Chapter 403: Industrial Great Development

As time reached 1900, Gao Da intended to completely remove the shackles on Spain's industrial development.

In this era, there are many factors that measure a country's strength, and industry is absolutely an extremely important link. And when measuring whether a country's industry is strong or not, people often refer to the country's total steel production.

The reason is also very simple: the higher the total steel production, the greater the country's demand for steel. What uses steel is either large-scale projects like railways or urban infrastructure, or it is machinery manufacturing and other heavy industrial enterprises.

Under these circumstances, the logic that the higher the steel production, the stronger the country's industry, holds true.

In 1895, Spain's steel production was still behind Britain, the United States, and Germany, making it the world's fourth-largest steel producer.

At that time, the steel production of both France and Russia was less than 900, 00 tons, while Spain's annual steel production reached an exaggerated 967, 00 tons, establishing its status as a super power in one fell swoop.

However, in the five years from 1895 to 1899, Spain's steel production was once again surpassed by France and Russia.

Currently, according to data disclosed by various countries and Spain's own statistics, Spain's annual steel production is around 1. 7 million tons.

Although it maintains steady growth every year, it is undeniable that there is still a large gap between Spain's existing steel production and industrial powers like Britain, Germany, and the United States, and it has even been surpassed by France and Russia by quite a bit.

In 1895, Spain's annual steel production was still leading France and Russia by tens of thousands of tons. But by 1900, Spain's steel production was already more than 100, 00 tons behind France and nearly 800, 00 tons behind Russia.

This is just for France and Russia, whose industries are not that strong; the steel production of the three more industrially powerful countries—Britain, the United States, and Germany—has all exceeded 5 million tons. Britain's steel production reached 5. 76 million tons, Germany's steel production reached 6. 01 million tons, and the United States' steel production reached an even more exaggerated 10. 05 million tons.

Compared with these three countries, Spain's steel production is truly somewhat pitiful. This is also the reason why Gao Da decided to throw away the shackles on Spain's industrial development and let Spain rapidly develop its industry before the First World War.

Only when the industrial scale completely catches up can Spain persist longer in the First World War and have more hope of becoming the final victor.

The good news is that although France and Russia's steel production has once again surpassed Spain's, there is no possibility for the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, which follow them, to surpass Spain's steel production.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's steel production has fallen back since 1898, and its current steel production is only around 860, 00 tons. Italy's steel production is even more pitiful, having remained at around 110, 00 tons for several consecutive years, which is just a fraction of other European countries.

Of course, this is not because the industrial scale of countries like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy is small. In fact, it is mainly because the industrial scale of countries like Britain, the United States, and Germany is too massive, which makes the industrial scale of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy look small.

One must know that the total industry of the European powers has always accounted for the vast majority of the world's total industry.

How exaggerated is it specifically? In 1871, the world's total steel production was only 850, 00 tons, and the combined steel production of the powers was as high as 830, 00 tons, accounting for as much as 97. %.

By 1900, world steel production had increased to 29. 27 million tons, and the powers' steel production was also an exaggerated 28. 7 million tons, still accounting for as high as 95. %.

It is no exaggeration to say that even Italy, the weakest industrially, is a proper industrial power compared to other non-power countries.

A certain country that was regarded as a power after the Russo-Japanese War currently has a steel production of only a pitiful 2, 00 tons, not even as much as a fraction of the European powers.

From this aspect, one can also see how large the gap is between power countries and non-power countries; even the weakest power country is still a big step ahead of the strongest non-power country.

If one only compares it with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and those non-power countries, Spain's current existing industrial scale is already completely sufficient.

It is even no exaggeration to say that Spain's current industrial scale is larger than the total industrial scale of those non-power countries combined, and in terms of national strength, it can easily crush any non-power country.

But Gao Da's goal is to recover Gibraltar and annex Portugal, which means Spain's enemy will only be Britain.

If compared with Britain, Spain's existing industrial scale is somewhat pitifully small.

