Holy Roman Empire

With the end of the economic conference, the power industry is listed as a new pillar industry in Austria for the next ten years, along with heavy industry.

Today, the industrial scale of Austrian heavy industry is also an astronomical figure.The industries involved are mainly: iron and steel, metallurgy, coal, machinery, chemical industry ...

From the classification point of view, electricity can also be regarded as a kind of heavy industry, and the two sides have a very close relationship.Only because it has just started, and its own industrial scale is very large, it is listed separately.

The number of pillar industries is unlikely to be large. Since power and heavy industry have become new pillar industries, there are naturally industries that have fallen from the "pillar industry".

There is no doubt that the replacement is the "railway".This is not to say that railways are not important, mainly because after 20 years of hard work, most of the railways in Austria have been built.

The railway industry is beginning to saturate. What is needed in this state is steady development, which does not require the government to invest too much resources.

In addition to railways, agricultural development has actually reached its limit.The growth rate of local agriculture has long since dropped, and the market for agricultural products is so large that if you do not grow more food, you earn more.

The current agricultural growth rate is about the same as the population growth rate. Austria has occupied 70% of the international agricultural export market, and this share is almost impossible to grow further.

It wo n’t even take long before it will be hit by the comeback of Russian agricultural products, and it is very difficult to keep the current market share.

In order to ensure the healthy development of agriculture, Austrian agriculture has made several adjustments, from the initial export of agricultural products directly to the export of refined processed agricultural products.

This period also included the promotion of raw silk cultivation and development of the raw silk industry in Lombardy and Venezia; the promotion of grape cultivation in the Balkan Peninsula and the establishment of the wine industry.

These practices are all artificially reducing grain output to ensure grain prices.With the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War and the lack of a Russian competitor in the international market, it has only been better in recent years.

However, this good day is coming to an end.The Tsarist government is negotiating with various countries to prepare food to offset the debts it had previously squandered.

This is a forced sale, if the creditors do not accept, then these debts will never be repaid.Needless to say, Franz knew that Alexander II's plan would succeed.

The bear's debt is not easy to collect, even if it is a discount, it is better to recover part of it than to lose money.Even if governments of various countries have opinions, capital will let everyone compromise.

The controversy is nothing more than a question of interest, and it can be negotiated sooner or later.The diplomatic barriers that prevented Russian food from entering the international market have now been cleared by Alexander II.

The market is so big, if you sell more, others will naturally sell less.Although there are many places that lack food in this era, it is a pity that only Europe has the purchasing power.

If the transportation of the Russian Empire was not strong enough to directly hold back their grain exports, the international grain prices would immediately collapse.

Franz never doubted the Russian food production capacity.Especially after Alexander II made a great wasteland, he simply overturned the table.

In recent years, Alexander II has been assassinated more than twenty times, which can prove how hateful his reforms are.

Even the nobleman whose head is no longer alive has reacted.It's a pity that the general trend has been completed, the land has been reclaimed, and it is too late to return.

Franz had no interest in participating in the internal struggle of the Tsarist government.Including Alexander II's use of food to offset debt, he was not very optimistic.

No matter how good the policy is, it depends on the implementation, and domestic food is not the tsar's.If you want to use it to pay off debts, you must first collect the food and ship it out.

Regardless of the financial pressure, the purchase of food alone must be carried out by someone?In the face of interests, who can guarantee that these bureaucrats are unmoved.

You should know that when the great wasteland was opened, Alexander II stared so tightly that some people withdrew the peasants' rations and caused riots, more than once.

Requisitioning food in the form of taxes will result in overcharging of three or five buckets, or a word similar to "fire consumption" will appear, which will be legally bleached.

The bureaucrats would also use their money to buy food directly from the people.Buy directly from farmers at low prices, then sell them to capitalists for profit, and finally just leave some for the tsar to make a difference.

Unless the Tsarist government sets a high price, which is higher than the market price, the bureaucrats can obtain greater benefits from it, otherwise they will not receive much food.

The plan of the Tsarist government could not be realized, but the impact of Russian food was not small.As long as it is profitable, the capitalists will still transport the grain for sale.

Franz highly doubted that Alexander II was intentional.First, let countries open up their markets by using food to pay off debts.

The Tsarist government symbolizes some grain to offset debts every year, and then lets the capitalists transport the grain to sell.

Although it seems that the tsarist government did not make profits by doing so, in fact, as long as the domestic unsalable food is sold, it will be a big profit.

Even if countries know the Russians' plans, most of them will push the boat.For food importing countries, it is always a good thing to be able to buy cheap food.

