Chapter 516: A New Page

  Chapter 504 A New Page

Without hesitating for long, William I agreed to the plan. Prussia’s home base is limited, there is no chips that can be taken out to make a deal. Now all that is written is a blank check, can you not fill in the numbers a little bit bigger?

The international situation is ever-changing, a few years ago, Britain and France are still in full support of Prussia against Russia, in the blink of an eye, Britain and France will be with the Russians to ease relations.

Not William I do not want to stop this from happening, really in front of the interests, not at all he can block.

The Russian Empire, which had already fallen, was no longer a rival of Britain and France, so naturally they could play happily together.

The next Russo-Prussian War, even if Britain and France will still be on their side, the support can not have the last time so big, want to win the war can only rely on their own efforts.

The Russians are a lesson from the past, the Russo-Prussian War, Austria no longer unconditionally support them, the mindset did not adjust to the tsarist government, which paid a terrible price.

The growing coldness of Russian-Austrian relations was actually the Tsarist government’s dissatisfaction with the Vienna government’s reserved support in the Russo-Prussian War.

The Czarist government was angry, and the Vienna government was uncomfortable. In the opinion of the Vienna government, it had done enough to fulfill its obligations as an ally, and had even paid more than was stipulated in the treaty, and still had to suffer from the complaints of the Russians.

Both sides stand on their own position to think about the problem, can not untie the knot, became the cross between the Russian and Austrian alliance of a hurdle, after the war relations between the two countries have not been restored as in the beginning is the proof.

As a bystander, William I could think calmly. But his turn is different, Britain and France clearly just use them as pawns.

After the fight against the Russians, all supportive help came to an abrupt end. The London government once wanted to support Prussia to counterbalance France and Austria, but after weighing the pros and cons, it was not implemented.

In the final analysis, it is still because of the interests, continue to support the Kingdom of Prussia, the British have to pay too great a price, can get too little benefit, but also to face the fierce rebound of France and Austria.

Compared to the British, the French were even more hateful, actually still plotting the Rhineland. If the French had not suddenly annexed the Italian region, causing the panic of the European countries, so that the Paris government did not dare to move, it is possible that the Rhineland region will have to change hands.

Without the possibility of annexing the German Federal Empire, the Rhineland became the heartache of Prussia. Wilhelm I was in constant fear that the French would swallow it in one go.

In order to get out of the predicament, William I repeatedly proposed to join the German Federal Empire. Undoubtedly, it was strongly resisted by Hanover.

How could one not be wary of the Hatchet?

The Kingdom of Prussia was much larger than the German Federal Empire, and to put it nicely was to join in, but to put it in another way was to annex the German Federal Empire.

What was not possible in civil terms was even less possible in military terms. If the Berlin government wanted to take action against the German Federal Reich, Austria would definitely not agree. Once it forced its hand, the Austro-Prussian War was about to break out.

That would be the worst case scenario, and if it came to that, the Kingdom of Prussia would really be the enemy of the world.

In and Austria, the German Federation at the same time, there is to cope with the Russians who fell into the well, may be the Nordic Federation have inserted a bar, may be the French will also come to join in the fun.

In front of the interests of nothing to say, everyone can not resist the temptation. The geographical location of the Kingdom of Prussia can be said to be one of the worst among the European powers, which determines that they must be careful when expanding.

The Russo-Prussian War was a challenge for Prussia and an opportunity in equal measure. If Prussia wanted to grow and develop, the best option was to step on the Russians to get to the top, which was decided by the First Russo-Prussian War.

In the last few years the Berlin government was not idle, even if the government had no money in their pockets, they were still trying to find ways to develop the economy. For example: using British and French capital to build railroads in newly occupied lands, and even helping the Poles to build railroads.

In order to raise funds for development, the Berlin government also increased the export of resources. The mineral resources of the Rhineland region were exported in large quantities to France and the German Federal Reich.

Hardly by relying on industrial and commercial products and mineral resource exports, the Kingdom of Prussia realized a trade surplus. Of course, the greater reason for this was that the Kingdom of Poland provided a dumping market for Prussian industrial and commercial products.

Under normal circumstances, a country with a trade surplus and a large inflow of money from the outside world should not be short of money.

Unfortunately, Prussia was an exception to this rule, and all this wealth was used to pay off debts, and the economy had to be subjected to Britain and France.

In order to pay off the debt, the Berlin government cut down on expenses as much as possible. However, this did not include military expenditure, even now Prussia’s military expenditure has never been less than 45% of the revenue.

Against this background, it is not surprising that the Berlin government wanted to pull the rug out from under it and break up the Russo-Austrian alliance.

Only when the Russian Empire was completely crushed would Prussia have a stable international environment to develop, and would be able to keep its military spending down, develop its economy without fear, and get rid of the debt crisis.

And splitting the Russian-Austrian alliance was the first step to win the war. William I was ready to start the war in advance, and if he really waited for the Tsarist government to complete its internal reforms, the balance of the war would be completely tipped in favor of the Russians.

In the First Russo-Prussian War, Prussia won the war by the advantage of transportation, which naturally had to be preserved.

Even with expansion, the territorial size of the Kingdom of Prussia plus the Kingdom of Poland was far from comparable to that of the Russians, which meant that they could finish building railroads first.

