Chapter 640 The Impact of Expelling the Indigenous People

After the work of each department was almost arranged, Prime Minister Roger stood up and said with a slightly heavy face the biggest problem facing the government at present.

"Your Majesty, after we expelled a large number of natives from Java and Sumatra, the rubber production in Southeast Asia has been greatly affected, and there is even a trend of evolving into a rubber crisis worldwide." Prime Minister Roger said.

The Dutch East Indies controlled by the Netherlands is one of the most important regions for natural rubber production, contributing nearly one-third of the rubber production in Southeast Asia.

Even if we look at the world, the rubber production in the Dutch East Indies still remains above one-fifth, which is already a rather exaggerated figure.

After the large-scale expulsion of natives, the rubber production in Java and Sumatra has been short of manpower. It is impossible to rely on the Dutch and a small number of natives left on these two islands to plant rubber.

Let alone whether these people are willing to go, there are certain skills in harvesting rubber, and those who don't understand it will only cause trouble.

The rubber crisis in Southeast Asia started from the Dutch East Indies colonial rebellion, and there is no sign of stopping until now.

The two most important reasons are that Australasia is still constantly expelling indigenous people, and rubber production in Java and Sumatra has fallen into a labor shortage.

The second reason is that rubber industrial parks in other regions cannot be expanded quickly, and the lost rubber production in Java and Sumatra will not be compensated by other regions in a short period of time.

The price of rubber has been high since the birth of this product, and rubber planting has always been one of the most profitable industries, even now.

Although it has experienced a rubber crisis before, the price of rubber widely used in car tires is even higher than before with the massive development of automobiles.

According to records of rubber prices, the price of rubber was about 401 pounds per ton around 1880.

As time entered the early 20th century, the price of rubber also increased to about 459 pounds per ton, which is normal.

But after the birth of Australasia cars, as cars became popular all over the world, the price of rubber used as tires also ushered in a surge.

In 1910, the price of rubber had risen to more than 600 pounds per ton, and in some areas the price of rubber even exceeded 800 pounds per ton.

Then came the world war. The continuous wars greatly reduced the demand for rubber, which also made the originally insufficient rubber production become excessive. The price of rubber plummeted after 1914, and the lowest price per ton was less than 250 pounds.

Even after the war, the economic recovery of various countries was not very good, and the production and demand of rubber did not grow rapidly. The price of rubber has been stable at around 300 pounds per ton, and sometimes even fell below 250 pounds.

Most of the rubber before 1900 was produced in South America, and after 1900, a large number of rubber industrial parks were planted in Southeast Asia. The combined output has even exceeded the record set by South America, which is one of the reasons why the price of rubber has not risen.

According to the intelligence obtained after Australasia took control of the Dutch East Indies, the rubber planting area in the entire Dutch East Indies region (including the area previously occupied by Australasia and the Sultanate of Kalimantan) is as high as 400,000 hectares, and the total rubber output is as high as 280,000 tons.

Based on the value of about 270 pounds per ton of rubber, the total value of 280,000 tons of rubber is close to 75.6 million pounds.

What kind of exaggerated concept is this? Although it seems less than 100 million pounds, the total fiscal revenue of Australasia is only a little over 100 million pounds per year.

The total value of rubber production in the Dutch East Indies alone is not much different from the total fiscal revenue of Australasia, which is enough to prove the huge profits of the rubber industry today.

Of course, less than a quarter of the more than 400,000 hectares of rubber plantations previously belonged to the Netherlands.

This also means that the Dutch can only get about 15 million pounds per year under the premise that the rubber output value of the Dutch East Indies is as high as more than 75 million pounds.

But this is definitely not a small income, and it is also the value of the Dutch East Indies. Coupled with other mineral resources in this area, including tens of millions of indigenous people, etc., the Dutch East Indies could previously generate more than 20 million pounds of income for the Netherlands each year.

But all this was accompanied by Australasia's policy of expelling indigenous peoples, and the situation changed completely.

Prime Minister Roger continued, "According to our statistics, rubber production fell by more than a quarter last year, and this year it may be even lower, or even less than half of the peak.

The high price of rubber has seriously affected our domestic industrial development. Not only the automotive industry, but many industries that use rubber have been complaining about the price of rubber, and a large number of rubber plantations abroad have also complained about the lack of manpower after we expelled the indigenous people."

