Greece to roman road

As long as you open the geographical map, you will find that although the territory of the Ottoman Empire is vast, there are not many areas suitable for growing food.

For example, the core territory of the Ottoman Empire, Asia Minor, is also known as the "Anatolian Plateau".

When you see the word plateau, you will understand that this is an area with rolling hills. It is okay to engage in agriculture and animal husbandry, such as herding sheep and horses. However, agriculture and animal husbandry cannot support a large population.

In the entire Asia Minor, only a small piece of land on the western coastal plain, the Smyrna area, was suitable for agricultural production.

As for the Arabian Peninsula, the endless khaki desert is the main tone of the Arabian Peninsula. Don't expect to engage in agriculture here.

Therefore, after the Ottoman Empire lost its essential European territory, the material basis for maintaining a worldwide empire no longer existed.

As for whether agricultural production is important to an empire, all the powerful countries in the world, except for the United Kingdom, are a bit special. France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia are all major food-producing countries.

Everyone was silent for a while as they thought about Constantine's analysis.

"Okay, let's talk about other things. I invite you here this time just to discuss with you how to promote the application of alternating current in Greece," Constantine changed the topic.

Even if the Ottoman Empire declines, and a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, it is not something that Greece can make plans now.

"Your Excellency, please tell me your views on the AC system. After all, we don't know much about such cutting-edge technology," Kontoriotis said.

This businessman from Alexandria, Egypt, was introduced by Prime Minister Trikupis.

Contoriotis naturally had some idea of ​​why he was invited.

Constantine did not shirk, and stood up and said to everyone; "As you all know, due to the lack of high-quality coal in Greece, Greece was severely restricted in the introduction of steam engines."

In the first wave of the Industrial Revolution led by Britain, to measure the level of a country's industrial capabilities, you could get a rough estimate by counting the number of coal production and steam engines.

Greece lacks high-quality hard coal. Even if it introduces steam engines, it will still face the embarrassing situation of no coal available.

"The alternating current technology developed by Mr. Tesla can help Greece get rid of this fatal shortcoming."

"As we all know, although there is no hard coal in Greece, the lignite reserves are quite abundant. After burning for power generation, the quality of the electricity will not differ due to the use of different coals for power generation, unlike coal which is divided into different grades based on quality." Constantine said cheerfully.

Greece's coal production is about 5 billion tons, which is enough for one use.

"In other words, Greece's shortcoming of lack of energy has disappeared?" Kontoriotis asked hurriedly.

"That's understandable," Constantine responded.

"So, my idea is to build a large AC power station in Greece and use it as a basis to develop Greek industry."

"For example, in the cotton textile industry, Greece itself also has a certain amount of cotton production. Although the quantity is not large, Greece is close to Asia Minor and Egypt, both of which are important sources of raw cotton. Moreover, Greece's own cotton market currently also requires imports." Tan Ding talked eloquently.

"We can definitely import substitution"

"Greece has advantages in developing cotton textile industry"

After hearing Constantine's thoughts, Alexandros was not interested in the cotton textile industry, but thought of olives.

In addition to exporting raisins in large quantities, Greece itself actually also exports olives, which are also a specialty of Greece.

It’s just that Greece’s own industrial capacity is limited. Although Greek family workshops can press olive oil using manual or animal power, the efficiency is low and the cost is high. Olives are still exported in large quantities.

Since electricity can be used to spin cotton, it can also be used to press olive oil.

Thinking of the large olive groves in the relatively barren mountains of the family, if these olives could be processed and exported abroad, the annual income would be considerable, and I couldn't help but feel excited.

Different from his idea, Kontoriotis, a Greek from Alexandria, dominated the local raw cotton trade. After the cotton harvest every year, most of it was purchased by the Greeks and then sold to the British and French merchants who came to trade. .

Although he is said to be a leader, he is actually just a second-tier dealer, eliminating the need for buyers to deal with cotton farmers in person and making a lot of hard money.

As compradors of European merchants, what they handed over to the buyers was raw cotton. Then these buyers transported the cotton back to Europe, weaved it into cloth, printed and dyed it, and then handed them the finished cotton cloth to these second-rate dealers for sale. to the Egyptians.

Egyptian handicraft workshops were no match for European factories. Under the dumping of cheap European cotton, they went bankrupt one after another. Egyptians could only buy European cotton.

There is a big difference between the price of raw cotton and the price of finished cotton cloth.

The two sides had become more friendly, and Contoriotis fantasized more than once that if he could have a textile factory, why would he let these Europeans make the money?

The price of originally cheap cotton increased several times after being spun into cloth. For compradors like them who handled it personally, the stimulus was too great.

After they purchase the raw cotton, they process it directly into cotton cloth. Even if they need to buy dyes, the profits they earn are much greater than just selling raw cotton.

Developing upstream in the cotton industry is naturally tempting to those who dominate the import and export of Egyptian raw cotton.

If it can succeed, it will be a proper cotton trust.

Therefore, this time Trikupis revealed to him a little bit that Constantine invited technicians to develop alternating current. After receiving the information about the breakthrough, Kontoriotis immediately hired a professional scholar and consulted him about electricity. After learning about the use of electricity, he couldn't wait to come to the banquet.

"Therefore, if everyone works together, as long as the cotton textile factory is established, I personally think it is very promising."

In order to stimulate everyone, Constantine struck while the iron was hot and continued to draw a beautiful blueprint for everyone.

"In addition, everyone knows that the Congo River Basin is also under my control now. There are about 20 million people in the Congo region. If every Congolese buys a set of clothes, how much cotton cloth will be needed?"

"So far, this huge market has been divided entirely between several major industrial countries in Europe. If Greek cotton cloth can capture one-tenth of the market, it will be quite impressive."

"Did you know that Congolese people would rush to buy up old goods that were accumulated in warehouses in Europe?"

In fact, what Constantine said was half true and half false.

The 20 million Congolese people do have a huge consumer market, but Congo is located near the equator, and the temperature hovers between 25 degrees and 40 degrees all year round, even if you are completely naked.

The clothes they made from leaves were enough to cover their vital parts.