Holy Roman Empire

Half of the anti-Semitic movement in Europe came from this way.The nobles couldn't pay back the money, and they didn't want to bear the bad reputation of reneging on debts, so they simply turned against the Jews, and wiped off the creditors directly.

Now the government's bottom line is different. Everyone's risk has been minimized, so you don't have to worry about losing money due to accidents.

There are many nobles who have succeeded in the African continent in recent years, but even more nobles who have failed.Those who don't know how to control risks and are greedy for merit will now have grass growing on their graves.

Any colonial empire is made up of a vast pile of bones. The collapse of the later colonial empires is mainly because no one is willing to continue to shed blood for the colonies.

In the final analysis, it is still a matter of benefit distribution. The bureaucratic group and capitalists have divided up almost all the benefits, and the rest have no soup to drink. Who is willing to continue to work hard?

Looking at the major colonial empires, few people said that the colonies were losing money in the early days of their business. On the contrary, after decades or hundreds of years of operation, they frequently suffered losses when the empire went downhill.

Is it the creation of less wealth?Or is the cost of governance really skyrocketing, to the point where it can't make up for it?

Obviously, colonies that have been operating for decades can create more wealth.But the government's fiscal revenue has rarely increased, and the money has gone into private pockets.

On the contrary, various expenditures are constantly increasing.The declining Portuguese is an example. As far as Franz knows, the Portuguese colonial system can no longer bring wealth to the government.

Not only Portugal, but the cost of ruling the major colonial empires is constantly increasing, but the taxes of most colonies can still bear this expense.

The decay of bureaucratic groups and the greed of interest groups are almost unsolvable problems.Similar problems exist even in the mainland, let alone colonies?

The free trade doctrine that is emerging now has begun to attack the colonial system, believing that it will bring a heavy financial burden to the government.

It cannot be said to be foresight. These people mainly criticized from a moral point of view because they did not directly benefit from the colonial system.

In Franz's view, this is a typical example of picking up the bowl to eat, putting down the chopsticks and cursing.They are obviously enjoying the dividends brought by the colonial system, but they refuse to admit it, and think that maintaining colonial rule is costly.

Little do they know that the industrial revolution was about cannibalism, and the primitive accumulation of capital was bloody, either externally or internally.

There was no so-called free trade in the 19th century, and the British were just shouting slogans, wanting countries to open their markets to them.

Of course, while maintaining their competitive advantage, they don't mind also opening their markets to other countries.Once this advantage disappears, then turn your face and deny anyone.

Otherwise, in the original time and space, why would the Germans challenge the old world?It is not because of the lack of industrial raw materials, and the dumping of commodities in the market, that the chariot is pushed by capital.

When the British and French free traders got their wish and got rid of the decadent colonial system, what they ushered in was not a new life, but a rapid decline.

The local area is small, resources are poor, and industrial development is inherently restricted. Facing the cruel reality, we have to play de-industrialization and drink poison to quench our thirst.

These problems are not troublesome for the time being.Before the colonial system entered the era of great losses, such calls would not be able to gain momentum.

No matter how loudly free trade is shouted, everyone must cooperate.We are all playing trade protection now, and your family ran to play free trade, are you afraid that you will not die fast enough?

Franz said calmly: "Don't worry, we have a preliminary understanding of the geological conditions in South Africa.

The local land is fertile, the climate is pleasant, and the mineral resources are relatively rich, so the future development potential is still promising.

After a comprehensive assessment, the South African region should be the land with the most development potential in the African continent.The current investment can be recovered in the near future. "

Franz didn't mention the gold issue, and until the dust settles, it's best not to get involved.Anyway, driving the British out of the African continent is also one of Austria's national policies.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Carl explained: "Your Majesty, no matter what the development potential is, it is a matter of the future. We do not lack a piece of land with unlimited development potential.

In fact, this kind of land with most of the resources is not necessarily a good thing.If you don't prepare in advance, there may be a big tail in the future.

