Chapter 636: Moving the Capital or Not

The representatives of various countries stayed for about a week. During this week, they also signed some cooperation agreements with each other, which made the representatives of various countries smile when they left.

The ones who gained a lot were naturally Arthur and Australasia. There were two good news for Arthur. One was to deepen the cooperation with Britain on immigration, and the other was to let the British recognize his dominance in the Philippines and the Emirate of Kalimantan.

After all, the Emirate of Kalimantan was next to the British Straits Settlements, and it was very necessary to distribute interests with the British to avoid conflicts between the two regions and endanger the relationship between Britain and Australasia above the two regions.

After sending off the representatives of various countries, Australasia held a cabinet meeting to summarize the government's achievements in 1925 and to discuss when to move to Fort St. Arthur and end the long journey of moving the capital.

No matter what the world situation is like, Australia's development is still relatively smooth. Although it interfered in the Dutch colonies in 1925, it did not incur too much military expenditure and did not cause too many casualties.

In 1925, Australasia's GDP exceeded 0.72 billion Australian dollars, and the growth rate was a record 15%.

The reason for such rapid economic growth is that in addition to the development of two major markets, the previously planned construction has brought practical changes to people's lives.

The second four-year plan has been implemented for some time, and the results achieved are also an important reason for promoting economic growth.

Due to the influence of the four-year plan, in 1925, Australasia's total steel and iron production reached 20,000 tons and 30,000 tons respectively. The total production not only exceeded 10 million tons, but was even infinitely close to 11 million tons.

Although it is not as good as the United States, it is not weak among the powers. At least for the population of Australasia, such an industrial level is already considered strong.

Although it cost millions of Australian dollars to hold this 20th anniversary national day ceremony, compared with the improvement of Australasia's international status brought by the military parade, this little expense is undoubtedly worth it.

What's more, with a total fiscal revenue of 2.7 billion Australian dollars in 1925, the government would not care about the expenditure of several million Australian dollars.

While the total fiscal revenue reached a new high, the total fiscal expenditure in 1925 also ushered in an increase, reaching 9.9 billion Australian dollars, which was no different from 200 million Australian dollars.

The good news is that even in this case, the government has maintained a fiscal surplus of nearly 30 million, which means that the fiscal situation of Australasia is very good, and various types of construction can no longer bring greater burden to the fiscal budget.

People's income is growing. Although it still remains at around 62 Australian dollars, the Australian dollar has become more valuable under the premise of currency depreciation in various countries.

However, it is also worth being vigilant that various countries have begun to devalue their currencies. If Arthur remembers correctly, a few years after the countries began to devalue their currencies, the economic crisis that was enough to change the world pattern broke out.

What is the reason for countries to take the initiative to devalue their currencies? It is nothing more than that the current situation of various countries can no longer support the gold standard, and they need to achieve alternative economic prosperity through currency depreciation.

Among them, France has the largest currency depreciation. The current franc is not worth half of what it was five years ago, and the degree of depreciation is very exaggerated.

What can currency depreciation bring?

The most obvious is the reduction of imports and the continuous growth of exports. In 1925, France's industrial product exports set a new record, making the French economy seem to have restored its pre-war prosperity.

But in fact, such economic prosperity comes at the cost of currency depreciation. France's economy is not so stable, and the price increase caused by inflation makes the life of the French not so good.

It has to be admitted that currency depreciation can indeed allow the economy to continue to grow and prosper for a period of time, which is also the real reason why countries began to devalue their currencies during this period in history.

More importantly, currency depreciation can bring economic prosperity. If you don't make adjustments, you will only suffer.

Arthur has asked people to pay close attention to the currency depreciation in Europe and try to keep the exchange rate between the Australian dollar and the pound sterling unchanged at 2:1.

The position of the pound sterling is still relatively strong at this time, and coupled with the influence of the British Empire as the world's number one, it is destined not to depreciate too much.

Other currencies such as the US dollar and the franc cannot threaten the status of the pound for the time being. Even if the US economy is the world's number one, it still cannot promote the globalization of the US dollar.

The government's report on 1925 ended quickly, and the topic of the cabinet meeting soon came to whether to move to Fort Saint-Arthur.

Whether to move is a question that has an answer. As the future capital of Australasia, Fort Saint-Arthur is destined to move.

But the question is when to move and how long it will take. These are all worth pondering and thinking about.

"Your Majesty." Prime Minister Roger stood up first and said very straightforwardly and firmly: "I think it's time to move our capital to Fort Saint-Arthur. The construction of Fort Saint-Arthur has been completed, and the successful holding of the National Day activities has also made Fort Saint-Arthur famous.

I think this is our best opportunity to move the capital. We should move quickly and make Fort Saint-Arthur truly our new capital before the middle of this year."

As the prime minister of the government, Prime Minister Roger has too many things to think about.

First of all, in order to stabilize his position, the relocation of the capital should be carried out during his term of office. Prime Minister Roger will also become the first prime minister to enter the new Council of State, and Fort St. Arthur is destined to be different from Sydney.

More importantly, the relocation of the capital was decided by Arthur, and it is obviously in Arthur's interest to relocate the capital at this time.

