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

Chapter 1642 Cuba Today

Don Peoli appeared almost insane; he couldn't accept the fact that Cuba's sugar and tobacco production was reaching new highs, and that port and road infrastructure construction was progressing rapidly.

Seeing his old friend's near-madness, Yero shook his head and began to devour the apple pie. He was out of money; the newspaper he had just bought had cost him the last coin in his pocket.

In fact, Franz had planned from the beginning to replace manual labor with machinery. Ironically, at this time, Cuba's agricultural mechanization rate was higher than that of Cuba at the end of the 19th century.

Franz could only say that slavery was extremely harmful, and that Cuba's labor force was too cheap, coupled with its unique geographical conditions, allowing them to make a profit even without making any changes.

The extensive use of machinery reduced the need for manpower and increased domestic machinery orders. In addition, the scale of industrial production made it cheaper to produce on a larger scale, and the Austrian Empire began to follow a win-win-win model.

However, Franz was not so arrogant as to think that machines were omnipotent, and the trade between the Austrian Empire and the American South was carried out in batches.

This flexible design, to some extent, provided a safety net for Cuban agriculture, while also increasing the cost for the American South to back out halfway.

In fact, Franz was overthinking it. The American South didn't really have the guts to break the deal with the Austrian Empire, and the whole of the United States was actually quite satisfied with the deal.

By this time, Black people and indigenous people had largely disappeared from the island of Cuba, and white people who had participated in the rebellion or were not optimistic about the Austrian Empire had also been excluded.

Franz knew very well what the core of Cuba's economy was: sugar and tobacco. Most of the fertile farmland was not destroyed during the war; what was burned were primarily low-yielding sugarcane fields.

Franz was not afraid that they would burn Cuba down because sugarcane is harvested only once a year, and even if it was burned, as long as it could be planted in time, it would not affect the yield the following year.

As for perennial cash crops like tobacco and coffee, Franz had de la Concha protect them in advance. That's why Cuba's production capacity was able to recover so quickly.

Compared to the extensive and inefficient model of the Spanish in the past, Franz introduced more advanced technology, which brought about tremendous changes in sugar extraction alone.

In the past, Cubans used water-powered sugar presses that could only process five tons of sugarcane per day, yielding a meager sugar output of only 3%. In some areas, animal power or even manual labor was used to extract sugar, which was not only incredibly inefficient but also resulted in an astonishingly low sugar output.

However, the steam-powered sugar presses of the Austrian Empire could process fifty tons of sugarcane a day, with a sugar yield as high as 9%, something that Cubans could not have imagined in the past.

Besides the pressing technology, the farming skills of the Cuban slaves were also terrible. Even with Cuba's uniquely favorable conditions, the yield per acre was only a little over one ton.

(The sugarcane yield in the high-yield, high-quality sugarcane base can reach more than 8 tons per mu by 2025.)
At that time, the average yield of sugarcane worldwide was over 1.5 tons per acre, and in Mexico, the yield could reach over two tons per acre. Under the careful guidance of agricultural experts from the Austrian Empire, most sugarcane fields in Cuba could achieve a yield of around two tons per acre, although fields managed by enslaved people still yielded around one ton per acre.

Sugar presses, harvesters, seeders, steam tractors, steam irrigation pumps—the entire island of Cuba is filled with steam, giving it a low-budget version of steampunk.

Austrian replaced Spanish as the official language, and for most immigrants, Cuba's land was so rich that all the sacrifices were worthwhile.

Franz learned from his previous experience, and this time the main group of white immigrants came from the Austrian Empire itself, with the Irish, Italians, and Spaniards only playing a supplementary role.

This time, management was indeed much easier. Most of the immigrants came from very impoverished areas, on the outskirts of cities, including beggars, vagrants, desperate people burdened with debt, some who came specifically to work long-term, and a considerable number of veterans.

Franz was not a military fanatic, but due to certain special needs, soldiers were indeed one of the most suitable groups for immigration. After all, in Cuba, in addition to developing the economy, maintaining stability was even more important.

In addition, there were some people who volunteered to come to the colonies to try their luck; they were usually experienced farmers, artisans, small merchants, and mercenaries.

Most of them were promised jobs and a new life, so most were quite excited.

Unlike the high-profile and noisy European immigrants, Japanese immigrants were much more low-key and quiet. They were very clear about their place in the world and knew they would be doing the most arduous work in farms, mines, and road construction teams.

However, for most Japanese immigrants, life was still manageable; at least they didn't have to worry about food, and they had uniform clothing and housing.

For many people in the lower classes of Japan, this is a lifelong pursuit, especially for those Eta and non-human beings who wish they could shout "Long live the Bodhisattva!"

At this time, Cuba's main labor force consisted of Japanese immigrants, many of whom had worked in other colonies of the Austrian Empire and were therefore familiar with the work processes and their own niche.

Over the years, some of the Japanese who had abandoned their homes have become citizens of the Austrian Empire, and some have even made a three-level jump to become low-level officials in the empire.

As for the Japanese who had just been sent abroad by the shogunate and various domains, they were naturally handed over to those Japanese who had become citizens of the Austrian Empire for training.

According to the research of Governor-General Akadov Leibsteinsky, having Japanese people manage Japanese people could increase their efficiency by an average of 200%, while reducing their consumption of food and supplies by 30%.

Franz also received Akadov's report, and he did not want anyone to go too far, so he ordered the Cuban government to ensure that the distribution of supplies was carried out properly.

The result was that lower-class Japanese people hated their fellow countrymen even more.
In fact, the Austrian Empire's colonies had long established a specialized promotion system, so the lower-level laborers did not really feel hopeless. They knew very well that they also had the opportunity to climb up, and the foremen who were bullying them were only a few years older than them.

In fact, the most troublesome problem in Cuba has always been yellow fever, a disease that is extremely deadly and highly contagious.

This would have been a major problem for all previous Cuban rulers, but for Franz it was no problem at all.

The root cause of yellow fever is mosquitoes. Eliminating puddles and using mosquito nets can reduce infection by 90%.

In addition, the Austrian imperial government would regularly distribute sachets containing pyrethrum to everyone. Although the effect of this stuff was limited, it was better than nothing.

As for the peninsula people who originally lived in Cuba, they have gradually become marginalized, and Franz will not deliberately ban their culture.

However, it would be difficult for them to regain their former influence, as Cuba had by then become Austrianized. They had two choices: stay and be assimilated by Austria, or leave to pursue their own culture (return to Spain).