Australian Storm 1876 - Chapter 1091

Chapter 1091 Decentralization

In the waterside pavilion near the lake

After talking about the war on the Eastern Front for a while, Li Fushou and the ministers chatted for a while about domestic economic construction issues. When thinking of where to talk about it, it was more like a chat.

The music is melodious outside the waterside pavilion, and the beautiful scenery can be seen through the light gauze curtain, and the exquisite refreshments are finely sipped.

“My dear fellows, how long do you think this war will last?”

“Sir, Wei Chen secretly thought that the current world war is about to enter its fifth year, the scale of which is unprecedented, and the damage to society and economy is unprecedented. The vast Russian Empire can no longer bear the collapse, and the ensuing It is a large-scale civil war. The difficulties encountered by Tsarist Russia exist to varying degrees in the warring countries, and Wei Chen expects that the results will be seen in the third and fourth quarters of next year, and will not arrive in the first quarter of the following year at the latest.”

“The Minister of Finance’s remarks are very reasonable, but they are still slightly conservative. The “showdown operation” prepared by the Allied Powers next year will break the illusion of victory for the Allied Powers and completely end this unprecedented human disaster. From a military point of view, next year There is hope before the end of the war.”

“I have a different opinion on the judgment of the Marshal. The German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have inherited the unyielding fighting spirit of the Germans, but they are not so easily defeated. Even if the war spreads to German territory, I don’t think it will take a year. The war can be resolved within two years at least.”

“After another two years, the French will collapse first. The Empire has imposed a total embargo on the Allies, and they can’t last that long.”

“This is inappropriate. The Allies’ victory on the Eastern Front is a sure thing. The 2nd Army can only be trapped in the Western Ukraine. This battle is still to be fought.”

“It’s easy to say, since the outbreak of the World War, 36 countries have participated in the war, affecting 1.5 billion people in the world, and the officially confirmed casualties have exceeded 15 million. As we all know, the number of casualties in the war has more than doubled. Take the Russian Empire as an example. Its population of 160 million before the war is now less than 147 million. If it continues to fight, everyone will die. Even old-fashioned empires like Britain and France cannot withstand such a huge consumption.”

“From a general point of view, Europe really can’t go on. If it hadn’t gained an advantage on the Eastern Front, there would still be a little hope for the final victory. The Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the Allied side would have long since collapsed.”

“I agree with the marshal’s professional opinion. The end of next year should be a watershed in the war, and it won’t be long.”

“Wei Chen seconded the proposal.”

“Seconded.”

argued for a while

The ministers have generally reached an unanimous opinion. After several years of war, the strength levels of all parties are on the bright side.

A total of 32 countries in the Allied Power Group besieged the Allied Power Group Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman and Bulgaria. While fully occupying absolute maritime superiority, the main battlefield of the Western Front has advanced to the border area between Belgium and France and Germany, burning the war into Germany is only a matter of time.

The world war is mainly on the eastern and western fronts, all of which are located in Europe, and Europe is the core area of ​​the whole world war.

The battlefields on the southern front of Europe, the battlefields in North Africa, the battlefields in West Asia, and the battlefields in the Far East are all insignificant in terms of scale and intensity of war, and are not enough to affect the overall situation.

The Western Front is the well-deserved main battlefield. Germany has invested more than 80% of its total troops here, and the total number of casualties exceeds 3 million.

The   Eastern Front battlefield was only a flank battlefield. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was the main force, and the German army was the auxiliary. The two besieged Russia and the war was also **** and brutal.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire alone lost more than 3.6 million troops on the Eastern Front. The Russian army lost more than 9 million.

Such large casualties are unbearable for any country.

When discussing the casualties of other countries, the ministers of the Ocean Empire are quite rational, because the army of the Ocean Empire has had a dazzling record in the European battlefield and has not suffered heavy casualties.

Therefore, the mentality of the ministers pointing the country is quite strong, and it is quite condescending.

The Imperial Expeditionary Force has participated in the war since then, and has fought hundreds of large and small battles, and lost about 41,000 people, of which about 10,000 people were killed, and the others were light and serious injuries of varying degrees.

This was only a slight loss for the expeditionary corps that had reached the European battlefield with a total of more than 1.2 million people.

Li Fushou looked around the ministers and pointed out the key point of the next question; “Since everyone Aiqing believes that the war will be resolved around the end of next year, today is December 5th, 20 days before Christmas, and 18 days before Christmas. The New Year’s Day is less than a month away, so should we plan ahead and plan the overall national economic rhythm one step ahead of time to avoid the severe impact of the wartime economy that came to an abrupt end?”

As soon as this remark comes out

All the ministers suddenly realized, looked around for a moment, stood up all at once, and bowed their hands in salute; “Your Majesty, Shengming, sees thousands of miles, and the ministers and others are ashamed.”

“All the Aiqings, sit down. A country is a family. As a family member, I have to think a little more. Everything is foreshadowed. , took a sip from the teacup, and then said calmly;

“Since we’ve been talking about it, let’s talk about how to safely withdraw from the wartime economy.”

When the topic    came up, all the ministers sat down and pondered.

Although it is a chat at the pavilion, there are still royal secretaries who record the words and deeds of the ministers, and the matters that reach an agreement will be implemented by the cabinet and various departments. .

Therefore, you must not open your mouth.

Think for a while

Tang Zhaoyi, Minister of Finance, was the first to speak;

“Report to the Holy One;

Weichen secretly believed that the exit from the wartime economic policy should be financed first, and the Imperial Federal Reserve Bank should gradually tighten its pockets, implement conservative economic policies, and gradually reduce the current economic heat.

