Chapter 530: Development of the Murray River Basin
Nearly three years have passed since the end of World War I, but the hidden dangers that World War I brought to countries around the world have not ended yet.
The most troublesome thing for European countries was the placement of soldiers who participated in World War I. Take Britain and France as an example. Britain and France mobilized millions of soldiers during the war. They lost their jobs and did not receive any pensions immediately after the war.
These people have greatly increased the unemployment rate in the UK and France, and are also a security risk to the British and French governments and society.
This is not a small number. The number of soldiers participating in the war in various countries generally reaches hundreds of thousands or even millions. A mistake may lead to serious demonstrations and crises.
This is also a better point in Australasia, because most of the soldiers are composed of indigenous people and only need to pay a small severance pay.
The remaining Australasian soldiers do not need to be laid off at all, and may even undergo a certain scale of military expansion. There is no risk of unemployment at all.
Coupled with the various constructions taking place in the country, Australasia's unemployment rate has become the lowest among the major powers, and it is also one of the most desirable places for immigrants.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate in Britain and France is no longer controllable. Millions of soldiers who have been forcibly discharged, coupled with unemployed workers who have shrunk the military industry, have left millions of unemployed people in Britain and France.
The large number of unemployed people has destroyed social order and stability, and many people have gradually turned to illegal crimes, which has also increased the crime rate in Britain and France in disguise.
Even the United States, thousands of miles away, cannot avoid it. Although the size of the U.S. military in World War I was not high, it also reduced hundreds of thousands of troops after the war.
Coupled with the stigma attached to it during the flu period, the U.S. economy suffered heavy losses.
Under various influences, the unemployment rate in the United States has also increased, and the unemployment crisis has begun to affect the world.
Although it seems that the industries and economies of various countries are recovering, the hidden dangers behind it have proven that this is just the last afterglow before economic collapse.
If Arthur is right, there will still be an economic crisis in the world, and it is destined to have a global impact.
Judging from the current performance of the major victorious countries, basically no country can escape the economic crisis, and even Australasia cannot completely avoid it.
However, if preparations are made in advance, it will only affect the import and export trade volume, and the domestic impact can be controlled.
Although the current economic crisis is still too far away, the economic recession of various countries is already visible to the naked eye.
It is only with the two exceptions of Australasia and the United States that the world economy seems to be improving.
In fact, the European economy has declined much compared to six years ago, at least one-third of Europeans were in a state of not having enough to eat or clothing to keep warm.
This was unthinkable before World War I. Before World War I, Europe had always been synonymous with development and prosperity. Not to mention not having enough food and clothing, in the eyes of other backward regions, Europeans were all rich and only ate good food.
But the current situation is that Germany and Russia, with a combined population of about 200 million, are suffering from a huge food crisis. Other victorious countries also have quite serious unemployment crises. The recession in Europe is visible to the naked eye.
The impact of the economic crisis is chain-linked. In addition to its impact on various industries and enterprises, it will also produce a large number of unemployed people and increase the financial burden of the government.
In an economic crisis, food reserves are a very important part. Arthur's expectation for Australasia is naturally to achieve self-production and self-sufficiency in food at all times, and to become a large country rich in products, rather than a food importing country.
At the end of April 1920, Arthur took a special car again and went to the vicinity of Fort St. Arthur to inspect the development status of the Murray River Basin plain.
As mentioned before, the Murray River Basin plain has millions of square kilometers of land, so naturally Atherburgh is the only city left in this area.
The purpose of Arthur's inspection this time was not Saint Arthur's Castle, but other nearby cities, Balranad.
Balranade is located along the Murray River, about a hundred kilometers east of Fort St. Arthur.
Balranade was a grain reserve city for the new capital, St. Arthur's Castle. In other words, this place is destined to be an agricultural city, and its main purpose is to develop agriculture and serve as a food supply place for the capital, St. Arthur's Castle.
Why was the site chosen here? It can be seen from the map that the hundreds of kilometers of land around Balranad are all extensive plains, and right along the Murray River, there is no shortage of land and water resources.
As a pilot city for the development of the Murray River Basin, Balranade has gathered the efforts of the Australasian government. It must be successfully developed and must be developed to perfection.
After determining the location of Fort Saint-Ansel, Balranade was actually developed earlier than Fort Saint-Ansel.
