Chapter 462 Developments in the War and Russian Visitors In
early February 1918, the government made a complete statistics on all the expenses of the war and the current situation in the country, and the final results were reported to Arthur's desk.
Compared with the last census, the population of Australasia has grown to 18.678 million, which is infinitely close to the 20 million population mark.
Now that the war is over, the foreign immigration policies of various countries have gradually resumed. The new year is likely to usher in more immigration growth, thus exceeding the 20 million population mark.
Throughout 1917, Australasia's gross national product reached US$2.24 billion, equivalent to 448 million pounds in pounds and 896 million Australian dollars, with a growth rate of about 7%.
It can be seen from this data that the war had a minimal impact on the development of Australasia.
The war even promoted the development of various industries in Australasia, including the military industry, clothing industry and various light industries, which all benefited from this war.
In 1917, the total fiscal revenue of the Australasian government was 166.1 million Australian dollars. The growth rates in the past two years were 17% and 15% respectively, and the growth rates were very gratifying.
In 1917, the United States joined the war, which indeed took away part of the Australasian market, and also led to a slight decrease in the growth rate of the Australasian government's fiscal revenue. However, the war was ended when the impact was not significant.
In comparison, the government's total fiscal expenditure in the same year also reached 145.5 million Australian dollars, an increase of nearly half compared to before the war.
In 1917, the government's total fiscal surplus was as high as 20.6 million Australian dollars, which was equivalent to six super-dreadnoughts. The financial situation was still very good.
Also very exaggerated is the income of the royal consortium. It is no exaggeration to say that the expansion rate of the royal consortium during the war was not weaker than the growth rate of government fiscal revenue.
If the royal consortium before the war was famous for various heavy industries, then the royal consortium at this time also had many light industries, such as the Royal Clothing Manufacturing Factory, the Royal Military Boots Manufacturing Factory, the Royal Canned Food Factory, etc.
According to statistics from the royal family consortium, during the more than three years of the war, Australasia exported more than 5 million tons of canned products to Europe.
Calculated based on the adult weight of an adult hare ranging from 80 kilograms to 100 kilograms, these cans are equivalent to approximately 120 million hares, which is enough to show the number of wild animals hunted in Australasia in recent years.
There is no way around this. The ecological environment of Australasia is very fragile compared to European countries. After all, Australia is a completely independent continent, and the ecological environment is different from that of Europe and Asia.
In recent years, Australasia has implemented relatively strict environmental protection laws and animal and plant protection laws, and the carnivores of Australasia have been fairly strictly protected, and free hunting is prohibited.
In addition, the government strongly encourages the public to hunt wild animals such as kangaroos, hares, wild boars, and wild camels. These wild animals can be sold to canneries or eaten by themselves.
Basically every month, the government and the royal family will organize a large-scale hunting event, and certain rewards will be given to those with the best hunting results.
In addition to the official hunting operations of the government and the royal family, there are many hunting associations in Australasia that are responsible for hunting wild animals and selling them to canneries to make money.
Don't underestimate the income of these hunting associations and clubs. If you are skilled in hunting, your income can even exceed that of farmers and herdsmen.
Of course, hunting in the wild also carries certain risks, especially in the more dangerous wild environments of Australasia.
But as the saying goes, high risk, high reward, a large number of people are still willing to participate in these hunting activities every year. First, they can relax and secondly, they can earn extra income, and they can also show off in front of their family, friends, and even others. .
In addition, the government has also promulgated relatively strict alien species laws to prevent alien species from damaging the ecological environment of Australasia as much as possible.
Creatures like hares and camels are all exotic species. It is precisely because of the extreme proliferation of hares that a large amount of land has been gnawed and even desertified.
Protecting the environment is one thing Arthur can do for future monarchs, and it is also an important way to protect the land and environment of Australasia.
No matter what, environmental protection and wildlife hunting will continue, and it is urgent to manage the ecological environment of Australasia.
On February 5, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly reported that Grand Duke Paul of Russia was visiting, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was already hosting him.
Arthur nodded and immediately decided to meet Archduke Paul immediately.
In any case, the Australasian royal family and the Russian royal family are related by marriage and are natural allies.
No matter what the circumstances, it is still necessary to see Paul's impartial side. What's more, the Russian monarchy has not yet been overthrown. Whether it is aristocratic etiquette or Queen Mary's side, Arthur must receive the Russian visitor.
In fact, Arthur already knew the purpose of Archduke Paul's visit. Although the Russian monarchy was retained, Nicholas II's power was severely restricted compared to before the civil strife. It can even be said that he did not have many rights and could only live in seclusion in the Winter Palace. This status quo made the ambitious Nicholas II very dissatisfied. Nicholas II had been waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to regain power.
