Chapter 480 Industrial Tuition

There are many types of minerals, but coal, iron and oil are the most important.

Russia, Pakistan, China, Australia, India, Canada, the United States, and the seven countries have high iron ore reserves;

The coal mines are China, the United States and Russia, and the coal quality is good in Asia, Europe and North America;

Oil distribution is very concentrated, the Middle East, Russia, the United States, China, Mexico and Britain.

...

Franz still remembers this passage in his previous geography class clearly, summed up as a lack of minerals in Europe.

On the one hand, the development time is too early, and many resources have been exhausted in the 21st century; on the other hand, there are really not many mineral reserves.

With the exception of Russia, all European countries are poor mining countries, or have a single distribution of mineral resources. A typical example: Germany lacks almost everything except coal and iron ore.

This is the envy of many countries. The two most basic elements of the industrial age are met. Why is the French next door still short of coal?

In contrast, Austria is considered happy, perhaps because of its slightly larger territory, and basically all mineral resources are available. Just this reserve, some can't get it.

Of course, this is also relative. Compared with European countries other than Russia, Austria's mineral resources still occupy an advantage.

These resources laid the foundation for Austria's industrial development. In 1870, Austria's steel output surpassed that of the British for the first time, ranking first in the world with an annual output of 6.48 million tons.

Of course, the advantage is not obvious, only 20,000 tons more than the British. The main factor responsible for the rapid growth of Austrian steel production is the increase in demand in the domestic market.

A local market with more than 30 million people and a local market with more than 70 million people have all completed industrialization, and the demand for steel is obviously the latter.

In fact, this output is still unable to meet market demand. In addition to the local market, African colonies are also a large consumer of steel.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Industry, Austria's steel demand will double in the next ten years, of which steel demand will reach 1.5 million tons.

Seeing this data, Franz had a headache. At present, the steel production in Bohemia has encountered a bottleneck, and the growth rate of production has slowed down. If you want to rapidly expand production capacity, unless there is further technological innovation.

However, this is not very realistic. The revolution in steel technology has only occurred not long ago, and it is almost impossible to achieve a breakthrough again in the short term in the existing industrial technology.

The second steel production base in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although developing rapidly, still has a long way to go to fill this vacancy, and it will not be reached within ten years.

Now Austria's most important steel companies are mostly concentrated in the Bohemia region (later Czech region), accounting for 63% of the country's steel production.

In addition, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Linz, Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Galicia, Silesia and other regions are distributed.

The main reasons for this situation are many. The steel mills in Bavaria, Württemberg and Saxony are left over from history and have not been developed due to limited resources.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the industry started too late, and the government is still busy building roads. Although iron and steel enterprises have settled down, they cannot exert their maximum production capacity in a short period of time due to limited traffic.

Galicia is the government that does not pay enough attention to compete with Bohemia; Silesia is the pot of the Prussians, they ran away and left the mess, and the Vienna government has just cleaned up.

Human factors can be overcome, the most troublesome is the distribution of resources. There are many coal and iron mines in Austria, but unfortunately they are not concentrated.

In order to develop, iron and steel enterprises must move closer to the origin of raw materials, which has created a situation of blooming in all directions.

In Franz's view, the capitalists have made the right choice. Since you want to invest, the main purpose is to make money. If it is far from the origin of raw materials, the competitiveness of products will naturally not be guaranteed.

By now, the concentration of heavy industry is no longer suitable for Austria. The supply of resources in each place is limited. It can only provide raw materials for one million tons of steel. You can't make two million tons of steel.

To meet the growing domestic demand, it is inevitable to open several more industrial bases. Except for Germany, where resources are concentrated, almost every major industrial country has multiple industrial bases.

After carefully reading the information, Franz made a decision: "There is no need to do this multiple-choice question, given the domestic development, the demand for steel will only increase.

To add a heavy industry base today, and another heavy industry base tomorrow, might as well develop at the same time.

Serbia, Silesia, and Galicia have the potential to develop into heavy industrial bases. Let’s list them together this time!

In other areas, as long as there are coal mines and iron mines at the same time, the transportation is relatively convenient, and development can also be carried out.

The government formulates corresponding policies and finds ways to solve transportation problems, and the final development is left to enterprises and the market. "

In this era, governments of various countries are laissez-faire about industrial development, and what industrial development will look like is basically determined by the market economy.

In solving infrastructure problems, a government like Austria is actually intervening in the market economy by administrative means, but in a relatively obscure way.

Just look at Russia next door. As Europe's most resource-rich country, its steel output is less than one-twentieth of Austria's.

This is not because the Russian capitalists did not see business opportunities, but mainly because the traffic is too bad. The tsarist government refused to solve the traffic problem and asked them to build a road by themselves. Who would dare to do this business?

After the tsarist government attached great importance to the handover, Russian industry began to really develop. It is a pity that the Russian Empire is too large, and this road is too difficult to repair.

Before the First World War, the Russians only built more than 70,000 kilometers, which is the result of the efforts of the tsars of all dynasties.

Franz also often complained about the traffic of the Russians before crossing the road. After arriving in this world, his concept has changed.

The roads of the Russian Empire are really difficult to repair. To build a railway in a country of ice and snow, the technical difficulty and construction cost are much higher than those of European countries. But the Tsarist government is a poor ghost.

"If you want to get rich, build roads first", this sentence is not wrong at all. However, there is no money to build the road, which is a tragedy.

