Chapter 299 Popularity
Franz's sewing machines not only occupied the entire Central European market, but were also sold abroad. Even the United Kingdom, known as the "World Factory", was not immune.
This kind of profitable business will naturally arouse the envy of businessmen from other countries, so many powerful businessmen will follow suit. However, the design that does not look complicated has turned many people off.
Various problems arise one after another, the failure rate is astonishingly high, and repeated comparative studies cannot find a reason.
In fact, this is the problem of standardized production. During this period, people have not realized the importance of standardized production. Only a few industries have achieved standardized production of parts.
Austria has long since realized the standardization of parts, and the emergence of new hydraulic machines has also made Austria's parts manufacturing industry lead the world.
The power of common hydraulic presses in this period was less than 1% of that in Austria. Things like steam forging hammers, which were destined to be eliminated by history, were even less useful. Even if they thought of it, they could not achieve the same effect as the Austrians.
One nail is missing,
A horseshoe was lost;
Lost a horseshoe,
Broken a war horse;
Broken a war horse,
lost a battle;
Lost a battle,
Lost a country.
It is these seemingly inconspicuous parts that have discredited the imitators in various European countries. Of course, if someone suffers, someone will benefit. Austrian manufacturing, Viennese craftsmanship, and craftsman spirit. Franz took the opportunity to publicize it in newspapers, and various "chicken soups" spread across the European continent.
Naturally, this includes the British "The Times", the French "Century" and "La Presse" (the famous Le Figaro was suspended), "Frankfurter News", "Good Night, Vienna" (controlled by Franz) , "Berlin Morning Post" and other mainstream media added fuel to the fire.
(The last two were edited by me. Before 1848, Austria and Prussia had strict censorship systems, and there were no newspapers of great influence. After 1842, Prussia did have a "Rheinische Zeitung" but it was quickly banned. )
Under such propaganda, there will naturally be many more spiritual Austrians, especially in the German and Apennine regions that are closely connected with Austria. A strange trend of thought is spreading.
However, governments everywhere did not pay much attention to this kind of thing, but more and more workers and immigrants came to Austria.
And for people who are already in Austria, there is also a strange sense of superiority that is growing, no matter what nationality they are, or whether they are Austrians.
Russia, St. Petersburg.
Economic recession is an important problem facing Russia now. With the end of the Turkish-Egyptian war, Russian-Turkish trade has become increasingly difficult.
Britain already regarded the Ottoman Empire as its own enemy, and of course it was impossible to accept Russia's continued harvest of wool from the Ottoman Empire. The Tsar was very angry, but facing Britain alone overseas, the European gendarmes were overwhelmed and had no choice but to give up.
As a result, the Russians had a surplus of food. Fortunately, the Prussian Junker nobles extended a "helping hand" at this time. However, it rained all night, and the Spanish Civil War ended. The Russians once again lost an important market.
At this time, some people in Russia started a business of selling serfs, but what is very ridiculous is that neither the United States nor the French Texas colony refused to accept Russian serfs.
Therefore, Russian businessmen could only set their sights on South America. Argentine farmers were suffering from a shortage of white people, so they placed large orders with Russia.
However, these serfs were not handed over to the Argentines in the end, because the Russian businessmen ignored one person. That was Tsar Nicholas I. He was an extremely traditional man and regarded himself as the loving father of all Russian serfs.
How could a loving father betray his children? Of course he would keep them "at home and enjoy their happiness". So the tsar's military police rushed into the homes of those merchants and threw those who tried to disobey the tsar's will into prison.
In fact, contrary to what many people think, the Tsar did not like killing people that much, but it is certain that these businessmen who were caught will have their skin peeled off.
The Argentinians who had not received their serfs wanted to get their deposits back. Tsar Nicholas I not only refused to compensate, but instead detained the debt collectors in preparation for extortion.
But this kind of thing does not happen every day. If we want to reverse the economic decline, we need to start from two aspects: increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
Because there are British, Ottomans, Persians, the Khiva Khanate in Central Asia, the Qing Empire, and the British Canadian colonies abroad who are eyeing it.
There were dissatisfied aristocrats, radical reformists, Polish restorers, South Russian Cossacks, Caucasus natives (Chechnya, Georgia), Siberian natives and rebels, as well as those "restless" Jews.
In fact, the so-called restless Jews are completely empty targets. For example, 99% of the merchants involved in the slave trade this time are pure Slavs, and some are of German descent. There are no Jews involved at all.
The entire country needs money everywhere. The Southern Russian Railway and the Trans-Siberian Railway, which Nicholas I was so obsessed with, have not yet started construction and they cannot get the money.
At this time, there were only two railways in the whole of Russia. One was built in 1834 at the Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant in the Ural region by father and son Yefim Cherebanov and Myron Cherebanov, who were craftsmen born as serfs. The track is made of pig iron, has a total length of 854 meters, and is often pulled by horses.
The other is the Tsarskoye Selo Railway built by the Austrian engineer Geistnier, with a total length of 26 kilometers.
Because Russia's machinery manufacturing industry was in poor condition at that time, and its traction capacity was not as good as that of horses, several steam locomotives were built before success. What's even more bizarre is that in the early days, steam locomotives were only used on Saturdays and Sundays, and horses were usually used for traction. This phenomenon did not occur until It ended in 1838.
The Petersburg-Tsarskoe Selo Railway runs two pairs of passenger trains every day, which are pulled by steam locomotives on Saturdays and Sundays, and by horses on weekdays. It was not until 1838 that all steam locomotives were used.
Therefore, if Russia wants to reverse its economic decline, the only way to do this is open source.
But here comes the problem again. Although Russia is vast and rich in resources, the products that can be accepted by other countries are really limited. Even before the end of the Napoleonic War, their flagship product in export trade was animal fur.
The biggest commodities now are grain and timber, and Britain is the largest importer of Russian timber. The Egyptians had also imported large quantities of Russian timber to build their navy, but at this time a large amount of high-quality timber could only be sold to the British.
Grain exports declined rapidly after the food crisis and the Turkish-Egyptian War. Coupled with the sudden end of the Spanish Civil War, the entire Russian commodity exports entered a cold winter.
Franz naturally knew this situation, so he planned to help Russia.
Of course, it would not be suitable for a Jew like Cina or a Pole like Adjani to discuss business with the Tsar.
"Oh, Carl! My friend, what wind has brought you here."
Tsar Nicholas I admired soldiers very much and regarded himself as a soldier, so he naturally favored Archduke Karl, who was also a soldier.