmers have just reclaimed is not profitable, and the crops in the land cannot even make a living in the coming year.
Therefore, Franz needs much more than 12 million florins. Just to get these farmers through the difficulties will require 20 million florins.
Franz still needs the second step, which is to crack down on speculators who are driving up prices. If this matter is left to the Hungarian government, I am afraid it will end up in nothing, and the Austrian Imperial Government cannot reach out to Hungary. .
Facing this group of shameless people, Franz could only use magic to defeat magic.
Franz could import grain from Russia and sell it to the poor in Hungary at a low price. Although he would suffer some losses, he would not be starved to death, or he could buy grain in Hungary at double the price and let those unscrupulous businessmen make a profit. It's still much better to have a bowl full of it.
As long as enough profit margins are left for the tsar, the food agreement between Russia and the United States will be a piece of waste paper. Moreover, the food crisis has reached its final stage, and high food prices cannot continue forever.
Therefore, the Tsar would not let go of this good opportunity to make money. Russia was too poor.
It is true that goods imported into the Austrian Empire through Hungary had to pay customs duties, but the royal family was not among them.
Although Franz had offended the entire Hungarian aristocracy by doing this, he didn't care.
He cares more about his own mood than those bullshit nobles in Hungary.
In order to make the traffickers give up, Franz decided to send people to infiltrate the ranks of the indentured slaves.
At the same time, in order to ensure that those traffickers would die thoroughly, he also roped in the church and nobles.
In Vienna's aristocratic circle, there are many people who like to seek death. The exciting thing of pretending to be a slave being sold to America will naturally attract a lot of neurotics.
As for the church, it hated the trafficking of Christians. Coupled with Archbishop Rauscher's relationship, a group of devout clergy were soon arranged.
After Archduke Albrecht heard about Franz's plan, he also volunteered. His joining would definitely make the deaths of those traffickers even worse.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and I wish all book friends a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.