Chapter 707

With threats, coupled with the full support of the cabinet, the British parliament finally passed the bill to increase military spending with a small majority.

However, the budget of 70 million pounds was cut to 65.81 million pounds. This was already considered good. It was common for the budget to be cut in half in the parliament.

Perhaps because they felt threatened by Shinro, the councilors were stimulated by reality, and when they waved their scythes, they showed mercy.

Even so, after going through all kinds of processes, it was still May when the navy completed the bidding and determined the shipyard.

Before Campbell could breathe a sigh of relief, new bad news came. There were not enough docks with more than 20,000 tons to build so many super battleships at once.

"What, at this time, you're telling me that there are not enough docks that meet the requirements?"

Prime Minister Campbell roared.

He had to be angry. The super battleship moved more than 20,000 tons. Such a big body couldn't be placed on the berth at all. The construction must be carried out in the docks.

However, docks weren't cabbages, especially docks with more than 20,000 tons, which were even rarer.

In the original world, until the outbreak of World War I, no one had heard of anyone building more than a dozen dreadnoughts at once. It wasn't that people didn't want to, it was mainly because the hardware conditions weren't met.

Even in World War II, only the Americans could build more than a dozen large warships at the same time.

Faced with the prime minister's question, Secretary of the Navy Swindin replied with a worried expression, "I'm very sorry, Your Excellency.

Although I don't want to believe that the empire has a lack of production capacity, this is the reality. The time of the dreadnoughts is too short. We simply don't have time to build more large docks. "

Although in recent years, Britannia's shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly, merchant ships with more than 20,000 tons are still rare.

It's not that there is no technology, but the market demand is not big. Although in theory, the larger the tonnage of a merchant ship, the lower the unit transportation cost, that is only in theory.

Now it was just entering the early 20th century, and overseas trade was far less developed than in later generations. How could they fill a merchant ship with more than 20,000 tons?

There were only a few commodities that needed to be transported by ship, namely: agricultural products, cotton textiles, oil, ores, and steel.

Although they were commodities, the demand for large merchant ships was still not large.

Take cotton textiles for example, who dared to put tens of thousands of tons of goods into the same market at once?

Even if there were large merchant ships, they could only do it alone. This order was not easy to put together. It was impossible to have so many orders that needed to be delivered at the same time.

Moreover, not all the orders could be put together. Many goods still had rigid transportation conditions.

For a transportation company, rather than using a merchant ship of thirty to fifty thousand tons, it would be more economical to use a merchant ship of ten thousand tons.

It was the same for steel. Most countries would purchase up to 8,000 tons a year at most. Countries that consumed hundreds of thousands of tons or even millions of tons could basically produce it themselves.

Even if there were orders, they were usually purchased in batches according to the actual situation. After all, steel would rust. If he bought too much of it at once, he might end up ruining it.

Ores were not much better. It was a big business, but the problem was that the demand was small!

In the era of free trade, for many countries, instead of purchasing ores to refine, it was better to purchase the finished products directly from the market, which was more economical.

It was the same in Britannia. Other than the high demand for steel, which had to be refined in local factories, other rare metals could be bought directly.

Unlike later generations, where even aluminum was a rare metal, Britannia consumed at most ten thousand tons every year. It was not a loss to refine it themselves.

In the original timeline, until 1913, Britannia only produced about seven thousand tons of aluminum. Large-scale industrial production was in the middle and late 20th century.

There was no need to talk about other rare metals. Many of them only existed in the laboratory and could not be used in the industrial field.

The market demand was too small to accommodate too many companies. Capital pursued profit, and naturally, no one would do a loss-making business.

The amount of petroleum that was the most consumed in the future was only around 30 million tons a year, and most of it was still produced and sold within Shenluo.

Even if they needed large tankers, such a business would be digested internally. It was impossible for the orders to fall into the hands of British shipyards.

The same was true for agricultural products. Shinra was the biggest, and the transportation was also done by itself. There was no chance for British shipyards to intervene.

The only market was for other people's dishes. Without enough market orders, British shipbuilders would naturally not build a bunch of large docks.

If it was not for the need to prove their strength to the outside world and have the ability to build large merchant ships, with the integrity of the capitalists, it was estimated that the few large docks would not necessarily appear.

Prime Minister Campbell angrily said, "I don't want to listen to any explanation. The problem now is that we need to build warships, but the production capacity cannot meet the demand.

Don't tell me that the Marine Department is just sitting around doing nothing? Why didn't you report such a big problem in advance?

Now that there is a problem, how are you going to clean it up? The enemy will not give us so much time to prepare! "

No matter how many reasons there were, the Admiralty could not escape the blame for the current situation.

