Chapter 1092: The New Steel Center Born Out of Time

  Chapter 1071 – The New Steel Center Born Out of Time
The British are going to reform, for the vast majority of countries, this is definitely a happy event worthy of universal celebration.

“Reform”, doesn’t necessarily make the country stronger, but it definitely makes the government busy.

The larger the country, the longer the regime has existed, the more problems will be encountered in the process of “reform”. The problems faced by a century-old world hegemon like Britain are naturally all-encompassing.

From the colonies to the mainland, there are too many historical problems that need to be solved by the government.

It can be said that “one hair affects the whole body”. Even if the London government only carries out partial reforms, it is enough to keep them busy for a while.

History has proved that as long as the British are busy, international disputes will be greatly reduced and the world will become harmonious.

As a matter of fact, along with the reunification of the Holy Roman Empire, the frequency of the British messing things up has decreased a lot in recent years.

With the Holy Roman Empire on the front line, most of the British government’s energies were held back, so naturally they didn’t have the time to toss other countries around.

Now that the British government is going to carry out internal reforms, it has even less energy to toss around. For politicians all over the world, this is a major benefit, which means that everyone will be able to sleep peacefully for a few days again.

Although there were now two powers, the only one that loved to toss and turn was Britain. As for the other hegemon, it was clearly a seedy player.

Turning over the international news, we know that the Holy Roman Empire’s hegemony has been established, in addition to supporting Spain to expel the Japanese, only the formation of peacekeeping troops stationed in France.

If not for the double eagle flag of the Habsburg dynasty flying all over the world, everyone would have forgotten about this newborn hegemon.

Of course, this is only for ordinary people, politicians would never dare to forget. Not getting things done does not mean not having the ability to get things done.

Just based on the fact that Shen Luo’s ministers in foreign countries were tearing down the British every day, everyone knew that this was not a lord to be messed with. Especially in the last two years, the Shenluo Navy also often drive the “super battleship” to hang out, in the name of exchanging learning experience.

Obviously, with a few thousand tons of ironclad and dreadnought exchange of experience, simply does not make any sense.

To say that it is not to establish prestige, probably no one will believe. Knowing is knowing, politics is hard to get confused. Hegemonic countries have come to “friendly exchanges”, you can not not cooperate ah!
Thankfully, the Shenluo Navy had only skipped around a bit, swearing its presence, and had not taken the opportunity to engage in political blackmail, which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

The end result was that the British government’s progress in pulling in allies became extraordinarily unsuccessful. Although the Royal Navy is the world’s largest in terms of tonnage, the number of super battleships has taken its toll.

There was no way around it, warship construction also took time. Shen Luo’s first generation of super battleship “Rome”, in 1900, while the British have only just begun to develop the project.

With a lot of effort, the British super battleship was not commissioned until 1903. This was already over-performance.

From the project design, construction to the final service, before and after only spent more than two years, enough to prove that Britain’s shipbuilding industry is powerful.

This is of no use, according to the construction rate of one a year, God Luo’s fourth super battleship have already been launched, within the year of service is almost a nail in the coffin.

The Royal Navy fell behind, only temporarily, but the impact on the countries was still huge.

One slow step, one slow step.

Naval technology revolution has broken out, the Royal Navy is temporarily at the bottom, really can catch up?

The British shipbuilding industry is able to crush almost all the countries in the world, only missed the Holy Roman Empire. This is a market decision, not to change by personal will.

The seeds of doubt were planted, and everyone’s inference that Britain was invincible had been shaken.

Since there was no certainty of victory or defeat, it was natural not to take sides in haste. The situation has not yet reached the point of “either friend or foe”, so we can still take a break and observe for a while.

The countries of the world were relaxed, but Franz had a headache. The international situation has become completely different, and no one is sure whether the British reforms will be successful.

The original time and space Campbell was only elected prime minister in December 1905, and met God in April 1908, the actual time in power was less than two years.

Such a short period of time is obviously impossible to complete the reform program, yet history still does not think less of him.

Because of the butterfly effect, forced by the domestic economic downturn, the impact of social conflicts intensified, the British community realized the need for reform, Campbell the reformist leader was elected in 1902.

Elected three years in advance, it means that the reformers more than three years. For a country, “three years” does not seem long, but can change a lot of things.

Britain still had a strong foundation, and once the internal conflicts were resolved and the colonies integrated, there was still a lot of potential.

Franz could not guarantee that the British would not follow the example set before them.

In case the British were stimulated and followed Shinra’s play of partitioning and completely ate up Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other regions, it would be another proper world empire.

With such a large support disk in place, even if it lost the hegemony fight, Britain would still be a top power.

The only thing to be thankful for is that England’s population is insufficient and cannot digest such a large territory for a while. Otherwise Franz would have had to move ahead.

……

Frederick: “Father, this is the new economic construction plan drafted by the cabinet. On the basis of the previous five-year plan, a new western economic revitalization plan has been added, and it is prepared to spend a heavy amount of money to build the Ruhr Industrial Zone.

