Removing officials is easy; it only takes a single decree. The trouble lies in what to do afterward. As it turns out, the farm projects led by bureaucrats have already failed. To solve the problem, a new group of officials would need to be installed, ones who are loyal, honest, highly capable, uninterested in personal gain, and still willing to endure a hard life in the colonies. Such officials might exist, but they are extremely rare. Wherever they are found, they are considered invaluable, and there are certainly none to spare for the colonies. Prime Minister Terence Bourquin proposed, “Your Majesty, removing them now serves no real purpose. What matters most at this moment is ensuring these projects are properly carried out. I suggest giving them a grace period and ordering them to complete their tasks within a set deadline, punishing only those who fail to deliver.” A grace period is necessary. In the short term, the French government simply cannot find enough replacement officials. The most critical issue is that even if these people are removed, the money will not return. No bureaucrat would be foolish enough to keep all his assets under his own name. Moreover, embezzlement was not done by just one or two individuals, it involved people at all levels, so there is no way to fully investigate it. After calming down, Napoleon IV asked, “If we give them a grace period, will they actually be able to complete the tasks?” At this point, everyone knew that the funds allocated by the government for the projects had been embezzled by those below. The main officials in charge might have taken the largest share, but they were not the only ones involved. The biggest problem in completing the original plans was money. The government would not allocate new funds, so it would be up to those responsible to find a way to cover the shortfall themselves. Napoleon IV did not believe these bureaucrats would be noble enough to pay out of their own pockets. Even if they were willing to make sacrifices to keep their positions, they would still need to have enough resources to fill the gap. One could hardly expect these people to recover the money from those with whom they had originally shared it. Prime Minister Terence Bourquin explained, “Completing one hundred percent is naturally impossible, but achieving about half is still within reach. The government can put pressure on them and impose harsh penalties on officials who fail to produce results.” This was a typical bureaucratic solution and naturally did not satisfy Napoleon IV. However, there was no alternative; it was already the best option available. If they wanted to clean out these bureaucrats, it would have to be done gradually. If they pushed too hard, it could lead to disastrous consequences. … The internal power struggle within the French government was not something to be proud of, and those in the know tacitly chose to handle it quietly. If it were not for information coming from the intelligence services, Franz would not have even known that France had nearly undergone another regime change. However, by that time it was already too late and the best moment to intervene had passed. Otherwise, with some maneuvering to have Napoleon IV detained in Algeria, the once proud French Empire would have truly fallen into decline. Detaining the emperor would have been easy, but controlling the French government would have been difficult. The French government would not have stood idly by, and not everyone was capable of launching a coup. Given the nature of the bureaucrats, it was more likely they would have directly supported the crown prince’s succession. After all, a young ruler was much easier to control. Napoleon IV’s son was still an infant and would have been the ideal candidate. However, a child ruler could not hold the situation together. The Orléans and Bourbon factions within France would not have accepted it. Cornered colonial bureaucrats would have had no choice but to double down and push forward recklessly. If they then brought in the Italians to stir things up, all the pieces would have been on the board. There was no way around it. This was the aftermath of the erosion of royal authority. The Paris Revolution had shaken the foundation of Napoleon IV’s rule, and the burning of the Palace of Versailles had been a grave humiliation for him. Seeing a single leaf fall and knowing autumn is coming, if the French colonial system had already decayed, then what was the current state of the Austrian colonial system? No one could answer this question. Perhaps in Austrian Africa, where the government maintained strict control during the localization process, the situation might be slightly better. As for distant Southeast Asia and the Americas, it would all depend on the integrity of the bureaucrats. In any case, Franz did not hold much hope. Setting aside the confidential documents in his hand, Franz let out a sigh. Even if there were problems, they were not something to be dealt with now. That was the final exam he had prepared for his sons. If he provided the answers ahead of time, what purpose would it serve? After collecting his thoughts, Franz’s attention returned to domestic affairs. The difficulties faced by France’s large-scale agricultural development project were also being experienced in Austria. It was just that instead of farms, it involved confiscated enterprises and factories. Since too many were seized at once, they could not be liquidated quickly, so the government had to manage them temporarily. Needless to say, losses were inevitable. Enterprises and factories could be directly taken over, but customer orders and business networks could not be inherited. The interim management teams appointed by the government mainly served to reassure people and ensure smooth production. As for sales, they were still in an exploratory phase, and naturally, the results were mediocre. Unless an individual enterprise had its own sales network to maintain operations and ensure profitability, most