The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1198 Railway (Part )

Due to the establishment of the Europa Monetary Union, the Austrian Empire was now fully capable of forming the German Confederation, the Austrian Empire, and the Apennine Commercial Alliance into a huge commercial entity.

This is a supermarket with a population of nearly 100 million, and only such a large market can digest all the goods shipped from the colonies of the Austrian Empire.

In fact, what needed to be consumed was not only the goods, but also the gold and silver in Franz's hands. Only when the scale of trade continued to expand and the demand for precious metals continued to increase, could Franz quietly send them to the market and solve the debt problem at the same time.

At this time, the only debt of the Austrian Empire that had not been repaid was the British. It was not that Franz could not pay back the 4.9 million florins, but it was more cost-effective not to pay it back.

After all, the British were secretly doing things behind the scenes all the time. If Franz still greeted them with a smile, they would probably become even more unscrupulous.

The amount repaid by the Austrian Empire had actually long exceeded 4.9 million florins, and the two countries had reached an agreement many years ago that the Austrian Empire only needed to pay the interest.

At the same time, this debt is also a constraint on Britain. Unless there is a huge enough temptation of benefits, Britain will not rashly go to war with the Austrian Empire.

The British authorities must consider whether to break off relations with Austria for a little bit of profit, and those so-called think tanks will also be cautious. 4.9 million florins may not be a big deal for a great power, but it is an unbearable burden for an individual.

Railways are the lifeblood of industry, and industrialization is out of the question without them.

The railways of the Austrian Empire were severely damaged during the war, but Franz never stopped repairing them.

At this time, the length of the Austrian Empire's railways had reached 8500 kilometers, ranking first in continental Europe and third in the world.

The world's first is the United Kingdom with 12500 kilometers, the world's second is the United States with 11000 kilometers, the world's fourth is Prussia with 2100 kilometers, and France ranks fifth with 1600 kilometers.

In this era, the benefits of railways are unimaginable for weak countries. Compared with the main transportation methods of this era, horse-drawn carriages and canals, trains are too fast and have a large carrying capacity.

At this time, a train can usually carry fifteen carriages and transport one thousand passengers or four to five hundred tons of cargo.

Although this cannot be compared with the freight trains of later generations with dozens or hundreds of carriages, it is still not comparable to horse-drawn carriages and inland ships.

(In fact, the fifteen carriages can carry more than 3,000 passengers, but according to the standard ticket sales, there are only 1,000 seats.)
At that time, inland vessels could usually only transport 50-300 people, and a cargo ship of about 150 tons was considered a large ship. According to the Bavarian standards at the time, the load capacity of a canal cargo ship could not exceed tons.

Moreover, the heavier the ship, the slower it is. A cargo ship weighing more than 20 tons can only travel 30- kilometers a day.

If the weather is bad or the road is narrow, human or animal power is needed for traction, which is the most likely case.
Don’t think that only Russia has trackers, and don’t think that only Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty employed trackers. In fact, before the 20th century, the profession of trackers was common on both sides of the canal.

Besides being slow, it is also very expensive.

Even so, it was still more reliable than horse-drawn carriage transportation. The two main types of carriages at the time were light carriages pulled by 1-2 horses and heavy carriages pulled by four horses.

A light carriage usually only had a cargo capacity of one ton, and even a heavy carriage usually did not carry more than three tons.

And the speed was not fast either. The speed of a horse-drawn carriage was usually 25-50 kilometers per day, depending on factors such as the number of horses, the weight of the cargo, and road conditions.

At this time, the Austrian Empire's new trains could reach a speed of 50 kilometers per hour. A journey that used to take more than ten days or even a month by horse carriage or boat could now be completed in one day by rail.

The capacity of trains is several times, even dozens of times, that of inland ships, and hundreds of times that of horse-drawn carriages. The most important thing is the decline in transportation costs, which often leads to businessmen who try to hoard goods and make a profit, losing everything.

The rapid population growth in Germany is inseparable from the efforts of Franz. After several major disasters, many people who wanted to hoard goods were scared away by the cheap goods of the Austrian Empire.

If it were before the advent of railways, even if Franz had grain, he would not have been able to lower the price because it was impossible to transport it, and even if it was transported, the cost would outweigh the gain.

With the railway, Franz was able to transport large quantities of food into the disaster area in a short period of time, and those who hoarded food were usually local gentry.

If it were someone else, they would definitely be harassed in every way, and might even threaten their own government with armed uprising to prevent food from entering the disaster area.

But Franz was different. No one dared to stop his goods. The Austrian Empire was not the president of the German Confederation for nothing, and the honor of the Habsburgs could not be insulted.

The most important thing is that Franz was able to send troops to escort food, so in 1848, the opponents and supporters of the Austrian Empire were equally crazy and all looked like they were fighting to the death.

This is closely related to the fact that Franz often does good deeds on a daily basis.

With the emergence of railways, price barriers between regions have gradually been broken down, and powerful countries can mobilize domestic resources more effectively, complete the rational allocation of resources, continuously expand their advantages in competition, and occupy the market.

Weak countries can only passively accept all of this. Eventually, with the formation of a unified large market, they will either choose to depend on powerful countries or become the source of raw materials and dumping grounds for goods for powerful countries.

Over time, this situation will become more and more serious until all autonomy is lost.

Railway lines can even create new cities. At that time, there were only 20,000 Czechs among the 500,000 people in Prague, and the railway lines brought countless German immigrants.

Not only Prague, but emerging cities emerged at almost all important railway intersections. The industrialization and urbanization of the Austrian Empire were advancing rapidly.

The significance of railways in the military is even more extraordinary. It completely breaks the inherent military concept. In the past, it would take a month or even several months just from mobilization to assembly.

For example, in the previous military conflict between the Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, Orma Pasha began to gather troops to deal with possible conflicts almost as soon as he received news that the remnants of the Hun Empire had crossed the border.

However, when the Austrian Empire's army entered the Ottoman Empire to pursue and even completed its strategic goals and left, the Ottoman Empire's army had not yet been fully assembled.

For example, in the series of fierce battles in 1848, the army of the Austrian Empire was often able to gather a large number of superior forces in a short period of time to deal a heavy blow to the enemy, and the Allied forces did not need to worry about not having enough food.

Railways can also promote employment. In addition to building and operating railways, they can also send surplus labor to where they are needed, thereby indirectly increasing employment.

All departments of the Austrian Empire tasted the benefits brought by railways, so the top leaders of the Austrian Empire reached a consensus internally.

Prince Schwarzenberg brought their ambitious plan. They planned to double the railways of the Austrian Empire within ten years, and the total length of the Austrian Empire's railways would reach 17000 kilometers.

"Your Majesty, what do you think? Is it a bit radical?"

Franz rubbed his forehead, not knowing what to say.

"How can one time be enough? Ten times, please."