Chapter 442： Liberty Lighthouse must be lit

As the British capital, London has been at the forefront of the world since the first industrial revolution.

It has too many haloes, for example: the world's largest city, the most prosperous city, and the world's political center, financial center, business center, industrial center ...

Overnight, as if it had become a small country in the country, this sudden change made the proud London people intolerable.

In this era they have arrogant capital, as the British newspaper described:

The plains of North America and Russia are our corn fields;

Austria is our granary;

Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest farms;

Australia and Argentina are our ranches;

Silver from Peru and Mexico;

The Far East grows tea for us;

Our coffee, sugar cane and spice plantations are spread across the Indies;

Spain and France are our vineyards;

The Mediterranean is our orchard;

The Confederate States of America is our cotton land;

...

Therefore, the places outside London are all rural areas, and the areas outside the British Isles are backward areas. The sacred mission of leading human progress is only the British.

With this recognition, the emergence of the city that never sleeps in Vienna can imagine the impact on the people of London.

The pressure of public opinion flooded the new government, and the Benjamin Disraeli government only felt the pressure.

Now they are very envious of the John Russell cabinet that has stepped down. Don't look at them resigning in advance. In fact, the John Russell cabinet is only two months behind and the two terms will expire.

At the end of their term, they encountered an economic crisis, and of course they would not wipe out their competitors. John Russell's cabinet resigns early, leaving all responsibility to the next administration.

In the economy, Benjamin Disraeli's cabinet had a hard time. International disputes over the Spanish throne and Poland's throne have involved everyone's nerves.

Now there is another city that never sleeps, giving Prime Minister Benjamin even more headaches. Electric lights are not high-tech, they have been used for a long time, but it is not easy to spread to the whole city.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli asked, "My Chancellor, do you have a budget?"

Finance Minister Molito replied solemnly: "Preliminary estimates are that at least £ 75 million is needed to popularize electric lights in London and £ 440 million is needed to popularize electric lights in the British Isles. Considering the actual situation, the investment may be even greater.

This is only the equipment investment, and the cost of electricity costs will be more in the future. For the street lamp system in London, we need 150,000 generators, and at least 300,000 people need to provide logistical support for this. "

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli waved his hand and interrupted: "Stop, you tell me directly, London can't make electricity available. But why can Austrians do it?

Even if Vienna is much smaller than London, it is a metropolis with a population of over one million. I don't believe that the Vienna government will be desperate for one face. "

The Minister of Finance Molito explained: "It is said that the Austrians used high-power power generation equipment to protect the lighting system in Vienna, and only two hundred generators were enough.

This high-power generator reduces the cost of power generation by 80%, greatly reducing the need for maintenance personnel, requiring only about 3,000 to 4,000 workers to maintain the power network.

In fact, the lighting system in Vienna is a masterpiece of the Austrian New Energy Power Company and it is said that there is also a royal investment.

The City of Vienna only needs to pay electricity bills. It costs about 100,000 pounds per month to use this power supply network, which is worth more than 7 million pounds. "

Molito also had a headache. The British Electric Power Company was very salty, but he was keen to supply power to the rich, and had no interest in building a city-wide lighting system.

If he hadn't read the newspaper, he wouldn't have known that the generator technology revolution had already happened. If you just set up a street lighting system, then your teeth will pass.

Obviously, this is impossible. Citizens in London need to be more considerate about delivering electricity to their homes, which requires a significant increase in investment.

The mere £ 100,000 of electricity costs obviously cannot support the Austrian New Energy Power Company. Even if it enjoys tax-free treatment, this is far from enough.

Right now, just for the sake of horse racing, a direct investment in building a complete power supply network means a monopoly on power supply in Vienna.

There is no industry in Vienna. The ultimate profit point of power companies is residential electricity and commercial electricity. These high-quality customers are long-term cash cows.

Compared to the previous electricity fee of 8 shillings, the electricity cost in Vienna has now been reduced to 1.5 shillings. This is the advantage of the power supply network and greatly reduces the loss of electricity during transmission.

There is no doubt that the price is a huge profit, but the new technology wants to promote, or rely on huge profits.

To further reduce electricity prices, we must wait for the full availability of electricity. Otherwise, who will pay for this power supply network?

The Vienna government can't afford this cost. Once the government funding is not a problem for the city, it needs to be popularized nationwide. This is the core of the fairness system.

Everyone is a taxpayer. Why should power be supplied to big cities first?

If the central government does not invest, who will bear the initial investment?

Is it a loan? If you really do that, it won't be long before local governments in Austria will go bankrupt collectively.

Expecting the bureaucratic class to control costs is a dream. It might as well be left to the enterprises to develop freely, and after the further development of science and technology, come back to consider the issue of popularization.

The same problem was encountered by the British. The central government did not approve the funding, and the City of London could not afford it. The people in other areas who had given the funding did not agree.

There is no need to wait for the people to make trouble. Originally, the capital occupied more resources, and the central government's further fiscal tilt will aggravate conflicts and severely lead to national division.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rubbed his forehead and said helplessly: "So leave this problem to the City of London! The Austrian government has no funding. What qualifications do they have to ask us for funding?

As for how they do it, that's their own business. The municipal government cannot fulfill its responsibility for building local areas, and it is necessary to push its own responsibility onto the central government. "

Playing football is the most common method used by politicians. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli wouldn't ignore it if there weren't too much public opinion pressure.

