Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 267 Wool Price Rebound

  Red River Valley, Australia

  The streets and alleys were posted with banners, slogans, and flags for running for governor. This is the large-scale campaign of the Zhi Gong Party in Queensland, which created a fiery atmosphere and carried out extensive publicity to the public.

  There are two contents in this important election;

  One is the re-election of two-thirds of the state legislators at the end of May, and the other is the re-election of the Queensland governor in late June.

  This is a very important general election, which will have a profound impact on the political ecology of the entire Queensland State and Australia. The importance cannot be overemphasized.

Activists of the Zhi Gong Dang vigorously promoted in the streets and alleys, especially young students who worked hard to distribute leaflets in both Chinese and English to every citizen who passed by, encouraging eligible voters to actively participate in it, as the Lord Earl and the candidates of the Zhi Gong Dang. Cast a vote.

  The head of the Zhi Gong party, Lord Li Fushou, Earl of Queensland, came forward to run for the post of Governor of Queensland, winning over 90%, and there is little suspense.

Xin Changjun, a state member of the Zhi Gong Party and Mayor of the Red River Valley, successfully took over as the presidency of the State Assembly. With the overwhelming election advantage of the Zhi Gong Party, there is no suspense. The mayor of Brisbane will also be re-elected, which means that immigrants are in force. Queensland has an absolute advantage, completely controlling the government and parliament.

  As the entire Australian territories were established at different times, the governor election time is not consistent, judging from the situation of the main three states;

  Queensland's governor's election is in full swing. Li Fushou's election for governor is not very suspenseful, and immigrants will surely have an absolute advantage.

  The state of New South Wales had already conducted the election for governor in advance last year. The new governor Ben Stevens has more than four years to serve. His policy tends to be conservative and opposes immigration. This has become increasingly apparent.

  The election for the governor of Victoria will be held in September next year. At present, the politicians who are interested in running for the election are still unclear. The mayor of Melbourne, Jeff Bridges, is a popular candidate for the governor. Once he decides to run for the election, the winning rate is quite high.

   Jeff Bridges is a conservative hawk. His policy propositions are more extreme than that of South Wales Governor Ben Stevenson. He is a diehard diehard. His coming to power is not a good thing.

  These three populous states are also economically strong states that dominate the entire Australian political situation. The remaining three states are just playing the role of soy sauce, and their influence is basically negligible.

The upcoming dual elections for the governor and parliament are a major event in Queensland’s political life. At present, it is on the right track to allow the public party to fully control the power of the state and parliament. If there are no special surprises, there will be no major events. deviation.

  Since April this year, three major events have occurred in economic and social life;

First, the Red River Valley Industrial Group funded the establishment of a newspaper called "World Journal", which implies the meaning of opening your eyes to see the world. The first issue of 5,600 copies was looted and the main client group was the Queensland immigrant group. The newspaper is printed in traditional Chinese and will be published in English when the scale is expanded in the future.

Second, the establishment of a separate Goodyear Rubber Company, mainly engaged in various rubber tire products, including tractor rubber tire wheels, carriage hollow tires and steel spokes, bicycle tires and spokes, etc., the product is a unique hollow tire, this Patent has been registered worldwide.

  Third, the Beilun branch of Honghe Shipyard was officially put into production. The products are mainly world-renowned 10,000-ton shuttle freighters to meet large orders from North American and European shipowners.

The war with the Dutch colonists on Shangri-La Island in the north did not affect the economic development of the Red River Valley in Australia. The southern township construction was proceeding step by step. The development strategy of northern Queensland was also advancing. The popularization of hand-held agricultural tractors greatly saves manpower and improves efficiency.

  Ocean-going freighters under the Australian 19th Century United Shipping Company are traveling to the Far East, Europe, North America and South America. No country dared to seize the ocean-going freighters flying the British flag.

  The Dutch East Indies can refuse to enter its own port for loading, unloading and supply, refusing to provide any services, and expressing a strong unwelcome attitude.

  The economic development of immigrant countries is full of vigor and vitality. The influx of a large number of immigrants has not only expanded the consumer market and promoted the rich and diversified society, but also brought precious labor to promote social progress.

  Queensland’s development has benefited from this and has shown extraordinary economic vitality. It has left its old rivals New South Wales and Victoria far behind, showing a strong momentum.

  This has aroused the dissatisfaction of many southern white ranchers, who believe that immigrants have robbed locals of job opportunities, making the originally rich southern states unpopular and becoming victims of economic development.

  Undoubtedly, this is an untenable paranoid theory.

  The facts are shocking. This paranoid and paranoid theory has a huge market in the southern states, which has aggravated social contradictions and formed a serious ethnic division.

  Vicious incidents of attacks on immigrants continue to occur, which has caused serious panic among immigrants. Many immigrants have brought their families to the northern state of Queensland for development. This has made the already short-staffed businesses in southern states even more short-handed.

