Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 489

Chapter 489: Chapter 62, Promoting Pork
 

Agriculture’s share of the economy is too large; with tens of millions of people employed in the entire industry chain, once it fails to withstand shocks, Austria’s economy would suffer a heavy blow.

Despite having colonies to divert some pressure, the homeland remains the core. The time is still far from when we can shift away from primary industry; until the advent of chemical fertilizers, Austria’s agricultural boon will not end.

Faced with reality, Franz could only promote the development of livestock farming earlier than planned, artificially increasing the consumption of grain.

The reason for the early push is mainly due to the fact that people’s income levels have not risen enough, and there is a smaller demand for meat products in the market.

According to the original plan, Franz was prepared to focus on livestock farming after 1875, based on the economic development of European countries.

Those researching the economy are accustomed to looking at the period from 1870 to 1890 as a cycle, mainly because of the second industrial revolution; during this time, the economies of Europe and America grew rapidly, and people’s incomes also saw a significant increase.

As incomes grew, so did the level of consumption. According to data analyzed by economic experts, the golden age for promoting the livestock industry would be five years later.

Constrained by the era, there was no worry of competition from Argentina, Canada, Australia’s beef and mutton; at least the fresh meat market was not concerned.

Without adequate freezing technology, to transport fresh meat to Europe, the animals had to be shipped alive.

Transporting live cattle and sheep from thousands of miles away to the European Continent is not an easy task; any slight mishap at sea could result in heavy losses.

Once these transport costs were accounted for, even if the meat was brought to the European Continent, it would not be cheap. The best alternative was to sell dried beef or cured meat.

Without these powerful competitors in the short term, another agricultural product boon period awaited. However, this boon would only arise during periods of strong market demand.

Starting the development of livestock farming now would present certain difficulties in getting the market off the ground.

In fact, the development of animal husbandry was not Franz’s own idea. The Agriculture Department had made plans well in advance but had not anticipated the Russians’ quick return to the agricultural product export market.

After the Tsarist Government proclaimed default, European countries took retaliatory measures, with the more radical ones directly seizing Russian exports to offset debts, while the more prudent ones imposed a debt tax.

Well, this debt tax was Franz’s innovation; it involved taking a certain percentage of tax from imports from Russia to repay previous debts.

Due to the Russian-Austrian Alliance, Austria only symbolically collected a small amount of this debt tax; other European countries were not as considerate.

How much the percentage was entirely depended on people’s mood, generally not less than thirty percent. Affected by this, over the past two or three years, the Russian Empire’s export trade has shrunk by eighty percent.

The Tsarist Government now offers grain to settle debts, essentially to break these restrictions. Otherwise, even if their grain prices are low, they would have a hard time being competitive in the market.

Identifying problems is easy; solving them is hard. Realizing the Russians’ move, Austria’s Agriculture Department became busy.

The nearly seventy-year-old Minister of Agriculture, Christian, had to withdraw his leave report as well. Unless he resolved this issue, he could forget about enjoying his vacation in peace.

That time is not far off; perhaps starting from the second half of the year, Russian agricultural products will reappear in the international market.

In two or three years’ time, the dominant position Austria had painstakingly established in the agricultural product export market would no longer exist.

The international market is only so large, and as soon as the Russians get their grain from Ukraine and the Moscow area out, they could capture a large market share.

In this era, the main grain-importing countries are just a few: Britannia, the Italian Area, and the German Federation Empire, with Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland also importing food but in not such large quantities.

All in all, the European grain market consists of about thirty million people.

Of course, this refers only to staple foods; the demand for other agricultural and sideline products varies greatly, which makes accurate statistics difficult.

This market is still growing at a rate of two million a year, a result of population growth in various countries. Without improvements in agricultural technology, the lag in food production leads to a shortfall.

Currently, 24.6% of Austria’s agricultural products are destined for export, and this portion is the most impacted by shocks.

Having reviewed the data, Christian sighed. It wasn’t easy being the Minister of Agriculture; achieving success was very hard, while running into problems was all too easy.

With such a large share of exports, they were vulnerable to international market shocks, which was the biggest issue. To turn to domestic sales, the domestic market also couldn’t absorb it all.

The snow continued to fall, and Vienna’s skies seemed to relish being dressed in silver. Hit by the cold wind, Christian, who had just stepped out of the carriage, shuddered.

Without pausing, Christian quickly entered the Imperial Palace and boarded another carriage.

Belvedere Palace covered a large area, and after Franz ascended the throne, abandoned construction projects were resumed, making the palace grounds even larger.

Naturally, the inclusion of a hunting ground was at the strong insistence of Archduke Carl, as Empress Sophie worried about his health and forbade him from hunting outside. To facilitate hunting for his elderly father, Franz naturally agreed.

After all, Vienna was the Habsburg Family’s territory, with the majority of the land belonging to the royal family; there was no land cost, so adding an extra wall wouldn’t cost much.

