The Rise Of Australasia

In order to prove that the infrastructure plan was not just talk, the government, with Arthur's urging, began the construction of several major projects, including the subway systems in Sydney, Melbourne, and Saint Arthur Castle.

For large urban cities, subways are extremely important, not only facilitating the movement of people within the city but also easing the connection between various parts of a large city.

Take the current situation in Sydney as an example. Without a subway, even traveling by car from the southernmost to the northernmost parts of Sydney would take more than two hours.

If there were traffic congestion or a high volume of pedestrian traffic along the way, the travel time would be even longer, significantly reducing the convenience of interaction within the city.

However, subways don't have the issues of traffic congestion and can move freely through the city's underground, with each subway trip capable of transporting hundreds or even thousands of passengers, speeding up the flow of people within the city.

That said, building underground railways is quite challenging. In addition to constructing subway stations underground, it's necessary to ensure that the constructed subway tunnels are very stable and won't collapse due to various issues.

After all, these are large-scale constructions strongly advocated by the government, and any quality issues would deal a significant blow to the government's reputation.

The construction of subways in the three cities will certainly not all unfold at once; Sydney's subway will serve as the pilot project for subway construction in Australasia.

After all, the subway technology is relatively new to Australasia; it's necessary to gather all the nation's railway experts to ensure the safety and stability of the subway.

The underground environment is no easier than above ground. If an accident occurs underground, not only is it difficult to carry out rescue operations, but the mortality rate is also very high.

After some time of preparation, on September 15, 1926, the Sydney subway construction project was officially launched.

As an expert who had previously worked on the construction of the subway in New York, Waldrick naturally became a member of the construction team for the Sydney subway, even joining the railway design department.

Apart from the highly publicized Sydney subway, in September, other projects also commenced in Australasia, such as the Anst Reservoir Hydropower Station in the Capital Region, the Capital Region's Railway Ring, and the new Sydney Bridge, keeping Australasian news continuously echoing in countries around the world.

Various construction projects including railways, water conservancy engineering, bridges, and infrastructure have turned Australasia into a massive construction site. One can see construction sites everywhere, and the number of workers of various types has surged.

This does not include the highways built by the City Council and town governments. Highways that connect with smaller facilities and towns are generally not announced to the public, as their scale is relatively small.

But taken together, these nationwide highways are also substantial constructions that have invisibly intensified the impact of Australasia's infrastructure, and have propelled the country's development and economic growth at an unbelievable speed.

Different from the seemingly relaxed Arthur, Prime Minister Roger still has a lot of governance to manage every day.

The Australasian government has consistently followed the strategy of making minor decisions internally and convening Cabinet Meetings for Arthur to make decisions on major issues, which keeps both the government and the Prime Minister rather busy.

Arthur was happy for the leisure, as delegating appropriately has its advantages. One cannot let the government become an obedient puppet that merely carries out commands.

Looking at the mountain of documents on his desk, even Roger, who was fond of his position as Prime Minister, couldn't help but sweat profusely.

"Carly, why have I received all the reports from the Transportation Department?" Roger asked in surprise, looking at the first report from the Transportation Department in front of him, his gaze questioning his secretary.

"According to the Transportation Department, there was an accident during railway construction that caused more than ten casualties, which is why they had no choice but to report it to you," his secretary Carly quickly responded, clearly aware of what the Prime Minister was concerned about.

"Damn it," Prime Minister Roger cursed under his breath, swiftly turning his focus to the documents on the table.

After reading through them carefully, Prime Minister Roger finally let out a sigh of relief.

Indeed, there were more than ten casualties, but the accident was unexpected, caused by a sudden landslide that buried more than ten workers.

Although the construction team reacted quickly and carried out rescue efforts, more than ten casualties still occurred.

This kind of situation had also often occurred in previous railway construction, but previously, the casualties were mostly Indigenous Peoples, so naturally, such incidents wouldn't be reported.

But now, the railway workers are all Australasians, so naturally, more than ten casualties had to be reported to the government.

In fact, this was also due to the economic crisis, with Australasia's infrastructure construction under the scrutiny of countries around the world.

Otherwise, more than ten casualties could be handled by the Transportation Department without needing to escalate the matter to Prime Minister Roger.

"Just let Minister Martin handle it," Prime Minister Roger instructed, "After all, it was an accident, and no one is responsible. Also, tell Minister Martin to report to His Majesty himself; that is his duty."

