Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Chapter 10, Beautiful Misunderstanding

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On December 12, 1848, a civil service exam with far-reaching influence on Austria began registration, signifying a fundamental change in how Austria selected its talent.

Although this exam was still an internal competition among the nobility, having competition was better than having none at all.

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Here, the declining nobility had the opportunity to return to the center of power, and the Austrian Government regained their support.

Government agencies, state-owned enterprises, teachers, and a series of other positions, combined, provided nearly 130,000 job opportunities for society, attracting over 186,000 applicants.

If this competition ratio was put into later times, many people would probably be overjoyed, but in this era, many still complained about the pressure.

In a small tavern in Vienna, a young man in his twenties complained, “Damn it, Raul, do you know what the Treasury Department is trying to do? Why do we still have to take an exam when we’ve entered the second round?”

“Give it a rest, Wigel. Everyone knows that we got into the second round without taking a test. I heard that the number of applicants for the Treasury Department already exceeds 8,000, but they are only recruiting 876 people, a pass rate of one in ten.

To eliminate the vast majority of candidates, is there a faster way than an exam?

If you’re afraid of competition, you could apply to be a primary school teacher. There are more positions available there and fewer applicants.” Raul took a small sip of wine and said with a chuckle

He wasn’t afraid of exams; he had been a top student at school and was confident in passing the exams unlike his friend, Wigel, the underachiever.

Cheating on the exam? Don’t even think about it, look at who’s allowed to take the exam. If a bunch of nobles caused a commotion, who could handle it?

If one had a strong network, they would have already joined the civil service without competing here, right?

“Forget it, I don’t want to spend my days in the countryside, no bars, no friends, it would be the death of me!” Wigel shook his head and said

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Compared to departments with actual power, it was much more tragic for the Ministry of Education recruiting teachers, many of whom turned pale at the thought of teaching in the countryside.

They planned to recruit 50,000 teachers but received less than 20,000 applications. To recruit enough teachers, the Ministry had to build schools on the outskirts of towns and cities.

Since the government was covering all the compulsory education costs, it was possible to manage by concentrating the students together, and at worst, they could adopt a boarding system.

In most areas, the government had confiscated a significant amount of the rebels’ immovable property, which could be transformed into school buildings.

Even so, the number of applicants for primary school teacher positions was still low, and the Education Ministry had to reduce the number of recruits.

After all, compulsory education couldn’t be popularized across the country overnight; it needed time to be promoted gradually. If there weren’t enough teachers, they could be trained slowly. The teacher training classes of the Education Ministry had already started enrolling students.

“So we have no choice but to compete. You know, the most competitive Senate Secretary position is only recruiting two people, yet over eight hundred applied, and the number keeps growing.

God, the chance of passing is less than one in four hundred, yet still, people dare to apply. You have to admire their courage,” Raul said in an exaggerated tone

A man nearby interjected, “What’s there to wonder about? The Senate Secretary serves the Cabinet Government, hobnobbing with the bigwigs every day. The potential for advancement is much greater.

Everyone wants to rise to the top in one step. If by chance you pass, you’ve hit the jackpot; if not, you’ve merely wasted a bit of the application fee.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m a bit tempted myself. After all, the examination times for each department aren’t all the same; it might be worth giving it a try,” Raul said after thinking it over

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The civil service exam wasn’t conducted uniformly; each department needed different kinds of talent, and Franz wasn’t planning on recruiting a bunch of all-rounders.

Therefore, the recruitment conditions varied; some departments faced fierce competition, with written and oral exams underway, while others had so few applications there was no room to be picky, and meeting the basic requirements sufficed.

As it was the first exam of its kind, nobody knew what would be on it, and the candidates could only fret without any direction for last-minute cramming.

Not only were they clueless, but even the various government agencies hosting the exam were somewhat bewildered, lacking experience and forced to refer to foreign talent selection systems.

In that era, Europe was still predominantly following the patronage system, and Austria was at the forefront of the world in breaking away from this system.

The Austrian civil service exam was closest to the Manchu Qing Dynasty’s imperial examination system. If there wasn’t such a time crunch, the Cabinet would have even considered sending people over for research.

Ultimately, Franz himself came up with suggestions; although he had never presided over a civil service exam, he had participated many times in his previous life and had rich experience in being eliminated.

Belvedere Palace

Prime Minister Felix furrowed his brow and said, “Your Majesty, for this civil service examination, we offered a total of 128,939 positions, with 589,656 entries, facing a serious situation where individuals are applying for multiple departments at once. Moreover, nearly thirty-five thousand positions received no attention, mainly concentrated in the educational department.”

