Holy Roman Empire

It's different now, low-end cars can't afford these high-tech, but the luxury version must be arranged.

Affected by this good news, in the first half of 1885 alone, the output of special steel in Austria directly exceeded 1880 tons, while the annual production capacity of special steel in 3 was only a pitiful [-] tons.

……

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the economy either, and time flew by, and by the end of 1885 trouble had started.

Franz asked in surprise: "There is a traffic problem, what's the problem?"

It's not bragging. Austria's local traffic is known as the second in the world these days, and no one really dares to be the first.

The railways extending in all directions connect large and small Austrian cities together, which looks like a dense spider web on a map.

The Austrian economy can grow at a high speed, and this "railway spider web" also contributes a lot.It can be said that without convenient transportation, there would be no Austrian Empire today.

Transport Secretary Styrence explained: "From the perspective of the empire as a whole, our traffic situation is still at the leading level in the world, but serious congestion has already appeared in some areas.

It is mainly the major industrial cities of the empire. With the continuous influx of population in these years, the traffic pressure is also increasing day by day.

Especially after the birth of the automobile, the original urban planning could no longer keep up with the development of the times.

At present, the problems are mainly concentrated in: Prague, Pilsen, Brno, Ostrava, Munich, Stuttgart, Kaienitz, Linz, Milan and other old industrial cities.

Due to the large population, congestion often occurs during rush hours, and many people waste more than half an hour on the bus when commuting to and from get off work.

In contrast, the situation in emerging industrial cities such as Belgrade, Sarajevo, Sagrab, and Bucharest in the southern part of the empire is much better.

In addition to the city, there is also the fact that our previous road construction was not wide enough, and many road sections were too narrow, and it was difficult for two large trucks to stagger when they met. "

These problems are inevitable results.Even if the old industrial cities were upgraded, it was carried out on the basis of the original ones, and no major changes were made to the urban buildings.

Looking at it 30 years ago, the changes at that time were enough to meet the needs.The designers didn't have the ability to predict, so they never thought that Austria's development would be so fast.

Franz is not a professional city designer, and he has no way of getting involved if he wants to.In addition, the Vienna government would already be heavily in debt, and the dry wallet directly dispelled Franz's idea of ​​demolition and reconstruction.

After 30 years, the problem has been exposed, and the government needs to find a way to solve it.

The industrial cities in the south were established at a later stage. When these areas were developed, the finances of the Vienna government had gradually improved.

In addition, it has a weak foundation and does not have so many historical burdens, so it would not be a pity to demolish it directly.Therefore, cities in the south are relatively modern and have a much higher traffic carrying capacity.

"Congestion" is also a relative term. Compared with those congested cities in later generations, squeezing the bus for half an hour is nothing at all.

It's much better than moving forward a few hundred meters at the bus station on the way to work for more than half an hour, which is not as fast as walking.

Urban traffic needs to be improved, and traffic outside the city is even more of a problem.Before the advent of automobiles, Austrian roads were also at the top level in Europe.

However, roads and highways are completely different concepts.The former is a horse racer, so at most, the horse-drawn carriage should be considered.

The cars of 30 years ago were all big steam cars, and it was okay to pull mines in the mines, and the problem of car traffic was not considered at all.

The service life of dirt roads is very long. After so many years of repairs, the roads of that year are still operating normally.

Here, there is no problem of building roads in advance, because roads have a service life. It is estimated that the construction in advance will not wait for cars to appear, and the roads that have been repaired will have already been retired.

To solve these problems, a round of large-scale infrastructure construction is indispensable.

Prime Minister Karl objected: "In the short term, it is not suitable for us to launch a new round of large-scale infrastructure construction. At least until the first phase of the Near East Development Plan is completed, the government should not be distracted.

The problem of urban traffic congestion can allow the transportation department to strengthen management, or increase the number of buses to release greater transport capacity as much as possible.

Although the problem cannot be solved fundamentally, it is still feasible to delay the problem for a period of time.

The roads outside the city are not prepared for cars, and it is inevitable that they cannot meet the demand.Theoretically speaking, this demand can only be met by upgrading all roads across the country.

But we all know that this is impossible.If we really build a road covering the whole country, the construction cost is estimated to be a little cheaper than our railway network.

This has exceeded the government's financial capacity, and we cannot issue unlimited bond financing.

These things are not urgent. You can make plans first, and it doesn’t matter if the specific implementation is delayed. "

Problems arose, and Franz realized that Austria was still poor.The cost of replanning and upgrading old industrial cities is not much lower than rebuilding a new city.

More than a dozen were launched in one breath, and the Near East development plan is already being implemented. The Vienna government really has no financial resources, and another wave will be launched at the same time.

