Chapter 618: Black Technology

  Chapter 605 – Black Technology

The eternal theme of this world is only – interest. Britain and France have a serious conflict of interest, and there is not enough external pressure, naturally, it is impossible to truly unite.

The original time and space German Second Empire gave the French so much pressure, the Paris government would rather spend a large price to pull the Russians, but also did not the first time to the British close, is enough to illustrate the problem.

After the Franco-Prussian War, the Germans and the British became France’s greatest enemies at the same time, and in the decades that followed, Britain and France came close to war several times.

German and French conflicts can exceed the British and French conflicts, or William II’s death, again and again to stimulate the national sentiment of the French, was used by the British.

After realizing that the Germans threatened their own interests, the British took the initiative to release goodwill to the French.

Even so, the Paris government hesitated for a long time before it put down its face and became a little brother, otherwise both sides would not have compromised so easily.

Now since needless to say, as the days of France can not feel the threat, why go to the British as a little brother?

Thinking about it, Franz was relieved. British and French conflicts, British and Austrian conflicts, French and Austrian conflicts are intertwined, is the most stable pattern.

In the case of a serious conflict of interest between each other, Britain, France and Austria were able to sit together, and it has to be said that diplomacy is really subtle.

After the external problems are finished, it is the turn of internal problems. In recent years, the Austrian economy seems to have taken wings and flourished with the wind of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Not only Austria, the economy of the whole European continent is booming. Take the railroad industry as an example, the total mileage of European railroads increased by 58% from 1870 to 1875.

Among them, the fastest growth rate was in the Pope’s Federation and the Russian Empire, followed closely by Great France and the Nordic Federation, while the British and Austrian railroads developed earlier, and their growth rate has now moderated.

Of course, this growth ratio has something to do with the base, Austria so the slow growth rate does not mean that the construction of railroad mileage is also less than the countries.

The Russians have the most counterintuitive growth rate, others are the growth percentage, they directly to use the growth of how many times to describe.

It was not that the Tsarist government was great at building railroads, but mainly that the Russian railroad industry was slow to develop. After the Russo-Prussian War, the total railroad mileage of the Russian Empire was less than 3,000 kilometers, and it was really not difficult to double it.

And Austria in 1870 the total mileage of local railroads opened to traffic more than 60,000 kilometers, the base put there, the growth rate is naturally slowed down.

Franz initially put forward the big railroad plan, today is not just a plan, after more than twenty years of efforts of the Vienna government, has been near the end.

Perhaps twenty years ago, 100,000 kilometers of railroads is just a dream, but today Austria’s railroads + railroads under construction, the total mileage has exceeded 100,000 kilometers.

By the end of 1875, the total mileage of the Austrian mainland open to traffic was as high as 76,000 kilometers, and in less than five years the mileage of the mainland railroad will exceed 100,000 kilometers.

Of course, the main factor contributing to this explosion of data is not only the rapid development of the domestic economy, but also the “African localization strategy”.

Up to now, as many as 23 cities and regions have been approved by the Imperial Council to join the mainland, and the area of this part of the territory is close to one million square kilometers.

As the size of the territory became bigger, the demand for railroads naturally increased as well. In this part of the territory, there are nearly 10,000 kilometers of railroads in operation, and 8,000 kilometers of railroads are under construction.

These figures are strictly confidential, and once they are released, they will absolutely shock the world.

Of course, the secrecy is relative to ordinary people, for politicians is not a secret, the railroad lying there and can not be hidden, as long as you want to know or very easy to investigate.

This era of railroads does not represent the power of the country, Austria opened the world’s first mileage of railroads, followed by not John Bull, nor France but the United States of America.

If it is not the United States has been divided, now the total railroad mileage is certainly the most they, because the total railroad mileage ranked third is the Confederate States of America.

This makes people helpless, the European countries have a limited home area, the regional railroad density may be more than the Americans, but the total mileage can not be compared.

Now the highest density of railroads in the country is Britain, the British Isles surrounded by the sea on all sides, has been open to traffic railroads and a staggering 23,000 kilometers.

This density, so that Austria can not be expected. Not to mention now, even Franz’s big railroad plan, the implementation of all can not catch up with the British.

