Chapter 251: convince

After successfully opening the Guinean colony, the pace of Austrian colonization did not stop, and it turned its attention to the Congo region.
Anyway, this year, there is no land everywhere, and whoever takes it will belong to whom Franz naturally will not be polite.
By October 1854, Austria had successively opened 13 colonial strongholds on the African continent, sending more than 40,000 immigrants to the colonies.
...
Franz asked puzzled: "Prime Minister, why stop sending immigrants to the colony?"
You know, according to Austria's original plan, but all refugees had to be transported through, and now this is less than one-tenth completed.
Prime Minister Felix explained: "Your Majesty, the plague in the Balkans has spread. If immigration is urgently needed, I am afraid it will bring the plague to the colonies.
Although we have tried to recruit doctors, the colonial medical facilities are still not optimistic, and once the plague spreads, the consequences will be unimaginable. "
Franz shook his head and said, "Prime Minister, you worry too much. There are only a few people in the colony, and even if a plague erupts, it is very easy to spread and isolate.
Moreover, winter is about to come, and the plague should end, even if it is brought to the African continent, the situation will not be too serious.
From the information we gathered, the death rate of Russian soldiers after the plague was only seven or eight points, which is not as high as the natural death rate of African colonies.
The war in the Balkans is coming to an end. By then, most of these refugees will choose to return home. In the future, it will be difficult for us to want to emigrate. "
This is not an exaggeration. The mortality rate of immigrants to the African continent in this era is so abnormal that it usually dies a lot on the road.
Is it low to leave refugees in the Balkans? the answer is negative!
In fact, they will only have a higher mortality rate if they stay in the Balkans.
Without sufficient benefits, the Austrian government cannot spend a great deal of relief to the refugees, and the Ottoman Empire is even less likely to rescue the refugees. Can we still expect the French to be the Virgin?
In this era, everyone is working hard for their own food. Relieving millions of refugees in the Balkans will consume a lot of financial and material resources. Who does not have enough interests?
Without adequate relief, these refugees will become rogues, and then go to more scourges and turn more people into refugees.
Before the twentieth century, human productivity was limited, and there were only two ways to deal with the refugee wave: relief or killing.
Most of the time, it was solved by killing, and the feudal dynasty could not provide relief at all. There is no right or wrong of good and evil, everyone is for survival. If there is not enough food, then we can only feed on the weak.
The African colonial movement in Austria was very cautious, sending about 5,000 to 8,000 migrants at a time, and then scattered across a dozen settlements. It's not that we don't want more, but that food restricts the number of migrants.
If it is just to send people over, then organizing one hundred and eighty cargo ships at a time can easily send away tens of thousands of people, then logistics becomes a big problem.
The development of the African continent is limited, and local indigenous tribes are too lazy to plant land and rely entirely on natural resources to survive. The first settlers to Africa also survived on local natural resources.
Obviously, this is only suitable for the colonial activities of a few people. There were thousands of people in a colonial stronghold. It was not that Franz had no population. Most of them were still worried about accidents. The logistics of the colonial stronghold was cut off.
When the number is small, they can also take risks and get enough food from the local area to survive. Once the population is too large, it will not work.
The Prime Minister Felix went on to explain: "Your Majesty, our immigration speed is already very fast. As far as the number of immigrants is concerned, not even the British, but even the British, have emigrated to the African continent.
There is not enough output to support the migrants, and there is not enough returns in the short term. If precious mineral resources cannot be found, these areas will bring heavy pressure on finances in the future. "
If you don't know the local resources, Franz will naturally worry about this problem, but this reason obviously cannot be used.
It is even more impossible to go it alone. Without the cooperation of high-level government, it will eventually become a colony of the emperor alone. The final result is obviously tragic.
Franz said calmly: "Then, we have to find a solution to this problem. Our colonial strongholds are all in the coastal areas. Send them a batch of fishing boats to teach immigrants to fish.
With so much fertile land around, just planting a little bit is enough to feed themselves. As long as the initial period has passed, the food problem can be gradually solved.
The colonies do not support lazy people. If they do n’t want to do anything, they can organize as cannon fodder, whether they are sent to fight local indigenous tribes or to explore the interior.
With the food problem resolved, the pressure on the back is not great. After the colony has stabilized, we can explore the local mines. As long as one or two strongholds have harvested, we can recover the cost.
These colonial strongholds can also provide logistical supplies to overseas merchant ships and earn some expenses to subsidize administrative expenses.
If you ca n’t find minerals, go logging. I do n’t think there are even local timber resources. Whether it ’s growing food, cash crops, or raising livestock in the plains, it ’s still possible to keep the colony running. "
This is not that Franz is bragging. Farming and animal husbandry cannot make a family rich, but self-sufficiency is still possible.
This industrialized operation will not make much money, but it will definitely not lose money. One of the main reasons for the loss of colonies in history is that there were not enough immigrants.
The number of immigrants is insufficient to effectively develop the local natural resources, the development of basic industries cannot be achieved, and the colonial government cannot obtain sufficient taxes, and the loss is normal.
Prime Minister Felix reminded: "Your Majesty, these all require a lot of investment. Now we have invested millions of dongs in the colonial cause. To achieve the balance of payments in these areas, this investment will exceed tens of millions of dongs."
Franz replied with a smile: "Of course, I know exactly what this is doing. With the investment of tens of millions of dongs, Guinea and the Congo region are completely under our control.
For a large area of ​​land, I plant coffee, palm, cotton, cocoa, rubber, tobacco, and tea, and I can earn millions of dongs a year.
We haven't calculated the mineral resources yet. We will never be so unlucky. What will we gain?
This account is very good. Colonial powers such as Britain and France did not do this, not because they did not want to do it, but because they did not have enough immigrants.
There are still four or five million refugees in Dalmatia, waiting to be resettled there.
We can first work for the workers, leave them there to improve local transportation, and then slowly migrate them to African colonies.
Everything is difficult at the beginning, as long as the first stage of investment is completed, the harvest period is behind. If the government has insufficient financial resources, it can raise funds from the private sector.
Colonies are different from homeland, and do not require the government to directly participate in the management, so do these businesses to private companies.
I'm even thinking about whether to allow individuals to participate in the colonial cause and encourage nobles to open colonies overseas. "
Prime Minister Felix was persuaded that the colonial cause was different from the others, as long as the cost could be recovered, the government would have made it.
In the management of the colonies, it may not have earned a lot of benefits, but it can provide sufficient industrial raw materials for domestic industries, and the newly opened markets have promoted the development of domestic industry and commerce.
Another advantage of the colonies was to reduce the outflow of indigenous people. This situation is not yet obvious, and it will only become more serious in the future after the completion of industrialization.
Especially after the outbreak of the economic crisis, no job was found in the country, and people were forced to emigrate overseas as a result of their livelihood. At this time, the role of the colonies came out.
As long as the development is OK, the government can guide it a lot, and it can attract a large number of immigrants to avoid the outflow of population.
Now the number of expatriate immigrants in the German region can be quite large. It doesn't need to be as long as one-third, or even one-fifth, has been fled to the Austrian colony, and the African continent is not afraid of any enemy challenge.
In order to retain these immigrants, the development of the local economy is also inevitable. Without a sustainable development of the basic industry, it is obviously impossible to attract people to settle.
With many people and strong power, as long as the population of the Austrian African colonies is sufficient, Austria will have an advantage in the new round of African colonization and partitioning.
This advantage will be directly reflected in the domestic economic development in the future and promote the development of domestic industry and commerce.
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