Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 478: Inevitable Mistakes

Industrial planning is not just about the steel industry. With the advent of the Second Industrial Revolution, the uses of copper have become more widespread.

In 1870, Austria’s copper production reached 580,000 tons, while market demand was as high as 720,000 tons, creating a shortfall of one-sixth.

The main reason for this situation is the arrival of the electric age. As the pioneer of the electrical revolution, Austria’s demand for copper naturally increases daily.

To adjust the market supply-demand relationship, the Austrian government resorted to administrative orders to increase production in state-owned enterprises. However, this supply-demand relationship cannot be changed in a short time.

There is no alternative. If there is a shortage of steel, it can be procured on the international market, but copper is not as easy.

Austria’s copper production exceeds the total of all European countries. Even the British, in this era, produced only a meager tens of thousands of tons of copper.

It wasn’t that others didn’t want to increase production. The problem was that they didn’t have mines in their country so raw materials needed to be imported. To increase copper production, they first had to solve the problem of the supply of copper ore.

Unfortunately, Europe’s copper ore reserves are really not high. Otherwise, in the original timeline, Chile wouldn’t have become wealthy by exporting copper ore.

This situation is very inconvenient for Austria. The domestic reserves are insufficient, and importing copper ore from abroad is difficult, increasing transportation costs and thinning company profit margins.

The Ministry of Industry was now preparing to search for copper mines in the African colonies to make up for the shortage of raw materials. While many copper mines have been found, transportation remains a significant issue.

…

Franz put down the report and shook his head, saying, “Smelting copper ore locally in Africa is too ambitious of a plan. Now is not the time to develop industry in Africa. At least until its integration is complete, the African continent cannot have industry.

Moreover, will smelting copper ore in Africa really reduce costs? I recall that the recent energy reserves report from the Ministry of Industry mentioned that the African continent lacks coal mines.

Currently, the large coal mines we have discovered are concentrated in South Africa. If we smelt ore locally, we would still need to transport the ore, and the costs may not be lower than smelting it domestically.”

Undoubtedly, this is another political challenge. In recent years, more and more capitalists have ventured into the African colonies. Many are no longer satisfied with just providing raw materials for the domestic market. They want to develop industries locally to reap greater profits.

However, due to inherent deficiencies, the resource distribution in Africa is extremely uneven. Coupled with the suppression by the Austrian government, they have not succeeded.

Now these people want to leverage the power of the Austrian government to develop industry locally and make more profits.

Such amateurish political maneuvers did not escape Franz’s notice. If it were regions like the United States or Australia, which are rich in resources, it would be difficult to suppress local industrial development.

But the situation is entirely different on the African continent. More than 90% of the coal mines are concentrated in South Africa. The rest of the regions would need to solve the coal supply issue first to develop industry.

This requires building roads, yet Austria’s African railway project is still progressing slowly. The initial plan was to connect Guinea to Congo, and although additional routes have been planned, they will not be completed overnight.

Without the main railway lines, there is no need to consider the branch lines. Without railway transportation for raw materials, Africa’s industrial development will naturally be stunted.

Now, taking advantage of the domestic copper shortage, many people are becoming restless again. However, they overlook the general distribution of resources in Africa, with which Franz is more familiar than anyone.

He might not know the specifics of each mine, but the general resources in each large region are not a secret in the future. Anyone with a bit of interest could find this information online.

There are indeed areas on the African continent suitable for industrial development, with South Africa being the best choice, as it has almost all the necessary resources.

However, isn’t there still a war going on? Once the war is over, the gold rush will begin. With the discovery of large gold mines, who would be interested in investing in other industries?

Capital always chases profit, naturally flowing to areas with high profits. Once gold mines are developed, resources will be snatched up, making it difficult to invest in other industries.

The fact that South Africa didn’t develop industry in the future was, to some extent, because its resources were too abundant. They could get rich by selling minerals, so who would want to risk investing in industries?

