African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1564 Trading
Power is powerless if not used, and while the Habsburg family still holds power in the empire, Emperor Rudolf has made up his mind to sell off as many imperial assets as possible.

As one of the world's great powers, the Austro-Hungarian Empire still had unique advantages in some areas, especially in military industry, machinery, and infrastructure.

Škoda Arms Factory is most famous for its artillery manufacturing technology, capable of producing world-class heavy artillery. Then there is the Trieste Joint Shipyard, which has the capability to independently produce large ships such as battleships.

In terms of machinery manufacturing, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had unique advantages in many fields, especially in traditional machinery manufacturing.

As for infrastructure capabilities, this was a product of the complex geographical environment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was mostly mountainous, which gave it an advantage over other European countries in transportation and infrastructure development.

Of course, overall, although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a major European power, its strength in the industrial sector was also limited, especially after its old rival, the Soviet Union, accelerated its industrialization, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire has now been left behind by the Soviet Union.

……

1934 4 Month 2 Day.

East Africa, Rhine City.

The Habsburgs wanted to sell off their assets, and East Africa was naturally the only option for buyers. East Africa was naturally interested in Emperor Rudolf's idea.

To this end, Crown Prince Frederick organized a team of professionals from various fields within the country to assess the technological advantages and industrial development of both East Africa and Austria-Hungary.

“Your Highness, the Empire currently completely surpasses Austria-Hungary in technology and industry. The only countries that can compete with the Empire are the United States and Germany,” said Schmitz, director of the East African Industrial Research Center, without hesitation.

Schmitz assumed that Crown Prince Frederick simply wanted to understand the current state of the empire's technology and industry, and thus came to this conclusion.

Crown Prince Frederick did not reveal his secret, but instead guided the question by asking, "I am naturally aware of the overall state of the Empire's science and technology and industrial development. Now, I just want to know if there is any gap between us and Austria-Hungary. After all, as one of the world's great powers, Austria-Hungary must have some unique strengths!"

Once he said that, Schmitz naturally understood. Schmitz happened to have some information about the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

“Your Highness, if this is what you’re asking about, I do know a little about it. After all, our research center has long been very interested in the industrial and technological development of countries around the world.”

"When it comes to some of the advanced technologies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the first thing that comes to mind is its optical technology. In terms of optical technology, we were behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and of course, we were even further behind Germany."

"Germany is undoubtedly number one in the field of optics, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire's own optical technology research was roughly at the same level as ours. However, they were able to obtain some technical support from Germany. The most famous example is the Schott glass factory in Peterwalde, which was invested and built by the German company Zeiss to produce high-quality optical glass."

"Of course, the technology of this factory is mainly controlled by Zeiss, especially the production formula, which is basically impossible to obtain. And my country imports a lot of lenses and lens elements from Zeiss every year."

"Among the Austro-Hungarian Empire's own optical technology companies were Voigtländer and Leitz. The former mainly produced cameras and lenses, but its technology was slightly inferior to that of Germany. The latter was the most important microscope manufacturer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, focusing on the medical field."

Voigtland is a relatively old company, founded in the 18th century, and is one of the world's oldest optical companies. Even in the 21st century, some of the brands created by Voigtland still exist.

Founded in 1876, Ernst Leitz specialized in biological and medical microscopes. Its predecessor was acquired by an American company after World War II, and its technology was integrated into the global optics industry. It's worth noting that Germany also has a Leitz company, officially known as Ernst Leitz GmbH, which is the predecessor of Leica.

Among them, the Vienna Leitz Company appeared the latest, but its establishment time was not much later than that of East Africa.

In 1934, Germany was undoubtedly among the world's leading optical companies, with Carl Zeiss being the undisputed global optical hegemon, monopolizing the high-end optical market. Its clients included companies in East Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

The German company Ernst Leitz, mentioned earlier, happens to be the second largest in the world, second only to Zeiss.

Currently, the only country that can rival Germany in the field of optics is the United States, with Kodak, the most famous American company, ranking third in the world.

Then, East African countries and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are in the second tier in the field of optics, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire is slightly better than East African countries. Voigtländer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ranks fourth in the world and is a leading company in the second tier of optical companies.

