Part 4: CHAPTER TWO: Doldrums

CHAPTER TWO: Doldrums

The revolution is over and Texas is a sovereign nation. A small nation, with no army to speak of, a leaky treasury, sandwiched between the premier New World powers (though there is a noticable gap between the USA and Mexico) but we still exist, so that's got to be worth something.



Apparenlty some South Germans think so too, and have immigrated to Texas (this an overview of the state, not the whole republic, hence the lack of Yankees). However, the trickle of immigrants is still slow. Immigrants look lowly upon countries that practice slavery; we are not likely to receive many until it is abolished.



Colorado is made a state. For mobilization purposes I will need as many available pops as I can get, but thats a while off.



These are the pops in the Austin province. Pops are population groups, each with their own ideology, religion, job, culture and militancy/conciousness values. The population for our country is determined by adding up the population values of each pop then tripling that number. (ie a pop of 1000 farmers actually represents 3000 people). Therefore there are currently 62247 people living in Austin and 12390 slaves.



Clergymen probably serve some useful purpose but I don't know what it is and they aren't doing much for me now, so this pop gets converted to Farmers. Labourer and Farmer are essentially the same job (they change from one to other depending on what type of resource is being gathered in the province) and most pops can be demoted to Labourers for free. No one seems to mind or notice when we tell the clergy to get to work on the ranch.



I've got plans for this pop. Those are the requirements for me to educate them to clerks. Clerks and Craftsmen are the only pops that can work in factories, so they will be neeeded later, but Clerks are the only ones who can be educated to become Capitalists, who are vital for capitalist countries.



We put in orders on the World Market for materials we lack for the education process. Some of the materials we need are expensive. A few of the materials we need (Luxury furniture/clothes) are very expensive.



Texas does not put money ahead of progress! The clerks are quickly educated to capitalists. It did not actually cost £10000, that is a typo. I think it was actually about £4000. Still a lot of money.

Capitalists accumulate money over time. I believe its a percentage of the export profits per day, with some modifiers from Economic technology and the economic position of the political party in power. After the build up a tidy sum they will spend it on things. They will build railroads, factories, and sometimes even buy state bonds; sometimes they spend it on nothing (probably making hats out of it).
Capitalist countries can't do these things themselves, so we have to research the right things and hope the capitalists don't decide to make hats out of all that money they get.




This was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. Mexico may see us as a potential trading partner (or even ally against the US), and while we're willing to maybe do some trading later, Mexico will probably go declare war on me at some point anyway.



Clean coal research is done, and we begin researching experimental railroad. Railroads increase productivity of provinces and states, and increase troop movement speed. We want the increased productivity (and increased industrial score that railroads bring) but this could mean Mexico using the rails in our country against us. Not that it takes long to march through mostly flat Texas as it is.



We send a diplomat to Mexico to attempt an increase in relations, but he doesn't make much progress. Not much later Mexico tries to increase relations again. They probably figure we value El Paso, San Antonio and Corpus Christi pretty high and could get a good deal for them. We're not willing to trade for now though, as our mediocre relations impede trade (the AI won't accept any reasonable trades below 100 relations).



Things seem to be going as they usually do for China. That is to say, they are going to get their ass kicked by Europe.



The US is pretty much the best ally we could hope to have right now, and its good to know they are intent on staying close to us.



We've changed up the budget slightly. The capitalists in Austin haven't done anything useful with their money, and they make slightly more cash than the the rest of the country combined, so we've eliminated all taxes on the lower (farmers, labourers, soldiers) and middle (clerks, craftsmen, clergy) classes and will subsist on the 33% upper class (officers, capitalists, aristocrats) tax. The capitalists don't really care and are probably too busy figuring out how to make entire suits out of money.



The first election campaign started on Nov 5 of 1839.



And it's looking to be a landslide for the Nationalists, who believe we are not militaristic enough and that our ability to raise tariffs should be capped. Though there are 9 months in the campaign, it is doubtful the polls will change, with so little currently going on.



The Yucatan has declared its independence from Mexico, citing grievances similar to those of Texas. Though we secretly support the Yucatecans, we do not with to ruin any of the relatively good relations with Mexico that we've gained in the past year, should Mexico move to re-annex the Yucatan.



Bolivia decides to join the club.



Research on Experimental Railroad is complete, and research is directed towards Early Railroads. Hopefully our money-clothed capitalists in Austin will take notice and start laying down some rails.



We send an envoy to London to attempt to foster good relations with the other Great Power on our continent, and Mexico continues to bring Mexican-Texan relations higher.



There was a tax rally in Texas that didn't affect the polls at all, and it appears the UK has gotten mad a China about something and declared colonial war.(Uncivilized nations don't have the honor of having proper wars declared on them)



Election day comes and goes, and the Nationalists win as expected. The President is none other than General Sam Houston himself. Before the war Samuel was strictly pro-annexation into the US, but after seeing how bravely the Texan army defended Austin throughout the Revolutionary War, and how willing the US is to stand by an independent Texas, and how much liquor he could buy with the money in the Texas treasury, he became a fervent Nationalist.

With whiskey on his breath, Houston delivered an inaugural address that would be remembered not for his resounding voice or its fevered anti-Mexico jingoism, but his ridiculous hat, which no one could convince him to remove prior to the address, and his promise that one day a man will be able to ride from Corpus Christi to San Diego and never leave the Lone Star Republic.

edit:curse Word Wrap!