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

Chapter 1521 Suez Railway

While the British were racking their brains to cause trouble for the Suez Canal project, the Austrian Empire was also not idle, and William Froude's personal scandal was one of the results achieved.

Richard Metternich's metaphor is crude but easy to understand, and any normal person knows that one should leave room for such things.

As for the opposition from the British and those small shareholders, it is actually not important.

The capital market does not care about public opinion or democracy. It is just like the British who clearly put everyone on the fire, but everyone had to accept it because they had gained control of the company.

Now that the British are weak, they are playing with democracy again and want to continue to control the Suez Canal Company.

Franz would not give them this opportunity, and the Austrian Empire directly put forward its own plan.

It is 14 meters deep and 122 meters wide, and can accommodate traffic in both directions. The theoretical upper limit for traffic is 8 tons, and the actual upper limit for safe traffic is 6 tons.

At this time, it can achieve two-way four-way, or even six-way.

In fact, Franz's original plan was to have a depth of 15 meters and a width of 150 meters. Theoretically, it could accommodate 10-ton cargo ships and warships, and even early aircraft carriers could pass safely.

However, the project volume is 30% higher than the current plan. Even if 1 Egyptian workers are mobilized at the same time and work starts from all directions, it will take 2- years to complete.

Franz naturally doesn't mind waiting one or two more years, but other countries, especially small shareholders, can't afford to wait, including France.

Seeing the British making trouble all day long, Napoleon III was actually more anxious than Franz. He thought that other countries would step forward, such as Austria.

But Franz won the breath-holding competition in the end. Louis Napoleon wanted to achieve some results. After all, the situation in France was not good at that time.

Even though Napoleon III had done a lot, the economic crisis, defeat, and continuous political turmoil had caused too much damage to France.

The French nation needs victory, and Napoleon III also needs results to prove himself, otherwise he, the democratically elected emperor, will sooner or later be overthrown by his own people.

By then, the European powers, including Britain, which had good relations with them at the time, would be happy to see it happen. The Napoleon family has always been an outlier in the monarchical world, and he himself does not have the war talent of his uncle Napoleon I, otherwise his previous uprisings would not have ended in failure.

The recovery of Guatemala and El Salvador, and now the Suez Canal project, are all designed to satisfy the vanity of the French people.

Louis Napoleon wanted to publicize the deeds of Belmondo and thousands of French soldiers and civilians in defending Serampore, but the French had no idea where Serampore was.

Of course, Napoleon III did not put all his hopes on the Suez Canal. He made a deal with Franz.

France supported the Austrian Empire's dominance of the Suez Canal Company, but on the condition that Austria must support France in building the Suez Railway.

French capitalists need more practical benefits than false reputation, such as a project that belongs exclusively to France.

Franz naturally didn't mind the French building railways in Egypt, as Egypt's interests were not within Franz's scope of concern.

The construction of the Suez Railway would also help the construction of the Suez Canal, but the British were unwilling to accept this. After all, in the eyes of the British, Egypt was their territory. Although they were unable to fully control the Egyptian government, they would never accept others building railways on their territory. The British did not want to see this, but that was exactly what Franz wanted to see.

Since Napoleon III wanted to start construction on British territory, Franz would naturally support it with both hands, and was even willing to sell steel to France at a low price.

However, Franz's kindness was rejected by Napoleon III, who had already contracted the steel business to France's own companies.

Even though French rails are much more expensive than those from Austria and Britain, the French government is willing to grit its teeth and support national enterprises. Franz still admires this. The vision and perseverance of the French at this time are truly worthy of admiration. No wonder they can rise quickly every time after experiencing several disastrous defeats.

"14 meters deep, 122 meters wide, theoretically 8 tons, actual maximum safe capacity 6 tons? No, no, this project is too big. When will it be completed? Mr. Metternich, do you know how much more work is required for each meter of depth increase?"

William Froude said this with gritted teeth, and he took out the calculation formula and began to explain it.

"The amount of work done on the two projects differs by seventeen times! Oh my God! How is this possible?"

The small shareholders and even some experts in the headquarters began to whisper. Although William Froude was shouting fiercely, there were actually many engineering experts in the field.

To give an example that is easier for Oriental people to accept, the scale of the British Suez Canal project was probably only one-tenth of the Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty.

In comparison, the Suez Canal project proposed by the Austrian Empire was only 1.7 times the size of the Qin Great Wall.

The Qin Great Wall was built more than 1.7 years ago. It would not be difficult to build a project times longer in the th century.
Of course, there is not much point in continuing to play with data. Richard Metternich is also good at this. If the data were not provided by the Austrian Empire, which accounted for 90%, he would not miss these things.

"You are a bunch of short-sighted guys. You only see that the workload is seventeen times greater. Can't you see the profit is seventeen times greater?
It's really hopeless!

Do you know how many years it will take for that little ditch to pay for itself? Twenty years! Add to that the speed at which the British are working, and I'm afraid you won't see any benefit until you die."

As the saying goes, hit the snake at its most vulnerable part. As soon as this statement was made, the whole audience immediately turned to Richard Metternich's side. After all, everyone wanted to make money.

William Froude naturally knew the flaw. The Austrian Empire did not mention that the cost would increase, even the maintenance cost would increase.

This is also one of the important reasons why the Suez Canal was built so narrow in history, but this was not a problem for the Austrian Empire, and even the revenue from the Suez Canal was not important to Franz.

Why is this? If the Suez Canal is blocked, who will be worried? The Egyptian government or the major trading countries in Europe and Asia?
But the game had already been set, leaving no room for the British to fight back, and when the French and Spanish representatives stood up to express their approval, the entire venue immediately rang out in approval.

The new Suez Canal plan was passed at the speed of light. Even if the British invested heavily, they would not be able to interfere with the construction of the Suez Canal within a year.

On the other hand, Franz is still very trustworthy.

In order to assist the construction of the Suez Canal, the Suez Railway Project was proposed.

Of course, this railway project was an open tender, and the Austrian Empire voluntarily withdrew from the Suez Railway tender out of fairness considerations.