Chapter 491: Franz's Headache
With the economic conference concluded, the power industry had been designated as Austria's new pillar industry for the coming decade, accompanied by heavy industry.
By now, the scale of Austria's heavy industry had also become an astronomical figure. The sectors involved mainly included steel, metallurgy, coal, machinery, chemicals...
By classification, electric power could also count as a type of heavy industry; the two were closely connected. It had merely been listed separately because it was still in its infancy and possessed such an enormous industrial scale of its own.
There could not be too many pillar industries. Since electric power and heavy industry had become new pillar industries, some industries naturally had to fall from that status.
Without question, the one replaced was the railways. This was not because railways had ceased to be important. Mainly, after more than twenty years of hard work, most of Austria's domestic railways had already been built.
The railway industry was beginning to approach saturation. Under such circumstances, what was needed was steady development, not excessive government investment.
Aside from railways, agricultural development had in fact also reached its limit. The growth rate of domestic agriculture had long since declined. The agricultural market was only so large; growing more grain did not mean earning more money.
The current growth rate of agriculture was roughly the same as the population growth rate. Austria already occupied seventy percent of the international agricultural export market, and that share was almost impossible to expand further.
Before long, it would even face the impact of Russian agricultural products making a comeback. Merely holding onto its current market share would prove extremely difficult.
To ensure the healthy development of agriculture, Austrian agriculture had undergone several rounds of adjustment, going from directly exporting agricultural products at the