The cabinet questioned this matter, but it only showed its importance, and it did not mean that it would intervene.

If the investment is small, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli will still be happy to brush up a wave of achievements to brighten up the British Isles.

Now invest so much, let's forget it! If this big project is launched blindly, Britain's fiscal revenue may not be enough to fill this hole.

...

Paris, the tragic city of Paris was once again surrounded by the marching people, which proves that the people of Paris understand the rules.

It is the responsibility of the municipal government to transform the city's infrastructure. The central government cannot afford to pay for this.

Including Napoleon III's renovation of Paris, the funds were mainly borne by the Paris city government, not the French central government.

The French were very clear in this regard and the accounts were always separate. Local governments also have their own fiscal revenues, rather than all the funding from the central government.

For example, the salaries of employees of the municipal government and the operating expenses of various government agencies are all borne by the local government.

Otherwise, the fiscal revenues of central governments in various countries will not be enough to maintain government operations.

Of course, some European countries are still directly managed by the central government, but they are all small countries. They have a small land area and a small population, and do not need so many institutions.

If the local government cannot afford the administrative expenses, the central government may still subsidize it. For example, the Austrian government once subsidized the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, otherwise this poor province would not even be able to pay its employees.

There are exceptions, such as the United States. That's where states play. If they have the money, they can spend it themselves. If they don't have the money, they can find a way. Don't expect the central government anyway.

Looking at the protesters outside, the mayor of Paris, Barco, collapsed. You must know that the reconstruction project in Paris has already caused the Paris government to carry huge debts, which made them almost out of breath.

The Artillery Party speaks easily, and improving public infrastructure will help develop the economy and get rid of the economic crisis.

Actually, it's all about money. What can you invest without money? Napoleon III ordered the rebuilding of Paris, and it was not the Paris city government that was paying for it.

The debts must be repaid. In order to increase fiscal revenue, the Paris municipal government has raised taxes many times.

This tax cannot be expected of ordinary people. For how much money they have, they can't search much, and the big head still falls on the enterprise.

Napoleon III encouraged the development of industry, so financial capitalists bear most of the tax revenue. Frankly, this tax distribution model is reasonable.

The profit of the financial industry is higher than that of the manufacturing industry. There is no problem with high profits and high taxes. Therefore, this period is the golden period of French industrial development.

There are also many power companies in France, but unfortunately they are not large enough. Usually an electric power company, which has hundreds of customers, can have thousands of customers are large companies.

After interviewing these power companies, the mayor of Barco directly gave up the heavy task of letting them build the Paris power supply system.

If you ca n’t say anything, it ’s all nonsense, neither money nor technology, who dares to let them do it?

There are many capitalists who are interested in taking on this heavy responsibility, but the appetite of these crocodile is too big, and it directly makes Barco look timid.

For example: Rothschild, a financial predator, intends to invest. Not only is it free of charge, he also requires the Paris government to bear half of the construction costs without compensation.

It is better to directly bear half of the construction costs than the state-run government. Obviously, capitalists know the pressure of public opinion and want to get the most benefit from it.

As a beacon of the free world, how can it not light up? The attitude of the people of Paris has said it all.

Franz estimates that even dreaming about it, investing in the construction of the Vienna power system will actually bring so much trouble to Britain and France.

Even knowing it was useless, he couldn't help. The popularity of electricity in this era is still a bit ahead. It is the best time to wait for the generator technology to go further and the copper smelting technology to a new level.

Now the cost of promotion is too high. It is okay to promote in a special city like Vienna. You can't die if you change to other cities, even if you are lucky.

1.5 shillings per kilowatt-hour of electricity, the whole of Austria can afford 10% of people, Britain and France are almost the same proportion.

The situation in Vienna is special. It is not an industrial city. The pillar industries are relatively high-income industries. People have higher incomes, and most people have access to electricity.

But other cities are not enough. Europe is different from the East. Not rich people are in the city, and a large number of local nobles are in the surrounding estates.

These high-quality customers are scattered, which directly increases the cost of universal electricity. Most of these nobles have long been powered on, and they have small generators.

Of course, if the power companies are willing to supply electricity, they will not refuse. After all, the small generators of this era just said that the power was small, and they were not small at all, which was very inconvenient to use.

However, the cost per kilowatt hour will continue to rise. In most cities, due to insufficient number of users, or insufficient concentration, the final cost of power supply has increased significantly.

This is also the reason why Austrian New Energy and Electric Power stopped and plunged into Vienna's market without blindly expanding after supplying electricity to Vienna.

In the power technology revolution, a benchmark for Vienna is enough. It should be promoted nationwide, and it is not too late to wait for three or five years.

In this fast-changing era, new technologies are advancing almost every day. From 1866 to the present day, Austria has added more than 300 patents on electricity.

Franz didn't know that there was so much expertise in electric power. You know, this is the 19th century, and the use of electricity is still in its infancy.

Now the biggest effect is lighting. Mechanical equipment driven by electricity still stays in theory. It will take at least 30 years to become the most important energy source for human beings.

Without any surprises, after taking the first steps of a new era in Vienna, the Paris government announced the establishment of the Paris Power Company to light up Paris.

The lighthouse of the free world, the black light is blind.

If you like the Holy Roman Empire, please collect it: (www.novelhall.com) The Holy Roman Empire has the fastest literature update.