War Opportunity

The essence of opening up colonies was to make money. To the Austrian Government, only two kinds of colonies held value: those that made money and those with strategic value.

Without question, the Lanfang Autonomous Province was profitable and also possessed a certain degree of strategic value.

Together with the other regions of the Austrian South Seas, the Lanfang Autonomous Province had established Austria's position as the regional hegemon in the South Seas.

It was not that there had been no calls within the Vienna Government to place the Lanfang Autonomous Province under direct rule. The key was that no one could guarantee that direct administration would bring richer returns.

The Lanfang Autonomous Province's economic value to the Vienna Government went far beyond the 3.764 million Divine Shields it contributed each year.

Since joining the Austrian system and shedding its security threats, the Lanfang Autonomous Province had swiftly entered the fast lane of development.

Perhaps because its two neighbors, Spain and the Netherlands, had done such an excellent job, the Lanfang Autonomous Province had already become a base for overseas Chinese merchants more than a decade ago.

The influx of vast amounts of capital naturally drove the local economy forward. If not for geographical constraints, the Lanfang Autonomous Province would have developed even better.

Every year, the Lanfang Autonomous Province now imported more than ten million Divine Shields' worth of Austrian industrial and commercial goods, while exporting raw materials such as rubber, sago, copra, Kutch dye, sago flour, pepper, gold, and silver.

If listed separately and ranked by total trade volume, the Lanfang Autonomous Province could easily place among Austria's top five trading partners.

The greater the interests involved, the more cautious the Vienna Government became.

Should a misstep trigger unrest, allowing others to pry away the foundations beneath them