The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1363 Predatory Demand
However, this promotion was not to determine the exchange rate of precious metals, nor to grant each other the qualification to mint coins, but to replace the local currency with the currency of the Austrian Empire.

Of course, this is just the first step. Franz's real purpose is to lay the foundation for the future issuance of paper money. The so-called expected currency model has too small a scope of application to achieve the effect of paper money at all.

Once paper money could be used to replace local currency, the Austrian Empire would have completely completed its economic assimilation into the region, and in theory could have used paper money to continuously extract profits and materials from the region.

However, compared to these, the most urgent problem that the Austrian Empire needed to solve was still the food problem of 4700 million people. In fact, Europeans only had enough food after the end of World War II.

But the historical reasons are more complicated. After the 20th century, most of the time it was not that there was no food, but that people could not afford it.

The problem facing the Austrian Empire now is quite simple: insufficient productivity. Once a famine or war occurs, food production will decrease and people will starve to death.

Even if Franz established a food security system, some people would still die after dawn.

Because the wartime system cannot last forever, when the market is liberalized, food prices will rise and some people will be unable to afford food.

Franz would hold celebrations and charity events for various reasons to help these people overcome difficulties. In addition to material assistance, the Austrian Imperial Royal Factories, Manors, and Overseas Development Companies never stopped recruiting.

But human resources are always limited and some people still cannot escape the fate of being eliminated. At this time, the national strength of the Austrian Empire was not yet enough to feed "anyone".

There was no famine in the two years from 1848 to 1849. On the one hand, Franz had already made good preparations for food reserves, and on the other hand, he took food from the colonies in a predatory manner.

During these two years, famine occurred in all the Austrian Empire's colonies in west and southwestern Africa.

In order to quickly recoup the investment, the Austrian Empire's colonies mainly planted cash crops, but where did the food come from?

The answer is to grab.

Previously, due to its unstable foothold, the Austrian Empire adopted a cooperative approach in its African colonies, exchanging food, goods and weapons for the labor of local primitive kingdoms.

In fact, it was much easier for the local primitive kingdom to implement indirect management than for the Austrian Empire to directly domesticate and manage black slaves.

Because it saves a lot of trouble, the efficiency is higher than direct management. The so-called trouble is the cost of capturing, domesticating, managing and controlling black slaves, and on the other hand, it reduces the hostility of local tribes.

In addition, the lack of direct management also avoids excessive emotional investment. On the contrary, parallel management will aggravate the discrimination of ordinary colonists against black tribes.

Of course, if those black slaves and overseers showed abilities, wisdom and character far superior to those of the Austrian colonists, then Franz would be harmed by this move.

But Franz didn't think that was possible. Of course, just in case, the priests Franz appointed in the colonies were all Pan-Germans, who would not have the slightest liking for black people.

Moreover, this was an open strategy. Since it adopted indirect control, it avoided direct conflict with the local indigenous people.

The conflict that should have been between the colonists and the indigenous people was shifted to the conflict between the indigenous people and the indigenous ruling class. Although those tribal leaders were bad, they were not stupid.

They also knew that they could not force their own people too much, but they did not want to or could not give up the opportunity to cooperate with the Austrian Empire in exchange for supplies.

So the tribal leaders chose the most primitive and effective method - slave hunting. The tribes with more people attacked the tribes with fewer people, and the tribes with fewer people attacked the larger tribes by surprise attacks and uniting with other small tribes.

All tribes began to become more dependent, either actively or passively, on the colonists of the Austrian Empire, who could provide powerful weapons and overwhelming force.

Various conspiracies and inhumane massacres continued to take place. After continuous devouring and fusion, only a few of the most despicable and powerful tribes were left.

Originally, this game should have lasted for more than ten years, or even decades, but the coming of war changed everything.

To be honest, the pressure of war in 1848 was greater than Franz had imagined. He initially thought that the food he had stockpiled would be enough for ten years.

However, the reality was that a large number of refugees poured into the Austrian Empire during the war, greatly increasing the food gap.

In addition, limiting food prices cannot completely prevent illegal traders from speculating and profiteering. A large amount of food is hoarded by a small number of people or even transferred abroad.

False reporting of reserves and embezzlement were common. Many reserve bases did not purchase enough grain in previous good years, but the incorrect intelligence led Franz to misjudge.

Later, with the outbreak of war, food prices skyrocketed, and some officials became obsessed with evil ideas. Not to mention taking the opportunity to extort money, some areas even raised private soldiers, and even worse, some secretly provided aid to the enemy through secret channels.

Of the nineteen directors of the arks after the war, fifteen were executed, one was exiled, and only three were left with a clean record.

(The secret granary that Franz prepared for wartime was also called the Ark. People who could become the supervisor of the Ark generally had strong personal abilities and family backgrounds.)
Under the combined influence of various forces, Franz had to plunder colonies to make up for the far higher-than-expected losses.

In fact, accelerating the progress of colonization is also within Franz's plan, but if possible, he hopes to carry out it in a safer environment.

Because the black slaves were so difficult to use. They could not even do simple tasks like clearing rocks, leveling the land, and plowing the land. Their performance was not just passable, but they were full of complaints.

Almost every colonial official would write letters to complain that the black tribes were dishonest, constantly stealing, and even deliberately destroying colonial facilities and attacking lone colonists.

The work they did was a complete mess, and they only started to control themselves after they destroyed several tribes.

However, those tribes would return to their old habits after a year or two. The colonists of the Austrian Empire were not only wary of the black tribes, they even hated them.

When Franz asked the colonial government to plunder those black tribes, not only did no "Virgin Mary" jump out to oppose it, but he even won widespread support. After all, the colonists of the Austrian Empire had suffered from the blacks for a long time.

The appearance of the "Virgin Mary" also requires an emotional basis, but at this time most of the colonists in the Austrian Empire had no direct contact with black people. What they saw was a group of barbaric, violent, cruel, bloodthirsty, morally corrupt, and despicable humanoid creatures.

What’s even more hateful is that we have to take responsibility for all the problems left over from work by these guys, and even have to share our limited supplies with them.

Except for a very small number of people, most of the "saints" are so arrogant that they can create their own personalities as they please because the things have not happened to them and they have not suffered any losses. However, if their interests are affected, they will change their attitude faster than turning the pages of a book.

So the group of people who were supposed to be "saints" became the vanguard at this time.