Franz didn’t much care for staying in the original palace and took the opportunity to add a few more buildings to serve as his everyday living quarters.

This made the palace gates even farther away from the Emperor. For safety reasons, no outside carriages were allowed inside the Imperial Palace. One had to either change carriages or walk. The choice was an easy one, and Christian wasn’t eager to freeze.

…

The telephone was a splendid invention; as soon as Christian entered the Imperial Palace, someone informed Franz.

Considerate of his old minister, Franz had already instructed someone to prepare coffee just to his liking.

Of course, if anyone knew that the palace kept various beverages readily available, refreshed every fifteen minutes, perhaps the effort to win hearts wouldn’t be as effective.

Naturally, even if someone did know, they’d likely play dumb. Having something to drink was good enough; why make a fuss? If everyone spoke the truth, life would become unbearable.

How could Franz possibly remember the personal preferences of his ministers? It was always the subordinates who paid attention to the likes and dislikes of their superiors—whoever heard of an Emperor, stuffed with food, running off to inquire about a minister’s personal tastes?

Preference in tastes? That was something meticulously recorded by someone else. If it was wrong, they’d simply switch to another drink. The relationship between Monarchs and their subjects in Europe was not so complex; little details in everyday life were unimportant; there was no need to worry about accidentally losing one’s head over them.

After drinking a sip of coffee to ward off the chill and resting for more than ten minutes, Christian made his report to Franz.

“Your Majesty, this is the data compiled by the Agriculture Department. Currently, the domestic meat supply and demand are essentially balanced. The best way to increase domestic demand would be to lower the prices.

It’s not that people don’t like to eat meat, it’s just that the current domestic meat prices are somewhat high relative to their incomes.

The international market is even worse. Although the fresh meat market tends toward balance, there’s a slight oversupply of dried beef and preserved meat products, most of which come from the United States of America.

Preliminary estimates suggest an annual increase of six hundred thousand tons of beef, four hundred thousand tons of lamb, four hundred thousand tons of pork, and three hundred and fifty thousand tons of other types of meat products as the market’s maximum capacity.

If the supply exceeds these amounts, it could shock the market, potentially leading to a dramatic fall in prices.”

Collapsing the market was clearly something Franz could not countenance. As the largest agricultural exporter, Austria would face the most losses if the market came under shock.

After some thought, Franz asked, “What if we push this timeline to one or two years later?”

Livestock breeding also requires time, and in this era, feedlots were not popular; animals were fed grass and grain, and the turnaround time was quite long, at least more than a year.

Agricultural Minister Christian pondered the question before responding, “Your Majesty, although the European population is steadily increasing and the breeding industry is also expanding its capacity, if we extend the timeline to two years later, there might be at most a ten percent increase.”

Pacing a few steps around the room, Franz made a decision, “The Agriculture Department will prepare to propagate a breeding plan, aiming at a two-million-ton increase in meat production.

First, we should press down the prices of quality meats and cultivate the market. If the market cannot absorb it, we’ll increase strategic reserves. It’s just a matter of a couple of years; it won’t require a lot of funding.”

Direct grain consumption by cattle and sheep is not high, but growing fodder will inevitably encroach on land normally used for grain cultivation, which in turn will reduce grain production.

Unlike in later times, pork was not very popular in this era, a result of dietary habits that would take a long time to change.

In fact, the average per capita meat consumption in Europe was not too low, perhaps skewed by the wealthy. Taking Austria as an example, the average per capita meat consumption was 82 pounds (about 37 kilograms).

Pausing briefly, Franz added, “We can increase pork production, which is relatively cheaper compared to beef and lamb. The people are more willing to accept it.

If pork production increases, I plan to add 300 grams of pork to the weekly diet of children receiving compulsory education.”

It wasn’t a matter of liking or not liking it—those who could afford to be choosy went to private schools. Compared to private schools, Austria’s compulsory education schools lack facilities, attended mainly by children from the lower classes.

Having meat to eat was good enough; they should know that currently, the school provides meat only once per week. They could forget about beef and lamb unless it was a holiday or Franz’s birthday, then it might make an appearance.

Normally, the only meat offered by schools was fish. There was only one reason for that: it was cheap. With the same money, more meat could be bought; the thrifty Education Department could only provide this kind of low-cost meat.

Promoting pork was a matter of necessity, as beef and lamb were too expensive. They couldn’t just be lowered at will; since pork was cheaper, it was promoted instead.

Previously, the government had already promoted fish meat, but only seawater fish was accepted by the market.

This was an aftermath of industrial development; as industries developed, environmental pollution inevitably followed, leading to mutations in fish and shrimp found in many rivers.

These mutated creatures were nothing good; after incidents of food poisoning, no one dared to eat them. The Vienna Government also passed legislation prohibiting the sale and consumption of mutated fish and shrimp.

This affected the reputation of the entire freshwater fish population, making them undesirable. Unless it was an inland mountain region, almost no one consumed freshwater fish.