Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After the rebellion was suppressed in Vienna, Franz immediately ordered that the military take control of the whole city. Then, he was busy searching the rebels’ houses and confiscating their property, which took him a long time because of the wide range of people involved.
In order to appease the public, Franz gave out relief food right away. All the money was from the confiscated property, so he did not mind giving it away.
Food, coal, and other necessities were then distributed for free, and as a result, the public, who had just been harassed, finally settled down.
For political purposes, Franz also decisively defined the rebellion and placed the blame on the capitalists.
The media in Vienna was controlled by him, so at that time, all the articles published were “Beware of the capitalists’ conspiracy,” “the role of the international evil backstage manipulators in the Vienna rebellion,” “the capitalists ran away”…
Other headlines were “property confiscation,” “property confiscation,” and “property confiscation,” for at that time the most important work of the Austrian interim government was to conduct property confiscation. As the capitalists and nobles involved in the rebellion were not all in Vienna, this work had a long way to go.
Before Franz had appointed a cabinet, the news of the outbreak of the Lombardy rebellion reached Vienna. It came as another heavy blow to the conservative nobles.
When alarmist talk became a reality, then reform was inevitable, and the voice of reformists in the Austrian government rose again. In order to avoid the collapse of the Empire, conservatives had to accept this reality.
In March 18, 1848, Franz appointed Marquis Felix Schwarzenberg as prime minister;
Carl Ludwig von Brooke as Chancellor of the Exchequer;
Earl Leo von Tus-Haw Stein as Minister of Education;
Archduke Louis as Minister of the Interior;
Count Koloft as Minister of State;
Clemens Metternich as Foreign Minister …
With regard to the political reform of Austria, Franz took conservative measures from the start, as can be seen from this list above.
Political stances were vividly displayed: a prime minister who advocated a strong suppression of the revolution, a finance minister who advocated financial reform, an education minister who advocated education reform, and a conservative Minister of the Interior and Minister of State.
For the sake of checks and balances, Franz even reappointed the infamous former Prime Minister Metternich as the Foreign Minister.
In fact, the main reason was that Metternich’s diplomatic means were strong enough, and that at that time, there was no better choice in Austria.
The first priority, after the new government established, was to deal with the aftermath of the Vienna rebellion.
The process of distributing relief food would definitely not last long, but the capitalists had been deeply involved in the revolution and could not extricate themselves, and some had even run away. Thus, it was impossible to resume production.
At the time, half of the population of the city was unemployed. If there were no relief supplies from the government, Vienna would soon be in chaos.
Franz presided over the cabinet meeting decisively. “At present, the rebellion in Vienna has ended, so the post-war reconstruction work must begin immediately. Nearly 40 thousand prisoners are in urgent need of resettlement. What plans does the cabinet have?”
Considering the situation at this critical moment, all the officials had to perform their duties as soon as they took office, and they’d had no time to familiarize themselves with their jobs.
Prime Minister Felix replied, “I suggest that the wartime economic system be adopted: the government will take over those unowned factories and resume production to protect the employment of the public.
As for specifics of the plan, we can adjust according to the actual situation. We also will rearrange the production line by market demand, to avoid waste!”
As expected, Austria also took a wartime economic system in history and survived the initial difficulties.
The situation this time was better than the history because Franz moved fast enough to seize the capitalists and directly confiscate their factories.
In other words, as time progressed, this country was dominated by the state-owned economic system, and the public would not oppose it, because state-owned enterprises could not unscrupulously exploit them like private enterprises.
“At present, the situation in Austria is very bad. There has been a rebellion in Italy, and Hungary is also stirring, so it is necessary to adopt a wartime economic system.
However, if the government has confiscated so many factories and tries to resume production, labor costs will surely increase!” said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Carl.
There was no doubt that the government would have to maintain its reputation, and the laws it had enacted must be observed. The Labor Protection Act, which had been suspended, could not be ignored.
Franz shook his head and said, “The labor cost will not increase much. It is based on the average wage level of the workers in the Vienna industry before the rebellion. In most industries, we can also adopt a piecework system. More work and more money will stimulate the enthusiasm of workers. As wages increase, the products produced by workers will also increase.
If we turn to the wartime economic system, the waste caused by market competition will no longer exist. As long as our management is not a problem, there should be no so-called loss!”
There was no market competition for the time being. If production was carried out according to the plan, there should be no losses or great cost increases unless something went seriously wrong.
Anyway, the planned economy was only for the short term. It would only take two or three years at most to suppress rebellions in various places as much as possible. The process of corruption of the leadership would take longer than that.
When the Crimean War broke out, Austria took advantage of the war to transfer the pains brought about by economic changes, and they relied on war money to heal their wounds.
Carl’s eyes were lit up by an idea: if they adopted the piecework system, they could neatly avoid the Labor Protection Act.
If the wage of 99% of workers exceeded this standard, the remaining 1% just did not matter.
“Your Highness’s suggestion is very good. In fact, all industries can adopt the piecework system. If any work needs the cooperation of more than one person, they can also group the workers. This can effectively raise the efficiency of production!” Carl said with a smile.
“Hold on a moment there; this suggestion has nothing to do with me. It is what experts have discovered through research. We must prepare very carefully to explain it to the outside world. As long as the workers get more money, presumably there will be no problem with the implementation!” Franz said, stopping Carl.
He didn’t want to be scolded by others in the future. No matter how he beautified it, it was essentially a more advanced method of exploitation. Considering his status, he could very well be scolded.
Thus, it was a better idea to ascribe this idea to the experts. They were all used to taking the blame and would possibly not care about taking a bit more.
If needed, they could rationalize any conclusion. They had drawn plenty more crazy conclusions, and this “piecework system” was really nothing.