Chapter 639: High Food Production

After the education matters were arranged, Arthur looked at the other cabinet ministers, waiting for others to raise their own questions.

Although the cabinet had some differences on whether to move the capital immediately, now that moving the capital has become an established fact, the cabinet members naturally focus on creating greater political achievements, and the work in St. Arthur's Castle is particularly important.

Although the population of the new capital has exceeded 250,000, construction in all aspects is not as comprehensive as Sydney, and cabinet ministers also have a considerable amount of work to do.

Of course, this is true when looking at the entire Capital District. If the Capital District can be developed well, it will not only gain Arthur's trust, but it will also be a publicity of political achievements to the people.

"Your Majesty, the Capital District is the core region of Australia and should control a large enough industry." Industry Minister Joey handed over a construction plan for a new industrial zone and explained very respectfully: "This is the Ministry of Industry's plan for the new industrial zone. Please take a look at the plan for our industrial base.”

Arthur nodded, took over the industrial base construction plan, and read it in detail.

The industrial base is located in Broken Hill, more than 200 kilometers north of St. Arthur's Castle, which was originally a very famous mining town.

Minister Joy has already given a very detailed explanation for the reason why the planning of the industrial zone was chosen here. That is, Broken Hill has a very developed railway transportation system, and the minerals and industrial manufactured products produced here can be easily transported to Broken Hill. Head west to Port Pirie and Port Augusta, or south through Fort St. Arthur to South Australia's capital, Adelaide.

It only needs to be transported by rail and can easily reach the port or other railway lines, which makes Broken Hill very qualified as an industrial base.

And because this industrial base is located in the interior of Australia, there is no need to worry about dangers from the sea, which makes the future Broken Hill Industrial Area a little safer.

Of course, what is more important is the layout of the two cities, Broken Hill and Leonora, with one east and one west. The development potential of Broken Hill, located in the Capital District, is definitely greater than that of Leo, located in the barren desert of Western Australia. Nora, this also makes sense for the development of the Capital District.

According to the construction plan proposed by Minister Joy, the Broken Hill Industrial Base will be constructed in two phases. The first phase is equivalent to the second phase of the Leonora Industrial Base, and the second phase is equivalent to the Leonora Industrial Base. Construction of the third phase of the industrial base.

Although Broken Hill's industrial base is destined to be smaller than Leonora in scale, the two phases of construction combined are a huge industrial zone with 500,000 jobs and can accommodate thousands of companies.

The construction cycle given by Minister Joy is that the first phase of construction will last from the beginning of 1926 to the end of 1927, and it will officially enter production in 1928.

The second phase of construction is expected to start in 1929, and it is expected to enter production in 1931.

This also means that in five years, Australasia will usher in a huge industrial base and its industrial strength will reach a new level.

"How much is the Ministry of Industry's expected funding for the construction of the new industrial base?" He was quite satisfied with the construction plan for the industrial base and asked the question he was most concerned about, which was the cost of funds.

"It is estimated that with an annual investment of 12 million Australian dollars, two phases of the industrial base can be completed in up to six years." Minister Joy quickly explained.

The total cost is about 72 million Australian dollars, which is worth it in exchange for a huge industrial base with more than 500,000 jobs.

Arthur nodded, agreeing with Minister Joy's plan, and ordered: "I remember that the Ministry of Industry's budget last year was about 22 million Australian dollars, right? This year it will increase by 10 million Australian dollars, hoping to build the Broken Hill Industrial Base. can be done as soon as possible.”

The construction of new industrial bases is also destined to create many jobs. Whether during or after the construction of the industrial bases, there will be no shortage of jobs.

This is what Arthur really wants to achieve, which is to avoid a huge unemployment crisis similar to that in Europe in Australasia.

The good news is that various construction projects in Australasia are carried out relatively frequently, and there is actually no shortage of jobs. The unemployment rate has always been the lowest among the major powers.

Although there are also people who can't find a job. Those people are either lazy and have no fighting spirit, or they have no ability, but they are not satisfied with their jobs and daydream about getting rich overnight.

Basically, as long as you keep your feet on the ground and put in a little effort, you will have enough food and clothing to live a subsistence life in Australasia.

A paradise for ordinary people is no joke. Australasia's title to the outside world has also proved that the basic environment of this country is still very friendly to ordinary people.

