 Invited by Prince Milan Obrenović to form a government, Piroćanac formed a Progressive cabinet on October 19, 1880, that during its three years in office introduced significant reforms into Serbian society.Under his government Serbia concluded a commercial treaty with Austria-Hungary and started the strategically important construction of a railway (Belgrade-Niš and Niš-Pirot) in order to link Serbia with both Central Europe and Ottoman Turkey.The Education Minister in his government, Stojan Novaković, made primary school compulsory and modernized school curricula, putting emphasis on liberal and positivist subjects instead of on classical Latin-based education.