In 1829, an engineer named Francis Xaver Riepl and the Austrian banker Salomon von Rothschild decided that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was ready to enter the Railroad Era.
The two men went to the court of the Habsburg Emperor Francis I and requested permission and funds to build Austria’s first steam-powered railroad line.
But Francis was not blind.
His family dynasty had ruled large swaths of Europe and all of Austria for more than 550 years, and it hadn’t maintained its dominion for centuries by ignoring threats to its power.
The emperor knew exactly what was happening to the British monarchy and nobility as the industrial revolution overhauled Britain, and wanted no part of it.