What should Austria develop as its core industries?
Franz did not yet have an answer. The Austrian Empire was still rich in resources; in the early stages of industrialization, it lacked almost nothing.
Historically, neither Austria nor the Austro-Hungarian Empire launched colonial expansion abroad, and that was related to the abundance of resources at home.
Of course, that was only true in the early period. From the perspective of development, Austria's domestic resources would eventually prove insufficient.
Take the steel industry as an example. In an age when countries produced ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million tons of steel annually, Austria did not lack resources. It could barely keep pace in the era of tens of millions of tons, but once production entered the hundreds of millions—or even billions—of tons, it would be difficult to sustain.
That was a long-term concern. At least for the next several decades, Franz did not need to lose sleep over it.
In theory, the vast majority of industries could become Austria's pillar industries—for example: agriculture and agricultural processing, metallurgy, machinery manufacturing, military industry, railways, shipbuilding, textiles...
That was the benefit of having a solid foundation. Before Lombardy and Venice were lost, Austria's industrial scale had been very close to that of France.
There was nothing strange about it. The Austria of this era was a combination of Austro-Hungary plus half of Italy; Lombardy and Venice alone were equal to half of Italy.
Franz would not spout the foolish nonsense of having every industry advance abreast. With competition in this world so fierce, if the government could not give certain industries preferential policies, could it guarantee victory over its competitors?
Not even the United Kingdom, the world's sole industrial power, pursued comprehensive development. Its focus lay on finance, shipbuilding, and textiles.
This was