Moreover, the Austrian Empire's war tax merely shaved down corporate profits; it did not actually make them lose money. Even after paying the war tax, those companies' profits still exceeded those of their counterparts in other countries.
But there was a psychology known as loss aversion. Even though they had already made fortunes beyond measure, they still found Franz's actions deeply displeasing.
Thus, some people tried to incite the nobility into making trouble. After all, many nobles were officials, wielded greater influence locally, and some even had private armed forces at their disposal.
Yet after 1848, the Austrian Empire's nobility had already seen Franz's evil nature for what it was. Wasn't it perfectly normal for a tyrant to add a tax or two? Better than being fond of slaughtering innocents, wasn't it?
In the Austrian Empire, any powerful great nobles who truly opposed Franz had, over the past few years, either been killed, exiled, or simply not yet born.
The lives of the lesser and middle-ranking nobles had in fact improved greatly. Franz had never been stingy about leading the entire noble class to make money. So long as they behaved themselves and faithfully followed Franz's policies, their lives had improved by at least one tier over the past few years.
They were permitted to buy shares in companies owned by the imperial family and in the state's overseas colonies. The noble class could directly enjoy the fruits brought by the nation's development.
Though Franz was the Austrian Empire's greatest capitalist, he had never forgotten who he was and would not casually take sides.
As for the intellectual and cultural elites, they were more patriotic than one might imagine. They too had benefited from Franz's reforms; at the very least, their treatment had improved to an unprecedented degree.
This was