Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 439
Chapter 439: Chapter 12, The Beacon of Freedom Must Be Lit
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 honors, such as being the largest city in the world, the most prosperous city, and the center of world politics, finance, commerce, industry…
Overnight, it seemed to turn into a small rural place, and this sudden change was intolerable to the proud Londoners.
They had the capital to be proud of in that era, just as the British newspapers described:
The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields;
Austria is our granary;
Canada and the Baltic Sea are our timber yards;
Australia and Argentina are our pastures;
Peru and Mexico send their silver;
The Far East grows tea for us;
Our coffee, sugarcane, and spice plantations spread across the Indonesian Archipelago;
Spain and France are our vineyards;
The Mediterranean is our orchard;
The United States of America is our cotton field;
…
Therefore, any place outside of London is the countryside, any region outside of The British Isles is backward, and the sacred mission to lead human progress is only for the British to undertake.
Under this belief, the impact of Vienna, the city that never sleeps, on Londoners can only be imagined.
The pressure from public opinion surged towards the new government, overwhelming the Benjamin Disraeli Government.
They now envied the John Russell Cabinet that had already stepped down—though they resigned early, the John Russell Cabinet was only two months short of completing two full terms.
When their term ended amidst an economic crisis, of course, they wouldn’t clean up for their competitors. The early resignation of the John Russell Cabinet put all the responsibility on the incoming government.
Economically speaking, the days for Benjamin Disraeli’s Cabinet were already tough. Internationally, the disputes over the Spanish and Polish thrones touched everyone’s nerves.
Now, a City that Never Sleeps emerged, causing even more headaches for Prime Minister Benjamin. Electric lights weren’t considered high technology; they had been using them for a while, but it wasn’t easy to generalize them throughout the city.
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli asked, “My Finance Minister, is the budget ready?”
Finance Minister Morlito answered with due seriousness, “The preliminary estimate is that spreading electric lights in London will require an investment of at least 75 million British Pounds, and to spread electric lights across The British Isles will need 440 million British Pounds. Considering the actual situation, the investment might even be greater.
That’s just the equipment investment; future electricity cost investments will be even more. Just for London’s street lighting system, we would need 150,000 generators and at least 300,000 people to provide logistical support for this.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli cut him off with a wave of his hand, “Stop there. Just tell me that London cannot generalize the electric power equipment. But, how are the Austrians able to do it?
Even if Vienna is much smaller than London, it’s still a metropolis with a population over a million. I don’t believe the Vienna Government would invest everything just for the sake of appearances.”
Finance Minister Morlito explained, “Apparently, the Austrians used high-power generating equipment to ensure Vienna’s lighting system only needs about two hundred generators.
This high-power generator technology reduced the cost of electricity by eighty percent and significantly decreased the number of maintenance personnel needed; roughly three to four thousand workers can maintain the power network.
In fact, Vienna’s lighting system is the masterpiece of the Austrian New Energy Power Company, and reportedly, it also has investments from the Royal family.
The Vienna City Government only needs to pay the electric bill, which amounts to about 100,000 British Pounds per month to use this power network valued at over 7 million British Pounds.”
Morlito was also troubled. British power companies were lackluster, only keen on providing electricity to the wealthy and utterly uninterested in creating a city-wide lighting system.
If it weren’t for the newspapers, he wouldn’t even know that a revolution in generator technology had occurred. If it were just to establish a street lighting system, they might grit their teeth and get through it.
Clearly, that was impossible. The citizens of London needed a more thoughtful service of delivering electricity to homes, which would significantly increase the required investment.
The mere 100,000 British Pounds for the electric bill was clearly not enough to sustain the New Energy Power Company, even with the tax exemption; it was still far from sufficient.
Now they were just trying to monopolize the Vienna electric power market by directly investing to build a complete power network.
Without industries, Vienna’s electric company’s ultimate profit points would still be residential and commercial electricity use; these quality customers are the long-term cash cows.
Compared to the previous rate of 8 pence per unit, Vienna’s electric bill has been reduced to 1.5 pence, showing the advantage of the power network in greatly reducing electricity loss during transmission.
Unquestionably, this pricing was profiteering, but new technologies need to be pushed by such excessive margins.
To further lower the electricity price, they would have to wait until electricity was fully generalized. Otherwise, who would pay for this power network?
The Vienna Government certainly couldn’t afford this expense; once the government invested, it would no longer be just a city’s issue but would require nationwide generalization, which is the core of a fairness system.
Everyone is a taxpayer, so why should large cities get electricity first?
If the Central Government doesn’t invest, which local government can bear the initial investment?
Should they take out loans? If they really went ahead with that, it probably wouldn’t be long before Austria’s local governments collectively went bankrupt.
To expect the bureaucratic class to control costs is a fantasy. It’s better to let companies develop freely at first, and when technology has further developed, only then consider the issue of generalization.
The British faced the same problem—the Central Government wasn’t allocating funds, and the London City Government simply couldn’t afford it. Giving out funds would cause unrest in other areas.
No need to wait for the people to make trouble; they wouldn’t even get through Parliament. The capital already occupies a lot of resources; if the Central Government were to tilt the financial balance even more, it would exacerbate the conflicts and might even lead to the country splitting apart.
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rubbed his forehead and said with resignation, “Then let’s throw this problem to the London City Government! If the Austrian Government hasn’t allocated any funds, what right do they have to demand that we do so?”
As for how they handle it, that’s their own business. It’s unacceptable for a city government to shirk its responsibility to build local infrastructure by pushing it onto the Central Government.”
