220. Peaceful Times cont. 1
“How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”
Charles de Gaulle
“The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.”
Frederic Bastiat
“Who ought to be the king of france-the person who has the title, or the man who has the power?”
Pepin the Short
“Spain- a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe.”
Elizabeth Oakes Smith
“In Sweden, self-sufficiency and autonomy is all”
Michael Booth
[Briefly wrapping up the relevant things in and around Europe based upon the issues raised ]
1840s
France.
In March of 1843 Consul Jean Victor Marie Moreau died at the age of 80. Not that this was fully unexpected or that he was actively involved in the governing for the last few years but he was a glorious “institutional” figure with nobody of an equal status available as a replacement. Also, his death reminded to everybody that the surviving “initial” consul, Bernadotte, is also 80 years old and hardly is going to last forever.
On a positive side, so far at least the system itself had been working. Two consuls agreed upon the candidacy of Horace François Bastien Sébastiani de La Porta, presently a Foreign Minister. Not that he was an excessively exciting figure but he was “our SOB” who so far worked well with the Consulate’s members and high ranking enough not to cause any questions.
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Lucien Bonaparte had been recalled from his assignment in Russia to replace Sebastiani as a Foreign Minister, one more appointment that did not raise any objections [1].
The future of the system, however, remained uncertain: France run out of the old revolutionary generals so the new candidates would have to come either from the “heroes of Algeria” or from the civilian figures. In both cases there will be a question of their political affiliation and sound judgement. The “mainstream” republicanism was, so far, a prevailing trend but not the only one. Basically, the regime was supportive of the financial and industrial bourgeoisie with certain concessions to the the middle and working classes in the areas of voting rights and other aspects of a social life. The main and pretty much only labor law was passed in 1841. This law prohibited the use of labor of those children under eight years of age, and the employment of children less than 13 years old for night-time work.
On the extreme right there were supporters of the exiled Bourbons (Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême, was still alive and lived in Austria and there was at least one more male member of the family), then, somewhat to the left there were Orleanists (Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was still in exile but many of his supporters were allowed to return and he had 4 surviving sons; also there was certain support among the wealthy
bourgeoisie) who advocated a constitutional monarchy. On the left there were various types of the radical democrats demanding more privileges for the middle and laboring classes.
Paris had its own problem: a disproportionally high number of the aspiring writers, painters, actors, musicians and all other types of the bohemians with or mostly without a talent, with very questionable chances of gaining a comfortable living and with an extremely negative attitude toward the low level physical work. Obviously, most of them had been in a state of a permanent unhappiness and could be used as the useful tools by the radicals.
So far France was reasonably prosperous but there already had been certain problems caused by a well-intended but excessive protectionism that was causing shortage and unnaturally high prices of different products which could have easily been imported from other countries, such as textiles, machines, tools, and ores. But as of right now, these problems had been relatively minor and the state had enough resources to maintain a reasonably efficient social welfare programs. Under pressure from the Left and to deal with the unemployment (among those willing to work), a program of
Ateliers Nationaux had been introduced guaranteeing government-funded jobs. It worked for a while but a number of the available vacations was limited until the Prefect of Paris came with a brilliant idea of a major redesign of the city.
This project was huge and was expected to last if not forever then for a very, very long time. Picking up on it the government opened two open-ended national projects: a complete renovation of the French roads and a massive construction of the railroads. Combination of these three grandiose plans had to deal with most of the unemployment issues for a foreseen future. The ongoing industrialization and massive railroads construction was providing the employment but (there is always some “but”) many skilled workers of the dying or industrialized professions as a result were “downgraded” into proletariat and not too happy with a lowered status.
On a cheerful side, the Paris became the entertainment capital of Europe: legalization and proliferation of can-can in the Parisian places of entertainment killed any potential competition because where else acrobatics inn the
pantalettes would be permitted?
Spain [2]
For quite a while, the progress was impeded first by the reign of the King Ferdinand VII, who tended to see a dangerous liberalism in any form of a progress.
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After his death the reforms had been delayed by the Carlist War which lasted from 1833 till 1840 causing serious damage.
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In the colonies things were noticeably better. Thanks to the reforms of Infante Gabrielle conducted in the late XVIII - early XIX Spain retained its colonial empire that was reformed based upon the principle Viribus Unitis: the commonality of the Spanish Empire was recognized as a community of differences, which actually meant recognition of the right of self-determination for the colonies, albeit limited. The colonies got a right to conduct their trade with whoever they wanted and to handle their own domestic affairs.
In Spain itself by the early 1840s industrialization was on its early stages and the country remained mostly agrarian but there were visible developments in its textile and mining industries.
