The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 492: Chapter 389: 1915_2

After all, the British only provided half of the military expenses for these troops and would not provide weapons and equipment for these native soldiers when building a colonial army.

Minister Raul nodded his head, indicating that he understood.

After the small interlude from the Ministry of Defense, the annual report summary meeting for 1914 officially began.

According to the report from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, by the end of 1914, the total population of Australasia had successfully exceeded 15 million, reaching 15.37 million.

This was a significant milestone for Australasia; after breaking past ten million three years prior, the population of Australasia had again reached a new number.

Of course, the rise in population also highlighted a piece of bad news—that since the outbreak of the European War, the number of immigrants to Australasia had sharply decreased.

In 1914, the population of Australasia grew by approximately 1.44 million people.

While this seemed like a considerable number, the number of newborn babies reached 378,000. This meant that the number of immigrants for the entire year of 1914 was only 1.062 million, with Russian immigrants accounting for over 800,000, making up nearly 80% of the new immigrants to Australasia.

The number of immigrants had decreased by almost 300,000 compared to the previous year, a significant portion of which were British and German immigrants.

Even though Australasia had a good relationship with Britain, Britain would close the immigration channels during times of war, attempting to minimize the outflow of immigrants as much as possible.

After all, most civilians didn't like war. If there wasn't a limit on immigration during special times, there would probably be a mass exodus of refugees before the war had even ended.

This loss of national strength during times of war was something that none of the major European powers wanted to see.

It wasn't just Britain—all participating European powers had enacted some form of restrictions on immigration, which had almost halved the number of immigrants leaving Europe in 1914.

Fortunately for Australasia, there was the Tsardom of Russia, a steadfast ally that could provide support for immigration at any time.

After all, to attract more Russian immigrants, Australasia had resorted to bribing everyone in Russia; Russia was giving the green light to immigration to Australasia, even to the point of almost personally delivering immigrants to the borders of Australasia.

Even more importantly, due to the frequent transportation of supplies to Russia, the relationship between Australasia and Russia had also entered a long honeymoon period.

With the marriage alliance between the two royal families, Russian immigrants indeed became the best source of newcomers during this period, disregarding revolutionary elements among them.

Considering future potential crises in Russia, Arthur had already made some early arrangements.

According to statistics from the Department of Civil Affairs, by the end of 1914, the average income in Australasia was 52.7 Australian Dollars, still in a relatively stable growth state.

The growth of the economy can be observed from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In 1914, Australasia's GDP reached a staggering 1.677 billion US dollars, equivalent to 335 million Pounds or 670 million Australian Dollars, representing a growth rate of about 6%.

Although the growth rate had decelerated compared to the previous year, it was already quite commendable given that war broke out in the second half of 1914.

If Arthur is not mistaken, the economic growth of the European powers involved in the war, particularly France, Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia, must be negative.

It's worth noting that war puts an enormous drain on a country. These countries had to mobilize some civilian factories into military production, producing sophisticated military equipment and weapons if they had the technology, or simpler military uniforms and helmets if they didn't.

Although this greatly alleviated the military demands of the front line, it also had a massive impact on the civilian economy, slowing down its growth or even plunging it into decline.

The UK was relatively better off, given that its mainland was unaffected by the war. But as it's positioned in Europe, the impact was inevitable, certainly far more substantial than in Australasia.

In terms of government fiscal revenue, Australasia's government fiscal revenue for 1914 was 107.2 million Australian Dollars, exhibiting a growth of approximately 5.6% from the previous year.

As Australasia's economy was largely unaffected and even managed to make a small profit due to a large number of supplies being exported to Europe.

In terms of fiscal spending, since the UK bore half the cost of the expeditionary force, Australasia's military expenditure actually dropped to just over 38 million Australian Dollars.

The total fiscal expenditure of the Australasian government was 98.71 million Australian Dollars. The fiscal surplus increased compared to the previous year, reaching about 8.5 million Australian Dollars.

While military spending had fallen considerably, the overall government fiscal expenditure had not decreased much.

After all, in the midst of war, it cost even more to bring in immigrants from Russia. At the same time, making certain sacrifices was unavoidable to stabilize domestic production.

However, these sacrifices were bound to be recouped from the Allies. As the war intensifies in the new year, the Allies will truly be lacking weapons, equipment, and supplies.

At that time, Australasia will be able to make a fortune. The trading of food and weaponry alone will fill the coffers of the royal family and the Australasian government, not only paying off all government debts but also making a small profit.

If it were not for the war between Argentina and Chile, that had slightly soured Australasia's relationship with the United States. On

Arthur would even consider borrowing a large sum of money from the United States, which at that point could be paid back in either Francs or Marks.