As the capital of the United Kingdom, London has been at the forefront of the world since the first industrial revolution.

It has too many halos, such as: the world's largest city, the most prosperous city, and the world's political center, financial center, commercial center, industrial center......

Overnight, it seemed to be a small country place, and this sudden transformation was unbearable for the arrogant people of London.

In this era they have arrogant capital, as the British newspaper describes:

The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields;

Austria is our breadbasket;

Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest farms;

Australia Argentina is our ranch;

Peru and Mexico shipped its silver;

The Far East grows tea for us;

And our coffee, sugar cane and spice plantations are spread across the Indies;

Spain and France are our vineyards;

The Mediterranean is our orchard;

The Confederate States of America is our cotton field;

……

Therefore, all places outside London are countryside, and all areas outside the British Isles are backward areas, and only the British can undertake the sacred mission of leading human progress.

Under this perception, the emergence of Vienna's city that never sleeps has an impact on the people of London.

The pressure of public opinion poured over the new government, and the Benjamin Disraeli government only felt the pressure.

Now they are very envious of the John Russell Cabinet, which has stepped down, and do not look at them as early resignations, in fact, the John Russell Cabinet is only two months away, and the two terms of office are complete.

At the end of their tenure, they faced an economic crisis, and they certainly won't be sweeping the tail end for their rivals. The early resignation of the John Russell cabinet puts all the blame on the next administration.

Originally in the economy, Benjamin Disraeli's cabinet had a hard time. Internationally, the struggle for the Spanish throne and the Polish throne have all involved everyone's nerves.

Now another city that never sleeps has popped up, giving Prime Minister Benjamin even more headaches. Electric lights are not high-tech, they have been using them for a long time, but it is not easy to spread them all over the city.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli asked: "My Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the budget out?" ”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Molitto replied solemnly: "The preliminary estimate is that at least £75 million will be needed to popularize electric lighting in London, and 440 million pounds will be needed to popularize electric lighting in the British Isles.

This is only the investment in equipment, and the investment in electricity costs will be more in the future. For London's street lighting system alone, we need 150,000 generators, and we need at least 300,000 people to provide logistical support for it. ”

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli interrupted with a wave of his hand: "Stop, just tell me directly, London can't popularize electrical equipment." But why were the Austrians able to do it?

Even though Vienna is much smaller than London, it is a metropolis with a population of more than a million. I don't believe that the Vienna government would go out of its way to save face. ”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Molito explained: "It is said that the Austrians used high-power power generation equipment to ensure Vienna's lighting system, and only 200 generators were needed.

This high-power generator reduces the cost of generating electricity by 80 percent, and requires a lot less maintenance personnel, requiring only about three or four thousand workers to maintain the network.

In fact, Vienna's lighting system is the masterpiece of the Austrian renewable energy power company, and it is said that there is also a royal investment.

The City of Vienna only needs to pay for electricity, which costs around £100,000 a month to access the network, which is worth more than £7 million. ”

Molitor also had a headache, and the Briton Power Company was very salty, but he was only keen to supply electricity to the rich, and had no interest in building a city-wide lighting system.

If it weren't for reading the newspapers, he wouldn't have known that the revolution in generator technology had already taken place. If you just build a street lighting system, then gritting your teeth will be over.

Obviously, this is not possible. The citizens of London need more intimate home delivery services, which requires a much higher investment.

A simple electricity bill of 100,000 pounds is obviously not enough to support the Austrian new energy power company, even if it enjoys tax exemption, this is still far from enough.

Now it is just for the sake of staking land, directly financing the construction of a complete power supply network, which means a monopoly on Vienna's power supply.

There is no industry in Vienna, and the ultimate profit point of the power company is still residential electricity and commercial electricity, and these high-quality customers are long-term cash cows.

Compared to the previous 8 shillings per kilowatt-hour, the electricity bill in Vienna has now been reduced to 1.5 shillings, which is the advantage of the power supply network, which greatly reduces the loss of electricity during transmission.

There is no doubt that this price is a huge profit, but if the new technology wants to be promoted, it still needs to be born by huge profits.

If we want to further reduce the price of electricity, we must wait for the full availability of electricity. Otherwise, who will pay for this power supply network?

The Vienna government could not afford to pay for it, and once the government financed it was not a city issue, but a nationwide access, which was at the heart of the equity system.

Everyone is a taxpayer, why should we supply electricity to the big cities first?

If the central government does not invest, who will bear the upfront investment of the local government?

Is it a loan? If we do that, I am afraid that it will not be long before the local governments in Austria will go bankrupt en masse.

Counting on the bureaucracy to control costs is a dream. It is better to leave it to the free development of enterprises first, and then go back to the issue of popularization after the further development of science and technology.

The British also encountered the same problem, the central government did not allocate funds, the city of London simply could not afford it, and the people in other areas did not agree to the grants.

You don't have to wait for the people to make trouble, and the Congress will not be able to pass that hurdle. The capital already occupies a lot of resources, and the central government's fiscal tilt will exacerbate the contradictions and conflicts, and in serious cases, it may lead to the division of the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rubbed his forehead and said helplessly: "Then leave this problem to the City of London!" The Austrian government has not allocated funds, so what qualifications do they have to ask us for funding?

As for what they do, that's their own business. It is unacceptable that the municipal government cannot fulfill its responsibility for the construction of the local government and put its own responsibility on the central government. ”

Kicking the ball, this is the most common tactic used by politicians. If it weren't for the pressure of public opinion outside, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli would not have paid attention.