What is even more tragic is that the Russian railways are not only expensive to build, but also much more expensive to maintain than European countries. Even if the railway is repaired, there is no guarantee that it will be open to traffic all year round.

In order to ensure the smooth flow of the railway, the railway company has to invest a large number of workers to maintain it in winter. It only takes a few hours for many sections to cover the railway with snow.

As a result, the operating cost of the railway will also go up, and the freight will naturally increase. Originally cheap industrial raw materials, after thousands of miles of transportation, are no longer cheap.

It is not surprising that the Russian industry has not developed because of the late start, and faced with such harsh conditions, coupled with the decay of the tsarist government.

It is estimated that these issues, Alexander II has not yet thought about it, he is still busy leading the Russian people to open up wasteland.

No, it has been almost two years since the great land reclamation has been carried out, and now I should be worrying about how to deal with the newly added food.

If you want to sell food, you must first be able to ship it out. Not to mention the grain of the Ukraine region, the grain exports of the Russian Empire mainly come from here.

There is also a way for food in the Moscow region to be transported out by river. For food in the Caucasus, build roads first, it is really a headache without railways.

The most tragic thing is the Siberian plain. The Russian people who open up wasteland here are tragic. Not to mention the harsh weather conditions, after all, the land given by the tsar will pass.

The transportation problem is a headache. The river exists, and the premise is that your land must be along the river, and the river must be navigable.

Fortunately, Alexander II was exempted from the tax on newly reclaimed land, otherwise the tax officials would have collapsed. The people have no money in their pockets, so should they collect the food and pay the tax, or not?

Perhaps for the Russian people, this is also a happy trouble. You don't have to worry about starvation anymore. In a few years, everyone's warehouses will be full of food.

The time is still short, and the power of the land reclamation cannot be seen for the time being, but Franz, who looks at the big data, knows that Alexander II's reform is half successful.

More food means lower prices, in addition to being able to fill the stomachs of farmers, it can also feed a large number of workers at the lowest cost.

When everyone is full, the country is stable. For at least a few decades, most Russians will be content.

The only question is whether it can withstand the counterattack of the conservatives. How can the Russian aristocrats not be moved by so much new land?

After the land reclamation was completed, someone jumped out to pick peaches. If land annexation cannot be stopped, the Russian Empire will again be in crisis.

Land acquisition is still an issue in the future, and the biggest trouble now is grain sales. If so much grain can't be sold in the international market, the fun will be great.

This time does not take too long. Next year or the year after, the Russian Empire will be in a dilemma of oversupply of food.

So far, the Russians have opened up at least 200 million mu of arable land, which is almost half of Austria's native arable land.

Fortunately, the newly developed land by the Russians is relatively rotten, and the grain yield is relatively low. In many places, only one crop of potatoes can be grown.

According to Austria's land output standards, this grain output can directly explode the international grain market.

In response to the impact of Russian grain on the international market, Austria has begun to destock, and many savvy farmers are preparing to switch to cash crops.

As for the food processing industry, it is still Austria's world. Taking advantage of its own production and sales, it has defeated many competitors and controlled the terminal pricing of the grain market in recent years.

Even if the Russians export grain, most of them are first exported to Austria, and after finishing, they are sold to European countries.

This advantage will not change in the short term. Unless the Russians complete industrialization, their own processing industry develops.

This involves industry again, and it is not an overnight problem to want to change. Take the flour processing industry as an example: the flour produced by Russian companies is not only expensive, but also of poor quality.

Now the flour sold in many cities in the Russian Empire is actually produced in Austria, so we know how competitive the products of Russian companies are.

The machinery of this era is not so easy to use, unlike the noodle mills of later generations, which are operated by fools and can be mastered by anyone.

Today's machinery is all high-tech. Without professional technicians, it is impossible to play at all, and the shortcomings of talents are not so easy to make up for.

It is not so easy to send people to train skilled workers. In this era, countries exported machinery and equipment, and a lot of mines were pre-buried.

For example, for the machinery and equipment exported from Austria, the manuals are all in German, and there may be a few key points in the local dialect.

Even a professional translator will definitely be able to figure out the meaning. What then? Naturally, experts are hired. By exporting labor services in the later period, the enterprise can make another profit.

If you have a dark heart

Of course, there will also be ambush in some places, deliberately allowing buyers to continue to earn post-maintenance fees due to unknowing and improper operation.

This is also why everyone has imported the most advanced equipment from Europe, and has to toss back and forth. If the manufacturers do not make enough money, they do not want to start the work smoothly.

Even some unscrupulous merchants sell machinery and equipment at low prices first, enticing buyers to be deceived, and then work on machinery and equipment to make huge profits by post-maintenance.

If it weren't for these invisible obstacles, in this era without technical barriers, the industrial production levels of all countries in the world could be pulled to the same line.

It's no secret across the industry that even many buyers know that deals can be flawed.

However, they have no choice, this is the tuition fee that the latecomers have to pay. If you don’t pay now, you will pay more in the future.

If you want to directly obtain the industrial technology of the great powers and quickly climb to the world's advanced level, you should wash and sleep!

The foreign powers are not charitable. In order to ensure their technological leadership, deliberately burying nails is only the most routine operation.

Otherwise, this chasing industrial power can quickly narrow the gap as long as it completely replicates the other party's technology.

How is such a good thing possible? If it were so easy, it would not have been so many years, and both France and Austria were pursuers of the British.

If it weren't for the outbreak of the second industrial revolution, it is estimated that the advantages of the British could continue for a long time.