It is only the grain exporting countries whose real interests have been compromised, and Austria is the biggest victim.There is no political confrontation, and Russia and Austria match first economically.

Now there is little room left for Austria to choose, either use the advantages of transportation and agricultural technology to directly hit the grain price, making the Russians export grain unprofitable.

But if you do this, you will kill 800 if you lose 1,000.It should be known that Austria is now the overlord in the international agricultural export market, and can obtain a lot of benefits every year.

Even if it wins the price war and occupies a larger market, it will still result in a decline in profits due to the decline in food prices. In the end, not only will it be unable to obtain greater benefits, but it will have to pay a large price.

The Russians are just barefoot challengers. If they fail, the big deal is the same as before. If they succeed, they will gain a lot of benefits.

The original space-time Americans played a price war, defeated all competitors, and established hegemony in grain exports, which was for strategic purposes.

Now Austria can't follow suit, regardless of consuming a lot of financial resources, the key is now the era of colonial empire, and Britain and France have a large number of colonies.

Local food shortages can also be made up from the colonies.Relying on the control of international food exports will not scare them.

Otherwise, Franz had long been involved in the Grain Export Alliance, and attracted several grain exporting countries to manipulate the international grain market in order to obtain greater benefits.

Unable to achieve strategic objectives, it also faces the challenges of many competitors. It can be said that after the basic accumulation of capital is completed, the importance of agriculture is reduced.

The decline in importance does not mean that you can give up. In fact, agriculture is still one of the most important industries in Austria.The industrial chain formed around agricultural production accounts for 38.6% of Austria's gross national product.

Although this ratio is declining year by year, it is still without compromising its importance.Facing the challenges of the Russians, industrial adjustment is imperative.

Austria's agricultural industry system has been perfected. From the initial production of agricultural products to the sale of terminal agricultural products, the added value of products is almost played to the limit.

For example: from wheat-flour, biscuits, from fruits and vegetables-canned, from grapes-wine, raisins, from potatoes-French fries ...

This era is all ecological agriculture, there is no chemical fertilizers, pesticide additives, there is no saying that green food.The people are too poor, and there is not much market for branded agriculture.

The complete industrial chain increases the ability to resist risks, and it will have a greater impact on the economy when it is impacted.

The technological content of these industries is very low, and European countries are not completely without agriculture. These industries also exist in themselves, but they are not limited to raw materials because of their scale.

Once large quantities of cheap raw materials appear, capitalists certainly don't mind expanding production.Even Austria is the largest buyer of Russian grain, and the morale of capitalists in the face of interests has always been low.

The low-tariff system between Russia and Austria has created opportunities for the export of industrial and commercial products from Austria, but also brought challenges.

Faced with cheap foreign food, these agricultural product processing companies will definitely make choices that are in their own interest.In this regard, the government cannot force them, after all, enterprises must survive.

Today, the profits of agricultural product processing companies have also dropped significantly, from the initial 30% to 40%, to the current 10%.

This is still gross profit, and net profit will be even lower.Under the brutal market competition, agricultural product processing enterprises have entered an era of meager profit, and all make money by taking the volume.

Those with relatively high profits are all snack food processing enterprises.However, the competition of these enterprises is even more brutal. There are dozens or even hundreds of similar products on the snack market.

The single piece profit is good, the problem is that the sales volume is not large.There are few companies that can make brands and make huge profits.

Now Austrian agricultural industry technology has risen to the top of the times and has become a platform for existence.

Fortunately, the agricultural products of the Russians are relatively simple. They are nothing more than potatoes, wheat, corn, fruits, and vegetables. Unless they are processed into cans, they will rot before they are shipped out.

Obviously, the Russian industry has not kept up, and these industries have not developed very well, and the products produced cannot be sold locally, let alone the international market.

At this point, Austria's agricultural industry adjustment is imperative, for example: reducing the output of agricultural products that will obviously be affected, and replanting other markets where cash crops are scarce.

easy to say, hard to do.So many farmers in Austria want to change their planting habits, it can not be done in one sentence.

Because market information is opaque, even if Franz cannot accurately judge what agricultural products the market will lack in the future.

I do not know what is missing on the market, which makes the government guide the cultivation of agricultural products, which has become an empty talk.

Unless it is a planned economy, otherwise, there will be chaos in agricultural product cultivation for a long time to come.

This is an unsolvable problem. The agricultural products that are in short supply this year may be rotten in the ground next year, and no one is interested.

Farmers are also adjusting the direction of agricultural product planting based on their own judgment, involving too many people and simply unable to coordinate.

Franz got a headache.