Chapter 664 Christmas
December 25, 1845, Christmas.
On this day, a strange scene has appeared in the streets and alleys of Vienna since morning. Santa Claus in green clothes, green hat and carriage is everywhere.
The Santa Claus of the 19th century was not yet the red coat, red hat, sleigh, and reindeer that we are familiar with in later generations.
In fact, the image and identity of Santa Claus in Europe are different in different time periods and in different countries. Sometimes he is a bishop with a halo on his head and a whip; sometimes he is a sad but strong farmer.
Sometimes he was a hairy, pot-bellied savage; in some parts of Germany he was a terrifying witch with a mouth full of iron teeth.
The image of modern Santa Claus originated in the United States. In 1821, American writer William Gilley first proposed the image of red coat, red hat, sleigh and reindeer in "Children's Friends".
But when it comes to Austria, this image will change. First of all, sleighs and reindeer are difficult to see in Austria, so they were directly replaced by the most common horse-drawn carriage.
Secondly, red clothes and red hats are the colors of Spain in the eyes of Austrians. The former prefers green, thinking that it represents luck and beauty.
Then there is the bag carried on the back. In the German region, the image of carrying a bag on the shoulders is usually considered to be a farmer or a thief.
So the cloth bags were changed to boxes packed with colored paper. In fact, this was also to consume inventory. In fact, the sales volume of colored paper in Austria was far less than expected, and these colored papers actually still have a shelf life.
This was the first time Franz knew that paper also had a shelf life. In this era, due to technical limitations, colored paper would naturally fade after six to eight months.
Instead of letting it rot in a warehouse, it's better to show it off.
The Austrian Empire often did this in history, even borrowing money from bankers to show its national strength, which is commonly known as "slapping a bloated face and pretending to be fat".
The Santa Clauses filling the streets are actually employees of companies owned by Franz, or priests who have volunteered to help.
Roman Catholics actually do not recognize this alienated image of Santa Claus. They believe that only Bishop Saint Nicholas is the real Santa Claus.
But the affairs of the Holy See have nothing to do with Austria. Under Franz's transformation, the Austrian Church had long since parted ways with orthodox Catholicism.
So when Franz did this, not only did no priests jump out to oppose it, but many people chose to join it.
In fact, through these years of changes, the church's clergy have long known how to adapt to the new era.
What's more, the church is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the reform. The Austrian church's current situation is largely due to Franz's transformation.
In particular, the emergence of the Chenla Theocracy allowed the Austrian church to have its own "Vatican." Although Chenla nominally belonged to the Chenla royal family and was actually a vassal colony of the Austrian Empire, this did not prevent the priests from fighting for their own Take pride in what you do.
In order to save manpower and ensure fairness and safety, Franz did not choose to send gifts door to door.
Instead, people park the carriage in a designated area and wait for employees to pick it up. At the same time, specialized people maintain order and log in.
In this era, it was very dangerous for a carriage loaded with valuable goods to travel repeatedly through the streets, even in big cities like Vienna, Paris, and London. Pickpockets, gangsters, and desperate gamblers might all take risks.
At the same time, the possibility of self-stealing is not impossible. Even if each box is wrapped, no one knows what is inside.
But this did not prevent those guys from joining together to embezzle these goods. After all, there was no monitoring at the time. However, in public, they will still restrain themselves.
In addition, Franz also took other preventive measures, such as multi-party supervision. But in fact, no one wants to make themselves miserable at Christmas.
Especially when Franz is dealing with 10,000 people at a time, even the most greedy person will be restrained for the time being.
Because they saw Franz's determination and difference, there were actually many people waiting to see the show, but no one dared to stand up and confront Franz.
After all, nobles usually have nothing to do with the future emperor, and those capitalists still rely on the goods in Franz's factory to make money, let alone seek death.
As for civilians and scholars, their voice is not as big as imagined, and Franz did not harm their interests.
The gifts distributed by Franz are mainly food, slow-moving items and consumer coupons. Of course, the value of food and slow-moving items will be slightly higher than that of consumer coupons.
This behavior actually reduces the threat of inflation, because Franz has too much gold and silver in his hands, and if these things are put into the market at once, they will immediately explode.
After all, the gold diggers in the United States back then could be described as unorganized, undisciplined, unqualified, and without command, but Franz was directly digging for gold using methods that were far superior to the technology at the time, coupled with an efficient organizational structure.
The production of gold was much higher than that of California at the same time in history. In addition, Franz also collected gold and silver from all over the world to Vienna.
The domestic gold price in Japan in the Far East is much higher than the international market, so Franz carried out large-scale arbitrage. This operation alone can bring Austria's gold reserves to a higher level.
Although having no money is absolutely impossible, having too much money is not necessarily a good thing.
For example, as long as Franz throws his gold into the market at this time, it will immediately cause gold to depreciate, followed by terrible inflation.
Although it can shock all countries in a short period of time and gain a certain advantage in international competition, there are not enough valuable products at this time, so it is Franz who suffers in the end.
This kind of behavior is equivalent to lowering the price of your own goods, spending money to buy yourself suffering. Therefore, the currency that Franz put into the market was just in line with the economic development of the Austrian Empire.
As for what this number is, it was not decided by Franz himself, but calculated by dozens or even hundreds of economists.
The good news is that with the economic development of the Austrian Empire, the amount of currency required by the market is increasing, which means that Franz can slowly put these precious metals into the market.
But even this will cause inflation to a certain extent, but the existence of the German Customs Union and the Apennine Customs Union has greatly prevented the outflow of precious metals from the Austrian Empire.
At the same time, because he has enough precious metals in his hands, Franz is more confident in foreign trade, especially in monopolizing some commodities and affecting the regional situation.
For example, the British war quagmire in southern Brazil at this time is actually inseparable from Franz.
How could a poor and weak agricultural country be able to withstand the combined army led by the British Empire, the largest power in the world at this time?
(The United Legion refers to the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Uruguay.)