More than ten kilometers away from Venice, in an ancient castle, Viscount Orabi was holding a strong welcome banquet. The protagonist of the banquet was Baron Ficney who had just returned.

This is not the first time Fickney has been here, but it is different from the last time he came. The welcome banquet is much higher.

It can be seen that Viscount Oraby was very enthusiastic this time, unlike the last time, it was just a courteous banquet.

No one is concerned about the poor in the downtown area, and no one is concerned about the rich in the deep mountains.

Baron Ficney deeply felt it. Ten years ago, he borrowed money to go to the colony to develop, but he was ridiculed a lot; to this day, the ridicule of the past has become praise.

Even though he was far away on the African continent, these were not obstacles for well-informed nobles.

Today is different from the past. In everyone's eyes, the African continent ten years ago is that poisonous insects and beasts appear, diseases and plagues are rampant; the African continent has become a field of hope.

The successful one is not criticized. Baron Ficney enjoys the treatment of a successful one, satisfying his vanity.

There are many Austrian nobles developing on the African continent, but after being distributed in the vast Africa, there are not many.

Besides, everyone is busy making money, and how many people have the leisure time to hold banquets every day?

Fickney attended the banquet without purpose. To promote the localization of the colony, it is inseparable from the support of local nobles.

In addition to those who have developed on the African continent, local capitalists are also a major force, but this is far from enough.

Austria is not Britain and France, and capitalists have very low political voice. Even Baron Ficney and other nobles who developed in Africa have higher political voice than capitalists.

The main force that promoted colonial localization this time was the nobles.

It may be too exaggerated to be related to all the people in this world through five people; but it is not difficult to connect all the nobles in Austria through five nobles.

...

Baron Ficney said with a smile: "Orabi, I haven't seen each other for ten years. I didn't expect Harrington, Gardner and Dwinton to be so old. It can be seen that they will all become excellent soldiers."

Viscount Orabi replied for granted: "Yes, I'm proud of them."

Joining the army is a tradition of Austrian aristocrats. The children of aristocrats have to receive military training since childhood. Being an excellent soldier is the pursuit of many children of aristocrats.

Modesty is not a virtue in Europe, and it only makes people think of it as a manifestation of hypocrisy.

Viscount Obila believed that his son would become an excellent soldier and would openly admit it, which was his true thought.

Baron Ficney asked with concern: "Are you going to send them to the army or to the navy?"

In recent years, the Austrian Navy's status has been greatly improved and can almost be on par with the army.

Many noble children who chose to enter the navy at the beginning seized the opportunity of the navy's great expansion and rose to prominence.

Now that the children of nobles serve, there is one more choice - the Navy.

Olabi said proudly: "Harlington and Derwinton went to the Army, and Gardner went to the Navy, and they both got admitted to the military academy.

Harrington was studying at the Vienna Artillery Command Academy and had graduated and enlisted in more than a week. Gardner and Dwinton came back this time to send him to the army.

Derwinton was studying at the Munich Infantry Command Academy and was only in the third grade; Gardner was studying at the Austrian Naval Academy at the doorstep of his home, and was only in the first grade.

Fickney, you are back at the right time. If you are later, you will not see them."

This is a typical two-head bet. With the continuous development of overseas colonies, well-informed nobles have realized the importance of the navy.

Without certainty about the country's future strategic focus, many nobles bet on both ends. Anyway, the conflict between Austria's army and navy is not big, so it's okay to do this.

All three sons were admitted to the military academy, and Olabi really had the capital to be proud.

Although the aristocrats are born with a higher starting point, it is not so easy to attend military academies in Austria. There are 9 military academies in the country, and the number of admissions is only more than 3,500, and the number of applicants is not less than 100,000.

This is the impact brought by compulsory education. The number of people who have received basic education has increased sharply. Students with good grades can apply for student loans to continue their studies. This directly leads to a sharp increase in the number of middle school students.

Austrian military academy enrollment and university enrollment are separate, and candidates can apply for the exam. Anyway, it takes three months to stagger the admission results and will not affect each other's admission results.

There is no doubt that this is the era when thousands of troops cross a single-plank bridge. Whether it is a university or a military academy, students will apply first before talking about it.

Grassroots students who can make their way out are not much worse than those who are not academic masters, at least in cultural courses.

Even if they are limited by resources, the education they receive cannot be compared with the children of aristocratic people, but there are always geniuses and lucky people.

If you only compete with grassroots students, it doesn’t matter. The problem is that the competition among aristocratic children is also fierce. Only children are not popular in Austria in this era, and every household basically starts in three or five.

There are also a large number of nobles and other children. Although these people have no titles to inherit, they do not mean that their children's education is not bad.

These are basically the middle class in Austria. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, small and medium-sized businessmen, and most of their ancestors were nobles.

Too few truly pure grassroots can rise. Those who have no knowledge and social connections can grow up are all the sons of destiny.

Currently, the proportion of aristocratic students in Austrian universities is only 31.1%, and the proportion of students from ordinary families is only 1.2%. The rest are this middle-class group.

In military academies, the children of aristocratic families still dominate, accounting for about 64.8% of the total number of students, and the middle class accounts for 34.3% of the total number of students. Students from ordinary families can be ignored, and there are not as many international students.

There is no way, this is the result of fair competition. The reality is so cruel. Since public compulsory education, it has lost at the starting line.

In primary school, the majority of students from ordinary families account for the majority, but in middle school, the minority of students from ordinary families has become. On the surface, the chance of Austrian primary schools entering middle school is about 8%.

However, compulsory education has ended, and the children of rich people can go to school almost 100%, and this proportion has been raised.

