The war in South Africa was over, but the Vienna government, as the victorious side, could not rejoice. Reality has once again proved that it is no longer possible to make up for the losses by relying on war reparations in the present war.

Through the armistice treaty, the Vienna government received 3 million land ransoms, plus the ransom of the prisoners, a total of 6,126,800 pounds, equivalent to 12,253,600 Aegis.

It seems that this is a huge amount of money, but compared to the war expenditure, it is a drop in the bucket, and even a quarter of the cost has not been recovered.

This is still based on the fact that the French are secretly contributing, otherwise the price to pay will be even greater.

The spoils of war are a wild land. Because of the war, not even a few indigenous tribes could be found in the land acquired from British South Africa, let alone immigrants.

If it had not been for the strategic opening of South Africa's access to the sea, the reduction of British power in a corner, and the security of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, it would have been a complete loss.

The war is won, no matter what the losses are, meritorious deeds are indispensable.

However, after all, it was fought against the vest of the Boer Republic, and the settlement of the later war achievements had to go around in a circle, and the settlement would be carried out after Austria annexed these regions.

Originally, the magnates within the Boer Republic, except for a few smart people who made the right choice, the rest were all unknown in this round of reshuffle.

This is the difference in size, in the original Boer Republic, with a few hundred workers, were the first big capitalists, in Austria this is the scale of the township enterprises.

With the invasion of the British, their capital to negotiate terms disappeared. The pit was dug by themselves, and the armaments were deserted, and the British had to turn to Austria for the invasion.

It was thought that Austria would have to rely on them, but they guessed the beginning, not the end.

The British were not as strong as they had thought, which made Austria less dependent on them. Smart people adjust their mentality in time and immediately take refuge in the past, so naturally there will be no loss.

It is a tragedy if the response is one step slower, the economic losses are aside, and the political discourse is also weakened. Relations that were originally in the government of the Boer Republic have now been shattered.

The reality is so cruel, how can people loyal to Austria be promoted to the top without a shuffle of power?

These nobles who brought their own dry food to fight the war are not without interest appeals, and obviously want to get a share of the pie in the reorganization of power.

Even if the foundation is not here, it will not stay and develop, it is still possible to arrange a family child to come over and develop. Tree branches, this is the way of survival of the old nobles.

These new interest groups were the basis for the future Austrian rule over South Africa. The original interest group, then we can only say sorry, who let them misjudge?

With the signing of the Treaty of Cape Town, the greatest obstacle to the establishment of the British, French and Austrian Triple Alliance no longer existed. On July 1, 1871, the British, French and Austrian representatives signed an alliance treaty at the Palace of Versailles, and the era of great power hegemony ushered in.

For various reasons, the treaty lasted only five years. It can be seen that the three countries have insufficient confidence in this alliance, which can only be regarded as an attempt.

Whether to continue to renew the contract after five years depends on whether everyone can get more benefits in these five years. This is the reality between countries, and the only thing that can protect this alliance is interests.

Even so, the European world was in an uproar, and this contradictory alliance still frightened many people.

For the small countries that originally relied on the contradictions of the great powers to survive, life became more and more difficult, and the dismantling of this alliance became the common goal of countless European countries.

At the Vienna Palace, Franz is holding a cabinet meeting to discuss plans for Africa's rail network.

Prime Minister Felix proposed: "Your Majesty, the African rail network project should be postponed due to the cost of operation. At present, we only need to complete the two strategic railways in the east and west and southwest China.

Blindly building a railway network will place a heavy burden on the finances. In our local railway network, for example, despite many preferential policies from the government, many railway companies have gone bankrupt as a result.

Affected by this, the capital market is no longer keen on railway investment. Today, there are not many profitable railway companies in China.

If the African rail network project were to be launched, it would be almost impossible to rely on financing from the capital market, and the burden would fall entirely on the government.

This huge rail project has exceeded our financial limits, and we may not be able to break even in a hundred years. ”

The thing about the bankruptcy of the railway company, this is Franz's pot. In order to popularize the railway network in Austria as soon as possible, he used the means of Internet development in later generations.

Launch a concept, draw a pie, and attract capital to enter. The railway network is a separate existence, and it is naturally a monopoly operation, as long as it passes the early investment stage, it is really not difficult to make a profit later.

This pie is much more conscientious than the concept of the post-fiction, and it is not impossible to achieve this goal. It's just that the early investment is relatively large, and the later profit time is relatively long.

This does not depend on the power of capital, and Austria has built a railway network in the shortest possible time. As for the railway companies that fell halfway, they all had a common feature - the capital chain was broken.

This is all due to his own mismanagement, and it is definitely not for the government to take over, Franz did it deliberately.

