Chapter 6 Your Majesty Rules the World with the Nobles, Not with the People

Chapter 6 Your Majesty rules the world with the nobles, not with the people.

Back to reality, the quarrel in the Hall of Mirrors continues.

"Your Majesty rules the world with the nobles, not with the people."

As the ruling class of this country, the nobles are obviously opposed to the ruled civilians. As a member of the ruling class, they hope that the emperor will consider the interests of the nobles first.

At the same time, Prince Metternich, Count Korolav, Baron Brooke, and even the emperor himself, who support joining the German Customs Union, are also nobles.

It's just that those who keep saying that they want to rule the world with the emperor do not represent the interests of the country and the ruling class, but their own interests.

They have two goals. One is to block the passage of the small nobles and the civilian class to leap, and the other is to use the power in their hands to collude with domestic and foreign forces to maximize the exploitation of their own people.

To simply summarize the attributes of this group of people, they are bureaucrats, landlords, and compradors.

Although it was said by a group of villains with selfish motives, it sounded correct at the time.

Austria at this time is no longer the Holy Roman Empire divided by states.

As the emperor of the Austrian Empire, Franz II has absolute power.

All this is thanks to the terminator of the Holy Roman Empire - Napoleon. The Napoleonic Wars greatly weakened the power of local nobles, but inadvertently strengthened the centralization of Austria. The situation in the past where small nobles dared to raise troops and openly confront the state machine has disappeared.

Even the power of the great nobles has been greatly restricted. Take Archduke Karl, the largest land noble in the Austrian Empire, as an example. He only has 1,000 private soldiers and cannot face the powerful army of the Austrian Empire at all.

Other nobles have no ability to fight against the country.

So now if any great noble jumps out and says that the emperor will not give it, I will rebel.

Then Count Latour will be happy to send him off.

At this time, a small figure slipped in from the door. The royal guards saw it, but did not stop it. After all, it is just a child, after all, it is the emperor's favorite grandson, the future master of this country.

The upright Baron Brook said.

"Are you going to govern this country with His Majesty? You only care about your own interests. Do you know how much benefit open trade can bring to this country? Our national finances have been on the verge of bankruptcy. As long as there is any disturbance, this building will collapse."

"You are exaggerating! The number of banks in Vienna is the highest in the world!" (Vienna had the largest number of private banks in the world at that time, but they were all small and most of them were in a half-dead state, which was completely incomparable with London.)

"But who will lend us money? You? The current financial industry in Vienna is almost monopolized, and the country even has to mortgage part of its tariffs and public power to bankers. Can't you see it?"

"It is natural to pay back debts. Besides, are banks in other countries willing to lend you money? Don't make so many excuses, look for the reasons in yourself."

Baron Brook worked diligently all his life, was upright and capable. (In history, he committed suicide because he was framed and could not prove himself.)

It can be said that it is a miracle that Austria's finances have not collapsed to this day. He absolutely cannot accept the accusations of others.

"Do you know how much the Empire's fiscal revenue was last year?" Baron Brooke asked angrily.

Before the other party could answer, Baron Brooke continued.

"130,269,877 florins."

"Do you know the total debt of the Empire?"

"1,461,224,893 florins."

"Do you know the total interest that the Empire had to pay for the extension of its debt last year?"

"110,221,096 florins, you don't know!" Baron Brooke roared.

"So what, God bless my emperor, Austria will last forever. Do you think this is all your credit?" The speaker was Pitru, Prince Eltházy's staff. He was not nervous, and even retorted.

This person graduated from the University of Vienna with excellent grades and once aspired to be a judge. But after waiting for 5 years in Vienna, he did not fill the vacancy.

Finally, with the recommendation of his classmates, he became a staff member of Prince Eltházy's family. Since becoming a staff member of Prince Eltházy, his financial situation has improved. But he also saw more dark sides of this society. It turned out that it was not that he was not good enough, but that he had no connections.

Those teachers who always taught him to abide by the law actually colluded with those officials to sell official positions and titles behind his back.

At this time, Austria was a system of granting official positions, that is, the emperor directly granted official positions. But the prerequisite for being granted an official position is that you can see the emperor, or let the emperor know your existence.

Prince Ertházy is a great nobleman in Hungary, and even the emperor can't easily move him. Pittru never executes Prince Ertházy's orders. What if the Austrian Empire is destroyed? As long as Hungary is still there, Prince Ertházy is still there, he can give him everything he wants.

Seeing Baron Brook speechless, Pittru added fuel to the fire again.

"The empire's debts have not been paid off for so many years, why don't you resign! Give the position to those who are capable!"

Baron Brooke was furious and wanted to continue arguing. Count Korolav stopped the furious Brooke. Although he didn't like this guy, his ability was beyond doubt. As the Minister of Finance, Korolav naturally understood how bad Austria's financial situation was better than anyone else.

There are usually only two ways to increase fiscal revenue, one is to increase revenue and the other is to save money.

He has done his best in saving money. He even cut military pay and royal annuities. He never spends money that can be saved. Even so, there is only about 10 million yuan left each year. And using this 10 million yuan to solve the debt problem of hundreds of millions of guilders every year is a difficulty that he can't imagine.

It's just that Brooke has lost his mind and has been led astray by the other party.

"Twenty years! As long as you join the German Customs Union, I promise to pay off all the debts of the empire within 20 years."

This is not an empty talk, but a joint calculation by all officials of the entire Ministry of Finance of Austria. According to their calculations, joining the German Customs Union will bring 4% economic growth to Austria every year. Even so, this is a very considerable profit.

Korolav glanced at Pitru who was still thinking about how to deal with it.

"Can you do it?"

"I"

"If you can't, shut up!" Count Korolav was very disgusted with people like Pitru who only knew how to talk.

Korolav glanced at the whole audience.

"Who of you can guarantee that the empire's debt will be paid off within 20 years! I will let him be the finance minister!"

"You are kidding! Why should we pay off the debt owed by the empire?" The nobles complained in their hearts, "Besides, it is impossible to pay it back."

In the minds of the dignitaries, the debt of the Austrian Empire has long been an unfillable black hole.

Since reasoning doesn't work, let's use force.

Several nobles, led by Prince Eltházy, walked towards Franz II.

"Your Majesty rules the world with the nobles, not with the people. Do you want those mud-legged people to ride on our heads?"

Franz II hesitated a little. He really didn't know what to do. Seeing the quarrel below, he didn't know who to listen to. His ministers seemed to be thinking about the country, but who could guarantee that they had no selfish motives? These nobles seemed incompetent, but they were his own people.

Seeing Franz II wavering, some people laughed. They were waiting for this moment.

So they got closer and closer to Franz II, trying to overwhelm the weak-willed emperor with pressure.

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten the attitude of France?" Finally, someone walked forward with increasing excitement and pulled Franz II's sleeve.

Franz also laughed. He was waiting for this moment.