This includes raising the bank reserve ratio, reducing the scale of currency issuance, raising bank interest rates in several steps, and sending a clear signal to the market to cool down.

In order to cooperate with financial policies, all cabinet departments should introduce relevant measures, including but not limited to regulating market behavior, cracking down on related financial illegal and criminal activities, sorting out the taxation behavior of factories and mines according to regulations, strict import and export management system, and tightening restrictions on the production of military weapons. Export bank loans, tightening loans to certain industries that blindly expand production capacity, such as steel, mining, machinery and equipment in the military industry, and chemical plants that produce explosives.

Through the above measures

can send a clear signal to the society to get rid of the wartime economic state one step ahead of time and return to normal social and economic operation.

The Ministry of Finance of the Empire will conduct a comprehensive study on this, deploy targeted fiscal policies, standardize the market in a unified manner, and promote a smooth landing of the overall economy.

Wei Chen has a humble opinion, please correct me. ”

Tang Zhaoyi’s remarks were very dry, and were highly praised by Li Fushou and the cabinet ministers.

The sage said: “What Zhaoyi said is very in line with my heart, and this should be the words of the old man to seek the country!”

This evaluation is not too high, it immediately aroused the hearts of all the ministers at the table, vying for advice and suggestions, and for a while you sang and I came on stage, which was very lively.

Earl Fan Zhongzhai, President of the House of Nobility, said: “The current wartime economy is like cooking oil on fire, there are many illegal and chaotic behaviors, and there are many economic chaos. It is necessary to strengthen legislative work and implement the “Ocean Empire Trademark Law” under consideration as soon as possible. The “Import and Export Control Law”, “Commercial Product Quality Law”, “Imperial Household Registration Law”, “Traffic Law”, “Tobacco, Alcohol and Gun Control Law” and other bills will be promulgated as soon as possible, so that relevant departments have laws to abide by and administer according to law, and further promote the improvement of the social system under the rule of law …”

Viscount Jia Donghe, Minister of Colonial Affairs, said;

“Given the transition from a wartime economy to a peaceful one, the impact of an exit from an overheated economy must not be underestimated.

The millions of people in the empire engaged in the military industry, as well as the more than 16 million employees in the related industrial chain, will inevitably suffer serious impacts. Disappearing overseas orders and demand may cause a large number of enterprises to go bankrupt and people to lose their jobs.

The specific situation requires the close cooperation between the Ministry of Colonial Affairs and the relevant departments of the Cabinet to conduct a comprehensive investigation and screening before an authoritative conclusion can be drawn.

But before that

The empire should comprehensively tighten immigration policies to reduce the impact of the foreign labor force and leave more job opportunities for workers inside the empire.

The temporary labor shortage will be fundamentally relieved with the large number of unemployed people who withdraw from the wartime economy and reduce the impact on the imperial economy and society.

According to the statistics of the previous year

The new-born population of the empire has reached more than 3.69 million a year, and it already has a strong population growth capacity. In the case of economic transformation, it is necessary to control the entry of a large number of low-quality immigrants.

The current immigrant population is about 2 million to 2.1 million per year. After taking effective measures, the inflow of 400,000 to 500,000 high-quality people can be controlled every year.

Thus

It is expected that about 3 million adult employment needs will be reduced next year and the year after, which will greatly enhance the empire’s ability to resist the risks of economic transformation. It is a powerful measure.

After the imperial economy has fully recovered, the strict immigration control policy will be gradually loosened…”

Viscount Jia Donghe has served as Minister of Industry and Minister of Communications. He has worked in the macro-economic field of the empire for many years. He is a senior cabinet member. His words are very insightful and his measures are decisive and old-fashioned, which has won the unanimous echo of the cabinet ministers.

The so-called low-quality immigrants are young people who have no money and no education. They can only engage in simple repetitive labor in factories, or engage in low-wage labor such as port transportation, urban cleaning, or farming and animal husbandry in society. They belong to the people at the bottom of the society.

From the perspective of economic development

Now that the Ocean Empire has entered a highly industrialized society, the demand for low-quality labor is correspondingly reduced, and the demand for high-quality labor in culture has increased. This is an indisputable fact.

The so-called high-quality immigrants specifically refer to some students from mainland China who went to Australia for further study, the Manchus, the old and the young, the families of wealthy businessmen and children, landowners and actors, literati and writers, and new immigrants with better family background and education.

Therefore, the concept of high-quality immigrants refers to immigrants with a certain level of education and economic ability, but does not cover moral standards and political inclinations, which is beyond the scope of the colonial ministry.

open the window

With the influx of the wind, not only the fragrance of birds and flowers, but also dust and dross, this is an unavoidable situation.

Li Fushou saw that this proposal was supported by most of the cabinet ministers, he hesitated for a while, then nodded in agreement.

Over the past two years

He seldom overturned the results of court decisions, and even if some of them did not conform to his philosophy of governing the country, he would not easily use the authority of the emperor to veto them. Instead, he fully respected the democratic agenda and carefully maintained the general trend of gradual decentralization.

The    Empire will implement major political reforms after the war, enter a process of comprehensive decentralization, and gradually move towards a British-style constitutional monarchy.

There will also be several major initiatives, including the “Affirmative Action Act”, which concerns the vital interests of every citizen of the Empire. It aims to promote the same rights between nobles and commoners, regardless of whether they are high or low before the law and human rights. There is no distinction between citizens’ responsibilities and obligations, and the enjoyment of political and social resources. All these are in the pipeline.

At this time, it is not suitable to make any big noises.

(end of this chapter)