"Is there anyone controlling this?" Arthur asked.

If the rubber price is simply reduced because of the expulsion of indigenous peoples in Australasia, this situation can still be controlled.

But if someone is pushing it behind the scenes, or even wants to cause another rubber crisis, then we have to be on guard.

You know, Australasia's automotive industry is definitely the best in the world. This also leads to the fact that there are many rubber industries in Australasia, and there are countless manufacturers of various tires.

There are also a series of tire repair shops, small workshops producing rubber products, etc. This is a complete industrial chain.

If the crisis of the rubber at the source breaks out, it will be a devastating blow to the entire rubber industry chain and an extreme obstacle to the industry of Australasia.

"No one has been found to be pushing behind it yet, Your Majesty. But the opinions of a large number of rubber plantation owners, including the Dutch, must be considered. They ask us to retain a certain number of indigenous people as their labor force." Prime Minister Roger shook his head and replied.

Hearing that no one was pushing behind it, Arthur was relieved. But hearing the threats and complaints from some rubber plantation owners, including the Dutch, against Australasia, Arthur couldn't help but smile and ordered: "

Tell those foreign rubber plantation owners that the current Dutch East Indies is Australasia's territory and should naturally abide by Australasia's laws.

Those indigenous people are not recognized in Australasia's laws and are not citizens of Australasia. Naturally, they have no qualifications and rights to live in Australasia.

As for the lack of labor, they can hire local legal citizens or Australasia.

As long as they abide by Australasia's labor laws and effectively protect the interests of civilians, I believe that there will be a large number of people willing to work for them, provided that they need to change."

It is impossible for the indigenous people to continue to stay on Java and Sumatra. These two islands are in Arthur's colonial localization plan, so it is naturally impossible to leave such hidden dangers as indigenous people.

Although this may affect the rubber plantations on the two islands, most of these plantations are foreign property and have little impact on Arthur and Australasia.

More importantly, according to the trend of rubber prices in history, the price of rubber will plummet within ten years, while rubber production is growing continuously.

Under such circumstances, Arthur naturally has no interest in taking over these rubber plantations. Although many industries in Australasia need to use rubber, Australasia cannot lack rubber with several islands in the Dutch East Indies.

As for the complaints from foreign rubber industrial parks, they are completely insignificant to Arthur. As long as they abide by the laws of Australasia, they actually have no shortage of human resources.

But if their crisis is based on non-compliance with the law, then the crisis they suffer is completely deserved, and the Australasia government has no responsibility or obligation to help them solve the crisis.

"Your Majesty, will this affect our reputation? We have just obtained the Dutch East Indies and we have rejected those rubber plantations so much. I am afraid that some Europeans will hate us." Prime Minister Roger was a little nervous and expressed his concerns hesitantly.

"It doesn't matter." Arthur chuckled and said, "The protests of a small number of capitals have no effect on us, and we don't need the support of these capitals at all. More importantly, Java and Sumatra are currently the territories of Australasia, and foreign capital has no right to dictate our rule.

If it doesn't work, the royal consortium can also acquire some rubber plantations to maintain the scale of domestic rubber production.

I don't believe that the rubber industry can't operate without these rubber plantations, and they can't decide our domestic rubber production."

Although rubber is very important for the industrial development of Australasia, these foreign rubber plantation owners cannot have an impact on Australasia.

First of all, their rubber plantations are still Australasia's territory after all, and they naturally have to implement Australasia's laws.

More importantly, they can't fight against the larger royal consortium in terms of assets or status.

Failure to comply with the law will face a labor shortage, a labor shortage will face a sharp drop in rubber production, and a sharp drop in rubber production will face a loss of profits. This is a vicious circle, and they have to succumb to the Australasia government.

If there are those who are unwilling to surrender to Australasia, Arthur would not mind buying them at a low price after their enterprises are in a total loss or even bankruptcy crisis.

For the royal consortium, it is not cost-effective to buy rubber plantations at a normal price or even at a premium, after all, the price of rubber will experience a period of ups and downs.

If the rubber plantation is bought at a low price when it goes bankrupt, even if the price of rubber fluctuates, the deal is still cost-effective.

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