Holy Roman Empire

The agricultural crisis has actually been brewing for a long time. The Russian pioneering movement was only a fuse for the outbreak of the agricultural crisis.

After entering the 19th century, agricultural production technology has developed very fast, especially the rotation of the tillage technology in Europe, which has greatly improved the land utilization rate.

New production tools are constantly being developed, which kicks off the era of mechanized agriculture and allows a farmer to cultivate more land.

During this period, agricultural output also began to increase substantially.The food production of all countries is constantly refreshing records. Taking Austria as an example, the growth rate of food production has exceeded 3% for many years.

The population growth rate in the same period was far behind the increase in grain output.The biggest benefit of the increase in food production is to allow most people to fill their stomachs.The increase in related agricultural and sideline products has also enriched the people's dining tables.

In the process of population growth, the agricultural population is also increasing.Although with the development of industry, during the process of urbanization, a large number of rural laborers have become workers, and the proportion of the agricultural population is continuously decreasing, but this number is still increasing.

In this context, in order to obtain more income, the people spontaneously started the reclamation movement.It was not the first time that the Russians opened up a wasteland. At first, Austria started badly.

The land revolution in Austria was not perfect. The nobles still held a lot of land. In order to meet the farmers' demand for land, the Austrian Balkan Peninsula was developed.

Compared with 1850, the area of ​​arable land in Austria has doubled.As the cake gets bigger, the domestic land problem is naturally solved.

Alexander II's campaign to open up wasteland was actually to learn from Austria's successful experience. Since farmers need land, increase the supply of domestic land.The land becomes more, and the contradiction will naturally be resolved.

In this way, the overcapacity of grain is unstoppable.In the course of agricultural development in Austria, the Vienna government is also deliberately guiding people to grow cash crops.

For example: the plan to change rice to mulberry in Lombardy and Venezia has also developed a supporting raw silk industry; the vineyard plan in Bosnia and Herzegovina has also developed the raisin and wine industries.

These planned developments are to avoid overcapacity in grain as much as possible.However, this is not enough, and the total grain output is still rising.

If it were not for the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, the Russian Empire also broke out in a civil war, which severely damaged Russia's agricultural production. This crisis would have erupted a few years ago.

There is no one big grain exporter, and there is no grain shortage in Europe. Now the Russians are returning to the grain export market, and the production capacity is better than in the past. The market can't afford it anyway.

There are only three countries in Europe that are not worried about food price shocks. The British are naturally one of them, otherwise they would not dare to ignite the fire.

The industrialization of Britain has been carried out early, the industrial population has long surpassed the agricultural population, and the proportion of agriculture in GDP has been very low.

The small peasant economy collapsed early in the enclosure movement, the land is relatively centralized, and it is relatively resistant to risks. It is itself the world ’s largest importer of agricultural products, and is naturally not afraid of the collapse of food prices.

The other two countries are Belgium and Monaco. The latter does not need to know. Looking at the land area, we know that a small village near the sea has no agriculture at all.

Belgium is also a grain importing country. The earliest industrialized country on the European continent, the industrially developed agricultural output value is low, so do n’t worry about being hit.

Simply from the economic point of view, after the outbreak of the agricultural crisis, Austria's losses are undoubtedly the biggest.As the largest exporter of agricultural products, the impact is also the biggest.

Simply calculating the agricultural population, Austria's agricultural population is still more than half of the total population. It is no problem to say that Austria is an agricultural country.

However, with the development of the economy, many farmers with relatively little land actually have strong labor to work in cities.

Both farming and working, they cannot simply be regarded as farmers or workers.In statistics, both sides are often counted.

Different provinces have different proportions of agricultural population.In the more economically developed Bohemia region, the proportion of the agricultural population is already less than 40%; while in the developed region of Hungary, the proportion of the agricultural population is as high as 70 or 80%.

Among them, the proportion of migrant workers also occupies a considerable part.In some densely populated villages, 90% of the young and strong labor force work in cities.

The situation in France is even more serious. The Italian region is seriously hindered, especially in southern Italy.If you count urban and rural incomes, you will find that there is no difference at all, and even the income of urban workers is lower than that of farmers.

This does not mean that agriculture in Italy is well developed, it can only prove that Italy's cities are in economic depression.Although these cities developed relatively early, but limited by resources, Italian industrial development is very difficult.

This is also the main reason why the Russians moved closer to the British than to the French.The British can fear the impact of agriculture and dare to let Russian agricultural products enter, but the French cannot.

There are already a lot of agricultural populations in France. In addition to the fragile Italian region, once the food price plummets, the market is hit.

"The food price is of great importance, and it will suddenly hit the markets of various countries, and the rebound will inevitably be very dramatic.

Moreover, agriculture is different from industry. Even if there is excess capacity in the market, producers will not adjust in a short time, and even output will continue to increase.

We can regulate the domestic market and guide the people to reduce the area of ​​food planted, but it will not affect other countries.At least we have no way to reduce the production of Russian farmers, at most they can bankrupt them.

To defeat the agricultural production markets of various countries and establish a monopoly position in the field of agricultural exports.Frankly speaking, I am not optimistic about the success of this project.

In this world, the land area suitable for cultivation is too large, and the agricultural product consumption market is too small.

Not to mention, as long as you understand the situation of Austria and Africa, everyone should know that if necessary, Austria ’s food production capacity can be doubled at any time.

The British, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French also have no shortage of food-producing colonies.Once we find signs that we have a monopoly on the international grain export market, resistance will inevitably happen."

Obviously, Prime Minister Felix is ​​an intellectual.Instead of supporting the Ministry of Agriculture ’s great plan, it is more inclined to the protracted war proposed by the Minister of Finance.

