Greece to roman road

After listening to these analyses, it is not surprising that the Greek government wants to build a canal here.

But a series of subsequent events proved that this was a huge mistake.

The length of this canal is indeed not long, only about 5 kilometers, but its "quality" is high.

Where the Collins Canal is located, the ground is made of hard limestone, not soil, which makes the excavation of this canal like a foolish old man moving a mountain. It is extremely difficult to cut with knives and axes.

To make matters worse, in the Collins area, the ground height is far higher than sea level, which greatly increases the excavation depth of this canal. In later generations, both sides of the canal were nearly 79 meters above the river surface!

The difficulty of digging this canal was unexpected, causing several companies that accepted it to go bankrupt!

In the original historical time and space, the original contractor of the Corinth Canal was a French company. The company's initial capital was about 30 million francs (about 300 million yuan), and it also issued about 60,000 500-franc bonds (30 million francs). ), after 8 years of digging, before the canal was completed, the company went bankrupt because it ran out of funds. In other words, this canal cost at least 60 million francs (about 600 million yuan).

It is conceivable that the canal played an "irreplaceable" role in Greece's financial bankruptcy in 1897.

Eventually, the canal was taken over by a Greek company and it was completed after several years of excavation.

The construction of the Collins Canal was very difficult. It can be said that it was a channel carved out of rocky cliffs using manpower.

The high limestone walls on both sides are very solid, and it is one of the few canals in the world carved out of solid rock.

At the end of the 19th century, even for such large-scale projects, limited by the technical conditions at the time, the power of machinery was far from being able to replace manpower.

If the problem with the Corinth Canal was simply that it was expensive to develop and difficult to build, that would be it.

After all, the construction of this canal will produce huge economic benefits, and the benefits will indeed outweigh the disadvantages for Greece.

However, when the canal was built, there was no reasonable estimate to leave enough redundant width. As a result, the canal faced the dilemma of being insufficient for use as soon as it was excavated.

The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were the years of rapid development in the history of world shipping.

Due to the maturity of technical conditions and the need for economical ocean transportation, the displacement of ocean-going freighters is increasing.

The larger the tonnage of the freighter, the lower the unit cost of cargo transportation. This feature has led ocean shipping companies to order giant freighters of more than 10,000 tons.

The Collins River is only 25 meters wide, which is not enough to accommodate large ships. It can only accommodate some small cargo ships or cruise ships.

People ridiculed it as "the most useless canal".

In later generations, the canal was a famous tourist attraction in Greece.

The Greek government originally relied on borrowing for infrastructure construction, but ended up spending a huge sum of more than 60 million francs to build a useless drainage ditch.

If the river channel is widened, no less than the previous investment will be required, which made the subsequent Greek government completely give up the idea.

Therefore, it is conceivable that Constantine's mood fluctuated greatly when he heard that Trikupis was going to approve the construction of this ridiculous canal!

"Mr. Trikupis, I have no objection to the railway and highway plans you mentioned, but as for the Collins Canal, you'd better make a detailed inspection in advance before making a decision on whether to build this canal. canal"

Constantine said with a serious face.

"Although this canal is not long, as far as I know, the area where it is located is all made of hard limestone, and since the ground in the Collins area is much higher than sea level, it can be said that the construction of the canal was very difficult."

Hearing Constantine's words, Trikupis was doubtful.

To be honest, he trusts the French's ability to build canals. No, since its construction was completed, the Suez Canal, which has been regarded as the world's strategic waterway, is a masterpiece of the French.

The Suez Canal, which is hundreds of kilometers long, can operate smoothly. There is no reason why the French can't do this small canal of only 5 kilometers in Greece.

As a politician, Trikupis had no idea about such technical projects.

Therefore, it is easy to judge the difficulty of construction based on the length of the canal.

However, Constantine, as the crown prince, strongly opposed the construction of this canal, and Trikupis did not want to conflict with Constantine head-on.

"Prime Minister, regarding this canal, it is better to entrust some professional organizations to make a comprehensive assessment. If you have no objection, I will handle this matter." Constantine followed closely, eager to dissuade Trikupis from building this canal. The idea of ​​a canal.

"Okay, about the canal, we can postpone it for now," Trikupis conceded.

"But as you just said, the industrial zone plan also leaves open space for the steel plant. Regarding the construction of the steel plant, has anyone decided to invest?" Trikupis asked curiously.

Trikoupis's policy has been to unwaveringly support Greece in developing its own industry.

Although Tricupis was not like Triacupis, who frequently clamored for war to realize the Greeks' ideal of regaining their lost territory and regaining their glory, Constantine knew that this was also Tricupis' inner ideal.

It's just that Trikoupis is well aware of the weakness of Greece, so he has always advocated strengthening his own strength first, and then looking for opportunities. Compared with Delianis, Trikoupis can be said to have good intentions.

How to measure the strength of a country is a complex matter. Parameters such as national income, GDP, land area, population, food production, resources, etc. are all factors that cannot be ignored.

However, at the end of the 19th century, if people wanted to use a particularly simple indicator as an indicator of a country's strength, then steel production was definitely an appropriate choice.

In other words, at the end of the 19th century, it could be simply and roughly said that whoever produced more steel would be stronger.

Therefore, when Constantine talked about the steel factory, Trikupis paid special attention.

Although the last time the two met, they had discussed the feasibility of developing the steel industry in Greece, but after all, it was just words.

"Speaking of the steel plant, Prime Minister, you are planning to build a railway. Why not take this opportunity to package and purchase the equipment and materials for the railway and the steel plant together, and quote them together to get an affordable price," Constantine responded. .

For Greece, steel plant equipment must be purchased from other countries.

As for the rails and locomotives used in railway construction, Greece does not have the ability to produce them and also needs to purchase them from foreign countries.

The products of large steel plants in Western European countries often include rails and steelmaking equipment. Rails are an important commodity component of each steel plant. The production of rails requires a large amount of steel, so Constantine will purchase them together.