Considering this situation, the government has decided to cancel these unapplied positions and to invalidate multiple applications from the same person for different departments, recognizing only the earliest department they applied for.”

In Austria, this civil service exam naturally couldn’t be as intricately subdivided as in the internet era, detailed down to every specific position.

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What individuals are applying for now are only departments, and the final allocation of specific positions depends on the actual situation. Except for a few departments that are recruiting only a few people and have specified positions, everything else is an unknown.

For example, those who apply to the Tax Department might stay in Vienna, possibly go to Croatia, or even become a traveling tax inspector around the country. The specific job placement won’t be known until after the exam is concluded.

Hearing that so many positions were unclaimed, Franz couldn’t help but massage his forehead. It was precisely because he was worried about the lack of applicants for posts in remote areas that he had incorporated all recruitment into the departments, to be allocated at the end.

He hadn’t expected that even so, it would still be impossible to fill all the vacancies. At that moment, he considered whether to transfer a portion of personnel from other departments to fill the gaps.

After hesitating for a while, he eventually dismissed this idea. A melon forced off its vine is not sweet. Such a forced arrangement would certainly lead to resentment, which would then affect the purity of the government team when brought into their work.

“The positions with no applicants can be entirely canceled, and if we’re short-handed, we’ll just have to train our own. I reckon that even if they pass the exam, many won’t want to go to some desolate backwater.

If they don’t want to go, let it be. We can’t force them against their will. Isn’t the army full of retired soldiers? Places in remote corners that the nobility’s offspring scorn surely wouldn’t be despised by soldiers, right?

We can select literate soldiers from among them, train them a bit, and have them serve as grassroots civil servants in remote areas.

As for the situation of individuals applying for multiple positions, let it go this time. We didn’t previously establish any rules, and their actions were legal, so consider it a lesson learned.

However, after they have passed the examination for one department, they will no longer be permitted to participate in subsequent departmental exams, and the registration fees will not be refunded.”

Franz did not bring up the issue of retired military officers. In this era, most of the Austrian army’s officers were of noble birth, and even if he himself no longer had a noble title, their parents, grandparents, uncles, or aunts would be nobility.

As offspring of the nobility, their treatment was different. The rank they held before they left the army would be matched with equivalent treatment after they transitioned to civilian life.

In other words, they were officers in the army, and they remained officials after transitioning. If they lacked the ability to perform adequately, they might be demoted, but their salary and benefits would not be reduced.

Of course, this only applies to those with military achievements. Officers without such achievements would not be afforded such favorable treatment upon their transition.

Franz’s suggestion to select and train talented individuals from among the soldiers was also limited to those who had made meritorious contributions; ordinary soldiers without battle honors naturally weren’t included in the training program.

Franz understood the applicants who repeatedly applied all too well, having experienced it himself. Everyone desires an additional opportunity, another option. However, this would increase the workload for the recruiting departments.

Franz still had integrity; since the government had not clarified this beforehand, they couldn’t shirk the responsibility. Increasing the workload would be accepted as their own burden to bear, a pit they had dug themselves.

With the government suddenly canceling more than thirty-five thousand positions, the recruitment ratio finally climbed to 2:1, hinting at a sense of fierce competition.

While the recruiting units were still concerned about creating exam questions, European public opinion was already boiling over.

Mainstream media outlets published various viewpoints; some supportive, some opposed. In any case, Austria’s civil service exam had become a focal point in European society.

Engels published an article in the Rheinische Zeitung, fully affirming the Austrian Government’s civil service examination system.

The reason was straightforward: the conditions published by the Austrian Government, which exclude the bourgeoisie but impose no restrictions on the working class or peasantry.

Theoretically, as long as their education level was sufficient, they could be selected to enter into the government system.

Together with the recent proposal for compulsory education by the Austrian Government, many believers in social ideologies considered Austria to be actively reforming, preparing to incorporate the working class into the government.

Alright, Franz wouldn’t come out to clarify this beautiful misunderstanding; having more supporters was always a good thing.

As an Emperor, what he needed was a group of people whose loyalty was above the passing line to help him manage the country, and the origins of these people were of no great importance.

One could only say that different national conditions require different talent recruitment mechanisms. In Austria, reliance on the nobility is a must, whereas in England and France, the bourgeoisie can also be the pillar of the state.

This is determined by the social environment. In a newly established country without deep-rooted nobility or a powerful bourgeoisie, the working class and the peasantry could likewise become the pillars of a nation.

If one blindly reforms and strays from the class that supports them, then Wang Mang serves as the best example.