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

Chapter 1921 Barrier
"Aren't you going to do anything about it? They're taking away your cake and sticking with it!"

Miss Arnstein asked with some curiosity.

"It's already being done."

Franz's response was completely calm.

In fact, over the years Franz had built a very deep moat for the Austrian Empire, which the Prussians could not simply break through by gritting their teeth and making a decision.

If Prussia hadn't had so many talented people in that era, and if Franz hadn't been so overly involved in the decision of whether those scientists would stay or leave, it would have been a different story.

Franz was fully confident that he could lock down the technology of the entire Central European region, at least ensuring that all the important inventions and discoveries that should have occurred would be delayed.

However, that would be a significant loss for Austria, and even the entire German region.

Even with a constellation of brilliant scientists in Germany at this time, the gap between the two sides was widening at a visible rate.

Journals like Nature and Science were not published for nothing; the Austrian Empire had indeed attracted a lot of talent over the years and was willing to spend money on them.

The number of members in the Vienna Royal Science Society increased more than tenfold, and when peripheral members were included, more than half of the scientists in the entire German region were working in the Austrian Empire.

Moreover, compared to the spontaneous and self-funded research that was common in the 19th century, the Austrian Empire's state-run system was clearly more effective. Even visionary large corporations from other countries could not compete with the entire empire and the Austrian royal family.

At the same time, the supporting systems of the Austrian Empire were also more complete, as evidenced by the number of invention applications alone.

英国在1851年万国工业博览会召开之前，每年申请的专利数量只有几百，其中1848年388项、1849年390项、1850年520项、1851年455项。

Meanwhile, the Austrian Empire applied for over 10,000 patents annually during the same period. Even after 1851, when Britain saw a surge in inventions stimulated by the Great Exhibition and the New Patent Act, the Austrian Empire still maintained a nearly five-fold advantage in the number of patents.

As education becomes more widespread, this gap will not narrow; on the contrary, it will widen.

Besides the reward system and high salaries, Franz could also guide inventors, a superpower he possessed as a time traveler, a capability that no genius or analyst at the time could match.

Of course, Franz would also create demand, for example, his initial inventions were mainly for military purposes.

First and foremost, stability is paramount. Unless there's absolutely no other option, a nation will pursue its military industry even at the cost of debt. Only with a stable source of orders can people fully commit to their work.

Secondly, the military is more willing to pay for powerful and efficient military equipment.

Despite the earlier mention of some in the Austrian Imperial Army who felt that equipping soldiers with too many bullets was a complete waste, and some even making the outrageous suggestion to reinstate the use of melee weapons, this is not a valid argument.

But these people are often generals who have never been on the battlefield and are in no way likely to be.

In reality, the vast majority of people in the Austrian Imperial Army preferred to strengthen the army's combat capabilities and equip it with the best equipment.

Historically, the Austrian Empire was primarily short of money, which is why it was so frugal. However, once it had money, the Austrian army upgraded its equipment more frequently than any other country.

Franz even had to spend his days figuring out how to dispose of the army's obsolete waste.
Moreover, military technology will drive the standardization and generalization of technology. Don't underestimate these measures; in fact, they have a very important value for the future development of science and technology.

In fact, many technologies in history have been transferred from military to civilian use, especially during World War I and World War II, which were periods of great technological breakthroughs for mankind.

Demand is important, but Franz can also alleviate the concerns of inventors and scientists.

In fact, at that time, the Austrian Imperial Royal Science Society had the world's best ability to monetize technology, a feat that countless inventors could only dream of.

Under Franz's leadership, the Austrian Empire even had a dedicated department to study how to transform theories and technologies into profitable products.

Those technical experts may be masters in their own fields, but they may be novices in the business world. They might get ripped off and end up paying for it, or after several setbacks, they might become nothing more than profit-driven businessmen.

However, these things were not a problem for Franz at all; he came up with a more secure method.