Know to know, Franz did not have the intention to follow suit. The British railroad density is so high, one of the main reasons is the serious duplication of construction.

To know the British railroad distribution is extremely uneven, capitalists only invest in economically developed areas of the railroad, while the economic backwardness of the region is unattended.

The British Isles are surrounded by the sea on all sides, just economically developed areas, how do you need so many railroads? If there is reasonable planning and distribution, the transportation in Britain can be taken to another level.

Obviously, this is impossible. Capital is profit-seeking, and there are people to grab the lucrative business and no one to ask for the money-losing business.

Austria if not Franz at the beginning of the monopoly as bait, fooling capitalists into the trap, the developed and backward areas of the railroads tied together, now the domestic railroad construction, I am afraid that will also step in the dust of the British.

Austria’s railroad bundling plan, in the dawn of the night before the economic crisis, originally thought that the blood of the capitalists, because of the capital rupture directly into a blood loss.

The same routine can only be played once, before this Austria did not complete industrialization, even enjoy the economic crisis qualification is not, everyone’s vigilance is naturally not strong.

Capitalists ignored the risk of long-term investment and were fooled by the word “monopoly” before they fell into the trap.

Not to mention the inexperience of the local capitalists, even the international capitals such as Britain and France were not an exception, they were fooled by the word “monopoly”, and hundreds of millions of rupiahs of investment were directly trapped in the construction of railroads.

Financial strength of the hold out, the lack of strength was forced to sell, so that the Austrian government copied the bottom, continue to carry out the unfinished railroad plans.

By now, railroad investment is still hotly sought after, but it no longer has anything to do with madness. The main thing is still policy, the Vienna government has meddled in the pricing of railroad freight.

Everywhere there is a maximum price, at the same time the government also stipulates that the railroad is public infrastructure, with a certain public welfare nature, the railroad company’s annual profit shall not exceed thirty percent.

Frankly speaking, this figure is still very tempting, in addition to the financial industry, almost no few industries can have thirty percent profit.

However, this and the capitalists chasing profiteering are two completely different concepts. After all, the railroad is a big investment project, while the calculation of profit is based on turnover, not the total investment.

If the total investment is calculated, there is no railroad in Austria that has an annual return of more than thirty percent, not even in the whole world, which is impossible to do.

The only advantage is probably the stability of the return. The turnover of the Austrian railroads has been steadily increasing, and the annual growth rate is usually not less than three percent.

Affected by the economic development, some sections of the turnover, there have been a year skyrocketed more than ten percent of the situation.

In addition to freight, the railroad company has other profit models, for example: real estate projects around the station, are the railroad company’s property, or have to participate in the investment.

The station is not something lofty, many places can be repaired. Railroad companies are not stupid, if there is no profit, why build the station there?

Moving it forward or backward, again, doesn’t affect the normal operation of the railroad. These days there are no planes or cars to compete with the railroads, and even if the station is a few kilometers remote, people still don’t have a choice.

Franz smiled with satisfaction at the first glance of his report: in 1875 the Austrian economy had again grown by more than 8 percent, and the dividends of the second industrial revolution had already begun to ferment.

Among them, the electric power industry performed the most outstandingly, with an astonishing annual growth rate of 23.6%, completely riding high.

In contrast, the traditional industries, such as the textile industry, which emerged at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, are now growing at a pitiful 1.8%.

Behind this figure, however, Austrian textile production capacity grew by 5.6%. What this means is all too clear: capacity is growing much faster than output, which means that profits are falling.

Of course, technological advances have also led to a decline in production costs, and when it comes to a specific company, profits are likely to rise instead.

But the slowdown in industrial growth is an indisputable fact. Traditional industry competition has intensified, the decline in profits is the general trend.

This is not humanly possible to change. The further science and technology develops, the higher the added value of the product, there is no technical content of the primary industry, profits will only get thinner and thinner, and finally can only fight the cost.

Of course, there are exceptions, for example: the steel industry, from time to time, have thousands of years of history, proper traditional industries, but the steel industry is still developing rapidly.

In 1875, Austria’s steel production exceeded 8 million tons, has left the British behind, ranked first in the world.