enterprises had stockpiled large quantities of goods and were either already running at a loss or teetering on the brink of it. In the Vienna Palace, Franz asked, “How far along are we in liquidating the assets?” If operating them directly was not profitable, then they could only be sold off. From the moment the verdicts took effect, the Austrian government had been working on the matter. Chancellor Karl answered calmly, “The financial and bond-related assets have all been sold off. Most of the larger industrial and mining enterprises have also been sold. To avoid impacting the domestic market, we plan to temporarily hold on to land, houses, and other real estate, and later decide whether to sell based on actual conditions. The most troublesome issue now is the small factories. These businesses are as numerous as the stars in the sky, and their operations rely entirely on the owners’ personal networks, making it very difficult to find suitable buyers. In addition, we have also discovered some overseas assets of the individuals involved. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently communicating with the relevant countries about this matter.” Although the answer sounded understated, behind it lay much helplessness. Many of these were high-quality assets on the surface, but because the enterprises were operating at a loss, they had to be sold at a loss as well. The main issue with the small industrial and mining enterprises was not just profitability, but also that their internal management was extremely chaotic, with many of their legal documents being invalid or even entirely underground illegal factories. For the government, these were junk assets. Keeping them would only increase expenses and provide no value, so they had to be dealt with. Franz nodded, “Sell off what can be sold, and for those we really can’t find buyers for, just liquidate them through bankruptcy. The French situation has sounded an alarm for us. If we blindly launch projects without the capability to operate them, we will only be nurturing a bunch of parasites.” “Yes, Your Majesty!” Chancellor Karl replied. After a brief pause, Franz continued, “The French agricultural development plan has temporarily failed. How far along is the British food self-sufficiency plan?” He could not afford to be indifferent. Austria was still the world’s leading exporter of agricultural products, so potential competitors had to be watched closely. If possible, Franz did not mind sabotaging the British and French plans to protect Austria’s pricing power in the international agricultural export market. However, that was impossible. The threshold for food production was too low and its importance too high. The more Austria tried to disrupt it, the more determined Britain and France would be to push their initiatives forward. Minister of Agriculture Holz answered, “The British plan is different from the French one. They are using government subsidies to support farm owners and are encouraging private cultivation through economic incentives. However, this policy has recently run into trouble. The British agricultural associations have protested to the government, demanding equal treatment and the same subsidies for domestic farmers. If the British government chooses to compromise, it will mean a reduction of 7.8 million pounds in government revenue and an increase of 12 million pounds in expenditure. With both the decrease and the increase combined, nearly 20 million pounds will be gone, which already exceeds the British government’s financial capacity. Nevertheless, the British agricultural associations are very powerful. Based on the current situation, it seems the British government won’t be able to hold out much longer. Either they abolish the subsidy plan or lower the subsidy amount and extend it to include domestic farm owners as well.” This was a dilemma. If the subsidy plan was abolished, the food self-sufficiency plan would fail. If the standards were unified and subsidies were given across the board, the government’s finances could not bear the strain. After all, the British government’s direct financial revenue was only about 80 million pounds, and this would cut nearly a quarter of it at once. Franz shook his head. “You are too optimistic. The British government is not foolish. What looks like a dilemma actually has room for flexibility. For example, they could modify the subsidy plan to only provide reclamation subsidies for newly cultivated farms for a certain number of years. Government expenditure would immediately decrease. This cost could also be offset by agricultural transaction taxes, processing taxes, and other means, so there would only be losses in the first one or two years. Achieving a balanced budget later would still be realistic.” These tactics were ones that countries in later eras often used. An agricultural subsidy not only stimulated enthusiasm for food production but also promoted the development of the domestic agricultural processing sector and increased employment. It was practically killing two birds with one stone. Overall, the British policy of food production subsidies was much more reliable than the French government directly running farms. Of course, that did not mean the French government was foolish. France was a major grain producer, and its agricultural associations were far more powerful than Britain’s. If the French government only issued subsidies for food production in colonial farms, French farmers would surely revolt. If they gave subsidies across the board, the government’s finances would collapse. The peasant class was the largest base of support for the Bonaparte dynasty. Napoleon IV naturally would not do something as foolish as digging his own grave. Under these circumstances, state-owned farms became the French government’s best option and also its only option. *** https://postimg.cc/gallery/PwXsBkC (Maps of the current territories of the countries in this novel made by ScH)
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