When the Cabinet intervened in this matter, it only showed that it took it seriously, but it did not mean that it was going to intervene.

If the investment is small, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is still happy to brush up on a wave of political achievements to make the British Isles shine.

Now that the investment is so big, forget it! If this big project is launched blindly, Britain's fiscal revenue may not be enough to fill this hole.

……

In Paris, the tragic city government of Paris was once again surrounded by marchers, which is enough to prove that the Parisian people know the rules.

It is the responsibility of the municipal government to transform the city's infrastructure, and the central government cannot afford to pay for it.

Including Napoleon III's renovation of Paris, the funds were mainly borne by the city of Paris, rather than dumped to the French central government.

The French are very well divided in this regard, and the accounts are always separated. Local governments also have their own revenues, not all of which are allocated by the central government.

For example, the salaries of employees in the city government and the operating expenses of each government agency are borne by the local government.

Otherwise, the fiscal revenue of the central government of various countries in this era will not be enough to maintain the operation of the government.

Of course, some European countries are still directly administered by the central government, but they are all small countries, with small land areas and small populations, and do not need so many institutions.

If the local government cannot afford the administrative costs, the central government may still subsidize it, for example, the Austrian government has subsidized the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, otherwise the poor province would not even be able to pay the salaries of civil servants.

There are exceptions, such as the United States. That's the states playing with their own states, they have the money to spend themselves, and if they don't have the money, they don't want to count on the central government anyway.

Looking at the crowd protesting and marching outside, the mayor of Paris, Balco, was heartbroken. You must know that the reconstruction project of Paris has already saddled the Paris government with a huge amount of debt, and they are almost out of breath.

To put it lightly, improving public infrastructure will help develop the economy and get out of the economic crisis.

Actually, it's all about money. What to invest with no money? Napoleon III ordered the rebuilding of Paris, and it was not the city of Paris that was paying for it.

The high debt also has to be repaid, and in order to increase fiscal revenue, the Paris city government has raised taxes several times.

This tax cannot be counted on the general public, they themselves have a lot of money, and they can't loot much, and the lion's share still falls on the business.

Napoleon III encouraged the development of industry, so the financial capitalists bore most of the taxes. Frankly, this tax distribution model is reasonable.

The financial sector was more profitable than the manufacturing sector, and there was nothing wrong with high profits bearing high taxes, so this period was a golden period for French industrial development.

There are also quite a few power companies in France, but unfortunately they are not on a large scale. Usually a power company has only a few hundred customers, and it is a large company that can have thousands of customers.

After interviewing the power companies, Mayor Balco simply gave up the task of putting them on the task of building the electricity supply system in Paris.

If you don't have the strength to say anything, it's nonsense, you have neither money nor technology, who dares to let them do it?

There are many capitalists who are interested in taking on this important task, but the appetite of these predators is too great, which directly makes Balco daunted.

For example, the financial tycoon Rothschild is interested in investing, not only asking for free, but also asking the Paris government to cover half of the construction cost free of charge.

It is better to bear half of the construction cost free of charge, and it is better to directly state it. Obviously, the capitalists are aware of the pressure of public opinion and want to extract the maximum benefit from it.

As a beacon of the free world, how can it not be lit? The attitude of the Parisian people speaks for itself.

Franz estimated that he could never have dreamed that investing in the construction of the Vienna power system would bring so much trouble to Britain and France.

Even if he knew, it was useless, he couldn't help. The popularization of electricity in this era is still a bit ahead of its time. It is the best time to wait for the generator technology to go further and the copper smelting technology to a higher level.

Now the cost of promotion is too high, and it is okay to promote it in a special city like Vienna, and it is lucky to lose money if you change to other cities.

1.5 shillings per kilowatt-hour of electricity can be afforded by 10 percent of the population in Austria, and the same is almost the same in Britain and France.

Vienna is a special situation in that it is not an industrial city, and its pillar industries are all relatively high-income industries. People have higher incomes and most people can afford electricity.

And other cities are not good, Europe is different from the East, not the rich are in the cities, a large part of the local tyrants and nobles are in the surrounding estates of the city.

These high-quality customers are scattered, which directly increases the cost of universal access to electricity. Most of these nobles have long been using electricity, and they have their own small generators.

Of course, if the power company is willing to supply electricity, they will not refuse. After all, the small generators of this era are just small in power, and the size is not small at all, which is very inconvenient to use.

However, the cost per kilowatt-hour will continue to rise. In most cities, due to the insufficient number of users, or the lack of concentration, the final power supply cost will increase significantly.

This is also the reason why after supplying power to Vienna, the Austrian new energy power company stopped and deeply cultivated the Vienna market, without blindly expanding.

For the revolution in power technology, it is enough to have Vienna as a benchmark. It is not too late to wait for another three or five years to promote it nationwide.

In this era of rapid change, new technologies are advancing almost daily, and from 1866 to the present day, there are more than 300 new patents in the field of electricity in Austria.

Franz didn't know that there were so many specialized technologies involved in electricity. You must know that this was the 19th century, and the use of electricity was still in its infancy.

Now the biggest effect is lighting, mechanical equipment driven by electricity, still in theory, to become the main energy source for human beings, at least 30 years to become the main energy source.

Not surprisingly, after Vienna took the first step in a new era, the Paris government announced the establishment of the Paris Electric Power Company, which would make Paris light up.

A beacon of the free world, a black light is not a good thing.