Chapter 307 Military Layout of 1912 (Monthly Ticket Request!)

On December 31, just a few days after the Christmas holiday, the Australian government entered into a tense political affairs again.

The last day of the year is often the time for the annual report meeting of the cabinet government.

But because the new cabinet government has just been working for a few months, the summary is also for the previous cabinet government, so the content of the annual report is still relatively small.

Of course, the top priority of this meeting is actually the planning of the new cabinet government for its term of office.

Because of the chaotic situation in Europe and around the world, no one can be sure whether the war will come tomorrow.

This also means that the task of the fourth cabinet government is extremely arduous, and even during their term of office, they may experience a world war that the world has never seen before.

This also means that the role of the fourth cabinet government is very important. If you are not careful, a wrong choice may burn the country's ten years of development.

Although the history of later generations can give Arthur many experiences and lessons, who can guarantee that the development of this world will be like the history of later generations?

Will Italy change jobs? Will the United States join the war? Will a revolution break out in Russia?

Apart from these three issues, Australasia itself is also a factor that Arthur is not sure about.

Theoretically, Australasia can provide some help to whichever side it joins, and even change the direction of the future war to a certain extent.

But Arthur's goal is more than that. Arthur's plan is to make Australasia gain a higher international status in this war, absorb the achievements of the defeated countries, and at least become a chess player rather than a chess piece after the First World War.

Although the annual report meeting has been greatly streamlined, the reports are basically more important news.

As of December 31, 1911, the population of Australasia has officially reached more than 10.51 million, the population of Australia is 8.27 million, and the population of New Zealand is 2.14 million.

The populations of the New Guinea Colony, Australian Timor, and the Royal Territory are 73,000, 19,000, and 8,000 respectively.

Australasia also officially has the second city with a population of over one million, Melbourne.

Melbourne has a population of more than 1.04 million people so far. It is the second largest economic center in Australasia after Sydney. It is known as the two brightest pearls in Oceania together with Sydney.

After more than ten years of development, at least in the cities of Australasia, the development level has initially caught up with ordinary cities in Europe.

And cities with a population of one million, such as Sydney and Melbourne, are no less developed than first-class cities in Europe in terms of scale and level of development.

In fact, this is normal. After all, to put it bluntly, the current situation in Australasia is to develop these two cities with the strength of the whole country.

It is difficult for these two cities to find rivals in Australasia, which has also created the current dominant position of the two cities in Australasia.

Even under the advice of Minister Grant, Arthur has already formulated and promulgated relevant immigration laws, vigorously encouraging immigration in remote areas, colonies, small cities, etc., and reducing welfare benefits for big cities to a certain extent.

But this still cannot stop more than 40% of the nearly one million immigrants each year from choosing to stay in big cities, or at least go to cities with hundreds of thousands of people like the capitals of each state.

After all, only big cities can have more jobs and more development opportunities waiting for these immigrants to find.

What else can small cities do? Except for the special existence of Leonora Industrial Base, most small cities are only engaged in agricultural development, and at most they are just farmers.

Immigrants have a dream of getting rich quickly, and they are not happy to be farmers honestly.

A population of 10 million is a threshold, a necessary condition for officially becoming a powerful country.

In the current world, a country without a population of 10 million is destined to be impossible to become a powerful country.

But in fact, a population of 10 million is really just a condition. Arthur wants to achieve his goals and ambitions, and Australasia has a population of 10 million, which is far from enough.

The standing and reserve armies of European countries add up to millions and approach 10 million.

Although full mobilization will damage the foundation of the country, it also means that these countries have the courage and trump card to fight to the death with the strength of the whole country.

Looking at Australasia again, 500,000 troops may be the current limit. A little more will be a very serious damage to the development of the country.

But if Australasia wants to become a great power with international status, in addition to a strong navy, an army of more than one million is also very necessary.

This also means that the population of Australasia must exceed 20 million to have the means and confidence to compete with other powerful countries.

According to the current rate of immigration to Australasia, it will take at least more than ten years for the population to exceed 20 million.

If the outbreak of war in Europe is taken into account, countries will definitely restrict the population from leaving the country. This also means that when the war is about to start and during the war, the number of immigrants in Australasia will definitely decrease, and may even decrease significantly.

In other words, it may take twenty years for the population of Australasia to exceed 20 million.

Twenty years later, World War II may be about to start. At that time, Australasia will have a certain confidence in population, which is a bit too late.

It seems necessary to use some means to speed up the absorption of immigrants before and after the war.

For the Australasian government, there is another good news, that is, the total fiscal revenue for the whole year of 1911 hit a new high of 78.41 million Australian dollars.

The continuous growth of total fiscal revenue actually also means that the achievements of Australasian development have gradually emerged.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the growth of fiscal revenue relies on orders such as arms trade and food exports, but this is good news anyway.

Of course, the government's total fiscal expenditure is also growing. In 1911, the total fiscal expenditure of the Australasian government reached 67 million Australian dollars, and a fiscal surplus of more than 11.41 million Australian dollars was achieved.

Among them, military expenditure has reached 28.71 million Australian dollars. Although the size of the navy has not increased, the army has expanded by 100,000. In addition to various weapons and equipment, the military expenditure of Australasian accounts for more than 40% of the total government expenditure, which is also a major feature of this era.

In fact, the military expenditures of European countries are generally high. After all, everyone knows that the enemy they are about to face is a coalition of several major powers.

If the military expenditures are not high at this time, the losses to the country and the government in the future will be much higher than the expensive military expenditures in recent years.

】

Some small countries are even willing to borrow a lot of money from home and abroad to expand their military in order to expand and develop their military.

This is also a game. The winner gets the territory, population and war reparations. Not only can it fill the gap of the previous loan, but it can also make the country's potential go further.

