Chapter 829: Automobile Industry
Chapter 812 The Automobile Industry
The small action of the French did not come out of Franz’s expectation. As Austria continued to grow, it was only a matter of time before the French felt threatened.
There were not many qualified to be French allies in the European continent, and compared to pulling in the British, the French government naturally favored pulling in the Russians.
This is the geographic location of the decision, France and Russia’s sphere of influence does not border, even if there is a contradiction, that is the historical legacy of the two countries, the conflict of interest is not big.
In contrast, the contradiction between Britain and France is not just a historical legacy, but also a large number of direct conflicts of interest.
From the colonies to the mainland, Britain and France have a serious strategic conflict. These days the Anglo-French conflict is still the main conflict in the international arena, and even the Franco-Austrian conflict has to be sidelined.
In addition to the French government feels threatened, the French people are still immersed in the glory of the Napoleonic era, did not take Austria, the defeated, as a matter of fact.
The general environment also affects people, otherwise the French government would have already made a move to bring in the Russians, and would not have waited until now.
In front of interests, any allies are unreliable. As long as the French offer is high enough, France and Russia are inevitable.
Only did not experience the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, let the French government smash pots and pans to pull the Russians, this is too difficult for Napoleon IV.
To know the original time and space, the French-Russian alliance is a large loan to pull over. As a price, the French Navy fell directly out of line, in the early 20th century has been Germany and the United States exceeded.
The so-called naval runaway, research and development of submarines, small ships, can not just the French Navy senior brain into the water, the more critical or military spending is not enough.
No money, play what big navy?
A battleship light shipbuilding costs, are several tens of millions of francs, adding follow-up maintenance costs, port construction and a series of other issues, amortized down the cost of more than 100 million are not surprising.
In the maintenance of the Continental Army at the same time, and then dozens of battleships out, the government’s money is spent, private financing is also spent, where there is money to pull the Russians?
This year’s Russian Empire is not as bullish as its historical contemporaries, and its pockets are much more dried up, but the block is bigger than the original time and space ah!
Alexander III is not as good as Nicholas II, if the French offer is not high enough, people will not move.
Of course, pulling together will certainly have an effect, after all, “take a person’s hand short, eat a person’s mouth is soft”, ease the relationship between France and Russia is certainly not a problem.
If the price is a little higher, political means a little more powerful, looking for a suitable entry point, disintegration of the Russian-Austrian alliance is still possible.
If you want the Tsar’s government to work for the French, it’s not a matter of half a point of interest.
Think of the Russians as the mercenaries of this age, and that too at the highest price.
The reputation of this sky-high priced mercenary is not so good, more than once he took money and did not do anything, how can this make employers feel at ease?
Since he was safe for the time being, Franz was in no hurry. At this moment, he was trying out his car, Royal One.
Not a battleship, that thing is not suitable for seasick emperors to play with. Royal One is a luxury minivan under the Austrian Automobile Group, belonging to the status symbol, designed for the tycoons.
Pure handmade, high-grade works of art, not workshop assembly line on the road goods can be compared.
Of course, these days is not popular “car art”, the family car is a super luxury, not ordinary people can expect.
The real competitiveness of the Royal One is still in its excellent performance. Since it was produced for the emperor, there was no need to consider the cost.
The technology and craftsmanship used were the limit of what could be achieved in this era.
A 4-cylinder engine with 90 horsepower and a top speed of 120 kilometers per hour. After filling up a tank of gas, you can drive at full speed for 3.5 hours.
In addition to its superb speed, the Royal One has unparalleled stability and superb safety features, including special steel throughout the entire shell and epoch-making bulletproof glass ……
Franz personally experimented with the bulletproof glass to stop rifles no problem, the body protection against grenades can be.
Of course, this is limited to throwing outside the explosion, can block shrapnel, if thrown into the tire under, still have the power to kill.
In a sense, this thing modified, can be taken to the battlefield, as an assault tank.
But after seeing the horrific cost, Franz decisively gave up on this tantalizing idea, and the tank unit was still a long way off.
There is no way, most of these high-tech equipment is limited to laboratory products, want to industrial production cost is high not to mention, the key is that the defective rate is still horrible scary.
Take the engine as an example, the same batch production of one hundred engines, horsepower reached 90 only 2, the rest of the majority of 80 to 90 horsepower between, individual also fell below 70 horsepower.
This thing is similar to the later generations of cottage machines, the performance of good or bad all depends on luck. It is even worse than the cottage machine, at least the inferiority rate of others can not reach 98%.
