Chapter 489 The Root of the Industrial Revolution - Cost
After Christmas, Britain and Austria have successively recognized the Grand French Empire, which is regarded as a tacit approval of France's annexation of Italy.
Affected by this, European countries also recognized the legitimacy of Grand France in 1871 and resumed diplomatic relations with France. Napoleon III finally got rid of the diplomatic predicament.
The international tensions surrounding the annexation of Italy by France have ended. But the impact is far-reaching.
Undercurrents began to surge, careerists became active, expansion became the theme of the times, and many small European countries lost their sense of security.
The era of imperialism has come in full swing, and this time the French have once again refreshed the bottom line of the great powers. From now on a powerful country can annex a sovereign country without any excuses.
The fig leaf is no longer needed. The law of the weak has never been so vivid, and the rules of the game have become more unfavorable for weak countries.
I don't know who released the news of the alliance between Britain, France and Austria, which made the international situation that had just eased become tense again. At this moment, the remaining European countries could not sit still, and the foreign ministries of Britain, France and Austria were all lively.
Even Alexander II, who was busy with internal reforms, personally sent telegrams to inquire. Secrecy is impossible, and both Britain and France have publicly acknowledged that they are negotiating an alliance.
Originally, he was going to use this alliance to increase Austria's influence in the world, and Franz would naturally not deny it superfluous.
As for what Alexander II would think, it doesn't matter now. Not to mention the half-dead Russian Empire, even the Russian Empire at its peak had to shy away from the Triple Alliance.
The formal alliance treaty of the three countries has not been signed yet, and discussions have already begun on the issue of building a new international situation.
In the face of interests, everyone can't resist the temptation, and formulating a game rule that is beneficial to them happens to be the best interest.
Even Franz, who had little interest in the Triple Alliance, was very interested in establishing a new international order.
Austria has experience in this area and has dominated the Vienna system twice. A set of rules of the game that is beneficial to itself brings no less benefit than any colony.
Now everyone needs a stable Europe, the British need a continental balance, the French want to digest the results, and Austria needs time to continue to develop.
Other countries are no exception. The Kingdom of Prussia needs to digest the results of the war, the Russians are busy with reforms, not to mention small countries, everyone wants a stable Europe.
With the common will of everyone, a new international order is about to emerge. This time it is more cruel than before. After the three major countries formulate the rules, all countries can follow them.
The second-class powers Prussia, Russia, and the Nordic Federation still have a certain right to speak, and more small countries are completely reduced to answering worms.
As one of the vested interests, Franz had no intention of apologizing for them.
Now he is busy carrying out economic reforms. Compared with the first industrial revolution, the second industrial revolution has changed. Some economic policies in the past have become out of date now.
The famous "Austrian School of Economics" has also begun to emerge, but it is still in its infancy. Perhaps because of the butterfly effect, it has been affected by the environment, or has changed.
Franz couldn't explain exactly what happened. He did not study economics and was not very clear on these issues.
In the era when the free market economy prevailed, Austria's economic policy was already positive, of course, this positive is very limited.
It is mainly developed by the market. The government only provides complete infrastructure and formulates some incentive policies when necessary.
As long as you have money, you can enter any industry field. Whether you can survive or not is your own problem.
As a pragmatist, Franz has always pursued the "best fit is the best". Within the larger framework, the economic measures in different parts of Austria are not exactly the same.
Different regions have different development directions and require different policies. If the central government is all worried, then it is not too busy.
Vienna Palace, decided that Austria's economic report meeting for the next ten years is being held, and this economic reform is only a fine-tuning.
Generally speaking, the previous economic policy is still used, and only individual industries need to be changed, which is not very involved.
Economic Minister Andrew analyzed: "In the past two years, the domestic economic development has generally been in a good state, and the economic growth rate has remained at 7.8%.
Among them, it is worth noting that the growth rate of the new energy industry, mainly the power industry, is particularly prominent.
The entire industrial chain involves many fields, driving upstream industries including copper smelting, rubber, and power generation equipment manufacturing, as well as downstream industries such as hardware accessories, electrical machinery and equipment, and transportation.
638,000 new jobs have been created, making a significant contribution to getting out of the economic crisis. The most typical example is the copper smelting industry in Saxony and the Balkans, where significant breakthroughs have been made in production capacity.
The Ministry of Economy believes that electric energy will become the biggest economic growth point in the future.
At present, only Vienna has fully popularized electric lighting in China. Although Frankfurt, Munich, Venice, Milan and other cities have launched projects, it will take some time to complete.
In Africa, we have discovered a number of copper mines, all of which are rich, with high-quality ore and reserves that exceed the sum of the copper mines being mined on the European continent.
We have domestic shipyards, build
Large ore carriers of 20,000 to 30,000 tons have no technical problems. Transportation costs can also be reduced, and copper, which restricts the popularization of electricity, can be solved immediately.
After solving the problem of raw materials, the copper price in the market will soon fall, and the cost of promoting electric lighting will be greatly reduced.