The import of goods constantly exceeded exports, the government covered the deficit by introducing new taxes, foreign and domestic loans. Despite the obvious progress, Spain remained one of the most backward countries in Europe, which was too noticeable in agriculture, where feudal relations still prevailed: about 70% of arable land remained uncultivated, yields were very low. The main cultivated crops in Spain remained wheat and barley. Nevertheless, new, more profitable crops began to be cultivated, ensuring higher profitability of production, such as vineyards, citrus and olive plantations. In the middle of the XIX century, Spain became a leader in wine production. The main problem in increasing yields in Spanish agriculture was the need for peasants to ensure forced irrigation of their land. As in the northern and eastern regions of Spain, these actions bore fruit, then in the southern regions everything was worse. Only the Guadalquivir River valley remained convenient.
The first railway line was built in 1848 and connected cities Mataro and Barcelona.
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There have also been noticeable changes in the financial and credit sector of Spain in the mid-19th century. Financial activities were focused closer to the restructuring of public finances. The first bank, Banco de Isabel II, was founded in 1844.
Sweden.
Sweden was enjoying a prolonged period of peace.
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At the start of the XIX century Sweden was a predominantly agricultural country. Agriculture employed more than 80 per cent of her population, whose growth was relatively slow; the agricultural production was scarcely sufficient to support them. Sweden depended on imported grain, although to a dwindling extent, up to about 1830. At this time, a change occurred. Agriculture developed so greatly that it was able to support an increasing population as well as to produce a surplus for export. The Swedish agricultural exports during a short period after the middle of the 19th century began to compete with the iron exports for its position as the second largest export branch.
Coincident with the expanding agricultural yields, signs can be detected of an industrial growth after 1830. Iron mining, the production of pig iron and of bar iron expanded at about 3 per cent per annum after 1830 and the textile industry experienced a very rapid upward trend. The value of cotton fabric and linen fabric rose by about 20 per cent per annum. The number of workers employed in the factories increased by about 3.5 per cent per annum, while the production value rose by about 10 per cent per annum, which means that the productivity improved substantially. Further development of the iron industry was stimulated by the foreign competition .
Swedish timber industry also began to develop. Exports kept growing from 1830 when the old water-driven sawmills began to be replaced by stearn sawmills whose capacity was larger. This allowed them to change their location from the inland waterfalls to the coast.
This period witnessed increasing regional specialization with mining in
Bergslagen, textile mills in Sjuhäradsbygden and forestry in Norrland. Several important institutional changes took place in this period, such as free and mandatory public schooling introduced 1842 (as the first country in the world), the abolishment of a previous national monopoly on trade in handicrafts - the skråväsendet - in 1846, and a stock company law in 1848.
The only big potential problem was the fate of the Swedish possession Bremen-Verden. With the steadily if slowly expanding Prussia this territory became increasingly vulnerable bringing up the obvious question if retaining it worth the trouble. The possessions on the Baltic were secured by the Baltic Alliance with its naval domination and ability (and willingness) to deploy the overwhelming force, which was already demonstrated more than once. However, Bremen-Verden was simply too far to be securely protected from a potential invasion and its return would require a major war. OTOH, so far Prussia was a friendly state and a diplomatic solution was not out of question.
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King Gustav V was in a prolonged discussion with his Prussian counterpart, Frederick William IV, regarding the possible solutions.
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So far, two options were on the table:
- Prussian purchase of the territory.
- Swap of Bremen-Verden for the piece of a territory adjacent to the Swedish-held Danzig area.
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Neither side was in a hurry but it looked like some consensus could be eventually reached.
Poland.
After the death of Frederick Augustus I in 1827, the kingdom, as per Constitution of 1791, was ruled by his son-in-law King Jozef I.
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The reign was relatively uneventful, mostly because the country was surrounded by the stronger neighbors and the ideas regarding getting back some of the lost territories had been expressed only by few lunatics and mostly
after the serious drinking. OTOH, after the great war of 1805-06 the borders were seemingly secure and a prolonged peace allowed further development of the textile manufacturing. The exports of grain had been going on through the Swedish Danzig and some of the high quality textiles were exported to Russia. So nothing of a serious interest there.
Britain
Was going full speed ahead with the industrialization while spending huge amounts of money on updating its navy: the lessons of the last war had been learned.
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To secure the route to India, a colonial settlement to the East of the Cape Colony was founded and the active expansion in India continued. Trade with China finally became profitable but not exactly in the way initially anticipated. Unofficial smuggling of opium was officially overlooked but most of the official imports were machinery and know how. The textiles did not pick up and the merchants could not freely travel inside China. The “useful” goods had been purchased by the Chinese merchants in the open ports and resold inland.
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[1] In OTL he died in 1840.
[2] This is a synopsis of the alt. history of Spain caused by Infante Gabrielle (who in OTL died much earlier not making too much of a splash)
https://alternathistory.com/glava-ii-reformy-gabrielinosov-gran-espana-v/#reformy-kolonij and
https://m.vk.com/@genialnoandprosto-ekonomika-ispanii-19-veka
) to live on the outskirts of the city. In OTL NI was very sensitive to the sentiments of the Moscow’s nobility.