  Especially in the annual sheep shearing season, white ranchers in Victoria cannot even hire enough shearing workers. The shortage of market demand pushes up the labor cost of shearing, which in turn intensifies the dissatisfaction of white ranchers.

since this year

  The most striking event in Australia’s economic life is the surge in wool prices. In May, the wool price has soared from 2.5 pounds per penny to 1.6 pounds per penny, a 56% increase.

  One of the big reasons is that Red River Valley gave up to suppress the purchase price of wool, just like a spring jumped up after being slammed, it is a retaliatory price return.

  Only this one

  Red River Valley's agricultural and animal husbandry department immediately turned losses into profits, and can create net profits of more than 6 million pounds every year, becoming an out-and-out big profit player.

Internationally

  The demand for fine imitation wool products continues to increase, and the prices in the European market are also rising continuously, which strongly supports the rebound of wool prices.

  In addition to international factors, the reason for abandoning the basic policy of continuously suppressing the price of wool is due to money. Li Fushou was financially unable to make ends meet, and there was a large deficit gap.

In response to the current situation, Li Fushou expanded his army on a large scale. The impressive Shangri-La garrison division plus guards dragoon divisions, guards tiger cavalry divisions, leopard cavalry guards, wolf cavalry divisions, guards, and Jayapura In the two marine police districts and Moresby, the army has more than 30,000 troops.

  I am polite to say that these are all private soldiers of Li Fushou's family, and of course he has to pay for his military and other expenses.

In addition, there is the rapidly expanding Queensland Coast Guard team. In addition, the number of officers and soldiers of the shore artillery force has exceeded 4,400. There is also a huge cost of consuming a large amount of materials and ammunition in the war, pensions for the dead and disabled, medical treatment expenses, etc., the pound is serious. The flowers are like running water.

  War has always been a gold swallowing beast, and there have been no exceptions since ancient times.

  Finally count

  It has been more than 5 months before and after the war, and the related costs have exceeded 2.7 million pounds. These huge bills need to be paid by the Lord Earl of Queensland.

  Even if the war is over now, the aftermath cost will exceed a million pounds. If it continues, the huge amount of money will be difficult to calculate.

  It costs more than 2 million pounds to maintain the strength of the three divisions each year, and to maintain the current size of the Queensland combined fleet, it also costs more than 1.6 million pounds per year (in non-war situations).

  All these money needs to be paid by Li Fushou, Earl of Queensland, from his private vault, because Shangri-La Island is a personal territory he claims to own and enjoys the corresponding rights and interests.

  This is publicly recognized by the British Colonial Department and widely recognized by European society.

  This situation is similar to the fact that French adventurers first discovered and claimed to own Tasmania, which was recognized by the French First Empire in the Napoleonic era, and also recognized by the United Kingdom and other European countries. The relevant rights and interests have solid legal protection.

  The same is true of the Shangri-La War.

  This war is a feudal lord war. It is a war between the King of the Netherlands and the Lord Earl of Queensland. This has nothing to do with Queensland taxpayers. Of course, the cost of the war should be paid by the Lord Queensland and not passed on to others.

   Therefore, Li Fushou, who spent money like water, couldn’t hold it anymore, and had to let go of the basic policy of suppressing wool prices and earn huge profits from it to pay for the war and maintain a huge army.

  Don’t look at his amazing annual property income, reaching nearly 30 million pounds. In fact, a large part of it cannot be spent and must be invested in further development.

  For example, operating the city and renting income must be invested in the construction of a larger city. To build a better city and improve the municipal construction, it is the truth that the snowball is bigger and bigger.

  For example, a large part of the income from operating a business needs to be invested in rolling development.

The Honghe Wool Spinning Plant has grown from the original wool spinning factory No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 to the present No. 8, and the No. 9, No. 10 and No. 11 factories are under construction. New equipment is purchased to eliminate old equipment and improve production technology. , Increase production, and continuously improve labor productivity and profit levels, all of which require operating profits to be invested in rolling development.

  Hongshan Shipyard builds Beilun base, Hongshan Iron and Steel Plant continuously introduces European steelmaking equipment and the second and third medium and heavy plate continuous casting and rolling equipment to further expand production capacity, all of which require continuous investment.

  The same is true for the Songjiang production base of General Machinery Co., which has spent a lot of money to build. These expansion funds mainly come from corporate profits, not bank loans.

  Australia is a corner forgotten by European powers. The financial industry is extremely weak and cannot meet the huge demand for funds of large enterprises.

The main battlefield of Huitong Bank is in the immigration business. It is precisely because of the strong capital investment of Huitong Bank that as many as 700,000 immigrants can smoothly arrive in Australia and integrate into society in the new year. Therefore, the amount of funds that can be invested in industrial development is very large. few.

  In the gold standard era

  The loans that banks can issue are closely related to the amount of gold reserves. Excessive issuance of banknotes will inevitably overdraft credit, which is a major taboo in the banking industry.

  Therefore, Huitong Bank’s funds are not unlimited. We must first guarantee immigration loans and important livelihood projects, and then we can consider the needs of enterprise development.

  (End of this chapter)