In addition, electrical machinery equipment also has great potential to be tapped, and may even replace the current steam engine in the future. At present, some fields are already using electric machinery equipment.
In addition, another economic growth point is that the number of newborn babies has repeatedly hit new highs, and the sales of baby products have continued to grow.
There are too many products involved in this aspect, and the statistics are too troublesome, so we can only make a preliminary estimate. There is now a market of about 35 million Aegis each year, but the growth rate is fast, and it is expected to grow by 12% this year.
In contrast, the traditional economic field market has shown decadence. The last economic crisis has proven that many areas of the country are saturated.
At present, in the traditional economic fields, the fastest growing industries are steel, mining, shipbuilding and construction, which are 13.2%, 9.6%, 10.1%, and 8.9% respectively. The textile industry, which has grown rapidly in the past, only had a growth rate of 3.1% last year.
Our most advantageous food processing industry is also encountering bottlenecks. Although it still maintains a growth rate of 5.8%, the downward trend is very obvious.
Judging from these data, the development of emerging industries has become a pillar industry for future economic development. The Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to comprehensively promote electric lighting in the country and encourage electric power technology innovation. "
This is in line with the habits of the Vienna government. The popularization of electricity is inseparable from the government's policies. If there is no government promotion, it is estimated that no power company will selflessly contribute a power supply network.
In contrast, baby products are different. There is no need for the government to intervene at all. The capitalists will do a good job. All the government needs to do is to supervise and regulate the market.
The veteran and prudent Prime Minister Felix took up the topic: "There is no problem in promoting electricity technology. Everyone has experienced the benefits of this technology, and the electric light above our heads is one of them.
However, when promoting, we must also consider the upfront cost. The cost of building a city power supply network is not a small number.
Not every city can afford it, and the government does not recommend promotion in cities with lower fiscal revenue. If someone turns this policy of benefiting the people into a policy that harms the people, we will be held accountable. "
Whether power technology is good or not, the answer is: very good. It's a pity that it's too early and the cost hasn't come down yet.
Large cities with relatively high local fiscal revenue follow the example of Vienna to popularize electric lighting. There is no problem, and they can do it if they can afford it.
For some dingy cities, that's a heavy burden. Taking Vienna as an example, the city government spends 1.2 million Aegis each year on electricity and lighting system maintenance costs.
For the prosperous Vienna, this money can be directly distributed to the businessmen in the urban area. They are the biggest beneficiaries of the city that never sleeps. The income generated by the night market is enough to make up for this expense.
If some small cities are changed, there are not many businesses, and the annual financial revenue is only a hundred thousand Aegis, and it is difficult to even maintain the government's operation.
If you run to follow suit, the cost will eventually fall on ordinary people. For the local people with low incomes, it is a disaster.
The lower the population density, the higher the cost of electricity per capita, which the Vienna government has long since paid.
In order to avoid the worst, Prime Minister Felix stepped forward to pour cold water. To avoid some bureaucrats blindly following the trend in order to brush their political achievements.
After listening to Felix's warning, many local officials who participated in the meeting sweated over their previous thoughts.
Sure enough, it’s hard to pick up cheap political achievements. If you don’t have the conditions, you will blindly follow the trend. It is estimated that if the report is published, your career will be over.
Except for a few states that have greater autonomy, the rest of the cities still need to be reviewed by the Vienna government if they want to launch such a large project.
So far, approval has only been granted to large, economically developed cities, or those in coal-producing areas, where the cost of generating electricity is unimaginably low.
For most cities, it is best to wait for technological innovations and further reductions in power supply costs before considering this issue.
The power revolution in Europe in the original time and space began in Germany. The most important reason was that at that time Germany had the largest copper output in Europe and the largest coal output in Europe. The cost of promoting power technology was lower than that of Britain and France.
The United States has nothing to say, it is not short of anything. Whether it is copper output or coal output, it is as much as you want.
Therefore, starting from the second industrial revolution and the subsequent technological innovation, Americans gradually came to the front of Europe.
It's not that European countries don't have technology, but the problem is that European countries lack raw materials, and shipping from overseas increases costs, and they don't have the ability to promote. Until the industrial technology matures, the UK and France cannot afford the high cost.
Franz is now engaged in a revolution in electric power technology with great fanfare, and there is no sense of secrecy at all. The main reason is that the cost of raw materials in Austria is lower than that in Britain and France.
In addition to the Russian Empire, Austria has more copper reserves than all European countries combined, not to mention production, directly accounting for half of the world's share.
In rubber production, Austria also occupies a very important share. The colonies in the South China Sea are not for nothing. Almost every island can grow rubber. Together with the rubber plantations opened up in Africa, Austria is now the largest supplier of rubber products in the world.
Britain and France want to promote electricity
Technology, first to import copper, and secondly to import rubber. France is even worse, they have to import coal.
The cost has been decided. In this industrial revolution, Britain and France have fallen behind.