Chapter 347

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

Russia, Brazil, China, Australia, India, Canada, and the United States had high iron reserves.

China, the United States, and Russia had the best coal quality.

Oil was concentrated in the Middle East, Russia, the United States, China, Mexico, and England.

…

Franz clearly remembered what he learned in geography class in his previous life. To sum it up, Europe lacked minerals.

On one hand, it was developed too early, and many resources were exhausted in the 21st century. On the other hand, there were not many mineral reserves.

Other than Russia, the rest of the European countries were poor in mineral resources, or it could be said that the distribution of mineral resources was very homogeneous. A typical example would be Germany, which lacked almost everything except coal and iron ore.

This was envied by many countries. The two most basic elements of the industrial age were present, and the French next door lacked coal.

In comparison, Austria was considered lucky. Perhaps it was because the territory was slightly larger, but all the mineral resources were available. It was just that this amount was a bit too much to take out.

Of course, this was in a relative sense. Compared to European countries other than Russia, Austria still had an advantage in mineral resources.

These resources laid the foundation for Austria's industrial development. In 1870, Austria's steel production surpassed the United Kingdom for the first time, with an annual production of 6.48 million tons.

Of course, the advantage was not obvious, only surpassing the United Kingdom by 20,000 tons. The main reason for the rapid growth of Austria's steel production was the increase in demand in the domestic market.

A domestic market with more than 30 million people and a domestic market with more than 70 million people. Both completed industrialization, the demand for steel was obviously greater.

In fact, this production still could not meet the market demand. Other than the domestic market, the African colony was also a large steel consumer.

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Industry, Austria's steel demand would double in the next ten years, with the steel demand reaching as high as 1.5 million tons.

Seeing this data, Franz had a headache. Currently, the steel production in the Bohemia region had reached a bottleneck, and the growth rate of production had slowed down. If they wanted to expand production quickly, they would need to carry out technological innovation.

However, this was not realistic. Steel technology had just undergone a revolution not long ago, and it was almost impossible to achieve another breakthrough in a short period of time.

Although the second steel production base in Bosnia was developing rapidly, there was still a long way to go to fill this gap. It would not be achieved within ten years.

Most of Austria's steel companies were concentrated in the Bohemia region (later Czech Republic region), accounting for 63% of the national steel production.

Other than that, Bosnia, Linz, Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Galicia, Silesia, and other regions.

The main reasons for this situation were many. The steel plants in Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony were historical relics and did not develop due to the limited resources.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the industry started too late. The government was still busy building roads. Although the steel companies had settled down, they were limited by traffic and could not exert their full capacity in a short period of time.

Galicia was not valued enough by the government to compete with Bohemia, and Silesia was the fault of the Prussians, who had fled and left a mess which the Vienna government had just cleaned up.

The human factor could be overcome, but the most troublesome part was the distribution of resources. Austria had a lot of coal and iron ore, but it was not concentrated.

Austria had Coal and iron ore, but unfortunately, they, and were not. of. of Austria.

In Franz's opinion, the capitalists had made the right choice. Since he was going to invest, the main purpose was to make money. If they were far away from the source of the raw materials, the competitiveness of the products would not be guaranteed.

Today, the concentration of heavy industry was no longer suitable for Austria. Every place had a limited supply of resources. It could only provide one million tons of raw materials. It was impossible to produce two million tons of steel.

Except for Germany, where resources were concentrated, almost every industrial country had multiple industrial bases. Other than Germany, where resources were concentrated, almost every industrialized country had multiple industrial bases.

After reading the information carefully, Franz made a decision. "There's no need to answer this question. With the development of the country, the demand for steel will only increase.

Serbia, Silesia, and Galicia all have the potential to develop into heavy industrial bases. This time, the demand for steel will only increase!

Serbia, Silesia, and Galicia all have the potential to develop into heavy industrial bases. This time, I will list them all!

Other areas, as long as there are coal and iron mines, and the transportation is relatively convenient, they can also be developed.

The government will formulate the corresponding policies and find a way to solve the transportation problem. The final development will be left to the companies and the market. "

In this era, the governments of all countries were laissez-faire on industrial development. The development of the industry was basically determined by the market economy.

The Austrian government's solution to the infrastructure problem was actually an administrative intervention in the market economy, but it was relatively subtle.

As the most resource-rich country in Europe, Russia's steel production was less than one-twentieth of Austria's.

It was not that the Russian capitalists didn't see the business opportunities, but the transportation was too difficult. The Tsarist government didn't solve the transportation problem and wanted them to build their own roads. Who dared to do this business?

After the Tsarist government focused on transportation, Russia's industry began to develop. Unfortunately, the Russian Empire was too big, and the road was too difficult to build.

Before the World War, the Russians only built more than 70,000 kilometers, and that was the result of the efforts of the Tsar.

Before the time travel, Franz often complained about the traffic in Russia. After coming to this world, his ideas changed.

The roads in the Russian Empire were really difficult to build. The technical difficulty and construction cost of building railways in the Frost Kingdom were much higher than in European countries, and the Tsarist government was poor.

"If you want to be rich, build the road first." This sentence was not wrong at all. However, they didn't even have the money to build the road, which was a tragedy.

What was even more tragic was that the Russian's railway was not only expensive to build, but the maintenance cost was also much higher than in European countries. Even if the railway was built, there was no guarantee that it would be open all year round.

