Chapter 142: Railroad Network
Chapter 140 Railroad Network
On July 11, 1849, Franz proposed at an enlarged meeting of the Austrian government, “The establishment of an Austrian core industrial system.”
Immediately after, the Austrian government opened the field research work, what industry as the core development center of gravity, it is not Franz a pat on the head can decide.
Even if the reason is sufficient, it is necessary to collect enough information and analyze it to ensure that everything is safe before it can be determined.
The reality of the result is very face, there is enough evidence to show that this era to focus on the development of the military industry, then the focus is – naval military industry.
The hundreds of thousands of rifles for the army added up to the price of one or two battleships. Artillery is a bit more expensive, but not by much, and the Army’s biggest military expense in this era is personnel salaries and training costs, not weaponry.
The focus of the military industrialization enterprises is research and development and production capacity, production capacity do not have to consider, the domestic market is so big, the international arms market is even smaller, blindly increase production capacity is a death wish.
R & D can not spend much money, a few types of artillery, rifles, how much money need to be invested? Is one million guilders per year enough?
If not, 10 million rupiah will never be spent.
In this era, all the countries in Europe in the army weapons and equipment in the total research and development costs, whether there is 10 million guilders, are a big question mark?
Franz estimated that there is no, most of the European military industrial enterprises are private enterprises, are profit-oriented, R & D expenses invested too much, simply can not recover costs.
As long as the profits are decent, don’t expect the capitalists to innovate in science and technology.
This era of technological innovation is not a good word, more than ninety-nine percent failure rate, capitalists are cautious when investing.
This is also why there is the argument that wars drive weapons development, only in times of war will people be willing to invest in research and development of new weaponry.
In comparison, the navy is the beast that swallows gold, but unfortunately, that navy of the Austrian Empire seems to be too pocket-sized, and can probably be ranked six, seven, or eight in the world.
If the focus was on developing the navy, it probably wouldn’t take long for it to shoot up to third place in the world, behind Britain and France.
And then it won’t be able to rush up, those two are not the same as the dregs behind them, both in terms of accumulated technological prowess and overall national power are much stronger.
Considering the dreaded naval arms race, Franz wimped out for a split second. The Austrian Navy was still only able to fight its way around the Mediterranean, so what was the point of getting a big fleet out there?
Britain and France were both colonial empires before they engaged in big navies, and now the few naval powers are all colonial countries. Austria, even if it is now ready to participate in colonial activities, but also do not need to immediately big explosion of the navy ah?
Franz wasn’t going to grab India with the British, so why play arms race with them?
The final research report shows that it is enough to emphasize the development of the military industry, and the government’s annual allocation of a few million dollars for research and development will ensure the world’s advanced level.
The level of basic industry is put here, not the more the government emphasizes and invests, the bigger the final harvest will be.
Looking at this report, Franz can only in his heart scolded the later generations of the unscrupulous experts and professors to distort history.
Think about it, the Austro-Prussian War, Franco-Prussian War Prussia invested in new weapons, in addition to a new type of rifle, what else to take?
Is it possible that the final result of the military industry, which was developed by the whole country, was a breechloading rifle?
Isn’t that a lie? Were the leaders of the Prussian government fools?
Other than that, Franz guaranteed that hundreds of thousands of guilders, Austria now even machine guns can get out.
In other words, is now the plate of the military industry is still small, as long as the government to allocate a small part of the energy out, you can maintain the world’s advanced level.
That’s right, the Austrian military industry in this era is still at a world advanced level, and it’s not behind compared to any other country.
Franz did not prepare to develop across generations, airplanes, tanks and other high-tech products, he is not ready to immediately develop.
In fact, it is developed, but also can not be produced.
Manufacturing tanks is barely, the big deal is the legendary steam tanks, although a little bit of magic, at least in theory is feasible; but has anyone heard of steam airplanes?
Face it, face it, anyway, Franz’s thick skin. Fortunately, the Austrian government is pragmatic, or when the national policy is determined, then you can only break the teeth into the stomach to swallow.
September 11, 1849, the Austrian government will be in charge of the railroad construction of independent departments, the establishment of the Ministry of Railroads, railroads officially become the core industry of Austria in the next twenty years.
On September 13th, the Austrian government also determined the core status of the manufacturing industry and agricultural products processing industry, all of which were supervised by the Ministry of Industry.
At this point, the Austrian Empire to promote the advance of the troika, all in place. The question now was how to develop these industries.
