Holy Roman Empire-Chapter 1094 - 108: The Real Crisis

Chapter 1094: Chapter 108: The Real Crisis

Cajoling and threatening, together with the full back up from the Cabinet Government, the British Parliament finally passed the military budget increase by a slim majority.

However, the 70 million pounds budget was slashed to 65.81 million. This was already considered good, as budgets often got halved in the Parliament.

Perhaps feeling the threat from Shinra, the reality struck the members, leading them to show some mercy while wielding their budget-cutting scythes.

Despite that, after going through various processes, when the Navy finally selected shipbuilders, it was already May.

Before Campbellson could catch his breath, new bad news arrived. There were insufficient docks capable of handling ships over 20,000 tons, therefore it was impossible to simultaneously start the construction of so many Super Battleships.

“What, it comes to this point and you tell me there aren’t enough qualified docks?” Prime Minister Campbell bellowed.

...

It was impossible not to be angry, as a Super Battleship weighed over 20,000 tons, and such behemoths couldn’t simply be placed on slipways; construction had to be within a dock.

But docks are not cabbages, especially those over 20,000 tons, which are exceedingly rare.

Until World War I, no one had heard of someone starting the construction of several Dreadnoughts at once—not because they didn’t want to, but because the hardware conditions were not met.

Even by World War II, the only nation able to simultaneously construct several large warships was the United States.

Facing the Prime Minister’s questioning, Navy Minister Swindon, full of worry, replied, “I deeply regret, prime minister, although I wish not to believe that the Empire could face a production capacity shortfall, this is the reality. The Dreadnoughts have only been around for so short a period, we simply haven’t had enough time to build more large docks.”

Despite the rapid development of Britain’s shipbuilding industry in recent years, ships over 20,000 tons were still rare.

It wasn’t for lack of technology, primarily the market demand was small. Though theoretically, larger capacity ships reduce the cost per unit of transportation, that’s just the theory.

Now, at the dawn of the 20th century, overseas trade was nowhere near as developed as in later eras; what could fill ships over 20,000 tons?

The bulk commodities reliant on shipping include: agricultural products, cotton textiles, oil, ore, steel.

Even though they are bulk goods, the actual demand for large merchant ships is still small.

For example, with cotton textiles, who would dare to place tens of thousands of tons of merchandise into the same market all at once?

Even if large merchant ships existed, they’d have to share cargo space. It’s not easy to consolidate such orders; it’s unlikely that there are so many orders needing shipment at the same time.

Moreover, not all orders can be consolidated. Many goods have stringent shipping requirements.

For shipping companies, it is more economical to use ships of about 10,000 tons that are often fully loaded, rather than ships of 30,000 to 50,000 tons that are often underfilled.

The same goes for steel; most countries only buy up to a few thousand tons per year. Countries that consume tens or hundreds of thousands of tons can mostly produce it themselves.

Even if there are orders, they are usually purchased in batches according to actual needs. After all, steel rusts; buying too much at once can end up being a financial burden.

Ores are not much better off. While bulk in nature, the demand for them is small in most countries.

In an era of free trade, for many nations, it makes more economic sense to buy finished products directly from the market rather than to purchase ores for refining.

This includes Britain, which apart from having a high demand for steel and therefore refining it domestically, directly purchases other rare metals.

Unlike later centuries, at this time even “aluminum” was considered a rare metal, with Britain consuming only up to a few thousand tons a year; refining it themselves would be a losing proposition.

Until the year 1913, Britain’s aluminum production was just over 7,000 tons. Mass industrial production was a matter for the mid to late 20th century.

Other rare metals, much less spoken of, existed mostly in the laboratories, far from being applied industrially.

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With such small market demand, there’s hardly room for many businesses. Capital pursues profit, and no one engages in a losing trade.

The most consumed commodity in later years, oil, had an annual extraction of just over 30 million tons, with Shinra producing and selling most of it internally.

Even if large oil tankers were needed, such business would be internalized, with no orders falling into the hands of British shipyards.

The same goes for agricultural products, dominated by Shinra, which handled transportation internally without any involvement of British shipyards.

The only market available was essentially monopolized by others. Without adequate market orders, British shipbuilding businesses naturally wouldn’t bother with maintaining large docks.

Were it not for proving the Empire’s capabilities and necessity to build large merchant ships to the world, given the capitalists’ integrity, it’s doubtful even the few large docks would exist.

Prime Minister Campbell rebuked, “I don’t want to hear any explanations; the issue now is that we need to build warships, but our production capacity doesn’t meet the demand.

Is everyone in the Navy just loafing around, such a big issue went unreported in advance?

Now that there’s a problem, how do you plan to conclude it? The enemy won’t give us much time to prepare!”