Investment is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market. In a capitalist market economy, the economic crisis is not taken into account, and that is its own responsibility.

Don't say this explanation, Franz never stood in the foreground, advocating that railway investment is an expert, and it is the capitalists who bankrupt the operation of the railway company, and has nothing to do with the emperor.

The surviving railway companies can prove that as long as the head does not twitch and carefully chooses high-quality railway lines, even if they bundle branch lines, they can make a profit.

Of course, the premise is that you have enough money to survive the long investment period, and the rate of return in the later period is still relatively considerable.

Don't compare profits to stock prices, those things are all bubbles, and no company's profits can catch up with the increase in stock prices.

At its peak, the total market value of Austria's railway companies once exceeded the myth of 20 billion Aegis. Is Austria's railway network worth 20 billion Aegis?

There is no doubt that this is impossible. The 20 billion Aegis in this era is an astronomical amount, and the gold that has been developed in the world is not enough.

With so much money, not to mention the local rail network, even if it is to lay a rail network for inhabited areas of the world, it is almost enough.

You must know that the Austrian railway network together is calculated comprehensively, and the annual profit is less than 100 million Aegis, to be exact, the net profit of 5 million Aegis is less.

Of course, there is still a lot of room for growth, and the railway companies that have not continued to build have stabilized have basically maintained a growth rate of more than 30% in their annual profits.

It's not that their profits are growing fast, it's just that the base is too low, and the growth is naturally rapid. A one-point increase in freight traffic could increase the railroad company's profits by four or five points.

It is not a problem of high or low freight, it is completely a lack of business, which leads to the loss of many railway lines. The increase in business volume has turned many branches into profits, and in the case of insufficient total profits, it looks very impressive.

In the case of the Draco Railway Company, the profit in 1869 was 12,000 Aegis, and in 1870 the total profit was 1,386,000 Aegis, which on the surface seems to have increased more than 100 times, but in fact, the annual business volume has increased by 5 points.

This seemingly explosive growth is still insignificant in reality. You must know that the net assets of Draco Railway Company are 130 million Aegis, and the market value is as high as 530 million Aegis, and the market value once reached 1.68 billion Aegis at its peak.

Otherwise, the growth rate is fast, and this market-win rate cannot be seen at all. It is simply impossible to expect profits to recover the cost of investment without ten or twenty years.

The same means can only be played once, and the capitalists are not stupid. To fool people with the African railway network, someone must believe it?

Counting on small private retail investors, it's a pity that these Filipino vegetables haven't grown up yet, and they can't cut much if they want to. Unless the financial management law is relaxed, allowing small capital to enter the market.

Obviously, this is impossible, and if this happens, in the event of a stock market crash, the impact will be widespread.

Life is not easy in this era, ordinary people work hard every day to survive, and these people do not have any ability to resist risks. If you really get into the pit, isn't this sending cannon fodder to the revolutionary party?

Digging into the corners of one's own wall, that is something that can never be done. As for the construction of the African railway network, it would be better to be later.

Why is the development of the colony so good, it is enough to be able to provide industrial raw materials and markets. Even if it is going to be a big development, it will have to wait until it is localized.

Franz nodded and said, "The construction of the African railway network is indeed too expensive. Now these two railways must be re-planned.

We already have some railways in Africa, and we can't waste that. The Southwestern Railway could consider docking directly in the Congo region, and the East-West Railway could also dock halfway through the Southwestern Railway.

In this way, the strategic goal can also be achieved, perhaps in the long run, such a plan is a bit far away, but in the short term, the investment can be compressed to a minimum. ”

This is not France's short-sightedness, on the contrary, it is still meaningful. Through this railway, the resources of Africa's interior can be transported out and shipped back from the nearest outlet to the sea.

The strategic goal has been achieved, and as for the fact that the railway is not the shortest route, it increases the cost of integrating resources throughout Africa, which is meant to be a means of counterbalancing the colonies.

You don't see that the British also built a bunch of messy railways in India, and in the 21st century, the Indians have not smoothed it out, which is a means of balancing the colonies.

Franz was already restrained, at least not unifying the track standards. No, it's not a completely uniform standard, and some railways that specialize in transporting minerals may also be narrow-gauge railways.

It is loaded on the ship when it arrives at the port, and does not need to be connected with the main railway road. At least in the mines not far from the coast, such railways will be built.

Otherwise, taking advantage of local resources, after ten or twenty years of preparation, a perfect industrial system has also appeared in Austrian Africa, and if it does not have time to complete localization, it will be a big trouble.

The homeland could not suppress the colony, and Franz did not want to move the capital to the African continent in his lifetime and run away to become a non-emperor. Even if the strategic focus is shifted, it will not be possible to unify the African continent and establish the largest empire in the world.