Steel production of the world’s major countries in the same period:

Austria 8.23 million tons, steel production of 960,000 tons;

Britain 7.42 million tons, steel production of 760,000 tons;

France 2.74 million tons, steel production 235,000 tons;

German Federal Empire 1,556,000 tons, steel production 315,000 tons; (added the Rhineland)

United States of America 1,540,000 tons, steel production 146,000 tons;

Russian Empire 1,042,000 tons, steel production 24,000 tons

the Union of Popo 968,000 tons, steel production 126,000 tons;

The United States of America 346,000 tons, steel production 38,000 tons;

……

The rest of the countries are negligible, the big numbers show that the French have fallen behind and that gap continues to widen.

It’s not that the Parisian government won’t develop its economy, it’s entirely the reality that France’s coal mines are buried deeper and the coal seams are shallow and accompanied by gas.

The cost of mining itself is high, but the quality is not good. It can be used to make iron, steel or forget it, import is the only way out.

Against this background, the French also played with black technology, that is – charcoal iron. As far as Franz knows, the French iron and steel companies are still researching – charcoal steelmaking.

This is not a joke, a significant portion of French steel production is made from charcoal. Many French metallurgists swore in the newspapers that charcoal produced the best quality iron.

Don’t be surprised, charcoal ironmaking is a traditional process that has been practiced for thousands of years.

Now the French are still researching charcoal steelmaking technology, and also made a stage of results, in the laboratory the French have used charcoal to make qualified steel.

Unfortunately, it can not do mass production, in the industrial trial production, this set of technology out of the steel not only can not guarantee the quality, even the cost of human life.

These realities did not dampen the enthusiasm of the French capitalists, who continued on this path of no return.

The capitalists have the reason to do so, the French coal production is not enough, the quality is poor, but the forest resources are abundant, once the charcoal steelmaking technology breakthroughs, instantly can get rid of the difficulties.

If you learn the British and Austrian countries, coke can only rely on imports, this cost alone has already made the French steel industry lost market competitiveness.

In France, a country with a developed financial industry, the vast majority of steel companies are listed companies. Whether it works or not, it is necessary to draw a big pie for investors to believe in, and it is not surprising that charcoal is used to make steel.

With the trend of profit, the capitalists must also be convinced that it is the right thing to do, otherwise how can they pull the share price?

Compared to the same period in history, the steel industry in France was doing quite well in this era, and it was the divided United States that was hit the hardest.

The United States of America inherited the vast majority of American industry, but the development was very poor. Without the market in the south, but also to make up for the trauma of the war, the United States economy is naturally not good.

The United States of America, which inherited two-thirds of the United States of America, had less than half of the comprehensive national strength of the same period in history. Shrinking market + insufficient labor force were the main factors restricting the economic development of the United States.

As a result of the butterfly effect, the number of immigrants from Europe to the United States in the last twenty years has been less than one-third of the number in the same period in history.

With no one and no market, industry is bound to shrink, which cannot be changed by manpower.

Coupled with the political factors, the federal government’s reputation has been destroyed by the impact of the defeat, and many federal states do not give a damn about the central government.

Each federal state has a set of leadership, and the policies that everyone makes are centered around their state. The so-called big picture idea, sorry, that shit doesn’t exist.

It is common to see certain federal states erecting trade barriers to protect their own industry and commerce; it is also common to see certain states opening their doors wide to let in industrial and commercial products from all over the world.

These policies are all for self-interest, the government puts up trade barriers to protect industrial products that can be produced locally.

Industrial products that cannot be produced locally and must be purchased from outside, naturally, whoever is cheaper and better will buy them.

As a result of this series of factors, the United States of America, which lacked a workforce, had to import people of color in a big way in order to restore its economy after the war.

In particular, cheap bonded laborers were most sought after by capitalists. The laborers provided by these labor export companies are essentially no different from slaves, except for the additional nominal personal freedom.

The steel industry in the United States of America has reached its present size, and these foreign cheap laborers have also contributed to it.

Only the aftermath is also quite serious, this kind of predatory exploitation, so that the United States of America’s racial tensions are also increasingly high.

To solve these problems cannot be accomplished overnight. At least there must first be a strong government that integrates the various states of the Union.

(End of chapter)