I have studied it, and the Ruhr region is indeed suitable for industrial development, especially heavy industry. Not only is it easily accessible, but it is also close to raw material production areas.

Once developed, it will be the industrial center of the western part of the empire. It’s very important to promote the economic development of the western region.

The most important thing is that the empire’s heavy industry is too decentralized. Restricted by industrial raw materials, there are a dozen or so heavy industry centers up and down the country without a real core.

Before the empire developed, such a decentralized layout could increase the security of the country and naturally could not be considered wrong.

The situation is different now, on the European continent we no longer have any enemies, completely getting a core out to further boost the domestic economy.”

“Revitalize the western economy”, if it was before, this is a joke.

You know that from the beginning of the Great Age of Sail, the European continent has a distinctive feature, that is, Western Europe is the most economically developed, followed by Central Europe, Southern Europe, Northern Europe again, and Eastern Europe has always been at the bottom of the economic ladder.

This situation, however, has fundamentally changed since the revival of the Holy Roman Empire.

Eastern Europe’s economy is still at the bottom of the list, Northern Europe’s change is not big, Western Europe’s economy in recent years is a mountain of days, but the central and southern Europe has become the world’s most economically developed region.

Of course, the developed economy of southern Europe is only part of the region developed. The economy of the Italian region is still not greatly improved, not to mention Spain.

The question of whether they should be considered as Southern European countries or Western European countries has not been finalized in a uniform manner.

The only thing that can be said for sure is that placing them in Southern Europe would bring down the economic average, while placing them in Western Europe would bring it up a few points.

The main reason is still the pot of war, a continental war has abolished the top pillar of France, including the territory of the western part of the god Luo also because of the war loss is also heavy.

As for Britain, none of them are continental countries, so naturally they can’t be counted. In order to ostracize the British, Shen Luo’s whether government documents, or broadcasting newspapers, all tacitly threw Britain out of Europe.

After the end of the Continental War, the Vienna government opened the western reconstruction program. Mere reconstruction was not enough to talk about further development.

Especially the newly acquired territories of the region, limited by the number of population, the local economy has not been too much of an upturn, becoming a drag on the region.

In order to change all this, it is not that the Vienna government did not make efforts. Only before, it was mainly busy restoring the post-war infrastructure.

As for developing the economy, how could it be that there had to be people first. Although the population of the Holy Roman Empire is quite large, but the empire is too big.

When the country is big, there are more “key projects”. In contrast, the reconstruction of the western region, in the economic strategy of the empire is not a high position.

Neither compared to the African Ring Road Railway, nor compared to the Middle East petrochemical industry chain, not to mention the local automobile and aviation industries.

The western region, which has a low economic strategy and lacks population, is naturally limited in the resources it can obtain.

Encouraging immigration is unrealistic; there are plenty of places to grab people. The western territories, which are located on the border, are simply not competitive.

In the eyes of the general public, running to the west to be neighbors with the French is in itself a major challenge, and who knows when there is another fight.

In a sense, this was also the pot of the Vienna government. Deliberately suppressed reports on the situation inside France, and even if an occasional newspaper published it, it was an understatement.

Ordinary people simply do not know that the former bullish French Empire is now a phoenix with its feathers plucked.

The new government has three fires, forced by the great achievements of the previous government, the new cabinet did not dare to easily change course. This is held back for several years, and only now found the opportunity.

The distribution of heavy industry in the Holy Roman Empire is indeed too decentralized. It’s not that Franz doesn’t want to centralize it, but it simply can’t be centralized.

There are quite a few areas suitable for the development of heavy industry, but because of various reasons, it inherently limits the upper limit of development.

Taking the steel industry as an example, there are seven steel centers with an annual output of one million tons in the Holy Roman Empire; there are even more regions with an annual output of 500,000 tons; however, there are so many steel centers, but there is not a single one with an annual output of five million tons.

In this day and age, such a production capacity is still manageable. If it was in the latter days, any township enterprise would be able to kill it.

It is not that steel companies do not work hard, it is really the natural conditions of the limitations are too strong. Increased production capacity, the cost also followed up, many steel centers have actually developed to the limit of the existing technology.

In terms of the development of the Holy Roman Empire, the steel production capacity of 28.78 million tons per year is obviously unable to meet the demand.

According to the predictions of economic experts, in the next twenty years, the demand for steel in the Holy Roman Empire would increase to 50 million tons.

Theoretically, by tapping into the potential of all of the steel centers in the Holy Roman Empire, it would be able to meet the demand without the need for further expansion.

Obviously, theory was only theory. Society was constantly evolving, and the demand for steel was increasing day by day.

Now 50 million tons of demand forecast, is not set in stone. After all, the Holy Roman Empire is simply too big, and the potential demand is unimaginable.

