The essence of opening up a colony is to make money. For the Austrian government, there are only two types of colonies that are valuable: money-making and strategically valuable.

There is no doubt that Lanfang Autonomous Province is profitable and has certain strategic value.

The Lanfang Autonomous Province, together with other parts of the Austrian region belonging to the South China Sea, jointly established Austria's regional hegemony in the South China Sea.

The Vienna government is not without the call of the Lanfang Autonomous Province directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources. The key is that no one can guarantee that the benefits can be obtained after direct management.

The economic value of Lanfang Autonomous Province to the Vienna government is far more than the 3.764 million ASCH.

Since joining the Austrian system, there has been no threat of security, and the Lanfang Autonomous Province has quickly entered the fast lane of development.

Perhaps it was Spain and the two neighbors in the Netherlands did a great job. The Lanfang Autonomous Province became the base camp of overseas Chinese businessmen more than ten years ago.

The influx of large amounts of capital naturally led to the development of the local economy. If it were not restricted by geographical conditions, the development of Lanfang Autonomous Province would have been better.

Now, Lanfang Autonomous Province imports tens of millions of industrial and commercial products from Austria every year, and also exports raw materials such as rubber, sago, dried coconut, kach dye, shigu powder, pepper, gold and silver.

If listed separately and ranking the total trade volume, the Lanfang Autonomous Province is enough to rank in the top five of all Austria's trading partners.

The greater the benefits involved, the more cautious the Vienna government will be.

If an operational error causes turmoil, is pried out by someone, and loses the hegemony of the Nanyang region, then he will lose all his money.

Driven by interests, the status of Lanfang Autonomous Province naturally became different, and it was now a special existence higher than that of the colonies and lower than that of the state.

If the local ruling class was not affected by tradition and did not like to participate in politics, there has been a seat in the Imperial Parliament.

Lanfang Autonomous Province is not without knowledgeable people. Someone proposed to build railways more than ten years ago, but the traditional power is too strong, and the "ancestral tomb" is really unavoidable.

In addition, Lanfang Autonomous Province is an island with developed sea transportation and not much development in inland areas, and the demand for railways is not large, so it was put on hold.

This also indirectly shows that the ruling class in Lanfang Autonomous Province is garbage. These guys in the original time and space are all compradors of the Dutch, so their moral integrity is naturally not much higher.

Franz did not mean to interfere in Lan Fang's internal affairs. He used people's money and eliminated disasters. He was a reputable emperor.

Even for the sake of tribute to the money every year, Franz is also a supporter of Lanfang's autonomy.

This is not Franz's greed for money, but mainly because he understands the traditional culture of the East. If he, as an emperor, did not charge money, those guys would cry in a hurry.

In this era of bad luck, as long as you don’t get angry and resentful, you will be considered qualified.

I don’t know how to write history books in the future. Anyway, everyone is getting what they need and they are working very happily.

...

Seeing that the parties reached an agreement, Franz, as the arbitrator, made a new request: "Let's do this for the railway plan, but this is not enough.

This economic crisis should last longer. To get rid of the crisis, the government must create more jobs while minimizing spending as much as possible.”

It is not difficult to reduce expenses and create jobs, but it is not easy to take into account both.

The Vienna government’s construction plan is essentially to better develop the economy, and the investment projects must also consider profitability.

If the time is delayed until twenty years later, Franz can upgrade the road and build a highway.

It's not possible now. Not long after the car was born, people's main means of transportation are still horse-drawn carriages.

A carriage on the cement road?

It feels very touching to think about it, but the problem is that it is a waste of horse! If you fight head-on, the horse's hooves won't last long.

Construction of water conservancy projects?

This thing has been almost done in the previous economic crises. If it has not started construction yet, it has no economic value.

Not only have these projects been completed, but even the urban upgrade and renovation have been basically completed, and these issues are not needed to be considered for at least thirty years.

Austria's European land is just such a big place. After so many years of infrastructure construction, there is really nothing to worry about.

Africa's local area is large enough, but unfortunately the population is limited and there is not enough need. Government investment also requires consideration of economic returns, and it is impossible to blindly build it.

This is a problem that a country will inevitably face after it has developed to a certain extent, but Austria has faced it earlier.

Prime Minister Felix: "The domestic infrastructure is becoming more and more perfect, and the days when government investment in infrastructure can drive the economy cannot last forever.

Our economic growth rate may slow down for a long time in the future. It is expected that the next period of rapid economic growth should be after the completion of Africa's localization strategy.

For long-term development considerations, we must now launch as many projects as possible with long-term and sustainable development."

This is a fact. At present, major projects in Austria, namely the canal plan and the hydropower station plan, have been launched, so it is naturally impossible to do it again.

After pausing, Prime Minister Felix continued: "Internal combustion engine technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and has shown great potential in many fields, and may even replace steam engines.

If this happens, oil will replace coal and become the most important industrial raw material.

The only question is whether oil production can meet demand. Judging from the current situation, crude oil production around the world is very scarce.

Especially on the European continent, few large oil fields were found. Although we own the traditional oil-producing area of ​​Ploiesti, we imported 110,000 tons of crude oil from the Russian Empire last year.

This number looks inconspicuous, calculated based on the current international oil price, but only a few hundred thousand Syrians.

But just three years ago, we were still a crude oil exporter. In just three years, domestic crude oil demand increased by at least 200,000 tons.

According to scientists' estimates, our demand for oil will double in five years, and will double again in ten years, and the market's crude oil gap will reach millions of tons.

Many scientists in the energy field have issued early warnings to the government for energy crisis. In order to solve this problem, the government organized oil exploration teams.

Overall, the harvest is still good. Many oil fields have been discovered locally, but unfortunately the output is not high.

The biggest harvest was the discovery of a large oil field in the lower reaches of the Mesopotamia Basin, with reserves exceeding the total of all local oil fields.

After analysis by geologists, it was believed that a large amount of oil might be buried in the Mesopotamia, and the government sent an exploration team to verify it.

Oil was discovered at the junction of the Ottoman Empire and Persia not long ago, confirming this speculation. Since the area is not within our control, no further exploration was done for security reasons.”

Needless to say, the meaning is very obvious. If you are not within the control range, you can find a way to get it within your control range.

If oil is buried underground and cannot move, it will only allow Austria to expand its control range. This is the usual style of the great powers.

Frankly speaking, Franz never thought that Austria would lack oil, and he never cared about this issue from beginning to end.

There are many things about the emperor, and the unimportant things must be ignored. At present, Austria's sphere of influence has covered half of the world's oil reserves. Isn't it a joke to lack oil?

However, this joke really happened. African oil did not discover it, and oil in the Middle East only showed a corner. After realizing the importance of oil, it was inevitable that the Vienna government would prepare for the future.

Then the Ottoman Empire was about to have a tragedy. It was originally a bloody hatred, but now it is a crime to bear the treasure. Who is not unlucky if they are unlucky?

Franz wanted to speak but stopped, and it was a matter of time before he took action against the Ottoman Empire. The energy crisis only provided an opportunity to shut up the anti-war factions in the government.

Prime Minister Felix did not directly say that he wanted to start a war, but the "sustainability and long-term" project, coupled with the repeated emphasis on the importance of oil, has given the answer.

Compared with investing in other projects, launching a war against the Ottoman Empire is indeed the most economical value.

The most important thing is that the opportunity is rare. The European continent has fallen into a wave of revolution, and all countries are busy extinguishing fires.

They can’t even take care of themselves, who can still take care of the Ottoman Empire?
Chapter completed!