Chapter 291 The Focus of the World - Morocco
Of course, although it seems that the per capita cultivated land area has only increased by 0.02 acres, the total cultivated land area has increased by a full 2.18 million acres.
After all, the population has increased by more than 900,000. If the per capita cultivated land area is to be maintained at the same level, a large amount of cultivated land must be cultivated.
Thanks to the increase in cultivated land area, Australasia's grain output also experienced a considerable increase in 1910, exceeding 9.6 million tons.
This puts Australasia’s grain production just one step away from 10 million tons. When the population exceeds 10 million next year, grain production should also exceed 10 million.
But throughout 1910, Australasia's national grain consumption was less than 2.9 million tons. This also means that Australasia can export 6 million tons of grain every year, which is not a small income.
Of course, because of the further trade agreement signed with the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom has become the main target of Australasian grain exports.
Australasia exports at least 2 million tons of grain to the UK every year, which also proves the current close relationship between the UK and Australasia.
This is the current development situation of the government. As for the current development situation of the royal family consortium, Arthur can only say that it is a giant.
After the cabinet meeting, and after a report from the Kent steward, Arthur realized how huge the current royal consortium was for Australasia.
Of course, the royal family consortium last year was already large enough, and this year it has expanded a lot on the basis of last year.
At present, the royal consortium has founded hundreds of factories and enterprises, and controls thousands of factories and enterprises.
All enterprises and factories managed by the royal consortium have more than 500,000 employees, spread across every state, field and industry in Australasia.
In 1910, the royal family's net profit reached 54.31 million Australian dollars, after deducting nearly 10 million Australian dollars in taxes to the government.
The difference between the royal family's net income and the country's total fiscal revenue is only 10 million Australian dollars, which is enough to show how large the royal family's current business in Australasia is.
It is no exaggeration to say that as long as Arthur wants, the net income of the royal family can exceed the country's total fiscal revenue at any time.
However, the royal consortium only controls some of the more important industries in Australasia, such as heavy industry, petroleum, chemical industry, military industry, etc. The royal consortium does not have much involvement in some civilian industries and fields. After all, it must be given to Australasia. People a little chance.
If there were a current ranking of the world's top 500 companies, Arthur believed that his royal consortium would definitely rank among the top ten in the world.
A company with a net profit of 54 million Australian dollars, or 27 million pounds, is a drop in the bucket in the current era. This income can even exceed that of some small and medium-sized European countries.
In mid-January 1911, the diplomatic team sent by Chile finally arrived in Australasia again to inspect the Hope-class battleship designed in Australasia.
This time the Chilean diplomatic team has several more naval generals and high-level government officials, and they are obviously very interested in the new battleships that Australasia said are particularly powerful.
To be honest, apart from the gap between the expectations of the Chileans, the Hope-class battleships are basically the same as or even exceed the requirements of the Chileans in terms of firepower, power and armor protection.
The Chileans' final stubbornness about tonnage was defeated by Defense Minister Raul's statement that tonnage was not as good as combat effectiveness.
However, this is indeed a truth. Instead of blindly pursuing the tonnage and volume of warships, it is better to focus on the speed, firepower and protection capabilities of warships.
No matter how large a warship is, if it lacks combat effectiveness, it will become a living target in naval battles and may sink the fastest.
After a week of negotiations and discussions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chilean mission, the final naval order was finally confirmed.
Chile invested a total of 5 million pounds, or 10 million Australian dollars, to purchase two Hope-class battleships, six Duke-class frigates, and two German submarines.
The order is expected to start in the middle of this year, with two submarines delivered no later than mid-1913, six frigates no later than mid-1914, and two Hope-class battleships no later than the end of 1915.
Generally speaking, the time for this warship order is still very generous, enough for the Royal Shipyard to complete the Russian warship order while also taking into account the production of the Chilean warship order.
Of course, this also has a disadvantage, that is, at least before 1914, the Royal Dockyard did not have much spare time to build Australasia's own warships.
But these are all minor problems. When all European countries were busy with the war during World War I, Australasia had plenty of time and funds to build its own strategy, and was not in a hurry at all.
The two Hope-class battleships were excitedly named Admiral La Torre and Admiral Corcoran by the Chileans. This may be the dream of a small country's navy to rise!
I have to lament that although the countries in South America are not very large, they are very willing to invest in the military, especially the navy.
After the warship order was signed, Arthur got a short period of free time. But at this time, Arthur is waiting for news from Europe.
According to the Royal Security Intelligence Service, the Moroccan crisis should happen soon. Of course, this is not Arthur's prediction.
