On July 11, 1849, Franz proposed "establishing an Austrian core industrial system" at an expanded meeting of the Austrian Government.
Immediately afterward, the Austrian Government began on-the-ground investigations. Which industries should be designated as key development priorities was not something Franz could decide with a slap of his head.
No matter how well-founded the reasoning was, sufficient information had to be gathered and analyzed. Only after ensuring there was no room for error could a decision be made.
Reality delivered a resounding slap in the face. There was ample evidence that if the military industry was to be developed as a priority in this era, the emphasis had to be naval armaments.
The hundreds of thousands of rifles used by the army, added together, cost only as much as one or two battleships. Artillery was more expensive, but not by much. In this era, the army's largest military expenditures were personnel salaries and training costs, not weapons and equipment.
The focus of military enterprises was research and development and production capacity. There was no need to consider capacity—the domestic market was only so large, and the international arms market was even smaller. Blindly expanding capacity was simply courting death.
Research and development did not cost much either. How much could a few models of artillery and rifles require? Would one million shield a year be enough?
If it was not enough, ten million shield would definitely be impossible to spend.
Whether the combined research expenditures of every European country on army weapons and equipment even reached ten million shield in this era was a huge question mark.
Franz estimated that they did not. Most military enterprises in Europe were private companies, all driven by profit. If R&D investment was too large, there was simply no way to recoup the costs.