Chapter 170: Industry Regulation
The changes in people’s hearts were the most difficult to fathom. Franz was naturally unaware of the little incident in Pest. As an emperor, as long as the world was at peace, the thoughts of individual people were not his concern.
By now, the Austrian government bureaucrats had become accustomed to three key assessment indicators: enlightenment, stability, economy.
The easiest to achieve was social stability. The government was strong enough, local powerful factions were keeping their peace, and the few undesirable elements disrupting stability could be easily dealt with.
Next was “enlightenment”. With systems in place, cooperating with the Ministry of Education’s plans and steadily advancing was sufficient.
Of course, to produce results in this area, it was essential to adapt measures to local conditions and put in tremendous effort.
The most troublesome was still developing the economy. Prosperous big cities were fine. Now that the domestic economy was developing rapidly, with big cities being the main force, just formulating suitable local policies was adequate.
Economic development in remote regions was much slower, with some areas simply stagnating. Even if bureaucrats wanted to make an effort, they didn’t know where to start.
Imbalanced regional economic development had become a conundrum plaguing the Austrian government, and one without a solution.
Franz was also helpless about this. Not just now, even a hundred or two hundred years later, these issues still troubled countries worldwide.
Many factors restricted regional economic growth, including transportation, resources, climate, geography, population...
In comparison, transportation issues were the easiest to resolve. Just build roads. As long as they are willing to invest, it could be resolved sooner or later.
There were also solutions for population issues. But climate, resources, geography could not be resolved by manpower, at least not in the 19th century.
Looking at the economic development report in hand, Franz sighed helplessly.
He knew that the government investing heavily in big cities would intensify imbalanced regional development, yet it had to continue.
There was no alternative. This approach had the highest returns. Investing in poor remote areas wouldn’t even produce a ripple. It was truly hopeless.
“Prime Minister, why are these water conservancy project investments all in the plains?” Franz asked concernedly.
Industrial development was in the big cities, this was no issue. But agricultural development couldn’t only consider the plains either. Many mountainous areas also had development potential.
For political considerations, when reinvesting, the government also had to take each region into account.
Felix explained, “Your Majesty, it is mainly a population distribution issue. Currently, Austria’s population is mainly concentrated in plain regions, with relatively fewer people in other areas.
From the perspective of optimizing resource allocation, we will first concentrate our efforts on developing the densely populated plains areas. In other regions with smaller populations and less competitive pressure, the demand for water conservancy projects is relatively low.”
Franz nodded. From the perspective of agricultural development, plains were more suitable for grain cultivation, with greater demand for water conservancy.
Based on different geographical conditions, mountainous areas were more suited for cash crops.
Don’t assume cash crops were more lucrative. This was only the 19th century with living standards that were quite limited. Apart from some industrial raw materials in high demand, most cash crops were unsuitable for large-scale development.
There was very little market demand for high value agricultural products in this era. Ordinary citizens simply could not afford them, with few having the purchasing power.
There was no need to promote off-season agriculture at all. Spontaneous production by farm owners alone was sufficient to meet market demand. Large-scale development can be considered when people have the money.
Franz thought for a moment and said, “Prepare an agricultural production report for the whole country. Each place can engage in trial economic agriculture based on actual conditions, and successful results can then be gradually promoted. For example, silk can be grown in Italy.
Grain production has grown very quickly in recent years. We must prepare for contingencies. If an accident happens, low grain prices hurting farmers would be bad.”
More food production was not necessarily better. If not for the Holy Roman Economic Alliance, Austrian agriculture would now be experiencing overcapacity.
Under this circumstance, promoting suitable cash crops in certain areas was very necessary.
In this era, growth in food demand couldn’t keep up with growth in production. Blindly increasing food output did not suit Austria.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Felix replied.
Continuing to look at the report in hand, Franz was suddenly reminded of industrial pollution in the future. He didn’t want Vienna to become like present-day London.
Industrial development inevitably causes environmental pollution, but where the pollution occurs could be artificially controlled.
For his own pleasant life in his later years, Franz believed it necessary to restrict Vienna’s industrial development, even at the cost of slowing the city’s growth.
Franz thought for a moment and said, “Vienna is developing too rapidly. In just a few years, the city’s population will exceed one million. As the population grows, urban infrastructure has not kept up. Problems emerging is inevitable.
Considering the actual circumstances, the government should find ways to divert some businesses to other cities. More polluting enterprises should not be placed in Vienna.”
Diverting some of Vienna’s resources and investing them in other regions could build a new industrial city. To Franz, this was well worthwhile.
Vienna was an inland city. Concentrating massive resources here was essentially wasteful.
Urban development was not simply the bigger, the better. It was more important to consider the capacity. In Franz’s plans, the future Vienna would at most have 2-3 million people.
Austria did not need nor have the capacity to support becoming a megacity of over 10 million people.
Prime Minister Felix thought for a moment and said, “Your Majesty, capital flows are market adjustments. Isn’t it not good for us to interfere like this?”
In this era, the economies of European countries were naturally regulated by the market. Austria was an exception, with the government directly intervening in economic development.
However, this intervention was not through administrative orders, but by formulating some economic development policies to guide the market, or implemented through state-owned enterprises.
What Franz was proposing was for the government to intervene in the market through administrative orders, which rarely happened anywhere in the world.
Franz shook his head and said, “Externally, just explain that Vienna’s capacity has reached its limit, and population growth is too fast for our supply to keep up.
Have the media propagate the adverse consequences of rapid population growth, such as decreasing per capita living space in the city, insufficient supply of goods, etc.
The government can then work on the capitalists. Existing factories can remain, but those not yet built should relocate to other cities.
In the next five years, Vienna will not approve any new factories. Existing factories must also undergo strict audits and cannot engage in heavily polluting industries.
For corporate pollution issues, the government can set pollution grades based on environmental harm. This can optimize allocation during factory construction.
With industrial technology development, heavily polluting industries will continue increasing. Without comprehensive consideration, a single factory could potentially ruin a city.”
Vienna was Austria’s political, economic and cultural center. Franz did not want it to also become an industrial center.
There were plenty of Austrian cities more suitable than Vienna for industrial development. There was no need for factories to cluster here at all.
Investing in Vienna was fine, but establishing factories should be avoided. Franz was not welcoming this from now on.
Refusing entry now was far better than building the factories first, then kicking people out later.
Regarding environmental pollution issues, people of this era were still unaware, or the harm was not yet severe to be noticed.
“Your Majesty, it can’t be so serious for one factory to ruin a city?” Prime Minister Felix said incredulously.
“Is this difficult? Take our steel mills for example. If production is large enough, just the industrial wastewater discharged can pollute a river.
If a city’s water source is polluted, can the city continue existing?” Franz retorted.
This was no scaremongering. In later years, cities that were ultimately ruined due to water source pollution were countless.
It was not that just having industrial wastewater enter rivers polluting the water. In reality, groundwater could not escape either.
Pollution elsewhere could be tolerated, but not in Vienna. Franz had no plans to move the capital. Precautionary actions were inevitable.
Pollution in Vienna was not yet severe currently, but after a few decades, things could change. With chemical industry development, chemical plants would emerge one after another, and the consequences would be serious.
London was a negative example, with tens of thousands dying from smog at its peak every year. Franz could not stand such an environment. If it were him, he would have moved long ago.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Felix replied.
If you don’t understand, you can just go slowly and understand it later. In any case, the concept of “environmental pollution” having serious consequences was engraved in his mind already.
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