There is no ready-made example of road network construction, but referring to the railway network in Austria, it can basically explain the problem.

If it weren't for the friendly sponsorship of a large group of international enthusiasts, and the construction of the Vienna government's own strength, it is unknown whether it will be open to traffic now.

"learn from mistakes."

I have been tricked once, and international capital has also learned a lesson. Now it is difficult to find so many "enthusiasts" for friendly sponsorship.

Roads are different from railways. The investment prospects of railways are bright. As long as they go through a long investment cycle, there will be a lot of money in the future.

What highways rely on to make money is completely a mess, and there is no lesson from the past to follow.

There are not many cars these days. Even in the most economically developed areas, the money received from setting up toll stations may not be enough to pay the toll collectors.

It is really too difficult to fool a fool into filling in a hole for a business that does not see a profit prospect.

Not to mention investors, even Franz, a traverser, is not optimistic about the profitability of the road project.

There is no way, the popularization of cars will take time.Only after the market has developed to a certain extent, can it be possible to recover the investment cost and obtain a return on investment by relying on fees.

However, capitalists cannot afford to wait.Even "value investment" will not work, because before the road project recovers the investment cost, the road built in front may have been scrapped.

……

Chapter 75 Crisis

In St. Petersburg, since receiving news of the French ranch plan, Alexander III rarely smiled on his face.

Now that the British Parliament has passed the news of the "Food Self-sufficiency Plan", one can imagine how Alexander III feels.

There is no way, food export is too important to the Russian Empire.It not only occupies the largest proportion of the country's foreign exchange income, but also involves the livelihood of tens of millions of people.

Since Alexander II completed the agricultural reform, the Russian Empire has fallen into the embarrassment of oversupply of grain. Except for the years of the Prussian-Russian War, the Tsarist government has to worry about grain sales every year.

This has something to do with a decree from the time of Alexander II.

At that time, when preparing for the Second Russo-Prussian War, the government needed to raise military rations, and it just happened to catch up with the agricultural crisis, and the folks had no money to pay taxes due to unsalable food, so Alexander II ordered farmers to use food to pay taxes.

This policy allowed the Tsarist government to raise enough military rations in the shortest possible time, laying the foundation for winning the Second Prussian-Prussian War.

The sequelae are that the tsarist government receives a large amount of grain every year, especially in remote areas, and almost all farmers pay taxes on grain.

It is impossible to change it back.The transportation in Russia is very bad. The food in remote areas cannot be sold at a high price, and in some areas it cannot be sold at all. It is far less cost-effective than paying in kind directly.

If this decree is abolished, it will be against tens of millions of farmers. Alexander III naturally dare not do such a thing.

If decades ago, the tsarist government had so much food in its hands, it would have swept across the European continent long ago.

It's a pity that today is different from the past. What the current tsarist government wants most is to cash in food.

There is no need to think about it in China. The price of grain in the market itself is not high. If so much grain is released, the grain market will collapse.

Internationally, there is also excess grain production capacity, coupled with political factors, the road to Russia's grain exports is not smooth.

If Austria hadn't led the grain export alliance, and everyone had cut down grain exports and stabilized grain prices, the international market would have been ruined long ago.

After the international grain price stabilized, the tsarist government only breathed a sigh of relief. The share allocated to them still could not digest the grain received by the government every year.

Of course, not all of the rest was wasted.The tsarist government also thought of many ways, such as: raising livestock, making wine...

The former naturally failed. It was easy to raise livestock, but unfortunately it was difficult to sell them.

The domestic market seems to be huge, but it is a pity that ordinary people are poor, and it is not easy to fill their stomachs, and they simply cannot afford it.

Although the international market is larger, the problem is that live animals are difficult to transport, and they cannot be kept fresh after slaughtering, so cured meat cannot be sold at a high price in the international market.

There are many hidden dangers in food safety these days. If you hear the words "Made in Russia" again, it is estimated that 90.00% of consumers will be scared away.

This is the brand effect, Russian food is so reassuring.

Other countries export food, but there may be problems; while the food exported by Russia basically has problems.

This is the conclusion drawn by the European people with personal experience.

In order to change this image, the tsarist government also made efforts, but they all came to naught under the joint efforts of bureaucrats and capitalists.

For details, you can refer to the sales of meat products in the Russian market. Those with high prices are imported products, and domestic products cannot be sold at a higher price.

But as long as the economic situation allows, everyone will buy imported food that is more reassuring.Not only meat products, but even flour.

Even though many people know that these flours are wheat produced in Russia exported to Austria and sold back after processing, but everyone is willing to pay a high price to buy one to rest assured.

