War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Frankfurt, headquarters of the German Customs Union (tentative).

There is an unwritten rule in this era, that is, when negotiating, there must always be a dance party.

Frankfurt is already located in the center of Germany. Coupled with the promotion of trade, Frankfurt's service industry at this time is ranked first in Germany.

Historically, Frankfurt Cathedral was the place where the Holy Roman Emperor ascended the throne.

On the temporary stage set up in the center of the venue, one of the most stunning dancers attracted everyone's attention.

The beautiful dance posture and the peerless appearance made the audience intoxicated.

However, the Prussian representative, Frederick Ansilon, was not in the mood to appreciate all this, and ordered his entourage to give the dance troupe a sum of money to stop their performance.

Even though the performance was over, the representatives were constantly changing glasses and changing glasses, as if they had forgotten about the meeting.

The Bavarian representative even chatted about music with the Württemberg representative, and he was so interested that he even started playing four-finger strumming.

The Prussian representative had to stop the show to get the meeting back on track.

If the Alliance could keep Austria out without replying, he would be happy to enjoy it with these people.

But the letter sent by the Austrians was more like an ultimatum than an application.

Austria will open its borders to members of the German Customs Union in one month and will also send its own caravans.

If the alliance could not reach an agreement and explicitly reject Austria's accession, Austrian goods would enter Germany through Saxony and Bavaria.

As for expecting Saxony and Bavaria to stop Austria, that is simply impossible. The Bavarians were unwilling to cause trouble, and Saxony was happy to see the two powers of Austria and Prussia competing.

The representative from Brunswick was the first to speak, "I object! Austria is too big. What we want is free trade, and the addition of Austrians may affect our freedom."

As the vanguard of Prussia's unification of Germany, Braunschweig naturally had a duty to do so. Anyway, there are still many countries separated between Brunswick and Austria, and the most important thing is that Prussia exists among them, so he can be so unscrupulous.

"Isn't Prussia huge? Why don't we expel Prussia from the alliance here?" the Saxon representative joked.

Saxony has always regarded Prussia as the first obstacle to leading North Germany. At the same time, because a large area of ​​territory was taken over by Prussia, Saxony would not let go of every opportunity to cause discomfort to Prussia.

"But Prussia has already joined the alliance."

"Then quit." The representative of Saxony is Ankert, the Saxony Minister of the Interior.

Originally, it was not the turn of Ankert, the interior minister, to do this kind of thing anyway. But as luck would have it, Saxony's finance minister and foreign minister were both sick, and even the king's advisers were sick.

His Majesty Anton has a reputation as a kind-hearted and good man, so he will not force the sick minister to work overtime, so this difficult task naturally falls on his head. It is said that those who can do more work.

Although His Majesty Anton often claimed to be the master of the most powerful country in North Germany, Saxony at this time was no longer what it used to be.

After the Napoleonic Wars, Saxony was forced to cede two-fifths of its territory to Prussia. By this time two-thirds of Saxony's territory, and half its population, had fallen into Prussian hands.

Saxony's industry and commerce were developed, but since joining the German Customs Union, he could clearly feel that this advantage was disappearing under the suppression of Prussia intentionally or unintentionally, and he became increasingly dependent on Prussia.

In the midst of a declining country and a king who thought he was powerful, every diplomatic incident in Saxony was a torment for the Saxon officials involved.

Although the king declared a constitutional monarchy in 1831, the power to promote, appoint and remove officials is still in the hands of the king.

The so-called constitutional monarchy is just for those idiots.

Prussian Foreign Minister Friedrich Ansilon was also full of resentment. Due to the power gap between Prussia and Austria at this time, and Austria's chairmanship of the German Confederation, Prussia could not take a tough attitude.

So Frederick Ansilon was told to prevent the Austrians from joining the German Zollverein, but not to offend the Austrians.

The reason for this internal negotiation of the alliance is that Prussian officials hope to silence the Austrians through voting.

Therefore, he needs to win as much support as possible. Through long-term trade, Prussia has won over the majority of small states.

However, the powerful states in the German Confederation such as Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, Hanover, and Hesse did not side with Prussia.

They either support or depend on Austria, or have their own ambitions.

His Majesty William III was only willing to provide financial support of 50,000 thalers, in the spirit of saving what he could.

Just now, 2,000 thalers were spent to get that dance troupe to get out.

Frederick Ansillon decided to reason with these people before considering bribes.

What he didn't expect was that Ankert from Saxony would be so difficult to deal with.

What’s even more frightening is that what Ankert said seemed to resonate within the alliance.

This is also due to Prussia itself. Prussia does have an industrial first-mover advantage over other members of the alliance, and the coal and steel in the Rhineland provide Prussia with a resource advantage.

Moreover, many of the rules in the alliance were formulated by the Prussians, so there will definitely be a certain degree of bias.

In addition, there will definitely be frictions in trade, and businessmen will be jealous, let alone countries.

As a result, all the representatives in the venue began to recall the bitterness and sweetness, and some even began to report that the Prussians wanted to monopolize the German Customs Union and cut everyone's leeks.

At the same time, representatives from several powerful countries praised the representative from Brunswick as a visionary and a true man who pursues freedom and fairness.

Their behavior is self-evident. They not only want to expel Austria and Prussia, but also want not to be resented by Prussia and Austria.

The disaster was diverted to the east, and a small city-state like Braunschweig was simply unable to withstand the wrath of either Prussia or Austria.

The Brunswick representative immediately panicked and looked at Frederick Ansilon.

Frederick Ansilon nodded, then cleared his throat.

"Representatives, please rest assured. On behalf of the Kingdom of Prussia, I assure you that Prussia has no ambition to dominate Germany and will never do so. We welcome any German compatriots to join, but we do not welcome those Hungarians in the Habsburg territory. "

"The Habsburg family's territory is too complex, and there are even tariffs between Austria and Hungary. We cannot accept the Austrians' unilateral trade protection." Another representative added.

Members of the German Customs Union do not like the existence of Hungary. After all, most of the German states are still agricultural countries at this time. Hungarian food entering Germany will inevitably impact the market and reduce their income.

Frederick Ansillon's speech immediately aroused a resonance, but Metternich was not a simple man. He had already bribed the Thuringian representative to stand up and speak for Austria when necessary.

"Then let the Austrians and Hungarians draw a clear line and maintain their tariffs. As long as the Austrians agree, we can still share the entire market. Austria's market and information will definitely inject new vitality into the alliance."

"But what if the Austrians don't agree? Or what if they violate the agreement? Who can punish the Austrians?"

The two sides supporting Prussia and Austria were quarreling at this time.

In fact, what they didn't know was that within the Austrian Empire, the Hungarian nobles were firmly opposed to joining the German Customs Union and were gathering in Vienna to plead with the Emperor to allow Hungary to be independent from the German Customs Union.

Franz heard that there was such a good thing?