Greece to Roman Road

Chapter 248 Thessaloniki and New Steel Technology

Since the fiefdom is inland, no matter what crops are planted on these lands, it is meaningless if the transportation is inconvenient.

Therefore, Emai Nur complained about the poor road conditions in Macedonia, and the enthusiasm of the crowd was slightly reduced.

Constantine thought that Emai Nur was cunning. On the surface, he agreed with him and encouraged everyone to actively develop the fiefdom of Macedonia, but in fact he was reminding everyone of the difficulties of the actual conditions.

This is to remind others to bargain with Constantine.

"Your Highness, as the Chief of Staff said, the roads in the inland areas of Macedonia are bad. Even if we invest a lot of money to develop our territory, there is no way to transport a large number of agricultural cooperatives' agricultural products," said Manugianaschi.

"Moreover, almost all of us are military officers. Your Highness, Macedonia is now a disputed area between Bulgaria and Greece. Serbia's attitude is also unclear. The armies of the two countries are frequently mobilized at the border. Now everyone is investing in Macedonia. Is it too risky?"

The threat of war mentioned by Manugianaschi made the faces of the middle nobles present change. Just as he said, Macedonia is a disputed area with great risks.

Constantine took a sip of tea from the cup to moisten his throat, and said calmly: "Ladies and gentlemen, the risk of war, in fact, you don't have to worry at all, and worrying is useless. First of all, one thing is very clear. For people like us, if Greece really loses Macedonia in the war, the so-called investment in Macedonia will no longer have anything to do with us, and it is not our turn to discuss it."

The nobles present naturally understood what Constantine meant.

Once Greece fails in the next war with Bulgaria for Macedonia and determines its hegemony in the Balkans, these military nobles in power in the Greek army, including the royal family, will probably become the object of scorn by the Greek people.

The aristocracy, which relied on military power to obtain privileges, would naturally lose their greatest support and be completely liquidated once the war failed.

Because the current aristocracy in Greece is the result of the royal family's efforts in Greece with the prestige gained after the two victories in the war.

As for the Greek royal family itself, I am afraid it will return to Denmark in disgrace.

Although in the early 20th century, there was only one republic orphan in the entire European continent, France (Switzerland is too small and its impact on the situation in Europe can be ignored, so I won't discuss it), all other European countries are monarchies.

However, democratic ideas have been widely spread. Once the country is in turmoil, the democrats can easily gain the trust of the people and take over the state power.

Constantine pointed this out to tell everyone that the interests of the aristocracy are the same.

"Of course, this is just the worst case scenario. We, the senior officers of Greece, should always be confident in the strength of the Greek army. We don't think Greece will lose to Bulgaria," Constantine said to everyone in a joking tone.

"Of course, our operations in Macedonia are still carried out under the condition of ensuring safety."

"As for the road problem, the Macedonia region must build a railway, such as Thessaloniki to Skopje (the capital of North Macedonia). As long as the railway is completed, Macedonia's traffic problems will be greatly improved."

In order to increase everyone's enthusiasm, Constantine announced another news to everyone.

"There is another news to tell everyone. Since the industrial area of ​​Athens is small and cannot accommodate a large industrial area, Prime Minister Venizelos and I have discussed it, that is, to encourage companies to come to Thessaloniki to invest and build factories." Constantine said to everyone.

"Ah"

"It seems that the government has plans to strengthen the development of the Macedonia region."

Constantine's news was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, causing everyone to talk about it.

The city of Athens is surrounded by countless hills, narrow terrain, and limited plains. Moreover, since Athens is located in the southernmost part of Greece, it is limited by its geographical location and is not suitable as the capital in terms of transportation. It cannot radiate the whole country well.

In addition to the advantage of convenient sea transportation, Athens has almost no other convenient conditions for developing industry.

These characteristics restrict Athens' industrial development and are not suitable for large-scale establishment of industrial zones.

It is precisely because of these objective conditions that the development speed of the industrial zone near the port of Piraeus has been limited in recent years.

Compared with Athens, Thessaloniki is surrounded by a plain with convenient transportation. It is a transportation hub in the Balkans and an important port in the Aegean Sea.

Geographically, Thessaloniki is closer to the Balkan inland and is roughly equidistant from Thrace, North Macedonia, southern Greece and other regions.

Combining these characteristics, Thessaloniki is more suitable as a foothold for Greece's industrial zone.

In order to enhance his persuasiveness to the crowd, Constantine turned and nodded to Skarloy behind him.

Skarloy, who had received the instruction, walked quickly to the front of the crowd and said to them: "Greek Steel will build a new steel plant in Thessaloniki"

"For the steel plant built in Thessaloniki, we will use the latest steelmaking technology, electric furnace steelmaking"

"The biggest advantage of using this technology to make steel is that electricity can be used as the energy source for steelmaking instead of coal"

When Emaynur heard the news, he asked with concern: "Mr. Skarloy, I want to know, was this steelmaking technology invented by your company?"

"It was invented by the Frenchman Hot in 1899," said Skarloy.

Hearing this, Emmanuil frowned and said, "If this technology is really advanced, why don't the French use it?"

Emmanuil couldn't help but be suspicious. At present, the steelmaking technologies of countries around the world are actually similar. They mainly use open-hearth steelmaking to produce steel. As for the electric furnace steelmaking mentioned by Skarloy, no one has ever heard of it.

For major industrial products like steel, if there is a new production technology, the media of various countries would have publicized it long ago and everyone would know about it. It would not be unknown.

Emmanuil has sufficient reasons to care about the production of steel mills.

The Greek Steel Plant is the largest arms manufacturer in Greece. The rifles and artillery used by the Greek army are all produced with steel from the steel plant.

"Your Excellency the Chief of Staff, Hot's invention of the electric furnace steelmaking method has not attracted the attention of the steel industry for many reasons, mainly two of which are" Skarloy said confidently.

"First, the raw material for electric furnace steelmaking is scrap steel, not iron ore, which means that electric furnace steelmaking is completely different from the open-hearth steelmaking method that is now the mainstream in the steel industry."

"If major steel companies use new technologies, then the steel mills they previously spent huge sums of money to build will be completely useless."

"Secondly, using this method, the source of raw materials is inconvenient, and scrap steel is different from iron ore."

"There is also the issue of efficiency. At present, electric furnace steelmaking consumes more energy, which is not as economical as directly using coal to make steel. This technology still needs to be improved."

"Almost all major countries in the world have abundant coal resources, so there is no need to go to the trouble of converting coal into electricity and then using it for steelmaking."

Chapter 248/318
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