Small-scale production defective rate is so high, large-scale industrial production, not to mention, that data is even more miserable.
Look at the world’s ordinary cars know that the speed can reach 40 kilometers per hour car, that is the quality of conscience products.
Most of the cars are only theoretically able to reach the speed, or the first two years can reach 40 kilometers per hour, to the late stage of the speed is only 20 or 30 kilometers per hour.
If you’re really in a hurry, you’re not necessarily as fast as a horse. The only advantage is that it has a longer range.
If it was just a little slower, it was nothing, after all, it was also faster than a horse carriage, and traveling short distances was more convenient than a train.
However, the failure rate of automobiles was again incredibly high. When they first started selling in the upper world, on average, every two hundred kilometers, or one hundred kilometers at a time, would require an overhaul.
Let’s put it this way, to be able to drive a car in the 19th century, you didn’t just have to have money in your pocket, you had to learn how to fix it, or you had to hire a driver.
In order to better sell cars, the Austrian automobile group is now every twenty kilometers to set up a repair and rescue point, lifting everyone’s worries, which has laid the Austrian automobile industry’s booming development.
There was no doubt that these messy problems would not happen in the Royal One.
If it breaks down after running for a hundred or eighty kilometers, the people below wouldn’t dare to send it up to the Emperor, in case of an accident, it would take a life.
A penny for a penny, the excellent performance of the Royal One is also by the money smashed out, the total cost of nearly one million Shendian, has caught up with the construction cost of the former dreadnought battleships.
This epoch-making product is still very collectible. That’s right, is the collection. Franz is a dead house, usually rarely go out.
Going out has a special train, Austria’s railroad covers every city, convenient enough; closer to go out hunting, that is also riding a horse, do not need a car to walk.
If there is a tycoon to pay, Franz really do not mind to sell this sky-high car. However, this was impossible.
Only the manufacturing cost of up to six hundred thousand guilders, the most critical or the use of a large number of new technologies, is the highest embodiment of Austria’s industrial standards, not to sell a seventy to eighty million dollars, that would be sorry for everyone’s hard work.
After all, this sale has not only products, products at most only worth hundreds of thousands of guilders, the real value of the car or the use of new technologies.
Get this car disassembled and opened as a research and development template, reverse push back out of these technologies, can be much faster than their own research and development.
There is no doubt that this is impossible. Not to mention how much technology in this, belongs to the highly confidential, can not be sold to the public, just look at the price to know, can not find a buyer.
Although the technology is good, not everyone can eat it. Including the strength of the British and French consortium, no one’s technology system has been perfected to this point, can digest all the technology in this.
Restricted by the research and development ability, or industrial system is not the same, a lot of technology is not a template, can be reversed to restore.
Of course, the number of templates is large enough to conduct many experiments, that basically can be reversed out.
Derived technology, not equal to the ability to have industrial production. This is also a test of a country’s industrial standard, beyond the product of the times, is definitely not so easy to copy.
Unable to apply these technologies to industrial production to create wealth, then buy this car, is to buy a super luxury.
Really very luxury, seventy to eighty million Shendian converted to gold, that will be more than two hundred tons.
Such a tycoon could only exist after the collapse of the gold standard, it was impossible to appear in the gold standard era.
And then, there is no then. Push the Austrian automobile industry forward a big step of the super luxury car – the royal one, finally can only let the emperor to keep as a collection.
Even if it was to be sold, it would have to wait for a decade or two, when these technologies were almost widely used and no longer needed to be kept secret.
Only by then, the value of the Royal One would have plummeted. Perhaps by then it would only require a few tens of thousands of divine shields, or even a few thousand divine shields, to be able to produce it.
When the Royal One is only left with the collection value, then it is also held in the hands of the emperor is worth money, if it falls into the hands of ordinary people, directly the value of the big drop.
This is similar to antiques and cultural relics, even ordinary bottles and cans, as long as the emperor used, stained with the word “palace”, instantly rose in value.
There is no artistic value, experts can also find out the artistic value; really can not, can also pull on the historical value.
With a speed of eighty kilometers per hour, in the royal palace in a circle, Franz decisively get off.
No way, too long did not do so fast car, Franz unprecedentedly found himself with signs of motion sickness.
Theoretically, the driver’s wouldn’t get carsick, but unfortunately no one dared to let the emperor sit in the cab and be the driver himself.
(End of chapter)