Chapter 255: Visitors from East Asia
The time has entered May, and Australasia has also ushered in late autumn.
Because the election day is approaching, public speeches can be seen everywhere in Australasia. Even in the two colonies with small populations, speeches by politicians can often be seen.
This is actually not surprising. In order to take care of the wishes of the colonial population, even Portuguese Timor, with a population of only 9,000 people, has one seat in the House of Representatives. New Guinea, with a population of less than 40,000, has two seats. This is why Reasons why politicians travel to these areas.
After all, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. Although there are only one or two seats, the politicians in these colonies are destined to be very few, and their competitiveness will be relatively low.
The city with the most electoral competitiveness is probably the capital Sydney, or the Capital Territory.
The ACT has a population of over one million, but only 40 seats in the House of Representatives.
There's more to Sydney's competitiveness than meets the eye. As the capital and political center of the Kingdom, as well as the seat of the royal family and government, a considerable number of politicians will definitely choose to come to Sydney to give speeches during election times.
If I had to explain it, it would be most appropriate to use the feet of an emperor.
As the capital and seat of the royal family, Sydney's importance is self-evident. If a party can win a majority of seats in Sydney, it will also be good for the competition in the House of Representatives.
Thanks to the supervision of the Election Commission, some party members are prohibited from using illegal means to help their parties, even if they have obtained high ministerial positions.
Public opinion in Australasia is controlled by Arthur and the Propaganda Department. Therefore, the only way for major political parties to seek seats in the House of Representatives is to impress the crowd with their own ideas and speeches.
However, Arthur's attention at this time was not on the public speeches outside, but on a group of guests from afar.
To be precise, these were guests from the Qing Dynasty in East Asia, and the purpose of their visit was actually to learn the concepts and systems of Australasia.
Yes, Arthur was a little surprised that some country would take the initiative to learn from Australasia's system.
Although Australasia's publicity and impression to the outside world has always been that of a parliamentary monarchy, in fact the top leaders of each country know that Australasia is an out-and-out autocratic monarchy.
The degree of absolute monarchy in Australasia even exceeded that of the Russian tsar. When the Tsar promulgated policies and reforms, there would be opposition from deep-rooted interest classes. Australasia was a scattered colony before unification, which also created a good foundation for Arthur's real power and autocracy.
To sum up, on the basis of autocratic monarchy, Australasia does not yet have large-scale opposition and forces. This is simply the plus version of autocratic monarchy.
In theory, the Qing Dynasty was also an autocratic monarchy. If they wanted to change, their target should be the world's top powers like Britain and Germany. Why would they target Australasia?
After Foreign Minister Andrew's explanation, Arthur finally understood the reason.
To put it bluntly, it’s because of power. Although the Qing Dynasty had the idea of reform, this did not mean that they could accept becoming a complete constitutional monarchy.
On the surface, Australasia has achieved a constitutional monarchy and has won the recognition and love of the majority of the people. In fact, it still maintains a complete monarchy, which also makes some people feel excited.
Not only can one's own power not be too restricted, but it can also promote the realization of reform, why not do it?
This is also the reason why this diplomatic mission came to Australasia. To put it bluntly, the top rulers are still greedy for power.
But there are other factors as well. Australasia was just a British colony just a few years ago. Although the economy is relatively developed compared to East Asia, it is not much better, at least at the top level it seems so.
But currently Australasia has mastered the most advanced army, navy equipment and warship manufacturing technology, and its industrial scale has reached a world-class level. This has given some senior officials of the Qing Dynasty the hope of imitation.
As long as it can follow the trajectory of Australasia, it may be able to achieve its own renaissance.
If we could master the manufacturing technology of advanced ironclads from Australasia and then hire relevant experts to train our own army, wouldn't this be a new way to achieve national rejuvenation?
Although Arthur was very dissatisfied with this view, he still received the mission.
There is no other reason. If Australasia can participate in this reform, then forces close to Australasia can also be installed in this country. Australasia can also divide the interests naturally, and at the same time, it is creating a rival for the island country.
