Holy Roman Empire

Prime Minister Felix took out a document and handed it to Franz, saying: "Your Majesty, considering that the African colonies are rich in resources and have many immigrants, we have formulated a set of colonial economic development plans.

Colonial economic development plan?This statement is very avant-garde. In Franz ’s memory, it should be after the emergence of the dominion that the autonomous government formulated a systematic economic development plan.

In everyone's consciousness, the colony was created to plunder wealth.For local economic development, it is basically laissez-faire and there is no long-term plan.

Confused, Franz still took the document, looked at it seriously, and soon he knew why there was this plan.

It is not how far-sighted the Vienna government is, nor is it driven by interest groups. This is just an instinct of the ruling class.

When formulating policies as the ruling class, it will naturally lean towards itself.It is the noble groups that now dominate African colonization, and the noble groups that dominate the Austrian government.

Before the successful development of farms and plantations, many people still have doubts.Now the plantations that have been developed early have already begun to make a profit, and successful examples have been put in front of us. The importance of everyone has been very different.

In the eyes of many traditional nobles, these are the wealth that God has given them and can inherit the family business.The better the colony develops, the more value it will add to everyone's wealth.

The ruling class naturally wanted to protect its own interests and no one needed to promote it. The Vienna government formulated a colonial development plan.

Franz asked with concern: "Have you built a railway from the Guinea region to the Congo region, have you explored the terrain? Are there any technical difficulties? How can the funding problem be solved?"

Well, he decisively ignored that there are still many areas on the way, which are not under the control of Austria.

Anyway, this time, it is to speak by fist. Since Vienna has formulated this plan, it is natural to be prepared to seize these areas.

Prime Minister Felix explained: "Landscape and topography have been preliminarily explored by the colonial government. In theory, our current railway construction technology is sufficient to complete this railway construction.

Considering the economic needs, this railway must pass through most cities. With the extension railway, the total mileage may exceed 10,000 kilometers. We plan to construct it in sections, and regions with poor geographical conditions can be placed behind.

Construction funds are still dominated by private equity, and the insufficiency is supplemented by government funding.In order to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm for investment, we can allocate the unowned land within 20 kilometers on both sides of the railway to the railway company."

Franz knows that this railway is definitely not so easy to complete, and many of the theoretically achievable technologies will collapse when the high cost in actual construction.

The African colonies are not indigenous, and most regions have not been effectively developed. Many raw materials have to be transported from the country, and construction costs will definitely increase significantly.

Judging from the economic development of the African colonies, this strategic + economic dual role railway may not be profitable in the coming decades.

The profit point of the railway company is on the land on both sides of the railway.Whoever undertakes this railway is the biggest landlord.

This is a way to learn about the construction of American railroads. Now the land is naturally worthless, but when the railroad construction is completed, the land will add value.

The railway company can build a station at every interval to radiate to surrounding areas.Solve the traffic problem, whether it is to open plantations or mine in these areas, you can get a good return.

If you leave it in later generations, such a business is estimated to be crowded.Twenty kilometers on both sides of the railway, that is, forty kilometers, after the completion of the construction of this railway, you can obtain more than 400,000 square kilometers of land ownership.

With such a large area, even if there is no resource, the construction cost can be recovered just by selling wood.

It is a pity that no matter whether it is wood or minerals buried underground, it is not worth much.Unless gold and silver mines are discovered, it is still unknown whether this investment will be profitable.

After careful calculation, Franz found that this was actually a good project.

When building railways in Africa, first of all, labor costs can be saved. Even if there is a labor protection law, local indigenous people do not know where to complain.

Of course, even if you find a place to complain, it's useless.The complainant must first learn German, otherwise the case will not be accepted.

Indigenous people who can learn German will not be low-level workers. Such talents have long been promoted to supervisors.They are going to complain, the first one who is unlucky is themselves.

Everyone has a face, and abusing workers must be supervisors.No high-ranking person would surrender himself, and ran to the railway construction site to fetch people with a whip.

Basic raw materials such as gravel, sleepers, etc. can be obtained by themselves, and there is no need to purchase cement. It is possible to build a cement plant locally, which saves most of the raw material costs.

Even if it is mechanical equipment and rails, it needs to be transported from domestic, in fact, the increase is the freight.Generally speaking, the construction cost is within the controllable range.

The railway company owns such a large area of ​​land, and even if the development is worse, it will be profitable to sell resources.

Franz calmly said: "Since these problems have been solved, then this railway will be repaired! But remember to control costs, the government can not invest a lot of financial resources on this railway.

It is a good idea to focus on the development of the plantation economy, but there is still a need to focus.

The colonial government can organize expert field visits, where it is suitable to grow what crops, then guide everyone to plant what.

The government sorts out the soil, climate, hydrology and other materials in various places, and then lists the economic crops suitable for planting and distributes them to the people.

The specific planting is still free for everyone to choose, and the government does not force it.

According to the current international situation, the US civil war is on the verge, and their cotton and tobacco exports will inevitably be affected. We can make preparations in this regard."

This railway is in everyone's interest. Once the transportation problem on land is resolved, more land can be developed, and it is no longer necessary to develop coastal and river areas.

As a member of vested interests, Franz will naturally not object.He even has to participate in it and get a slice of it.

As for when this railway will be repaired and whether it will become a tail-end project, Franz is not worried at all.

The colony is not native. If the construction cost is too high in a region with bad terrain, then it does n’t matter if you stop working for a few years, anyway, the construction period is not urgent.

The focus is on developing cotton cultivation, mainly to snatch the US cotton market, and cotton exports will definitely be affected once the civil war breaks out.

It is important to know that in this era, American cotton exports amounted to nearly $ 190 million, accounting for two-thirds of the global cotton export market share.

Historically, the United States' civil war led to the cessation of cotton exports, and the British cotton textile industry was hit hard.In order to avoid getting stuck in the neck, John Cattle forced cotton cultivation directly in India.

By the time the war ended and trade returned to normal, US cotton exports had fallen to US $ 6 million, and the hegemony in the cotton market no longer existed.

There are also many areas in the Austrian colonies that are suitable for growing cotton. As long as they can seize the opportunity to grab a third of the American market share, the colonial finances will turn over.

...