Major Events:
In 1882, Germany, Austria, and Italy held negotiations in Vienna. On May 20 of the same year, they signed the "Triple Alliance Treaty," marking the formation of the Triple Alliance.
September 30—The world's first hydroelectric power plant began operation (the dam on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, was the site of the world's first hydroelectric power plant). January 14, Ferdinand convened his management personnel for an industrial development planning meeting.
The meeting attendees included not only the emerging industries established by Ferdinand but also the heads of the Koháry family's traditional industries.
Primarily, Ferdinand discovered that many traditional industries still had great untapped potential. In his plan, there were many areas of intersection that could complement each other.
For example, like many great nobles, the Koháry family also had their own wine estate, exclusively serving their family.
Ferdinand himself occasionally drank a little and found the taste to be excellent. He felt it was a waste to maintain a large group of people just to serve a few family members.
They could completely expand the scale and sell to the market. Even if expanding production led to a decrease in taste, as long as it wasn't inferior to the common goods on the market, he could sell it.
For instance, the wheat and potatoes produced on the estate no longer needed to be sold externally starting this year; his own factories could completely process them.
Furthermore, the cattle and sheep from the pastures could be slaughtered in their own abattoir and then sold in supermarkets.
Another example is allocating a plot of land near their city for growing vegetables, producing and selling them directly, and so on.
The extravagance of European aristocrats often surpasses ordinary people's imagination.
For instance, Ferdinand currently has more than a dozen personal maids, and a team of chefs that rivals a modern five-star hotel, capable of preparing cuisines from over a dozen countries such as Italy, France, and India.
The castle he lives in has no less than three hundred guards and servants. For his clothes, he employs dedicated tailors who serve only him. He has seven or eight luxurious private carriages.
For the milk he drinks, he has his own dedicated pasture, where only the highest quality dairy cows are selected to supply him alone. There are also standard wine estates, where only the finest grapes are chosen for winemaking, and so on.
Of course, his extravagance is nothing; Princess Clémentine's grandeur is truly significant, perfectly befitting her status as a French princess.In any case, besides essential expenses, the Koháry family's income, not less than 100,000 pounds annually, was spent on their lavish lifestyle, and this cost was increasing year by year.
This was also the source of the great nobles' transformation into great capitalists; the income from traditional industries could no longer satisfy their ever-increasing consumption demands.
Ferdinand deeply detested these bad habits and was eager to change everything. As for whether it would cause him to lose face as a noble, he stated that he would wear a disguise.
Ferdinand had no intention of challenging the aristocratic system; his position dictated his views, and he himself was a beneficiary. Ostensibly, Ferdinand remained a loyal supporter of the aristocratic system, maintaining his accustomed extravagance, at most having his maids double as secretaries.
While Ferdinand was reorganizing his industries, changes were also occurring in Vienna's retail sector. Under pressure from Volvo, many grocery stores experienced significant profit reductions, leading behind-the-scenes capitalists to transform and enter the supermarket industry.
Starting in February, a department store supermarket named "Doraemon" opened, breaking Volvo's monopoly and initiating a period of intense competition in the retail industry.
This continued until October, with over eighty large and small department store supermarkets opening in Vienna, a major international city.
Initially, everyone maintained a certain distance when choosing locations, intentionally avoiding direct confrontation. Although there was competition, they coexisted harmoniously, and everyone's profits were still acceptable.
However, after entering 1883, new entrants emerged like mushrooms after rain,and avoidance was no longer possible. In some areas, a single street had seven or eight department store supermarkets, and some supermarkets were directly door-to-door, openly competing for business.
As the supermarket industry had no technical barriers, capital flooded in. By the end of 1883, Vienna's supermarket density was comparable to that of later generations.
Brutal competition began, with various tactics emerging endlessly. Price wars were naturally the first choice, and advertisements for discounts and promotions were everywhere on the streets. Everyone's good days were over.
Volvo was the industry leader, with stores already spread across cities of all sizes in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and had also entered Germany and Italy. Although it was impacted, its stores in Vienna still maintained profitability.
It wasn't until March 1884 that the Korte Fei Department Store announced its reorganization, and this department store giant officially entered the supermarket sector.
Ferdinand was very surprised. He had not refrained from fanning the flames of the fierce competition in Vienna's supermarket sector, aiming to deter some large capitalists from entering.
It had been very successful before. Although Volvo's stores in Vienna were impacted, in other cities, relatively conservative capitalists were deterred by this and stopped. Volvo's losses in Vienna were more than made up for in other cities.
Ferdinand was well aware of the background of Korte Fei Department Store; it was backed by a large Hungarian financial group, and the Koháry family was one of them.
Since the dominant force was a Hungarian capitalist interest group involved in the flour processing industry, Ferdinand, although he also had flour mills, mostly produced for self-consumption, so he didn't pay much attention to this aspect normally. This time he was caught off guard.
Realizing what was happening, Ferdinand immediately used his family connections to understand the whole story.
Due to Volvo's rapid expansion, its proportion in the retail industry grew larger and larger, and the Shuanghui Flour Mill naturally followed suit, with its market share continuously increasing.
The sales of Hungarian flour in the Austro-Hungarian Empire plummeted, and the capitalists involved in the flour industry could no longer sit still. If Ferdinand were an ordinary person, they could naturally find ways to make him submit, or send him to meet God.However, Ferdinand was also a great Hungarian noble, making it an internal competition, and many tactics could not be used. Apart from those capitalists who felt the pain firsthand, others remained on the sidelines.
Therefore, they supported Korte Fei Department Store's entry to change Volvo's dominant position in the retail industry, also implying a desire to force Ferdinand to compromise.
Ferdinand was temporarily relieved; as long as it wasn't the intention of the entire Hungarian consortium, he wasn't afraid of a mere Korte Fei Department Store.
Moreover, the news came so quickly, and clearly indicated a willingness to negotiate, suggesting that the other party did not intend to fight him to the death.
This incident also taught Ferdinand a lesson: he must strengthen intelligence gathering. A transmigrator is not omnipotent; if he had paid more attention to these old family connections, the two sides would probably have settled things long ago, and this incident would not have happened.