The current plan was going very well, and the progress of Prussia’s railroad construction was simply not comparable to that of the Russians.

Despite Alexander II’s efforts, Russia was too big for a few thousand kilometers of railroads to be worth mentioning to the empire.

Strategically, the Russians needed at least 300,000 kilometers of railroads to get out of their transportation woes. Even if we ignore the territories in Asia and just consider the European part of the territory, that would require one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers to barely meet the demand.

In comparison, the Kingdom of Prussia was much better, even if you add the Kingdom of Poland, they would have built another 10,000 or 20,000 kilometers and it would have been enough to meet the demands of the war.

Of course, if you want to reach the level of the German Second Empire, there is still a long way to go. Only the Germans have been able to build railroads to every town and village.

In just 540,000 square kilometers of land area, the construction of more than 60,000 kilometers of railroads, can be said to be within five kilometers must see railroads. The rate of railroad coverage set by the Germans was an unbreakable world record until the 21st century.

Of course, this particular situation was created by the times. When the automobile industry developed, many railroads lost their economic value and withdrew from the stage of history.

The problems faced in transportation were well known to Alexander II. The tragedy was that his attempts to attract foreign investment in railroads went unanswered.

Give more favorable conditions are useless, Austria’s bundled railroads have pitted a lot of capitalists, many railroad companies a loss is more than ten years, who still dare to jump the giant pit of the Russians?

Now the British and French capital investment in the Prussian and Polish railroads, are only investing in the economic value of the main road, branch line railroads that are not touched.

Russian railroads, not to mention, even if the St. Petersburg to Moscow railroad out to tender, no railroad company dare to take risks.

This is not only the economic risk, the main thing is that people have doubts about the credibility of the tsarist government. In case the railroad was finished, the tsarist government declared the railroad state-owned, everyone would still lose their money?

It is worth mentioning that at present the Russian railroads are still state-owned, and the high operating costs make private capital shy away.

Once an Austrian railroad company went to Russia to study, and finally came to the conclusion that the overall operating cost of Russian railroads is three times that of Austrian railroads.

It was the winter that was to blame. With the exception of small areas, the Russian Empire is a land of ice and snow. In this day and age with limited technology, it is not only risky for railroads to operate in the winter, but the maintenance costs they would have to pay would be much higher.

High cost is just, the key is also sparsely populated, economically backward. Whether it is the flow of goods, or passenger traffic is insufficient, this little income can not meet the operation of the railroad company.

Without additional conditions, who would be willing to take the risk of building an unprofitable railroad?

Unprofitable, private capital refuses to invest, the responsibility for the construction of the Russian Railway falls on the shoulders of the government, the construction progress will naturally be slow.

Even in the 21st century, Russia’s transportation is not related to convenience, the European part of the passable, the Asian part of the passenger transport is barely, large-scale freight is still a problem.

Not to mention that in this era, the total mileage of railroads operating in the large Russian Empire is less than 10,000 kilometers, specifically 7,876 kilometers, less than half of the Kingdom of Prussia.

It was even less than at the same time in history, and this was all the aftermath of the war. The progress of railroad construction was also delayed by the Tsarist government, which was short of financial resources.

……

As William I prepared to dig in, Alexandrovich arrived in London. The strange smell that greeted him and the gray sky made Alexandrovich frown.

It was so disappointing that London, which was known as the world’s number one city, was actually this scene.

The only pleasing beauty was probably the towering chimneys, the smoke rising to the sky, dancing in the wind, like a heaven on earth.

Oh, these beauties are only to be seen from afar, but not to be enjoyed. In case you choke to death, no one will be responsible.

London in this era is the best portrayal of the beauty of industry, one of the world’s most polluted cities, the haze world to carry the bully.

Aleksandrovich was lucky that he didn’t come over in the winter, otherwise he could have felt the most lethal biochemical weapons of this era.

It’s fall now, and the weather in London is still manageable, with a few hundred meters of visibility, so there won’t be any mass poisoning deaths.

Greeting Aleksandrovich was Edward, the Crown Prince of England, and this wasn’t the first time they had met. The two are also relatives now, the European royal family is a family, this statement is not wrong at all.

They share a common father-in-law, the Danish King Christian IX, who is honored as the “father-in-law of Europe”.

Facts have once again proved that the European royal family are not to be messed with, even if it is a small royal family, but also can not hold people’s family and friends strong enough.

European royals have a little rule is very good, that is, relatives to relatives, war to war, even if it is the battlefield to fight you to death, privately, we can still do friends …… friends, no should be “relatives”.

This relationship between the two, but not to affect the diplomacy of Britain and Russia. Alexandrovich is a little better, has begun to participate in political affairs, more or less some say in politics.

Edward, on the other hand, was so unorthodox and unruly that Queen Victoria never allowed him to take charge of any of the actual affairs of the court.

In other words, he was an empty crown prince, except for a noble identity, there was no room for him to intervene in politics.

After a period of polite pleasantries, the two of them left the noisy harbor in a carriage. History seemed to have turned a new page at this moment.

……

Thank you all for your votes, we’ve kept our place for now!

(End of chapter)