Chapter 641 Population and Development
"How are our rubber plantations in the Royal Territory and other areas?" Arthur looked at Prime Minister Roger and asked.
After occupying the Royal Territory, New Guinea and other regions, Australasia has been building its own rubber plantations.
But the construction of rubber plantations is not that simple. First of all, plantations cannot be built anywhere.
Rubber planting has very strict requirements on geographical location, climate temperature, light humidity, rain and even soil.
Rubber likes high temperature, high humidity, calm wind environment, and fertile soil. It requires an annual average temperature of 26 to 27 degrees Celsius. It is not cold-resistant and there is a risk of death when the temperature drops.
The requirements for rainfall are more stringent, requiring an annual average rainfall of 1150 to 2500 mm, but it is not suitable for planting in low-humidity places. It is suitable for growing in acidic sandy loam with deep soil, fertile and moist soil, and good drainage. It has shallow roots, fragile branches, poor adaptability to wind, and is easily affected by wind and cold, which reduces rubber production.
With such a long list of requirements, even in Southeast Asia, which is very suitable for rubber planting, most of the areas where rubber can be planted have been restricted.
Fortunately, Australasia has almost annexed the entire Dutch East Indies, and even the land of the Sultanate of Kalimantan can be used for rubber planting, so there is naturally no shortage of land for building rubber plantations.
"Your Majesty, the earliest batch of rubber plantations can already start harvesting, and there are still long growing periods, and it is expected that they will not be officially harvested until 2 to 3 years later." Prime Minister Roger replied.
These rubber plantations are industries built by the Australasia government, and Prime Minister Roger is naturally the person who knows the current situation of rubber plantations best.
Rubber plantations naturally plant rubber trees. When they are mature and can be harvested, use a knife to cut off a little bark on the rubber tree, and the branches and leaves of the rubber tree can flow out along the grooves, which is also the raw material for making rubber.
The longest time is waiting for the rubber tree to grow to a complete body and be harvested.
Generally speaking, it takes 2 to 3 years to harvest a rubber plantation after it is completed, which is why it takes a long time to expand rubber production.
"How big is our rubber plantation at present?" Arthur nodded and continued to ask.
"At present, the scale of rubber plantations built in our royal territory, Sulawesi Island and New Guinea has exceeded 50,000 hectares, and the maximum rubber production is expected to reach 50,000 tons. If we can acquire some ready-made rubber plantations in Sumatra and Java Island, our rubber production can at least exceed 50,000 tons." Prime Minister Roger said with a smile.
The annual rubber demand in Australasia is about 60,000 tons, which also means that the rubber plantations controlled by Australasia alone can almost meet the rubber demand in Australasia.
Of course, compared with Australasia, Europe and America with larger populations and more developed economies are the biggest consumers of rubber.
The Dutch maintain more than 200,000 troops and a fleet every year with the profits from exporting rubber to Europe and America, and keep the Dutch economy in good shape, which is basically due to rubber.
If it were not for the rubber planting in the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch would not be able to maintain the previous army size. The Netherlands, like Belgium, is at most a third-rate country in Europe.
Countries like Australasia that have occupied rubber-producing areas are relatively good, at least they can produce rubber themselves, and do not have to worry about such an important raw material as rubber being restricted by other countries.
But those countries without rubber-producing areas, such as Germany, the Austrian Empire, Switzerland, Sweden, etc. in Europe, because they have lost their colonies, their own land cannot be used to grow rubber, and they can only spend a lot of money every year to buy from abroad, which not only increases the cost of industry, but also makes a lot of wealth flow abroad.
If the main suppliers of rubber before were Britain, France, the Netherlands and Thailand, then now the main suppliers of rubber have become Britain, France, Australia and Thailand.
Britain and France have a large number of colonies in Southeast Asia, and it is normal for them to have large-scale rubber production.
After Australasia annexed the Dutch East Indies, the gap in rubber production with Britain and France was not too large. Together with Thailand, the rubber production of the four countries accounted for more than 80% of the world's rubber production.
This rubber incident also reminded Arthur that although the natives of Java and Sumatra must be expelled as soon as possible, it does not mean that immigration to these two islands is not possible in a short time.
Sumatra aside, Java's rich resources and fertile land, as well as a large number of areas suitable for rubber planting, cannot be left uncultivated in the next two or three years.
According to the population data of the two islands, if the indigenous people are not counted, the population of Sumatra and Java is mostly Dutch, and the total number of Dutch people has exceeded 200,000.
