Greece to roman road

Chapter 248 Thessaloniki and New Steel Technology

Since the fiefdoms were inland, no matter what kind of crops were grown on these lands, there was no point in being inaccessible.

Therefore, Emmanuel complained about the poor road conditions in Macedonia, and the enthusiasm of the people was slightly reduced.

Constantine secretly thought that Emmanuel was cunning. On the surface, he was approving of him and encouraging everyone to actively develop the Macedonian fiefdom, but in fact, he was reminding everyone of the difficulties of real conditions.

This is a reminder of what others bargained for with Constantine.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, as the Chief of General Staff said, the roads in Macedonia's inland areas are bad. Even if we invest a lot of money to develop our territory, there is no way to transport a large amount of agricultural products from agricultural cooperatives." Manougiana Ski said.

"Also, almost all of us are officers in the army. Your Highness, Macedonia is now a disputed area between Bulgaria and Greece. Serbia's attitude is also unclear. The armies of the two countries are frequently mobilized on the border. Now everyone is investing in the Macedonian region. It’s not too risky.”

The threat of war mentioned by Manugianaski made the faces of the middle nobles present change. Just as he said, the Macedonian region is a disputed area and the risk is very high.

Constantine took a sip of tea from the cup, moistened his throat, and said calmly: "Everyone, you don't have to worry about the risks of war. There is no point in worrying. First of all, one thing is clear. For those of us, If Greece really loses Macedonia in the war, the so-called investment in Macedonia will no longer have anything to do with us, and it will not be our turn to discuss it."

The nobles present naturally understood what Constantine meant.

Once Greece is defeated in the next war with Bulgaria to compete for Macedonia and determine its hegemony in the Balkans, the powerful military nobles in the Greek army, including the royal family, will probably become the targets of rejection by the Greek people.

The aristocratic class that relies on the military to obtain privileges will naturally lose their greatest reliance once the war fails and will be completely liquidated.

Because the current aristocracy in Greece is the result of the royal family's efforts in Greece with the help of the prestige gained after winning two wars.

As for the Greek royal family itself, I am afraid they will return to Denmark in despair.

Although in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, there was only an orphan republic like France in the entire European continent (Switzerland was too small and had a negligible impact on the situation in Europe, so I will not discuss it). All other European countries were monarchies.

However, democratic ideas have been widely spread. Once the country is in turmoil, democrats can easily gain the trust of the people and take over the state power.

Constantine pointed this out to tell everyone that the interests of the aristocracy were the same.

"Of course, this is just the worst-case scenario. We senior Greek officers should always have full confidence in the strength of the Greek army and not think that Greece will lose to Bulgaria," Constantine said to everyone in a joking tone. .

"Of course, our operations in Macedonia will naturally be carried out while ensuring safety."

"As for the road problem, railways must be built in Macedonia, such as Thessaloniki to Skopje (the capital of North Macedonia). As long as the railway is built, Macedonia's traffic problems will be greatly improved."

In order to increase everyone's enthusiasm, Constantine announced another news to everyone.

"There is another news to tell you. Since the industrial area in Athens is small and cannot accommodate a large industrial area, Prime Minister Venizelos and I have discussed the idea of ​​encouraging companies to invest and build factories in Thessaloniki." Constantine said to everyone.

"ah"

"It seems that the government also has plans to strengthen the development of Macedonia."

The news about Constantine was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, causing everyone to talk about it.

The city of Athens is surrounded by numerous hills, the terrain is narrow, and the plain area is limited. Moreover, because Athens is located in the southernmost part of Greece, limited by its geographical location, it is not suitable as a capital in terms of transportation and cannot radiate well across the country.

In addition to the advantage of convenient shipping, Athens has almost no other convenient conditions for industrial development.

These characteristics have restricted the development of industry in Athens and are not suitable for the establishment of large-scale industrial zones.

It is precisely because of these objective conditions that the development speed of the industrial area near the Port of Piraeus has been limited in recent years.

Compared with Athens, Thessaloniki is surrounded by a plain and has convenient transportation. It is a transportation hub in the Balkans and an important port in the Aegean Sea.

Geographically, Thessaloniki is closer to the interior of the Balkans and approximately equidistant from Thrace, North Macedonia, southern Greece and other regions.

Combining these characteristics, Thessaloniki is more suitable as a location for Greece’s industrial areas.

In order to enhance his persuasiveness to everyone, Constantine turned around and nodded to Scaloy behind him.

After receiving the instruction, Skarloi quickly walked up to everyone and said to everyone: "The Greek Steel Plant will build a new steel plant in Thessaloniki."

"In the steel plant built in Thessaloniki, we will use the latest steelmaking technology, electric furnace steelmaking."

"The biggest advantage of using this technology to make steel is that it can use electricity as the energy source for steelmaking instead of coal."

When Emmanuel heard the news, he asked with great concern: "Mr. Scaloy, I want to know, was this steelmaking technology invented by your company?"

"It was a technology invented by the Frenchman Holt in 1899," Skarloy said.

Hearing this, Emmanuel frowned and said: "If this technology is really advanced, why don't the French use it?"

There is no doubt that Emmanuel is suspicious. The current steelmaking technologies in various countries around the world are actually similar. They mainly use the open-hearth steelmaking method to produce steel. As for the electric furnace steelmaking development mentioned by Scaloy, No one has heard of it at all.

For major industrial products like steel, if a new production technology were to come out, the media in various countries would have publicized it and everyone would know about it, and it would not remain unknown.

Emmanuel has good reasons to care about the production of steel plants.

The Greek Steel Factory is the largest arms manufacturer in Greece. The rifles and artillery used by the Greek army are all produced using steel from the steel factory.

"Your Excellency, Chief of General Staff, Holt's invention of the electric furnace steelmaking method has not attracted the attention of the steel industry. There are many reasons, including two main points," Skarloi said confidently.

"First of all, the raw material for electric furnace steelmaking is scrap steel, not iron ore. In other words, electric furnace steelmaking is completely different from the open-hearth steelmaking method that is the mainstream in the steel industry today."

"If major steel companies use new technologies, then the steel plants they spent huge sums of money to build will no longer be used."

"Secondly, using this method, the source of raw materials is inconvenient, and scrap steel is different from iron ore."

"There is also the issue of efficiency. At present, electric furnace steelmaking consumes a lot of energy and is not as economical as directly using coal to make steel. This technology still needs to continue to be improved."

"Almost all major countries in the world have abundant coal resources. There is no need to go to any lengths to convert coal into electricity and then use it to make steel."

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