Britain's steel production is a full 5. 7 million tons, and its pig iron production has reached an exaggerated 9. million tons. By contrast, Spain's steel production is only 1. 72 million tons, and its pig iron production is only 2. 26 million tons; the total steel production is only a fraction of Britain's total steel production.

Under such circumstances, if it continues to maintain a relatively gentle and steady growth, the gap between Spain and Britain will only get wider and wider, which is bad news for Gao Da.

Currently, Spain's total steel production adds up to less than 4 million tons, which is completely unable to meet the needs of a future super war.

Only by loosening the shackles of industrial development can Spain's total steel production break through to over 10 million tons before the outbreak of the First World War.

Only when the total steel production exceeds 10 million tons does Spain have the possibility of challenging Britain head-on.

In order to accelerate Spain's industrial development, Gao Da specifically summoned the current Minister of Industry, Luo Jie, and Prime Minister Anjieluo Ouerkahuo, asking them to come up with an industrial development plan to rapidly increase Spain's total industrial scale and steel production within the next five years.

Regarding Gao Da's idea of wanting to rapidly increase Spain's industrial scale, both Prime Minister Anjieluo Ouerkahuo and Minister of Industry Luo Jie were very supportive.

Since the Industrial Revolution, whether a country's industry is strong or not largely determines whether the country's comprehensive strength is strong or not.

Although industry does not represent everything, it is fundamentally unrealistic for a country that wants to become a super power to lack a strong industrial foundation of its own.

This is also the reason why it is said that there are currently only five super powers: Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Spain, and subsequently only the United States has the potential to become a super power.

For countries like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, no matter how much time is given to them, they will never be able to become a super power.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire has industry, its own ethnic composition is too chaotic, and the country cannot be united into a single rope, so naturally, it cannot possess the qualifications to become a super power.

There is no need to say much about Italy; Italy's industry has always been the biggest problem, which also destined Italy to never become a super power unless it can completely change its appearance in terms of industry.

But Italy's own mineral resources limit the development of Italy's industry; unless it can occupy a region rich in coal and iron ore outside its own territory, Italy's own industry cannot be developed.

It took less than a week for Prime Minister Anjieluo Ouerkahuo and Minister Luo Jie to come up with an industrial development plan that satisfied Gao Da.

To promote the growth of Spain's steel production, one must promote the development of heavy industry. Only when Spain's domestic demand for steel achieves growth will Spain's steel production further increase.

Demand and production are equal; if one ignores domestic demand and only focuses on producing steel, doing so will not only cause Spain's steel market to collapse but will also cause heavy losses to Spain's heavy industry.

Steel is the basic link of heavy industry, and the price of steel concerns the rational development of heavy industry.

Therefore, no matter how urgent Gao Da's mood to increase Spain's steel production is, he must prioritize the growth of domestic demand for steel in Spain.

How to stimulate the growth of domestic demand for steel in Spain?

In fact, the simplest way is to build a large number of railways.

Railways require a large amount of steel rails; as long as large-scale railway construction projects are launched, Spain's domestic demand for steel will increase by a large margin in a short period of time.

This industrial development plan mentioned the plan to promote railway construction to increase Spain's domestic demand for steel.

Although Spain's current railways are already sufficient, there is still a lot of room for construction in the vast colonies and the newly conquered Morocco region.

Furthermore, Spain's domestic railways have not reached their limit at all, and railway lines can continue to be expanded in more densely populated areas.

Because Spain builds wide-gauge railways, if it is a double-track railway, the steel required per kilometer of railway is at least over 120 tons. If it is a single-track railway, the steel required per kilometer is at least over 60 tons.

If 1, 00 kilometers of railway are built in a year, calculated at a ratio of half single-track and half double-track, the steel consumption required for rails alone would be as high as at least 90, 00 tons.

Added to the consumption of other miscellaneous parts, building 1, 00 kilometers of railway requires at least 100, 00 tons of steel.

This is also the reason why Germany and the United States built a large number of railways while their industries were also developing rapidly at the same time. The more railways are built, the faster the heavy industry, which is dominated by the steel industry, develops.

The faster heavy industry develops, the greater the industrial development and economic improvement it drives will naturally be.