In fact, the situation in Morocco has not been very good in recent years. Due to weather conditions, Morocco has encountered a rare severe drought, which has caused agriculture in many areas to face a crisis, with crops failing and farmers miserable.
Coupled with the short-sightedness of the Sudanese government and the corruption of some officials, the disaster was obvious, but there was no means of disaster relief. Instead, some taxes were increased, causing the lower class people to be very dissatisfied, and riots to resist taxation continued one after another.
On the other hand, France has taken control of Moroccan politics since the first Moroccan crisis.
A large number of French products have impacted Morocco's local economy, causing numerous handicraftsmen in Morocco to go bankrupt one after another, causing most of the middle class to become dissatisfied with the government.
The middle-level and lower-level civilians have been offended, and the top management and the government are so corrupt that the chaos in the country can be imagined.
In January 1911, a large-scale uprising broke out in Morocco. People who were dissatisfied with the government and Sudan besieged some cities under the banner of overthrowing the government.
This wave of uprising swept across most of Morocco, making the French government behind Morocco unable to sit still.
Because in addition to opposing the Sudan in the name of these rebels, some of the rebels also opposed the French invaders in the name.
If these rebels were allowed to overthrow the Sudanese government, wouldn't their next target become the French colonists?
In February 1911, the severe situation in Morocco made the French unable to sit still. On the pretext of protecting expatriates and restoring order in Morocco, the French government sent troops to occupy Fes and some nearby cities.
Facing the French front, the small Moroccan army had no resistance at all. The vast majority of the rebel army, composed of ordinary people, was no match for the French army. When facing the French army, it could be said to be defeated.
At the same time as the French were acting, Spain also sent troops to the north of Morocco, which also caused Morocco's actual independent status to be lost.
The French's actions in Morocco caused dissatisfaction in some European countries. The most dissatisfied among them was the German Empire.
Because of such actions by the French, they openly violated the Treaty of Algeciras signed five years ago due to the first Moroccan crisis.
Although long before the French took action, French Ambassador to Germany Cambon notified German Foreign Minister Kidron, expressing France's decision to send troops to Morocco.
But the problem was that Kidron clearly expressed his opposition at the time, believing that the French sending troops would not only undermine the agreement in Algeciras, but would also arouse more intense resistance from the Moroccans and cause dissatisfaction among the German people.
When talking about the dissatisfaction of the German people, German Foreign Minister Kidron also strengthened his tone to express Germany's attitude.
The German point of view is that they hope that the French can postpone the military occupation and have a good discussion with the German government on this matter.
In fact, the overt and covert intention is to let the French make some concessions in other places. After all, everything is easy to negotiate, as long as the benefits are sufficient.
But what the Germans didn't expect was that they thought the French would make concessions elsewhere. Unexpectedly, the French maintained their usual tough attitude and even directly sent troops to interfere with the order in Morocco without notifying Germany.
This not only invalidated the previously signed Algeciras Agreement, but also slapped the Germans hard.
After all, Germany is said to be the second largest power in the world. The French directly stabbed Germany in the back in Morocco. Where should the Germans put their faces?
As it happened, William II's temper was not that good. Germany also had many interests in Morocco. The French did not care about Germany's interests in Morocco at all. Not to mention William II, the angry German people were enough to change the attitude of the German government.
But the question is, does France dare to make concessions now? The French government's tough attitude makes the French very satisfied. After all, Germany is a country that was unified by stepping on the French talents decades ago.
If the French government quickly compromises with the Germans, I am afraid that the disappointed French people will not mind directly changing the cabinet.
You know, France is a country with an old revolutionary tradition. The French cabinet is not willing to test the bottom line of the people, they really dare to rebel!
The German side requires the German government to take corresponding actions to safeguard the interests of the German people due to the constant pressure on the government from German public opinion circles and monopoly organizations.
Under such high pressure, in order to force the French to make major concessions to Germany at least on the issue of compensation, Foreign Minister Kidron presented Kaiser Wilhelm II with a clever plan, which was to protect German expatriates and these expatriates. Its commercial interests are to send warships to the important ports of Agadir and Mogador in Morocco.
If such important collateral can be grasped, the Germans can watch the further development of the Moroccan incident with peace of mind, and even wait for the French may propose to use part of the colony in exchange for compensation for the Germans leaving these two ports.
Kidron's calculations were very loud. Now the chaotic Morocco has two bargaining chips. If the French want to unify their interests in Morocco, they must exchange colonies in other regions for these two ports.
But the question is, will the Germans' direct dispatch of troops really not directly escalate the severity of the incident?
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(End of chapter)