After Christmas, Britain and Austria successively recognized the Great French Empire, which was the default of France's annexation of Italy.

Influenced by this, European countries also recognized the legitimacy of Greater France in 1871 and restored diplomatic relations with France. Napoleon III finally got rid of the diplomatic dilemma.

The international tensions caused by France's annexation of Italy ended here. However, the impact was far-reaching.

Undercurrents began to surge, ambitious people became active, expansion became the theme of the times, and many small European countries lost their sense of security.

The era of imperialism has arrived in full swing, and the French have once again refreshed the bottom line of the great powers. From now on, a strong country can annex a sovereign state without any excuses.

The fig leaf is no longer needed, the survival of the weak has never been so vivid, and the rules of the game have become even more unfavorable to weak countries.

I don’t know who released the news of the alliance between Britain, France and the Austrians, which made the just-relieved international situation tense again. At this moment, the remaining European countries could not sit still, and the foreign ministries of Britain, France and the Austrians were all lively.

Even Alexander II, who was busy with internal reform, sent a telegram to inquire. It was impossible to keep it confidential. Both Britain and France have publicly admitted that they are in the process of alliance negotiations.

I was originally planning to use this alliance to increase Austria's influence in the world, so Franz naturally would not overestimate the denial.

As for what Alexander II would think, it doesn't matter now. Not to mention the half-dead Russian Empire, even the Russian Empire at its peak would have to retreat in the face of the Three Kingdoms Alliance.

The formal alliance treaty of the Three Kingdoms has not been signed yet, and discussions have begun on the issue of building a new international situation.

No one can resist the temptation in the face of interests. It is the greatest benefit to formulate a game rule that is beneficial to oneself.

Even Franz, who was not very interested in the Three Kingdoms Alliance, was very interested in establishing a new international order.

Austria has experience in this regard and has dominated the Vienna system twice. A set of game rules that are beneficial to itself will bring no less benefits than any colony.

Now everyone needs a stable Europe, the British need continental balance, the French want to digest the results, and Austria needs time to continue to develop.

Other countries are no exception. The Kingdom of Prussia needs to digest the results. The Russians are busy reforming, not to mention small countries, everyone wants a stable Europe.

Under everyone's common will, a new international order is about to be released. This time it is more cruel than before. After the three major countries formulate rules, all countries can join.

The second-class powers, Prussia, Russia, and the Nordic Federation, still have a certain say, and more small countries have completely become voice-obsessed.

As one of the vested interests, Franz did not mean to criticize them.

Now he is busy carrying out economic reforms. Compared with the Second Industrial Revolution, there have been changes. Some economic policies in the past have now become out of place.

The famous "Austrian Economic School" in later generations also began to emerge, but it was still in its infancy. Perhaps it was due to the butterfly effect, and it was affected by the environment and changed.

Franz couldn't explain exactly what was going on. He was not a researcher in economy and was not very clear about these issues.

In the era when the free market economy was prevalent, Austria's economic policies were already considered positive, and of course this positive is also very limited.

The market is mainly developed freely. The government only provides perfect infrastructure and formulates some encouragement policies when necessary.

As long as you have money, you can enter any industry field. Whether you can survive is your own problem.

As a pragmatist, Franz has always pursued the principle that the most suitable one is the best. Under the big framework, the economic measures in various parts of Austria are not exactly the same.

Different regions have different development directions and different policies are needed. If the central government is worried, then it would be better to die.

The Vienna Palace, a meeting on economic report that will determine that Austria will be held in the next decade, and this economic reform is only a fine adjustment.

Generally speaking, the previous economic policies are still adopted, and only individual industries need to change are not large.

Economic Minister Andrew analyzed: "In the past two years, domestic economic development has been in good condition overall, and the economic growth rate has remained at 7.8%.

Among them, it is worth noting that the new energy industry, mainly the power industry, has a particularly prominent growth rate. From the industry scale of less than 10 million SHIELD in 1868, it has quickly climbed to 200 million SHIELD now.

The entire industrial chain involves multiple fields, driving upstream industries including copper smelting, rubber, power generation equipment manufacturing, as well as downstream industries such as hardware accessories, power machinery and equipment, transportation and other industries.

638,000 new jobs have been created, making a significant contribution to getting rid of the economic crisis. The most typical example is the copper smelting industry in the Saxony and Balkans, with significant breakthroughs in production capacity.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs believes that electricity and energy will become the largest economic growth point in the future.

At present, only Vienna has fully popularized electricity lighting in China. Although Frankfurt, Munich, Venice, Milan and other cities have launched projects, it will take some time to complete them.

In Africa, we have discovered many copper ores, all of which are rich ores, with high ore quality and reserves exceed the total of copper ores being mined on the European continent.

We have built large mine transport ships of 20,000 tonnes in our domestic shipyards without any technical problems. The transportation cost can also be reduced, and the copper that restricts the popularization of electricity can be solved immediately.

