The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 879: Chapter 656: The Crisis at the Car Factory

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As expected, when the heat generated by the infrastructure program subsided, the number of immigrants in the second week dropped significantly to just under 60,000.

Although this was still good news—after all, 60,000 a week meant at least 240,000 a month, and the annual number of immigrants could even exceed 2.5 million.

But the problem was that such immigration numbers were bound to decline. If the Australasian Government didn’t take any action, that would be about the extent of the immigration attracted during this economic crisis.

Population had always been Australasia’s greatest weakness, and Arthur understood this well, so he couldn’t miss the opportunity to increase it.

The rapid decrease in immigration numbers did not mean that Australasia’s attractiveness to immigrants had waned.

In fact, given a choice, the majority of the unemployed in America and Europe would still prefer to move to Australasia.

But the problem was that these people were unemployed and struggling to feed themselves, so naturally they couldn’t afford the expensive passage to Australasia.

In other words, to maintain a high number of immigrants, it was essential to properly solve the issue of ship tickets for the unemployed from America and Europe to travel to Australasia.

How could such a problem be solved? Actually, there were two solutions.

The first was to have envoys register the immigrants and provide them with an advance on their boat tickets, allowing them to afford passage to Australasia.

However, the issue with this method was that it couldn’t prevent people from pretending to be immigrants just to swindle the advance payment for boat tickets to buy food for themselves and their families.

Normally, there would be no shortage of people doing this, let alone those on the brink of starvation due to unemployment.

Therefore, the first proposal was quickly ruled out by Arthur, as it would have caused the government to suffer a substantial financial loss.

More importantly, such actions would ease the economic crisis in America, which was what Arthur did not want to see.

The other proposal was for Australasia to urgently increase the number of cruise ships running between Australia and Europe and America, even allowing immigrants to sail for free and providing them with food during the journey.

One advantage of doing so was that the money would be spent directly on those intending to migrate, with hardly anyone disguising themselves as immigrants.

After all, once on the ship, they had to head to Australasia, and whether or not they were willing, they would have to save enough to buy a ticket back home.

More importantly, Australasia’s wage system was basically linked to nationality, with only native citizens entitled to the highest level of minimum wage.

For those fake immigrants who were unwilling to take up Australasian citizenship, they would not only be exploited and discarded at will by factories, but accumulating sufficient income would also be nothing short of a pipe dream.

Keep in mind, Australasian labor laws are designed to protect Australasia. For those who come to Australasia and don’t want to obtain citizenship, although there is no discrimination in the labor laws, greedy capitalists always find various ways to exploit these people.

In the end, the second method was quickly approved and smoothly implemented by the Australasian embassies in various countries.

Those willing to immigrate to Australasia could apply at the Australasian embassy, and after passing the vetting, they could take a free cruise ship and enjoy complimentary meals on their way to Australasia.

All of this seemed very idyllic, but it was predicated on the fact that those enjoying these services had to be genuine immigrants.

As for those unwilling to become Australasian, their fate upon arrival in Australasia might be worse than that of serfs.

On August 20, 1926, with the implementation of Australasia’s new immigration policy, the number of immigrants obtained daily saw a significant increase.

In famous harbors such as Sydney and Melbourne, there were numerous ships traveling between other countries and Australasia every day, conveying mostly Caucasian people from Europe and America who, due to unemployment, had no choice but to come to Australasia in search of a livelihood.

With the governmental issues largely resolved, Arthur then turned his attention to dealing with the Royal financial group and other consortia.

Enterprises faced more risk during the economic crisis than the government did, and if not handled carefully, they could even be at risk of bankruptcy.

The good news was that because of the relatively stable economic environment within Australasia, Arthur didn’t have to worry about any of his consortia encountering problems.

Losses were inevitable, but as long as they aligned with national policies, it was completely impossible for Arthur’s consortia—given their size—to go bankrupt.

Moreover, Arthur’s personal funds were no less than those of the government, and the groups within the Royal financial group were still quite profitable.

Even without exaggeration, the income that the Benz Car Factory had brought to Arthur over the past 20+ years was enough to see all of the consortia through this economic crisis.

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On August 22nd, Arthur met with Butler Kent and Yajedin Blanc to inquire about the current situation of several financial groups.