It doesn't need to be too powerful, as long as it can continue to restrict the island country to East Asia.
When Australasia gradually begins to expand from Oceania, the island countries will naturally no longer be Australasia's opponents.
In the banquet hall of Sydney Palace, Arthur successfully approached this delegation from afar.
Arthur does not know everyone in the mission, but this does not prevent Arthur from seeking more benefits for Australasia.
"Dear King of Australasia, on behalf of our emperor and the 40,000 people of this country, we would like to extend our sincere greetings to His Majesty the King." After seeing Arthur, the person in charge of the mission greeted Arthur with respect. (It’s better to write less about country names. After all, we all know it, so I’ll just write it down here.)
After a while of Arthur’s seemingly unnecessary pleasantries, the conversation finally got down to business.
"Your Majesty the King, we walked all the way from the port and found that your country is changing rapidly and is now comparable to the major powers in Europe. We are very interested in your country's advanced technology and system. I wonder if we can have the opportunity to have in-depth discussions with your country. Communicate?" the messenger asked.
Arthur was not curious about the envoy's relatively fluent English. After all, the British Empire's sphere of influence was spread all over the world.
However, Arthur would not easily agree to other people's requests before he had enough benefits.
"There is no problem in communicating with each other. But Mr. Ambassador, basically all the technologies and systems in Australasia come from Europe, and we have paid a considerable price for these. Even if I personally want to communicate with your country, I'm afraid Government officials and people also refused." Arthur responded with a smile.
The envoy was not a fool and quickly replied: "This is natural, His Majesty the King. If your country can send experts to assist us in reforming the system, we are willing to pay each expert 10,000 taels of silver per year." Arthur thought in his mind
. After a moment's notice, ten thousand taels of silver was almost more than one thousand four hundred pounds, which was less than about two thousand eight hundred and fifty Australian dollars.
This amount of money is too much. Arthur responded immediately: "Australasia can help your country reform from the aspects of system, industry, economy, military, etc., but the salary of 10,000 taels of silver per person per year is too little. It’s not enough for us to pay these experts. Let’s do this. If your country can increase the salary to 50,000 taels of silver per person per year, then Australasia will send experts to your country until it helps your country’s reform to be completed.” Now that’s it
. If the other party wanted something from someone, Arthur would naturally not be polite, but he didn't open his mouth like a lion.
After all, the number of experts Australasia can send out is at most dozens of people, and it only costs a few million dollars to do so.
The envoy felt a little painful, but for the sake of the subsequent request, he nodded in agreement.
"Your Majesty the King, I wonder how much your country's armored ships cost? Our country also wants to buy a few to fill the gap in maritime power." The envoy continued to ask.
Want to buy a battleship? Arthur was immediately interested.
The profit of a battleship is at least several hundred thousand pounds. Is this much more profitable than sending experts?
Although experts are dispatched to seek political benefits, who doesn’t like the real financial benefits from selling warships?
"I wonder what warship your country is talking about? Our country currently has Sovereign-class battleships, unified battlecruisers, Nassau-class battleships, Braunschweig-class battleships, Duke-class armored cruisers, etc. What is your country's intention?" Se asked with a smile.
No matter what the other party's intention was in ordering warships, Arthur hoped that they would order more warships and give more funds to the naval expansion back and forth in Australasia.
Judging from the cost of building warships, only two battleships need to be exported, and the profits earned can build one battleship.
"This..." The envoy suddenly felt a little confused. He was not a naval official, and his understanding of the navy was also very limited.
This time the mission was attended by naval officials, but they were not qualified to be received by Arthur in person.
Seeing that the envoy remained silent, Arthur continued to promote: "The envoy may not know something. We currently control one of the most advanced and powerful battleships in the world, the Monarch-class battleship. We also control the powerful warship Nassau developed by the German Empire. -class battleship. In addition, the Braunschweig-class battleship is also one of the powerful battleships developed by the German Empire. You must have heard of Germany’s famous ambassador, right? Needless to say, the power of German warships is natural. The various performances of the warships and Equipment users can rest assured."
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(End of chapter)