If Prime Minister Roger wants to seek re-election, Arthur's support is also very important. This is also the reason why Prime Minister Roger proposed to relocate the capital as soon as possible, in order to gain Arthur's support and start new work in a new place.

However, there will naturally be voices of opposition when there are voices of support.

It can be seen that the one who opposes is Minister of People's Livelihood Ludgar, an official who won a cabinet seat with the help of the Australasian Country Party. What he values ​​is naturally the interests of rural and low-income people.

"Your Majesty, I don't think it's time to move the capital yet." Minister Ludgar explained: "Although Fort Saint Arthur has been built, its size and popularity are far less than Sydney.

If we move the capital to Fort Saint Arthur, our capital will change from an internationally renowned metropolis to a small and medium-sized city with little reputation.

It will be a heavy blow to our immigrant appeal, and some people may not even know where our capital is."

Australasia is now also a powerful country, and its international reputation is naturally beyond doubt.

In any country in Europe and the United States, when mentioning the cities of Australasia, Sydney and Melbourne are almost blurted out.

The scale of these two cities is relatively large in the world, and Sydney's population size can even be ranked in the top ten in the world, which is enough to show the popularity of these two cities worldwide.

But Fort Saint Arthur is different. Although the infrastructure has been covered during the long construction, the size and population of this city are still only a small and medium-sized city.

Moving the capital too quickly will waste Sydney's popularity. Sydney is no longer the capital, and its attraction to some immigrants will not be so high.

"That's not a problem." Minister of Industry Joey said with a smile: "After this military parade, the popularity of Fort St. Arthur will be greatly improved. Although it is not as good as Sydney, it is definitely not a small city with no reputation.

What's more, after becoming our new capital, Fort St. Arthur can usher in better development, and through Fort St. Arthur, the entire Murray River Basin can be better radiated.

If it is just for a city, we can postpone the time of moving the capital. But for the development of the entire Murray River Basin, the sooner the capital is moved, the better.

Your Majesty, everyone, I agree with Prime Minister Roger's point of view. Since the capital is to be moved, the sooner the better."

It is not surprising that Minister of Industry Joey supports Prime Minister Roger's point of view. After all, in addition to supporting agriculture, industrial development in the Murray River Basin is also an extremely important part.

As Minister of Industry, Minister Joey has been re-elected for two terms, and it will be more difficult to seek re-election for a third term.

This also means that he must make contributions in industry. Developing the industrial scale of the Murray River Basin has become very important for Minister Joey.

In short, the previous Leonora Industrial Base has nothing to do with the current Minister Joy.

Although Minister Joy also advocated the construction of several industrial zones, they are far inferior to the Leonora Industrial Base in terms of scale and popularity.

If you want to create enough political achievements for yourself, it is very important to build an industrial zone comparable to the Leonora Industrial Base.

As a second choice, you have to build some industry in the Capital Special District to have the possibility of seeking a third term.

If you stay in Sydney, the industry near Sydney will not allow Minister Joy to make any comments.

The industry here only needs to follow the rules and develop in the direction set before, and Minister Joy will not get any contribution.

Although the Capital Special District is not poor in industry, it does not have a good plan. Minister Joy can completely build a new large industrial zone according to his own ideas.

The political achievements brought by an industrial zone comparable to the Leonora Industrial Base are so attractive that even Minister Joy, a cabinet member, can't help but be moved.

The cabinet is roughly divided into two factions. One faction, like Prime Minister Roger and Minister Joy, wants to move the capital as soon as possible and make Fort Saint Arthur the new capital of Australasia.

The other faction, like Minister Ludgar, has little influence in the capital. Moving the capital is a loss for them and will reduce their chances of seeking re-election.

The rest are neutrals like Minister Raul, who are waiting for Arthur's opinion and then unconditionally support Arthur.

Arthur sees the cabinet disputes clearly, but such disputes are unavoidable, and Arthur is not surprised at all.

Although Australasia is under Arthur's control, as long as people have seven emotions and six desires, they will have their own ideas and ambitions.

It is true that they are loyal to Arthur, but under the premise of being loyal to Arthur, they will naturally strive for more benefits for themselves and their own factions.

Arthur accepts this kind of controllable competition and differences, and encourages such differences in the government. After all, it represents more ideas and thoughts.

As long as Arthur was in control, this disagreement was completely manageable, because no matter how big the disagreement in the government was, Arthur's opinion had to prevail.

As long as Arthur is in control, the government will not have greater conflicts that affect the stability of the government and the prestige of the country.

As a monarch, do not expose your thoughts and opinions too early, and do not directly refute the views of your subordinates.

Whether it is right or wrong, this will give people an impression of arbitrariness, and it is also a damage to the monarch's own status.

A better way to deal with such differences is to make the final judgment in a fairer way under control.

What is fairer? That is naturally a vote by all cabinet members.

This is also Arthur's cleverness. Using the voting results of the entire cabinet to express his opinions, this seems to be the cabinet's own choice, and naturally there will be no illusion that Arthur is arbitrary.

On the contrary, this will give people a feeling that Arthur respects the opinions of cabinet members very much, and it will also make the Australasian government look more democratic and fair.

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