Minister of Industry, Kaschin-Kubek, explained aggrievedly, “Your Majesty, the integration assessment period for Guinea is about to end. Continuing to suppress local industrial development might cause controversy.

We are all aware of the resource distribution issues. These people are in Africa and are likely aware of these issues too. The fact that they still made the request is probably to test us.

Even if one or two coal mines are found and are suitable for industrial use, it would only result in 1-2 additional factories.

As long as the government doesn’t solve the transportation issues, no matter how much they try, they won’t be able to establish an industrial system without sufficient raw materials. Why should we obstruct them?”

The African continent isn’t just lacking an industrial system, it’s essentially lacking everything. Not only are raw material resources insufficient, but there’s also a shortage of manpower.

In the vast and sparsely populated African continent, trying to find hundreds of thousands of workers to establish large industrial complexes combining mining and smelting would deter any capitalist due to the exorbitant costs.

Franz asked uncertainly, “Are you suggesting opening up the mining industry but deliberately setting obstacles when building railways?

Creating a situation where raw material production areas cannot directly connect, thus increasing transportation costs for industrial development?”

If this were truly the case, Africa’s industry would likely be doomed. Developing mineral resources isn’t the issue; governments in resource-rich regions would construct railways to transport mined ores.

However, these railways primarily consist of single lines and do not form a comprehensive rail network. Especially between iron and coal mines, there’s no direct railway connection, effectively stifling indigenous African industrial development from the outset.

One must admit that this approach is more effective than outright banning industrial development in Africa. In the future, excuses can still be found, such as inadequate exploration technology or erroneous estimations of resource reserves.

A mega-mine with a reserve of 100 million tons might only be reported as one million tons, making it seem insignificant for government attention until railway planning is needed.

Or perhaps, technological advancements were overlooked. Due to the limitations of the era, misjudgments of the mining development’s value, and oversight during railway construction, can be considered somewhat understandable.

…

Anyway, it’s all due to special circumstances, definitely not the central government suppressing industrial development in Africa. In the end, if industrialization doesn’t take off on the African continent, it’s beyond human control.

After several decades, once integration is achieved, Austria’s dominion over the African continent will be deeply rooted. By then, it won’t be too late to correct these special historical mistakes.

Minister of Industry Kaschin-Kubek responded, “Yes, Your Majesty. Now, we need to focus on developing the homeland. It’s unavoidable for the colonies to make sacrifices.”

Kaschin-Kubek emphasized the term “colonies,” indicating that colonies naturally cannot be equated with the homeland. Lower treatment is thus inevitable.

If they didn’t extract resources from the colonies, Austria’s economy couldn’t maintain long-term rapid growth. Before the era of free trade arrived, colonies were always sacrificed.

This “mistake” limited by the era thus ceased to be a mistake, and the flaws in Africa’s railway network construction became inevitable.

Franz finally understood why the railways in the original timeline’s India had so many flaws—the seeds of trouble were sown during the colonial era.

It wasn’t that the designers’ plans were inherently flawed, but rather that reality demanded irrationality. What seemed illogical in the future was the optimal choice of this era.

Franz nodded thoughtfully and said, “Accelerate the construction of colonial railways. Use the asymmetry of information to create a fait accompli without arousing public attention.”

The Austrian government held a map detailing resource distribution, but its imperfections were inevitable. Still, it was more comprehensive than what the public knew.

Industrial development relied heavily on coal, and in Africa, coal mines were concentrated in South Africa. This predetermined that any real design errors would also occur in South Africa.

This was very simple to achieve; they could use gold mines as a cover. The railway network would prioritize gold mining and smelting, understandably neglecting other areas.

…

Such covert schemes naturally required utmost secrecy, with implementation falling squarely on the Ministry of Railways.

In the Ministry of Railways, Stein, who received this special order, was left dumbfounded. This task was far from easy, and it was clear he’d have to be prepared to be scolded.

No matter how well-prepared the excuses were, the public would still blame the railway designers in the future. Who would take the blame became an issue.

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