Grassroots students from ordinary families are not academic masters and basically have few opportunities. They must enter the top 1% before they can get a scholarship in the entrance examination.

This was originally prepared for geniuses. In an era of limited educational resources, Austria adopted elite education.

Military academies are the most obvious. Students who have received strict military training since childhood naturally have an advantage, but this requires a lot of investment and cannot be afforded by ordinary families.

No matter how high the academic scores of ordinary people are, if they add the scores of various major exams, they will have the fate of being eliminated. It can be said that the more subjects you take, the less chance the ordinary students will have.

Improve the teaching quality of public education and increase the teaching of these professional courses. Unfortunately, this seems beautiful, just think about it.

Adding one course means increasing education expenditure. Compulsory education is carried out according to the standards of aristocratic children, which is enough for the Vienna government to go bankrupt ten times.

Unless the society has increased demand for ordinary talents, it is impossible to expand university enrollment, and higher education in this era is too expensive.

Now even the children of nobles can receive university education or military academy education, no more than 35%.

Of course, there are no restrictions on the second-class technical colleges or pheasant universities, and you can study if you have money.

Baron Ficney said calmly: "Is that so? It seems that I am really lucky!"

Viscount Olabi replied with affirmative answer: "Of course!"

Baron Ficney took a sip of wine and continued to ask: "What army does Harrington serve in? Are you ready to develop in the African continent? There is much greater chance of making military achievements there?"

This is the condition for Baron Ficney. There is no way. To gain support for colonial integration by the local nobles, we must naturally speak with our interests.

Most nobles will face a problem. There are many disciples in their later years, but there is only one title.

The eldest son inherits the title, so how can the second son be arranged?

According to the German practice, if you have money, you can share a property with them. Those who don’t have money either let them go out for a walk on their own or send them to church as priests.

After the Reformation, the churches were not as good as that. Churches in prosperous areas were fine, and some were made by business. If they were not lucky, they would be assigned to poor areas, and they would have to eat braised vegetables.

Going out is only suitable for dilapidated houses. Most of them use their family connections to find them a decent job, which is how the aristocratic side branches or redeemed the middle class come from.

There are few opportunities in the local area and fierce competition, but it will be different when you are in a colony. If you have a family background, you can even make a title if you are willing to spend resources.

If the local snake is obtained, the difficulty can continue to be reduced. After all, war will happen every now and then for the colonies.

In addition to making military achievements, they can also enter the colonial government to develop. Once the colony is localized, these official positions will also rise.

Or do business in the colony and open plantations, these are all roads and are very successful.

Olabi was moved. He received Baron Ficney with such a high standard. In addition to his cousin relationship, he was also preparing to invest resources to get aristocratic titles for his sons.

Don’t look at his sons who have entered the military academy, and their future looks bright. In fact, Olabi knows that too few people can make a fortune in peacetime.

Not to mention the descendants of the viscount, even if they enter the army with the title of duke, they may not be able to become generals when they retire.

Without military achievements, everyone can only endure the qualifications.

After all, everyone has received military education since childhood, and no one's ability is too bad. There is no way to prove that your ability is superior to others. Why should you promote you first?

The army is a place where strength speaks, and the best way is to speak with military achievements. Unfortunately, in this era, the wars were at most, colonies bullied the natives, and there were too many monks and less porridge.

Olabi thought for a while and said, "It's not confirmed yet. Now he is just a new recruit who is not enlisted, and there is at least half a year left before the allocation of troops.

If you arrive in the African colony, then you will be asked to take care of your uncle.”

There is no doubt that Olabi has not made up his mind yet.

As an old nobleman, he still has many connections in the army, and it is not difficult to use these relationships to decide the service of his son.

However, promoting colonial localization is not that simple. Like many people, Olabi is also worried that his own industry will be affected after colonial localization.

After all, there are not many other colonies, but there is a lot of land. Once so much land is developed, agricultural products will probably be hit by the bargain price.

Without getting an accurate reply, Baron Ficney still replied gracefully: "Of course, I am his uncle!"

I could only sigh in my heart that I didn’t catch up with the good times, and it would be great if Olabi’s sons were older.

It is best if you just retired from the army and worry about your future. Then, if you don’t have to speak, these kids will help convince your father.

During this banquet, Baron Ficney had convinced three nobles to support colonial localization, and these people were basically supported by the next generation.

The colonies are impacting local agriculture, which is what the nobles with a lot of land are worried about. If the land is gone, why are they still worried about this?

After the land was redeemed, the land in the hands of the Austrian nobles actually did not have much land. Now the land in the hands of the nobles has dropped to less than 20% of the total land area of ​​the country.

Since the development of overseas colonies, many great nobles, including the royal family, have been selling their land one after another.

This is determined by interests. Using the funds for selling land to open plantations overseas, you can often obtain several times or even dozens of times the land area before.

Although colonial land is not valuable, it does not affect the value of the economic crops produced by these lands. Perhaps the income per mu of land is not as good as the local one, but it cannot stand up to a lot of land!

As the quantity increases, the income also increases. The emergence of large plantations has also promoted the progress of agricultural farming technology.

The popularity of mechanized agriculture in Austria is increasing. Unfortunately, the internal combustion engine has not yet come out, and the steam engine machinery is too bulky and not at all.

Stimulated by interests, the one who really promoted the localization of the colonies behind the scenes was actually the great nobles led by Franz.

But everyone paid attention to political influence and did not directly express their position. Instead, they launched a small aristocrat such as Baron Ficney to test the reactions of the people in China.
Chapter completed!