However, Voigtländer has some special circumstances. Although the company was founded in Austria, its family moved to Germany in the last century. Therefore, Voigtländer's business is distributed in both Austria-Hungary and Germany, making it a joint venture between the two countries.

Overall, East Africa's development in the optical industry is relatively lagging, but this is unavoidable. East Africa has a short history and insufficient accumulation. Being able to squeeze into the second tier is already a result of its rapid development in recent years.

Currently, East Africa ranks among the top five in the world in terms of strength in the optical industry, on par with the United Kingdom. Germany ranks first, followed by the United States, and Austria-Hungary ranks third, although many of its technologies rely on Germany.

Following East Africa and the United Kingdom are countries such as Japan, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Like East Africa, Japan is a rising star in the field of optics.

It is worth mentioning that the United States, Austria-Hungary, East Africa, Japan, and Italy all relied on Germany for optical technology, especially Japan and Italy.

After listening to Schmitz's presentation, Crown Prince Frederick's interest in this area diminished considerably, because the Austro-Hungarian Empire's advantage in optical technology over East Africa was not as great as imagined, and it was also highly dependent on Germany, with its most powerful domestic brand, Voigtländer, still headquartered in Germany.

The possibility of East Africa profiting from this with Austria-Hungary was greatly reduced.

Therefore, Crown Prince Friedrich said, "Director Schmitz, why don't you introduce other areas instead?"

Schmitz said, "In other aspects, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's metallurgical technology is something we can learn from, and it was an important foundation for the development of the Austro-Hungarian military industry." "But to be honest, it's only something to learn from. After all, in the field of metallurgy, East Africa and Germany are stronger, especially in the special metals industry, where they have absolute dominance."

"Besides that, the only things I can think of that truly gave Austro-Hungarian Empire an edge over other empires were mostly traditional industries, such as heavy-duty steam engines used in Austro-Hungarian industry. However, the focus of development in East Africa was on internal combustion engines and electric motors."

"In other aspects, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no advantage over the Empire. As for the industrial level of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was relatively outstanding in the industrially backward regions of Central and Southern Europe and Eastern Europe, but it had no advantage at all compared with Northern and Western Europe."

The level of industrial development of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was inevitably inferior to that of East Africa, because East Africa claimed to be a primary industrial power, while the current level of industrial development of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was only equivalent to that of East Africa when it claimed to be a semi-industrialized country, which was at the time when it was transitioning from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

In terms of urbanization level, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is only 30%, while East Africa is about 40%. This shows that the Austro-Hungarian Empire's level and quality of industrialization are inferior to those of East Africa. Considering East Africa's exaggerated industrial scale and huge talent pool, the gap between the two countries is even more obvious.

The Soviet Union has already surpassed the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of urbanization level. As a result, the Soviet Union has also surpassed the Austro-Hungarian Empire in industry, which also shows the slow development of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent years.

However, this is understandable. Since its founding, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been on a downward trend. After World War I, social unrest and slow economic development made its gradual decline inevitable.

Of course, as a great power, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, though weakened, was still a force to be reckoned with. While it couldn't significantly contribute to the technological and industrial development of East Africa, it could still make up for some of the progress in certain areas.

For example, the industrial heavy-duty steam engine mentioned earlier. Although the steam age has passed, it does not mean that steam engine technology has no applications.

Furthermore, the military industry and technical personnel of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could have been a beneficial supplement to East Africa. It can be concluded that if the Austro-Hungarian Empire were to disintegrate in the future, a number of enterprises and talents would inevitably be lost.

Take, for example, the Škoda Arms Factory, a major military industrial enterprise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its development was heavily dependent on military orders from the empire. If the Škoda Arms Factory had gained independence along with Czechoslovakia, it would have inevitably declined.

Unless, like in the previous life, it is annexed by Germany and then serves Germany's external expansion.

