Chapter 305 Development Achievements in 1913
The office of the palace in the spacious Syntagma Square was quiet. The sound of the pen tip rubbing against the paper was clearly audible. Crown Prince Constantine was concentrating on official duties.
More than half a year has passed since the war between Greece and Bulgaria ended, but there seems to be more troublesome work: the reception of newly recovered territories, the restoration of domestic order and production, the disarmament of the army, and the railway in Macedonia. Issues related to the construction of roads, the development of new territories in Greece, etc.
"Dudududu"
There was a rapid knock on the door.
"Come in," Constantine put down the pen in his hand and rubbed his sore eyebrows.
"Creak", the door of the office was opened. The attendant in black uniform first gave a respectful military salute, holding a volume of documents in his left hand, and said respectfully: "Your Royal Highness, the government has just released the data of various departments this year. The information has been sent, in addition to the economic data of European countries fed back by Greek overseas agencies, which have been compiled."
When he heard that the important documents had arrived, Constantine started up, stood up from the high-backed chair, came to the desk in person, and took the documents from the attendant's hands.
It was already the end of 1913, and the impressive year 1914 was about to begin. Constantine was eager to know the details of Greece and other European countries. These data would be an important basis for future national decisions.
Constantine looked through the documents carefully. Greece's economic data did not disappoint him, and soon a joyful smile appeared on his face.
Greece's economy has developed by leaps and bounds. In terms of total industrial output alone (gdp is a later indicator, which has not yet appeared in this era, and the common indicator for measuring economic data is industrial output), in 1913 Greece's total industrial output reached 2 billion drachma, an increase of approximately 30% compared to 1912
The reason for such gratifying results is probably because the development of the Macedonian region has begun to show results.
For a long time, due to the competition between Macedonia and three neighboring countries, mainly Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria, social order was chaotic and production activities were disrupted.
Now that the ownership of Macedonia has been settled, Greece successfully obtained most of the Macedonian territory through two wars in 1912 and 1913.
Under the urging of Constantine and the operation of the Venizelos government, social order in Macedonia has been restored, peace and tranquility have been restored to people's lives, and economic and production activities that have been suppressed for a long time have been released.
The lives of the people here are no longer under constant threat as before. They live a precarious life, and the enthusiasm for production is like a volcanic eruption.
Even with rapid development, according to the Greek government's predictions, Macedonia's economic growth still has huge potential to be tapped.
If you want to fully realize the potential of the Macedonian region, it will have to be at least the end of 1916, assuming everything goes well.
By then, Greece's economic strength will reach a new level.
Added to this is the rapid development of Thessaloniki's industrial area.
In the second half of 1913, Salonika relied on its more favorable geographical location and excellent transportation conditions to radiate the advantages of the entire Macedonian agricultural production area. The Salonika Industrial Zone overthrew the Athens Industrial Zone and became the largest industry in Greece. district.
Within half a year, the machines and equipment imported by various companies from Western European countries have been put into operation in Thessaloniki and started to be used for production.
Soldiers who had previously been recruited for war mobilization began to enter the factory one after another after demobilization, providing sufficient human resources for production.
In addition, Constantine also noticed an important message displayed in the document: Germany's industrial output exceeded that of Britain, becoming Europe's largest industrial power.
Internationally, Germany's industrial output ranks second in the world after the United States.
The United Kingdom's industrial output was surpassed by the United States in 1898, and it lost its title as the world's largest industrial power. Now it is even ranked second. The mood at this moment must be very bitter.
The industrial output value rankings of European countries are Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy, while the industrial output value of Greece is close to that of the Netherlands, which ranks seventh.
Although there is still a clear gap between Greece's industrial output and developed countries in Western Europe, Greece is also making rapid progress and catching up.
Benefiting from the rapid economic development, the Greek government's fiscal revenue has also increased.
In 1913, fiscal revenue reached 100 million drachmas, an increase of 32% compared with 1912.
The road and railway mileage in Macedonia has reached 3,600 kilometers, of which 1,200 kilometers are open to traffic.
In terms of roads, due to the long construction period, the roads in Macedonia invested and built by the government are still under construction.
According to the plan of the government's transportation department, after completion of construction, the road mileage in Macedonia will reach 4,000 kilometers.
Under the supervision of Constantine, the Venizelos government was under great financial pressure. Immediately after the war, it eagerly invested large sums of money in Macedonia.
The reason why Constantine did this was due to many considerations: firstly, it could enhance Greece's control over the Macedonian region, and secondly, it was the need to develop the economy.
