The Rise Of Australasia

As time passed, whether there were other forces behind the stock market crash was no longer important.

For the United States at present, stabilizing the economic order after the stock market crash and reducing its impact on the national economy is the most important thing.

With the collapse of the stock market, the economy of every sector in the United States had fallen into a disastrous disaster, and the chain reaction was constantly occurring.

Whenever such a disaster occurred, the first thing that people would think of was to withdraw their deposits from banks and purchase emergency items such as grain and medical supplies.

Just on the second day after the stock market crash, which was July 15th, the currency reserves of all banks in New York had dropped by more than $70 million, most of which had been withdrawn by private depositors.

The United States had many banks, but most of them were smaller ones, and each branch had a limited amount of currency reserves, which was not enough to handle so many frequent withdrawals.

Clearly, after the stock market crash, the number of people wanting to withdraw money far exceeded those looking to deposit. Furthermore, a large number of small banks couldn’t produce more money to return to these depositors, and they were facing only one outcome—bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy combined with the surge in bank runs plunged American banking into collapse in a short period. Not only the small banks, but even those famous families’ banks, Morgan, Rockefeller, and the like, were being heavily withdrawn from.

Where did the banks’ money go? Banks are certainly supposed to make money, so not all the funds could possibly stay in the gold vault.

Under normal operations, most of the banks’ funds would be lent out as loans to enterprises and individuals who need them.

But in the context of a stock market crash, could those enterprises come up with the funds to repay the banks? Clearly not.

Because of the evaporation of stock values, large amounts of property had vanished instantly. This also meant the direct rupture of the financial chain between banks and enterprises, leaving only one outcome for banks and enterprises: being overwhelmed by the angry public for failing to produce the funds.

At this moment, both large and small banks were panicked, such a crisis was enough to bankrupt the big banks.

To stabilize the situation, some influential banks could only press enterprises for payments urgently, ensuring their own banks would not fall into bankruptcy.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, facing the banks’ emergency demands, could only maximize layoffs and minimize their expenses.

But this also led to wave after wave of unemployment, making everyone affected victims of the incident, with only a few capitalists who knew the news in advance managing to survive. Experience tales at NovelBin.Côm

By August, with the reporting of American news, the latest number of unemployed in the United States had reached 7 million, with over 3 million households facing a shortage of food.

On the streets of America and in various cities, one could see crowds lining up to receive relief food at any time.

These people might have been white-collar workers, enterprise employees, skilled workers, but now they had all become unemployed recipients living on relief grain.

Such a massive number of unemployed directly led to the collapse of America’s order. Starting in mid-July, crime rates in various American cities had gone up by 44.1%, and more than 2 million students were forced to drop out of school because their families could no longer afford the costs.

According to estimates by the American media, in the half-month period from the end of July to the beginning of August, the number of suicides nationwide in the United States had surpassed 300,000, and the number of deaths by starvation was also around 200,000.

Many cities had already experienced waves of grain looting, and grain prices in the cities had doubled several times in half a month, yet there was still a shortage of supply.

This crisis was no longer just an economic problem from the time of the stock market crash but, with every wave of unemployment, had become a social issue affecting the very foundation of the United States.

How to deal with almost ten million unemployed, plus the problem of food shortages for tens of millions more, was giving President Coolidge a severe headache.

In fact, the American Government was indeed helpless about this. There were quite a few people within the government who believed the market would adjust itself over time, that the current difficulties were only temporary, and that the US economy would recover in the future.

But anyone who understood the harm that the Great Depression had inflicted on the United States would not speak so. According to historical statistics, the US economy plummeted year by year from the onset of the Great Depression, and in four years, the Gross National Product had dropped by more than half, sending the economy back decades.

In September 1932, Fortune Magazine estimated that during the Great Depression, 34 million adult men, women, and children in the United States had no income, which was close to 30% of the total population.

What is more, a large number of rural populations were not included in the statistics. Although the rural population were the main producers of grain, this did not mean that all rural people would hoard a large amount of grain at home.

The primary target of the American Government had never been the rural people, after all. Given the wider and more scattered rural areas, the government simply did not have the power to provide relief.

How massive was the impact of the Great Depression on the United States?

According to some legends from later times, there had been people who walked 900 miles (about 1450 kilometers) in search of work, and others who kept vigil all night outside employment agencies, all just to find a job that could protect them.

Because of the vast numbers of unemployed, some job postings were furiously competed over by many people.

A certain employment agency in the streets of New York advertised 30 positions, and on the day of the public recruitment, over 7000 people gathered around the agency, causing it to break down.