“Your Majesty, thankfully, with your announcement and guarantees, the Royal financial group has not experienced a large number of bank runs. In the past month and a half, less than 1 million individual depositors have made withdrawals, with the total amount of withdrawals being less than 100 million Australian dollars, which is within our acceptable range,” Yajedin Blanc reported with a smile.

As the most creditworthy bank in Australasia and also the currency-issuing bank, the Royal Bank generally does not have to worry about the risk of bankruptcy.

With a total of over 500 million Australian dollars in deposited funds, the withdrawal of one-fifth of that amount is not significant for the Royal financial group.

Moreover, once those individual depositors see that Australasia’s economy has not been greatly affected, they will surely redeposit their funds.

After all, starting a business during an economic crisis is quite difficult, and besides keeping money in the bank, there doesn’t seem to be many good choices.

After all, there’s interest to be earned by keeping money in the bank. Holding it oneself, aside from feeling more secure, brings no other benefits.

The Royal Bank, being established under the name of the royal family, its credibility is certainly worth guaranteeing. At least in Australasia, people still have quite a bit of trust in the Royal Bank.

“Pay close attention to the current situation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and provide loan assistance to some special industries and enterprises with potential, to ensure that the number of our enterprises going bankrupt in this economic crisis is not too many,” Arthur nodded and commanded:

“Our foundation, compared to the old powers, is still lacking too much. The bankruptcy of small and medium-sized enterprises is an unbearable pain for us as it would greatly impact our development and disrupt our economic and industrial scale.”

After all, the foundation of development in Australasia is too weak, considering that it has only been a little over 20 years since the establishment of the Australian Principality.

In contrast, a well-established power like the United States has already seen thousands of banks and tens of thousands of industrial enterprises go bankrupt during the economic crisis, yet the country is still able to operate normally. This kind of foundation is something that Arthur envies greatly.

If Australasia were to go bankrupt a similar number of banks and enterprises, they would even owe hundreds more banks.

Although the number of factories and enterprises is barely adequate, a considerable part of them in Australasia are small private workshops, which are not comparable in scale to the small and medium-sized enterprises that went bankrupt in the United States.

It can only be said that, in terms of the number of enterprises and banks, Australasia still has a long way to go. This cannot be compensated for by rapid growth in the short term, but only through long-term support.

The good news is that both Europe and America have lost a large number of enterprises in this economic crisis.

This is tantamount to narrowing the gap between Australia and Europe and America. The economic and industrial scale of the United States is at least not so unattainable anymore.

Even if Australasia can attract enough immigrants during this economic crisis, and increase the population to nearly 40 million, it could then firmly secure its position as the third superpower after the UK and US, and further enhance its own foundation.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Yajedin Blanc nodded respectfully, indicating he understood.

“How about the situation of other consortia? They must have all entered losses, haven’t they?” Arthur turned his gaze to Butler Kent and asked.

The Royal Consortium is in fact the least of concerns, after all, it consists of the Royal Bank and the military industry, each more stable than the last.

The Royal Bank needs no further mention, as it is the least likely business to go bankrupt in Arthur’s hands. And with Arthur around, those in the military industry are also unlikely to face the risk of bankruptcy.

After all, from the fact that growth in warship construction continued during the economic crisis, it is clear how much emphasis Arthur places on developing military strength.

On the other hand, non-military enterprises such as machinery factories, car factories, and engine factories face greater risk in this economic crisis.

After all, both machinery and car factories need a large number of civilian orders to sustain themselves.

Although the economic crisis has not greatly affected Australasia, people will be more conservative in their daily lives, and reductions in machinery and car factory orders are an inevitable trend.

As for the engine factories, if both the car factories and machinery factories have no orders, they surely can’t just sell engines directly to the civilians!

Butler Kent nodded and replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. The Benz Car Factory’s main plant has already entered losses, with car pre-orders being canceled by 52%, and sales orders in the past month have dropped by 77.1% compared to the month before.

But the situation at the main plant is far less dire than at the branches. According to messages from other branches, our car sales in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States have decreased by 67%, 53%, and 82%, respectively. A large number of cars are backlogged in warehouses, with every branch continuously losing money.

If those unsold cars cannot be sold, the combined losses of these branches could exceed 5 million Australian dollars per month.”@@novelbin@@

The economic crisis is a fatal blow to the sales of car factories because the common people will not buy cars during an economic crisis, even those who still have a certain amount of funds.

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