Chapter 337 Comparison of the Strengths of Countries The
current ranking of the total fiscal revenue of the world's major powers is as follows: the
British Empire's total fiscal revenue is 200 million pounds, and its total fiscal expenditure is 198 million pounds, achieving a fiscal surplus of 2 million pounds.
The total revenue of the colonies of the British Empire was 185 million pounds, and the total fiscal expenditure was 173 million pounds, achieving a fiscal surplus of 12 million pounds.
The total fiscal revenue of the United States was 151 million pounds, the total fiscal expenditure was 153 million pounds, and the fiscal loss was 2 million pounds.
Germany's total fiscal revenue is 150 million pounds, total fiscal expenditure is 220 million pounds, and the fiscal loss is approximately 70 million pounds.
France’s total fiscal revenue is 145 million pounds, total fiscal expenditure is 200 million pounds, and the fiscal loss is approximately 55 million pounds.
The total fiscal revenue of the French colony was 55 million pounds, the total fiscal expenditure was 51 million pounds, and the fiscal surplus was 4 million pounds.
Russia's total fiscal revenue is 130 million pounds, total fiscal expenditure is 185 million pounds, and fiscal loss is 55 million pounds.
The total fiscal revenue of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was 75 million pounds, the total fiscal expenditure was 110 million pounds, and the fiscal loss was 35 million pounds.
The island country’s total fiscal revenue is 53 million pounds, its total fiscal expenditure is 60 million pounds, and its fiscal loss is approximately 7 million pounds.
Italy's total fiscal revenue is 40 million pounds, total fiscal expenditure is 55 million pounds, and the loss is approximately 15 million pounds.
The total fiscal revenue of the Ottoman Empire was 26 million pounds, the total fiscal expenditure was 40 million pounds, and the loss was 14 million pounds.
Because of the continuous naval arms race and army expansion, major European powers generally faced financial losses.
But there is nothing we can do about it. After all, as long as we stop expanding our military, the arms gap with other countries will widen.
For the major European powers, financial losses are certainly not appropriate, but the growing gap between them and their enemies is unacceptable.
If the war is won, everything can be gained, and naturally there is no need to worry about small financial losses. Once the war is lost, even if a large amount of wealth is accumulated, it will be plundered and misappropriated by others.
It is a good thing that Australasia's current fiscal situation has always been in surplus. This means that even if Australasia's fiscal expenditures grow rapidly in the future, the fiscal losses faced will not be too serious.
Industrial development is also very rapid. Although the growth of steel production has slowed down, in 1912, the total steel production in Australasia also reached 1.701 million tons and 2.7192 million tons respectively.
Australasia's current steel output ranks seventh in the world behind the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The scale of total steel production is almost at this level. In terms of steel production, it has completely surpassed the two lowest powers, the island country and Italy.
Although the total steel production does not fully represent the industrial level, it is also one of the important criteria for judging the industrial level.
At present, compared with Italy and island countries, Australasia has considerable advantages in economy, industry and other aspects in addition to its obvious disadvantages in population.
Even in terms of army and navy technology, Arthur is confident that he is one level ahead of Italy and the island countries.
Australia's coal output, which is closely related to industry, has also surpassed island countries and Italy.
According to the current information disclosed by various countries around the world, the country with the largest total coal production in the world should be the United States, with an annual coal production of up to 530 million tons.
Next in order are:
second place, Russia with 360 million tons.
In third place, Germany has 277.2 million tons.
In fourth place, the UK has 210.5 million tons.
Fifth place, Austria-Hungary with 54.2 million tons.
In sixth place, France has 40.8 million tons.
Seventh place, Australasia, 37.7 million tons.
In eighth place, the island country has 7.8 million tons.
In ninth place, Italy has 700,000 tons.
What is different from history is that Britain's coal production should have exceeded Germany's in history. However, due to the separation of Australasia, the British Empire lost an important mineral resource producing area, so its coal production was lower than Germany's.
Australasia's mineral resource reserves are not inferior to any other country, but the real reason for limiting Australasia's coal production is actually that the scale of Australasia's domestic market is not large.