After the construction of the railway was completed, the government transferred a large number of tractors, installed them on climbing pears and began to cultivate, and tens of thousands of acres of land have been cultivated.
Currently, Balranad has thousands of residents. It will fully implement large-scale automated production, striving to produce more food with less manpower, and even meet the needs of most of the country in the future.
Food production is completely inseparable from water resources. The good news is that because of the Murray River, Balranad and nearby agricultural growing areas basically have no shortage of water resources. But just in case, a water storage area must be built nearby so that there is enough agricultural water at all times.
Seeing the grand agricultural reclamation in Balranad, Arthur was very satisfied.
The flat plains allow tractors to show their talents here, and can also better realize automated agricultural production.
Both Australasia and the United States are very similar to Europe, and naturally have high urbanization rates.
Especially in immigrant countries like this, the per capita land area is very large, which naturally leads to the vastness of farms and the rapid spread of automated agricultural production.
Agricultural automatic production has never been a new term in Europe and the United States. As early as 1830, Americans invented the original harvester, which provided great help to the development of agriculture.
After nearly a hundred years of development, harvesters have become very important to European and American agricultural production. The mechanization of agricultural production is far greater than manpower. This has also liberated a considerable amount of human resources for European and American countries.
Australasian agricultural production has always advocated mechanization, which is the so-called production of more food with less manpower.
Whether it is a tractor or a harvester, as long as it can be used, it is naturally much better than using a lot of manpower for planting and harvesting.
When the Murray River Basin was being developed, it was already determined that agricultural production in this area must be mechanized and eventually move towards full automation.
It is still unclear what these millions of square kilometers of plains can bring to Australasia. It may become Australasia's big granary in the future, supplying most of the food consumption of Australasia.
Speaking of the development of Balranad, the shadow of the royal consortium is still inseparable.
Of course, the current agriculture and animal husbandry industry is managed by the United Group, which is responsible for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in Australasia. It owns a large number of farms and pastures and is currently the largest agricultural and animal husbandry giant in Australasia.
With the technical and personnel support of the United Group, Balranad's agricultural development is still going very smoothly.
In order to attract more immigrants to live in Balranad, the Australasian government has also opened up relevant policies, providing free agricultural technology to the residents of Balranad, and renting tractors and harvesters at low prices.
It is expected that it will take another five years to officially move the capital to St. Arthur's Castle, and these five years are completely sufficient for the development of Balranad.
When it is moved to Fort St. Arthur in the future, Balranad's food output will at least be enough to consume Fort St. Arthur.
In addition to Balranad, there is a city called Berry downstream in the Murray River basin.
Balranad mainly develops agriculture, while Berry mainly develops industry.
Starting from Berry, follow the Murray River for dozens of kilometers to the coastline. In addition, it is close to Adelaide, and railways and roads are quite developed.
With such innate advantages, Berry is very suitable for industrial development, and the related Berry Industrial Zone is also under construction.
Although the total scale is not as large as the Leonora Industrial Base, the complete Berry Industrial Zone can provide at least hundreds of thousands of jobs and accommodate thousands of large and small factories.
Most of Leonora's industrial base is heavy industry and chemical industry, while Berry Industrial Zone focuses on light industry to make up for some of Australasia's shortcomings in light industry.
Leonora Industrial Base and Berry Industrial Base are located to the west and east, one heavy industry and the other light industry, which can support half of Australasia's industry.
Because of the experience in building the Leonora Industrial Base, it is quite simple to build the smaller Berry Industrial Zone.
The construction here can also provide more jobs for Australasia, which can also be regarded as paving the way for the subsequent economic crisis.
Anyway, there is still a lot of infrastructure construction in Australasia. Even if the economic crisis breaks out, we can rely on the large amount of infrastructure construction and use the work-for-relief method to give the unemployed groups a job and be able to support their families.
For the sake of Australasia's ecological environment, Arthur still made relevant requirements when building these industrial zones.
The first is the issue of industrial emissions. Wastewater from industrial production must be purified before it can be discharged into rivers. This is a must.
Sewage discharge equipment must be considered when constructing industrial zones, at least it must not have a huge impact on the ecological environment.
At the same time, air emissions are also a top priority. Arthur didn't want the new capital to become the famous foggy city like London. Not to mention the harm to physical health, even the reputation is not that good.
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(End of chapter)