Chapter 450 Population Crisis
With the support of the economic crisis, East Africa has ushered in a rare wave of immigrants. The wave of immigrants in East Africa is specifically used to refer to German immigrants, not other immigrants. If East Africa really liberalizes its immigration policy, then The population growth rate is terrifying.
So in 1874, East Africa once again went in the opposite direction, further raising the immigration threshold and further tightening the health review of immigrants. Don't underestimate the indicator of health screening. This alone can screen out a large number of immigrants who do not meet Ernst's psychological expectations.
The 19th century was actually an era of coexistence of darkness and development. In the 21st century, when people from the Far East look at the drug problem in the West, they feel that the West is very chaotic, but it was the 19th century that was really chaotic, because drugs were not a problem in the 19th century; A common thing.
Ernst could feel this in his previous life in Africa. The living conditions of Africans are actually not much different from those in areas other than modern Europe and America.
There are drug addicts on the streets of Africa in almost many African cities, and they are not as particular as Americans. They are made with high technology or imported from Mexico. They can smoke any cough syrup, glue, or aviation fuel.
In the 19th century, there were not so many fancy things. Opium and chemical drugs were rampant. In addition, there was no regulatory system, making it easy for ordinary people to buy them.
So after East Africa tightened its health screening, it was able to immediately screen out 20% of the immigrants. Of course, it was not just about drug problems, but also other indicators.
In fact, anyone in Ernst's position would be afraid of the sudden increase in immigrants. If they don't feel it for a day or two, they will find that the immigration policy they originally set is still a bit rough.
The population of East Africa is growing too fast, faster than all countries in the world. Compare it to the United States, which is also a country of immigrants. The United States had a population of only five million in 1800. By 1850, it directly became More than four times, reaching more than 23 million.
According to the population trend of the United States, if East Africa implements the same population system as the United States, by the end of the 19th century, the population of East Africa will be at least more than 40 million.
But East Africa is obviously different from the United States. The fertility rate of East Africans is obviously higher than that of the United States, and the people’s desire to have children will not change much in at least the next thirty years.
Ernst didn’t need to think too much about this kind of thing. In the 21st century, many older generations in rural areas of the Far East maintain the idea of “more children, more blessings”. The same goes for Ernst’s parents, and a man in East Africa Even if an agricultural country turns into an industrial country in a very short period of time, social thinking will continue to maintain its inertia for a long time.
Most industrialized countries will experience a population explosion in the early industrialization stage. This may not happen in East Africa, because East Africa's population growth has exploded and it has a relatively rudimentary industrial system.
So even if productivity levels and medical standards improve, East Africa's population growth will not suddenly increase significantly again.
Because the current birth rate in East Africa is already at the limit in East Africa, which is related to the social distribution problem in East Africa, although the wealth of the Hechingen royal family and the national finance are two different systems.
Hechingen royal capital is the main force in East Africa's construction, and although the national fiscal revenue is small, the expenditure burden is also relatively light.
It is said to be a planned economy, but in fact state-owned enterprises only have a few small-scale factories, and the state's agricultural tax revenue is their largest source of finance.
Agricultural taxes cannot be underestimated. East Africa is not an ordinary agricultural country. It is a large agricultural country. Agricultural taxes are higher than the fiscal revenue of many countries in the world.
So the financial revenue of the East African Kingdom is not small compared with many countries, and the bulk of the financial revenue is to support the newly born population in East Africa. Including several major items of clothing, food, housing, transportation, and education, this allowed the population of East Africa to grow unbridled and brutally in the first ten years. Therefore, Ernst planned to terminate this support plan in 1875. If the people of East Africa continued to live like this, the country would not be able to afford it. Yes.
And now the population of East Africa is a mystery. There has been no population statistics for three years. It’s not that East Africa is slacking off, but the statistics are difficult to be as detailed as before. The data you count today may be different tomorrow due to the increase in the number of newborns. It has been overturned. If the population data were collected every year, the statisticians in East Africa would be exhausted.
Of course, stopping the newborn subsidy cannot be done on the spur of the moment. The policy change must be spread throughout East Africa first, so that no one will be unaware of the policy change. There are also many new students.
“The population growth rate in East Africa is faster than expected, so starting from next year, except for education which will remain free, other types of reproductive support will be reduced and stopped. Some families in East Africa already have seven or eight children, and some even have more than Ten (this is family migration), if this phenomenon becomes common in East Africa, what will the population of East Africa be in twenty years? The large number of newborns has become a burden to East Africa, so we now need to increase the population of East Africa. rates return to normal levels, with less government intervention and guidance," Ernst told the East African Population Conference.
After Ernst finished speaking, others also started a heated discussion.
"Your Highness, although our country's birth rate is high, the survival rate should not reach that level."
"That being said, our newborn survival rate is not low, even higher than that of some backward areas. , even if the number of new students in a family does not reach the level of seven or eight, at least There should always be four or five, and this is not the limit. It has only been ten years since East Africa was transformed from a colony to a kingdom, and its population base has already been cultivated. What will happen in the next ten years?”
“This does not include immigrants? , the number of immigrants is also quite large. Our immigration scale is the same as that of the United States. level, especially during this economic crisis, I am afraid that more than one million people will flow into East Africa.”
“So not only newborn subsidies, but also the immigration population should be restricted. East Africa is relatively empty now, but. We cannot blindly import in order to develop East Africa. No matter how large the population or land is, it is still limited.”
“There is also the issue of national ideology. As a country of immigrants, our national ideology in East Africa is not yet strong. The continuous flow of foreign populations will dilute our previous situation. efforts.”
There are those who oppose it, and there are those who support it, but the reasons given by the supporters are not very convincing.
After all, the East African Kingdom is not going to introduce birth control, it is just stopping maternity subsidies. If you want to have a baby, no one will stop you, but it depends on whether the salary is enough. If you voluntarily live frugally and have children, you can continue, but in East Africa, abandoning Raising is a serious crime, so you must live within your means and consider it carefully.
"Okay, this matter is settled. There are still five months left. You have to notify governments at all levels and notify every household of this policy change, including those who will be born next year. Newborns who are pregnant this year will no longer enjoy government subsidies. Of course, those who are pregnant this year will Once the statistics are in place, the next five months will be the final window period.”
At the daily government work meeting in 1874, the East African population policy changed, which actually showed that the East African population can complete self-renewal and self-renewal without immigration. Meeting the construction needs of East Africa.
The population of the East African Kingdom is no longer the country’s shortcoming. At the same time, East Africa’s pursuit of population has begun to transition from quantity to quality.
Although the population in the western inland is still insufficient, the population in the east has reached the conditions that can meet the spillover. In addition, the immigration work is still in progress, and it is only a matter of time to digest the western inland.
(End of this chapter)