Chapter 351

The industrial layout was not just limited to the steel industry. With the advent of the second industrial revolution, the use of copper became more widespread.

In 1870, Austria's copper production reached 580,000 tons, but the market demand was as high as 720,000 tons, and the shortage rate was as high as one-sixth.

The main reason for this situation was the advent of the electric age. As the vanguard of the electricity revolution, Austria's demand for copper naturally increased day by day.

In order to adjust the market supply and demand, the Government of Vienna did not hesitate to order state-owned enterprises to increase production, but this supply and demand relationship could not be changed in a short period of time.

There was no other way. If there was a lack of steel, they could purchase it from the international market, but there was no hope for copper.

Austria's copper production exceeded the sum of all European countries. Even the United Kingdom's copper production in this era was a pitiful few tens of thousands of tons.

It was not that people did not want to increase production, but the problem was that there were no mines at home, and raw materials needed to be imported. If they wanted to increase copper production, they had to solve the copper ore problem first.

Unfortunately, the reserves of this stuff in Europe were really not high. Otherwise, Chile would not have been able to become rich by exporting copper ore.

This was very disharmonious for Austria. The local reserves were insufficient, and the import of copper ore was too far away. The increased transportation costs made the company's profits thin.

The Ministry of Industry was preparing to find copper mines in the African colonies to make up for the lack of raw materials. Now there were a lot of copper mines found, but transportation was still a big problem.

…

Franz put down the information and shook his head. "Smelting copper in Africa, this plan is too radical. Now is not the time to develop industry in Africa. At least before the localization is completed, the African continent cannot have industry.

Moreover, smelting copper in Africa will definitely reduce the cost? I remember the Ministry of Industry's energy reserve report mentioned the lack of coal mines in the African continent.

At present, we have discovered several large coal mines, all concentrated in South Africa. If smelting locally also needs to transport ore, the cost may not be lower than smelting domestically. "

There was no doubt that it was another political test. In recent years, there were more and more capitalists entering the African colonies. Many of them were no longer satisfied with providing raw materials for the country and wanted to develop local industries.

However, because of the congenital deficiency, the distribution of resources on the African continent was extremely uneven, and under the suppression of the Government of Vienna, they had not been successful.

Now these people wanted to use the power of the Government of Vienna to develop local industries and earn greater benefits.

This kind of childish political means naturally could not escape Franz's eyes. If it was the United States or Australia with rich resources, it would be difficult to suppress local industrial development.

When it came to Africa, the situation was completely different. More than 90% of the coal mines were concentrated in South Africa. If the remaining areas wanted to develop their industries, they would have to solve the coal supply first.

This would require the construction of roads, but the Austrian African Railway project was still progressing slowly. The initial plan was only from Guinea to the Congo region. Although there were more planned sections now, it was not something that could be completed in a day or two.

The main road was not completed, let alone the branch road. If the main road was not completed, there was no need to think.

Now, taking advantage of the local copper shortage, many people began to move again. However, they ignored the general distribution of resources in Africa. Franz was more familiar with it than anyone else.

No one knew which mine it was, but the resources in that large area were no longer a secret in the future. Anyone who was even slightly interested could search for information on the internet.

There were places in Africa that were suitable for industrial development, and South Africa was the best choice. There was almost no shortage of all kinds of resources.

. as. When the war was over, the gold would be ready again. . Once a large gold mine appeared, who would have the time to invest in other industries?

Once a large gold mine appeared, who would have the time to invest in other industries? Once the gold mine was developed, the resources would be snatched. It would be difficult to invest in other industries.

In the future, South Africa did not develop any industries. To a certain extent, it was because of the abundance of resources. One could make a fortune by selling mines. Who would be willing to take the risk and invest in industries?

Minister of Industry Kaschin Kubek explained, "Your Majesty, the investigation of Guinea's localization is coming to an end. If we continue to suppress the development of the local industry, we will be criticized.

We all know about the distribution of resources. These people are on the African continent, so it's impossible for them not to know about these problems. In the end, they still made the application. This was most likely a test.

Even if they find one or two coal mines, they will only add one or two factories.

As long as the government doesn't solve the transportation problem, no matter what they do, they won't be able to create an industrial system without the raw materials. Why should we stop them? "

The African continent did not just lack an industrial system. It was poor. Not only were the resources lacking, but they also lacked manpower.

In the vast and sparsely populated African continent, the cost of finding hundreds of thousands of workers to build a large industrial group that combined mining and smelting would make any capitalists flinch.

Franz asked uncertainly, "You mean to open up the mining industry, but deliberately set up obstacles when building the railway.

Do you mean to make it impossible for raw materials to connect with each other and increase the transportation cost? "

If they really did that, the African industry would probably be finished. It was not a problem to develop the mines. The government would build railways in the areas where the resources were concentrated to transport the ore.

However, this kind of railway was mainly single-track, and it was not a complete railway network. Especially between the iron mines and coal mines, there were no railways. It would suppress the development of the African industry.

He had to admit that this method was much better than a direct ban on Africa's industrial development. In the future, he could find excuses. For example, the prospecting technology was not good enough, and he miscalculated the amount of resources.

A huge mine with 100 million tons of ore was shown as one million tons on the report. Naturally, it was not worth the government's attention. They needed to plan the railway line.

Or, they had neglected the technological progress.

Due to the limitations of the times, they had misjudged the value of the mine. It was understandable that they had neglected it when building the railway.

…

In any case, it was all caused by special circumstances. It was definitely not the central government suppressing the industrial development of the African continent. In the end, the African continent's industry did not develop, which was beyond human ability.

After a few decades, the localization was completed, and Austria's rule on the African continent was deeply entrenched. At that time, it would not be too late to correct these special historical mistakes.

The Minister of Industry, Kaschin Cubecker, replied, "Yes, Your Majesty. Now we have to concentrate on developing the mainland. There is no way to let the colonies make sacrifices. "

Kaschin Cubecker emphasized the word "colonies." Since they were colonies, they naturally could not be compared to the mainland. It was inevitable that they would be treated a level lower.

If they did not suck blood from the colonies, Austria's economy would not be able to maintain rapid growth for a long time. Before the era of free trade, the colonies were sacrificial targets.

The "mistake" that was limited by the times was no longer a mistake. The construction of the railway network on the African continent was also inevitable.

Franz finally understood why there were so many pitfalls in the original Indian Railway. It turned out that the root of the disaster had been buried as early as the colonial era.

It was not that the designers' planning was unreasonable, but that reality needed to be unreasonable. The seemingly unreasonable planning of the future was the best choice in this era.

Franz nodded and said, "Speed up the progress of the colonial railway construction. Take advantage of the time when the information is not symmetrical to create an established fact. Don't attract the attention of the people."

The Government of Vienna had a resource distribution map. It was inevitable that it was imperfect, but it knew more than the civil government.

Industrial development could not be separated from coal. The coal mines on the African continent were concentrated in South Africa, which meant that the real design mistakes were also in South Africa.

It was very simple to do this. They just had to take the blame for the gold mines. It was understandable that the railway network prioritized gold mining and smelting and ignored other areas.

…

This kind of covert plan naturally had to be kept as secret as possible. The implementation naturally fell on the head of the Ministry of Railways.

In the Ministry of Railways, Stein, who received this special order, was dumbfounded. This was not an easy job. It was clear that they had to be prepared to be scolded.

No matter how good the excuse was, the people would still scold the railway designers in the future. Who would take the blame became a problem.