Economic Issues in the Empire

Rarely is the axiom "necessity is the mother of invention" more true than in economics, and no power in Europe had less economic necessity at the beginning of the nineteenth century than Austria. Vienna was a rich city, and somewhat overwhelmingly so; it was a major trade city, where goods from throughout the Empire were brought to be bought and sold. (See Industry in Austria) Unlike England or France, which, due to a lack of internal resources, were forced to invent brand new economic systems, based upon mercantilism and industrialization, the Austrians were content to keep a less industrialized, less modern economy. While on the surface this approach worked, due to the large variety of goods produced inside the empire, it also allowed the other European powers to leapfrog past Austria technologically, as well as economically. Though by the late nineteenth century Vienna began to be home to some industry, it tended to be light: there were very few major factories, and most industry took place in small sweatshops. Because of the small size of the factories, workers were more isolated, and therefore less likely to organize a mass revolution. Austrian workers were remarkably loyal and content, partially because they had better working conditions than many workers had in other places. Furthermore, working conditions in Vienna actually weren’t that bad, at least in contrast to conditions in many other cities. Morton, in A Nervous Splendor, describes working class Viennese being too tired for politics after eleven hours at the loom, yet for American workers an eleven hour day would have been a blessing. He also talks about how, on the occasion of Franz Joseph’s fifty-eighth birthday, the school children in the destitute neighborhood of Ottakring had made posters of the Emperor and glued them all over the city. This touches on an important issue: that in 1888, even the poorest of neighborhoods had schoolchildren; in fact, the right to free schooling was guaranteed under the Basic Law of 21 December 1867 on the General Rights of Nationals. Even if the workers themselves were doomed to a life of wage labors, the government was giving a chance to the children of the working class.

But the condition of the workers was still inhuman, even if it was more human than in many other cities. Viennese housing, though grandiose externally, internally was just as cramped, dirty, and unlivable as in any other major city. The working classes simply accepted it more. Like Roman plebeians, accepting the harsh conditions of their lives in exchange for bread and circuses, the Austrian lower class seemed hypnotized by the beauty of their city. Even the most crowded, dirty tenements were beautifully designed on the outside. Vienna itself "narcotized the poor past their troubles…Here was poverty spiced with panache, with the capital’s royal flavor." If anything, the comparatively good conditions only helped to prevent the already revolution wary Austrians from even considering more major social change. Furthermore, the disunity of the empire made it unlikely that all Austrians would ever unite around a common goal, forcing moderation in government.