Even more extreme, some set fires in forests secretly, just to get the government to hire them as firefighters.

According to estimates by American financial magazines, there were at least ten million people in America currently seeking work, but the number of enterprises that could provide jobs was minuscule, leaving a lot more people aimlessly seeking work, eventually getting nothing at all.

Such a grim situation in America naturally also impacted Europe.

Although the British Government had prepared in advance, the London Stock Exchange still collapsed just like the United States.

The good news is that, thanks to the British Government’s proactive prevention efforts, the rise of the London Stock Exchange wasn’t as exaggerated as New York’s, and the number of people affected by the collapse fell within an acceptable range.

More importantly, the British Government had already prepared relief for the unemployed population in advance and had stockpiled a significant amount of emergency grain supplies, ensuring that the unemployed wouldn’t go hungry.

As time entered August, the number of unemployed people in various countries continued to increase.

Some European newspapers compiled data and published a ranking of unemployment figures by country:

First place, the United States, with an estimated 7.5 million people unemployed.

Second place, Britain, with an estimated 5 million people unemployed.

Third place, Germany, with an estimated 4.4 million people unemployed.

Fourth place, France, with an estimated 3.5 million people unemployed.

Fifth place, the Austrian Empire, with 2.2 million people unemployed. @@novelbin@@

Sixth place, the Island Nation, with 2 million people unemployed.

Seventh place, Italy, with 1.1 million people unemployed.

Seventh place, Spain, with 550,000 people unemployed.

Eighth place, Tsarist Russia, with 500,000 people unemployed.

Ninth place, the Netherlands, with 400,000 people unemployed.

Tenth place, Portugal, with 200,000 people unemployed.

Where is Australasia?

This was the question nearly everyone had after reading this news report. Almost all the Powers were on this unemployment ranking, except for Australasia.

In principle, with a population of 30 million, Australasia, whose physical constitution and economy were highly similar to Europe and America’s, should have been within the affected range.

Even the Island Nation, due to a significant amount of capital assistance from the United States, faced tremendous unemployment pressure and low-income problems in the rural population amid this economic crisis.

Although Australasia was relatively remote from Europe and America, it shouldn’t have been absent from the list. Even countries like the Netherlands and Portugal were named; how could an economy of Australasia’s great power level remain unaffected?

In fact, Australasia’s economy and stock market were indeed impacted, but the effects were generally minimal.

Even upon closer inspection, countries like Soviet Russia and the Republic of Turkey were hardly affected at all.

Behind the collapse of the New York stock market was the shadow of Australasia, and Arthur was among the earliest to start preparing for the stock market crash.

Even before the collapse of the New York stock market, Arthur had instructed his consortiums to take precautions and had the Royal financial group ready with sufficient funds to prevent a run on the banks by the public.

The good news was that Arthur’s words held considerable sway in Australasia, and the people didn’t panic too much, avoiding a bank run.

As a result, at least the banking sector remained quite stable. With the banks stable, enterprises were less panicked and didn’t need to rush to reduce employee numbers and cut expenses.

Due to these factors, unemployment rates in Australasia didn’t rise much, after all, the Royal financial group itself employed a large number of workers.

Although some foreign enterprises laid off some employees for their own costs and various other reasons, these unemployed individuals were quickly rehired by other enterprises, ensuring that people didn’t have to worry about their risk of unemployment.

Moreover, for those who were temporarily unable to find work, the Royal Relief Committee and the government had established relief grain distribution points, ensuring that the unemployed wouldn’t starve.

Under these circumstances, the number of unemployed in Australasia remained below one hundred thousand, entirely within a controllable range.

Australasia’s unemployment figures were always public data, and it didn’t take long for the media in Europe and America to report it abroad.

As such, the figure of fewer than one hundred thousand unemployed instantly drew the attention of the entire world and naturally made Australasia a desirable destination for those unemployed masses.

In fact, during the Great Depression, the United States experienced one of its largest population outflows. Historically, the Soviet Union was unaffected by the Great Depression and attracted a large number of Americans and even Europeans during that period.

But now, Australasia had taken on this role. A country that hadn’t suffered significant impacts from the economic crisis, and could even ensure income for its workforce, was indeed the holy land in the hearts of those unemployed.

However, for these unemployed individuals, securing tickets to Australasia had become their most troubling challenge.

As the number of unemployed in the United States continued to rise, many Americans chose to move to Europe or other regions for survival.

This, in turn, caused the price of ocean liner tickets to soar; a ticket to Europe that originally cost $15 now had risen to more than $50.