Chapter 1097: Real crisis

With repeated threats and the cabinet government's full guarantee, the British Parliament finally passed a bill to increase military spending with a small majority.
The budget of 70 million pounds was cut to 65.81 million. This is considered good, and it is common for the budget to be cut in half in Parliament.
Perhaps they felt the threat of Shinra, and the members were stimulated by reality. When everyone waved their sickles, they showed mercy.
In spite of this, the various processes went down, and after the Navy completed the tender to determine the shipyard, the time came to May.
Before Campbell breathed a sigh of relief, new bad news came. The number of docks of more than 20,000 tons is insufficient to start construction of so many super battleships at once.
"What? At this time, you told me that there are not enough docks to meet the requirements?"
Prime Minister Campbell growled.
It doesn't work if you don't get angry. The super battleship can move more than 20,000 tons. Such a big man cannot be placed on the berth at all. The construction must be carried out in the dock.
But docks are not Chinese cabbage, especially docks of more than 20,000 tons, which are even rarer.
From the original time and space until the outbreak of World War I, I never heard of anyone starting a dozen or so dreadnought ships at one time. It's not that everyone didn't want it, mainly because the hardware conditions were not met.
Even in World War II, only the Americans were able to start the construction of a dozen large warships at the same time.
Facing the Prime Minister’s question, Secretary of the Navy Swinding replied sadly: "It is a pity, Prime Minister.
Although I don't want to believe that the empire will have insufficient capacity, this is the reality. The birth time of the Dreadnought is too short, and we have no time to build more large docks. "
Although the shipbuilding industry in Britain has developed rapidly in recent years, merchant ships exceeding 20,000 tons are still rare.
It's not that there is no technology, but the market demand is not big. Although in theory, the larger the tonnage of a merchant ship, the lower the unit transportation cost, but that is only theoretical.
Now that we have just entered the early 20th century, overseas trade is far less developed than later generations. What should we do with a merchant ship of more than 20,000 tons?
Now there are only a few commodities that need to be transported by shipping: agricultural products, cotton textiles, petroleum, ore, and steel.
Although it is a bulk commodity, the demand for large merchant ships is actually still not large.
Taking cotton textiles as an example, who would dare to put tens of thousands of tons of goods into the same market at once?
Even if there are large merchant ships, they can only fight for orders. This list is not easy to put together, it is impossible to have so many orders, just in time for delivery.
Moreover, not all orders can be put together. Many commodities still have rigid requirements for transportation conditions.
For transportation companies, it is more economical to use a 10,000-ton merchant ship rather than often dissatisfied with the use of a 30,000-50,000-ton merchant ship.
The same is true for steel. Most countries purchase up to 8,000 tons a year, while countries that consume hundreds of thousands of tons or millions of tons can basically produce themselves.
Even if there is an order, it is usually purchased in batches according to the actual situation. After all, steel is going to rust, and if you buy too much at one time, you may fall into your own hands.
The ore is not much better. The bulk is the bulk. The problem is that the demand in various countries is small!
In the era of free trade, for many countries, it is more economical to purchase finished products directly on the market instead of purchasing ore for refining.
This is also true for Britain. Except for the high demand for steel and the need to build a local factory for refining, all other rare metals are bought directly.
Different from later generations, even "aluminum" is a rare metal these days, and Britain consumes 8,000 tons at most every year, so you can still do it yourself.
From the original time and space until 1913, Britain's aluminum production was only more than 7,000 tons. Large-scale industrial production happened in the middle and late twentieth century.
Other rare metals, not to mention. Many of them only exist in laboratories, and there is no industrial application at all.
The market demand is too small to accommodate too many companies. Capital is profit-seeking, and naturally no one will do business that loses money.
The oil that will be consumed the most in later generations, and now only more than 30 million tons of oil is extracted a year, most of which are produced and sold in Shenra.
Even if a large oil tanker is needed, this kind of business is internally digested, and the order is impossible to fall into the hands of the British shipyard.
The same is true for agricultural products. The Shinra family dominates, and transportation is handled by itself. There is no opportunity for British shipyards to intervene.
The only markets are other people’s dishes. Without sufficient market orders, British shipbuilding companies will naturally not build a pile of large docks.
If it is not for the purpose of proving its strength to the outside world, it is necessary to have the ability to build large-scale commercial ships. With the ethics of capitalists, it is estimated that the few large docks will not necessarily appear.
Prime Minister Campbell scolded angrily: "I don't want to hear any explanation. The problem now is that we need to build warships, but the production capacity cannot meet the demand.
Isn't your Admiralty all eating idle food? Why didn't you report such a big problem in advance?
