Chapter 353 Luxembourg Steel Center (asking for monthly pass at the end of the month)
Chapter 354 Luxembourg Steel Center (seeking monthly votes at the end of the month)
The reason why Catherine II has such a strategic plan is by no means a whim.
The basis of everything is of course the ability demonstrated by France in the past two years. Whether it is the royal family's control of power or the profound strategy demonstrated in North Africa and the Low Countries, she believes that this is the best partner.
However, Russia's former ally Austria has fallen into the chaos brought about by the reform, and its national strength is getting worse and worse.
In particular, the unsuccessful suppression of the Brabant Uprising and the bitter battle in Silesia made her very disappointed with Austria.
Although Prussia, another German power, signed a secret agreement with Russia to divide Poland, it was limited to dealing with Poland.
Prussia is now in the same boat with the British. On major issues involving the European order, they will definitely give priority to the British opinion.
Moreover, Prussia's troops are now trapped in Silesia. Who knows when they can get out.
In addition, Catherine II planned to join forces with France for another important consideration.
Compared with Russia's goals - Sweden, Poland, and the Black Sea coast, the European powers paid more attention to France's goals - the Low Countries and the Rhine River Basin.
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The Low Countries are Britain's forbidden fruit, and the Rhine River is Germany's traditional sphere of influence. If France really takes action on these two places, then the attention of the whole of Europe will immediately fall on him.
At that time, Russia can take the opportunity to feast without worrying about the opinions of other powers.
Of course, if France can really take the Rhine River under the pressure of the whole of Europe, Catherine II will not mind cooperating with the troops. Perhaps under their east-west attack, even Austria can be swallowed!
The next morning, the diplomatic officials put the plan submitted by Count Stroganov on the further development of Russian-French trade on Queen Mary's desk.
Queen Marie opened the document with some reluctance, and began to frown after reading a few pages - she was really not good at this.
She was about to call Archbishop Brian, but suddenly remembered that the Crown Prince seemed to be very good at this.
Didn't Joseph also open a trading company with Count Bobulinsky of Russia? It is said that the business is very good, which has increased the trade volume between France and Russia several times.
When she thought of this, she summoned the maid and asked her to send the trade plan to the Crown Prince for processing.
...
Luxembourg.
In the open land not far from the giant open-pit iron mine "Iron Sea", several tower-like iron blast furnaces are under intense construction.
Viscount Olivier, the owner of Silk Steel Company, stood on a hillside, watching his new ironworks taking shape in a happy mood.
He spent less than 40,000 livres to acquire a large-scale ironworks in Luxembourg, and got more than 700 skilled workers alone.
Then he began to expand and innovate technology.
Right next to the old ironmaking blast furnace he acquired, craftsmen were using refractory bricks to build two square buildings the size of ordinary houses.
The two buildings were almost completely sealed, with only two thick pipes as high as an adult's abdomen connecting them, and the ends of the pipes were connected to the blast furnace.
There was also a high-pressure steam engine next to each square building, which blew air into the pipes through a mechanical device.
This was the "hot blast ironmaking" technology that Joseph brought to the French ironworks.
In fact, the principle is very simple. Fuel combustion during ironmaking requires a lot of oxygen. Traditional ironmaking blast furnaces directly obtain air from the outside world, and the temperature of this air is room temperature. After entering the blast furnace of thousands of degrees, the furnace temperature will inevitably be lowered.
The furnace temperature that the blast furnace of this era can reach is just barely enough to melt the iron in the iron ore, but it can usually only be burned into viscous molten iron and flow out from the bottom of the blast furnace.
The quality of such molten iron will definitely not be too high. Because of insufficient melting, impurities will be wrapped inside, and the slag-making agent cannot be dissolved evenly.
The technology brought by Joseph is to use the "hot air chamber" to heat the air in advance, and then "blow" it into the blast furnace under pressure.
This can prevent cold air from lowering the furnace temperature, and at the same time, pressurized blasting can also increase the amount of oxygen for combustion.
This simple measure alone can increase the furnace temperature by nearly 200 degrees.
Coupled with the use of coke with a higher calorific value, the blast furnace of the French ironworks can completely melt the iron in the iron ore.
The completely fluid molten iron can fully contact with the air, oxidize a large amount of harmful impurities such as silicon and sulfur contained in it, and further precipitate impurities by adding slag-forming agents.
The quality of the molten iron produced in this way can be close to the level of crude steel. By adjusting the carbon content at the end of the blast furnace, the iron ingots from the blast furnace can meet the requirements of most iron products without almost entering the crucible for steelmaking.
After trial production in the Nancy Industrial Development Zone in France, the iron ingots produced by Viscount Olivier's ironworks sold for three-quarters of the price of fine steel, and they were in short supply.
He had someone estimate that after the factory built in Luxembourg is fully operational, the annual output can reach 200 million pounds.
This factory alone produces more steel than the total steel output of France last year!
In addition to the convenience brought by the Seine-Rhine trade agreement, his iron ingots and steel can be smoothly sold in many countries in southern Germany, and there are no more checkpoints and tax officials along the way when selling goods to Germany before.
This factory in Luxembourg will bring him at least 800,000 livres in revenue next year!
He will become the top rich man in France!
And it all started from the moment he decided to invest and build a factory in Nancy Industrial Development Zone.
He always told people that it was the best decision he had ever made in his life.
Not far away, his old rival Mr. Gregor came over and bowed to him.
"You said, the war will not spread here." Mr. Gregor stopped and looked at the ironworks he invested on the other side, and said with some worry, "I invested most of my wealth in Luxembourg. "
Viscount Olivier smiled: "You should have heard that the government has started building a wooden track from Luxembourg to Verdun.
"The government will not make such a large investment if it is not certain."
"You're right. Oh, Mr. Gregor is here too." The general manager of the Wilhauri Steel Plant appeared out of nowhere, saluted the two of them, and continued, "And I heard that this The second thing to build is not wooden tracks, but iron tracks.โ
"God, how much will that cost?!" Viscount Olivier was halfway through speaking when he suddenly paused. Yes, this is Luxembourg. There is nothing else, but there is as much iron as you need. The price won't be too expensive.
His eyes immediately lit up. If the government wanted to build iron tracks, it would definitely purchase large quantities of iron ingots from its own ironworks!
Or, he should mortgage his property in Nancy and take out loans to expand more iron-making blast furnaces in Luxembourg...
That's exactly what Joseph's plan was trying to accomplish.
Using Luxembourg's low-priced iron, we will launch a trial production of rails, train track-laying craftsmen, and at the same time significantly increase the sales of iron smelting plants, thereby further reducing their costs.
