Holy Roman Empire

After Christmas, the next annual budget meeting of the Austrian government began again.

In fact, by this time, the budget battles of various departments have ended, and now only the final round of determination is underway.

If you really bring the issue of budget determination to the meeting to discuss, it is estimated that in the last few days, it is too late to review the project information prepared by everyone.

Prime Minister Felix submitted a report to Franz, saying: "Your Majesty, this is the annual budget plan of 1850. The main expenditures include: military expenditure, government administration, education funds, land ransom, infrastructure construction, These six items of cultural unification.

Among them, military expenditure decreased by 27.% compared with 1849, while education expenditure increased by 31%, cultural promotion expenditure increased by 32%, government administrative expenditure increased by 9%, and infrastructure construction expenditure increased 44.5%."

In general, except for the decline in military expenditure, other expenditures have greatly increased.The exception is the land ransom, which has never existed before.

At the same time as the expenditure increases, the government's fiscal revenue also increases, otherwise the budget will simply not be approved.

Franz took over the budget report and just glanced at the budget summary table.

The military expenditure is 61.564 million dongs, of which the navy is 10.6523 million dongs and the army is 50.9161 million dongs.

The war is over, and disarmament was completed in 1849.By 1850, it was normal for military spending to drop substantially.

However, it is only the Army ’s military expenditure that has declined. The Navy ’s military expenditure has increased by 1.5 million rupiah from the previous year. It seems that the colonial power of the government has grown.

Education expenditures are 68.594 million dongs, of which education expenditures at compulsory education stage are 40.164 million dongs, university education expenditures are 20.5362 million dongs (including university laboratory research expenditures), and secondary school education expenditures are 7.8821 million dongs

The cost of education is much lower than Franz ’s estimate. On the one hand, compulsory education is still being popularized and has not been completed; on the other hand, it is a conditional family that has a better future for students and chose education. Schools with better fees.

On the surface, the education funds allocated by the Ministry of Education to students of all compulsory education stages are the same. In fact, compulsory education schools also provide students with free meals, uniforms, and accommodation.

The cost of a child is not large, but the increase in quantity is also a large expenditure. It is estimated that this will reduce the expenditure of 10 million rupiah.

Funds for infrastructure construction are 48.203,800 dongs, including railway construction funds of 2015.20 dongs, post-war reconstruction costs 15.41 million dongs, urban infrastructure reconstruction costs 10.2632 million dongs, others ...

There is no way to do this. Some railways have no commercial value at all, but they have important military value and must still be repaired.

Later generations also criticized the railways of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in order to take care of the military and affect the business.

In order to avoid this situation, this kind of railway can only be repaired by the Austrian government. It is expected that private investment will not be able to start work in the next century.

Fortunately, these railways are not long, generally only 180 kilometers, the longest is not more than 400 kilometers, and the total mileage is only two or three thousand kilometers.

After the construction is completed, the docking with the Austrian railway network means that the domestic army can be put on the front line in the shortest time.

Government administrative expenditures amounted to 532.821 million dongs, of which enterprise management administrative expenses were 11.261 million dongs and government agency administrative expenses were 42.021 million dongs;

Seeing this, Franz frowned, and it seemed necessary to let the state-owned enterprises operate independently.There is no problem in merging together in the short term, and relying on the government to manage enterprises in the long term will soon derail from the market.

The cultural promotion fund is 23,160,800 rupiah, which is working hard for the unified language.

Under the influence of the Austrian government's policies, everyone knows that learning a common language is easy to find a job, and promotion in the city is relatively smooth, and it is troublesome in the countryside.

Franz doesn't have a very good way, coercion is impossible, that will only make things worse.It seems that unified language in this generation is impossible, and can only be completed in the next generation.

All schools in the country are obliged to offer Austrian language classes, and teachers are still being trained to ban local dialects as soon as possible.

That's right, in the official documents of Austria, there is no national language at this time, the whole country has a language-Austrian, and the rest are regional dialects.

If there is no accident, starting from 1850, all primary and secondary school teachers must take the Austrian language exam, pass the salary and raise the level by one, and fail to prepare for the make-up exam.

If you fail the assessment for three consecutive years, you are ready to go home.In order to promote the Austrian language as quickly as possible, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education have exhausted their thoughts.

Needless to say, the land ransom has a fixed expenditure of 105 million rupiahs each year as compensation for the purchase of land by the nobles. This is a payment for the peasants who obtained the land, and the government just changed hands.

The total of these six expenditures is as high as 359.7245 million rupiah, and there are a large number of small budget items behind it. The total of zero and zero adds up to 423 million rupiah in 1850.

If you see this budget figure two years ago, it is estimated that the Austrian government officials will be fainted, which is almost three times the government revenue.Now, everyone feels nothing.

(Remarks: Hungarian finance was separate two years ago)

The farmer ’s land ransom payment was about 158 ​​million rupiah. After the government paid 1.05 ransom for the noble land, there was an income of 53 million rupiah.

It is just that this income is not too stable, and it will fluctuate due to the impact of natural disasters.If the catastrophe is caught up, the government will have to post a part of it.

There is also a tithe of the church, which fluctuates around 93.5 million rupiahs per year. Affected by the fluctuations in the prices of agricultural products, a 20% stratification to the church is also deducted.

There are also costs for the clergy to collect taxes. Fortunately, it is impossible to tell them that they have helped me.