Now there is a problem, how do you plan to end, the enemy will not give us so much time to prepare! "
Regardless of how many reasons there are, the Admiralty cannot shirk the blame for this situation.
"I don't know the enemy will be so crazy, so many dumplings are laid at once."
Such reasons can be used to shirk responsibility, but they cannot solve practical problems.
Swinding explained very embarrassingly: "We have already taken countermeasures. As early as three months ago, the shipyard had already started working overtime to build a new large dock.
In view of the current situation, we have revised the design of some warships.
At the cost of sacrificing part of the performance, the displacement was successfully compressed, so that the 20,000-ton dock can also meet the demand.
Although there are more large docks in the Holy Roman Empire, there are only six docks over 25,000 tons, and three of them are already in use.
From this speculation, the enemy has built no more than three dreadnought ships over 25,000 tons, which happens to be the same as ours.
The rest are the generation of dreadnought ships, even if our displacement is smaller, the combat effectiveness will not be much weaker than them. "
Notifying the shipyard in advance to build a large dock naturally does not exist. If the Admiralty responded so quickly, the problem would have been thrown out long ago.
But the foresighted capitalists did start ahead of schedule. To a certain extent, this can be regarded as a political rescue of the Admiralty.
As long as the capitalists admit that the construction of a large shipyard is related to the Admiralty, it proves that the Admiralty has taken strong response measures in time, and the matter is over.
I don’t know if there is any profit transportation behind this. Anyway, the shipyards that built large docks in advance have received orders from the Admiralty.
These are all minor problems. Everyone is a grasshopper on a rope, political allies, and there is no need to get into trouble at this time.
In the past, everyone didn't feel that, anyway, the British Empire can produce any technology, it is nothing more than a first step and a second step.
Now that the true meaning is about to match, everyone suddenly realizes that the matter is big. The Royal Navy has an advantage, but the overall industrial level of the British Empire cannot keep up!
The production cost is high and there is no price-performance ratio, and the troublesome production capacity can't keep up.
All the people present are playing politics and are pushed up, and they don't know much about the details of industry.
No one can imagine that the window paper is not pierced. Now I have been pierced through the blind zone of thinking, and many of the problems that are usually ignored have suddenly flooded into everyone's minds.
They are all elites of the times, and naturally they would not naively think that Britain’s current problem is the lack of large docks.
With a little thought, everyone knows that the British industrial system has a big problem.
The world is so delicate. In order to better plunder the wealth of various countries, Britain has personally created a free trade system.
Wealth is indeed plundered. In the past years, British capital has made a lot of money, but the sequelae have become so "billion points".
There is no feeling in the free trade system. This has just become independent, and the British industrial system has a big problem.
The number of large docks is not enough. If the production capacity of supporting enterprises for warships is sure to meet the demand?
Don't forget, these guys were still these guys not long ago, crying and crying to withdraw from the free trade system and implement tariff barriers to protect the market.
If it's normal times, slower will be slower. If you can support your own industry, you won't lose a little time.
Now it's different, the two sides are competing for speed. Britain’s shipbuilding plan has fallen behind, and if something goes wrong again, it will be over.
Prime Minister Campbell, who was shocked in a cold sweat, hurriedly ordered: "Order the major shipyards to purchase relevant spare parts immediately.
The speed must be fast, and we must stock up enough spare parts before the Vienna government reacts. "
I was in a hurry to go to the doctor, maybe! But Campbell can't afford to bet that the current situation is not easy for the British government to make major decision-making mistakes.
Insufficient domestic production capacity, but also insufficient production capacity of some spare parts. Even if the production capacity is insufficient, there are many alternatives, which do not necessarily need to be purchased from the Holy Roman Empire.
But the time that belongs to the British government is limited, and there is no time for careful selection. In case a certain part happens to be out of stock and no substitute can be found, it would be a tragedy.
Who makes the Shinra family the only one with the most complete industrial system these years?
Britain originally had a complete industrial system, but unfortunately it did not keep up in the second industrial revolution and took a breath at a critical moment.
This break immediately left the team. Many industries have been shattered by the impact of new technologies. Capitalists have turned around to play finance, and fewer and fewer people are willing to invest in physical industries.
Of course, the American industrial system is quite complete. It's just a few times behind technically, and we can only copy products without technical content.
If you really expect to obtain spare parts from the Americans, it would be more reliable to wait for your own company to explode in production capacity.
By this time, everyone has already understood why the Vienna government suddenly changed its style and suddenly became aggressive.
Such a big daybreak was shiningly placed under the enemy's eyelids. If you don't take the opportunity to get into trouble, will you have to wait for Britain to get out of the trough before you start?
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