Just noticed a few glaring issues with the timeline. Will fix someday.
Franz Xavier Riepl, one of the few recognizable figures on Wikipedia in what would later become the Austrian Industrieministerium
1 February 1820, Graz
Archduke Alexander Leopold watched approvingly as the starburst exploded into brilliant life above their heads. His nephew followed his gaze to his left; to his right, his brother, Johann, folded his arms and leaned over the marble railings. There were faint cheers drifting up from the town below.
“I haven’t been here in a while, have I?” he remarked, to no one in particular. “It certainly looks… more lively.”
“Investment,” his nephew said. “I, uh, didn’t know you were so into...”
“Fireworks,” Alexander finished his sentence. “Fireworks. Pyrotechnics. They’re the future of artillery, you know. Disorient the enemy.” An indulgent smile.
Anyway, he was the head of the Hofkriegsrat. If there were issues with how he was spending their money- and it wasn’t like he was spending a great deal- only his elder brother could talk him down. And Franz II, for all his power, was not a particularly confrontational fellow. He turned away from the view and nodded curtly at his subordinates, who saluted smartly and began packing up the equipment used to launch the rockets.
“So, uncle,” his nephew remarked, quietly, as sparks showered down over the bustling town, “that geologist you were talking about.”
“Ah,” Johann muttered. “Riepl. Yes. He’s waiting in my office. Shall we?”
Alexander could not resist a brief grimace as the familiar metallic dragging sound of his nephew’s leg brace filled his ears. They made their way across the balcony and down the stairs, down into the warm depths of the palace. The lighting here had been replaced with electrical lamps, just as in the mansions of the Hungarian magnates; a fair bit of investment had gone to modernizing government buildings. As members of the royal family, the Habsburg palaces were considered government buildings, of course, so… good for them.
“Herr Riepl,” announced one of the guards as they passed by, holding the great door open, “the Archduke Alexander Leopold, the Archduke Johann, the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand.”
The slim figure rushed to his feet as the three of them entered, bowing long and low. His eyes were nervous; his gesture of respect gave Alexander a prime view of his thinning hair. Alexander could not say that he enjoyed it.
“Archdukes,” he stammered.
“Please, sit.”
“I’ll… be off now,” Alexander told his brother and nephew. “I’ve got some paperwork to finish.” He also had an appointment with a fetching blonde heiress among the local nobility.
-----
Joseph Ferdinand shut the folder quietly. “Not bad,” he acknowledged. Riepl had not spoken a word throughout the entire ‘interview’. “A good education in Hungary, study tours through Bohemia, Saxony and Bavaria. And the new open cast mining system in Eisenerz was your idea?”
A slightly nervous nod.
“Good, good. Now I hear that you were to be appointed to the Polytechnic in Vienna, but I think that would be quite a waste of your talents. You will be in service to Industry, I think, and not to education.”
A pregnant silence. His uncle nudged him. “I don’t think he understands what you’re saying.”
“Oh, right. Hmm.” Joseph shifted in his seat. “You will be assisting with the erection of ironworks and copper mines- all sorts of mines, really- across the Empire. Your educational credentials appear to be in order, and, moreover, I have been asking around for good geologists and engineers who might be able to assist in such an endeavour. I think we have enough men to qualify for some amount of funding, and I suppose the rest of the money should be made up by the local nobility. In any case, you shall be backed up by the Imperial government.”
“...thank you, Archduke.”
“Thank you? Well, I suppose that works as well.” Joseph pulled out his pocket watch (engraved in iron- he relished the thought of clobbering a would-be assassin across the jaw with it, though such a thing would probably never happen). “Now, here’s what I want you to focus on: railways. I need a more comprehensive plan of a proper railway network. Right now, we only have four or five in progress, including a canal that will probably only be completed when your son has passed away.” His uncle kicked him under the table, belatedly, and Joseph shut his mouth. Took a breath.
“A railway network, yes, and a proper analysis of costs. I want cheap, high-quality railways. Stay up to date on industrial development. Try and come up with a way to have railways running through the mountainous areas- it would be embarrassing if Austria proper lacked railways and the landscape of Hungary, Bohemia and Lombardy-Venetia were shot through with the things.”
Once Riepl had left, with a small sum of money in his pocket sufficient to carry him back to Vienna, where Joseph’s little group of intellectuals would set off, Joseph stumped over to opposite his uncle and poured them both a glass of claret.
“Zum wohl.”
“Zum wohl.”
They both drank.
“I didn’t know you were establishing a surveying team.”
“They’re not really a surveying team. Something like a Ministry of Industry, really- Father would never allow something of that name in his government, so I’ll just have to prove their worth by sending them across the Empire, building mines and railways and whatnot.”
“How’d you even get ahold of them?”
“Asking around in Vienna.” Joseph shrugged.
“Right.”
They sat in silence for a while. December was fading into spring around these parts- Archduke John rose to open the windows, and they both sighed quietly as the cool breeze dusted over their faces.
“So, why Mailand?”
“We’re technically already married. Might as well interact with her for a bit before we get married in Vienna proper, right?"
