Chapter 478 Beet
Royal Greenhouse, Franz hasn’t been here for a long time. He looked at the "round carrot" in his hand and felt a strong sense of disobedience.
This thing is the famous beet, but it is far from the size that Franz saw in later generations. It is only about one-fifth of the size of Northeastern beets in later generations.
(But in fact, what the protagonist sees in later generations are all beets that are displayed for people to appreciate. Most of them weigh more than five kilograms, and the big ones can even weigh about ten kilograms. But in fact, the average weight of normal beets is About 1kg to 1.5kg.)
Sugar beet production is actually a waste, although 30% of the world's sugar production comes from this crop.
Some people will tell you that beets make up half of the sugar industry! But what they won’t actually say is that sugar beets account for 48% of the world’s total sugar crop area.
In terms of sugar yield, sugar beets are inferior to sugar cane. Moreover, as far as the 19th century is concerned, the sugar production process of beets is completely different from the cane sugar process that has a history of thousands of years, and seems extremely immature. After all, this is only a new thing that emerged in 1800.
Moreover, the sugar content of sugar beets that have not been genetically modified is alarmingly low, and the unit yield is unsatisfactory.
However, this crop has attracted the attention of European countries as soon as it appeared. There is nothing that can be done about it. Europe, which is located in the temperate and subarctic zones, cannot grow sugar cane.
In Europe, sugar used to be a treasure that could only be eaten by the upper class, and would only be taken out when important guests came to visit.
The vast majority of people in Europe could not afford and had no access to sugar. This situation did not change until the Age of Discovery.
The Europeans planted a large number of sugar crops in the Americas, and then transported a large amount of sugar back. In order to increase the sugar crops, they set out from Europe to Africa, and used the cheap goods they produced in exchange for a large number of black slaves to be sent to the Americas. This is the notorious Triangular trade.
But Europeans were still very prescient in some aspects. Starting from 1800, almost all major European countries began to cultivate sugar beet.
Even though France has experienced war and two regime changes, it has never stopped supporting the sugar beet industry. This increased the number of sugar refineries in France from one to 61 in 1844.
The German region and the Russians were not to be outdone. The area of sugar beet cultivated land increased dozens of times. Such a big fanfare, but Franz felt that it was not enough.
Take Prussia as an example. At this time, Prussia had a population of 16 million, but its sugar output was only 1,500 tons, averaging only 0.1 kilograms per person.
At this time, Prussia's per capita annual sugar consumption was 2.5 kilograms, which meant that their self-sufficiency rate was only 4%.
At this time, the per capita annual sugar consumption in France was 5 kilograms, while in the UK it was an outrageous 10 kilograms.
Historically, Austria had only a pitiful 0.8 kilograms, which was only stronger than the 0.5 kilograms of Italian states and Spain. However, at this time, the per capita annual sugar consumption in the Austrian Empire reached 4 kilograms, five times the historical level.
This is mainly due to the ally of Mexico. Historically, this was a major sugar-producing country in this era. However, due to the impact of the US-Mexican War, its status was not guaranteed, but it still accounted for 9% of the world's sugar production.
(Historically, the world's total sugar production in 1844 was 1 million tons, and Mexico's sugar production was 90,000 tons.)
However, Mexico has not lost much land now, and the political situation is relatively stable. Coupled with the leadership of the O-Mexico Development Company, Mexico's sugar production has increased to 150,000 tons, accounting for 14% of the world's sugar production.
And 80% of this sugar was used by Tasan Anna to pay off debts and exchange for supplies. Naturally, Austria getting so much sugar can allow its citizens to enjoy low-price and high-quality white sugar.
Of course, in addition to other Central American colonies and West African colonies, most of the cane sugar was shipped back to Austria, and this was the beginning of the sweet party in Vienna.
But the days of sucking blood from the colonies would come to an end sooner or later, and at this time it was because Franz firmly controlled the source of sugar that he was able to suppress prices.
But if the beet sugar industry had not developed, Austria would not have been able to compete with cheap overseas sugar.
At that time, if Austrians still want to eat cheap sugar, the lack of guarantees will trigger a sugar war. Sugar has many uses. In addition to being a food, it is also a strategic material.
Yes, this is a strategic material because sugar can be used to make alcohol, which is used in industry and for medical disinfection. At the same time, sugar was also the earliest placebo. It could soothe the injured hearts of soldiers and boost their morale.
This is an important part of the capitalist military theory of later generations. The side with more materials will definitely win.
Sugar can not only be used in war indirectly, but can also be used directly in war. Yes, this stuff can actually increase the power of explosives. As long as it is mixed in a certain proportion, it can even be used as a propellant.
Therefore, if Austria wants to become a real power, sugar is also one of the essential raw materials.
But what gives Franz a headache is that he has not developed any good new varieties after several years of breeding. At the same time, the sugar beet sugar production technology is also very backward. Eighteen tons of beets can only produce one ton of sugar.
Modern technology only requires eight tons of sugar beets to squeeze out one ton of sugar, but at this time, sugar cane sugar production technology can already achieve the effect of one ton of sugar from ten tons of sugar cane.
This made him feel that his future was a bit bleak. In fact, sugar can be stored for a very long time, even up to ten years.
Franz might choose to reserve enough sugar in advance to meet the war's consumption, which would free up more arable land to grow food.
But he quickly rejected this idea. After all, beet sugar production was not only for fighting wars, but also to control prices and regulate demand.
Franz knew that he still had a long way to go, and he couldn't just focus on the present, let alone ignore the present.
Moreover, it is impossible for Franz to directly give up cheap overseas cane sugar and directly support the domestic sugar beet industry.
But he can create some illusions and rumors, such as beet sugar is healthier and more suitable for consumption than cane sugar.
At the same time, beet sugar was purchased in large quantities when manufacturing weapons and developing industry. The reason was naturally that beet sugar was purer. As for how pure and how healthy it was, people at the time could only rely on their imagination.
Unlike sugar cane, this plant expands very quickly and requires little care as long as the temperature and soil are right.
As for the variety and technical issues that Franz is worried about, they are actually not a problem. Before the advent of microscopic genetic improvement technology, there was not much room for improvement in sugar content among beet varieties.
Even if genetic improvement technology is used, it only shortens the growth cycle of sugar beets, and has little impact on the sugar yield.
As for technical issues, historically, beet sugar production technology would advance rapidly in 1850, and the material-to-sugar ratio would drop directly from 18:1 to 11:1.
Therefore, Franz's entanglement is not of great significance. Of course, if you study it in advance, you can indeed make a wave of quick money.
And due to the promotion of chemical fertilizers, agricultural machinery, and scientific farming methods, Austria’s sugar beet yield per acre is much higher than that of other European countries.
However, the total amount of beet sugar produced each year is only 7,000 tons, which is still a huge gap compared to France's 30,000 tons.
Franz's plan is to double Austria's total beet sugar production within four years.