Chapter 831: Compromise in Helplessness

  Chapter 814 Compromise in Helplessness

Compared to family cars, trucks and tractors, in fact, are more likely to be favored by consumers in the market.

The former was a luxury item that could only consume wealth; the latter was a means of production that could create more wealth.

Rich people are not fools, they know what is more important. When making a choice, of course, according to their own needs.

Generally speaking, capitalists in the city prefer small cars. Because a small car can show off their honorable status and can bring them convenience in the business world.

Well, this is just an illusion in the mind. Unless one goes out to be a crook and deliberately flaunts his wealth to fool people, it can probably work a bit.

In the normal business world, it was still a matter of how to talk. In front of the interests, no one will easily give in.

The real role of the small car is probably to be able to fool the employees under them. Operating with an invisible show of wealth, telling everyone: the boss has money, don’t worry.

Most of the buyers of trucks and tractors, other than transportation companies, are customers from countryside farmers, and some of the aristocracy.

Farmers are in practical need, and unlike expensive cars, tractors have been defined as cheap cars since their inception.

It was none of Franz’s business, and after the discovery of such a godsend as the tractor in a large agricultural country like Austria, it would have been a problem if the government of Vienna had not intervened.

From 1883 onwards, the Vienna government issued decrees exempting tractor manufacturers from taxes and encouraging them to sell to farmers at low prices.

Up to now, several state-owned enterprises have intervened in the tractor production industry, directly knocking down the sales price.

Compared to the high profits of small cars, tractors are really cabbage prices.

The market price of a tractor that could be used for both hauling goods and plowing fields was only 200 to 300 God’s Guilders, and a single-purpose 150 God’s Guilders would be able to be purchased.

Of course, it was also worth every penny. The practical value is not low, so don’t expect comfort.

In order to reduce production costs, some manufacturers are not even lazy to equip the seat, but also the consumer to buy home, install it on their own.

Pungent smoke, running and harsh “mut, mut, mut ……” sound, if there is a sense of user experience, it is estimated that many people will score zero.

In contrast, the truck can be seen as a modified version of the car. The only thing is to add a carriage at the back and a few more cylinders underneath for power.

It’s much more comfortable than a tractor, but not as comfortable as a car. The price is somewhere in between.

After all, it’s a big guy, much less technically difficult to produce, and costs a little less.

If not limited by transportation, it is estimated that the speed of the truck’s promotion is much faster than that of the car, which is only active in the inner city, or in the surrounding area.

Anyway, when it was first introduced to the market, it was favored by the nobles. Whether it was pulling grain and vegetables from their homes to sell in the city, or taking their household goods out to hunt, trucks were less hassle than horse-drawn carriages.

Showing off one’s status and position, that’s what the riff-raff needed. Since the Revolution of 1848, the Austrian nobility has kept a low profile.

The new capitalists took over the role of hatemongers, as seen in the daily newspapers.

Most of the news exposing the social reality, the villain protagonist is mostly an explosive capitalist, or the second generation.

In contrast, the percentage of dudes in the aristocracy is much lower. Of course this could be the social environment, which restricts the space for them to play.

There are more classes for noble children, and after they reach adulthood one counts, they all enter the army and polish it for a few years.

By the time they got out of the army and came home, they weren’t young anymore, they were no longer middle-aged teenagers and knew to use their brains when doing things.

As a matter of fact, there is no shortage of bad things among the nobles, and all kinds of strange and weird people come and go.

It’s just that these people have to be concerned about the reputation of the family, and apart from individual idiots, most of them know to hide things and not expose them to the spotlight.

Compared to the old nobles, the newly risen military nobles, because they had no experience in dealing with this aspect of things.

After taking power, many of them became addicted to their power and couldn’t extricate themselves, causing a bit more chaos instead.

To Franz, these were minor problems.

If things weren’t exposed, then naturally it would be good for you and good for me and good for everyone, and he, the emperor, wouldn’t know about it anyway.

If things were exposed, then there would be one for all, and it would be dealt with according to Austrian law.

After watching chicken after chicken being killed, it still did the trick. Whether it scared the monkeys or not, I don’t know, but the rest of the chickens were terrified anyway.

As the automotive industry boomed, many peripheral industries around this new chain followed suit.

A series of industries such as iron and steel, machinery manufacturing, petrochemical …… industry, and so on, have been developing at a significantly higher rate in these years.

Take the iron and steel industry as an example, it seems that the automobile production capacity is not high now, and it does not consume much steel every year.

But now the automobile industry needs are fine steel, or military widely used special steel, rather than a pile of scrap iron that needs to be returned to the furnace to rebuild.

The customer is God, and when there is a demand in the market, there will be a service. As long as the money is in place, everything is negotiable.

There is no law in Austria that states that military specialty steel cannot be used for civilian purposes. Until then, no one used it because the price was too high.

Now it is different, low-end cars can not afford to use these high-tech, but the luxury version must be arranged.

Affected by this good news, only the first half of 1885, Austria’s special steel production directly exceeded 50,000 tons, while the special steel production capacity for the whole year of 1880 are only poor more than 30,000 tons.

……

Economic development is not all smooth sailing, time rushes by, to the end of 1885 trouble came to the door.

Franz was surprised and asked, “Problems with transportation, what kind of problems?”

It is not bragging, these days the Austrian mainland transportation is called the second in the world, no one really dare to call the first.