"I didn't know the enemy would be so crazy to lay so many dumplings at once."

Such a reason could be used to shirk the responsibility, but it could not solve the actual problem.

Swindin explained very awkwardly, "We have taken countermeasures. The shipyard has been working overtime to build a new large dock as early as three months ago.

In view of the current situation, we have modified the design of some warships.

At the cost of sacrificing part of the performance, the displacement has been successfully compressed, so that the 20,000-ton dock can also meet the demand.

Although there are more large docks in the Holy Roman Empire, there are only six docks with more than 25,000 tons, and three of them have already been put into use.

From this point of view, the enemy can build at most three dreadnoughts with more than 25,000 tons, just the same as us.

The rest are first generation dreadnoughts. Even if our displacement is smaller, our combat power will not be much weaker than them. "

Notifying the shipyard in advance to build a large dock naturally did not exist. If the Admiralty reacted so quickly, they would have thrown out the problem long ago.

However, the capitalists with foresight did start in advance. To a certain extent, this could be regarded as saving the Admiralty politically.

As long as the capitalists admitted that the construction of a large dock was related to the Admiralty, it proved that the Admiralty had taken strong countermeasures in time, and the matter was over.

It was unknown whether there was a transfer of benefits behind this, but the shipyard that built the large dock in advance had all received orders from the Admiralty.

These were all small problems. Everyone was in the same boat, and they were political allies. There was no need to hit them when they were down at this time.

In the past, no one felt anything. Anyway, the British Empire could come up with any technology. It was just a matter of taking a step first and then a step later.

Now that the real meaning was about to be met, everyone suddenly realized that the matter was serious. It was true that the Royal Navy had the advantage, but the overall industrial level of the British Empire could not keep up!

The production cost was high, and there was no price-performance ratio. The troublesome thing was that the production capacity could not keep up.

Everyone here played politics and was pushed up, so they did not know much about the details of the industry.

If the window paper was not pierced, no one could think of it. Now that the blind spot in their thinking was pierced, many problems that were usually ignored suddenly rushed into everyone's mind.

They were all elites of the era, and naturally would not be naive to think that the current problem of Britannia was only the lack of large docks.

With a little thought, everyone knew that there was a big problem with the industrial system of Britannia.

The world was so subtle. In order to better plunder the wealth of other countries, Britannia personally came up with a free trade system.

The wealth was indeed plundered. In the past years, the British capital had made a lot of money, but the aftereffects were so much bigger.

There was no feeling in the free trade system. Just after independence, Britannia's industrial system had a big problem.

The number of large docks was not enough. Would the production capacity of the warship supporting enterprises be able to meet the demand?

Don't forget, not long ago, these guys were crying and shouting to withdraw from the free trade system and implement tariff barriers to protect the market.

If it was during normal times, it would be a little slower. It was not a loss to delay a little time to support their own industry.

But now it was different. The two sides were competing in speed. Britannia's ship-building plan had fallen behind. If there was any trouble halfway, it would be over.

Prime Minister Campbell, who was drenched in cold sweat, hurriedly ordered, "Order the major shipyards to immediately purchase the relevant spare parts.

We have to be fast. We have to stock up enough spare parts before the Vienna government realizes what's going on. "

Perhaps it was a desperate situation to find a doctor! But Campbell could not afford to gamble. The current situation was not easy for the Government of the United Kingdom to make any major mistakes.

The domestic production capacity was insufficient, but it was only the production capacity of some spare parts. Even if the production capacity was insufficient, there were many substitutes. It was not necessary to purchase from the Holy Roman Empire.

But the Government of the United Kingdom had limited time and did not have time to carefully screen. If a part happened to be out of stock and could not find a substitute, it would be a tragedy.

Who asked Shinra to be the only country with the most complete industrial system these days?

Originally, Britannia also had a complete industrial system. Unfortunately, it did not keep up with the second industrial revolution and took a break at the critical moment.

With this break, it directly fell out of line. Many industries were scattered by the impact of new technology. Capitalists had turned to finance, and fewer and fewer people were willing to invest in physical industries.

Of course, the American industrial system was also quite complete. It was just that the technology was a few generations behind. They could only copy products without technical content.

If they really wanted to rely on spare parts from the Americans, it was better to wait for their own enterprises to have a breakthrough in production.

At this time, everyone already understood why the Government of Vienna suddenly changed its style and suddenly became aggressive.

Such a huge flaw was placed right in front of the enemy's eyes. If they did not take the opportunity to hit Britannia when it was down, would they wait for Britannia to come out of the trough before making a move?