The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 714 Report

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz looked at the report on the desk in a daze. He felt that he had done a lot, but it seemed that it was not enough.

At this time, the United Kingdom deserved the title of the world's number one power, and its coal mining volume had reached an astonishing 4400 million tons, while the coal production of the second power, France, was only 420 million tons, and the entire German region except the Austrian Empire was 400 million tons.

Historically, the output of the Austrian Empire was only 80 tons, but at this time, under Franz's reform and development, the coal output of the Austrian Empire reached 2000 million tons, which is 25 times that of the same period in history.

Technological progress during this period is prone to dramatic changes. In 1836, coal mining in Britain was only 3200 million tons, and it took ten years to increase by 1000 million tons.

The Austrian Empire is somewhat different from the United Kingdom, and the impact of starting from scratch and technological progress is particularly shocking.

However, the upper limit of resources for the former is too low. Even during World War I, it was only 4900 million tons, while Germany next door had 2.7 million tons.

However, the resources of the Austrian Empire are better than the complete variety, especially at this time it still occupies the Italian region. It is basically self-sufficient except for rubber. In agriculture, it also has the largest raw silk production base in Europe at this time.

At this time, the largest raw silk production base in Europe was Venice, and the second largest was Lyon in France, yes!It is the place where uprisings often occur.

Due to several large-scale uprisings, coupled with natural and man-made disasters, Austria's raw silk industry has made a lot of money.

Why didn't the British send raw silk from the East to hit the market?Because the trade barriers of various countries were very thick at that time, and merchants from all countries went to the East to purchase regularly every year, but the speed and timeliness of sea transportation were very low at that time.

Therefore, it is almost inevitable that prices will skyrocket when natural disasters suddenly occur.

At this time, some people will definitely use the safe warehouse in modern business as an example, but in fact this thing is too expensive, and it changes quite a lot with the year, unless you have money and nowhere to spend it
In addition, the largest exporters of raw silk in the world at this time were Qing Dynasty, France, and Austria.Japan only began to expand rapidly after the Meiji Restoration, especially after 1871, while India only re-emerged after the Raw Silk War in 1882.

In addition, the coal output of other countries is 20 tons in Russia, only 6 tons in Spain, 500 million tons in the United States, 27 tons in Mexico, and less than 0.1 tons in Brazil.

At this time, the output of pig iron in Britain was 200 million tons, that of France was 50 tons, that of Russia was 20 tons, that of Prussia was 19 tons, and that of Spain was less than 2 tons ([-] tons of Luxembourg) due to wars and congenital deficiencies.

In the same period of history, the pig iron output of the Austrian Empire was 15 tons, but at this time due to technological innovation, it could reach an astonishing 120 million tons.

This is mainly limited by resources, and the iron ore in Austria is insufficient.So Franz successively took over West Bosnia and Albania, two areas rich in coal and iron resources.

Montenegro actually has coal and iron resources, but the volume is too small, about one-fortieth of the total coal in West Bosnia, and about the same as the total coal in the northern mountains of Albania, but the total iron ore is only one-thirtieth of it.

In fact, the Austrian Empire is not really without coal and iron resources, but a problem of traditional thinking and the division of regions, nations, and forces.

Due to a series of complex historical and social factors, the development of the Austrian Empire was quite biased towards Bohemia, but in fact Galicia's resource allocation was much higher than that of Bohemia.

Galicia's coal reserves are equivalent to the sum of the coal reserves in the rest of the Austrian Empire. It has the second largest iron ore in Europe and a large number of huge reserves. At the same time, it also owned the largest oil field on the European continent at that time (actually the largest was in Romania in 1857, but it was not as early as Galicia).

Historically, the Austro-Hungarian Empire ignored these precious resources and planted fruit trees and crops on them. If the oil was not sprayed out and the pollution was too serious, they probably wanted to raise fish in it.

Franz wasn't going to pretend he couldn't see it, so he bought a lot of land in Galicia.But Galicia's resources are so good, why not just transfer all the factories there?

This is mainly from a security point of view. In addition to facing Prussia and Russia on the bright side, Galicia must always be careful of Hungary getting stabbed in the back, not to mention the Poles who come to make trouble every few days.

If there are nothing more than two historical practices, one is to concentrate the entire industry locally and then vigorously develop it, but what about the remote villages of the Austrian Empire?How about national security?

The other is to develop off-grid, consume as much of its resources as possible, and then use them as agricultural areas and buffers with big powers.

Historically, the Austro-Hungarian Empire chose the latter option, but that was due to many factors. As a result, the economy ushered in a golden period of development.

From 1870 to 1913, GDP per capita grew by approximately 1.76% per year.Compared with other European countries such as the United Kingdom (1%), France (1.06%) and Germany (1.51%), the growth rate is quite fast.

If we only count the 20 years before the start of the war (an average of 2.8% per year), it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as the best.

Then the First World War wiped out the country, and Galicia, as one of the main battlefields, was almost wiped out.

If the first option is chosen instead, how can Austria, an empire with a serious shortage of main ethnic groups, solve its internal problems?
Whether it is the privileged Hungarians, or the Czechs and Italians, they are all eyeing this country. Everyone wants to tear a piece of meat from Austria and use greater privileges to seek more benefits for themselves.

If the industry is transferred to Galicia, it will be nothing more than repeating the tragedy of Bohemia.Instead of being grateful, a new interest group will be created, and the cycle will continue endlessly.

Neither of these two outcomes was what Franz wanted. He would rather develop slowly than let the ridiculous cycle continue.

The mountains in the Balkans are indeed not conducive to development, but those natural barriers also keep the enemy out.

As long as the identity problem can be resolved, it is easy to gain the loyalty of the local people.By that time these places will become the solid backing of the Austrian Empire.

At the same time, the overall development of the empire is not easy for the Czechs and Italians to float, but there are two problems to be solved.

One, Vienna must be the heart of the entire Austrian Empire, and a country must have a backbone.

Two, Hungarian privileges must be abolished, because one bad idol can affect many people.

Only in this way can a relatively equal environment be created, although Franz would rather have no war than let the people immerse themselves in victory and fine wine.

However, there are some old diseases that cannot be solved with money and words. It is necessary to gouge out the flesh and scrape the bones to get rid of the putrefaction and regenerate the muscle.

In the face of absolute interests, any reason will appear empty.

(End of this chapter)