Regardless of the reasons, with the current situation, the Navy bears an inescapable responsibility.

“I had no idea the enemy would be so crazed to dump down so many dumplings at once.”

This excuse might suffice to shift the blame, but it does not solve the actual problem.

Swinton explained awkwardly, “We have already taken countermeasures. The shipyard started working overtime to build new large docks three months ago.

Given the current situation, we have modified some of the ships’ design plans.

By sacrificing some performance, we successfully reduced the displacement, so a 20,000-ton dock can now satisfy our needs.

Although the Holy Roman Empire has more large docks, there are only six that exceed 25,000 tons, and three of them were already in use.

From this, we infer that the enemy can construct no more than three dreadnoughts over 25,000 tons, which exactly matches our numbers.

The rest are all first-generation dreadnoughts, and even though our displacement is smaller, our combat capabilities are not much weaker.”

Informing the shipyard in advance to build new large docks naturally didn’t exist. If the Ministry of the Navy were that responsive, they would have brought up the issue long ago.

However, the far-sighted capitalists did indeed start working on it ahead of time. To some extent, this also politically saved the Ministry of the Navy.

As long as the capitalists admit the construction of large docks is related to the Ministry of the Navy, it proves that the Ministry has taken timely and strong countermeasures, and the matter would be considered resolved.

Whether there were any benefits exchanged behind the scenes, I do not know, but the shipyards that started building large docks early all received orders from the Ministry of the Navy.

These are minor issues; we are all political allies in these scenarios and there’s no need to kick others when they’re down.

In ordinary times, people wouldn’t feel the impact since the Great Britain Empire could develop any technology, just a matter of sooner or later.

Now that we are truly facing competition, everyone suddenly realizes the issue is significant. Although the Royal Navy holds the advantage, the overall industrial capacity of the Great Britain Empire isn’t on par!

High production costs and poor cost-effectiveness are bad enough, but the troubling part is that the production capacity also cannot keep up.

Everyone present is politically savvy but knows little about industrial details.

Without piercing this window paper, no one could have thought about it. Now that the blind spot in their thinking was exposed, many problems previously overlooked suddenly surged into everyone’s minds.

All elites of the era, they naturally wouldn’t naively think that Britannia’s current issues only concern insufficient numbers of large docks.

With a bit of thought, everyone knew that Britannia’s industrial system was facing major problems.

The world is indeed delicate; Britannia fiddled with its free trade system for better plundering wealth from other nations.

Wealth was indeed plundered, and British capitalists immensely profited over the past years, albeit suffering from “a little bit” of repercussions.

Unfelt in the free trade system, but just as it stepped out on its own, Britannia’s industrial system immediately revealed severe issues.

We don’t even have enough large docks, can the enterprises supporting naval construction really meet the demand?

Do not forget, it has not been long since these same individuals, crying and shouting, wanted to withdraw from the free trade system and implement tariff barriers to protect their market.

Under normal circumstances, a delay might be acceptable to support the local industry, a slight delay wouldn’t hurt.

Now, however, the circumstances are different; it’s a race against time. Britannia’s shipbuilding plans are already falling behind; any disruption now would spell disaster.

Prime Minister Campbell, startled into a cold sweat, urgently ordered, “Mandate all major shipyards to immediately purchase the necessary components.

The pace must be fast, we must stockpile enough components before the Vienna Government reacts.”

Perhaps this was a desperate remedy. But Campbell couldn’t afford to gamble, the current situation no longer permitted the British Government to make any more major decision-making errors.

The domestic production capacity is insufficient, but that only applies to some components. Even if lacking in capacity, many alternatives exist that don’t necessarily require purchases from the Holy Roman Empire.

But the British Government’s time is limited, there’s no time to carefully screen. If a certain component goes out of stock and there’s no substitute, it could be catastrophic.

Who would have thought that nowadays, the only complete industrial system belongs to Shinra?

Britannia too once possessed a complete industrial system, but failed to keep up during the second industrial revolution, pausing at a critical moment.

This pause led directly to falling behind. Many industries were shattered by new technologies, and capitalists turned to finance, with fewer and fewer willing to invest in tangible industries.

Of course, the industrial system of the United States is also quite complete. However, technologically it remains several generations behind, capable only of imitating outdated, low-tech products.

To rely on obtaining components from the Americans would be less reliable than waiting for an eruption of domestic production capacity.

By now, everyone understands why the Vienna Government has suddenly changed its style, becoming aggressively assertive.

Such a clear dawn shining right under the enemy’s eyelids. If they don’t seize the opportunity to kick them while they’re down, should they wait for Britannia to recover from its slump before making a move?