Chapter 38: Hungary
In fact, theoretically, there should not be a food crisis in the Hungarian Great Plain, a land rich in water and grass.
However, three consecutive years of natural disasters that began in 1845 and the accompanying grain failures worsened the situation in Hungary.
Coupled with the economic crisis that broke out in Britain, Hungary's industry and agriculture fell into the era of the Great Depression.
And whether it is a conservative aristocracy or a liberal capitalist, the first thing that comes to their mind is to transfer the crisis to the common people.
In the midst of this food crisis and economic crisis, food prices in Hungary have reached unprecedented heights, while the purchase price of grain has reached a record low.
Under this strange operation, a large number of peasants went bankrupt, and the bankrupt peasants were theoretically conducive to the development of industry.
But the reality is that the economic crisis, combined with the high tariff barriers of Hungary itself, has led to the fact that their goods cannot be sold at all.
And the domestic civilians have no spending power, so their goods are very unsalable, and naturally there is no need for those redundant labor.
A woodcutter can only pay one meal for three days, and the situation is similar in a factory.
Desperate peasants and workers staged some insurrections, but they did not have a unified command, let alone coordinate with each other.
So the small-scale riots were quickly suppressed, and the large-scale riots were quickly stillborn because they were not organized.
In contrast to the misery of the Hungarians, the royal estate was a scene of prosperity, not because disasters did not patronize it.
Whether it's a flood or a drought, the royal estate has to deal with it too, but that's when leadership comes in.
Under the unified coordination of the royal stewards and appointed officials, the ability of the royal estates to resist natural risks has been greatly enhanced.
The construction of dikes in the face of floods, the construction of aqueducts in the face of droughts, and the financial and technical support provided by Franz are naturally a new and prosperous scene.
At the same time, the quality of German immigrants was generally higher than that of the serfs in Hungary, and their ability to accept and transform natural things was stronger.
And the vast majority of them have lost their native social ties and are relatively easy to manage.
In summary, the gap between the Hungarian village and the royal estate is very obvious.
However, since there were also a large number of Hungarian refugees mixed in with Franz in the royal estate, he did not have to worry about no one promoting him.
In fact, the Hungarians, who were on the verge of being sold to North America, had nothing but admiration and gratitude for Franz and the Habsburg royal family.
Life in the royal estate was unimaginable to them in the past, and it was a life that even the lower Hungarian aristocracy could not enjoy.
Of course, some ultra-nationalists with ulterior motives will not miss this opportunity to discredit Austria, and they take advantage of the envy of the people and claim that it is the Austrians who have taken away the idyll that rightfully belongs to them.
The smear and rumor-mongering were quite effective, and soon a large number of people became hostile to Austria and the Habsburgs, though most simply hated not being able to join the royal estate.
On the other hand, the Hungarians living in the royal estates were desperately defending Austria and the imperial family, who in a sense had vested interests.
Whether it was for the sake of justice or for their own sake, they had to defend the Austrian side.
So this contradiction easily tore the crowd apart, and the Hungarians quickly divided into two factions and began to distinguish each other, and at the same time exacerbated the contradiction.
The anti-Austrians believed that it was the Austrians who had taken away their land, their good life, and the luck of Hungary's development.
Just drive the Austrians out of Hungary to get a good life.
The pro-Austrian faction is in a-for-tat confrontation, believing that the Hungarian aristocracy does not care about the life and death of the bottom, and the royal estates should be the final destination of the Hungarians.
As long as the whole of Hungary is turned into a royal domain, the contradictions will naturally disappear and everyone can live happily ever after.
The high-ranking Count Széchenyi is still making his last efforts, hoping to prevent this war and to use his unrealistic solutions to resolve the contradictions between the two sides.
Because from a capitalist's point of view, the behemoth of Austria is simply untouchable, and Hungary's pitiful industrial output is a joke in the eyes of the former.
The worst thing is that Austria itself has a huge market and a source of raw materials, and on the other hand, Hungarian industry has to rely on smuggling and blood transfusions of the great nobles to feed itself, and the potential of the two sides is not at all the same.
Prince Elthhazi and some of the traditional nobles had begun to hoard food, train soldiers, move out of the big cities, and live in seclusion, turning their estates into strong fortresses.
These people have a very keen sense of smell and are very experienced, and they know that the time has come to shuffle the cards, and this is their chance, at least to keep their family business
Of course, there are some idiots who add fuel to the fire, some people who want to turn a blind eye to the facts, and they are not necessarily fighting back.
In short, their deliberate whitewashing of the peace has aroused the resentment of the public and the student community, and angered some of the least offended.
With the outbreak of the Sicilian Uprising, the Hungarian region entered a period of turmoil, with ghosts and snakes from all walks of life competing to perform.
But most of the things did not surprise Franz, except for Pedolfi, perhaps by mistake, or his son as a farmer.
This genius poet proposed to unite the serfs, not only to give them freedom, but also to give them land and rights, and then to unite against Austria.
But the idea of this genius was quickly rejected by the leader Kossuth, because the general idea of the serf was that the serf was a representative of ignorance, stupidity, laziness, and greed.
Don't talk about serfs, as long as they get involved with the countryside, they will be looked down upon, countrymen, country aristocrats, country merchants.
On the one hand, it was a shame for Kosuth to be with the serfs or the peasant unions, and on the other hand, the emancipation of the serfs was indeed their slogan, but it was another matter to give the peasants a share of the land and rights.
In fact, the purpose of the emancipation of the serfs by the Hungarians was to provide more labor for the handicraft workshops, and at the same time to hire agricultural workers at a lower cost than serfs, not for charity.
The division of the land would have cost the lives of those nobles, and Kosuth would not dare to do so, and his supporters would not allow him to do so.
So Pei Duofei's plan was stillborn, but Pei Duofei hated the aristocracy very much, because his experience in Vienna made him feel that the aristocracy was the moth of the country.
Joining forces with him disgusted Perdolfi, but Kosuth was the leader, and he knew very well that the nobles had money, guns, and soldiers, and that they were the main force against Austria.
However, thanks to the fact that he did not continue, because the killers sent by Franz to Hungary were already ready to do it.
In fact, the vast majority of Hungarian landlords at this time conformed to the stereotype in people's minds, selfish, mischievous, lazy as pigs, and terrible stupid.