Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

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

At this time, Britain was worthy of the title of the world's number one power, and the amount of coal mined had reached a staggering 44 million tons, while the second power, France, produced only 4.2 million tons of coal, and the entire German region except the Austrian Empire produced 4 million tons.

Historically, the Austrian Empire produced only 800,000 tons, but under Franz's reform and development, the Austrian Empire's coal production reached 20 million tons, which is 25 times that of the same period in history.

Technological progress during this period was prone to dramatic change, and in 1836 Britain mined only 32 million tonnes of coal, which increased by 10 million tonnes in ten years.

The Austrian Empire was a little different from the British, and the impact of starting from scratch and technological progress was particularly striking.

However, the resource ceiling of the former is too low, even during the First World War, it was only 49 million tons, compared with 270 million tons in neighboring Germany.

However, the Austrian Empire had a wide range of resources, especially since it also occupied Italy, which was basically self-sufficient except for rubber, and had the largest production base of raw silk in Europe at this time.

At this time, the largest raw silk production base in Europe is Venice, and the second largest is Lyon, France, yes! It's the place where there are frequent uprisings.

As a result of several large-scale uprisings, coupled with natural and man-made disasters, the raw silk industry in Austria made a lot of money.

Why didn't the British ship raw silk from the East to hit the market? Because the trade barriers of various countries were very thick at that time, and merchants from all countries went to the East every year to buy, but the speed and timeliness of maritime transportation at that time were very low.

Therefore, when a natural disaster strikes suddenly, it is almost inevitable that prices will skyrocket.

At this time, some people will definitely talk about the modern business safe warehouse, but in reality it is too expensive, and it changes quite a bit from year to year, unless there is money and nowhere to spend

In addition, the world's largest exporters of raw silk at this time were Qing, France, and Austria. Japan did not begin to expand rapidly until after the Meiji Restoration, especially after 1871, while India only re-emerged after the Great War of 1882.

In addition, the coal production 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, the pig iron production of Britain was 2 million tons, France's 500,000 tons, Russia's 200,000 tons, Prussia's pig iron production was 190,000 tons, and Spain's pig iron production was less than 10,000 tons (Luxembourg 20,000 tons) due to constant wars and congenital insufficiencies.

During the same period of history, the Austrian Empire produced 150,000 tons of pig iron, which at this time could reach a staggering 1.2 million tons due to technological innovation.

This is mainly due to resource constraints and the lack of iron ore in the Austrian region. So Franz successively took Western Bosnia and Albania, two areas rich in coal and iron.

Montenegro actually has coal and iron resources, but the volume is too small, about 40 times the total coal in Western Bosnia, about the same as the total coal in the mountains of northern Albania, but the total iron ore is only one-thirtieth of it.

In fact, it was not that the Austrian Empire did not really have coal and iron resources, but that it was a matter of traditional thinking and the division of regions, nationalities, and forces.

Due to a complex set of historical and social factors, the Austrian Empire was rather biased towards Bohemia, but in fact Galicia was much more resource-oriented than Bohemia.

Galicia had as much coal as the rest of the Austrian Empire combined, had the second largest iron ore in Europe and a large number of huge iron ore reserves twenty times the size of Western Bosnia, twice as much as the rest of the Austrian Empire combined, and had the largest oil field on the continent at the time (in fact, the largest was Romania in 1857, but not earlier than Galicia).

Historically, the Austro-Constitutional Empire ignored these precious resources and planted fruit trees and crops on them, and if it weren't for the pollution caused by the oil spew, it is estimated that they would still want to raise fish in them.

Franz would not pretend not to see this, so he bought large tracts of land in Galicia. But Galicia's resources are so good, why not just transfer the factory entirely?

This is mainly due to security considerations, in addition to facing Prussia and Russia on the surface, Galicia must always be careful of Hungary stabbing in the back, not to mention the Poles who come to make trouble in three days.

If according to the historical practice, there are nothing more than two, one is to concentrate the whole industry locally and then vigorously develop, but what about those poor and remote areas of the Austrian Empire? How to solve national security?

The other is extractive development, which consumes its resources as much as possible, and then uses it as an agricultural area and a buffer zone with large countries.

Historically, Austria-Hungary chose the latter option, but it was due to a combination of factors, and the result was a golden period of economic development.

From 1870 to 1913, GDP per capita grew by about 1.76% per year. This is a fairly fast increase compared to other European countries such as the United Kingdom (1%), France (1.06%) and Germany (1.51%).

If we only count the twenty years before the start of the war (an average of 2.8% per year), it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a horse.

Then the First World War devastated the country, and Galicia, as one of the main battlefields, was almost a blank slate.

If the first option is elected, how will Austria, an empire with a serious shortage of subject nationalities, solve its internal problems?

Whether it was the privileged Hungarians, or the Czechs and Italians, they all had their eyes on the country, and all wanted to tear a piece of meat from Austria and use greater privileges for their own benefit.

If the property is transferred to Galicia, it will be nothing more than a repetition of the Bohemian tragedy. Instead of being grateful, it creates a new interest group, and then the cycle continues endlessly.

Neither outcome was what Franz wanted, and he preferred to develop more slowly than let the ridiculous cycle continue.

The mountains of the Balkans are 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 the locals. At that time, these places would become the solid backing of the Austrian Empire.

At the same time, the full development of the empire was not easy for the Czechs and Italians to float, but there were two problems to solve.

One, Vienna must be the heart of the entire Austrian Empire, and a country must have a backbone.

Second, the Hungarian privilege must be abolished, because a bad idol can influence many people.

Only in this way could a relatively egalitarian environment be created, although Franz preferred the absence of war to the indulgence of victory and wine among the people.

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

In the face of absolute interests, any truth will seem hollow.

(End of chapter)