Rise of Australia

Chapter 363 Rapid Economic and Population Growth

December 1913 was definitely the busiest month for Australasia.In just one month, Australasia received a large number of British and French Pacific colonies, and successfully expanded its sphere of influence to most of the Pacific Ocean.

If we only look at the current land area of ​​Australasia, it is only more than 800 million square kilometers.

But if you count the territorial waters of Australasia, Australasia can actually be called a huge country with tens of millions of square kilometers.

You must know that the current division of territorial seas in countries around the world is actually not clear, and there is no relatively uniform data to define the scope of territorial waters of countries.

This also means that if Australasia's navy is strong enough, it may even turn most of the Pacific Ocean west and south of Hawaii into its own territorial waters.

If this goal can really be achieved, the mainland of Australasia will be inviolable, and the Pacific Ocean is the inland sea of ​​Australasia.

The Australasian government attaches great importance to the acceptance of new territories, and the navy is almost always on standby to guard against any possible accidents.

And indeed it is.If Australasia can completely control these new territories, it will be able to form a solid defensive island chain outside the Australasian mainland.

At that time, even if it is against an industrial and economic power like the United States, Australasia will have sufficient strength and confidence.

The biggest shortage in Australasia right now is time.It will take time both to develop the population and to stabilize the rule of these new territories.

The naval fleet escorted the transport ships to the major colonies and territories. They transported not only the governors of the new colonies and territories, but also garrisons that needed to be stationed there and some relatively scarce local resources and food.

Time flies, and in the busy schedule of the Australasian cabinet government, the last day of December is coming soon.

On December 1913, 12, according to the usual practice, the annual annual report meeting was held in Sydney Palace.

This year's annual report meeting will not only report on the situation throughout 1913, but also on the deployment of the new colony.

At present, the actual sphere of influence of Australasia has expanded to the central Pacific Ocean, and these territorial waters need to be deployed defensively.

Similarly, the dispatch and communication between the colonies, as well as the connection between the native land and the colonies, need to promulgate corresponding policies to stabilize them.

Throughout 1913, the population of Australasia continued to explode.Although some European countries have begun to restrict the export of immigrants, because Australasia has joined the Allies, the actual immigration is not restricted.

The British and Russian immigrants who are more important to Australasia are arriving in Australasia in a steady stream and becoming full citizens of Australasia.

For the whole of 1913, the number of babies born in Australasia surpassed 40 for the first time, reaching 43.14.

This number is the most births in the history of Australasia, among which the new cabinet government's promulgation of the policy of encouraging children has contributed.

The policy of encouraging births has made Australasians no worries about having children.Not only can you get rewards for having a child, but the government will also bear a large part of the tuition and medical expenses after the newborn.

This also makes Australasians more active in childbirth. Anyway, people usually do not have any loan pressure, and having children has become the choice of most people.

In terms of immigration, because of the large increase in Russian immigrants, the immigration environment in Australasia still maintains a state of rapid growth.

Throughout 1913, Australasia received a total of 130 million immigrants, of which Russia contributed more than 80.

In order to attract immigrants from Russia, the Australasian government even sent people to bribe Russian officials at the middle and lower levels, which made the immigration road unimpeded.

For Russia, the number of immigrants of less than 100 million is simply a small number, and it is a drop in the bucket for the total population of Russia.

And a large number of immigrants to Australasia can also exchange some military equipment and strategic materials from Australasia, which is completely a profitable business.

Russia has no shortage of people, and Australasia has no shortage of weapons and industrial products. A large number of immigrants is a win-win for both parties.

Among the remaining nearly 50 immigrants, more than 31 immigrants from Britain and France, 2 immigrants from Germany, 4 immigrants from Italy, and other immigrants are distributed in various European countries.

And because of the popularization of various welfare benefits and the construction of medical care in Australasia, the number of deaths in 1913 was actually very small, only a little over 2 people.

Coupled with the total population of more than 180 in the newly received colonies (not counting the aborigines), the annual population increase in Australasia is as high as [-] million.

After the new population minus the death population, the net population increase of Australasia is still as high as 182 million, which is one of the countries with the highest population growth rate in the world today, or even none.

The total population of Australasia has reached 1393.2 million, and is catching up with a population of 1500 million.

Of course, when the Australasian government calculates the population, it will not count the aboriginal population in Australasia, which is currently in the millions.

If you count the indigenous population, the population of Australasia actually exceeds 1500 million.

The problem is that because of the extreme nationalism in Australasia, the millions of Aboriginal people are not accepted by most Australasians.

Most of these populations have fundamental differences in religion and culture from the average Australasian and are not assimilable.

The ones who assimilated were the native populations of the newly received colonies.These aboriginal populations have lived with local European immigrants for decades, and many aboriginals have been able to use English proficiently, and some aboriginals have even converted to Christianity.

Especially in some colonies of the British Empire, many indigenous populations have believed in Protestantism and also regard English as their main language.

These aborigines are relatively easy to assimilate and may be able to become recognized citizens of Australasia in the future.

While population growth is good news, the Australasian government's various subsidies for newborns and migrants are also costing a lot of money.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance, the Australasian government has provided more than 300 million Australian dollars in subsidies to newborn families.

These data have increased by more than [-]% compared with the previous year, which is enough to show that there are more and more newborns in Australasia.

But this is good news for Arthur and the Australasian government.

Compared with immigrants, the newborn babies of the native population are the core population.These populations are pure Australasians from birth, and their recognition of the country and nation is much higher than that of immigrants from abroad.

These immigrants from abroad have to go through at least 15 years of assimilation before they can be completely assimilated into Australasians.

