"Yes, Your Majesty, our Emperor wishes to reaffirm the friendship with your country from over forty years ago, and to forget past unpleasantness," John said.
"Since you are proposing marriage for your Crown Prince Charles, which of my princesses has your country set its sights on?" George III asked with a smile.
"Our Emperor wishes to arrange a marriage for His Royal Highness Crown Prince Charles with Her Royal Highness Princess Auguste Sophie of your country, and this is also the wish of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Charles," John said, bowing his head.
"Hahahaha, my dear brother and Crown Prince Charles certainly know how to pick. Among my three marriageable daughters, the most beautiful is my second daughter, Auguste Sophie," George III laughed. "Since this is the wish of your Emperor and Crown Prince, then let our two countries forget the unpleasantness of twenty years ago and reaffirm the traditional friendship between us."
Soon, the marriage alliance between Austria and England was settled.
England's agreement to the alliance with Austria clearly had its own considerations. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Frederick II did not have many years left to live, and his heir—Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia—was notoriously indecisive and weak-willed. The English greatly doubted whether this weak future king could serve as England's agent in Continental Europe.
George III felt that England needed to consider a stronger ally, and Austria was very suitable, as it was all to counter the French.
Princess Auguste Sophie's dowry list was also astonishing. Besides the huge sum of 1.8 million pounds, which made Charles marvel at the British royal family's wealth, what he found even more valuable were the steam engines and spinning jennies.
If these items could truly be put to use, their value would far exceed that of 1.8 million pounds.
England's Industrial Revolution had already begun twenty years ago. The European Countries knew little about the Industrial Revolution, but Charles, with his God's-eye view, clearly understood the true worth of the Industrial Revolution.
When the "Spinning Jenny" emerged in Lancashire in 1764, the nobles of the European Countries were still mocking this wooden machine that could spin 8 threads simultaneously. But by 1769, when the water frame went into production, England's annual cotton textile output had soared from 500,000 pounds to 2 million pounds, equivalent to producing 5.4 tons of cotton yarn per day. In contrast, France in 1780 had only one-third of England's textile output.
The scene in 1776, when the Sheffield region adopted the coke iron smelting method, causing pig iron annual output to leap from 20,000 tons to 40,000 tons, was strikingly similar to the capacity explosion of modern chip factories. During the same period, Russia's Ural region stubbornly continued to use charcoal for iron smelting, maintaining an annual output of 30,000 tons for a full decade. After Cort's puddling process emerged in 1784, the quality of English steel directly matched the precision of Swiss watchmaking. These gleaming metal blocks would soon become textile machine gears, steam engine pistons, and even the armor of future warships.
Boulton & Watt's factory in Birmingham supplied nearly a hundred steam engines to English mines between 1775 and 1780, each machine replacing the day and night labor of 50 horses. At that time, French factories still relied on seasonal hydraulic power, and Prussia's annual coal output was not even one-tenth of England's. This led to the Continental European Countries' average annual industrial growth rate remaining below 0.5% for a long time, while England maintained a steady growth of 2%—a seemingly small difference that, after five years of compound accumulation, was enough to transform a merchant fleet into an expeditionary fleet.
When England's total canal mileage exceeded 2,000 miles in 1781, the transportation cost per ton of coal dropped by 70%. When Watt increased the steam engine's power to 10 horsepower in 1782, the freight time from Manchester to Liverpool was compressed from two days to eight hours. This efficiency left Russian animal-powered transport teams far behind: for the same 10 tons of iron ore, an English factory owner could place an order in the morning and have it in the furnace before dinner; a merchant in Saint Petersburg, however, would have to prepare three days' worth of fodder for his horse team.
This was still England in a semi-industrialized state, not yet having completed the Industrial Revolution.
