Chapter 835 A Populous Country

In fact, Franz's immigration policy was very attractive, at least several times better than the immigration policies of other countries, but unfortunately the people's attitude towards the colonies did not change.

Most people still think of other continents as savage lands, but that's only if people can get by.

At this time, when they don't have enough to eat and even go to jail, many people don't pay so much attention.

In order to get a settlement fund for their family, or to get a good bride price or dowry for their brothers and sisters, they are willing to risk their lives to an unknown continent.

As a result, a large number of Germans began to go abroad and traveled to various parts of the world along with the merchant ships of the Austrian colonies.

Many people have written suicide notes before leaving, but soon they will find that things are not as bad as they thought, but in a sense more terrible than they imagined.

However, most of the immigrants attracted by the Austrian Empire this time were sent to the Crown Territory of St. Stephen. After all, there was plenty of land and it was fertile enough to support a large population.

And Franz also feels that there are enough people to be safe. After all, as the area most affected by storm years in history, Hungary will inevitably cause a bloody storm.

He did not want the precious German immigrants to be buried in a bloody storm, but they had to endure the test, because only in this way could they be beaten into real Austrians.

The number of workers among this group of German immigrants was very large, because industry outside the Austrian Empire was affected by this financial crisis.

Due to the existence of the central bank, Austria has been less affected, at least there will not be such an outrageous situation as the capital chain is broken.

Secondly, more than 50% of Austria's factories are in the hands of the royal family, that is, Franz, and the production capacity of these factories accounts for more than 90% of Austria's production capacity. Most factories rely on technological innovation to maintain their competitiveness.

However, because of this, Austria’s demand for cheap labor is not great, so Franz can only make them construction workers to prepare for future expansion of production capacity and produce some durable goods as strategic reserves.

Working conditions in Austria are actually much better than in other German states because there is a lot of "rest" time.

During the "break" time, there will be a special pastor or preacher to give lectures to them, and they need to learn German, history, common sense, and loyalty and patriotism courses, and even take exams.

In addition, selecting and classifying immigrants is also a technical job. Honest people with families and families are classified into one category, and the elderly and skilled workers are classified into the second category.

The third category is young single women and children under 16 years old, and the fourth category is men who are alone and have no skills.

This is actually a distinction between risk levels. Honest people with a family have the most things to consider, and they are also the most peaceful, so they are easier to manage.

Relatively speaking, the elderly and skilled workers also long for a stable life, and they can endure even if they encounter some injustices. The former have only a short time, while the latter have the skills and feel that they will be successful sooner or later.

Single women and children themselves do not have much ability to resist, but their ability to cause trouble is not bad at all, so they are classified into the third category.

The most dangerous ones are men who are alone and without any practical skills. They need to be sent to the army or less important factories first, and their behavior should be restrained by discipline and collectivism.

Secondly, Catholics are safer than Protestants. This is not because Franz has any prejudice.

It was the Thirty Years of Religious War that caused the entire Holy Roman Empire to lose half of its adult males and more than 30% of its population.

The conflict between the two sides was not so easy to resolve. Although the Austrian Empire declared freedom of belief at this time, more than 90% of the citizens believed in Catholicism.

Many of the nobles in the local area and the army have been passed down for hundreds of years. Their ancestors were killed by Protestants, and not everyone can give up their hatred, especially when they are strong and the enemy is weak.

Therefore, Franz acquiesced to some actions of the church and the government. The church naturally preached and reformed, showing the goodwill (strength) of the Austrian church, and at the same time presenting facts and reasoning, telling immigrants the benefits of doing so.

If they still stay in their original place, they may not change their ideas easily, but now that they are out of their familiar environment, human nature is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and they can easily change under coercion and inducement. .

The government requires immigrants to register their religion. In fact, this is to facilitate management. They want to ensure that the proportion of Protestants in any community does not exceed 20%, so that it is not easy to create opposition.

As for the extra population, they can be sent to the colonies. After all, there are more powerful foreign enemies there, and they will have no time to fight.

Soon a report was placed on Franz's desk. It was an estimate of the immigrant population in 1847. The number of immigrants absorbed in the whole year of 1847 may exceed 2.4 million, which is equivalent to the total of the previous six years.

Since Franz's statistical office began operating in 1836, more than five million people have immigrated to Austria from Germany.

By the end of 1847, the population of the Austrian Empire was expected to exceed 49 million (38.5 million at the same period in history), the German population would be close to 15 million, the Italian population would be 12 million, and the Hungarian population would still be around 6.5 million.

Of the remaining 14.5 million people, the largest number is Czechs (4.5 million, including Bohemians, Moravians and Slovaks).

1.5 million Poles, 1 million Ukrainians, 3 million Croatians, 570,000 Serbs, 1.6 million Slovenes, 100,000 Montenegrins, and 2.33 million Transylvanians.

In addition, there are millions of Jews and hundreds of thousands of Roma (Gypsies) in Austria, but in the eyes of European statisticians at the time, they were not considered human beings.

The actual population of the Austrian Empire would exceed 50 million, more than the population of France and Spain after the union.

France has 35 million, Spain has 13 million, the United Kingdom has 28 million, the United States has 22 million, Mexico has 5.6 million, and Prussia has 18 million.

Although Austria has attracted many people from the German Confederation, the total population of the German Confederation has actually increased compared to the same period in history, with a total population of 35 million (34 million in the same period in history).

Because if Austria did not absorb these populations, they would all flow to the United States, the British colony, and become its cornerstone.

In addition, Russia has 76 million and Ottoman has 33 million. Austria is now the second most populous country in Europe and the fourth in the world.

France has 35 million, the UK has 27 million, Spain has 13 million, and the United States has 21 million.

Due to constant wars (civil wars, foreign wars, and land loss), Mexico's population is smaller than at the same time in history, only 5.5 million.

Ottoman 33 million, Brazil 6.6 million, Argentina 1.8 million, Persia 13 million, Serbia 950,000, Denmark 1.5 million, Portugal 3.7 million, Sweden 3.4 million, Egypt 5.3 million, Afghanistan 2.5 million, and the Sikh Empire 12 million.

Due to the acquisition of Limburg and West Luxembourg, Luxembourg's land area tripled and its population increased 1.5 times to 470,000.

Regarding the population of Russia, there are estimates ranging from 67 million to 83 million. The average here is 75 million.