The well-connected railroads, connecting large and small Austrian cities together, on the map, just like a dense spider web.

Austria’s economy can grow at a high rate, this “railroad spider web” is also a great credit. It can be said that without convenient transportation, there is no Austrian Empire today.

Transportation Minister Stellens explains: “From the perspective of the empire as a whole, our transportation situation is still in the world’s leading position, but local areas have already experienced serious congestion.

Mainly in the Empire’s several major industrial cities, the traffic pressure has been increasing day by day over the years with the constant influx of population.

Especially after the birth of the automobile, the original urban planning, has not been able to keep up with the times.

Currently the problem is concentrated in the old industrial cities of Prague, Pilsen, Brno, Ostrava, Munich, Stuttgart, Kymnitz, Linz and Milan.

Because of the large population, there is often congestion during rush hour, and many people waste half an hour on public transportation to and from work.

In contrast, the situation in the southern part of the empire, such as Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Bucharest and other new industrial cities, is much better.

In addition to the cities, there is also the fact that our previous roads were not built wide enough, and many of them are so narrow that it is difficult to stagger two large trucks when they meet.”

All of these problems are a foregone conclusion. Even if the old industrial cities had been upgraded, it was on top of the original foundation, and they hadn’t made any major changes to the city’s buildings.

Looking at it thirty years ago, the changes that were made then were more than enough to meet the needs. The designers didn’t have the foresight to imagine that Austria would develop so quickly.

Franz wasn’t a professional urban designer either, and couldn’t have intervened if he wanted to. In addition, the Vienna government, by then, was already in high debt, and the dried-up wallet directly dispelled Franz’s idea of large-scale demolition and construction.

Thirty years later, the problem was exposed and the government needed to find a solution.

The industrial cities in the south were all established at a later stage, and by the time these areas were developed, the Vienna government’s finances had gradually improved.

Coupled with the original thin base, not so much historical baggage, direct demolition is not a pity. So the cities in the south are more modern, the traffic carrying capacity is also much higher.

“Congestion” is also relative, compared with the later generation of congested cities, squeeze half an hour bus is nothing.

It is better than going to work in the bus stop for half an hour, only to move forward a few hundred meters, not as fast as the speed of walking.

Urban transportation needs to be improved, and transportation outside the city is even more problematic. Before the introduction of the automobile, Austria’s roads were among the best in Europe.

However, roads and highways are two completely different concepts. The former was for running horses, and at most, the passage of horse-drawn carriages was taken into account.

Thirty years ago, the automobile, are big steam car, in the mine pulling ore is okay, did not even consider the problem of automobile traffic.

The service life of a dirt road is very long, and after so many years of tinkering, the roadways of that year are still in regular operation.

Here there is no early construction of highway problems, because the highway also has a service life, early construction is estimated to not wait for the emergence of the car, the road in front of the repair has been retired.

If these problems are to be solved, there will be another round of major infrastructure construction.

Prime Minister Carr objected, “In the short term, it is not appropriate for us to launch another round of major infrastructure. At least until the first phase of the Near East Development Program is completed, it would be inappropriate for the government to be further distracted.

The problem of urban traffic congestion can be managed better by the transportation department or by increasing the number of buses to release as much transportation power as possible.

Although it is not possible to solve the problem at its root, it is still feasible to delay the problem backward for a while.

The roads outside the city were never meant for cars in the first place, and it’s a given that they won’t be able to meet the demand. Theoretically, it would take an upgrade of all the roads in the country to meet that demand.

But we all know that this is impossible. If we were to build a nationwide highway, the construction cost would probably be a drop in the bucket cheaper than our railroad network.

This is beyond the government’s financial capacity, and we can’t issue unlimited bonds to finance it.

None of these things are urgent, so we can make plans first, and it doesn’t matter if the concrete implementation is delayed a bit backward.”

The problem arose when Franz realized that Austria was still poor. The cost of re-planning and upgrading an old industrial city is not much lower than rebuilding a new city.

A dozen in one breath, the Near East Development Program is already being implemented, the Vienna government really does not have the financial resources to start another wave at the same time.

Highway network construction, there is no ready-made example, but reference to the Austrian railroad network, basically able to illustrate the problem.

If not fooled a large group of international enthusiasts friendly sponsorship, only by the Vienna government’s own power to build, it is estimated that now there is no traffic is an unknown.

“Eat a lesson, learn a lesson.”

Been pitched once, the international capital has also learned a lesson, and then want to take a big cake to fool people, now it has been difficult to find so many “enthusiasts” friendly sponsorship.

Highway is different from the railroad, the investment prospect of the railroad is bright, as long as the long investment cycle, the back is rolling in money.

Highway by what profit, that is a complete muddle, there is no precedent to follow.

These days there are not a few cars, even in the most economically developed regions, the establishment of toll booths to receive money, are not necessarily enough to pay wages to the toll staff.

Can not see the prospect of profitability of the sale, want to fool the wrongdoer to come in to fill the pit, it is too difficult.

Not to mention investors, even Franz, a traveler, is not optimistic that the highway project can be profitable.

There was no way, the popularization of automobiles needed time. Only after the market has developed to a certain extent will it be possible to rely on tolls to recover investment costs and get a return on investment.

However, capitalists cannot afford to wait. Even “value-based investment” is not an option, because without waiting for the highway project to recover the investment cost, I am afraid that the highway built in front of them will already be scrapped.

……

(End of chapter)