After solving the problem of raw materials, copper prices in the market will soon fall, and the cost of promoting electric lighting will be greatly reduced.

In addition, electric machinery and equipment also has great potential to tap, and it may even replace the current steam engine in the future. At present, electric machinery and equipment are already used in some fields.

In addition, another economic growth point is that the number of newborn babies has repeatedly hit new highs, and the sales of infant products are continuing to grow.

There are too many products involved in this aspect, and it is too troublesome to count. We can only make a preliminary estimate. There is now a market of about 35 million ASCH every year, but the growth rate is very fast, and it is expected to grow by 12% this year.

In contrast, the traditional economic market has shown decadence. The last economic crisis has proved that many domestic areas have been saturated.

At present, the fastest growth rate in traditional economic fields are the steel, mining, shipbuilding and construction industries, which are 13.2%, 9.6%, 10.1% and 8.9%, respectively. The textile industry, which had previously grown rapidly, had a growth rate of only 3.1% last year.

Our food processing industry, which has the most advantage, is also facing a bottleneck now. Although it still maintains a growth rate of 5.8%, the downward trend is very obvious.

Judging from these data, the development of emerging industries has become a pillar industry for future economic development. The Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to comprehensively promote power lighting in China and encourage power technology innovation.”

This is very consistent with the habits of the Vienna government. If electricity is to be popularized, it is impossible to do without government promotion. If there is no government promotion, no power company will selflessly contribute a power supply network.

In contrast, infant supplies are different, and there is no need for the government to intervene at all. Capitalists will do a good job. All the government needs to do is supervise and regulate the market.

The mature and persistent Prime Minister Felix took over the topic: "There is no problem in promoting electric power technology. Everyone has personally experienced the benefits of this technology. The electric lights on our heads are one of them.

However, when promoting, the early cost issue must be considered. The cost required to build a set of urban power supply network is not a small number.

Not every city can afford it, and the government does not recommend promoting cities with low fiscal revenue. If someone turns this policy of benefiting the people into a policy of harming the people, we will hold people accountable."

Is the power technology good? The answer is: very good. Unfortunately, it is too early and the cost has not yet dropped.

Large cities with high local fiscal revenue follow Vienna to popularize electricity lighting. There is no problem, and you can afford it.

For some cities that are so poor that it is a heavy burden. Take Vienna as an example, the municipal government spends 1.2 million yuan in electricity and lighting system maintenance costs every year.

For the bustling Vienna, this money can be directly distributed to merchants in the city. They are the biggest beneficiaries of the city that never sleeps, and the benefits generated by the night market are enough to make up for this expense.

If it were some small cities, there would be no business, and the annual fiscal revenue would be only more than 100,000, which would be difficult to maintain the operation of the government.

If you go to follow the trend, the expenses will eventually fall on ordinary people. For local people who already have low incomes, it will be a disaster.

The lower the population density, the higher the per capita power supply cost. The Vienna government has long since passed this account.

In order to avoid the worst situation, Prime Minister Felix stood up in advance to throw cold water so that some bureaucrats would blindly follow the trend in order to make political achievements.

After hearing Felix's warning, many local officials who attended the meeting were worried about their previous thoughts.

As expected, the cheap political achievements are not easy to get. If you don’t meet the conditions and follow the trend blindly, you will probably end your career if you report it.

Except for a few states that have greater autonomy, other cities still need to review such a large project to be launched by the Vienna government.

So far, only large cities with economically developed economies, or in coal-producing areas, have been approved, and the power generation cost is beyond imagination.

For most cities, it is best to wait until technological innovation and power supply costs have further dropped before considering this issue.

The electricity revolution in Europe in the original space-time started with Germany. The most important reason was that Germany's copper production was the first in Europe and coal production was also the first in Europe. The cost of promoting power technology was lower than that of Britain and France.

The United States has nothing to say, there is nothing short of anything. Whether it is copper production or coal production, it is all about how much you need.

Therefore, starting from the Second Industrial Revolution and the subsequent new technological innovations, Americans gradually moved ahead of Europe.

It’s not that European countries do not have technology, but the problem is that European countries lack raw materials, and transporting from overseas increases costs and do not have the ability to promote them. Even if the industrial technology is mature, Britain and France cannot bear high costs.

Now Franz is pursuing a big fanfare in the power technology revolution, and there is no intention of keeping it confidential at all. The main reason is that the raw materials cost in Austria is lower than that in Britain and France.

In addition to the Russian Empire, Austria's copper reserves exceeded those of European countries, not to mention the output, directly accounting for half of the world's share.

Austria also occupies a very important share in rubber production. The colonies in the South Ocean are not in vain. Rubber can be grown on almost every island. In addition, rubber plantations opened in Africa, Austria is now the world's largest supplier of rubber products.

Britain and France want to promote power technology, first importing copper, and secondly importing rubber. France is even worse, they also need to import coal.

The cost has been determined, and in this industrial revolution, Britain and France fell into a disadvantage.
Chapter completed!