Or because European immigrants and Australasians have almost the same roots.If they are immigrants with different skin and different races, the time for assimilation will even be doubled.

Because of the large new population, the average household size in Australasia is as high as 6.3 people.

This also means that Australasian couples at the right age have generally chosen to have three or four children.

If this continues, it may only take a few years, and the number of newborn babies in Australasia alone is expected to reach millions every year.

At that time, the Australasian government will not have to work hard to introduce immigrants from abroad, but only need to properly handle the new domestic population, and will not be able to develop Australasia into a populous country.

Australasia's population growth rate is exaggerated if current population trends are considered.

If the rate of population growth holds, Australasia's population could double in ten years' time.

Of course, immigrants will be more or less affected by the war, and it is completely possible to double the population in more than ten years.

Even if it weren't for Australasia's relatively strict requirements for Russian immigrants, the number of Russian immigrants each year alone would have already exceeded one million people.

For the population of Russia, Arthur only needed those civilians with innocent backgrounds, that is, the former serfs.

For those who have unique ideas, or those who are not very peaceful, they will naturally go through strict selection and will not be allowed to enter the border of Australasia.

Arthur didn't want the future revolution in Russia to burn down the soil of Australasia.What can destroy a country most is not aggression from outside enemies, but chaos from within.

Of course, foreign intelligence personnel are not omnipotent, and it is inevitable that some fish that slip through the net will come to Australasia.

It's just that all immigrants who come to Australasia have to go through an observation period of about half a year.

In the past six months, intelligence personnel, immigration agencies, public security and police stations, and the local government will closely monitor these immigrants. Once any problems are found, the final fate of these immigrants is to go to the mines to work as hard labor for a lifetime.

Don't underestimate Arthur's emphasis on immigration.In 1913 alone, the Australasian government uncovered hundreds of "unstable elements" from among immigrants who were not innocent.

Some people either carried out many illegal actions before immigrating, or they were participants and planners of some revolutions.

Without even thinking about it, these people entered Arthur's blacklist and won the right to work in the mine.

If they want to regain their freedom, they may have to pray that Australasia will become the hegemon of the world as soon as possible, so that Arthur will be happy, and maybe they will be released with a wave of his hand.

Moreover, once these people are verified, they will go through the interrogation stage.If they are found to have come to Australasia with a purpose and in groups, they may be directly shot.

For the stability and security of Australasia, Arthur has an attitude that he would rather kill one thousand by mistake than let one go when it comes to immigration.

Even if he can maintain stability during his own ruling stage, Arthur can't guarantee that without his own suppression, the revolutionary forces in Australasia will not emerge.

Therefore, solving them at the root is the only way Arthur can think of to maintain the stability of the country.

As long as people in Australasia can live a good life and try to prevent the entry of foreign revolutionaries, the security and stability of Australasia can still be guaranteed.

Although Australasia is very underpopulated, it still maintains a six-month observation period limit for each immigrant.

Unless it is a particularly capable technical and scientific research talent, if you want to directly obtain Australasian citizenship, you must make a very significant contribution.

To give a simple example, if there is information about Americans stealing high-tech weapons from the United States, they can also obtain Australasian citizenship.

Of course, such a possibility is very small.Because at present, in all aspects of military technology, the United States does not have a significant lead in Australasia.

But before absorbing European scientists and technical talents, the technology of the United States was at best at the level of the great powers, and even lagged behind the old powers such as Britain, Germany and France in many aspects.

In 1913, the economic development of Australasia was also very rapid.The large population growth is one, and the second is the ongoing infrastructure construction in Australasia, as well as the production of the Leonora industrial base.

In 1913, the Gross National Product (GNP) of Australasia was as high as US$15.78 billion, equivalent to 3.156 million pounds, 6.312 million Australian dollars, with a growth rate of 10.3%.

Although the growth rate is already very good, compared with other major powers, there is still a certain gap.

The rapid growth of GNP is most evident in per capita income.

As of the end of 1913, Australasia's per capita income was 51.7 Australian dollars, behind France, but slightly surpassing Austria-Hungary, Russia and Italy.

It is not uncommon for Russia to lag behind in terms of per capita income.The gray animals are not barking for nothing. No, most civilians in Russia are still in the stage of not having enough food and clothing. It is a problem that the per capita income can catch up with other powers.

As for Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the gap with Australasia is actually not that big, and it has actually been gradually widening.

If it weren't for the population of these two countries being several times that of Australasia, I am afraid that the gross national product of Australasia would have surpassed these two countries long ago.

Although the per capita income of Australasia is still not as good as countries like Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, if we only count the happiness index of the people, Australasia may be able to wrestle with these countries.

Arthur's annual relief fund of millions of Australian dollars is not in vain. Powers such as Britain, France, Germany and the United States cannot prevent people from starving to death and freezing to death.

After all, they have a population of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. Once a corresponding relief policy is promulgated, it will be an unbearable loss to the country's finances.

Australasia has no such troubles.Australasia's population was small when the relief policy was enacted.Based on per capita income and average household income, the number of people in need of relief is very small, and the funds spent are naturally not much.

Although the population has increased now, the income of many people has already exceeded the per capita level.

Coupled with various constructions, there will be no shortage of jobs in the country. Therefore, the number of people in need of relief in Australasia remains in a relatively small range.

Able to eat and clothe warmly, and have a certain amount of savings, and have a happy family.This should be the best wish of most civilians in the world!
In Australasia, this beautiful wish has a high probability of being realized, which is the real reason why Australasians love Arthur and love this country.

The common people really don't want much, and the rulers only need to simply take care of the common people, so as to gain the goodwill and love of the common people.

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(End of this chapter)