Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At the Bolton Manor in Vienna, more than a dozen well-dressed big shots were gathering. Although they had tried their best to control it, they still couldn’t conceal the temperament of the nouveau riche.
A well-dressed middle-aged man hesitated and asked, “Mr. Owen, will these bumpkins work? Even if we get them weapons, surely such a mob can’t come to anything?”
The atmosphere in the room was a little dull. The graceful and luxurious man sitting right in the middle stood up, smiled, and said slowly, “Mr. Lof, of course we can’t rely on them alone! However, we are not the only ones in Austria that want revolution at this time!
I believe everyone has already felt how much damage the economic crisis has done to Austria.
It can be said that in Austria eighty percent of capitalists suffered great losses, and hundreds of thousands of people were unemployed.
Since the Vienna government is not doing anything about this situation, there is no other choice besides revolution if we want to survive.”
That was the key to the problem; however, until now, when most of the capitalists had been cornered, they had not realized it.
Nowadays, many capitalists in Austria had hoarded a large number of goods. If they could not sell them all in a short time, their capital chain would break up.
The question now was, who would buy the goods?
Civilians certainly could not afford them, and at this time in Austria, there were too few people with purchasing power.
Bankers were never easy to deal with; like vampires in the senior stage of the capitalist class, they were always ruthless and greedy.
If the capitalists did not want to be finished, upturning the present order and seizing the strength of the nobles was the only choice to survive the crisis.
There was also a large number of unemployed workers who were facing the same problem; maybe they did not want to rebel, but they needed food.
If they were hungry, they would lose their senses; in that condition, as long as they were encouraged by the capitalists, a revolution could break out in minutes.
Compared with history, the social contradictions in Austria had changed during this period: it was not the revolution initiated by people who had failed to reform the government, but the revolution forced by reality.
An old man, about 50 or 60 years old, shook his head and said, “Mr. Owen, assuming we use these bumpkins to revolt, what if they want to establish a proletarian government and revolutionize us together with the government?”
This was also a problem that all capitalists were worried about: in this era, the idea of the proletariat had begun to sprout, and once the proletariat established a government, they’d all be finished.
Owen smiled and said, “This problem is very simple, and our French counterparts have helped us solve it: after the success of the revolution, as long as we seize power right away, there will be nothing to worry about.
At present, there are nearly 120 thousand workers in Vienna, who are under our careful control, and the guild organization has been divided into hundreds of parts, large or small, according to industries and factories.
As long as they cannot be unified, then the new government must be led by us. None of us believe anyone among the workers can organize them together.”
Even if they wanted to unite, in an era of underdeveloped communications, it would be difficult to so much as get to know members of a different labor union organization.
Most of these labor union organizations were spontaneous and did not have a mandatory binding on their members. Also, it was unknown how many capitalist informers were in them.
Before the October Revolution in Russia, the combat effectiveness of labor union organizations was very limited, and a large segment was secretly controlled by capitalists.
If anyone wanted to organize all the workers, they wouldn’t be able to do it overnight. As long as the capitalists established the government and controlled the power of the country, forestalling the working class, the result would be certain.
This point of view could be proven by the French February revolution: after the victory, the capitalists seized power, and instead of making trouble for the former government right away, they suppressed the workers who participated in the revolution.
In the eyes of capitalists, moral integrity was nothing.
…
Late at night, the Vienna government was brightly lit, and Prime Minister Metternich was worrying about the current situation. At least one interest group would have to make sacrifices.
Whether to put the capitalists under his knife, or the nobles, or the civilians, it was a difficult choice.
Prime Minister Metternich had dominated the Austrian political scene for more than 20 years, so he was inevitably bound by the rules. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have this headache.
When the Paris Revolution broke out, various undercurrents waved in Austria. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Metternich’s perspective was ten years out of date, and he believed that conservative Austria was different from open France.
Though he’d raised the alert in the Italian region and the Galicia region, he did not think that Vienna would be in danger. In his view, even if the revolution was to break out, it would break out in other places, such as Hungary.
“Prime Minister, based on the current situation, the opposition will not make concessions this time. I am afraid that they will plan another, even bigger strike!” Archduke Louis said with a pale face.
If the only condition was to let Prime Minister Metternich go, he would raise his hand in favor. However, it was nonsense to ask the Regent Committee to get out along with the Prime Minister and transfer power to the parliament after a constitutional reform.
No matter how uncomfortable it was, Archduke Louis had to stand with Metternich, because their political lives were bound together.
Prime Minister Metternich sighed and then said slowly, “Yes, they will not give up unless we fully accept their conditions. I’m afraid the enemies are uniting now, and tomorrow we will meet an even bigger strike! But if we move faster than them, arrest the leader of this strike, order the garrison to enter the city, block all intersections, and prevent them from getting together, we might be able to stop the strike.”
He was already old, without the courage of youth; otherwise, he would not be hesitating and would have already ordered the arrest of protesters.
“Then let’s capture protesters first! If we allow them to get away with this, I am afraid that we will not be able to control the situation afterward!” Archduke Louis said without hesitation.
The order would have to be given by the Prime Minister, who would bear the risk, and he did not need to be responsible for it.
Metternich said with a wry smile, “This is just a temporary solution, and if the domestic economy cannot improve, this kind of thing will continue to happen.
Let’s abolish serfdom. Right now, we need to create a market; even if it is only on paper. We must also restore confidence in the market!”
Indeed, the announcement of the abolition of serfdom at this time could restore the confidence of many people. After all, it could increase purchasing power by more than 20 million people all at once, even though their purchasing power was very weak.