“Your Majesty, this is the draft from the Ministry of Railroads on the rapid completion of the national railroad network, please take a look.” The new Minister of Railroads, Baron Stein, said
After saying that, he handed over a document to Franz. The document wasn’t very thick, only a thin dozen pages.
Franz smoothly took the document and flipped through it, the content inside was not much, but it was very informative. There were tables and text descriptions, all of them were purely handmade, probably rushed too much, some lines were still bent.
After spending ten minutes or so, Franz roughly skimmed through it before saying with an expressionless face, “Jenny, fetch a map of Austria.”
This was a plan for the national railroad network, and there were many cities involved, Franz didn’t have such a good memory that he could remember every place clearly.
Looking against the map, Franz found that once this plan was implemented, all of Austria’s major cities were connected, and some of the railroads were also extended to the border areas, obviously the Ministry of Railways also took into account the military needs.
“There is no problem with the plan, the question is technically achievable? Many of the regional railroads go through high mountains, which will make railroad construction a very severe test.” Franz thought for a moment and said
“Your Majesty, this is only a draft, in reality, before construction, engineers must still be sent to conduct field inspections along the way, and until we have these data, we cannot guarantee that it can be implemented.
We have already made preparations to make a detour once certain sections of the road are restricted by geography and cannot be repaired. Now it’s just a matter of what we’re trying to achieve to get the railroad extended to the major cities of the country.” Stein explained
Franz nodded, technically Stein wasn’t a qualified manager, he was more of an engineer.
However, right now the main job of the Austrian Ministry of Railways was to build roads, and railroad management was the responsibility of the subordinate railroad companies, while under the supervision of the Ministry of Transportation.
If it were not for the importance the government attaches to railroads, there might not be such a high rank as the Ministry of Railways, but rather a railroad construction company.
Since it is purely road construction, Franz naturally do not mind appointing an experienced engineer to preside over the work, at least do not have to worry about the emergence of the heavenly railroad construction program.
Stein was involved in the design and construction of many Austrian railroads, and was one of the most famous Austrian railroad engineers in this era.
Originally Austria’s Austrian government gracefully invited the chief engineer of the railroad, and now shifted to become the Minister of Railroads.
The name has changed, the right is big, but the content of the work has not changed. He is still responsible for repairing the railroad, to participate in the design and construction.
Railroad designers in this era is very bitter, they must be personally involved in the field exploration of important sections of work, can not sit in the office to blow the air-conditioning benefits.
Franz was not at all worried about whether this plan for the railroad network would be completed, but when it would be completed was the question.
The 19th century is not the 21st century, more than 38,000 kilometers of railroad network, that even the main road is more than 12,000 kilometers.
It was not easy to build so many kilometers of railroads. There are now only 1,359 kilometers of railroads in operation in Austria, and 896 kilometers of railroads under construction.
“How long will it take to complete this program?” Franz asked with concern
“At least twenty years, if the financial resources are sufficient, this time can be greatly shortened.”
Stein didn’t say the words to death, building railroads is not other industries, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can still start multiple lines, the construction speed can naturally be multiplied.
Franz did not half a ring without speaking, this answer is equal to no answer, more than 38,000 kilometers of railroad, if slowly repair, twenty years time is not necessarily enough.
If the construction is divided into sections, divided into thirty small projects, then each project is only more than a thousand kilometers, if the division continues, it is not likely that a few years can be repaired.
If you really think so, then you must be an amateur. First of all it would require a large amount of capital investment, and secondly it would require a large number of railroad workers.
In addition to these two basic requirements, the adequacy of technical personnel, transportation, raw material supply, geographic conditions, and a host of other factors must also be considered.
“Then I’ll give you twenty years, in terms of funding, I can guarantee that the government will have a financial allocation of no less than twenty million guilders every year, and the government will also introduce relevant laws to allow private capital to participate in the construction of the railroad.
I want to see this railroad network throughout the country within twenty years, can you do it?” Franz asked cautiously
“Your Majesty, please don’t worry, I guarantee that I will complete the task ahead of schedule!” Stein said excitedly
As long as there is money, railroad construction is not a problem.
You know that the Austrian government still has a bunch of laborers in their hands? This group of unlucky people who had participated in the rebellion were destined to be sacrificed from the beginning.
Franz didn’t believe that he couldn’t pave 38,000 kilometers of railroad with these 200,000 lives. If that’s not enough, just keep starting wars, bully the Ottoman Empire, and the laborers will come rolling in.
The industrialization of any country requires human sacrifice, and without sacrifice where is success?
(End of chapter)