The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 913 - 681: The rich only benefit themselves, while the poor help the world.

If there’s one major change 1927 brought to the nation, it would be the incessant growth in industrial jobs due to the relocation of thousands of companies to Australasia.

For the whole world, which was then suffering from an economic crisis, the shift in jobs affected not just the number of enterprises and the economy, but also the continuously inflowing and outflowing population.

The job prospects in Australasia naturally drew large numbers of Europeans and Americans, leading to an insanely high population growth in 1927.

Arthur had thought that the net population growth of 2.71 million from the year before last was already crazy enough, only to find last year’s population increase astonishingly exceeded 2.81 million.

What does this represent? Last year’s population growth in Australasia was equivalent to more than one-third of the Dutch population.

If the economic crisis continued for more than three years, then just the net population increase over these three years could possibly surpass the entire population of the Netherlands.

However, the Netherlands is after all just a small country in Europe, and such a comparison doesn’t carry much significance.

But population growth is certainly good news. Two consecutive years of population explosion has brought Australasia’s population to over 35.29 million, moving toward the significant milestone of 40 million.

However, a population of 35 million is still too small for a nation at the great power level and can hardly sustain the casualties of several large-scale battles.

Having personally experienced the cruelty of World War I, Arthur understood how severely a nation is drained by a large-scale battle that could result in casualties of millions.

A population of 35 million may seem large, but in the context of World War I, it would be enough to cripple the nation after just one or two battles.

Additionally, with Australasia’s territory being overly expansive, achieving a preliminary demand for population would require an increase to at least 50 million.

It’s worth mentioning that, due to this exceptionally large economic crisis, a considerable number of countries have experienced not an increase but a decrease in population, with their population sizes even falling behind those of two years ago, in 1926.

The current population ranking (Powers) is as follows:

First place, Russia Nation, with a total population of 114 million people.

Second place, United States, with a total population of 111 million people.

Third place, Island Nation, with a total population of 60.77 million people.

Fourth place, Germany, with a total population of 58.01 million people.

Fifth place, Britain, with a total population of 45.02 million people.

Sixth place, Italy, with a total population of 38.55 million people.

Seventh place, France, with a total population of 37.67 million people.

Eighth place, Australasia, with a total population of 35.29 million people. Continue your saga on novelhall.Côm

In theory, after two years, the population should have grown somewhat.

But in reality, the population ranking shows that among the powers, there are not a few with a net population decrease in these two years, with Russia Nation, United States, and Germany showing a decline instead of an increase.

Even the Island Nation, Britain, Italy, and France, which had a small population increase, have seen very limited growth, barely maintaining an increase of fewer than 200,000.

For Arthur, there was another significant issue, which was the devaluation of the Pound and the Australian Dollar.

After more than half a year of development, the Pound and the Australian Dollar had depreciated significantly, with actual purchasing power less than half of their original value.

This made the 1927 Gross National Product of Australasia fluctuate violently, reaching the unimaginable level of 4.78 billion Australian Dollars prior to the currency devaluation.

The current currency ratio: 1 pound = 2 Australian Dollars = 3.77 US dollars = 32 rupees = 177 francs = 1044 marks (approximate ratio, still subject to fluctuation)

But now, the Gross National Product can no longer be compared with other countries, as the currency values of all countries are constantly fluctuating, and comparisons are not very meaningful.

At present, the only currency that is still appreciating should be the US dollar, which is also the reason why Americans have not officially abandoned the gold standard.

With the premise that only the US dollar can be exchanged for gold, the appreciation of the US dollar has become inevitable.

However, as the world’s countries are abandoning the gold standard, the Americans will not be able to maintain it for long.

After all, after the devaluation of other countries’ currencies, US exports have become extremely difficult. Coupled with high tariffs in various countries, US exports are suffering huge losses every day.

Despite President Hoover’s policies or lack thereof, I believe that the finance consortia will eventually have their day of reckoning.

When the consortium officially intervenes in government, the United States will likely be more chaotic than it is now and even more ripe for turmoil.

To Arthur’s surprise, before his expected American abandonment of the gold standard arrived, President Hoover had already accomplished several major feats in the United States.

First was the grand move that President Hoover had been keeping under wraps for half a year, which was the historically famous policy of voluntary cooperation.

This policy is, to put it simply, a policy that President Hoover enacted under pressure from the American civilians who discovered that Hoover still believed in laissez-faire and wanted to push him for it.

But what kind of man was President Hoover? Judging from historical evaluations of Hoover, he was proud, arrogant, blindly self-confident, and someone who always underestimated things and crises.

On December 31, 1927, in his last State of the Union address of the year, President Hoover explained to the American people: "The issue of economic depression absolutely cannot be resolved by legislative action or executive proclamations; economic wounds can only be self-healed by the cells of the economy — producers and consumers.

Everyone should try to help his more unfortunate neighbor, every enterprise should help its employees, and every community and state should take responsibility for organizing employment and relief activities.

The best contribution government can make is to encourage local cooperation — the Federal State now needs to join in the community relief activities and fulfill its due responsibilities."

While this sounded grand, President Hoover even established an Unemployment Relief Bureau to aid the implementation of his policy and fulfill the plan he envisioned to save the unemployed in America.

But those in the know scoffed at this State of the Union address because such a policy and so-called neighbor aid plan were proposed by the Morgan consortium.

As one of the biggest consortia in America, the Morgan consortium’s fundamental reason for proposing the so-called neighbor aid plan was to dodge their relief responsibilities.

After implementing the so-called neighbor aid plan, the Morgan consortium only needed to help some forty or fifty unfortunate American families around the Morgan Building, rather than dispersing their funds across the United States.

The ironic thing is, President Hoover’s plan didn’t take into account the actual capabilities of the American people and enterprises.

The vast Morgan consortium only needed to care for some forty or fifty American families in their vicinity, but some Americans who could only get work and income one or two days a week were expected to take on the responsibility of caring for income-less families in their own civilian areas.

The influence of the consortia behind such a policy is obvious, and as a result, President Hoover’s plan not only failed to alleviate the pressure of unemployment among the American population, but it also made the already crisis-free consortia even more relaxed, with ample time and energy to exploit the American civilians more ruthlessly.