War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz looked at the report on the desk in a daze. He felt that he had done a lot, but it seemed that it was not enough.

At this time, the United Kingdom was worthy of the title of the world's number one power. The coal mining volume had reached an astonishing 44 million tons, while the coal output of France, the second power, was only 4.2 million tons, and the entire German region except the Austrian Empire was 4 million tons.

The historical output of the Austrian Empire was only 800,000 tons. However, under Franz's reform and development, the Austrian Empire's coal output reached 20 million tons, which was 25 times that of the same period in history.

Technological progress during this period was prone to dramatic changes. In 1836, the amount of coal mined in the UK was only 32 million tons, and it took ten years to increase by 10 million tons.

The Austrian Empire was somewhat different from the British. The impact of starting from scratch and technological progress was particularly shocking.

However, the resource limit of the former was too low. Even during World War I, it was only 49 million tons, while Germany next door had 270 million tons.

However, the Austrian Empire's resources were more diverse than others, especially since it also occupied the Italian region at this time. It could basically be self-sufficient except for rubber. In terms of agriculture, it also had the largest raw silk production base in Europe at this time.

At this time, the largest raw silk production base in Europe was Venice, and the second largest was Lyon, France. That’s right! It's the place where uprisings often occur.

Due to several large-scale uprisings, coupled with natural and man-made disasters, Austria's raw silk industry made a lot of money.

Why didn’t the British attack the market by shipping raw silk from the East? Because trade barriers in various countries were very thick at that time, and merchants from various countries regularly went to the East for purchases every year, but the speed and timeliness of maritime transportation at that time were very low.

Therefore, it is almost inevitable that prices will skyrocket when natural disasters suddenly occur.

At this time, some people will definitely talk about the safety warehouse in modern business, but in fact, this thing is too expensive, and it changes greatly with the years, unless you have money and nowhere to spend it.

In addition, the largest exporters of raw silk in the world at this time were the Qing Dynasty, France, and Austria. Japan only began to expand rapidly after the Meiji Restoration, especially after 1871, while India only re-emerged after the Raw Silk War in 1882.

In addition, the coal output of other countries is 200,000 tons in Russia, only 60,000 tons in Spain, 5 million tons in the United States, 270,000 tons in Mexico, and less than 1,000 tons in Brazil.

At this time, Britain's pig iron output was 2 million tons, France's was 500,000 tons, Russia's was 200,000 tons, Prussia's pig iron output was 190,000 tons, and Spain's pig iron output was less than 10,000 tons due to ongoing wars and inherent deficiencies (Luxembourg's 20,000 tons). .

At the same time in history, the Austrian Empire's pig iron production was 150,000 tons. At this time, due to technological innovation, it could reach an astonishing 1.2 million tons.

This is mainly due to resource constraints, and there is insufficient iron ore in Austria. So Franz successively captured Western Bosnia and Albania, two areas rich in coal and iron resources.

Montenegro actually has coal and iron resources, but the volume is too small. It is about one-fortieth of the total coal in West Bosnia. It is similar to the total coal in the mountainous areas of northern Albania, but the total number of iron ores is only one-thirtieth of it.

In fact, it is not that the Austrian Empire really has no coal and iron resources, but it is a problem of traditional thinking and the division of various regions, nationalities, and forces.

Due to a series of complex historical and social factors, the Austrian Empire was quite biased towards Bohemia in its development, but in fact Galicia's resource allocation was much higher than that of Bohemia.

Galicia's coal reserves are equivalent to the combined coal reserves of the rest of the Austrian Empire. It has the second largest iron ore in Europe and a large number of huge iron ore reserves. The total amount of iron ore is equivalent to twenty times that of West Bosnia. It is the largest iron ore in the Austrian Empire. It was twice that of other regions combined, and also had the largest oil field on the European continent at that time (actually the largest was Romania's in 1857, but it was not exploited as early as Galicia).

In history, the Austro-Hungarian Empire ignored these precious resources and planted fruit trees and crops on them. If the oil sprayed out did not pollute it too seriously, they probably would have wanted to raise fish in it.

Franz would not pretend he could not see this, so he bought large tracts of land in Galicia. But Galicia’s resources are so good, why not just transfer all the factories there?

This is mainly due to security considerations. In addition to facing Prussia and Russia on the surface, Galicia also has to be careful of Hungary stabbing it in the back, not to mention the Poles who come to cause trouble every two days.

If the historical practices are nothing more than two, one is to concentrate all industries locally and then develop vigorously, but what about the remote areas of the Austrian Empire? How to solve national security?

The other is to develop in an abstracted manner, consuming its resources as much as possible and then using them as agricultural areas and buffer zones with larger powers.

Historically, the Austro-Hungarian Empire chose the latter option, but that was due to a combination of many factors. The result was that the economy ushered in a golden period of development.

From 1870 to 1913, GDP per capita grew at approximately 1.76% per year. The increase is quite fast compared to other European countries such as the UK (1%), France (1.06%) and Germany (1.51%).

If we only count the 20 years before the war (an average of 2.8% per year), it is not an exaggeration to describe it as Yiqi Juechen.

Then the First World War destroyed the country, and Galicia, one of the main battlefields, was almost turned into a white field.

If the first option is chosen, how can Austria, an empire with a serious shortage of ethnic groups, solve its internal problems?

Whether it is the privileged Hungarians, the Czechs or the Italians, they are all eyeing this country. Everyone wants to tear a piece of flesh from Austria and use greater privileges to seek more benefits for themselves.

If the industry is transferred to Galicia, it will only repeat the tragedy of Bohemia. Instead of receiving gratitude, a new interest group will be created, and the cycle will continue endlessly.

Neither of these results was what Franz wanted. He would rather develop slower than let the ridiculous reincarnation continue.

The high mountains in the Balkans are indeed not conducive to development, but those natural dangers also keep the enemy out.

As long as the identity problem can be solved, it is easy to gain the loyalty of local people. By that time these places will become a solid backing for the Austrian Empire.

At the same time, the comprehensive development of the empire will not easily make the Czechs and Italians float, but two problems must be solved.

First, Vienna must become the heart of the entire Austrian Empire, and a country must have a backbone.

Two, Hungary's privileges must be revoked because one bad idol can influence many people.

Only in this way can a relatively equal environment be created, although Franz would rather have no war than letting the people immerse themselves in victory and wine.

However, there are some old diseases that cannot be solved with money and words. It is necessary to cut out the flesh and scrape the bones to remove the saprophysis and regenerate muscle.

In the face of absolute interests, any reason will appear empty.