In order to ensure the smooth operation of the railway, the railway company had to invest a large number of workers in maintenance in winter. Many sections of the road only needed a few hours before the snow covered the railway.

As a result, the operating cost of the railway also increased, and the freight naturally increased. The originally cheap industrial raw materials, after being transported thousands of miles, were no longer cheap.

They started late and faced such harsh conditions, coupled with the corruption of the Tsarist government, it was not surprising that the Russian industry didn't develop.

It was estimated that Alexander Ii Of Russia didn't have the time to think about these problems. He was still busy leading the people of Russia to open up the wasteland.

No, the Great Reclamation had been going on for almost two years. Now he should be worried about how to deal with the new food.

If they wanted to sell the food, they must first be able to transport it. Not to mention the food in the Ukraine region, the Russian Empire's food exports mainly came from here.

There was also a way to transport the food in the Moscow region through the river. For the food in the Caucasus region, they had to build the road first. The lack of a railway was really a headache.

The most tragic was the Siberian plains. The people of Russia who opened up the wasteland here were in a tragedy. Not to mention the harsh weather conditions, after all, Tsar gave them more land, so they had to endure it.

The transportation problem was a headache. The river existed, but the premise was that the land must be along the river and the river must be navigable.

Fortunately, Alexander Ii Of Russia exempted the tax on the newly opened land. Otherwise, the tax officers would collapse. The people had no money in their pockets. Should they collect the tax on the food or not?

Perhaps for the people of Russia, this was a happy worry. They no longer had to worry about starvation. In a few years, everyone's warehouse would be full of food.

It was still too short to see the power of the great reclamation. However, looking at the big data, Franz knew that Alexander Ii Of Russia's reform was halfway successful.

More food meant lower prices. In addition to filling the stomachs of the farmers, it could also support a large number of workers at the lowest cost.

When everyone was full, the country would be stable. At least for a few decades, most Russians would be satisfied.

The only problem was whether they could withstand the counterattack of the conservatives. With so much newly opened land, how could the nobles of Russia not be tempted?

After the reclamation was completed, someone would jump out to pick the peaches. If they couldn't stop the land annexation, then the Russian Empire would fall into another crisis.

Land annexation was a problem in the future. The biggest problem right now was the food sales. If so much food couldn't be sold on the international market, then it would be a big problem.

It wouldn't take long. Next year or the year after, the Russian Empire would have an oversupply of food.

So far, Russia had opened up at least 200 million acres of farmland. This number was almost half of Austria's farmland.

Fortunately, the newly developed land in Russia was relatively poor. The food production was relatively low. Many places could only grow potatoes for one season.

According to Austria's land production standards, this food production could directly burst the international food market.

In order to deal with the impact of Russia's food on the international market, Austria had already started to destock. Many smart farmers were ready to change to cash crops.

As for the food processing industry, it was still Austria's world. Using the advantage of self-production and self-marketing, they had defeated many competitors and controlled the final pricing of the food market.

Even if Russia exported food, most of it was first exported to Austria. After finishing the processing, it was sold to Europe.

The pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first. This advantage wouldn't change in the short term. Unless Russia completed industrialization and developed their own processing industry.

This involved the industry, and it wasn't a matter of overnight to change. Take the flour processing industry as an example: the flour produced by Russia's enterprises was not only expensive, but also of poor quality.

Now, many cities in the Russian Empire were selling flour in Austria. One could see how competitive the products of Russia's enterprises were.

The machinery of this era wasn't so easy to use. Unlike the flour milling machine of later generations, it was foolproof and anyone could master it.

The machinery now belonged to high technology. Without professional technicians, it was impossible to play with it. The shortage of talent wasn't so easy to make up for.

It wasn't so easy to send people to train skilled workers. In this era, the machinery and equipment exported by various countries were buried in advance.

For example, when Austria exported machinery and equipment, the manuals were all written in German, and there might even be a few words in the local dialect at crucial points.

Even a professional translator wouldn't be able to understand the meaning. What should they do? Naturally, they would hire experts. With the labor export in the later stage, the company could earn another sum of money.

If they were more black-hearted, they would set up an ambush in some places and deliberately let the buyer do the wrong operation and continue to earn the maintenance fees.

This was also why everyone who imported the most advanced European equipment had to go back and forth. If they didn't let the factory make enough money, they wouldn't be able to start production smoothly.

There were even some unscrupulous merchants who sold the machinery and equipment at a low price to lure the buyer. After that, they would tamper with the machinery and rely on the maintenance to make huge profits.

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

In the entire industry, this wasn't a secret. Many buyers even knew that there might be loopholes in the transaction.

However, they had no choice. This was the tuition that the latecomers had to pay. If they didn't pay now, they would have to pay more in the future.

If they wanted to directly obtain the industrial technology of the great powers and quickly climb to the world's advanced level, they should just wash their hands and sleep!

The great powers weren't doing charity. In order to ensure that their technology was leading, it was the most common operation to bury the nails.

Otherwise, as long as the advanced industrial power copied the technology of the other party, they would be able to quickly close the gap.

How could such a good thing happen? If it was so easy, the Fao and Russia wouldn't be chasing after the British for so many years.

If it wasn't for the second industrial revolution, the British might still maintain their advantage for a long time.