The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 883 - 659: The Antique Collector

How severe is the damage of the economic crisis to the United States? Although it has only continued for just over a month so far, the United States has still lost a tremendous amount of wealth. Read exclusive content at novelhall.Côm

In New York, even a nursery rhyme became popular: "Mellon pulled the whistle, Coolidge rang the bell, Wall Street gave the signal and the country went to hell."

Following the collapse of the stock market, the American economy subsequently fell into a comprehensive, devastating disaster, and a terrible chain reaction quickly unfolded.

The bankruptcy of banks and enterprises had become an ordinary affair, and Americans didn’t even have to worry about when they would become unemployed because after the outbreak of the economic crisis, they wouldn’t have jobs anymore.

Yet, ironically, agricultural capitalists and numerous farm owners were still destroying so-called "surplus" farm products. They directly used wheat and corn as fuel instead of coal, and dumped milk into the Mississippi River, turning it into a literal Milky Way.

Although spanning only a brief period of over a month, a large number of cities in America, including New York, had already gathered many homeless people.

Forced by their dire situation, they could only build makeshift dwellings with planks, old iron sheets, tarpaulins, and even kraft paper.

The so-called villages made up of these makeshift houses were called Hoovervilles, the bags used by urban vagrants to beg were named Coolidge bags, cars that couldn’t afford petrol and were instead pulled by livestock were called Coolidge cars, and even the newspapers that the homeless spread over themselves were called Coolidge blankets.

This not only proved the enormous changes in the American economy due to the economic crisis but also proved how dissatisfied and even angry the American people were with the current President Coolidge.

If previously the loss of influence in Central America merely caused widespread dissatisfaction among Americans, this economic crisis directly turned Coolidge into a street rat.

After all, the power of America’s strong countries wasn’t something to be taken lightly; maintaining domestic stability without foreign intervention was still easily achievable.

Arthur had no immediate thoughts of taking action against America; the most important task at the moment was to focus on the development within Australasia, while seizing opportunities to make a big profit during the economic crisis.

The first important task was to purchase gold.

While it’s commonly said that antiques thrive in prosperous times and gold in times of chaos, this does not mean gold never depreciates at any time.

During moments when wealth evaporated rapidly due to the economic crisis in various countries, that was the best time to acquire gold.

Since all countries were in turmoil, a necessary expenditure of gold to secure more grain and supplies to maintain domestic stability was unavoidable for them.

If one waited until all countries abandoned the gold standard before purchasing gold, it would seem too deliberate, leading to suspicion and wariness by other countries.

Including enterprises and financial institutions, they would also exchange gold for the supplies and currency essential for their survival at this time, which would rapidly increase Australasia’s gold reserves.

Before the economic crisis erupted, Americans had the world’s highest gold reserves. With such a vast economic scale, America could earn a large profit just from the export of industrial products each year.

However, the gap between Australasia and America wasn’t too wide. After all, Arthur had obtained over a thousand tons of gold from Nicholas II, thanks to the arms trade during World War I, which was also the real reason why the Australian Dollar became one of the strongest currencies.

Of course, no matter the period, it was basically impossible to obtain a large amount of gold reserves from other countries.