Passing the buck is the most common tactic among politicians. If it weren’t for the immense pressure from public opinion outside, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli wouldn’t even bother considering it.
The Cabinet’s involvement in this matter only indicates its importance; it doesn’t mean they will intervene.
If the investment required were small, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli would be more than willing to ride the wave of political achievements and light up the British Isles.
Now with such massive investment required, better forget it! If they were to blindly embark on this grand project, Britain’s fiscal revenue might not even be sufficient to fill this pit.
…
Paris, the beleaguered Paris City Government was once again surrounded by the marching public, proving that Parisians understand the rules.
Transforming the urban infrastructure is the responsibility of the city government; the Central Government should not be footing the bill.
Even the Paris renovations initiated by Napoleon III were mainly funded by the Paris City Government, not dumped on the French Central Government.
In this regard, the French keep clear accounts; the books are always separate. Local governments have their own fiscal revenue and do not rely entirely on handouts from the Central Government.
For example: the salaries of city government employees and the operational costs of various government agencies are all born by the local governments themselves.
Otherwise, the fiscal income of central governments around the world would not be enough to sustain government operations.
Of course, some European countries are still directly managed by the Central Government, but these are small nations with modest territory and population, not requiring many institutions.
If a local government cannot bear the administrative costs, the Central Government might still subsidize them. For instance, the Austrian Government once subsidized the Bosnia and Herzegovina Province, or else the poor province couldn’t even pay its civil servants.
There are exceptions, such as the United States, where each state does its own thing. With money, they spend; without money, they figure it out themselves—just don’t expect the central government to give any assistance.
Seeing the protesting crowds outside, Mayor Balko of Paris felt desperate. The reconstruction of Paris had already saddled the Paris Government with a massive debt, almost suffocating them.
The armchair commentators have it easy, suggesting that improving public infrastructure can help develop the economy and emerge from the economic crisis.
In reality, all of this requires money. With no funds, what can be invested? The order from Napoleon III to rebuild Paris still meant it was the Paris City Government footing the bill.
The debts piling high have to be repaid, and to increase fiscal income, the Paris City Government has already raised taxes multiple times.
This tax can’t rely on the ordinary people; they hardly have any money to begin with, and the bulk of it ultimately falls on businesses.
Napoleon III encouraged industrial development, so the financial capitalists bear most of the tax burden. Frankly, this tax distribution model is reasonable.
Financial industries yield higher profits than manufacturing, so it’s only fair that higher profits lead to higher taxes. Thus, this period was a golden age for French industrial development.
France also had a number of power companies, but unfortunately, none of them were on a large scale. Usually, a power company serviced just a few hundred customers; those with a few thousand were considered large companies.
After meeting with these power companies, Mayor Balko immediately gave up on the idea of assigning them the responsibility of building Paris’s power supply system.
Without strength, everything else is just nonsense. No money and no technology—who would dare let them undertake such a task?
There were no shortage of capitalists interested in taking on this task, but their appetite was too big, which made Mayor Balko step back in trepidation.
Take, for example, the financial giant Rothschild, who showed an interest in investing, not only did he demand free service, but he also wanted the Paris Government to bear half of the construction costs for free.
To bear half of the construction costs for free, it might as well be directly operated by the state. Clearly, the capitalists were aware of the pressure from public opinion and wanted to reap the maximum benefit.
As the beacon of the free world, how can it not shine bright? The attitude of the Parisians has said it all.
Franz probably never dreamt that investing in the development of an electric power system for Vienna would bring so much trouble to England and France.
Even if he did know, it wouldn’t help, as he couldn’t lend a hand. In this era, the widespread use of electricity is still somewhat ahead of its time. Waiting for advancements in generator technology and the next level in copper smelting technology would be the best time to act.
The cost of spreading it now is too high. Promoting it in a special city like Vienna might be feasible, but in other cities, it would be lucky not to go bankrupt.
1.5 pennies per degree of electricity is only affordable for ten percent of the population in Austria; England and France are about the same.
Vienna’s case is special, not an industrial city; its pillar industries are relatively high-income sectors. With higher earnings, most citizens can afford electricity.
But it’s different for other cities. Europe is not like the East, where the wealthy people all live in the city centers. A large number of wealthy nobles reside in the surrounding estates of the city.
These premium customers are dispersed, directly increasing the cost of electricity proliferation. Most of these nobles have already started using electricity long ago, having their own small generators.
Of course, they would not refuse electricity from a power company if available. After all, the small generators of this era are limited in output, and their bulky size makes them extremely inconvenient to use.
However, this would further increase the cost per degree of electricity. Most cities, due to an insufficient or too dispersed customer base, will see a significant increase in the final cost of supply.
This is why, after powering Vienna, Austrian New Energy Power Company paused its expansion, focusing on cultivating the Vienna market instead of blindly expanding.
An electricity technology revolution needs only Vienna as a benchmark. To go national, waiting another three or five years is not too late.
In this fast-changing era, new technologies are advancing almost daily. Since 1866, Austria has filed over three hundred new patents related to electricity.
Franz had no idea that there were so many specialties involved in electricity; keep in mind, it’s still the 19th century, and the application of electricity is only at its most primitive stage.
The most significant use is for lighting right now; electricity-driven machinery is still theoretical. To become humanity’s primary source of energy, at least another thirty years are needed.
Without any surprises, following Vienna in stepping into a new era, the Paris Government announced the establishment of the Paris Power Company, aiming to light up Paris.
The beacon of the free world can’t remain in the dark.