As a result of the development of animal husbandry, farmers in the border areas benefited in the end, and they could drive their livestock to Austria next door for sale.

Don't count on industrial development, because these animals have been labeled from the beginning - imported from Russia.

Once the inherent cognition is formed, it is not so easy to change.

With this label, there is no market for this part of meat products in Austria.Much of it is processed into cured meat, canned, and eventually finds its way back to the Russian market.

Compared with the rush of the breeding industry, the winemaking business of the Tsarist government is booming. It is now the largest wine supplier in Europe, and it sells cheap wine.

It is really cheap, even if someone wants to imitate it, it is impossible.Because calculated according to the price of grain in the market, after the grain wine is sold, it is not enough to recover the cost.

Of course, "cheap" alone is not enough to make the Russians the largest alcohol supplier in Europe. More importantly, the Russian Empire itself is the largest alcohol consumer in Europe.

Austria, with a similarly sized population, consumes less than half as much alcohol per year as the Russian Empire.The gap is even wider when alcohol consumption is counted.

In a sense, the overcapacity of grain has promoted the development of Russian people's alcohol culture, making the "land of barrels" well-deserved.

This was all forced out, and the tsarist government was unwilling to be so extravagant, but if the surplus grain was not used to make wine for cash, it must not be piled up in the warehouse to rot!

It was hard to dispose of the excess food, and now Britain and France are starting to toss again.

Although the short-term impact is not great, once their plan becomes a reality, the biggest foreign exchange earning project of the tsarist government will be completely gone.

A gloomy Alexander III asked: "The British Parliament has passed the food self-sufficiency plan, regardless of our withdrawal from the free trade system, so who can tell me what the Austrians are doing?"

This is a very obvious problem. The British Parliament was able to pass the proposal so smoothly, and the Austrian government certainly did not do its best to stop it.

With Austria's influence, even if it is impossible to influence the decision-making of the British, it is still no problem to delay in parliament for a period of time.

Combined with what happened during this period, Alexander III had reason to suspect that the Austrian government had secretly made deals with Britain and France, betraying the interests of the Russian Empire.

Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez: "Your Majesty, not long ago the Vienna government issued an agricultural upgrade announcement.

According to the above content, in the next five years, Austria will reduce: 5.00% of the wheat planting area, [-]% of the potato planting area...in order to deal with a new round of agricultural crisis.

If this plan is fully realized, their domestic market will be enough to consume domestic grain production capacity, basically getting rid of their dependence on the international market. "

In essence, Franz was forced to do so.Needless to say, the importance of grain, if he can monopolize the grain export market, even if he loses money, he will fight to the end.

Unfortunately, Austria does not currently have the conditions to monopolize grain exports.

Even if it occupies the largest share in the international agricultural product export market, the market share is close to a monopoly, but this dominance is not stable.

If you want to consolidate your dominance, you must first suppress several grain-producing countries, especially the Russian Empire next door.

The international situation is changing rapidly. Britain, France and Russia are still enemies today, but they may become friends tomorrow.

With the ability of the Russians themselves, it is not enough to worry about developing the agricultural product processing industry, but it is not the same with external support.

In case the Russians and the French or the British reach an agreement one day, a group of British and French capitalists will be attracted to invest.

Setting up an agricultural product processing factory in a coastal city will have serious consequences. After all: "Advanced technology + cheap industrial raw materials + cheap labor + vast market = success."

Encountered such a combination, Austria can only passively follow the price war, relying on financial resources to hurt others.

Knowing that the "money road" is in the dark, and the interests of tens of millions of farmers are involved, it is impossible for Franz to go on this road of no return just out of anger.

In order to minimize losses, it is natural to promote the transformation of domestic agriculture before overturning the table.

In this era of rapid technological development, reducing the area of ​​food planting does not mean reducing the total production capacity of food. These are two completely different concepts.

Of course, it seems to the outside world that the Vienna government is out of skills, and has no choice but to reduce food production capacity in order to deal with the ensuing agricultural crisis.

With a sound of "bang", the coffee cup in front of Alexander III flew out.Austria is now retreating, which is not a good thing for the Russian Empire.

Since food production can be withdrawn, the agricultural product processing industry can also be withdrawn.Once Britain and France are really self-sufficient in food, Austria can also give up this part of the benefits.

With the continuous development of the economy, the proportion of the agricultural product processing industry in the Austrian domestic economy is also getting lower and lower.

Moreover, the loss of some foreign markets does not mean that the agricultural product processing industry is over. The real impact is some raw grain processing enterprises such as flour mills.

Other agricultural and sideline product processing enterprises will basically not be affected, and it is actually not that big for the entire agricultural product processing industry.

……

Chapter 76 Nougat