Take, for example, the total annual fiscal revenue of the five major powers—England, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. England's fiscal revenue, at the top, was approximately 35 million pounds, and this was only the homeland, not including overseas colonies. France's fiscal revenue, in second place, was a whole tier lower, hovering around 22 to 23 million pounds. Russia's annual fiscal revenue, in third place, was roughly between 18 and 19 million pounds, only half of England's. Austria's annual fiscal revenue, in fourth place, was between 15 and 16 million pounds. Prussia, in fifth place, had less than 10 million pounds.
It should be noted that England's total population at this time was less than 15 million, far less than the three populous Continental European Countries of Russia, France, and Austria. These three countries, with populations one or two times that of England, had fiscal revenues that were almost only half of England's. This was the power of the Industrial Revolution.
Fortunately, Austria still had time to catch up.
As for Prussia, although its fiscal revenue was the lowest, don't forget that Prussia's population was only less than 10 million at this time. All of this was naturally due to Frederick II's reforms in administration, economy, and other areas, which greatly improved government administrative efficiency, and deepened reforms in industry, agriculture, and trade.
Of course, Austria was also undergoing reforms. Since the passing of Charles's grandmother, Empress Maria Theresa, in 1780, and his father, Emperor Joseph II, began to rule alone, he comprehensively promoted and developed his mother Maria Theresa's reform endeavors, dedicating himself to establishing a centralized and unified German state supported by the army and officials. His propositions and policies were known as Josephism.
Joseph II established German immigrant settlements in Galicia, Bukovina, Hungary, and Siebenbürgen, encouraged the development of German noble estates and German capital in dependent territories, and prioritized the employment of Germans as civil and military officials. He implemented protectionist tariff policies, encouraged the development of industry and commerce, and increased fiscal revenue. In 1781, he issued the "Toleration Edict" on religious policy, recognizing the freedom of belief for Protestants and Jews. From 1781 to 1782, he issued the "Patent of Serfdom Abolition," abolishing personal serfdom for peasants in hereditary lands, stipulating the abolition of serfdom in Habsburg Dynasty territories such as Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, and Hungary, replacing personal serfdom with subject status. However, the land still belonged to the landlords, and peasants had to pay rent in lieu of labor for land use. Peasants had the freedom to engage in commerce, handicrafts, and to move and marry. This effectively abolished serfdom. He donated the enormous inheritance he received from his imperial father to the state, thereby bringing the empire's finances into balance.
Later, in 1789, he decreed that peasants must be paid wages instead of performing compulsory labor, policies which met with strong opposition from the nobility.
In his struggle with the Catholic Church, he established state-run academies for training priests, stripped bishops of their rights, and restricted communication between bishops and the Pope. He dissolved 700 monasteries not engaged in education or medical services, forcing 36,000 monks to leave monasteries, abolished the judicial privileges of the Church, and nationalized monastic property. Pope Pius VI specifically came to Vienna in March 1782 for this, but Joseph refused to compromise, and the Pope therefore no longer called him "son of the Church."
In administration, Joseph II established a centralized administrative system, weakening the traditional power of local nobles and the Church.
In addition, Joseph II also forced his subjects to accept new lifestyles, but encountered stubborn resistance in traditionally deeply influenced areas such as the Austrian Netherlands and Hungary. To improve the cultural literacy of all citizens, primary education was compulsory for all boys and girls, and higher education was chosen by a minority. Joseph II also provided scholarships for talented poor students and allowed the creation of minority schools for Jews and people of other religious faiths. After the education system was established, he strove to recruit the best scholars and scientists for the University of Vienna.
In the Galicia region, Josephism was used to promote land reform and industrial and commercial development, but because it viewed the local area as a blank slate needing civilizing, it provoked fierce resistance from conservative noble forces. Although the reforms objectively promoted legal equality and religious tolerance, the approach of ignoring local traditions limited the policy's effectiveness. After Joseph II's death, some measures were abolished due to their radical nature.
This policy is regarded as a typical practice of enlightened absolutism and centralism, but its ethnocentric perspective and the way it ignored local autonomy have long been considered one of the historical causes of ethnic tensions in the Galicia region.
