Greece to roman road

After hearing Constantine's question, Trikupis answered calmly: "Then it depends on your choice? If His Highness is ambitious, he will build a steel plant with an annual output of hundreds of thousands of tons. I’m definitely going to pour cold water on you to sober you up.”

At this point, Trikupis paused and raised his eyes to observe Constantine's reaction.

Seeing that Constantine was listening attentively, he had no intention of refuting and continued:

"But if it's just a steel plant with an annual output of tens of thousands of tons, I think it's still possible."

This sentence made Constantine's eyes light up, and he did not dislike the low production capacity of tens of thousands of tons of steel plants.

If it were other countries, the production capacity of tens of thousands of tons of steel plants would probably be looked down upon, but for a small country like Greece, the scale is already considerable.

On average, there are several hundred kilograms per person, which is enough for one use.

"As for how to obtain raw materials, Your Excellency Duke, you know that the Greeks dominate the shipping industry in the Eastern Mediterranean, and there are many ships under the names of Greek shipowners."

"After all, these ships have a limited lifespan. After their service life has expired, they will generally be decommissioned. Aren't these ships that are about to be scrapped the best source of steel?" Trikupis said here with a proud tone. This inspiration, But when he happened to be watching the steel ships coming and going at the pier, he got a sudden idea.

"You also know that today's ships often have a displacement of thousands of tons. A steel plant with an annual output of tens of thousands of tons only needs to dismantle a few scrapped ships every year, and the output is enough."

Constantine put his hand on his chin, thinking about Trikupis's opinion. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

In fact, after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Greeks have always been the leader among merchants in the Ottoman Empire.

For example, the commerce in the Black Sea coast and the Eastern Mediterranean region. After the rise of the Ottoman Empire, many Greeks were engaged in commercial trade, and the trade in the Eastern Mediterranean was almost monopolized by the Greeks.

In addition, the footprints of Greek merchants followed almost all of Europe.

For example, Odessa in Ukraine, Kaffa in Crimea, Salonika on the Aegean Sea, Toulon on the Mediterranean coast of France, London in the UK, Berlin in Germany, Syria and Palestine are all There is a Greek ghetto.

It was these Greek elites who were doing business around the world who brought back the Enlightenment ideas of "democracy, freedom, and fraternity" that became popular in Europe after the French Revolution to their Greek compatriots. After suffering from centuries of feudal autocracy by the Ottoman Turks, The Greek region, which was suffering from the rule, gave way to the beacon of uprising.

This directly led to the subsequent Greek independence movement.

Of course, after Greece became independent in 1823, the status of Greek merchants changed. The Ottoman Turkish authorities no longer trusted Greek merchants, and Jews took advantage of the situation to rise in the Ottoman Empire's business world.

But in the Balkans and Asia Minor in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek merchants still had considerable influence.

These Greek merchants were engaged in maritime trade, and ships were an essential means of transportation.

These Greek merchants usually buy ships in Western European countries.

For example, the later famous Greek shipping kings, the Onassis family, were the epitome of Greek merchants.

Building a ship-breaking plant and using scrap steel as raw material for steel plants is indeed a feasible strategy.

"Of course, even so, steel plants still require a large amount of coal and a small amount of iron ore. After all, the source of scrapped ships is unstable. Compared with steel plants in big countries, the cost is still not low."

Trikupis saw that Constantine listened carefully to his ideas and continued to talk.

"So, even though Greece does not have high-quality coal and iron mines, there is still no problem in building a small steel plant."

"What you said makes sense, Prime Minister Trikupis. Thank you for your sincere opinion. Of course, if you have friends who are interested in the steel plant, you can ask them to contact me." Constantine stood up said.

Trikoupis advocated the development of industry in Greece, so he had some business friends around him. They did not care so much about personal gains and losses, and they were regarded as patriotic businessmen in Greece.

Ever since the naval siege, Constantine had always had a sense of urgency. Driven by this sense of urgency, he came up with the idea of ​​​​accelerating the industrialization process of Greece.

······

New York, USA.

After receiving Constantine's telegram, Sanford hurried to Tesla's residence.

A handsome young man with a mustache and a tall figure opened the door.

"What's the matter? Sir" Tesla looked at the well-dressed stranger standing in front of the door with a puzzled expression.

Sanford looked at the tall man in front of him and couldn't help but be speechless. Tesla's 9-meter-tall man gave people a strong sense of oppression.

"Mr. Tesla?", Sanford responded.

Seeing Sanford calling out his name, Tesla welcomed Sanford into the house because he had something to do.

"That's right, Mr. Tesla, I was commissioned by Duke Constantine of Greece to hire you to help research modern power application systems," Sanford said.

In fact, this was an idea that Constantine had had since he saw Edison's light bulb show the last time he came to New York.

The only energy source in Greece is lignite with low calorific value and high smoke.

The greatest value of this thing now is that it generates electricity after burning. Apart from this, Constantine can't think of any other uses for it.

Without the application of energy, all industries are just castles in the air.

Coal-fired power generation and vigorously promoting the use of electricity as basic energy are the only ways Constantine could imagine to break Greece's development dilemma.

So Constantine sent a telegram to Sanford, poaching the Americans.

"How do you know me?" Tesla asked curiously.

"I heard it from Mr. Edison. I am friends with Edison. I once heard him say that a talented engineer came to his laboratory," Sanford replied.

Tesla was a native of Croatia and had just immigrated to the United States for two years. In the past two years, the sharp contrast between the prosperity of the United States and the poverty and poverty of his hometown, Croatia under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, left him with A deep impression.

The turbulent Eastern Europe has limited appeal to him.

After hearing Sanford's words, Tesla, who was sitting on the sofa with his chin in his hands and his elbows propped on the side of the sofa, had no obvious response.

Seeing Tesla's noncommittal look, Sanford continued:

"You will receive a grant of $100,000 per year and a laboratory, your own modern laboratory."

Tesla frowned upon hearing this condition.

In fact, he and Edison were very unhappy during this time.