Holy Roman Empire

More people are more powerful, but too many people will also forcibly "reduce intelligence".I'm not sure about other things, but when arguing, the more people there are, the more touching the scene will be.

Compared with the Holy Roman Empire Parliament with only a few dozen people, the British Parliament with a thriving population is obviously more difficult to manage.

As soon as Campbell's voice fell, an opposition member jumped out and questioned:

"Your Excellency, we all know that the empire is facing challenges, but this does not mean that taxpayers' money can be squandered at will.

It is only one year to increase the military budget by 7000 million pounds at one time. Does your Excellency think that the British pound is a scrap of paper, and we can print as much as we want?

Now that the enemy has increased the military budget by 5000 pounds, it is enough to follow up with the same amount.Could it be that under the same conditions, the Royal Navy is still afraid that they will fail? "

The times are changing, and everyone's expectations are also changing. The development plan of the Royal Navy is also constantly lowering the standards.

先是从最初的三强战略，变成了两强标准，接着又降低到了对老二5:3，再然后是10:7、4:3。

Gritting their teeth until now, many people's expectations have dropped again.Quite a bit after the First World War, the attitude of the British government towards the Americans.

At the beginning, he was tough and prepared to use the Royal Navy to suppress the Americans. After trying it, he found that his wallet was not enough, so he was forced to make concessions.

Although it has not reached that point yet, the Royal Navy's ever-expanding military expenditures still make the British government a little overwhelmed.

If it is only for a few years, it is naturally not a problem to rely on the heritage accumulated in Britain.

However, the Holy Roman Empire has become a big trend, and it will not be able to PK for a while.No one knows when this sudden naval arms race will end.

With reference to the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, many British people are ready to fight a protracted war, preparing to use up the advantage of the strait and wait for the situation in Europe to change.

If it was put on hold 100 years ago, there would be no problem with such a plan.It's a pity that the times are different now. If it is really consumed for a long time, Britain will suffer even more.

Frowning, Campbell explained helplessly: "Your Excellency only saw the military budget, but ignored the actual situation.

Although we have the most advanced shipbuilding industry in the world, our cost of building warships is still 10% to 15% higher than that of the Austrians.

Warship construction is a complex project, and the birth of each warship involves hundreds of industries.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the Empire does lag behind the Holy Roman Empire in terms of the overall industrial chain.

Not only the construction of warships, but also the construction of related supporting facilities and the cost of maintaining warships in the later stage, we are slightly higher than the enemy. "

There is no way to do it. Warships, an industry that involves many related companies, have to be affected by the industrial system.

As the world's largest industrial power, the Holy Roman Empire is obviously more advantageous in this regard.

For spare parts with the same function, the production cost of the Holy Roman Empire is lower than that of other countries, and the more technical the parts are, the more obvious this cost advantage is.

In the era of free trade, without any restrictions, British shipyards can also purchase spare parts from Shinra, which is nothing more than a little more freight, and there is no obvious disadvantage in terms of cost.

But with the collapse of the free trade system, such good days are gone forever.Imports need to pay high tariffs, which loses the cost performance.

The local enterprises that had been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy finally turned around, and now they naturally need to replenish their blood.

As the purchase price of spare parts went up, the unit price quoted by the shipyard naturally also went up.

For the healthy development of the industry, this bill can only be purchased by the British government.If you want to reduce the cost, you can only wait for the relevant enterprises to complete technological innovation.

Of course, although the cost has increased, it is still not too much to directly increase by 40%.

Campbell's explanation is more to divert the attention of the congressmen in order to obtain a higher military budget and ensure the absolute suppression of the Shinra Navy.

Chapter 1 The Real Crisis

Even coaxing and threats, coupled with the full support of the cabinet government, the British Parliament finally passed the motion to increase military spending with a narrow majority.

Only a budget of 7000 million pounds was cut to 6581 million.This is already considered good, and it is common for budgets to be cut in half in parliament.

Perhaps feeling the threat of Shinra, the congressmen were stimulated by reality, and they were merciful when they waved their sickles.

Even so, various processes have been carried out back and forth, and after the Navy completes the bidding to determine the shipyard, the time is still in May.

Before Campbell could breathe a sigh of relief, new bad news came again.The number of docks of more than [-] tons is insufficient, and it is impossible to start so many super battleships at one time.

"What, at this point, you tell me that there are not enough docks that meet the requirements?"

Prime Minister Campbell growled.

Don't be angry, but the super battleship weighs more than 2 tons. Such a large ship can't be placed on the slipway at all, and the construction must be carried out in the dock.

But the docks are not Chinese cabbage, especially the docks with more than [-] tons are even rarer.