In the hands of the government, it was only 74.8 million rupiah. It seems that there is still a surplus to pay for education. In fact, as long as the compulsory education is fully popularized, the money will not be enough. The government will still have to pay money.

After deducting these two expenses first, the budget of the Austrian government is actually not scary.

4.23—0.748—1.58 = 243.2 million rupiah

In addition, the salaries of enterprise management personnel can actually be deducted from the profits contributed by state-owned enterprises, but they are only merged.

The 1850 fiscal revenue estimate given by the Ministry of Finance is 230 million rupiah, and the government's total revenue estimate is 480 million rupiah, including land ransom, tithe, state-owned enterprise profits, real estate industry lease and so on.

After subtracting the budget of 423 million, there seems to be a fiscal balance?

In fact, this is impossible.The Austrian government still has debts, which are repaid.As of now, bank loans, various debts, and corporate and personal debts owed by the Austrian government total 542 million rupiah.

The money needs to be repaid on schedule. In theory, if nothing goes wrong, the Austrian government has achieved fiscal balance.

These are just ideal conditions. In the end, whether it is a surplus or a deficit will be known by this time next year.

In 1848, the Austrian government realized a fiscal surplus by copying the family. In 1849, the Austrian government had a fiscal deficit of 7.257 million rupiah.

This number does not seem to be large, but it has continued for a long time. It is also a problem.

Especially at the critical moment when the Crimean War is about to erupt, debts owed to Britain and France will inevitably be affected diplomatically.

This has been reflected in history, and the Austrian government's move to Britain and France has such factors.The French even relied on loans to pull Russia from the League of Three Emperors.

Unless you study the Kingdom of Prussia, develop debts first, and start a war when the development is almost completed, you will naturally have the money to pay the debts if you win, and you will finish the game if you lose.

Austria's family is very thick, Franz is not prepared to be a gambler.This is a strategy for the rise of small countries and is not applicable to large countries.

Franz thought about it and said: "The fiscal budget, just follow the above implementation! Leave a budget of 20 million rupiah as a special fee to deal with emergencies."

Cut the budget?

The contents of this budget report have already been reported to him by various departments. Unless it is better to exceed the limit, Franz will not do anything.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Felix replied

In the face of a strong monarch, the ministers were naturally unable to become strong.Monarchs are not equal, and monarchs have natural advantages.

At the beginning of the regency, Franz had to use the foreign minister of Metternich to balance the powerful prime minister Felix. After more than a year of running-in, this situation has completely changed.

...

Not waiting for the German Federal Parliament to send a negotiating mission, under the strong pressure of the Russian Foreign Minister Karl-Osserrod, on January 6, 1850, the Prussian army withdrew from the Danish territory, including the abandonment of the Schleswig --- —Holstein, the two principalities of Asia.

Everyone knows that the next day is Christmas for the Russians. Nicholas I has been suppressed for so long, and naturally needs to vent.

As a close friend Karl-Osserrod, of course, to present a big gift on this special day, the Prussian government unfortunately fell into the background board.

At first, Franz thought so, but after seeing Mettner's bright smile, he knew that things were not that simple, and the Austrian Foreign Ministry probably played a disgraceful role.

Franz didn't know anything, it was normal for the boss to suppress the second.As the two major states in the German region, Prussia and Austria have both cooperation and contradictions.

In recent decades, everyone seems to be friends.It's just that starting from the Frankfurt meeting, the relations between Pu and Austria began to rapidly alienate.

Yes, it is just alienation rather than deterioration, and there has been no direct conflict between the two sides.The "Three Kings Alliance" that the Prussian government attempted to establish was just destroyed by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Austrian government also took advantage of the Prussian kingdom's deep plunge into the Ptan war, forming the Holy Roman League and isolating Prussia in the German region.

All these prove that there is no room for two tigers in one mountain. The Kingdom of Prussia was unlucky enough to meet Franz. The Austrian government settled domestic conflicts in advance and had the energy to trip them.

"Will you send a note to the Kingdom of Prussia in the name of the German Federal Parliament and let them die?" Franz asked hesitantly.

After thinking about it, Metternich replied: "Your Majesty, if we do this, the Prussian government will most likely do what we do. Will the Russians hate us then?"

It is true that at this time, the German Federation joined in, and the Prussian government is really likely to drag everyone into the water.

Everyone knows that the Russians do n’t really want to get started. Once the Prussian government ’s brave men broke their wrists, gave up their independent diplomatic powers, and the German Federal Parliament took over, it would be in trouble.

If you have been counseled, everyone will be scolded together with the Prussian government. No one should think better; if they resist, it is estimated that the Russians really hate Austria.

Franz knew how vengeful the Czarist government was.The overall situation has been fixed, so there is no need to grow out of the holiday.

Franz shook his head and said, "Let's forget it. After the Prussian government withdraws its troops, it will mobilize the people to find them.

At the same time, it is necessary to expose the sinister intentions of the Prussian government to use war to divert domestic attention and let the German people spurn them."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Metternich replied

Although he didn't feel such a little trouble, it could hit the Kingdom of Prussia, but it was okay to be disgusted.

At least not to whitewash this bad reputation, the Kingdom of Prussia became more difficult to annex North Germany.

The annexation by force is actually the most undesirable. If the public cannot be recognized, it will be difficult for the increased land and population to be transformed into national power.