Chapter 917 Two Romes

Under the influence of the special liberal thought at that time, Prince Albert made a bold decision, that is, to create a spectacle!

His idea was that the British economy was in a serious downturn at that time, factories closed down, and workers were unemployed, so agricultural products were unsalable, which led to a decline in farmers' income.

At this time, the British people needed to boost their morale, and a huge and magnificent spectacle was exactly what they needed at this time.

In fact, Prince Albert's idea was somewhat similar to a combination of work-for-relief and stimulating domestic demand.

This is indeed what Britain needs most at this time. If it develops along the same historical trajectory, then the British will once again make a splash at the first World Industrial Exposition in 1851.

However, the timeline at this time has been riddled with holes by Franz, and the same choice will most likely produce different, or even completely opposite results.

In order to complete his great idea, Prince Albert began to solicit design plans from the society, and one of the unique plans attracted him.

This is the Crystal Palace created by Joseph Paxton, a famous architect in history. However, even Joseph Paxton himself did not know that the materials for building the Crystal Palace in the future would come from Austria.

The glass industry revolution that should have taken place in Britain in history did not happen, because Franz took the lead in making the glass industry revolution happen in Bohemia.

The innovation of the industrial revolution in the glass manufacturing industry is actually a snowball process. Large-scale glass production cannot be stopped. Once it is stopped, it will cost a lot to restart, which is a bit similar to blast furnace steelmaking.

The larger the scale, the lower the cost, and vice versa, the smaller the scale and the longer the interval, the higher the cost.

More importantly, the German region was originally one of the main dumping grounds for the British in history. However, because the Austrian Empire joined the German Customs Union, Franz killed those small workshops that were unwilling to reform and unwilling to unite.

So the German region directly became the back garden of the Austrian Empire. Coupled with the rise of nationalism, boycotting British goods became politically correct.

In addition, the Austrian Empire is located in Central Europe, and its radiation range is very large. Coupled with its alliance with Russia and its ambiguous relationship with the Ottomans, the goods of the Austrian Empire are rampant in the overseas markets of the British.

At the same time, the Austrian Empire is also the world's largest commodity smuggling country at this time. Whether it is France, the United States, Brazil, Central America, India, Southeast Asia, or even the United Kingdom, you can see the smuggled goods of the Austrian Empire.

Therefore, the glass industry of the Austrian Empire can continue to expand its scale and reduce costs, while the British have fallen into a vicious cycle of declining profits and shrinking scale due to the shrinking market.

Now it is the British who are being snowballed, and their performance is not much better than those small workshops in Austria in history.

Even if Robert Peel discovered the problem at the first time, the government's low-interest loans to the glass industry did not have much effect.

In the era of John Russell, as a large number of glass factories closed down, he stopped this loss-making business.

Coupled with the economic crisis at this time, this money-losing industry is naturally the first to be abandoned.

London, Whitehall.

John Russell was sitting in his office, holding his forehead and dazed.

"How can such a large fleet just disappear?"

He couldn't understand this question, and the kind-hearted Minister of the Navy told him.

"Although the Mediterranean Fleet is large in scale, it is like a drop of water in a river compared to the entire Mediterranean."

"Is it possible that they got lost?"

John Russell expressed his unrealistic thoughts.

Looking at the Prime Minister's expectant eyes, the Minister of the Navy had to tell a white lie.

"It's possible."

John Russell breathed a sigh of relief and finally recovered some spirit.

But everyone knew that the Mediterranean Fleet was finished. Such a large fleet, with captains and sailors with many years of experience.

It's better to believe that they encountered a sea monster than to believe that they got lost.

However, at this moment, the issue of the Mediterranean had to be mentioned. If the Mediterranean Fleet was still there, Britain would definitely not be as passive as it is now.

But the Mediterranean naval battle failed, the Mediterranean Fleet's whereabouts were unknown, and it had just signed a peace agreement with the Austrians.

Now Britain is as passive as it can be, but what about Franz? First the King of Rome? I thought it was going to be a Renaissance, but now he is the German Emperor, and in a few years he may be the Emperor of the Austrian Empire.

These three crowns are on one person's head, which is unacceptable to Britain.

What's even more outrageous is that the Frankfurt Parliament is not a bourgeois parliament? Why do we have to get a foreign monarch?

——

This is an unconscious dividing line——

"Prime Minister, what should we do?"

Lord Palmerston, who has always been resourceful, directly threw the pot to John Russell, which made the latter look bitter again.

Letting the Austrian Emperor become the German Emperor is something that Britain cannot accept in any way.

When Franz became the King of Rome before, the British wanted to use the French and Russians to deal with Austria.

However, the French Provisional Government is now in chaos and changes its orders every day. Although these people reacted strongly, it is still a question whether they can send troops.

In addition, the German Confederation has never lost in recent years against the French, and the threat of the French is unlikely to change the Germans' minds.

What annoys the British most is not the French, but the Russians.

Nicholas I, the sixth son, did not slam the table and attack Austria when the British ambassador brought the news that Franz became the King of Rome to St. Petersburg, but instead seemed very calm.

"I will prepare a generous gift for the Western Roman Emperor."

You should know that when the French Provisional Government was established, Nicholas I claimed to attack the Seine River.

However, since Russia's own rebellion was not resolved, it did not send troops to France. At this time, Russia's civil unrest was mainly in two parts, namely the Chechen armed forces in the Caucasus and the uprisings in Poland.

(These contents have been mentioned before, and the war situation has not changed much, so I will not go into details here.)

At first, the British ambassador did not quite understand what the so-called "generous gift" meant. He thought that the Tsar was just waiting to give the Austrians a good look.

However, he soon found out that he was wrong, and he was wrong outrageously.

The Tsar was not angry, he was actually very happy, and told his confidants that his daughter had indeed made a good judgment.

The Tsar issued a statement on the same day, recognizing Franz as the emperor of the Western Roman Empire, and Nicholas I as the divinely appointed emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.