Now the construction plan of the railway in Macedonia has been basically completed. Starting from the railway station in Athens, passing through the transportation hub of Thessaloniki, you can reach Durres in Albania, Skopje in North Macedonia, and Kavala in Western Thrace within two days.
In terms of coal production, in 1913, Greece's lignite production reached a record 12 million tons.
Greece's lignite reserves are still very rich. According to current mineral exploration data, the lignite reserves discovered in Greece have reached 4 billion tons.
Whether it is lignite reserves or lignite mining, it ranks first among European countries (except Russia).
Seeing that the lignite mining volume in Greece has been growing rapidly and has reached 12 million tons this year, Constantine showed a gratified smile.
It was worth it that Constantine personally traveled across the ocean to New York, USA, to invite Tesla to Greece to help Greece build an AC system.
The current results show that this is a wise decision!
The slow development of Greek industry at that time was due to the lack of hard coal in Greece.
The use of lignite for power generation not only solved Greece's energy supply problem, but also allowed Greece to catch up with the spring breeze of the electrical industrial revolution.
In the absence of hard coal, high-quality oil, and large rivers with abundant water flow, Greece's industry was able to develop rapidly without worrying about energy shortages, thanks to Greece's mature thermal power generation technology.
Almost all of these lignite coals were supplied to thermal power plants for power generation. In 1913, Greece's power generation reached 1.5 million kWh.
In comparison, Germany's power generation was 8 million kWh, Britain's 2.5 million kWh, France's 1.8 million kWh, and Italy's 2 million kWh.
Benefiting from Greece's pioneering power industry, if we only look at power generation, Greece's power generation is completely at the same level as that of major European countries.
As the first country in the world to establish a mature alternating current system, electricity, as the most important energy source, has an important position in Greece.
Due to the lack of hard coal with high calorific value, the textile industry in Greece completely abandoned the backward steam-powered textile machines and used all cutting-edge electric textile machines.
This allows the Greek textile industry to go into battle lightly, overtake others, and achieve high production efficiency, unlike Western European countries, which are struggling to eliminate backward steam looms and purchase more efficient electric looms.
For the traditional industry of textile industry, factory owners in developed Western European countries purchased a large number of steam looms. After the Second Industrial Revolution, these machines consumed more energy, had lower production efficiency, and required more manpower than electric looms.
Eliminating these backward machines and purchasing new ones will undoubtedly increase the cost of factory owners, and thus they are resisted and resisted.
The rapid development of the electric power industry has brought endless benefits to the Greek textile industry.
This year, the number of cotton spinning in Greece reached 1.5 million, the highest in history, an increase of 21% compared with last year.
The rapid development of the cotton textile industry has not only promoted the development of the chemical industry (dyes), but also set new records for Greece's demand for cotton.
The abundant sunshine in Macedonia also provides conditions for cotton planting.
The rapid development of the cotton textile industry in Greece has caused a sharp rise in the price of raw cotton, which has greatly stimulated the reclamation of wasteland in Macedonia.
According to government statistics, 20,000 hectares of land were developed in Macedonia in half a year.
By the end of the year, Greece's raw cotton production also hit a new high, reaching 30,000 tons.
Despite this, it still cannot meet the needs of textile companies. Greece still imported 80,000 tons of cotton this year.
Due to the smooth land reclamation work in Macedonia, Greece has a bumper harvest of grain, 1.8 million tons of wheat and 200,000 tons of potatoes.
The total export value is 300 million drachmas, of which the largest export destination is the Ottoman Empire, reaching 800 million drachmas.
The value of goods exported by Greece to the Ottoman Empire is currently stagnant and growing slowly.
Seeing this, Constantine frowned. After the opening of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, Germany and the Ottoman Empire have become increasingly close, not only politically, but also militarily and economically.
More and more German industrial products are pouring into the Ottoman market.
For the Greek industrial sector, this is undoubtedly a hidden worry.
Despite the rapid economic development, not all data have been significantly improved.
Greece's total oil production is still 800,000 tons.
At present, in addition to meeting Greece's crude oil consumption, there is still surplus production capacity for export to Italy.
In terms of energy minerals, such as oil and coal, Italy's resource endowment is not as good as Greece.
Not only does Italy not have a drop of oil, but even the reserves of lignite, which can only be used for power generation, are not as rich as those in Greece.
In 1913, the Greek Petroleum Company exported 150,000 tons of its 800,000 tons of oil production to Italy.
