The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 492: Chapter 389: 1915_2

After all, the British only provided half of the military expenses for these troops and would not provide weapons and equipment for these native soldiers when building a colonial army.

Minister Raul nodded his head, indicating that he understood.

After the small interlude from the Ministry of Defense, the annual report summary meeting for 1914 officially began.

According to the report from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, by the end of 1914, the total population of Australasia had successfully exceeded 15 million, reaching 15.37 million.

This was a significant milestone for Australasia; after breaking past ten million three years prior, the population of Australasia had again reached a new number.

Of course, the rise in population also highlighted a piece of bad news—that since the outbreak of the European War, the number of immigrants to Australasia had sharply decreased.

In 1914, the population of Australasia grew by approximately 1.44 million people.

While this seemed like a considerable number, the number of newborn babies reached 378,000. This meant that the number of immigrants for the entire year of 1914 was only 1.062 million, with Russian immigrants accounting for over 800,000, making up nearly 80% of the new immigrants to Australasia.

The number of immigrants had decreased by almost 300,000 compared to the previous year, a significant portion of which were British and German immigrants.

Even though Australasia had a good relationship with Britain, Britain would close the immigration channels during times of war, attempting to minimize the outflow of immigrants as much as possible.

After all, most civilians didn't like war. If there wasn't a limit on immigration during special times, there would probably be a mass exodus of refugees before the war had even ended.

This loss of national strength during times of war was something that none of the major European powers wanted to see.

It wasn't just Britain—all participating European powers had enacted some form of restrictions on immigration, which had almost halved the number of immigrants leaving Europe in 1914.

Fortunately for Australasia, there was the Tsardom of Russia, a steadfast ally that could provide support for immigration at any time.

After all, to attract more Russian immigrants, Australasia had resorted to bribing everyone in Russia; Russia was giving the green light to immigration to Australasia, even to the point of almost personally delivering immigrants to the borders of Australasia.

Even more importantly, due to the frequent transportation of supplies to Russia, the relationship between Australasia and Russia had also entered a long honeymoon period.

With the marriage alliance between the two royal families, Russian immigrants indeed became the best source of newcomers during this period, disregarding revolutionary elements among them.

Considering future potential crises in Russia, Arthur had already made some early arrangements.

Firstly, by screening all Russian immigrants, he selected over a thousand immigrants who recognized and were committed to Australasia, and after some training, they were sent back to Russia's homeland to carry out secret infiltration tasks.

Their primary role was to infiltrate organisations of revolutionaries and Russian rebels to gather more information for Arthur.

No matter how corrupt Russia was, the Russian monarchy still needed to be saved. Even if the ruler wasn't the current Tsar, it would at least be a direct relative of the Romanov family.

This isn't just because of the good relationship between the royal families of Australasia and Russia, but also because of Russia's geographical position.

As long as Russia exists—or at least exists in the Far East—it will be an ally of Australasia that can help bear the pressure from the Island Nation and the United States.

However, Russia was currently in a somewhat chaotic state, and it was questionable whether those 1,000 or so trained Russian immigrants could make their way into the inner circles of those people.

It is worth mentioning that some Russian criminals have already fled to Australasia under the guise of immigration.

But Arthur was prepared for this—the Australasian customs were strict in their inspections of all incoming immigrants.

They not only prohibited them from carrying weapons but also did not allow too many immigrants from the same region to gather together.

These immigrants from all over Russia would be dispersed to various regions in Australasia, including New Zealand and all colonies.

Of course, they can choose not to accept the government's allocation, but the consequence will be losing governmental welfare policies.

Although such a mandate is somewhat coercive, for ordinary people who merely aspire to lead a content and prosperous life in Australasia, it's not entirely unacceptable.

After all, the current immigration policies of Australasia are quite generous. As long as one passes the immigration examination, which lasts about six months to a year, they can easily acquire Australasian citizenship, receive 4 to 8 acres of land (depending on location and fertility), and even get an opportunity to work in various major factories across Australasia.

Given the rising average income of Australasians, the salaries offered by these factories have become quite substantial.

Although the income level still can't compete with that of top-ranking powers like Britain, France, and Germany, the cost of living in Australasia is relatively low, particularly for beef, mutton, and grains, which are much cheaper than in Europe, thus narrowing the standard of living gap between Europeans and Australasians.

According to statistics, in terms of the consumption of beef, mutton, and grains, the average Australasian even surpasses that of some regions in Europe, including some powerful nations.

Moreover, Australasia is strict in enforcing an eight-hour workday, with overtime being appropriately compensated and paid for, and wage treatment is guaranteed.

As a result, Australasian factories have attracted a large number of citizens and immigrants, resulting in rapid development across all sectors in Australasia.

Although the addition of over a million immigrants each year might sound overwhelming, these people are distributed among various sectors such as agriculture and industry, which has prevented the unemployment rate in Australasia from rising too much.

According to statistics from the Department of Civil Affairs, by the end of 1914, the average income in Australasia was 52.7 Australian Dollars, still in a relatively stable growth state.

The growth of the economy can be observed from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In 1914, Australasia's GDP reached a staggering 1.677 billion US dollars, equivalent to 335 million Pounds or 670 million Australian Dollars, representing a growth rate of about 6%.

Although the growth rate had decelerated compared to the previous year, it was already quite commendable given that war broke out in the second half of 1914.

If Arthur is not mistaken, the economic growth of the European powers involved in the war, particularly France, Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia, must be negative.

It's worth noting that war puts an enormous drain on a country. These countries had to mobilize some civilian factories into military production, producing sophisticated military equipment and weapons if they had the technology, or simpler military uniforms and helmets if they didn't.

Although this greatly alleviated the military demands of the front line, it also had a massive impact on the civilian economy, slowing down its growth or even plunging it into decline.

The UK was relatively better off, given that its mainland was unaffected by the war. But as it's positioned in Europe, the impact was inevitable, certainly far more substantial than in Australasia.

In terms of government fiscal revenue, Australasia's government fiscal revenue for 1914 was 107.2 million Australian Dollars, exhibiting a growth of approximately 5.6% from the previous year.

As Australasia's economy was largely unaffected and even managed to make a small profit due to a large number of supplies being exported to Europe.

In terms of fiscal spending, since the UK bore half the cost of the expeditionary force, Australasia's military expenditure actually dropped to just over 38 million Australian Dollars.

The total fiscal expenditure of the Australasian government was 98.71 million Australian Dollars. The fiscal surplus increased compared to the previous year, reaching about 8.5 million Australian Dollars.

While military spending had fallen considerably, the overall government fiscal expenditure had not decreased much.

After all, in the midst of war, it cost even more to bring in immigrants from Russia. At the same time, making certain sacrifices was unavoidable to stabilize domestic production.

However, these sacrifices were bound to be recouped from the Allies. As the war intensifies in the new year, the Allies will truly be lacking weapons, equipment, and supplies.

At that time, Australasia will be able to make a fortune. The trading of food and weaponry alone will fill the coffers of the royal family and the Australasian government, not only paying off all government debts but also making a small profit.

If it were not for the war between Argentina and Chile, that had slightly soured Australasia's relationship with the United States. Only on m v|le|mp|yr

Arthur would even consider borrowing a large sum of money from the United States, which at that point could be paid back in either Francs or Marks.