First of all, the climate in Australasia is not that extreme. The hottest temperature in summer is generally over 20 degrees, and the coldest temperature in winter is generally around zero degrees.
This has led to low demand for coal for heating in Australasia, where the real use of coal is for industry and power generation.
But much of Australasia's industrial equipment runs on electricity, again reducing demand for coal.
In addition, the government does not need to sell mineral resources in exchange for funds, so Australasia's coal production has been stable at a sufficient level.
If calculated based on the total reserves of various types of coal in Australasia, based on the current mining rate, it is enough for domestic mining in Australasia for thousands of years.
However, with the development of domestic population and various construction economies, the demand for coal is bound to become higher and higher.
However, based on the coal reserves in Australasia, they will basically be inexhaustible within hundreds to thousands of years.
In addition to the most basic coal production and steel production, due to the construction of the first and second phases of the Leonora Industrial Base and the vigorous encouragement of various industries, Arthur believes that Australasia's industry has already caught up. Even catching up with Italy, at least at the industrial and economic level, Australasia already has the strength of the great powers.
The current influence of powerful countries on the world can be seen from the current proportion of world industrial production occupied by various countries in the world.
The ranking of the world's industrial share of each country is as follows:
the United States accounts for 31.8%,
Germany accounts for 14.8%,
the United Kingdom accounts for 13.6 %
, Russia accounts for 8%,
France accounts for 6%,
Austria-Hungary accounts for 4.4%,
Australasia accounts for 3.7%
Italy accounts for 2.2%
and island countries account for more than 1%
. Their industrial production accounts for 85.5% of the world's industrial production, and the remaining 14.5% is divided among dozens of countries and regions.
In fact, comparing all ranking lists, it can be clearly found that, except for the German Empire, there are obvious gaps between the other countries of the Allied Powers and the three major countries of the Entente.
Although Germany has been catching up with Britain in terms of industry and economy, the more difficult problem is that the industrial economies of Austria-Hungary and Italy combined are no match for France.
In terms of population size, industrial scale and economic foundation, the strength gap between the Allies and the Entente is not small.
If Germany's army was not too powerful, I am afraid that the First World War in history would have ended soon.
With the expansion of the armies and navies of the major European powers, the total number of armies and navies of European countries has increased significantly compared with a few years ago.
The current ranking of the total number of armies of major countries in the world:
Russia 1.468 million
France 967,000
Germany 944,000
Austria-Hungary 726,000 United Kingdom
640,000 Italy 600,000 Ottoman Empire 450,000
Island countries 370,000 Australasia 222,000 Romania 200,000 United States 164,000 Russia With a sufficient population, it has naturally achieved the status of having the largest army among the major powers. However, Russian soldiers are generally poorly trained, many soldiers' equipment is also very backward, and their overall combat effectiveness is not strong. The United States, which currently has the lowest number of soldiers among the major powers, actually does not pay much attention to the army. Relying on its superior geographical environment, as long as the U.S. Navy has sufficient scale, it can ensure the security of the U.S. homeland. This is especially true after the strength of the Canadian Territory in the north of the United States and Mexico in the south has weakened. The United States is currently the strongest country in North America, so there is really no need to expand the size of the army. Of course, there is another point that is more important, that is, the military technology of the United States is not developed, and the combat effectiveness of the army and navy is actually not high. Even if the United States has an army of hundreds of thousands, it may not be a match for the European army of more than 100,000. In fact, it can be seen from these rankings that Australasia's comprehensive strength has met the requirements of the great powers. This is the real reason why European media and some countries claim that Australasia is the eighth great power. In addition to being more optimistic about white people than island countries, Australasia's own good strength is also an important factor. Of course, when it comes to the strength of the army, the combat effectiveness recognized by the army is also an important measuring factor. Among all the countries in the world, the one recognized as having the strongest combat effectiveness is of course the German Empire, which is currently the world's most well-deserved army power. There is no doubt about the powerful combat effectiveness of the German Empire's army, and it does not need any explanation or explanation at all. Under the German Imperial Army, the French Army should be ranked second in the world. The French army is also recognized as the second-largest in the world. Although it was defeated by the Germans decades ago, it was still the previous European hegemon and the strongest army. An emaciated camel is bigger than a horse, not to mention that this camel in France is not emaciated yet, it is just simply malnourished. Apart from Germany and France, the country with the third largest army in combat effectiveness is somewhat difficult to confirm. European media have different opinions on this. Some support Russia, which has a very large army, some support the former Central European hegemon, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and some are optimistic about Australasia. In short, there are different opinions. But if we don't look at the numerical advantage of the Russian army and only calculate the combat effectiveness, Russia will definitely miss the third place. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's army also had a shortcoming, that is, the army composed of Germans was very powerful, while the combat effectiveness of the army composed of other ethnic groups was not strong. Their military equipment and training are pretty good, but the complicated ethnic distribution makes it very troublesome to pass military orders between the armies. The terrible thing is that often the soldiers in a company come from many nationalities and cannot communicate with each other, let alone cooperate well in combat. Therefore, when Arthur made the list in his mind, he deservedly ranked Australasia as the third largest army in the world (only looking at combat effectiveness). If you take into account the various military technologies that Australasia currently possesses, even the Australasian Army and the German Army can touch it, so Arthur's ranking is not wrong. If it weren't for the fact that the French army performed very well in World War I, Arthur would even rank Australasia's army second in the world in terms of combat effectiveness. Under Australasia, if we only talk about army combat effectiveness, it should be the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fifth in combat effectiveness should be the island country. Russia was ranked sixth by Arthur. The reason is actually very simple. In the Russo-Japanese War a few years ago, the performance of the Russian army in the Far East was really worrying, which even made people doubt the real combat capability of the Russian army. Although the Russians have purchased a large amount of weapons and equipment from Australasia in recent years. But if the training level and material supply of the soldiers are not solved, Arthur is still not optimistic that their individual combat capabilities can surpass those of the island countries. However, after all, the Russians have a standing army of more than one million people, and there is no problem that their overall army strength exceeds that of the island countries. There is no need to rank the remaining national armies' combat capabilities. The armies' combat capabilities of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy are all half-assed. Except for the combat effectiveness of some elite troops, which are acceptable, the combat capabilities of the regular army are simply a mess. Of course, Arthur's ranking list of army combat effectiveness is only based on the current situation disclosed by various countries, as well as the previous wars and historical performance of various countries. There may be some differences in the specific situation, but it should not be much different. In fact, the armies of the European powers in this era, except for France and Germany, which are truly elite, the combat effectiveness of the armies of other countries is hard to describe, and they all have more or less shortcomings. But for European countries, having a large population is also an advantage. If the overall strength of the army is calculated based on the size of the army and the combat effectiveness of the army, then the ranking of the army's combat effectiveness will also undergo considerable changes. The comprehensive strength of the Army, if calculated according to the number of active and reserve forces, the expected combat effectiveness of the Army, the equipment level and training level of the active army, is ranked as follows: Germany is still the well-deserved number one in the world, with more than 900,000 standing troops Coupled with millions of reserve troops, Germany has become one of the countries with the most powerful army in the world. France remains in second place. France has a standing army that is slightly larger than Germany's, and also has a reserve force numbering in the millions. Although there is a gap in combat effectiveness compared to the German army, it has advantages over other countries. The third largest army in terms of comprehensive strength is Tsarist Russia, which has more than 1.4 million standing troops. Tsarist Russia also has tens of millions of reserve troops. Even if the equipment level and training quality are very poor, the human sea tactics alone are enough to rank the Russian army third in the world. Of course, if the turbulent situation in Russia is not taken into account, Russia's comprehensive army strength can even surpass France. But unfortunately, judging from Arthur's situation, the situation in Russia is not wonderful. This has greatly affected the combat effectiveness of the Russian Army. After all, if the government is gone, who will the Army fight for? Ranking fourth in terms of overall army strength is Germany's only reliable ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire had more than 700,000 standing troops, plus millions of reserve troops. The army equipment is quite excellent. If the language communication problem caused by the large number of ethnic groups can be solved, I am afraid that the Austro-Hungarian Empire can really become a powerful ally of Germany.
