NOVPUBA splendid sun dominated the sky; a gentle, refreshing breeze stirred the heart; the ancient, melodious ringing of endless church bells; a silent, boundless night sky; the dazzling, stunningly beautiful stars… all together adorned the early summer’s magnificent variety.
At Vienna Palace, a music concert was being held, one of the few entertainments of the era, and the summit of Austria’s music celebrations.
Franz had been considering organizing an awards ceremony, but after considering his own level of appreciation, he decisively gave up on the idea.
Music awards are highly complicated, with everyone’s tastes varying, it is easy to end up a laughing stock if not handled well.
Following the great revolution, it was the peak of Austrian musical creativity, and many classic pieces of music were born.
Franz was not familiar with the music scene of Europe and America, and he couldn’t distinguish which pieces existed in the original timeline and which emerged due to the Butterfly Effect.
Anyway, listening was all that mattered; being qualified to perform at Vienna Palace was a recognition in itself. In this regard, the late Marshal Radetzky must be mentioned, as every concert’s highlight was the "Radetzky March".
This piece by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss Sr. in 1848 was inspired by the victorious Austrian army during the Ausa War, celebrating their victory.
The march itself contains elements of showcasing the martial prowess of the Habsburg dynasty, and coupled with the old Marshal’s renown, it naturally scored political points.
With the promotion of the Vienna Government, the "Radetzky March" had now spread across much of the world, becoming the representative of Austrian music.
Franz particularly enjoyed this march; it was always the finale at the music concerts of Vienna Palace, indicating its status in the Austrian music world.
With an economic crisis looming, Franz had no mind to enjoy the concert. Including the high-level members of the Vienna Government, all could only regretfully miss this grand musical event.
It couldn’t be counted as a miss, though; they could still enjoy the music from next door, as they were still in the midst of deliberation.
Franz asked in a deep voice, "Has the situation already spiraled out of control?"
Prime Minister Felix answered, "Within the country, things are generally stable. The strike incidents are being settled, and the majority of businesses have reached an agreement with their workers and have begun to resume production.
Internationally, it’s chaos, with many countries deploying troops to suppress strikes, creating an extremely tense situation. Now, with the stock market crash, an economic crisis is probably inevitable."
Deploying troops to suppress strikes was not an isolated incident; it frequently happened in the 19th century. The "blood" in Bismarck’s nickname, the Chancellor of Iron and Blood, came from suppressing strikes.
There’s a lot involved here, and it can’t simply be summarized as right or wrong. Unlike Austria, which had strong local control and police arriving on the scene immediately to maintain order.
In many countries, when strikes broke out, there was no action taken. Left to capitalists to handle themselves, an escalation of conflict amidst disputes was almost inevitable, leading later to smashing machinery, destroying infrastructure...
Some were bloodily suppressed by the capitalists, while others saw workers gaining victory through conflict. Victory did not mean the end; human nature isn’t always reliable.
If someone among the workers could restrain the people, it was possible to reasonably strive for rights; if restraint was lost, just a couple of rash individuals could quickly lose control of the situation.
To stabilize the situation quickly, the government would inevitably opt for suppression. At this point, right or wrong was no longer important; what mattered to the bureaucrats was to quickly quell the chaos and stabilize the situation.
When assigning blame afterwards, those who usually suffered were the powerless ordinary workers. Even if there were sympathizers within the government, they would fall to the capitalists’ barrage of silver.
In Franz’s view, the main culprit behind these tragedies was actually government inaction or deliberate favoritism towards capitalists.
Under his Butterfly Effect, virtually every European nation now had "Labor Protection Laws". If the governments had intervened earlier to mediate labor-capital conflicts within the framework of the law, preventing riots wouldn’t have been difficult.
But this made it harder for capitalists to reap greater benefits. Most businesses failed to meet the standards set by the "Labor Protection Law", or else there wouldn’t have been a strike that affected the whole of Europe.
The wave of strikes in Austria was contained, not only because capitalists worried about production being affected but also for fear of government intervention after strikes broke out, revealing their violations of the "Labor Protection Law".
Many capitalists took measures in time when signs of strikes appeared, increasing some benefits to placate the workers.
As for the businesses that did experience strikes, some were not sharp enough to see the danger, while others were indecisive in the face of profits, reacting a step too slow.
In reality, labor benefits typically follow market trends. If other factories are increasing benefits, and you stand still, it won’t take long for the skilled workers to leave.
With economic development, rising labor costs are inevitable. This also drives progress in productivity; without these pressures, capitalists wouldn’t proactively innovate technologically.
The impact of strikes isn’t limited to enterprise production but also shrinks the consumer market. During strikes, without wages, everyone has to cut back, naturally reducing buying power.
Along with the stock market crash leading to enterprises breaking their capital chains, in severe cases, it could even result in direct bankruptcy, increasing the unemployment rate in the society within a certain period.