That is, the state acquires patents and inventions, and then shares the profits with the inventors through a profit-sharing system. This not only solves the commercialization problem, but also the more difficult problem of protecting intellectual property rights.

After all, in the 19th century, it was extremely difficult for ordinary people to protect their rights. Many people simply couldn't afford to file a lawsuit; they had neither the time nor the resources.

But the Austrian Empire was different. Whether it wanted to file a lawsuit or protect its rights, it could easily handle the situation. It even had the ability to enforce the law across borders and collect debts by force.

This is one of the key reasons why the Austrian Empire was able to maintain its technological advantage, after all, the Austrian Empire truly had the power to protect its rights.

This approach not only slows down the rate at which our technology spreads abroad, but also accelerates the rate at which it spreads domestically.

Since the government can grant licenses to domestic companies at low prices after buying out the rights, it can avoid unnecessary losses caused by disorderly competition among domestic companies.

Don't think this is just a trivial matter; in fact, this kind of waste is extremely excessive.

Large, early adopters will spare no effort to prevent technology leaks, block newcomers from entering the market, and may even use the monopoly power afforded by patent law to suppress technological progress.

In reality, insufficient rewards for inventors can stifle innovation, but granting them monopolistic power can also stifle innovation.

This is seen as an unsolvable paradox by many modern countries; the so-called "avoiding offending either side" often results in pleasing neither side.

However, the Austrian Empire was not a modern state, and Franz was able to balance both ends without any backlash.

The costs of redundant research and development and detours in technology simply did not exist in the Austrian Empire, so money could always be invested where it was needed.

Furthermore, Franz's approach can also improve economies of scale. In the most dogmatic terms, "many technologies are not perfect when they are invented and need to be constantly refined in practice."

In fact, the more a technology is used, the richer the data becomes, the more experience the practitioners have, and the faster the improvement can be achieved, thus producing cheaper and higher-quality products.

Standardized processes and uniformity will gradually take shape. If we rely solely on the market economy, even with the technology and management level of two hundred years from now, it would typically take more than ten or even several decades to establish a preliminary order.

However, the Austrian Empire at this time was completely different; it possessed its own system and standards. It also had exceptional error correction and feedback mechanisms. This was a superpower that no large company in later generations could even dream of.

Managing the technology by the Austrian Imperial government also minimized the risk of idle technology, because if it were handed over to a single person or company, its production capacity would be limited and it might not be able to realize its full value.

Moreover, the company's primary goal is to make a profit. Even if it has sufficient production capacity, it will deliberately maintain its scarcity to drive up prices in order to make a profit.

As long as profits can be made, capital tends to be conservative and doesn't have much incentive to reform.

Don't think of market economy and free competition as something so wonderful. In fact, from a historical perspective, large capital always tends to be monopolistic and conservative.

Those who have already won usually don't think about winning again, but rather how to avoid losing. The instinct of those who have already benefited is never to reform, but to maintain the status quo.

But Franz was different. He didn't have those worries, and he knew exactly where the road lay. What others saw as a point where victory seemed impossible, he saw as merely a starting point.

Those victories were far too insignificant compared to Franz's goal; he didn't want a relative advantage, but an absolute victory.

This is why Austrian technology developed at a speed unimaginable to people of the time, and why Austrian economic data was considered to be falsified, because Franz's actions had exceeded their understanding.

Even an economist like Fanny von Arnstein, who was at the heart of the Austrian Empire, would have found it difficult to comprehend the speed of the Austrian Empire's economic development with her current knowledge.

However, some things are visible to the naked eye; in the Austrian Empire, the only means of transportation were horse-drawn carriages, wooden boats, or walking.

When she was young, she went out with her grandfather. Every trip was an adventure. There was a real possibility of dying on the road, and it was very expensive. There was also a possibility of being robbed or even murdered.

But now there are railways, trains, steamships, and even tuk-tuks (half-tracked vehicles).

Bicycles became a standard feature in every household, and even some nobles, who didn't ride them, would buy one to display their status in their yard.

