Chapter 145: Despicable Tactics
As the railway plan got underway, Franz did not forget the other two core industries either. However, the government intervened far less directly in these two sectors.
To a certain extent, processing and manufacturing could be seen as a single whole. The agricultural products processing industry could be separated out for no other reason than that it was simply profitable.
At present, the Austrian Empire's largest source of foreign exchange was agricultural exports. These included both processed agricultural products and raw agricultural products.
There was no doubt that exporting processed grain brought far higher profits, created a great many jobs, and generated substantial tax revenue for the state.
From the perspective of economic development, this was a point of GDP growth. Franz was even counting on the profits from agricultural exports to make up for the trade deficit.
In international trade, the Austrian Empire spent most of its time in deficit, which was also the main reason for the continued depreciation of the Austrian shield.
Currencies in this era were not like the credit-based systems of later generations. They were solid, genuine gold and silver, and international trade settlements were conducted in gold and silver.
An international currency? The pound sterling barely qualified, but it had not yet attained the status it would hold in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Most countries and regions did not recognize it.
Against this backdrop, if the trade deficit continued, it would lead to an outflow of wealth and hamper domestic economic development.
After Franz took charge, he stabilized the value of the Austrian shield to ensure the normal development of the domestic economy.
Finding a way to eliminate the trade deficit as quickly as possible became the government's top priority.
In the short term, the only way