This also shows the importance of the Dutch East Indies to the Dutch. After all, the population of the Netherlands is only the size of a small country, but the fact that more than 200,000 people have immigrated to the Dutch East Indies has already proved how important the Dutch East Indies are in the hearts of the Dutch.
Unfortunately, after Australasia annexed the Dutch East Indies, these Dutch people living in Java and Sumatra had only two choices: either join the nationality of Australasia and obey Australasia's rule, or be repatriated to the Netherlands, or take the initiative to immigrate to other regions.
"What are our immigration data in January?" Arthur asked with interest.
Last year's immigration data is relatively good in recent years, which makes Arthur very interested in this year's immigration data. After all, it is related to the final development of the population size and the development plan of Australasia.
"Your Majesty, due to the influence of the National Day and the military parade, we welcomed a total of 40,000 tourists and 80,000 immigrants in January.
Although the data in February is not as good as that in January, there is hope that the immigration scale will exceed 100,000 people." Prime Minister Roger said with a little excitement.
What does the immigration scale of nearly 250,000 in two months represent? It means that the immigration scale this year is destined to set a new high!
If the local population development is taken into account, this year's population growth figure will be at least more than 1.5 million, which is no worse than that of countries with a larger population.
Moreover, more than half of the 80,000 immigrants in January are British, which is also conducive to Australasia to maintain the proportion of British population and enhance the stability of the country.
Hearing such exaggerated immigration data, Arthur nodded with satisfaction and smiled and ordered: "Try to attract some immigrants to Sumatra and Java, and speed up the development of Sumatra and Java.
At the same time, reduce the proportion of immigrants absorbed by Sydney and Melbourne, and let more immigrants transfer to the National Capital Territory and Northern Australia to develop our new administrative districts."
Compared with the population that has settled in a certain city, these immigrants who have just gone to Australasia are the better population to immigrate to the new area.
After all, they have just come to Australasia and have no roots, so it doesn't really matter where they settle.
If the conditions offered by Sumatra and Java are more favorable, I believe some immigrants will still take the initiative to choose to go to these two regions.
You know, even if Java has a small land area, it is easy and stress-free to accommodate a population of more than 20 million.
Now, the recognized population of Java is only 170,000, and it is just empty talk to rely on this 170,000 population to fully develop Java.
In Arthur's mind, Sumatra and Java are to be developed as their homeland, and their final outcome is to be localized as colonies and completely become the homeland of Australasia.
If you want to fully develop these two regions, it is impossible without a population of more than 5 million, which also means that you have to immigrate to these two regions in advance.
In the final analysis, Australasia's biggest headache is the population problem. Let's not talk about the two most important homelands of Australia and New Zealand. Which of New Guinea, Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi is not a huge island that can accommodate tens of millions of people?
Any of these islands, if developed well, can bring huge benefits to Australasia.
But the problem is that the total population of Australasia is only 30 million, and it is impossible to properly develop these areas without decades of effort.
"I understand, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Roger nodded and said, "Among the nearly 150,000 immigrants in January, more than 100,000 went to other administrative districts, and only about 40,000 chose to stay in Sydney or Melbourne.
I will encourage more people to go to other administrative districts as much as possible, and temporarily limit the population of Sydney and Melbourne."
The attraction of big cities to people is unquestionable, and the same is true for these immigrants.
Since they all choose to live in a new country, these immigrants naturally want to live in internationally renowned metropolises such as Sydney and Melbourne and enjoy a more advanced and developed urban life.
This has also caused the population of the two major cities of Sydney and Melbourne to rise steadily, especially when Sydney was the capital, the number of immigrants attracted each year exceeded one-fifth of the total number of immigrants, which seriously endangered the development of other parts of Australasia.
At present, the combined population of Sydney and Melbourne is close to 6 million, while the total population of Tasmania, the National Capital Territory, Northern Australia, and Northern New Zealand has not reached 6 million.
In addition to better developing the Murray River Basin, relocating the capital is also a major factor in reducing the attractiveness of Sydney and Melbourne to immigrants, allowing other less populated areas to have more immigrants.
If Sydney has always been the capital of Australasia, other regions will not get more immigrants, and the gap between Sydney and other states will become larger and larger.
Although Sydney's development is getting better and better is also good news, if it affects the development of the entire country, just to create a city with a population of more than 5 million or even tens of millions, then it is a bit of a loss.
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