Arthur ranked the comprehensive strength of the Australasian army fifth in the world. Although Australasia only has 220,000 standing troops, if the army is recruited recklessly, it can also explode into millions of troops.
Coupled with the various army technologies hidden by Arthur, it is not too much to occupy the fifth position in the world.
After Australasia, the sixth largest army in the world should be able to fall on the head of the British Empire.
There is no other reason. The British Empire has hundreds of millions of people in its mainland and colonies, which also means that it has tens of millions of inexhaustible cannon fodder.
These cannon fodder alone are enough to bring the British Empire's army strength to a big level. It is fully capable of spending with the above five countries to win the final victory of the war.
The seventh army power has to fall on the island country. Although the island country has been excluded from the ranks of the great powers by many European media and countries, it cannot be denied that the island country's army combat effectiveness is still average among the great powers, much stronger than countries like Italy and the United Kingdom.
If the island country can solve the problems of backward equipment and small industrial scale, the strength of the army will still be considerable.
The world's eighth most powerful army, it went round and round and was barely ranked behind Italy.
The reason why Italy can become the eighth most powerful army in the world does not mean that it has the strength of the eighth most powerful army in the world, but that the national army will become weaker after that. In other words, it all depends on the support of its peers.
After Italy, the ninth and tenth army powers in the world are the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria respectively.
Although Bulgaria defeated the Ottoman Empire in the previous Balkan War, this relied on the full cooperation of the Balkan Alliance and the reason why the Ottoman Turkish Empire was contained by Italy.
If Bulgaria's army strength is compared with that of the Ottoman Empire alone, although its combat effectiveness is indeed higher than that of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire also has a larger population.
Again, before there is an obvious technological gap, the power of human sea tactics is not small.
Outside of the top ten, countries such as Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece that performed well in the Balkan War are all qualified to be among the top fifteen in terms of army strength in the world.
Of course, this list mainly records the great powers and European countries. Otherwise, a large country in Asia with the largest population in the world could also be on the list by relying on the human wave tactics.
As for the United States, which has the status and strength of a great power, its comprehensive army strength is really not as strong as that of countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria.
It is difficult to judge the comprehensive strength of the army, but it is easier to judge the comprehensive strength of the navy.
Simply put, the overall strength of the navy can be judged by the total tonnage of warships and the number of capital ships.
The total tonnage of a warship represents the number of warships, while the number of capital ships determines the true combat effectiveness of the navy.
At present, the total tonnage of navies of all countries in the world, the British Empire occupies the first place, as high as 2.51 million tons.
Germany ranks second, with a total naval tonnage of 1.17 million tons.
The United States occupies third place, with a total naval tonnage of 840,000 tons.
France occupies fourth place, with a total naval tonnage of 800,000 tons.
Russia occupies fifth place, with a total naval tonnage of 600,000 tons.
The island country occupies sixth place, with a total naval fleet of 510,000 tons.
Italy occupies seventh place, with a total naval tonnage of 390,000 tons.
Austria-Hungary occupies eighth place, with a total naval tonnage of 190,000 tons.
Australasia occupies the ninth position, with a total naval tonnage of 150,000 tons.
Although there is still a clear gap between Australasia and the European powers in terms of total naval tonnage, if we only look at dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts, the number of dreadnoughts in Australasia ranks among the top five in the world.
Even in terms of the true combat effectiveness of the navy, Arthur is confident that it will surpass the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy.
There is no other reason. These two countries even have very few dreadnoughts, and their naval combat effectiveness will definitely be greatly reduced compared to their naval tonnage.
Even island countries that currently lack the support of the British Empire have the tonnage of previous old battleships, but the dreadnoughts they plan to build have not yet entered service.
Australasia's three dreadnoughts and two battlecruisers may not be a match for the island nation's eight old battleships.
Even if the default combat effectiveness of one battleship is equal to two old-fashioned battleships, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of Australasia's navy exceeds that of the island country's navy.
This can only be said that scientific and technological progress has brought great progress to the strength of the army and navy. After the birth of the dreadnought, the role of old battleships has been infinitely reduced.
