My Italy

1904 was a calm year for Italy. During this year, the Italian economy grew rapidly, with the annual economic growth rate reaching 7.4%.

The main reason for the Italian economy to achieve such growth is the rapid development of Italian automobile manufacturing, petrochemical industry, and related industries.

Especially taking the automobile manufacturing industry as an example, manufacturing automobiles drives the development of related industries such as the steel industry, leather industry, wood industry, and rubber. After all, automobile manufacturing requires these industries, so these industries have also been fully driven by it. development of.

One more thing to say here is that due to the development of the automobile manufacturing industry, the rubber planting industry as an integral part of automobiles has also developed, especially in the price of rubber, which has been fully reflected. The current price of rubber in London has risen from 1 shilling 2 pence per pound this time last year to 1 shilling 9 pence per pound now.

The reason why rubber prices have soared is not only that the automobile manufacturing industry requires a large amount of rubber, but also that the growth of global rubber has not kept pace with demand. It is important to know that rubber trees only start to produce rubber after they have grown for 6-7 years, which means that there is a heavy delay in rubber production. At present, Italian Borneo produces the most rubber in the world. The region's rubber production accounts for 47% of the world's production. It can be said that Borneo's rubber production determines the world's rubber price.

The increase in rubber prices, in a sense, can be regarded as an increase in the income of the Italian Borneo colony. Presumably, the Italian Borneo government's fiscal revenue will see a relatively high growth this year.

In addition, the development of the internal combustion engine industry, mainly the automobile manufacturing industry, has also driven the growth of Italy's petrochemical industry. Last year, Italy extracted 2.4 million tons of oil in Libya, becoming Europe's largest oil seller. The extracted oil is sent to the mainland by oil ships for refining, and then the refined oil and part of the crude oil are sold to European countries.

In addition to selling oil in Europe, the Balikpapan oil field in the Borneo colony provides crude oil and refined oil to the Far East. As the largest oil field in Southeast Asia and even the Far East, the oil and standard oil from the Balikpapan Oilfield are supplied to the Far East.

According to statistics from the Italian Petroleum Company, throughout 1904, the company sold a total of 127 million lire worth of petrochemical products and made a profit of 71 million lire.

The development of Italy's petrochemical industry has also promoted the development of another industry, that is, diesel engine-related industries. As a major branch of internal combustion engines, although diesel engines have not attracted as much attention as gasoline engines in recent years, they are also developing slowly. At present, diesel engines have been used in all aspects of society such as mines, electricity, ship power, and agricultural irrigation in various countries.

At present, more than 90% of the world's diesel engines come from Naples Machinery Factory. So although the factory may not have a good reputation outside, it is definitely famous in the industry. Recently, the Naples Machinery Factory is also preparing to enter the field of vehicle manufacturing, not knowing whether it is affected by Fiat Automobile Company.

However, Naples may be aware of the shortcomings of its flagship product, diesel engines, so Naples plans to use the characteristics of diesel engines to start with agricultural tractors and engineering special vehicles.

After all, these two industries don't care about noise and jitter, but pay more attention to high horsepower, big twist, and full stamina.

The Naples Machinery Factory can have such an idea, in addition to the factor of Fiat, it is also thanks to the continuous efforts of the Milan Power Laboratory to downsize diesel engines. After several years of research, a Milan laboratory has finally come up with a reliable small diesel engine.

It is these miniaturized diesel engines that allow the Naples Machinery Factory to place them on special vehicles and agricultural tractors.

It is precisely driven by these industries that Italy's industrial strength will make great progress. As far as the Italian steel industry is concerned, Italian industrialization has put more demand for steel in recent years, so Italy's domestic steel plants are currently doing well. All the steel produced every year is purchased. This year, Italy's total steel production was 4.83 million tons, of which steel production was 2.14 million tons and iron production was 2.69 million tons.

It seems that there is considerable progress, but it is still not enough for the country’s consumption.

The main problem currently restricting the Italian steel industry is that coal and iron are not located in the same place. The two are too far apart. Moreover, Italy's only large-scale rich iron mine, the Sabha Iron Mine, is located in the interior of Libya. External transportation relies entirely on a road that crosses the Gobi Desert. Sesu Railway.

At present, only by solving the constraints of rail transportation in Sesu can the increase in Italian steel production be expanded. In fact, there is another way, which is to purchase coal and iron ore from other countries. However, this suggestion is not a good choice for Rome, but it can be used as an emergency. After all, the Ruhr coal and iron mines are separated from Italy by Switzerland.

In addition to iron ore, the output of Italian coal mines also reached a new high this year. In 1904, Italian coal output reached a record high of 26.8 million tons. Although this output is a bit embarrassing among the major powers, for Italy, it is already trying its best. There is not a single coal mine in the Apennine Peninsula. If not for the discovery of many coal resources in Kosovo and Albania, there would be no coal mines.

There is no way, Italy is short of minerals.

Italy lacks minerals, but it does not lack population at all. The current total population of Italy is 38.17 million, an increase of 1.7 million from five years ago. Italians attach great importance to the concept of family, which has kept their population growth at a high level for a long time. Perhaps only the use of universal contraceptive pills and high housing prices will allow Italians to reduce their fertility rate.

Such a large population is a huge pressure for Italy. You must know that this year, Italy's total grain output is 8.15 million tons, with an average of 213 kilograms of grain per person. This is definitely not enough to eat, so every year Italy needs to spend a lot of money to purchase a large amount of food from abroad.

It can be said that the food issue is very critical to Italy.

Of course, food is a very serious problem, but currently Italy has no good solution. It can only take one step at a time.

Of course, we can ignore the issue of food for the time being.

According to statistics, Italian industry currently occupies 4.2% of the world's share. Although this may seem inconspicuous, it is already very good. You must know that Austria-Hungary only occupies 4.4% of the share, and France only has 6.1%. As for Germany, the UK, the weather is nice today, so we can talk about something else.

The growth of Italy's industry certainly brought benefits to it. According to fiscal revenue statistics in 1904, Italy's total fiscal revenue for the year reached 2.419 billion lire. The ability to obtain such high financial revenue is thanks to the development and growth of the electrical revolution in Italy. Only then can its fiscal revenue achieve higher growth.

And more fiscal revenue will naturally give the Italian government more funds at its disposal and can provide more benefits to the Italian people.

However, Italy's stable days will not last long.