Chapter 714 Report

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

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

At this time, Britain was worthy of the title of the world's number one power. Coal mining had reached an astonishing 44 million tons, while the coal production of the second power, France, was only 4.2 million tons, and the entire German region except the Austrian Empire was 4 million tons.

The Austrian Empire's production in history was only 800,000 tons, but at this time, under Franz's reform and development, the Austrian Empire's coal production reached 20 million tons, which was 25 times the same period in history.

The technological progress during this period was very easy to produce huge changes. In 1836, Britain's coal mining was only 32 million tons, and it took ten years to increase by 10 million tons.

The Austrian Empire and Britain were somewhat different. Starting from scratch and the impact of technological progress were particularly shocking.

However, the former's resource ceiling was too low. Even in the First World War, it was only 49 million tons, while Germany next door had 270 million tons.

However, the resources of the Austrian Empire are complete in variety, especially at this time, it also occupies the Italian region. In addition to rubber, it can basically be self-sufficient. In agriculture, it also has the largest raw silk production base in Europe at that time.

At this time, the largest raw silk production base in Europe is Venice, and the second largest is Lyon, France. Yes! That's right! It is the place where uprisings often occur.

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

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

So when natural disasters suddenly occurred, it was almost inevitable that prices would soar.

At this time, someone would definitely talk about the safety warehouse in modern business, but in fact, this thing is too expensive, and it varies greatly with the year, unless you have money and have nowhere to spend it.

In addition, the world's largest raw silk exporters at this time were Qing Dynasty, France, and Austria. Japan started to expand rapidly after the Meiji Restoration, especially after 1871, while India re-emerged after the Silk War in 1882.

In addition, the coal production of other countries was 200,000 tons in Russia, only 60,000 tons in Spain, 5 million tons in the United States, 270,000 tons in Mexico, and less than 1,000 tons in Brazil.

At this time, the pig iron production of Britain was 2 million tons, France was 500,000 tons, Russia was 200,000 tons, Prussia was 190,000 tons, and Spain was less than 10,000 tons (20,000 tons in Luxembourg) due to the continuous war and congenital deficiencies.

The pig iron production of the Austrian Empire in the same period of history was 150,000 tons, and at this time it could reach an astonishing 1.2 million tons due to technological innovation.

This was mainly due to resource constraints, and there was a shortage of iron ore in the Austrian region. So Franz successively took over Western Bosnia and Albania, two regions 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 Western Bosnia, about the same as the total coal in the northern mountainous areas of Albania, but the total iron ore is only one-thirtieth of that.

In fact, the Austrian Empire did not really have no coal and iron resources, but it was a problem of traditional ideas and the division of regions, nationalities, and forces.

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

Galicia's coal reserves are equivalent to the sum of coal reserves in other parts of the Austrian Empire. It has the second largest iron ore in Europe and a large number of iron ore with huge reserves, which is equivalent to twenty times that of Western Bosnia and twice the sum of other parts of the Austrian Empire. At the same time, it also has the largest oil field on the European continent at that time (in fact, the largest one was in Romania in 1857, but it was not mined earlier than Galicia).

The Austro-Hungarian Empire in history ignored these precious resources and planted fruit trees and crops on them. If it weren't for the serious pollution caused by the oil spray, they would probably want to raise fish in it.

Franz would not pretend not to see these, so he bought a large piece of land in Galicia. However, Galicia has such good resources, why not just move all the factories there?

This is mainly for security reasons. In addition to facing Prussia and Russia in the open, Galicia must always be careful of Hungary stabbing from behind, not to mention the Poles who come to make trouble every other day.

If we follow the historical practice, there are only two options. One is to concentrate all industries in the local area and then develop vigorously, but what about the poor and remote areas of the Austrian Empire? How to solve national security?

The other is to develop in a withdrawn manner, consume its resources as much as possible, and then use it as an agricultural area and a buffer zone with major powers.

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

From 1870 to 1913, per capita GDP grew by about 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 twenty years before the war (an average of 2.8% per year), it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as a leap forward.

Then the First World War destroyed the country, and Galicia, as one of the main battlefields, was almost turned into a wasteland.

If the first option is chosen, how can Austria, an empire with a serious lack 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 covetously. Everyone wants to tear a piece of meat from Austria and use greater privileges to gain more benefits for themselves.

If the industry is transferred to Galicia, it will only repeat the tragedy of Bohemia. Not only will it not be appreciated, but it will create a new interest group and continue the endless cycle.

Neither of these two results is what Franz wants. He would rather develop slowly than let the ridiculous cycle continue.

The mountains and ridges 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 solved, it is easy to get the loyalty of the locals. By that time, these places will become the solid backing of the Austrian Empire.

At the same time, the comprehensive development of the empire will not easily make Czechs and Italians arrogant, but two problems need to be solved.

First, Vienna must become the heart of the entire Austrian Empire. A country must have a backbone.

Second, Hungary's privileges must be abolished, because a bad idol can influence 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 wine.

However, some chronic diseases cannot be solved with money and words. You must scrape the flesh and bones to remove the rot and regenerate the flesh.

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