In the original time and space until the outbreak of the First World War, no one heard of anyone starting construction of more than a dozen dreadnought ships at one time.

Even in World War II, only the American family was able to start construction of more than a dozen large warships at the same time.

Facing the Prime Minister's questioning, Secretary of the Navy Swinding replied with a sad face: "I am very sorry, Your Excellency Prime Minister.

Although I don't want to believe that the empire will be undercapacitated, this is the reality.The birth time of dreadnoughts is too short, and we simply don't have time to build more large docks. "

Although Britain's shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly in recent years, merchant ships exceeding [-] tons are still rare.

It's not that there is no technology, mainly because the market demand is not big.Although in theory, the larger the tonnage of the merchant ship, the lower the unit transportation cost, but that is only in theory.

Now that we have just entered the early 20th century, overseas trade is far less developed than later generations. How can we fill a merchant ship with more than 2 tons?

Now there are only a few bulk commodities that need to be shipped, namely: agricultural products, cotton textiles, petroleum, ore, and steel.

Although it is a bulk commodity, the demand for large merchant ships is actually still small.

Taking cotton textiles as an example, who dares to release tens of thousands of tons of goods at one time and enter the same market?

Even if there are large merchant ships, they can only fight orders.This list is not easy to fight. It is impossible to have so many orders that need to be shipped at the same time.

What's more, not all orders can be put together.Many commodities still have rigid requirements for transportation conditions.

For transportation companies, it is more economical to use [-]-ton merchant ships than to use [-]-[-]-ton merchant ships that are often not fully loaded.

The same is true for steel. Most countries purchase at most [-] tons a year, while countries that consume hundreds of thousands or even millions of tons can basically produce it themselves.

Even if there is an order, it is usually purchased in batches according to the actual situation.After all, steel is going to rust, and if you buy too much at one time, you may end up in your own hands.

The ore is not much better, the bulk is the bulk, the problem is that the demand in various countries is small!

In the era of free trade, for many countries, instead of buying ore for refining, it is better to purchase finished products directly in the market, which is more economically cost-effective.

This is also the case in Britain. Except for the high demand for steel and the need to build factories in the country for refining, other rare metals are bought directly.

Unlike later generations, even "aluminum" is a rare metal these days, and Britain consumes [-] tons at most every year, so it's not bad to smelt it yourself.

In the original time and space until 1913, the aluminum production in Britain was only more than 7000 tons.Large-scale industrial production was a matter of the middle and late twentieth century.

Not to mention other rare metals.Many of them only exist in the laboratory, and there is no industrial application at all.

The market demand is too small to accommodate too many enterprises.Capital seeks profit, and naturally no one does business that loses money.

Oil, which is the most consumed oil in later generations, is now mined a little over 3000 million tons a year, and most of it is produced and sold within Shinra.

Even if a large tanker is needed, such a business is internally digested, and it is impossible for the order to fall into the hands of a British shipyard.

The same is true for agricultural products. The Shinra family dominates, and the transportation is also arranged by itself. There is no chance for British shipyards to intervene.

The only market is the food of other people's homes.Without enough market orders, British shipbuilding companies will naturally not build a bunch of large shipyards.

If it weren't for proving one's own strength to the outside world, one must have the ability to undertake the construction of large merchant ships. With the integrity of capitalists, it is estimated that the few large shipyards may not necessarily appear.

Prime Minister Campbell angrily said: "I don't want to hear any explanation, the problem now is that we need to build warships, but the production capacity cannot meet the demand.

Is it true that your Admiralty is always idle? Why didn't you report such a big problem in advance?

Now something is wrong, how do you plan to end, the enemy will not give us so much time to prepare! "

No matter how many reasons there are, the Admiralty cannot absolve itself of the blame for this situation.

"I didn't know that the enemy would be so crazy and order so many dumplings at once."

This kind of reason is okay to use to shirk responsibility, but it can't solve the actual problem.

Swinding explained embarrassingly: "We have already taken countermeasures. The shipyard had already started working overtime to build a new large shipyard as early as three months ago.

In view of the current situation, we have modified the design of some warships.

At the cost of sacrificing part of the performance, the displacement was successfully reduced, so that the [-]-ton dock can also meet the demand.

Although there were more large docks in the Holy Roman Empire, there were only six docks exceeding [-] tons, and three of them were already in use.

Judging from this aspect, the number of dreadnought ships built by the enemy over [-] tons is no more than three at most, which happens to be the same as ours.

The rest are the first generation of dreadnoughts. Even if our displacement is smaller, our combat effectiveness will not be much weaker than theirs. "

Notifying the shipyard in advance to build a new large-scale dock naturally does not exist. If the Ministry of the Navy responded so quickly, the problem would have been thrown out long ago.