The conditions for an economic crisis had been met. With Austria already in a crisis and the international market not faring well, not even God could prevent the crisis from erupting.
Franz looked out the window and hardened his resolve, "Then let’s get rid of this malignant tumor as soon as possible!"
Cancer, this thing, the sooner it is treated, the quicker the recovery. If you drag it out until it becomes so strong that it is uncontrollable, it will cost lives.
Economic crises also have their pros and cons, as each one brings about severe losses, but at the same time, each crisis also presents a plethora of opportunities.
Essentially, an economic crisis is the market’s self-regulation and repair. It steers the derailed economy back onto the correct path of development.
Anyway, the grand immigration strategy had just begun, and no matter how many unemployed people were added in the midst of the economic crisis, there was a place for them to go.
…
Following Franz’s order, the Vienna Government adopted conservative economic measures and abandoned its original plan to rescue the market.
On June 18, 1876, to stabilize the financial market, the Austrian Central Bank announced a contractionary monetary policy, raising the deposit benchmark interest rate by 16%.
Tightening money supply when there is a dire need for cash in the market, this was far from "saving the market"; it was in fact adding insult to injury.
There were many banks within Austria; the Central Bank had approximately the same function as the Federal Reserve in later times. It could supervise and influence the financial market. The Central Bank’s raising of the benchmark interest rate was merely a suggestion, and it could not force all banks to increase their deposit interest rates.
In reality, in order to attract deposits, the majority of banks offered interest rates on deposits that exceeded the benchmark rate.
Before then, the one-year deposit benchmark interest rate in Austria was 1%, and even an increase of 16% would only take it to 1.16%.
This number was still below the deposit rates offered by major banks in the market, but the impact it brought was significant.
Through the Central Bank’s actions, it became clear to everyone that the Vienna Government would not finance market bailouts, which threw many investors into despair.
The astute had already realized that the economic crisis was inevitable, hastily gathering funds to weather the storm, causing the stock market to become even more depressed.
On June 24, 1876, the Munich Vida Textile Factory, due to a break in its capital chain, applied for bankruptcy reorganization to the Munich Government and was approved, hereby setting the stage for the economic crisis.
Shortly afterward, within just a month, including thirty publicly traded companies, a total of more than two hundred enterprises applied to the government for bankruptcy reorganization, and over four hundred companies declared outright bankruptcy, triggering a full-blown economic crisis in Austria.
Massive corporate bankruptcies naturally brought the wave of strikes to an end, and in its stead came a surge of unemployment.
Social opinion also became chaotic; capitalists began frantically assigning blame, attributing all responsibility for the economic crisis to the workers’ strikes.
This was of no use; in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution, those who could not keep up with the times and chose to go against the wind were naturally eliminated by the market.
The "strike incident" was merely a catalyst; at this junction of old and new, it was a time where crisis and opportunity walked hand in hand.
Impacted by the Austrian economic crisis, the Russian Empire and the German Federation Empire soon followed suit, with economic crises erupting one after the other.
This was just the beginning; the rest of Europe’s countries were quickly dragged in. By August, the economic crisis hit London, and all industrial nations across Europe fell.
Seeing everyone in trouble, Franz felt reassured. This conformed to the market laws of capitalist economies; it had been almost a decade since the last economic crisis; how could the market possibly not face issues?
Facts proved that problems had long been accumulating, just waiting for a spark to set them off.
Another round of ’big fish eat little fish’ began; watching the power of conglomerates grow without end, Franz did not know whether this was right or wrong.
However, the cruel reality told him that this was an unstoppable rule in the development of the capitalist economy, something beyond individual control.
Apart from becoming a part of it, trying to control these new forces to the best of his ability, Franz could not swim upstream to prevent the emergence of conglomerates.
Put plainly, while domestic conglomerates could be suppressed, international ones could not be constrained. Some monarchs and high nobility might have realized that, in the capital markets, Franz also saw their figures.
Of course, there are always plenty of smart individuals in this world. If it weren’t for the two World Wars, perhaps the system of monarchy and nobility wouldn’t have declined so dramatically.
Of course, what one sees may not be the truth. In his previous life, Franz was just an ordinary person, with access to circles that were at the very bottom of society, far from the upper echelons.
What he saw on the internet could only serve as a reference. If he had taken it all as the truth, he would have long been trapped to death, and he certainly wouldn’t be living as comfortably as he was now.
The appearance of conglomerates is a market rule, but as for who dominates these conglomerates, that remained to be verified. At least in that era, the nobility held far more power than the capitalists.
As far as Franz knew, behind many of Europe’s great capitalists lurked the shadows of the Nobility. Otherwise, in those dark times, they would have been consumed long ago.
Okay, so Franz played the game in the same way. Apart from the royal family’s overtly controlled industries, most of his industries were also controlled covertly, with commands issued from the shadows.
There was no choice; having all of these industries under the name of the Royal family would attract too much enmity, even the Emperor would get scared.