As for failure, for these guys who dare to gamble, perhaps they have not really thought about the consequences of failure.

Of course, countries that dare to gamble actually have some confidence. In the ongoing Italo-Turkish War, Italy relied on the power of the great powers and its powerful navy, as well as the opportunity to determine that other great powers would not intervene, so it vowed to launch the war.

The Balkan countries that are currently preparing for war are not only expanding their armies for war, but also gaining support from the Russian Empire. The attention of the Ottoman Empire is all attracted by the current Italo-Turkish war, which is why they dare to prepare for war against Turkey.

The current naval and arms race in Europe can also be seen as the two major military groups in Europe not having the confidence to defeat each other, so they can only hope to expand their armaments madly to gain more advantages over the enemy.

The current available funds of the Australasian government have exceeded 250 million Australian dollars, which is also a bit of confidence for the Australasian government. It can expand armaments on a large scale and enhance the country's defense when the war is about to come or when the war comes.

If we count the large amount of loans from the private sector and at home and abroad, I am afraid that Australasian can consume at least 500 million yuan, and it seems not impossible to form a world top three navy.

After a simple report, the next step is the new cabinet government's governance plan for the next four years.

According to the current situation in Europe, war may break out at any time. This also means that the development of the military industry is very important in the next four years.

First of all, the fiscal budget for the coming year. In terms of national defense alone, the cabinet government approved a fiscal budget of up to 30 million for the Ministry of Defense in 1912, but also put forward several requirements for the Ministry of Defense. It is necessary to speed up the training of the newly formed army and strictly enforce the daily training of all armies, so that all armies can be an elite army that can be used.

In terms of the navy, Arthur hopes that the navy can organize more high seas exercises to improve the familiarity of naval soldiers with the operation of warships, and also strengthen the combat effectiveness of the navy.

There is a saying that a cannon is worth a thousand taels of gold. This cannon also includes the naval guns on warships.

Even the funds consumed by naval guns are much higher than ordinary artillery. The funds spent on organizing a naval exercise casually may be as high as hundreds of thousands or even millions of Australian dollars.

If the entire fleet is dispatched for a large-scale exercise, the cost may be several times higher.

However, various exercises must also be done. After all, in the absence of various wars, in addition to daily training, this kind of exercise is the only means for the navy to increase its combat effectiveness.

The defense budget of up to 30 million Australian dollars is prepared for a large number of exercises and training of the army and navy.

Arthur even directly stated that if the military expenditure exceeds the government's budget, the royal family is willing to subsidize 2 million Australian dollars each year. But the condition is that the subsidized military expenditure must be spent on the actual purpose. It is not afraid of spending money, but the spending must be effective.

The current royal consortium is not short of money. The annual net income is as high as 50 million Australian dollars, which is not much different from the government.

The royal consortium brings more than 8 million Australian dollars in taxes to the government every year, which is also a major source of government tax revenue.

At present, the total assets of the royal consortium are as high as 400 million pounds, which is a full 800 million Australian dollars.

In addition to the 100 million pounds loaned to the government, the total value of various factories and enterprises invested and built by the royal consortium is also as high as more than 100 million pounds.

In addition, the royal consortium also has a cash flow of up to 150 million pounds, or 300 million Australian dollars, and tens of millions of Australian dollars in stocks.

In the past few years, the main income of the royal foundation still depended on Benz Automobile, but now, the income of Benz Automobile is less than half of the total income of the royal foundation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the income of the Royal Consortium is enough to support all the armies in Australasia, and even has a surplus of more than 20 million Australian dollars every year.

This also led to the fact that the equipment of the Royal Private Army, the First and Second Guards Divisions, was extremely arrogant, and they were also the only two troops in Australasia that were equipped with military trucks.

Of course, the real reason why the two Guards Divisions were equipped with military trucks was because most of them were stationed near Sydney, responsible for protecting the safety of the capital and the royal palace.

The transportation environment near Sydney is very convenient, and it is naturally more convenient to travel by truck.

But other troops are different. Most of the other troops are stationed in mountainous or remote areas, and truck transportation is not so convenient.

Of course, the government's insufficient fiscal budget is another major reason. I believe that after the expansion of military expenditure in the new year, other standing troops should also be able to see some military trucks.

The wealth of the Royal Consortium is also the confidence of Arthur to develop advanced military weapons including tanks, aircraft carriers, and aircraft.

You must know that up to now, the research and development of all these advanced military equipment has consumed all the funds of the Royal Consortium.

Although the research scale of these three weapons is not large, it costs millions of Australian dollars every year.

If it weren't for the royal consortium's wealth, I'm afraid the government would not dare to bear such consumption at will.

This is actually the confidence of being rich. If there is no money, let alone starting research, even recruiting talents will be a hindrance.

Speaking of this, we have to thank Arthur's grandmother Queen Victoria.

You know, the legacy left by the old Duke Arthur to Arthur is only more than 80 million pounds, and the rest is brought to Arthur by Queen Victoria.

Even New Zealand and New Guinea are gifts from Queen Victoria to Arthur.

If it weren't for Queen Victoria's will, I'm afraid it would not be easy for Australia to obtain these two regions.

After all, with the relationship between Arthur and Edward at the time, even if these two regions were basically unimportant to the British Empire, Edward VII would secretly hinder them.

This may be the advantage of birth! Born in the direct lineage of the British royal family, or the only son of Queen Victoria's most beloved son, it seems natural to get these.

For a person with a good family background, making good use of his background will also allow him to gain more benefits and avoid taking detours.

The first update of 4000 words, please support and monthly tickets!

I wish you all a happy May Day. Today is 10,000 words a day, and 4000/10000 words have been updated. Please support and monthly tickets!