But this situation may soon change.
After raising funds in the stock market, Andros Industries has invested in the automobile production line in Thessaloniki and has put it into operation.
At present, the factory has produced 18,000 trucks and cars. Against the background of the large-scale development of the Macedonia region, the demand for transportation among the Greek people has increased rapidly, and these trucks and cars have been sold out quickly.
At present, the total number of cars in Greece, including cars, trucks, and tractors, is about 50,000.
Constantine guessed that with the development of the Greek automobile industry, the oil in Albania could not only not meet the needs of Greece itself, but also needed to import oil.
Under the management of the Royal Greek Petroleum Company, the oil field in Feri, Albania, had reached its limit. Although the oil company racked its brains to increase the output of the oil field, it failed.
The oil field has small reserves, poor crude oil quality, high sulfur content, and is also a heavy oil field.
In addition, there is steel production.
Although the Thessaloniki Industrial Zone adopted cutting-edge electric furnace steelmaking technology, Greece's steel production in 1913 did not increase significantly, reaching only 860,000 tons.
The United States ranks first in the world in steel production, reaching 31.8 million tons, Germany 17.6 million tons, Britain 7.78 million tons, Russia 4.91 million tons, France 4.68 million tons, Austria-Hungary 2.61 million tons, Italy 920,000 tons.
Greece's steel production is not as good as Italy, which makes Constantine very depressed.
Greece's steel production has remained at 800,000 tons for several consecutive years, and the growth has been very slow, mainly because the production costs of Greek steel companies are too high.
Greece has no iron ore and also lacks hard coal. These two raw materials for steel production all need to be imported.
Iron ore is purchased from southern Spain, or scrapped ships are purchased and dismantled and then re-smelted.
Hard coal is imported from the United Kingdom. In 1913, Greece imported 1.6 million tons of hard coal from the United Kingdom. In addition to steelmaking, there are also needs for trains and ships.
It is precisely because of the high production costs that the Greek steel mill has not been profitable since it was put into operation.
In order to keep the steel mill running, Constantine not only instructed the Royal Bank to provide a large amount of low-interest loans to the steel mill, but also repeatedly asked the Greek government for steel production subsidies and tax reduction and exemption preferential policies.
Because the Greek Steel Bank is not only the only steel mill in Greece, but also the largest arms supplier for the Greek army.
The production of artillery and firearms is also the business of the steel mill.
Military manufacturing and steel smelting are two money-losing businesses. Even with a lot of support, the steel plant only breaks even and has never made any money.
Because it is unprofitable, so far, there is only one steel plant in Greece, the Greek Steel Plant.
This steel plant has two factories, one in the Athens Industrial Zone and the other in the Thessaloniki Industrial Zone.
In addition, no one is willing to invest in steel smelting, because it is well known in the Greek business circle that it is not profitable.
If there is not enough steel, aluminum will make up for it.
Due to the shortage of steel, Greece's electrolytic aluminum and aluminum alloy industries have developed rapidly.
In 1913, Greece's aluminum production reached 20,000 tons.
This output is already the highest in Europe.
In order to save steel, in Greece, aluminum is used first when aluminum alloys or pure aluminum can be used, and steel will be used only when it is absolutely necessary.
The army uses aluminum lunch boxes and cauldrons, the buttons on the soldiers' uniforms are also made of aluminum alloys, and the wheels and frames of bicycles or motorcycles.
Due to a large number of production and applications, the development of aluminum alloy technology in Greece has been very rapid in recent years.
Greece's power industry is mature, and there is no shortage of bauxite, which provides a foundation for Greece to vigorously develop electrolytic aluminum.
At present, Greece's own bauxite reserves have reached 1 billion tons, and there is no need to worry about the lack of raw materials.
In terms of population, by the end of 1913, the population of Greece reached 13 million.
The population of Greece has continued to grow steadily, and there is a trend of accelerated growth.
From 1897, 1912 to 1913, the Greek army won three battles and three victories, the national spirit was unprecedentedly excited, the economic development was also booming, sufficient food supply, and hope for future life. The incentive of Greece's policy of encouraging fertility, these factors combined, make Greek women have a very high desire to give birth.
Since the end of the war in the first half of the year, hundreds of thousands of young people recruited by the Greek army have been demobilized and returned to society. In just half a year, Greece has added more than 900,000 babies.
All signs show that these favorable factors are combined, and Greece is experiencing a baby boom.