Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – The merciful Crown Prince

The countless lessons drawn from his past life had taught Franz a profound truth: one didn’t necessarily have to agree with the majority, but at the very least, one had to make the majority believe that one agreed with them.

That was exactly the route Franz was pursuing. He surely had to tell the outside world that he was in support of reform, as reform was mainstream in Austria at that time.

At the same time, the power of Austrian conservatives could not be underestimated. The Vienna Court was the base camp of conservative nobles, and Franz, as a royal - the highest ranking noble - could not betray his own class.

His youth was the best shield for the dilemma of taking sides, as it was satisfying enough for the reformists to know that he was on their side. Obviously, no one was counting on a 16-year-old to lead the reform in Austria.

From the conservatives’ point of view, Franz was reserved enough not to comment on the specifics of reform. Everyone understood reform was necessary for Austria but no one knew how to implement it, causing the lasting debate on the subject.

As the Crown Prince of the Empire, there was nothing wrong with Franz advocating for reform. However, he would be taught a lesson if he was cocky enough to put forward his own reform plan.

By contrast, it was no problem for Franz to focus on the living conditions of the people at the bottom, as a merciful monarch was liked by everyone.

Before the situation escalated, neither the bourgeoisie nor the nobility gave a damn about Franz raising his profile with the people since no one realized that it was all a diversion.

Bowenfield was convinced by Franz, or by reality, really, and felt that there was nothing wrong with listening to the words of the young Archduke temporarily. It would make things even better if he could influence the Imperial Crown Prince through his own ideas.

Though Franz understood Bowenfield’s plan as clear as day, he did not care much for him. At the moment, Bowenfield’s influence was necessary for his newspaper to become influential in the shortest time possible.

The matters of political reform in Austria were beyond his concern, for now. Franz had already drawn out a plan; however, before carrying it out, he had to weaken both the bourgeoisie and the nobility.

In fact, his reform lacked any provisions related to raising the status of the bourgeoisie.

“Capital is borderless,” Franz had heard. The bourgeoisie, whose greed could never be satisfied, would betray their monarch in a heartbeat if it were in their interest, so Franz would not dare count on them as the backbone of the empire.

The specific conditions of Austria were such that, to truly integrate the country, he would need to take into account the interests of the vast majority of the underprivileged population and force both the bourgeoisie and the nobility to make sacrifices.

Franz had a chance to succeed in the near future when the conflict between the two classes would further intensify.

The more he learned about the country, the more Franz became sure that various powers simmered under the surface of this empire.

In 1846, Austria was affected by the crop failure that took place across the entire German region. As a matter of course, the Austrian Empire, whose lands included the , should not have been severely affected by this event, for it always had been the most important food exporter in Europe.

However, the facts suggested otherwise. For their own profit, the capitalists excessively exaggerated food shortages to raise food prices, while at the same time, they depressed the purchase price of food in the Hungarian region due to their enormous amount of grain harvest.

By the beginning of 1847, the price of food in Vienna had risen by 54% and ordinary citizens of Vienna had been hurt the worst.

As the capitalists manipulated food prices, a large number of farmers went bankrupt, and even some nobles suffered heavy losses; consequently, various revolutionary undercurrents were agitated in the Hungarian region.

Over the past few weeks, Franz had noticed a rapid growth of foreign population in Vienna. It was clear that they were bankrupt farmers who came to the capital to try to earn a living.

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Some of them might have been serfs, still in service of the nobility. The nobles had loosened their control because by the mid-19th century Austria’s population had crossed 30 million. Since the labor force was plentiful, they had no shortage of serfs.

Serfs were certainly property of the nobles, but they also had to eat; after the nobles had enough serfs to guarantee the completion of production tasks, any excess would become a burden to them.

However, the European nations’ successful liberation of serfs was not as successful as it seemed. One factor was the fact that more machinery, such as animal-powered harvesters, meant that a much smaller number of serfs were necessary for farming.

By the mid-19th century, the nobility's demand for a labor force was in decline, and their resistance to the abolition of serfdom had waned. Many progressive nobles preferred to release their serfs in exchange for compensation from the government.

The reason nobles still resisted Chancellor Metternich’s promotion of the abolitionist movement in Austria was simply because the offering price was too low, which was actually something on which Franz supported the Chancellor.

Austria did not have sufficient funds to pay the nobles any more than offered, so a lower settlement was inevitable.

However, this was not a dead-end problem: For example, abolitionist nobility could be given preferential tax rates, or, at the expense of capitalists, the government could intervene in the market and set a lower limit on food prices to safeguard their interests.

There was always a way to resolve a conflict, so long as there was an appropriate distribution of benefits. However, Franz would not publicize his resolutions because they were his bargaining chips to obtain some benefits from Chancellor Metternich.

On January 11, 1847, Franz’s newspaper, “We Want Bread, We Want Cheese,” was officially published.

He himself fiddled around a bit, writing the article “Caring for the People at the Bottom, Building a Better Austria Together” on the front page.

There was no doubt that it was just sentimental nonsense that held no substance and was only meant to make the people have good feelings towards him.

Franz dedicated a significant portion of his article to the importance of the role played by the people at the bottom in the country. The article asserted that the Austrian Empire could improve only if it guaranteed the basic livelihood of these people.

The article’s influence was indisputable, and many people were fooled by it since it was the first appearance of such grandiose and effective sentimental nonsense.

Though they were not averse to Franz, the bourgeoisie and the nobility thought Franz to be an overwhelmingly merciful Imperial Crown Prince, who was leisurely enough to worry about the lives of the people at the bottom.

Naturally, a merciful emperor was better than a tyrant; at the very least, they didn’t have to worry about being executed without reason.

Franz’s influence with the poor, meanwhile, was growing at quite a quick pace. The Imperial Crown Prince who cared about their lives had to be a real saint.

It was a pity that the Imperial Crown Prince was too young to have a voice in politics. It would be best if he could quickly rise to the throne and obtain great power as the Emperor to bring about the changes he mentioned.

***

“What a pity!” Franz said to himself. If only he had a group of people to spread his propaganda throughout the country the impact would be much greater!

Franz had, in fact, sent people to do that, but the problem was that his team was short-handed. Accordingly, their influence was limited to Vienna, and he had to wait for his words to slowly spread to other parts of the Empire.

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