"More than 3,400?" William I couldn't believe his ears. Of course, he couldn't remember every number in the national economic report, but in his impression, Prussia should not have so many steam trains at the moment.
The representatives of the first industrial revolution were railways and trains. At that time, the number of railway locomotives in each country was tied to the total size of the national economy.
In just 30 years, the number of trains in Prussia increased by more than 3,000. This number even surprised William I.
What was even more shocking was yet to come. With Xiao Letian's eloquent statement, a brand new Prussia appeared in front of William I.
The peak period of Prussia's economic development was in the 1850s and 1860s. In these 20 years alone, Prussia's gross national product more than tripled.
And within these 20 years, Prussia quickly changed its economy from light industry to heavy industry, and the well-known military industry is a typical representative of heavy industry. This is a proper war strength!
Prussia itself is rich in coal and iron, the two most important strategic resources. In 1850, Prussia's domestic pig iron production tonnage was only 210,000 tons. As a result, after 20 years of development, Prussia's pig iron production has reached 1.4 million tons, which is enough Sevenfold.
In the past 20 years, steel production has increased from more than 5,000 tons to 170,000 tons, which is an increase of more than 30 times.
The abundant supply of raw materials directly contributed to the vigorous development of the manufacturing industry. In 1840, there were less than 100 machinery manufacturing plants in Prussia, but by 1860, there were more than 300 machinery manufacturing plants in Prussia, and the scale was incomparable to before. Same thing.
It is worth mentioning that the famous Krupp Group developed and expanded during this period.
The first railway in Prussia was only completed in 1835. At that time, it was only 16 kilometers. By 1848, the total number of kilometers had reached 2,500 kilometers. By this year, the total mileage of all railways in Prussia has reached 21,000. kilometers, far exceeding France in the south.
"There are many more numbers like this. I can't even lift them. May I ask, Your Majesty the King, are there so many numbers that you have seen?"
William I's expression suddenly froze, and his face suddenly felt on fire. It was simply a shame that his country's economic data was coming from a Chinese mouth!
Fortunately, there was no one around. If there were people around, William I would probably have to find a mouse hole to crawl in!
"Is this what Bismarck told you?" The king couldn't help but feel angry in his heart.
"My respected King, please don't be angry. Of course, these data were not told to me by the Prime Minister on his own initiative, but through various inquiries, I discovered that there were some fishiness in the data in the report announced by the Prussian government!"
"After that, I tried to force Bismarck bit by bit, and these data were actually faked by me!"
"In the end, Prime Minister Bismarck didn't want to deceive you on purpose. He wanted to deceive the whole world! But I am a cunning one. I found some clues and was not fooled!"
Hearing what Xiao Letian said, William I's face became slightly better: "This guy is really rude, me, me, me."
I waited for a long time, but the king did not come up with a countermeasure, nor did he say how he wanted to punish Bismarck.
At this time, the two of them never expected that while they were talking secretly, Bismarck encountered another accuser in front of the statue of the Goddess of Victory.
Little William, who has just returned from England for more than half a month, is the son of Prince Carl and the grandson of William I. Wearing an exquisite suit and carrying a royal sword on his waist, he is standing in Bimarck with a serious look on his face. In front of him, his little face was raised high, his eyes wide open and staring at the Prime Minister.
"Prime Minister, I think you should apologize to the king! In front of the guests from the East, you did not show the respect you should have for my grandfather!"
"No matter how thorough the plan you and the chief of staff make, when the king raises a question, the first thing you have to do is explain it instead of giving a tit-for-tat refutation. This is very rude!"
Little William is only ten years old this year. He looked up at the tall Bismarck with a serious look on his face, which made the people around him laugh.
Bismarck was not even afraid of his grandfather and father, and certainly not of a ten-year-old child. He even reached out and rubbed little William's head. "Dear little William, didn't you go out to ride horses today? Why did you think of accompanying us?" Where are these old men coming to see this boring construction site?”
"Come here! Give the two exquisite pistols I collected to the prince. These are the gifts I specially prepared for you!"
This was a complete disregard. This attitude was very unacceptable to William. He stared at Bismarck with his hands on his hips and his cheeks bulging hard.
"Your Majesty Prime Minister, I am talking to you as the Prince of Prussia and the future heir to the empire. Please don't treat me like a child."
"Oh! Haha! I know your Majesty. Of course I will humbly accept your opinion. How about I report our plan to His Majesty the King later? Okay, where is the attendant? Take the little prince out to play for a while."
Bismarck waved his hand, smiled and left the little prince indifferently, completely ignoring that little William was angry there alone.
Wang Huaiyuan looked at Little William and Bismarck quietly, and he was secretly worried in his heart: "The ministers are so rude, this is not the way to maintain profits and maintain peace! I am afraid that in the future Bismarck will be in this small town." The prince has suffered a big loss!"
William I and Xiao Letian were completely unaware of the outside episode. At this moment, they had turned their data analysis to France.
Dear Your Majesty, after analyzing our own family background, let's take a look at France. You will soon be able to clearly understand what the power gap is.
France itself lacks iron and coal reserves, so natural resources restrict the development of its heavy industry.
Take coal, a necessity for industry, for example. Last year in 1869, France's total domestic coal production was 13 million tons. But in the same year, what was its domestic demand? It is more than 18 million tons, and there is a gap of 5 million, which needs to be filled through imports.
Last year, our Prussian coal exported more than 4 million tons.
It is conceivable that when France develops heavy industry, it will naturally fall into a cost disadvantage. The lack of coal will naturally limit its steel production. Last year, their annual pig iron production was only 1.38 million tons, which is not as good as our production. many.
As for steel production, they only had 100,000 tons last year, while Prussia had a full 170,000 tons. Judging from this data, France's heavy industry, compared with Prussia, is simply a huge difference between a donkey and a horse.
