Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 22: January Revolution

The sudden economic crisis also confused the Austrian government. It was the first such crisis they had confronted, and they had no experience to help them deal with it.

Since the economic crisis, initiated by the industrial crisis, was different from an ordinary one, their traditional coping strategies would become anachronistic.

Government-funded bailouts?

It was obviously impossible, and Metternich would be stupid to try to save all the capitalists.

Of course, necessary measures had to be taken by the government. For example, prices, which had been rising sharply, returned to a normal level because the government reduced tariffs.

However, the domestic crisis had not been relieved: the capitalists and nobles who had hoarded a large amount of supplies had their turn to suffer and lost their last pennies.

In the case of daily necessities, the prices in the retail market in Vienna were only 66 percent of what they had been in the first half of 1847, and less than a third of the retail prices at the peak in December.

Not the price decline but the decline in purchasing was critical: even at such prices, people did not have the money to buy goods.

This was truly a tragedy.

Under normal circumstances, the wholesale price of daily necessities was 30 percent lower than the retail price, and if retail prices fell, the capitalists would leave the market by losing a fortune, which was acceptable to most of them.

The real problem was that there was no market: there were piles of goods, but no buyers.

Powerful capitalists could perhaps still hold on, but the weak ones had no choice but to run away, with broken capital chains, owing a load of debt to the bank.

As a result, Austria's financial institutions had been hit severely, and after the financial crisis broke out, the vicious circle persisted.

The Great Depression had come, to not only Austria but the entire European continent except Russia, and no one could stand alone.

There was no doubt that the Labor Protection Act introduced by the Vienna Government had to be suspended: when jobs were gone, there was no point to talking about how workers were treated.

The goal the capitalists had achieved——the Vienna government did make concessions and the Labor Protection Act was suspended——became something they did not really want.

The sudden economic crisis had hurt the capitalists badly.

Meanwhile, as market competition became more and more brutal, internal conflicts among capitalists were intensifying.

Prime Minister Metternich became the biggest winner as well as the biggest loser.

When, finally, he successfully thwarted the conspiracy of the capitalists, a mess was waiting for him to clean up afterward.

Franz, as an onlooker, was stunned by this kind of situation. He didn't expect that the whole thing would actually end up like this: the capitalists, the nobles, and the government were all losers in this political struggle.

If there were any victors, Ferdinand I, who did nothing in the palace, was one of them, but he could not understand or feel it himself.

When it came to the working class, they could be regarded as half winners and half losers: the economic crisis in Austria was more serious than any in history, and their lives were even harder; the only gain was the Labor Protection Act, which couldn't be realized yet.

In short, the future would be good, but the present was cruel.

"Archduke, last night, a revolution broke out in Sicily!"

The intelligence leader, Tallen, rushed in and brought Franz this shocking news.

Franz was really taken aback by it: didn't the European Revolution start in February, in France?

How could there be a Sicilian revolution?

Well, Franz could admit that his knowledge of Sicily was limited to the beautiful legends, where the land was fertile, suitable for food production, and strategically located in the heart of the Mediterranean.

Beyond that, there was nothing left in his mind. After thinking carefully, Franz remembered a sentence that seemed to be mentioned in the history book: before the February revolution broke out in France, the January revolution broke out in Italy.

The original story was the January revolution in Italy, which initiated the prelude to the European revolution in 1848. It was just mentioned in this way, without unnecessary explanation, and Franz hadn't paid attention to it at all.

What a pit to fall into!

Italy had not been unified yet. At that time, Sicily was still the independent Kingdom of Sicily, which did not have anything to do with Italy.

For this reason, he sent someone to keep an eye on the Kingdom of Sardinia, which would finally unify Italy.

Franz recovered quickly enough: he had not specialized in historical research, and it was normal that he was not familiar with the small events which were not paid much attention in history.

"Is the scale of this revolution large? Did they overthrow the Kingdom of Sicily?"

He could guess why revolution had broken out: the economic crisis had happened, and the public in Sicily couldn't move on.

"Archduke, it's not clear yet. We have too few intelligence personnel in the Kingdom of Sicily, so there is no way to figure out the situation in such a short time!" Tyron explained, embarrassedly.

It was not because he didn't work hard, but because the intelligence work couldn't be completed overnight. It was hard enough already to receive messages in such a short time.

In that era, the wireless telegraph had not been invented, and the wired telegraph was only laid out in big cities. What happened in Sicily could only be transmitted to Vienna after a series of transits.

If the news was spread by itself, it might be delayed for three or five days, or even a couple of weeks.

"Well, that's all. We'd better focus our work on Vienna, Milan, Venice, and Munich because the revolution in Sicily may cause a chain reaction!" Franz said after thinking for a while.

He had already figured it out: things outside were out of his control, and his very first mission was to stabilize his own country before anything else, or at least, to get the message and be prepared before the revolution broke out.

"Yes, Archduke!"

Seeing that Franz didn't blame him, Tallen breathed a sigh of relief. The combat effectiveness of the intelligence organization had decreased a lot over the years, and he, the person in charge, had an inescapable responsibility.

But he didn't know how low Franz's expectations of them were.

As the saying goes, cheap goods are not good, and good goods are not cheap.

In the intelligence organization, more than ninety-five percent of the personnel were volunteers, laboring without any remuneration. What else could Franz ask for?

These were all the achievements of the Habsburg family's management for many years. Conquering Europe on foot was not a joke, and the relationship network had spread to cover the continent of Europe long ago.

It maybe was all right to take advantage of these relationships to communicate with each other about information, but if they should be ordered to handle affairs, Franz wasn't sure he had such strong control.

As for Tallen, he was undoubtedly a temporary substitute. When the intelligence organization built by Franz himself was completed, the only purpose for them would be to draw the attention of the outside world.

After the Sicily revolution broke out, Franz began preparing, and he did not dare to trust others with his life.

With this as an excuse, Franz conducted a training for the Royal Guard and reorganized the members, holding a post without qualifications, alone in one unit.