The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria’s Mandate of Heaven

v3 Chapter 34: everyone has clothes to wear

Beginning in October 1840, a large amount of cotton from West Africa poured into the Austrian domestic market. Sufficient supplies of raw materials allowed Franz's factory to run at full capacity to produce finished products.

Afterwards, the finished garments were transported by rail, not only spread to all parts of the empire, but also flowed into the markets of Germany and the Apennines through the convenience of the customs union.

Most of the target users of these ready-made garments belong to the workers and the middle and lower classes, and they happen to live in the cities distributed along the transportation hubs.

A large number of cheap clothes quickly beat up those self-righteous tailors.

Except for a few high-end stores, they directly encountered a Waterloo-style dimension reduction blow in the low-end and mid-end clothing market.

Relying on the advantages from later generations and the aesthetics of nearly two hundred years ahead of this era, and with the help of a group of royal tailors, the factories under Franz have successfully designed a large number of trend-setting ready-to-wear styles.

However, he is soberly aware that it is far from enough to rely on his own strength in order to maintain his leading position in the clothing industry. So he sent someone to contact the Vienna Academy of Arts and asked them to send a professional team to help him train fashion designers.

The Vienna Academy of Arts is a public academy founded in 1692. It is one of the oldest art academies in Europe, but at this time it has long since lost its original glory.

Historically, with the decline of the Austrian Empire and the reduction of government funding and the scarcity of social donations, in order to maintain daily expenses and livelihoods, its top management had to reduce the admission rate of public-funded students, making it the most difficult exam in Europe. One of the art colleges.

To add insult to injury, aristocrats and wealthy businessmen preferred to attend a "really top institution" such as the University of Vienna rather than an art academy.

However, thanks to the butterfly effect, the Austrian economy was thriving at this time, and the fiscal revenue of the empire soared, which allowed many public schools to benefit from the support of public funds again.

Thanks to the free ride of the German Customs Union, Austria has become a gathering place for a large number of highly educated and high-quality North German talents. Among them, Vienna, the heart of the empire, is even more outstanding.

For nobles and businessmen, how to use "wisdom" or "education" to show their uniqueness is a difficult problem that has always troubled them, so art appreciation has become their unique weapon.

In order to integrate into the local life, high-quality talents from other regions have also joined this mighty army of art appreciation.

And those wandering artists who should have stayed in parks and cemeteries to sleep in relief houses were all pulled out to perform in public places.

In the past, only large-scale activities or infrastructure led by the royal family could benefit them, and they could get a job with a stable income, such as the celebration held for the emperor's birthday, and the completion ceremony of public works, as well as Franz and other well-known "A Thousand Years Against the Waves" created publicly by music masters and so on.

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Due to the increasingly prosperous art appreciation market and the ensuing fierce competition, the prices of almost all handicrafts have been pulled down to a very low level. Same day.

In theory, in this era of booming art and economy, there should be no reason for a long-established institution like the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna to decline.

However, the competition in Vienna's art world is even to the point of life and death, which has caused many students to earn less than street painters after graduation.

This raises serious questions about the quality and level of teaching at this ancient college.

At the same time, potential female students, who were supposed to be an important source of funding for the Vienna Academy of Arts, all chose the Vienna Royal Academy for Women at this time.

In the past, some great nobles who spoiled their daughters very much would send them to the art academy in the capital of the empire, so that the girls could be released without violating the morality of the nobles.

However, with the birth of the Royal Women's Academy in Vienna, many nobles changed their original intentions.

Although Vienna can be said to be relatively loose in terms of girls' education, the mainstream of the entire society still believes that this is a waste of money and training "witches".

But this time the royal family took the initiative to take the lead. If the monarch at this time is a normal person without mental or physical illness, some people may raise objections.

After the debate in Vienna's central park, however, no one felt that way anymore.

After all, neither Ferdinand I nor his younger brother, Archduke Franz Karl, belonged to the category of normal people, so no one would care about their wins or losses, but if it was on their own, the consequences would be completely different. Once you lose, your reputation will be ruined at least, and your body will be smashed to pieces at worst.

Originally, the Habsburg royal family was known for its benevolence, but with the recovery of the power of the church, their instinctive vigilance made them more willing to act as the royal black gloves than before.

The reason is very simple. No one in the empire can rule the church except the royal family. "Since you can't beat them, join them" has always been the way for nobles to survive.

But in this way, the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts lost an important source of income.

At this time, they can only choose to strictly enter and strictly exit to improve their reputation again.

And Franz's proposal, like rain, revitalized it.

In addition to fashion design, under the suggestion of Franz, the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts also opened advertising, journalism, architecture and other majors.

However, Austria's cotton production in African colonies was still too small at this time. After a short period of madness, the problem of insufficient raw materials once again plagued the entire Austrian clothing industry.

Just when the Central European countries thought they had finally got a chance to breathe, the newly elected president of the United States announced the first presidential order.

"Give most-favored-nation status to the Austrian Empire and flood it with cotton."

It stands to reason that this order is quite satisfactory, and it is understandable for the Americans to make such a move in order to seize the cotton market.

It's just that at this critical time node, it dealt a heavy blow to Germany and the countries of the Apennine Peninsula.

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This order is tantamount to making the Austrian Empire cut off the possibility of a comeback for other countries in Central Europe at the source.

A large amount of American cotton flowed into Austria, where it was processed into cotton cloth and clothes by factories in the empire, and then poured into the Central European market.

Their streets and alleys are almost filled with finished garments from Austria, making other countries unable and unable to compete with them. No matter in terms of quality, price or style, Austrian products have an absolute advantage, which is beyond our reach.

Many economists are worried that after monopolizing the clothing market, the Austrians will take the initiative to raise prices in order to seek higher profits.

Prussia, in particular, threw out a lot of conspiracy theories to slander Austria and the Habsburg royal family.

However, what is surprising is that Austria not only did not make a fuss about the price increase, but also proactively informed the public through the announcement that its clothing products will be sold at a reduced price, saying that this will allow more middle and lower-class people to enjoy To the due convenience~lightnovelpub.net~Of course, different places have different publicity models. For example, the public slogan in the German Confederation is "Let every German have clothes to wear."

In Austria, of course, it is "let every Austrian have clothes to wear." In the Apennines, it is another rhetoric.

In short, this time, Franz not only made a lot of money, but also took the opportunity to gain a good reputation.

In fact, selling at lower prices is a more long-term strategy, because this will raise the threshold of the industry and make it difficult for competitors from other countries to fight against it.

As for those unemployed, this is an excellent opportunity to encourage them to choose to work in Austria.

After all, the railway transportation to Tania is so convenient now, and even if you can't be a worker, you can still choose to go to Tania to work in agriculture.

If the above methods fail, there is still a good way out to go to overseas colonies.