Miss Arnstein thought the way she rode a bicycle was rather unseemly, but not everyone has the right to consider things like elegance. Most people's first consideration is whether it is convenient and inexpensive.

Bicycles were once a plaything of the aristocracy, and even riding a bicycle was considered a rather ambiguous activity among the ladies of high society.

But now, almost every household in the Austrian Empire, whether in cities or in the countryside, has such a means of transportation.

People are no longer as resistant to road repairs as they used to be, and no one will stand up and say that road repairs are a waste of land.

The reason why roads were called "roads" in the past was that often only horse-drawn carriages needed roads, and most people didn't care about whether they were roads or not.

But things are different now. People all have cars, and the importance of roads has been recognized by everyone.

Then the most obvious thing is the city's lighting system. Fanny von Arnstein, like most women, is afraid of the dark. The city used to be shrouded in darkness at night, but now it is brightly lit, and some people have even started to do business at night.

The changes at the dinner table were also obvious. Although she came from an aristocratic family, her life, which she once considered luxurious, was now extremely ordinary.

Many foods that were rare in the past were commonplace in the Austrian Empire at this time.

Once a rare treat even for the nobility, sweetness has now become a popular choice, earning Vienna the title of the sweet capital.

In the Austrian Empire, both the poor and the rich used sugar as a condiment. The main reason for this change was the drop in sugar prices, which had once been unaffordable for most people but were now accessible to ordinary households.

Similarly, there's beer and meat. Regardless of whether people like fish balls or not, at least they have something to eat now. A decade or so ago, only a few people could eat this kind of food at Christmas.

Fanny von Arnstein traveled extensively with her grandfather, a renowned economist, from a young age, visiting many major cities such as London, Paris, and Rotterdam.

Therefore, she didn't have much of a bias towards foreign countries; on the contrary, she had a deeper understanding of the strength of the Austrian Empire.

Her grandfather and a group of prominent economists from the German region once thought Franz's idea of ​​ensuring every Austrian had shoes was utterly absurd.

They weren't making baseless accusations. Although almost everyone in Vienna had shoes on during the day, not everyone in Vienna actually had shoes.

Not to mention those in rural areas, where many people have never bought a pair of shoes in their entire lives, and even if they have a special need, they will just wrap them up with leaves, grass, or rotten leather.

However, at this moment, it seemed that this goal was about to be achieved, and the Austrian Empire's shoe industry had become the world's number one.

In this respect, the Prussians could not surpass them no matter how hard they tried, because the Austrian Empire mainly sold cheap rubber shoes, while at that time, more than 90% of the world's rubber was in Franz's hands.

Feelings may be false, data may be false, but the fiscal revenue of the Austrian Empire cannot be lied about.

The Austrian Empire's fiscal revenue was once only one-seventh of that of France, but now it is almost twice that of France.

At this time, the Austrian Empire's annual fiscal revenue alone amounted to 1.3 billion florins, not to mention the large amount of revenue that was not included in formal taxation, as well as the royal assets.

Fanny von Arnstein was fully aware of this, which is why she found it even more incomprehensible why Franz did not retaliate.

In fact, in her eyes, Franz could defeat the Prussians or any competitor, whether by peaceful and conventional means or by less conventional means.

However, Franz knew that the Prussians' efforts at this time were more damaging to themselves than to the Austrian Empire. The losses suffered by the Austrian Empire were merely superficial, while the Prussians were fighting desperately.

Without bridging the technological gap, all their efforts will be in vain.

If hard work alone could give you an advantage, then cattle and horses should be the ones ruling the world, since they are the ones who work the hardest.

In fact, it was thanks to the efforts of the German states that more Germans were able to leave their homes and come to the land of the Austrian Empire.

Without their constant support and contrast, it wouldn't have been easy for Franz to bring in so many German immigrants.

Furthermore, the Prussian government felt it was targeting the Austrian Empire, but much information in the businesses run by the Austrian government and the royal family was transparent to the workers, who knew who was taking their business and who was putting pressure on them.