Chapter 478 Beet

Royal greenhouse, Franz hasn't been here for a long time. He looked at the "round carrot" in his hand and felt a strong sense of disharmony.

This thing is the famous beet, but it is far from the size Franz has seen in later generations, and it is only about one-fifth of the size of the Northeast beet in later generations.

(But in fact, the beets that the protagonist saw in later generations were all displayed for people to appreciate. Each one weighed more than five kilograms, and the big ones could even reach about ten kilograms, but in fact, the average weight of normal beets was about 1 kilogram to 1.5 kilograms.)

Beet sugar production is actually a waste, although 30% of the world's sugar production in later generations comes from this crop.

Some people will tell you that beets occupy half of the sugar industry! But what they won't say is that the cultivated area of ​​beets accounts for 48% of the total area of ​​sugar crops in the world.

In terms of sugar yield, beets are not as good as sugarcane. Moreover, in the 19th century, the sugar-making process of sugar beets was completely different from the cane sugar process, which had a history of thousands of years. It seemed extremely immature. After all, it was just a new thing that emerged in 1800.

Moreover, the sugar content of sugar beets that had not been genetically modified was also frighteningly low, and the unit yield was not satisfactory.

However, this crop was valued by European countries as soon as it appeared. This was also unavoidable. Europe, located in the temperate and subarctic zones, could not grow sugarcane.

In the past, sugar in Europe was a treasure that only the upper class could eat, and it would only be taken out when important guests visited.

Most people in Europe could not afford sugar and could not eat sugar. This situation did not change until the Age of Exploration.

Europeans planted a large number of sugar crops in the Americas and then transported a large amount of sugar back. In order to increase sugar crops, they set out from Europe to Africa and exchanged their own cheap goods for a large number of black slaves to send to the Americas. This was the infamous triangular trade.

But Europeans were still very foresighted in some aspects. Since 1800, almost all major European countries have begun to grow sugar beets.

Even France, which had experienced war and two regime changes, never stopped supporting the sugar beet industry. This increased the number of sugar factories in France from one to 61 in 1844.

The German region and the Russians were not to be outdone. The cultivated land area of ​​sugar beets increased dozens of times. With such fanfare, Franz felt that it was far from enough.

Take Prussia as an example. At that time, Prussia had a population of 16 million, but the sugar production was only 1,500 tons, averaging only 0.1 kilograms per person.

At that time, the per capita annual sugar consumption in Prussia was 2.5 kilograms, which means that their self-sufficiency rate was only 4%.

At that time, the per capita annual sugar consumption in France was 5 kilograms, and the per capita sugar consumption in Britain reached an outrageous 10 kilograms.

In history, Austria had only a pitiful 0.8 kilograms, which was only better than the 0.5 kilograms of the Italian states and Spain. However, at that time, the per capita annual sugar consumption of the Austrian Empire reached 4 kilograms, which was five times that of history.

This is mainly due to the ally Mexico, which was a major sugar producer in this era in history. However, due to the impact of the Mexican-American War, its status was lost, but it still accounted for 9% of the world's sugar production.

(Historically, the world's total sugar production in 1844 was 1 million tons, and Mexico's sugar production was 90,000 tons.)

However, Mexico has not lost too much land now, and the political situation is relatively stable. In addition, under the leadership of the Austrian-Mexican Joint Development Company, Mexico's sugar production has increased to 150,000 tons, accounting for 14% of the world.

And 80% of this sugar was taken by Tasan Anna to repay debts and exchange for materials. Austria naturally allowed its citizens to enjoy low-priced and high-quality white sugar with so much sugar.

Of course, in addition to other Central American colonies and West African colonies, most of the sugar was shipped back to Austria, which led to the prosperity of the Vienna Sweet Party.

But this day of sucking blood from the colonies will end sooner or later, and at this time it is because Franz firmly controls the source of sugar that the price can be suppressed.

But if the beet sugar industry does not develop, Austria will not be able to compete with cheap sugar overseas.

If the Austrians still want to eat cheap sugar at that time, it is possible that a sugar war will be triggered. White sugar has too many uses. In addition to being a food, it is also a strategic material.

Yes, it is a strategic material, because sugar can make alcohol, be used in industry, and be used for medical disinfection. At the same time, sugar is also the earliest placebo, which can soothe the wounded hearts of soldiers and boost morale.

This is an important part of the capitalist military theory of later generations. The side with more materials will definitely win.

Sugar can not only be used indirectly in war, but also directly in war. Yes, this thing can actually increase the power of explosives. As long as it is mixed in a certain proportion, it can even be used as a propellant.

So if Austria wants to become a real power, sugar is also one of the indispensable raw materials.

But what makes Franz headache is that he has not developed any good new varieties after cultivating for several years. At the same time, the sugar beet production technology is very backward. Eighteen tons of sugar beets can only produce one ton of sugar.

Modern technology only needs eight tons of sugar beets to squeeze out one ton of sugar, but at this time, the technology of sugarcane sugar production can achieve the effect of ten tons of sugarcane and one ton of sugar.

This made him feel that the future was somewhat bleak. In fact, white sugar can be stored for a very long time, even up to ten years.

Franz might choose to reserve enough sugar to cope with the war consumption in advance, so that more arable land can be freed up to grow food.

But he soon rejected this idea. After all, beet sugar production is not just for war, but also for controlling prices and regulating demand.

Franz knew that he still had a long way to go. He could not only focus on the present, but also ignore the present.

And Franz could not directly give up cheap overseas sugarcane and directly support the beet industry in his country.

But he could create some illusions and rumors, such as beet sugar is healthier and more suitable for consumption than cane sugar.

At the same time, when manufacturing weapons and developing industry, a large amount of beet sugar was purchased. The reason was naturally that beet sugar was purer. As for how pure and healthy it was, it could only be imagined by people at that time.

Unlike sugarcane and beets, this plant expands very quickly. As long as the temperature and soil are suitable, it can grow in patches without much care.

As for the variety and technical issues that Franz was worried about, they were not really a problem. Before the micro-genetic improvement technology was available, there was not much room for improvement in the sugar content between sugar beet varieties.

Even if genetic improvement technology was used, it would only shorten the growth cycle of sugar beets, and would not have a significant impact on the sugar yield.

As for technical issues, historically, in 1850, sugar beet production technology would advance by leaps and bounds, and the material-sugar ratio would drop directly from 18 to 1 to 11 to 1.

So Franz's entanglement was not very meaningful. Of course, if it was studied in advance, it would indeed make a lot of quick money.

Moreover, due to the promotion of fertilizers, agricultural machinery, and scientific farming methods, Austria's per-acre sugar beet yield is much higher than that of other European countries.

However, the total amount of sugar produced from sugar beets each year is only 7,000 tons, which is still a huge gap compared to France's 30,000 tons.

Franz's plan is to double the total amount of sugar produced from sugar beets in Austria within four years.