Now that the war is over, the anti-war thoughts of the Russian people have naturally come to an end. As the Russian troops returned home one after another, Nicholas II also regained control of some royalist forces, giving Nicholas II hope of regaining power.
It is not enough to rely solely on the power of Nicholas II and the royalists. After all, in addition to the provisional government, Nicholas II also has a bigger and more serious problem, and that is the Workers' Alliance.
Because of this, Nicholas II wanted to find more allies, such as several countries in the Entente.
In addition, he thought of the joint declaration of European royal families that Arthur had proposed before, so he first thought of Australasia and sent Archduke Paul, who had the closest relationship with Australasia, as a representative.
Grand Duke Paul is the younger brother of Grand Duke Sergei and the youngest son of the late Tsar Alexander II.
In terms of blood relationship, Grand Duke Paul is Queen Mary's biological uncle, and he is also the person who has the closest blood relationship to Queen Mary except Grand Duke Sergei.
And, of course, Queen Mary's brother. But the young man was not very convincing after all, so Nicholas II decided to send Archduke Paul as a representative.
As for Queen Mary's adoptive father, Arthur's nominal father-in-law, Grand Duke Sergei, was killed by a bomb in an attack and has already entered heaven.
Arthur and Archduke Paul had only met a few times and were not very familiar with each other.
But Archduke Paul received instructions from Nicholas II, and he played the emotional card as soon as they met. He asked about Queen Mary's condition many times, and expressed Nicholas II's feelings for Arthur, Queen Mary, William, and Anna, princes and princesses. of concern.
"Your Majesty! Russia needs your help, and the Romanov family also needs your help!" After a while of greetings, Archduke Paul got back to business and mentioned his true intention of coming to Australasia.
"Where do you start talking about this? Grand Duke Paul. As far as I know, although the civil strife has had a certain impact on the rule of the Romanov family, the status of your royal family is still stable and it does not seem to need the help of Australasia. Arthur raised his eyebrows, pretending to be surprised, and asked.
"Your Majesty, you know that Russia made great contributions to the Allies in this war. But some damn rebels took advantage of the deployment of the army on the front line and rashly launched a rebellion and captured government departments and winter buildings. Palace. Although His Majesty temporarily surrendered to these rebels, he never wanted to restore the rule of the Romanov family. For the Russian people, the monarchy is bright. Only under the leadership of the great His Majesty Nicholas, under the Romanov Only under the rule of the husband's family can Russia bloom again." Archduke Paul knew that Arthur and Australasia were no longer what they were before, and they were countries that even pre-war Russia needed to pay attention to.
Apart from anything else, the status of the four major powers of the Allied Powers alone is enough to attract the attention of any country in the world.
Although the strength still lags behind Britain, France and Russia, it is already on an equal footing with Britain, France and Russia, and can sit at the same negotiating table to carve up the interests of the Allied Powers, instead of being like Italy who can only wait for notification of the meeting.
Arthur nodded in understanding.
In fact, this is indeed the case. Russia's millions of troops are all on the front line. This is why the rebels were able to quickly attack St. Petersburg and the Winter Palace.
But in fact, Nicholas II also made frequent mistakes. As long as he did a few stupid things, so many workers and civilians would not have joined the previous rebellion.
Seeing Arthur nodded, Archduke Paul felt happy and said quickly: "Your Majesty, for the sake of the Russia-Australia alliance, for the sake of the marriage between the royal families of the two countries, and for the sake of the joint declaration of the European royal families, please ask your Majesty Support His Majesty Nicholas to regain power, abolish the Provisional Government, and eliminate the Moscow regime established by the Workers' Alliance without authorization, so that the great and glorious monarchy with a long history can return to the entire Russia." "Grand Duke Paul, just tell me what you need
. Support?" Arthur asked directly.
Things don't look too bright for the monarchy, at least for Russia right now. As long as the monarchy and Nicholas II gave the people hope, rebellions on this scale would not break out across Russia.
But in any case, with the marriage relationship between the two countries, the declaration of a joint European royal family proposed by Arthur himself, and out of consideration for the interests of Australasia, it is still necessary to maintain a Russia with a monarchy.
Monarchical Russia is an ally of Australasia, but republican Russia is uncontrollable.
Looking at it this way, it becomes very clear how to choose. However, support is support, and it is limited to providing weapons, equipment and funds, and the scope of support must be within the range that Arthur can accept.
After all, Arthur was not a philanthropist, and he had no intention of spending a lot of money and development time in Australasia to make wedding dresses for the Romanov family and Nicholas II.
If Nikola can also win over Britain and Italy, Arthur would not mind helping Britain and Italy and contributing a little more.
But if it is just Australasia that helps Russia, then it can only be friendly help, and the amount depends on Arthur's mood.
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(End of chapter)