"Additionally, tell Minister Martin to distribute the pensions for the casualties as quickly as possible and to soothe the emotions of the families of the casualties. These people have all contributed to the nation, and their merit should not be overlooked by the country," Prime Minister Roger continued to order.

Although no one is liable for the accident, this does not mean that the government can afford to be negligent in its handling of the incident.

After all, it involves injuries and fatalities of about ten people, which for Arthur, who always cherishes his people like his own children, counts as a significant event.

If not handled properly and Arthur becomes aware, at the least there will be accountability, and at worst it could mean the loss of a chance for re-election.

After dealing with the issues of the Transportation Department, Prime Minister Roger turned his attention back to the busy state affairs and began to get preoccupied once again.

In fact, Arthur is not entirely free either; at least now, he is meeting with a guest, a visitor from Germany.

Germany is still under monarchism, and the ruler is William II, who previously had a good relationship with Arthur.

For the messenger sent by William II, who is also a member of the German nobility, it's natural that Arthur would not fail to receive him.

Actually, Arthur is already very clear about the purpose of the German envoy's visit. If we talk about countries most severely affected by the economic crisis, the United States and Germany are certainly at the top of the list, far ahead of the third place.

Although Germany's economy and industry saw improvement before the economic crisis, that was due to Britain, France, and some European nations relocating their highly polluting industries to Germany and the massive import of Germany's cheap industrial products.

This also means that Germany's industry is heavily dependent on other European countries, as well as financial support from the United States.

But after the outbreak of the economic crisis, all countries focused only on their own interests, and naturally could not continue to import German industrial products in large quantities.

This left Germany's industry in a state of overcapacity in an instant and severely lacking in funds.

Numerous European countries, including Britain and France, were transferring the harms of the economic crisis to Germany. Although Germany responded by stopping its compensation payments, it still couldn't eliminate the impact of the economic crisis.

How exactly did the economic crisis impact Germany?

Data can actually reveal a lot.

In the original history, during those four years of the economic crisis, Germany's coal production fell by 32.7%, pig iron production by 70.3%, steel production by 64.9%, machinery manufacturing industry by 62%, total power generation by 23%, total industrial production by almost 40%, production of consumer goods by more than 30%, total exports decreased by nearly 70%, and total imports by over 70%, with the national gold reserves dwindling by more than 80%.

Just the decrease in total exports and imports and gold reserves can show the impact of the economic crisis on Germany.

But in this world, the economic crisis undoubtedly had a more severe impact on Germany, much more serious than in history.

Because the current Germany is much more chaotic than the historical Germany, with the Monarch, federal states, and the military unable to decide on a truly controlling force in the country.

Furthermore, the United States, which in history lent large amounts of money to Germany, did not lend as much in this world, making Germany's current situation far worse than in history and its impact from the economic crisis much more severe.

First is the unemployment rate. Currently, Germany's unemployed population has soared, with industries going bankrupt and laying off workers continuously.

The industries that used to provide a large number of jobs are collapsing rapidly because European countries keep reducing the import quantity of German industrial goods, leaving German industries unable to sell their manufactured products.

The number of unemployed in Germany has already exceeded 5 million, and it is heading towards the threshold of 6 million.

And how many of the unemployed can the German government help? According to the data published by the German government, about 4 million unemployed have received relief, accounting for 81.2% of the total number of unemployed.

This might seem like a lot, but each unemployed person can only receive about 27.9 marks per week in unemployment relief funds, and in smaller cities, it's even less than 20 marks.

What can these funds do?

If it were before World War I, 20 marks would be equivalent to 1 pound, and these funds could last a week without any major issues, certainly enough to feed oneself.

But with the extreme devaluation of the mark now, even 27.9 marks are not sufficient to support a person for a week's meals.

In some cities with higher living costs, 20 marks can only buy a few loaves of bread, meaning most of the unemployed are going hungry and are not far from mass starvation.

It's worth mentioning that, compared to cities controlled by the German government, cities under the control of federal states are actually more stable.

Bavaria, for example, a relatively powerful federal state, is already using its own currency instead of the severely devalued mark.

Although Bavaria's currency isn't too valuable, at least it is a normal currency compared to the mark.

According to information revealed by the Bavarian state government, the number of unemployed in Bavaria is about 400,000, with an average unemployment relief per person per week equivalent to about 40 marks in value. Your journey continues with My Virtual Library Empire