Greece to roman road

After returning to Athens from Albania, Constantine, together with Costeburu, went to visit the Athenian shipyards.

With the development of the Congo colony, the demand for ships in Greece remained high, but the Greek shipbuilding industry was very weak.

The Athens Shipyard is located near the port of Piraeus.

Led by Ravenna, the shipyard manager, the two entered Dock No. 1 and visited a bulk carrier under construction belonging to the Greek Congo Corporation.

I saw workers standing on the steel frames on both sides of the dock, holding tools in their hands, working around the prototype hull. The intense flames produced by welding made people's eyes sore.

Constantine, who was wearing a safety helmet, suppressed the discomfort in his eyes and asked: "Ravenna, what is the displacement of this ship? Where did the boilers, steam engines, and propellers you used to build the ships come from? ?”

"This ship is about 3,500 tons. As for the coal-fired boilers, steam engines, and propellers, they are all imported from the United Kingdom," Ravenna replied awkwardly.

These key components are all imported from the UK, so the Athens Shipyard is responsible for building a hull and assembling it. There is no technical content at all.

"What are the orders from your shipyard?" Constantine frowned.

"In addition to some bulk carriers, our bed-building factory will also build some 100-ton fishing boats for some Greek fishermen," the Ravenna manager replied awkwardly.

As the largest shipyard in Greece, Athens Shipyard simply does not live up to its name.

After walking out of the shipyard, there was a moment of silence, and Constantine asked curiously: "Greece is also a shipping power after all. Why is our shipbuilding industry so weak?"

Costebrew also sighed and said: "Greece is indeed a big country in the shipping industry, but all the merchant ships in the hands of Greek shipowners are purchased from abroad, especially the United Kingdom. The British shipbuilding industry is developed and the ships are cheap. Greece's Industry has only begun to develop in recent years. In industries such as shipbuilding, Greece is naturally very backward."

"In recent years, ocean-going ships have developed towards large-scale development. I know that your Greek Congo Corporation has a fleet with a total tonnage of 100,000 tons, which is mainly responsible for the route from Congo to Europe." Constantine looked at Costebrew said.

"It's true. The bigger the ship, the lower the transportation cost. Naturally, everyone likes to use large-tonnage ships for transportation. Large-scale cargo ships are indeed the trend in the shipping industry now," Costebrough said.

"In this case, decommission your ships that are seriously aging and have high operating costs, and leave the orders for new ships to the Athens Shipyard."

"Manager Ravenna, don't be too happy yet. The technical level of your Ravenna shipyard must also be improved."

"You should also try to produce those ship subsystems with high technical requirements," Constantine said to Ravenna.

In fact, current shipyards do not have high technical requirements, they just do some assembly work. The real winners in the shipbuilding industry are ship subsystem providers, such as coal-fired boilers, propellers, and steam engine manufacturers. Shipyards not only make profits Low, the shipyard itself is just making hard money. Even in the pre-dauntless era when everyone was scrambling to expand the navy, the shipyard's profit generally did not exceed 25%.

Moreover, the bed-building factory still needs to bear a lot of risks. After all, current ship construction is based on the stage of construction, and payment is made in installments. If an accident occurs in the middle, the ship buyers are unable or unwilling to pay again. Those who are still on the slipway will The ships under construction on the ship will put the shipyards in a dilemma. Either they can find a new buyer and then the shipyards can complete the construction, or they can only dismantle the semi-finished ships.

The reason why Constantine paid attention to Greece's shipbuilding industry was also determined by the actual situation in Greece.

Greece is a peninsula country with a long and narrow coastline, and its economy is export-oriented. Greece itself is also a major shipping industry. Under these conditions, it is a pity that Greece does not develop its shipbuilding industry.

"Your Highness, the biggest problem in the Greek shipbuilding industry is actually obviously Greece's steel production," the Ravenna manager said helplessly.

"You also know that the shipbuilding industry requires a large amount of steel, and Greece's current annual steel output is not high. Just like the cargo ship with a displacement of about 3,500 tons on the slipway, such a large ship will consume three About a thousand tons of steel”

"How much is Greece's annual steel production now? 200,000 tons," Ravenna complained.

"Every time our shipyard's purchasing personnel go to the steel plant to place an order, the manager of the steel plant, Scaloy, is reluctant to accept the order. Therefore, in order to survive, our shipyard will produce some hundreds of tons of steel for the Greek fishermen. Small fishing boats that cannot be reached are mainly used for offshore fishing.”

"As far as I know, the government is going to carry out large-scale railway construction in the near future. As the only steel company in Greece, the Greek Steel Plant's products will be in short supply in the near future. An important project like railway construction will definitely consume a considerable part of the steel plant's production capacity. "

After a brief detour, we come back to the issue of resource shortage.

"The steel shortage problem always needs to be solved, so your shipyards must also prepare for upgrading and transformation. It is precisely because of the shortage of resources in Greece that shipyards like yours, which have no technical content at all and have low added value of product technology, have to to adequate supply of resources”

“It is impossible for Greece to rely on imported ships to meet its shipping needs.”

"Besides, with your backward technology, it is impossible to accept orders for warships from the Navy," Constantine said.

Everyone knows that the Turkish Navy was taken advantage of by purchasing warships: in the original history of time and space, before World War I, the British confiscated two super-dreadnoughts that had been fully purchased by the Ottoman Empire and had been completed, and directly entered the British Navy.

If a weak country buys warships from a strong country, not only will it cost a lot of money, but you may also be cheated.

For example, the two warships Zhenyuan and Dingyuan purchased by the Qing Dynasty from Germany were their experimental products. The Germans tested many new technologies on these two warships, and the costs were borne by the Qing Dynasty.

Not only did you spend more money, you also couldn’t buy good things.

Greece, a country, cannot avoid such cowardice when purchasing warships.

In the original historical time and space, Greece purchased the battleship Salamis from Germany. In July 1913, construction of the Salamis officially started. The original plan was to hand it over to Greece two years later.

At the end of 1914, the battleship Salamis was launched. However, due to the outbreak of war, the United States refused to ship the naval guns originally ordered from the United States to Germany for fear that Germany would use these weapons in the war.

As a result, it was delayed, and until the end of the war, Greece and the German Volcan shipyard were still arguing.

A lot of money was spent, and not even a single battleship was seen in Greece.

Therefore, even if Greece's own shipyards are technologically advanced and can only build one hull, it would still be good if they could assemble the various subsystems of the warship.

It's just that the time is a little slower and the quality is a little worse, but the risk is low. At the worst, it won't be like Turkey, where its warships were directly commandeered by the British.

Hearing what Constantine said about naval warships, Manager Ravenna's eyes lit up and he said, "Your Highness, if our shipyard can get an order from the Navy, then shipbuilding technology will definitely make great progress."