Crown Prince Frederick then exchanged views with personnel from the East African Customs and the Ministry of Commerce. Compared to the researchers, the East African Customs and the Ministry of Commerce were perhaps more knowledgeable about the technological advantages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After all, if the advanced industrial products of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were truly superior to those of East Africa, East Africa would most likely import some of them, just as East Africa imported optical lenses from Zeiss in Germany.

After a month of compilation, Friedrich identified approximately three hundred advantageous technologies and industries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Of course, these technologies and industries were not necessarily more advanced than those of East Africa, but they were certainly no less so.

After compiling this list, the Rhine royal family sent it to the Habsburg royal family, who then made further selections based on the list.

After all, the Habsburg royal family might not have been able to control all the technologies and industries on the list. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was, after all, a capitalist country, and many enterprises were privately owned, so their technologies were not in the hands of the imperial government.

Therefore, even if the Habsburg royal family could make the decision, the number of technologies and industries sold to East Africa was not very large. In the end, after the Habsburg royal family's reply, more than 300 items were reduced to 47 items, which can be described as a significant reduction.

Transferring technology to East Africa is not difficult, but developing industries is a bit more complicated, though it's not without solutions.

Just as the Habsburg royal family had invested in many industries in East Africa, the Habsburgs could now use administrative means to encourage some of the companies controlled by the empire to invest in and build factories in East Africa, or to license their technology to East African companies.

Of course, the Habsburgs were even bolder than one might imagine. Crown Prince Karl even proposed some arms sales agreements to East Africa, with a focus on Austro-Hungarian naval vessels.

According to the Habsburg family's plan, they would "sell" a batch of advanced warships of the Imperial Navy to East Africa at a low price. East Africa could delay payment, and by the time payment was due, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would probably be gone. Naturally, there would be no need to pay the debt to Europe. As long as the Habsburg family received some reasonable compensation, East Africa could directly obtain the essence of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

The Habsburgs even proposed that they take the lead in allowing many of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's best officers and soldiers to find new employment in East Africa.

Clearly, this astonishing idea struck a chord with Crown Prince Frederick, who reported the situation to Ernst.

After reading it, Ernst said, "It seems that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is really doomed. Judging from the Habsburgs' reaction, they have completely lost confidence in continuing to rule."

The so-called irreversible trend, and the Habsburg royal family clearly had self-awareness. Their current behavior was just like that of the former government of a certain major power in the previous life who wanted to retreat to Taiwan. Of course, the Habsburg royal family obviously had no intention of "counterattacking" the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, by then, the Austro-Hungarian Empire might have already disappeared and become an independent small country on a pile of imperial corpses.

This inevitably reminded Ernst of the Soviet Union. On the eve of its collapse, the Soviet Union was probably similar to the Austro-Hungarian Empire today. The only difference was that Gorbachev still harbored illusions and continued to serve as the president of the Soviet Union, while the Habsburgs had no illusions at all.

Of course, Ernst did not readily agree to the Habsburgs' idea of ​​selling the navy to East Africa. He said, "Although our East African Navy was originally derived from the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the Imperial Navy has now completely forged its own path."

"The Austro-Hungarian warships are not of much significance to us. After all, our current focus is on developing aircraft carriers. So, although the Austro-Hungarian battleships are world-class, they are not very useful to us and will take up naval resources. Of course, what is more noteworthy is that if we agree to this deal, it may arouse the vigilance and opposition of other countries and cause diplomatic trouble."

"Therefore, we can cooperate with them on some technology transfers, such as the armor steel and fire control systems used in Austro-Hungarian warships. At the same time, we can bring some high-end talents from the Austro-Hungarian naval shipyards to East Africa."

"As for large-scale warship transactions, perhaps they can communicate with the German side. I think the Germans would be more interested in their warships."

Unlike the German Navy, the East African Navy has more than enough warships to meet its needs. At the same time, its domestic industrial system is well-developed and its shipbuilding industry is large-scale. Even if it needs warships, it will give priority to the development of its domestic shipbuilding industry.

Germany, on the other hand, has a great need for warships, and if it could devour the Austro-Hungarian navy, it would most likely be willing to do so. As for the restrictions of the London Treaty, they are now practically worthless, as Japan has already withdrawn from the treaty.

(End of this chapter)