Chapter 450 Population Crisis
With the help of the economic crisis, East Africa has ushered in a rare wave of immigrants. In East Africa, the wave of immigrants is specifically used to refer to German immigrants, not other immigrants. If East Africa really liberalizes its immigration policy, the population growth rate will be terrible.
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, people from the Far East look at the drug problem in the West and 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 and were a common thing.
Ernst could feel this in his previous life in Africa. The living conditions of Africans were 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 tightens its health screening, it will immediately screen out 20% of immigrants. Of course, it is not just about drug problems, but also other indicators.
In fact, anyone in Ernst's position would be afraid of the sudden increase in immigration. 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.
East Africa's population is growing so fast, faster than all countries in the world. Compare it to the United States, which is also a country of immigrants. In 1800, the population of the United States was only five million. By 1850, the population had more than quadrupled, reaching two. More than thirteen 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 significantly 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 the rural areas of the Far East maintain the idea of "more children, more blessings", and the same goes for Ernst's parents. In an agricultural country in East Africa, even in extreme If it becomes an industrial country in a 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 care improve, population growth in East Africa will not suddenly increase significantly again.
Because the current birth rate in East Africa is already the limit in East Africa, this 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.
The royal capital of Hechingen is the main force in East Africa's construction, and although the national fiscal revenue is small, the expenditure burden is also relatively light.
Said to be a planned economy, in fact state-owned enterprises only have a few small-scale factories, and the state's agricultural tax 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, so Ernst planned to terminate this support plan in 1875. The country could not afford the East African people to live like this. Yes.
Moreover, the population of East Africa is now a mystery. There has been no population statistics for three years. It is not that East Africa is slacking off, but that statistics are difficult to be as detailed as before. The data you count today may be overturned tomorrow due to the increase in the number of newborns. If it is done every year Counting population data, 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. Then there are 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 kind of 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 on East Africa, so we now need to return the population growth rate in East Africa to normal levels, Less government intervention and less 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 newborns in a family does not reach the level of seven or eight, there should always be at least four or five, and this is not At 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, and the number of immigrants is quite large. Our immigration scale is of the same order as the United States. Especially during this economic crisis, I am afraid that more than one million people will flow into East Africa."
"So not only the newborn subsidy, but also the immigrant population should be restricted. East Africa is relatively empty now, but we cannot blindly import people in order to develop East Africa. No matter how much land there is, it is 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 efforts."
There are those who oppose it and 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, abandonment is a serious crime, so it must be Live within your means and think 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. Next year, including newborns born in the future, will not be affected. To enjoy government subsidies, of course, all pregnant women must be fully counted this year, and the next five months are the final window period."
At the daily government work meeting in 1874, East Africa's population policy changed, which actually proved that the East African population could complete self-renewal and meet East Africa's construction needs without the need for immigrants.
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 absorb the western inland.
(End of this chapter)