After the birth of the super-dreadnought, the importance of the dreadnought has also been reduced a lot.
Currently, before calculating a country's naval combat effectiveness, priority will be given to the number of super-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts it possesses.
The number of dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts can basically represent the true strength level of a country's fleet.
A country with dreadnoughts is not necessarily a country with top naval power, but a country with top naval power must have dreadnoughts.
The current two main battleships, the dreadnought and the super-dreadnought, have become naval weapons that can be ignored but must be available to the European powers and the world's naval powers.
If you want to become a recognized naval power, it has become common sense to have dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts of a certain scale.
The reason why the island country lost to Australasia in terms of military strength and was robbed of the title of the eighth power by Australasia is because so far, the island country has not been able to possess a dreadnought of its own.
Australasia has not only equipped its own dreadnoughts early on, but is currently building super-dreadnoughts for other countries.
The gap between the two is already very huge, which makes the island country almost naturally lose its status as a great power.
There is bad news for Australasia, that is, as of the end of 1912, the per capita cultivated land area in Australasia has decreased, from the original 2.3 acres of cultivated land per capita to 2.1 acres.
But this is a matter of course. After all, with the development of major cities, coupled with various industries and construction, a large number of immigrants and rural people will be attracted to the city and become the city's resident population.
Except for some large-scale private farms, among all the immigrants in Australasia, not many choose to engage in agriculture, accounting for only about a quarter of the total immigrants.
However, although the per capita cultivated land area has decreased, the total cultivated land area in Australasia still reached 25.43 million acres, an expansion of nearly 6 million acres compared with three or four years ago.
Because Arthur continues to emphasize the importance of food, Australasia's food production and total cultivated land area are also growing.
Thanks to the increase in total cultivated land area, Australasia's total grain output reached more than 11.58 million tons throughout 1912. After grain output exceeded 10 million tons the previous year, it reached a new high this year.
The size of Australasia's strategic grain reserves has also increased from 2 million tons a few years ago to 10 million tons.
Of course, the reason for such high grain reserves is that the government has suspended many plans to export grain.
In this way, the government's fiscal revenue has been reduced a lot, and it has even spent a lot of money to purchase grain from farmers.
Generally speaking, only food that has been stored for too long will be sold as appropriate.
Other grains have to be hoarded, waiting for the future European war to start, and then sold to European countries at higher prices.
How exaggerated is 10 million tons of grain reserves? You know, the current total annual grain consumption in Australasia basically does not exceed 3 million tons.
This means that based on Australasia’s current strategic grain reserves, it is completely enough to feed the entire country for three years.
In the past three years, Australasia's grain production will continue to expand. To use a more considerate word, it means that there is no way to eat it all.
The good news is that in this era Australasians had just emerged from poverty and hunger, so food waste was still rare.
Large-scale extravagance and waste basically do not exist, which also reduces people’s food consumption to a certain extent.
In 1912, out of 11.58 million tons of grain, only less than 2 million tons were exported. Coupled with the more than two million tons consumed domestically, this year alone has increased the government's strategic grain reserves by nearly 7 million tons.
Of course, Australasia's current reduction in grain exports will not have a big impact on world grain prices.
After all, European countries have extensive colonies, and many countries surrounding Germany are also European food exporters. European countries basically do not have to worry about food problems.
Even if food prices will rise, the increase will not be much, so European countries don't care much.
Even countries like Britain and France would like to see this happen.
After all, Britain and France both had extensive colonies, but it only cost a little more transportation costs, so there was basically no shortage of food.
But Germany is different. If you want to have enough food, you have to buy it from neighboring countries at a high price.
Except for the relatively favorable food prices in the ally Austria-Hungary, food prices elsewhere will rise a bit, which also means more costs.
After all, Germany has a population of tens of millions, and its annual food consumption is not a small figure.
Although Australasia's external exports of grain have reduced, the external exports of meat have not decreased much.
After all, the livestock industry in Australasia is too huge, and there is no need to make a fuss about meat exports.
After all, judging from the more than 200 million sheep, tens of millions of cattle and countless other livestock animals in Australasia, there will be no shortage of meat at any time.
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(End of chapter)