Greece to roman road

"In addition, Costeburu, there is another job that may be entrusted to you. Greece needs copper ore, and there should be a lot of copper mines in Congo." Constantine looked at Costeburu and said.

With the development of the electric power industry, the best transmission tool for electricity is copper wire. Copper is also needed for weapons, such as bullets and artillery shells.

Greece needed more and more copper, but Greece itself did not have rich copper mines, so Constantine could only resort to Congo.

"Speaking of copper mines, Congo is indeed rich in copper mines, and a large amount of copper-cobalt ores have been discovered. Recently, explorers have discovered hundreds of minerals in central Africa, mainly in Zambia and the Katanga province of Congo. Kilometers, a 60-kilometer-wide copper ore belt is more than enough to supply Greece, but "Kosteblu said here, there is some embarrassment.

"Is it a traffic problem?" Constantine asked.

There are world-class copper mines in Africa, but Africa's transportation facilities are backward. Such large quantities of industrial raw materials do not have supporting basic transportation. Even if they are discovered, transportation will be a problem.

“Katanga Province is located in central Africa. If you want to transport the copper ore here, you must build a railway, and then pass through a navigable river to Kinshasa. Through the Matadi Kinshasa Railway, you can It’s ready to be shipped out of Congo,” Costebrew said.

"Now that such a copper ore belt has been discovered, the people of the Congolese Railway Company should be overjoyed to build the railway. After all, these ores will be transported by their railways in the future, so what are you in trouble for?" Constantine asked curiously.

Katanga Province is located almost in the center of southern Africa. It is impossible to develop such a geographical location without building a railway.

"You also know that in the case of Congo, the news of the discovery of a large copper ore belt cannot be hidden from anyone. The British are eyeing the copper ore there."

Constantine suddenly realized that this was the case. Zambia, under British control, was close to Katanga Province in Congo. Since a copper mine belt of several hundred kilometers long had been discovered in Congo-Zambia, it was impossible for the British to do so. Intervene.

There is nothing that can be done about this kind of thing. After all, Congo is a colony obtained by relying on the compromise of the major powers. The eldest brother has spoken, and the younger brother Greece has no ability to resist at all, and Constantine will not worry about it.

"Then your Greek Congo Corporation should discuss with the British to establish an Anglo-Greek joint venture to dig copper mines in the Katanga region of Congo."

"No matter what, the equity cannot be less than half," Constantine warned.

In fact, the area and reserves of this copper mining belt in Zambia are much larger than those in Congo. However, since the British were interested, Constantine did not want to make trouble with the British just because of the copper mines.

"Skarloy, this machinery factory under your steel factory is not only used to produce bicycles," Constantine turned to Skarloy and said to him.

"After your reminder last time, I thought carefully about it. Building a factory to produce guns and artillery for Greece alone will definitely lose money."

"But you also know that Greece only needs this machinery factory to produce guns at certain times. If you cannot receive arms orders, you can produce bicycles, and of course, other products."

After saying that, he looked at Skarloi, waiting for his answer.

This was also what inspired Constantine to think that many factories that originally produced civilian goods could also be used to produce arms after the production lines were modified when the war came.

Hearing Constantine's words, Scaloy was stunned, and then said: "This is not impossible, it just requires workers to master more skills, and because it is a machine prepared for different industrial products, it is difficult to produce When producing a specific industrial product, some machines will be idle, affecting efficiency."

"Furthermore, when a war breaks out, it will take a long time for such a factory to switch to the production of guns and artillery," Skarloy said in advance.

Constantine breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Skaloy's answer. For Greece now, as long as it can build a factory to produce arms, there is no room for pickiness.

Seeing Skarloi meditating with a wine glass in his hand, looking like he was hesitant to speak, Constantine felt that Scaloy might find it difficult to do so.

"If you feel embarrassed, it's okay if the machine factory specializes in producing bicycles," Constantine said quickly.

This is a steel plant management expert who was finally hired.

"It's not about the machine shop." Skarloi was thinking about how to express it to Constantine.

"Your Highness, the bauxite mine in Greece is quite rich, did you know that?" Skarloy asked.

To be honest, if there is any resource that can be said to be abundant in Greece, it is bauxite. This mineral has billions of tons of reserves in Greece, and it is the only resource that Greece can get rid of.

“That’s right”

"Your Excellency, Duke, you know that the smelting of aluminum mainly uses electrolysis. Greece has recently built a large AC power station. I also visited this power station recently. Congratulations, Your Highness."

At this point, Skarloy turned to Tesla: "And your erudition, Mr. Tesla."

"This is the world's first AC power station. Facts have proved that AC is indeed more suitable for industrial production than DC, and its long-distance transmission efficiency completely surpasses DC."

"Almost half of the cost of electrolytic aluminum is in electricity, Your Highness, Mr. Tesla"

"What does this mean?" At this point, Skarloey gave up and asked Constantine and Tesla.

Tesla looked at Skarloi blankly, not knowing what he meant.

Constantine was also confused. He couldn't guess what Scaloy meant. What was the relationship between the cost of electrolytic aluminum and the AC power station?

Seeing that both of them were at a loss for words, Scaloy reminded him: "Your Highness, electrolytic aluminum is still a relatively expensive metal."

Skaloy said this, and Constantine finally realized what he meant.

Although in the 21st century, aluminum is already a metal used on a large scale by humans. It can be seen everywhere in life, and it seems to have nothing to do with being expensive.

However, aluminum was indeed an expensive metal in the 19th century.

As the saying goes, rare things are valuable. People's evaluation of a metal's value largely depends on how easy it is to obtain.

Although aluminum is the only element in the earth's crust after oxygen and silicon, elemental aluminum does not exist in nature.

Since electricity is required to obtain aluminum, in an era when electricity was not easily available, humans had to pay a high price to obtain aluminum.

For example, once, Napoleon III held a dinner party. Except for himself, who used aluminum tableware, everyone else used gold and silver tableware to highlight his nobility.

Aluminum at this time is more valuable than gold and silver.