Relying on the advantages of production cost, it only needs to slowly grind down, Austria is destined to occupy an important position in the agricultural product export market.

As for the potential biggest competitor, the United States of America, it is not a threat at all.In the face of interest, the plantation owners will naturally make the right choice.

The United States did not split in time and space. After the Civil War, the United States lost its dominant position in the international cotton market, and the grain planting industry developed.

Now the United States of America is a wealthy agricultural country that continues to dominate the cotton production market.Without being defeated and suppressed, other cotton producing areas simply cannot compete with them.

Who will be full and supportive, and have huge profits without taking it, running to jump into the huge pit of the grain export market?

That's right, now the international food export market has become a huge pit.Until there is no difference between the winners and losers, for a long time to come, food producers in various countries will not be happy.

If Austria has such unique conditions as Americans, it will also not kill the grain market.Now the Ministry of Agriculture is proposing to defeat the agricultural production systems of European countries. In fact, this is also the push of the big nobles.

On the surface, the profits in agriculture are no longer enough to satisfy their appetite, and they want to monopolize the grain supply in Europe to obtain greater benefits.

In fact, more people still want to abolish the series of taxes and increase their income.Everyone knows that there is little hope of monopolizing the grain supply in Europe, but everyone likes tax cuts!

Franz had met many lobbyists beforehand, but it was nothing more than saying that the country was already prosperous, and there was no shortage of profits in agriculture, was it ...

As a spokesperson for the interests of the noble class, Franz cannot naturally refuse, but as an emperor, he must also consider the national interests, so this agricultural economic meeting appeared.

The end result was naturally that the government cut some taxes, made up for their losses in this storm, and appeased the noble class.Considering the wallet, not all are exempt.

As for the peasant class, they took the ride.Otherwise, how can tax cuts and food protection prices be taken care of by the bureaucrats?

The reason is not important, as long as the actual interests can be obtained, then it is right.Today, compared with the nobility, Austrian farmers actually occupy more land, accounting for about 34 of the land area.

Unconsciously, the nobility actually became the spokesperson of the peasant class' political interests.This result was completely beyond Franz's expectations.

Seeing that the meeting was almost going on, the radical plan of the Ministry of Agriculture had been rejected by the Cabinet, and Franz knew it was time for him to perform.

"The success rate of monopolistic European food supply is too low, and the impact on the agricultural production systems of various countries must be done, but it cannot be too extreme.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer ’s suggestion is good. You can start with the Anglo-Russian agreement to see how reliable the Anglo-Russian friendship is, and clean up our old food by the way.

The Ministry of Agriculture ’s plan was taken back and redone to reduce our sense of presence in this storm as much as possible. The cause of the sharp drop in food prices must be the Russians.

Once the agricultural crisis fully erupts, there will definitely be a wave of bankruptcy of farmers in Europe, which may last for a long time.

The colonial ministry must also act immediately to pull people from various European countries.Especially the Russian Empire, they will be the hardest hit by this crisis, as allies have an obligation to help them eliminate hidden dangers."

During the agricultural crisis in the original space-time, the German region was the hardest hit, during which millions of Germans immigrated to the United States.

Now that the situation has changed, Austria has repeatedly recruited immigrants in the German region, and the overpopulation has been resolved.

The best proof is that the German Federal Empire has been established for so many years, and the total population has not yet exceeded 10 million. It is completely standing still.

If you see their immigration data, everyone will not be surprised.From 1854 to the present, the population of the German Federal Empire has reached 3.5 million.

After running out so much, the local population naturally cannot rise.If so many people stay and reproduce in the same place, according to the local birth rate and mortality rate, the population of the German Federal Empire has already exceeded 16 million.

The wool here was almost cut, and Franz reached his hand to the Russian Empire.Even if it lost in the Russian-Russian war and lost millions of square kilometers of territory, the Russian Empire still has a population of more than 74 million.

Franz has already played to stimulate fertility, and the birth rate in many parts of Austria is still lower than that of the Russians.If it were not for the lower mortality rate in Austria, the population growth rate would definitely not keep up with the Russians.

According to the analysis of sociologists, the baby boom will continue to erupt in the Russian Empire in the next few years, and the farmers who have obtained the land will be viable, and the birth rate of the population is expected to exceed 6%.

This data is not surprising. The average life span of the Russian Empire is cut off. The population structure is mainly minors, teenagers, middle-aged people, and very few people over 45 years old.

From the data analysis, it is that more than half of the people in the Russian Empire are of child-bearing age. Such a high proportion of young people, coupled with the lack of recreational activities of the people, go home and make things, and the birth rate of the population is naturally high.

Not only the Russian Empire has a large population of child-bearing age, but almost every country has a high proportion of children of child-bearing age. Most countries have more than 40%.

After entering the 19th century, the European population has entered a period of rapid growth, the population growth rate of all countries is very fast, the slowest growth rate is the French, followed by Spain and Italy.

The main reason is still economic, and farmers who do not have enough land can no longer afford to live.Not to mention workers, the high number of abandoned babies is enough to explain the problem.

Of course, the government's policy is also an important factor leading to the low population growth rate of the three countries.In this era, it cannot be said that these policies are completely wrong.

The domestic economic development is not improving. If the population growth is not restrained, how can the extra people be raised?

The French are the exception. Their problem is not that they can't afford it, but that they are just tossing about themselves.

The food price collapsed, and the Russian empire with a high birth rate is definitely the hardest hit. If you stay in the country, the family with many children will certainly not be able to support it.

Immigration at this time, but relieved pressure in Alexander II.No matter how reluctant the Tsarist government is, it is impossible for them to prevent the people from leaving during this period.

In this respect, both sides also take their own needs.For the stable first Czar government, if it can eliminate internal hidden dangers, the aftereffects are not worth mentioning.