Judging from the experience of the previous world, as long as the Holy Roma does not fall, the future demand for steel will definitely have to be measured in billions, and it’s just a matter of time.

But the future is always the future, do people still have to focus on the present. After receiving the document and reading it once, Franz slowly said, “This plan is too radical.

I do not doubt that the Ruhr area can establish a ten million tons of annual production capacity of the steel center, but do not forget that the real ability to determine the capacity of the economic market, and should not be the government.

It’s true that the world economy is on fire right now, but let’s not forget that the British economy is already in trouble. The London government is engaged in reforms at this time. What if it withdraws from the free trade system?

Once the British adopt trade barriers, there are definitely not a few countries that are going to follow suit next, and our foreign exports are bound to be affected.

I will not be surprised even if an economic crisis breaks out as a result. In the short term, is there still that much demand for steel in the market?
If by some stroke of bad luck, our steel center comes into production a few years later, just in time for a new round of economic crisis, then what?”

It’s not that Franz is conservative, it’s really that the world of capitalist economies is already full of economic crises. Judging from past patterns, it’s pretty much once every ten years.

It has been several years since the last economic crisis, and the construction of the steel center is now underway, and even if it doesn’t catch up with the crisis when it goes into operation, it is still in the countdown to the crisis.

Massive overcapacity erupted, the domestic steel industry is absolutely wailing, I do not know how many industries will be tossed to death.

The most tragic thing is that the steel industry of God Luo, either the government investment, or the royal consortium holding, private capital rarely touch these high investment, long cycle industry.

Their own industry, flush their own business, that is definitely the performance of the brain into the water.

Even if you want to engage in, that must also slowly engage in, for example, first control the production capacity of one million tons, according to the market demand and then continue to increase.

In this regard, the current cabinet is not as thorough as its predecessor when considering issues.

If it was purely for the sake of performance, the previous government would have done it long ago, so how could it have stayed until now.

The establishment of the steel center is not a difficult task, in the case of the basic conditions, as long as the money hard into it.

Even if the cabinet’s ability to see the problem is lacking, Franz is not ready to change now. Geniuses were always a minority, and most people were of average caliber.

To be able to hold back for several years and continue the policies of his predecessor without any major disruptions has already proved that this government is stable enough.

Although it does not look at the problem comprehensively enough, in essence this plan is also correct. If the project is split up in phases and construction progress is slowed down a bit, then there will be no problem.

From this point of view, the biggest problem with this plan is actually “too efficient”, because the Vienna government’s plan is to complete the project within five years.

Hearing Franz’s explanation, Frederick exclaimed: “The British want to withdraw from the free trade system, this is impossible, right?
You know that the free trade system was proposed by the British government itself, and when the treaty was made, the British made a promise in front of the whole world.”

Along with the development of the times, the capitalist world economy is also linked more and more closely, once the British withdraw from the free trade system, the world economy will certainly have problems.

With John Bull’s consistent style of undermining others to the detriment of himself, once he decides to back out, he will definitely step in to bring down the free trade system, and it is simply impossible to let Shinra continue to enjoy the dividends of the free trade era.

After being hit by such a blow, the economy of Shen Luo will definitely be greatly affected, and the market demand for steel will also shrink dramatically.

Against this backdrop, adding a new steel center with an annual production capacity of ten million tons was clearly out of place.

Franz rolled his eyes, ”There’s nothing impossible, credibility is just so-so to the British.

Once they find out that it is not in their own interest, tearing up the free trade agreement is inevitable. The fact that they haven’t done it yet is because the British are still engaged in an internal game.

For a long time the British have been the beneficiaries of the free trade system, which has naturally given rise to vested interest groups. Now that the free trade system is unfavorable to them and they want to pull out at this time, the vested interests will naturally oppose it.

If you have been paying attention to the London newspapers, you should know that there are more and more discussions around free trade, and supporters and opponents have been arguing endlessly.

The civil war is only the beginning of the problem. It won’t be long before the British Parliament, will have to discuss it.

Campbell’s election manifesto also mentioned the issue of free trade. Although he didn’t directly say he wanted to abolish it, he did hint at export subsidies for some industries in his speeches.

These are all signals. Along with the deteriorating British economy, vested interests alone cannot hold the fort for long.

If the British government doesn’t want to see the domestic manufacturing industry squeezed to death by us, it’s only a matter of time before trade barriers are adopted. It is far easier for Campbell to withdraw from the free trade system than to carry out internal reforms.

From the looks of things, that won’t take more than two years. We can start preparing already, so we don’t get caught off guard by the British when the time comes.”

Don’t be surprised that an issue is discussed for “two years”. It’s just normal operation for the British Parliament.

Withdrawal from the “free trade system” is a big deal, and it can be said that the fate of Britain is at stake, so how can we not study it properly?

Compared to the later generation of the “Brexit” discussion that lasted forty-five years, to be able to make a decision within two years, which is already considered very efficient.

(End of chapter)