Of course, the location of the capitalists did not prevent many capitalists from investing in Australasia.

The main reason is that Australasia's economy has been developing at a rapid pace, and it is simply impossible for capital to be reluctant.

Australasia's various investment promotions have also attracted a large amount of capital, including Russian capitalists. The investment of these people in Australasia is not low. This is also somewhat in line with Australasia's reputation as a hell for capitalists. conflict.

Arthur is the largest capitalist in Australasia, and he is very clear about the bottom line of survival for capitalists.

In fact, even if the eight-hour work system is strictly implemented and the basic welfare, holidays and rest needs of workers are guaranteed, the capitalists can still make money.

Otherwise, Arthur's major consortiums would not have developed to such a large extent. It is nothing more than greedy capitalists wanting to make more profits, but in Australasia, the interests of ordinary people must be guaranteed first.

Although development in Australasia may reduce profits by 20% to 30%, after all, civilians cannot be exploited unscrupulously.

But the problem is that Australasia's economic development is relatively stable and high-speed, and Australia is also relatively peaceful and stable. There are almost no countries that can threaten Australasia's homeland.

Especially Britain and Russia, which are friendly with Australasia, a considerable part of the capital of these two countries has permanently resided in Australasia, and their original countries have become branches.

It is worth mentioning that the capital of Australasia has moved, and the diplomatic embassies of various countries must also move with it.

After all, the biggest role of diplomatic ambassadors is to communicate faster. If Arthur lives in Fort St. Arthur and the diplomatic ambassador is in Sydney, the role of diplomatic ambassadors in faster communication has been lost.

The government specially planned an embassy district around Fort St. Arthur, which was allocated to ambassadors of various countries to build their own diplomatic embassies.

Outside the embassy district, there are Australasian troops responsible for maintaining order and, to a certain extent, monitoring the members of the diplomatic embassies.

After Arthur agreed to the plan to build an industrial base, the Minister of Agriculture immediately stood up and said his plan: "Your Majesty, I have made a detailed investigation of the Capital Special District. The Murray River Basin is extremely suitable for agricultural development and has the potential to become our largest granary.

According to estimates, if the Murray River Basin is fully developed, we can feed the entire country with this area alone.

Therefore, I request to increase agricultural development in the Capital Special District, encourage private agricultural development, build a large number of state-owned farms, and increase the proportion of farms controlled by our country."

If the entire Murray River and Darling River Basin are included, the area of ​​this land has long exceeded one million square kilometers.

Millions of square kilometers of land are used for agricultural development, so the development potential of this land is naturally needless to say.

You know, looking at all the powers in the world, there are not many countries with a land area of ​​more than one million square kilometers.

It is not an exaggeration to say that, except for Russia, the United States and Australasia, the land area of ​​other powers does not exceed one million square kilometers.

Even if only half of the area is used for agricultural development, the food that can be produced is probably more than just feeding the entire country.

You should know that the total cultivated land area in Australasia is about 41 million acres, which is equivalent to 166,000 square kilometers.

The total cultivated land area in the country is less than one-fifth of the Murray River Basin, but the total grain output has reached a terrifying 21 million tons, which still has the potential to increase.

And 21 million tons of grain is theoretically enough to feed 55 million people for about a year. With Australasia's extremely developed animal husbandry and the fishery brought by the vast ocean, it is not a problem to feed more than 60 million people, and this is still under the premise of a little waste.

What kind of exaggerated concept is this? Even if it is only the current food development in Australasia, it can support the population to double again.

If the Murray River Basin is further developed, it will be no problem to feed more than 100 million people. This means that Australasia will no longer have problems with food, which is also an important sign and symbol of national stability.

No matter what kind of crisis a country experiences, food shortage is definitely the biggest problem brought about by the crisis. Even if it is an economic crisis, people's inability to buy food is also an important factor that deepens the impact of the economic crisis.

If people can eat enough during the economic crisis, doesn't it mean that the impact of the economic crisis has been eliminated by more than half?

Eating enough can better devote to work, and devoting to work will basically not affect the order of Australasia.

In addition to the fact that the economic crisis may affect the scale of imports and exports in Australasia, it seems that it has no great impact on Australasia now.

Of course, we should not relax our vigilance too much for this famous economic crisis. A certain amount of economic reserves is necessary, which can ensure that the government can find something for these people to do when facing a large number of unemployed people.

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