-1837 November 1-
Currently Alexander is busy establishing his own newspaper company after having gained his father permission easily after all whats the worst that could happen?
"Your highness, the 'Royal news' company can start operations today."
"Good, make sure to seel in nrespaper in as much cities as possible to establish our presence there, even if we take losses its fine. I'll provide ample funds to cover them.
After that focus on dominating the industry, I want the 'Royal News' newspaper company to be the biggest. Understood?"
"Yes your highness."
After that, the manager that Alexander hired left. The reason Alexander is trying to establish a newspaper company is because information is king, whoever controls the flow of information controls the situation, for that he is willing to use his status as the crown prince to get a dominant position.
'Now that I think about it... it has been a while since I've last seen my siblings.'
Yes, he has siblings but they aren't close.
Well thats ehat Alexander thinks but his brothers are fond of him
'Doesn't matter, better to not get too attached.'
Finishing his thoughts Alexander looks over at the plans hid made, there is still much to be done so he gets to work.
-1837 November 4-
"Hmm..."
Looking at the data thats presented Alexander couldn't helo but enter deeply into thought.
There are many ways to do a coup d'état the question is which one is the best,
He doesn't want to simply inherit the throne, he also needs a legitimate reason to start purging the nobles.
The onky justifiable reason he can think of is...treason.
And he might have an idea or two regarding that
In the russian empire there are many people that wish to reform the country, sadly those people are just ontellectuals and have no real power. If they dared speak out, like proposing the abolishment of serfodm or the establishment of a constitutional monarchy they'd immediatly be cracked down upon.
The best they can do is to form secret societys with like minded individuals to discuss with. At best they can be called a very loose organization.
But what if... lets say they managed to get support.
Suport from the crown prince if the empire.
"Ruslan Morozov, You are the leaders of this group correct?"
Ruslan, Visibly nervous answers
"Yes your highness."
"Listen carefully, I'm offering you a deal.
I will provide you with funding as well as anything you need.
You just have take full control of this organization, making it an actual one and centralizing it."
Hearing his words Ruslan is taken aback.
He thought that his life was over and eas about to get exiled to siberia.
What also surprused him is thw crown princs offer.
There is no way he doesn't know about their activities, does this mean he wants to reform the empire?
"Now don't get the wrong idea, you must listen to my every command. No matter what."
Ruslan, thinking it over accepts the offer immediatly. Hoe could he not?
This is once in a life-time oppurtunity.
To actually have power ti bring change.
Looking into his highnesses eyes Ruslan sees a determined look. As if saying no cost is too great.
"I acceot the offer your highness, I will make sure to not dissapoint."
"Indeed, you have until february next year, and by the way. I excpect utmost secrecy understood?"
"Yes your highness."
Hearing his words Alexander is content in his heart but keeps a stoic face.
As they part Alexander gets ready to set off to the Romanov Steel & Railway company.
He eants to see how its progressing.
-Next day-
'Slow, too slow.'
Thats what Alexander thought when he checked on the progress, its been somewhere around 5 months.
The total length of railways laid down is 330Km. Now don't get him wrong, thats very fast even close to the amount the british built during the rail way mania of 1840s, but...
Russia is simply too big. Over 69 (not joking) times bigger then the british isles
Even if we don't include the Land beyod the ural mountains thats still a vast amount of territory.
'I have no choice huh well, there was once a saying, if you throw enough money at the problem it will go away.'
But where would he get the funds? Yeah the profits from the export of steel are substantial but its no nearly enough to dramaticlly speed up the railway construction.
Maybe it doesn't hsve to be him that funds thrm, he could try to attract investors.
But how? Sure the terrsin is very flat but the.climate is truly bad especially during winter making it incredibly difficult and expensive to continue building.
Why would the investors invest in russia, when there are better options like france, belgium, prussia. The list goes on.
Not to mention, the people are still tied to their land, without the permission of their kandlord the serfs are not allowed to go anywhere, who would use the railways?
The rich? Sorry but no mattter how high you charge for a ridr its impposible, those living in citites and whatever free pessents there are?
Thats also impossoble simply because its simply too few people, the combined population of the 2 biggest cities in the russian empire, Moscow and St.petersburg is barely at 780,000.
Its not the 21st century with cities housing millions upon millions of people.
Just thinking about this issue is giving Alexander a headache, for now all he can do is grit his teeth and spend almost all his money on building railways, they are simply too important. He can maybe push it to 400Km every 4 months, thats the limit.
'I need to look into other sources of income...
Maybe I could establish a fur trading company? Or start selling grain?
Wait, I could build a lot of railway lines between the steel plants and raw materials.
Making it easier to transport iron and coal thus making it cheaper to make steel which then increases profits, yes that could work, looks like the first railway lines that will be sped up will be between the iron, coal, and steel plants.
A/N I hit a bt of a writers block, I have the general plot in my head but for some reason got stuck, Probably due to a lack of sleep anyways, good day.