However, discerning capitalists did start working ahead of schedule.To a certain extent, this can be regarded as saving the Admiralty politically.

As long as the capitalists admit that the construction of large docks is related to the Ministry of the Navy, it will prove that the Ministry of the Navy has taken strong countermeasures in a timely manner, and the matter will be over.

I don't know if there is any benefit transfer behind this. Anyway, the shipyards that built large docks in advance have all received orders from the Ministry of the Navy.

These are all minor issues. We are all grasshoppers on the same rope and political allies. There is no need to add insult to injury at this time.

Usually, people don't feel it. Anyway, the British Empire can develop any technology, it's just a matter of one step ahead and one step behind.

Now that the real meaning is about to be matched, everyone suddenly realizes that things are serious.It is true that the Royal Navy has an advantage, but the overall industrial level of the British Empire cannot keep up!

The production cost is high and there is no cost performance, and the troublesome production capacity can't keep up.

Everyone present was playing politics and was pushed up. They didn't know much about the details of the industry.

The window paper is not pierced, no one can think of it.Now that the blind spot of thinking has been pierced, many problems that are usually ignored have flooded into everyone's minds.

They are all elites of the era, so naturally they would not naively think that Britain's current problem is only a shortage of large shipyards.

After a little brainstorming, everyone knows that there is a big problem in Britain's industrial system.

The world is so delicate. In order to better plunder the wealth of other countries, Britain created a free trade system with its own hands.

Wealth has indeed been plundered. In the past years, British capital has made a lot of money, but the sequelae have become so "billion points".

There is no feeling in the free trade system. It has just become independent, and the British industrial system has a big problem.

The number of large docks is not enough, so the production capacity of supporting enterprises for warships must be able to meet the demand?

Don't forget, not so long ago, these same guys were crying and shouting to withdraw from the free trade system and implement tariff barriers to protect the market.

If it is a normal period, it will be slower if it is slower, and it can support its own industry, and it is not a loss to delay a little time.

It's different now, the two sides are competing for speed.Britain's shipbuilding plan has fallen behind, and if there is some trouble in the middle, it will be over.

Prime Minister Campbell, who was in a cold sweat, hurriedly ordered: "Order the major shipyards to purchase relevant spare parts immediately.

The speed must be fast, and we must hoard enough spare parts before the Vienna government reacts. "

He went to the doctor in a hurry, maybe it was!But Campbell can't afford to gamble. The current situation is no longer easy for the British government to make major decision-making mistakes.

The domestic production capacity is insufficient, and it is only the production capacity of some spare parts.Even if the production capacity is insufficient, there are many substitutes, which do not necessarily need to be purchased from the Holy Roman Empire.

However, the time belonging to the British government is limited, and there is no time to carefully screen.If it happens that a certain part is out of stock and a replacement cannot be found, it will be a tragedy.

Who made it so that only the Shinra family has the most complete industrial system these days?

Britain originally had a complete industrial system, but it was a pity that it did not keep up with the second industrial revolution and took a breather at a critical moment.

After this break, he fell directly behind the team.Many industries have been impacted by new technologies, and capitalists have turned around to play finance, and fewer and fewer people are willing to invest in real industries.

Of course, the American industrial system is quite complete.It's just that the technology is a few times behind, so we can only copy products that have no technical content.

If you really expect to obtain spare parts from the Americans, it is better to wait for your own company to explode its production capacity, which is more reliable.

By this time, everyone already understands why the Vienna government suddenly changed its style and became aggressive all of a sudden.

Such a big flaw was clearly placed under the nose of the enemy.If you don't take the opportunity to add insult to injury, do you have to wait for Britain to get out of the trough before doing it?

Chapter 1: Logistics is urgent

The British government is in trouble, and the outside world naturally knows nothing about it.There is neither satellite monitoring nor convenient network communication these days.

Being able to roughly judge the industrial production capacity of a country is already awesome.It is simply impossible to figure out the situation of each subdivided industry.

Even if it is to collect intelligence, it starts from within the British government.The British government itself did not make statistics in advance, and it is even more impossible for others to help with statistics.

With such a big event happening, it is natural to keep it strictly confidential.Permanent secrecy is unrealistic, and it is still possible to block news in the short term.

Just as the British were waving banknotes and buying and buying everywhere, the Russo-Japanese War also entered a fierce stage.

Perhaps it had learned the lessons of previous wars, or perhaps it was simply because the Russian navy was weak, this time the tsarist government was rarely rational and did not play expeditions.

Of course, the external statement is that after the warships ordered by Shinra are in service, they will go to the Japanese to settle accounts.