The most urgent task is to end this war as soon as possible.Now that the French have stabilized the situation in Italy, our goal of sharing the pressure for them has been achieved, and there is no need to continue to spend with the British. "

There is nothing wrong with this statement, and too many resources may not be a good thing.With all resources available, the dependence on the empire is reduced.

Franz nodded thoughtfully, it seems that fragmentation of South Africa is imperative.It is necessary to implement provincial system management as soon as possible to replace the current South African Governor's Mansion, so as to avoid regional cliques in the future.

"We don't need to worry about the war. The officers and soldiers on the front line still want to end the war as soon as possible for Christmas. It's only about a month away. There is no need to put more pressure on them.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs took an opportunity to remind the French that we have fulfilled the agreement, and this time we have held back half of the British Army for them. "

There is nothing wrong with this statement. From a quantitative point of view, the troops invested by the British in South Africa have exceeded half of the total number of the army.

Doing good deeds also needs to be named. If you don’t tell others, how will others know?The more you give, the more you will gain. This is an era of equivalent exchange.

Brothers have to settle accounts clearly, let alone allies?It's better to put this kind of thing in the open.

Even if the countries only talk about interests, when talking about the friendship between France and Austria, this is also a testimony of the friendship between the two countries.

It doesn't seem to be very useful now, maybe it will be needed in the future.It is enough to take it out to fool the sophomores.This kind of propaganda material was needed when France was cultivating Austrians.

Chapter 50 Industrial Tuition

There are many types of minerals, coal, iron and petroleum are the most important.

Russia, Pakistan, China, Australia, Inca and the United States have high iron ore reserves;

The coal mines are in China, the United States and Russia, and the coal quality in Asia, Europe and North America is good;

The distribution of oil is very concentrated, the Middle East, Russia, the United States, China, Mexico, and Britain.

……

Franz still remembers this passage in the geography class in his previous life clearly, and it can be summed up as the shortage of minerals in Europe.

On the one hand, the development time is too early, and many resources will be exhausted in the 21st century; on the other hand, there are really not many mineral reserves.

Except for Russia, which is the only exception, all European countries are poor ore countries, or the distribution of mineral resources is single.A typical example: Germany is short of almost everything except coal and iron ore.

This is the envy of many countries. The two most basic elements of the industrial age are available. Why is the French next door still short of coal?

In contrast, Austria is considered happy, perhaps with a slightly larger territory, and basically all mineral resources are available.It's just that this reserve is a bit out of reach.

Of course, this is also in a relative sense.Compared with countries in Europe other than Russia, Austria's mineral resources still have an advantage.

These resources laid the foundation for Austria's industrial development. In 1870, Austria's steel production surpassed that of the British for the first time, ranking first in the world with an annual output of 648 million tons.

Of course, the advantage is not obvious, only surpassing the British by 2 tons.The main factor causing the rapid growth of Austrian steel production is the growth of demand in the domestic market.

A local market with more than 3000 million people and a local market with more than 7000 million people have both completed industrialization, and the demand for steel is obviously greater for the latter.

In fact, this output is still not enough to meet market demand. In addition to the local market, African colonies are also a large steel consumer.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Industry, Austria's steel demand will double in the next ten years, of which the demand for steel products will reach 150 million tons.

Seeing this data, Franz had a headache.At present, the steel production in the Bohemia region has encountered a bottleneck, and the growth rate of production has slowed down. If you want to quickly expand production capacity, you must carry out technological innovation.

However, this is not very realistic. The steel technology has only undergone a revolution not long ago, and it is almost impossible to make another breakthrough in the short term with the existing industrial technology.

Although the second steel production base in Bosnia and Herzegovina is developing rapidly, there is still a long way to go to fill this vacancy, and it will not be achieved within ten years.

Now Austria's most important steel companies are mostly concentrated in the Bohemia region (later the Czech region), accounting for 63% of the country's steel production.

In addition, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Linz, Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Saxony, Galicia, Silesia and other regions are distributed.

