Chapter 166: Development
Amid all the turmoil, 1850 slipped by in silence. It seemed like an ordinary year, yet the impact it had on Austria was profoundly far-reaching.
A massive influx of foreign capital poured into Austria, driving domestic economic development as factories sprang up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
The most direct effect of economic growth was an increase in government revenue. Although many industries received preferential tax reductions and exemptions, the government still collected substantial taxes from upstream and downstream sectors.
Industrial and commercial tax revenue in 1850 rose by 8 percent over 1849, amounting to more than four million guilders. Though the figure did not look particularly large, Franz was very satisfied.
This was merely the beginning. Once the tax exemption periods ended, tax revenue would enter an explosive phase of growth.
The benefits brought by industrial and commercial development obviously did not stop there. Supporting industrial chains for businesses developed alongside them.
This was reflected in such sectors as raw-material production, product sales, transportation, dining, and entertainment, and the effects could be seen in fiscal figures.
In 1850, Austria's economy grew by 18.7 percent, while government tax revenue increased by 9.4 percent.
That figure was not especially high. Any country that opened up its market would experience rapid economic growth; there were even examples of growth surging by 30 or 40 percent.
Yet in Europe at the time, Austria's rate of economic development still left the rest in the dust.
Without question, the dividends from economic growth were poured directly into the military and could not continue to be invested in reproduction.
Of course, Franz did not dare invest them in reproduction either. If not for the limitations of communications and transportation in this era, Austria's already blazing economic growth would have been even