Hugo Has Arrived (5)

As soon as Hugo left the relief station, he laid eyes on Mariahilfer Straße, one of the most prosperous streets in Vienna at the time.

The endless, bustling street on both sides made it hard for Hugo to imagine that this place had once been the filthiest, most chaotic area in Vienna, plagued by the worst security and infrastructure.

French newspapers claimed that the area was teeming with beggars and pickpockets, that gang members engaged in armed brawls daily, and that half of the boys would not live to adulthood, while half of the girls would become prostitutes before coming of age.

Rats would reduce a corpse to a skeleton within hours, and those bones would be consumed by cockroaches within three days, with the rain eventually washing away any trace that a person had ever existed.

At this moment, Mariahilfer Straße was crowded with people, and ornately decorated carriages and all manner of bizarre steam-powered vehicles were parked along the sides of the road.

Franz had no intention of researching steam vehicles at the time, but Austrian technology had naturally veered in that direction.

However, since internal combustion engines did not yet exist, these so-called automobiles had a distinct steampunk feel. Franz felt these contraptions polluted the environment, so he slapped a "Mechanical Tobacco Tax" on them, using the excuse that smoking was prohibited in Vienna.

The upper echelons of the Austrian Empire were always welcoming of anything that could increase tax revenue. Yet, even with the addition of the Mechanical Tobacco Tax, the Austrians' enthusiasm for developing new modes of transport did not wane.

In fact, many people had discovered the void left by the royal family in this field, leading to an influx of private capital and "men of vision."

But Franz did not hold high expectations