The main reasons for this situation are various. The steel plants in Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony are historical relics and have not been developed due to limited resources.

In the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, the industry started too late, and the government is still busy building roads. Although the iron and steel enterprises have settled down, they cannot exert their maximum production capacity in a short period of time due to traffic constraints.

Galicia is not paid enough attention by the government to compete with Bohemia; Silesia is the fault of the Prussians. The mess left by them running away has just been cleaned up by the Vienna government.

Human factors can be overcome, the most troublesome thing is the distribution of resources.There are many coal and iron mines in Austria, but unfortunately they are not concentrated.

In order to develop, iron and steel enterprises must move closer to the origin of raw materials, which has resulted in a situation of blooming everywhere.

In Franz's view, the capitalists made the right choice.Since you want to invest, the main purpose is to make money.If it is far away from the origin of raw materials, the competitiveness of products will naturally not be guaranteed.

Today, the concentration of heavy industry is no longer suitable for Austria.The supply of resources in every place is limited, and only 100 million tons of steel raw materials can be provided, so you can't smelt 200 million tons of steel.

To meet the growing domestic demand, it is inevitable to open several more industrial bases.Except for Germany, where resources are concentrated, almost every major industrial country has multiple industrial bases.

After carefully reading the information, Franz made a decision: "There is no need to do this multiple-choice question. Given the domestic development situation, the demand for steel will only increase.

Adding a heavy industry base today and adding another heavy industry base tomorrow, it is better to develop at the same time.

Serbia, Silesia, and Galicia all have the potential to develop into heavy industry bases. Let's list them together this time!

In other areas, as long as there are coal mines and iron mines at the same time, and the transportation is relatively convenient, they can also be developed.

The government formulates corresponding policies and finds ways to solve transportation problems, and the final development is left to enterprises and the market. "

In this era, the governments of various countries are laissez-faire in the development of industry, and the development of industry is basically determined by the market economy.

The Austrian government's solution to infrastructure problems is actually an administrative intervention in the market economy, but it is relatively subtle.

Just look at Russia next door. As the most resource-rich country in Europe, its steel production is less than one-twentieth of Austria's.

It's not that the Russian capitalists didn't see business opportunities, it's mainly because the traffic is too bad.The tsarist government refused to solve the traffic problem and asked them to build roads to pass by themselves. Who would dare to do this business?

After the tsarist government paid attention to transportation, Russian industry began to really develop.It is a pity that the Russian Empire is too large, and this road is too difficult to repair.

Before World War I, the Russians only repaired more than 7 kilometers, which was the result of the efforts of successive tsars.

Before crossing, Franz often complained about Russian traffic, but after arriving in this world, his views changed.

The roads of the Russian Empire are really difficult to repair. The technical difficulty and construction cost of building railways in the ice and snow country are much higher than those of European countries, but the tsarist government is a poor ghost.

"If you want to get rich, build roads first", this sentence is absolutely true.However, there is no money for road repairs, which is a tragedy.

What's even more tragic is that the Russian railways are not only expensive to build, but also much more expensive to maintain than European countries.Even if the railway is repaired, there is no guarantee that it will be open to traffic all year round.

In order to ensure the smooth flow of the railway, the railway company has to invest a large number of workers in winter for maintenance. It only takes a few hours for many sections of the road, and the snow will cover the railway.

In this way, the operating cost of the railway will go up, and the freight will naturally increase.Originally cheap industrial raw materials are no longer cheap after being transported for thousands of miles.

It was a late start, and faced with such harsh conditions, coupled with the decay of the tsarist government, it is not surprising that the Russian industry did not develop.

It is estimated that Alexander II has not thought about these issues yet, and he is still busy leading the Russian people to open up wasteland.

No, the land reclamation has been going on for almost two years, and now they should be worrying about what to do with the newly added grain.

If you want to sell food, you must first be able to ship it out.Not to mention the grain in Ukraine, the grain exports of the Russian Empire mainly come from here.

