War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

The spring plowing of 1842 was just over.

First Laubin is a German civilian from Bavaria. This is not his first time working in Austria. Compared with the pitiful income from farming in my hometown, the treatment of working as a laborer here is quite advantageous.

Bavaria has always been based on rotten land among the German states. It is difficult to cultivate due to many pests and the harvest is extremely unsatisfactory.

Although there are many river basins, the government is unable to control frequent diversions and flooding, let alone build water conservancy projects.

Another point is that the agricultural reforms that have taken place in neighboring countries such as Opp have made extensive use of agricultural machinery and new fertilizers, and adopted new farming methods to rapidly increase crop yields.

As a result, the income earned by Bavarian farmers became even lower.

Due to the establishment of the German Customs Union, market connections in the German region have been greatly strengthened. The already distressed landowners were no longer able to resist the influx of foreign agricultural products. In order to maintain their own profits, they could only further exploit farmers (or serfs).

With the meager income he earned from farming, he not only had to support his wife and children, but also had to give more than half of the harvest to the landlord. In the end, all he had left for himself was the remaining fifty or sixty florins.

In order to save food and lighten the burden, he and his wife often find themselves in a difficult situation of not having enough to eat. The children are all as thin as fledglings without feathers, and their bones can even be seen through the skin.

They had six children together, but only two survived.

In addition to eavesdropping on other people's privacy, priests in the church even openly solicit prostitutes and bring their mistresses into God's abode. In addition, what they are best at is collecting tithes.

Businessmen and officials work together to make food prices higher in disaster years. It is not unusual for the relief grains distributed by the above to appear in stores in the blink of an eye.

Jackals are in power, rats are rampant, the rich have vast fields, and the poor have no place to stand. Officials, churchmen, and businessmen are the trinity, and there is no way to redress grievances.

After nightfall, the roads are dark, even the streets and alleys in the city. At that time, public lighting hours in Bavaria were generally less than 2,000 hours a year, and drunkards and gangsters often attacked innocent passers-by.

Similar vicious incidents of wounding occur frequently, but the perpetrators often go unpunished, resulting in few residents daring to go out at night.

Of course, this situation is very common nowadays, and Bavaria is not an exception. Except for the four countries of England, France and Austria, public lighting facilities in other places are very poor.

Even today, going out late at night in France or a certain area in southern Italy still tests the courage of pedestrians.

Back to business

Since the food crisis of 1838, First Laubin traveled between Austria and Bavaria almost every year.

Over the years, he has experienced a significant change in this country - people's incomes are getting higher and higher. From fifty florins at the beginning, he now earns over a hundred florins a year, almost twice what he used to earn from farming.

What is even more valuable is that workers with similar backgrounds can even use their breaks to go to mission schools to receive literacy education.

Every week the factory invites a priest to preach. Although the contents of the sermons are all the same as those of the third generation, namely loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, and respect for God, the enthusiasm of the workers has not weakened at all.

On the one hand, the level of pastors in major countries is indeed higher than that of their counterparts in rural areas. On the other hand, using your free time to receive spiritual baptism can at least help relieve tense nerves and tired bodies.

According to the provisions of imperial law:

Any organization larger than ten people must conduct a weekly patriotic sermon (loyalty education). The duration cannot be less than one hour, and employees must not take up rest or meal time. First-time offenders are fined 10 florins each, and subsequent offenses will be doubled. They will also be whipped.

As the empire's fiscal revenue was much stronger than at the same time in history, the government's power in law enforcement and supervision was greatly enhanced. The overwhelming secret police made no factory owner dare to neglect.

Of course, they were nimble-minded and thought of attacking the church, but who would have expected that the latter would also issue a ban on purity teams, and offenders would take off their robes.

If the circumstances are serious, the scalp may even be cut off and blessed with holy oil and sent to the gendarmerie for processing.

What surprised First-Laubin the most was the Austrian public lighting system, which was not only bright all night but also had mounted police patrolling the roads.

(Austria’s annual public lighting time is 4,000 hours, twice that of Bavaria, higher than France’s 3,500 hours and lower than London’s 5,000 hours.)

Not to mention drunkards and hoodlums, even gangsters don't dare to act recklessly on the streets easily.

Killing may not be the intention of the mounted police, but in many cases it is not easy to stop a running mount. Even if he wasn't hit, no one could withstand the blow that gathered nearly half a ton of inertial force from the troops.

The number of homeless people and beggars visible to the naked eye on the streets of Vienna is also decreasing day by day. Even the group of "talents" who are engaged in artistic creation can find their own pure land in the park.

A rule in the Imperial City store also successfully ignited Laobin's interest - as long as the customer has collateral as security, he can get the product first and then slowly replace it on an installment plan.

Usually the price of the former is several times that of the latter, but for an ordinary person like him who neither wants to sell the family's bag of golden beans (actually a bag of gold teeth), but also tries to get the things he needs because he temporarily lacks the financial resources to buy them. Say, installment payment offers great benefits.

During wartime, farmers or refugees often join the ranks of corpse thieves, and one of the most profitable businesses is stealing teeth.

Dentures in this era were expensive and mostly made of human teeth or polished metals such as gold. So it’s not surprising that some farmers for generations have gold teeth hidden in their families.

The knowledgeable tellers in department stores have seen even the most bizarre collateral, let alone a few gold teeth.

When First Laubin was about to leave after a certain visit, he was blocked by a diligent businessman.

The well-dressed gentleman introduced him to him in the name of patriotism and wildly boasted about the huge potential of Neletania's second phase of the railway project. He even used the first phase of the project that had already been completed and opened to traffic as an example to prove the foresight of the royal family and the imperial government. , they are foresighted and will definitely take care of it.

Although it was difficult to refuse such hospitality, the farmer from Bavaria still spoke honestly.

"Sir, I accept your kindness. I am very sorry, but because I purchased this harvester, I no longer have the energy to pay attention to the stock market. I plan to go back to my hometown and buy two mules to use this harvester to harvest wheat for others to make money. "

However, the other party was not discouraged, and even seemed to have prepared a set of rhetoric.

"It doesn't matter. If you don't mind, you can use your harvester as collateral first. Then we will provide you with a loan. It's still spring anyway, and harvesters won't be available until the harvest season.

You can buy Phase II shares first, and if you can't make money, sell it and buy a harvester. Of course if you have the will to support this country and want to get out of the predicament you are in, why not try your luck with the stock market? "

For a lower-class civilian who can only write his own name in his twenties, this argument has to be said to be very attractive.

Seeing that the other party was hesitating, the gentleman immediately added fire.

"Previously, the stock rose 100% in one month. According to this trend, your assets will be able to increase at least 6 times by the time autumn comes. Just imagine, you can form a team to harvest with your brothers and sons. "

"Laubin Harvesting Company!" He followed the gentleman's idea and even gave his family's harvesting team a resounding name.

Thanks to book friends Heart on Shackles, Purple Flowers Flying, Zhan Liujiang, Zi Mu, Book Friends 20200510022929734, Sao Mouxi, Tang Seng Hair Wash Rejoice 00 for the reward, and all readers for their support.