There is also a way to transport food in the Moscow region through rivers.For food in the Caucasus, build roads first, it is really a headache without railways.

The most tragic thing is the Siberian Plain. The Russian people who opened up wasteland here are tragic. Not to mention the bad weather conditions, after all, the land given by the Tsar will pass.

The problem of transportation is a headache. Rivers exist. The prerequisite is that the land of your home must be along the river, and the river must be able to navigate normally.

Fortunately, Alexander II exempted the tax on newly reclaimed land, otherwise the tax collectors would have collapsed.The people have no money in their pockets, so should they collect food to pay taxes, or not?

Perhaps for the Russian people, this is also a trouble of happiness.You don't have to worry about going hungry anymore. If it takes a few more years, everyone's warehouses will be full of food.

The time is still short, and the power of land reclamation cannot be seen for the time being, but looking at the big data, Franz knows that Alexander II's reform is half successful.

More food means lower prices. In addition to filling the stomachs of farmers, it can also support a large number of workers at the lowest cost.

When everyone has enough to eat, the country will be stable.Most Russians will be content, at least for decades.

The only question is whether it can withstand the counterattack of the conservatives. With so much newly reclaimed land, how can the Russian nobles not be tempted?

After the land reclamation was completed, some people jumped out to pick peaches.If land annexation cannot be curbed, the Russian Empire will still be in crisis again.

Land acquisition is still a problem in the future, and the biggest problem right now is grain sales.If so much grain cannot be sold in the international market, then the fun will be great.

This time does not need to be too long. Next year or the year after that, the Russian Empire will experience an oversupply of food.

So far, the Russians have newly opened up at least 2 million mu of arable land, which is almost half of Austria's native arable land.

Fortunately, the newly developed land of the Russians is relatively bad, and the grain output is relatively low. In many places, potatoes can only be grown for one season.

According to Austria's land output standards, this grain output can directly burst the international grain market.

In response to the impact of Russian grain on the international market, Austria has already started to destock, and many smart farmers are planning to switch to cash crops.

As for the grain processing industry, it is still dominated by Austria.Taking advantage of self-production and self-marketing, it has defeated many competitors over the years and controlled the terminal pricing of the grain market.

Even if the Russians export grain, most of it is first exported to Austria, and after finishing the refined processing, it is then sold to European countries.

Those who are close to the water first get the moon, and this advantage will not change in the short term.Unless the Russians complete industrialization and develop their own processing industry.

This involves industry again, and it is not a matter of overnight to want to change.Take the flour processing industry as an example: the flour produced by Russian enterprises is not only expensive, but also of poor quality.

Now the flour sold in many cities of the Russian Empire is actually produced in Austria, which shows how competitive the products of Russian companies are.

The machinery of this era is not so easy to use. Unlike the noodle grinders of later generations, they are all operated by fools, and anyone can master them.

Today's machinery is all high-tech. Without professional technicians, it is impossible to play at all. The short board in talents is not so easy to make up for.

It is not so easy to send people to train skilled workers.In this era, countries exported machinery and equipment, and many mines were buried in advance.

For example, for the mechanical equipment exported from Austria, the manuals are all in German, and there may be a few sentences in the local dialect when they reach the key points.

Even a professional translator will be able to understand the meaning.So what to do?Naturally, experts are hired, and the company can make another fortune by exporting labor services later.

If there is a little black heart, they will lay an ambush in some places, deliberately let the buyer continue to earn maintenance fees because of improper operation without knowing it.

This is why everyone has imported the most advanced equipment in Europe, and they have to toss back and forth, so that the manufacturers can't make enough money, so they don't want to start work smoothly.

There are even some unscrupulous merchants who first sell machinery and equipment at a low price to lure buyers into being fooled, and then manipulate the machinery and equipment to earn huge profits through later maintenance.

If it weren't for these invisible obstacles, in this era of no technical barriers, the industrial production levels of all countries in the world could be pulled on the same line.