Chapter 143: The Island-Australia Agreement and the Reactions of All Parties
"Dear Australian Foreign Minister, I am willing to reach a new naval order with your country. Your Duke-class armored cruiser meets our requirements for protecting the coast. I wonder if your country can provide us with at least four such warships within two years?" Yukio Yuzawa asked with a smile.
If you are careful, you can find that Yukio Yuzawa's delivery requirements for battleships, armored cruisers and even various weapons and equipment are within two years.
Although these weapons and equipment can indeed be built and delivered smoothly within two years, all the requirements added up seem a bit unusual.
In addition, the island country is currently importing a large number of weapons and equipment and large and small warships, as well as important strategic resources and other materials including coal and iron mines.
All signs indicate that the island country will make a big move in two years, and even the island country's plot is not small.
You know, in East Asia, the only enemy that can make the island country so mobilized and not worry about opposition and sanctions from other powers is the Russian Empire.
Although there is still a huge country that can make the island country devote all its efforts, the interests of this country are currently divided by the major powers, and the powers will not agree to the island country to embezzle this rich area.
"This should be no problem, Mr. Yukio Yuzawa. But our shipyard is currently so large. If we want to build these armored cruisers while completing the battleship construction plan, we must expand the shipyard to a certain extent and recruit more people." Australia's Deputy Foreign Minister nodded and said with a little embarrassment: "This may increase the construction cost of the armored cruiser, or even return to the original price of this warship."
The public price of this armored cruiser is 59,130 pounds, and the preferential price for the island country is 52,000 pounds.
The return to the original price mentioned by the Australian Deputy Foreign Minister is actually to increase the price of each warship by 7,000 pounds to balance the cost of expanding Australia's shipyard and recruiting people.
"How about 55,000 pounds?" Yuzawa Yukichiro asked with a smile: "This is a reasonable price we can accept. If your country also agrees to this price, then we can immediately sign a purchase agreement for four armored cruisers."
55,000 pounds? The Australian Deputy Foreign Minister calculated silently. Even if the shipyard is expanded to a certain extent, the profit of each armored cruiser is more than 20,000 pounds.
If the island country can customize more than four armored cruisers at one time, then the total profit of this order can exceed 80,000 pounds, which can barely make up for the cost of Australia's naval expansion this time.
And these saved costs can also be used in other places to contribute to Australia's development and construction.
"No problem, Mr. Yukiichiro Yuzawa. The time for the handover of these four armored cruisers is the same as that of the battleships, which is within two years. As a commemoration of the first warship trade between your country and Australia, I will present you with a small coastal protection frigate on behalf of Australia. This coastal protection frigate will also be handed over with the battleships and armored cruisers to witness the friendship between your country and Australia." After thinking for a while, the Australian Deputy Foreign Minister replied with a smile.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. May the friendship between the island country and Australia last forever." Yukiichiro Yuzawa showed a look of surprise and responded with a smile.
In fact, whether for Australia or for the island country, a small coastal protection frigate will not be taken seriously.
The construction cost of a coastal protection frigate is only a few thousand pounds, which is far less than a fraction of this warship transaction.
Giving such a warship to the island country can not only confirm the theory proposed by the island country that a friend of a friend is a friend, so that the island country can rest assured to trade warships with Australia, but also look good in terms of face, so that the politicians and people of the island country are also satisfied.
After all, before the dreadnought was officially born, Arthur did not intend to equip the Australian Navy with such luxurious warships as pre-dreadnoughts.
Not only does a pre-dreadnought cost millions of pounds, but it also takes a lot of manpower and experts to build for more than a year.
What did you get in return? After the birth of the dreadnought, even the newest pre-dreadnoughts lost their luster in front of the dreadnought and lost their room for resistance.
But if Australia wants to quickly master the construction technology of the dreadnought after the birth of the dreadnought, then the construction technology of the pre-dreadnought must be mastered.
This is equivalent to the accumulation of knowledge in school. If there is no basic education for the accumulation of students' knowledge, directly letting a person who has never studied go to university to study, it is tantamount to forcing the growth of seedlings and doing nothing.
Moreover, this is impossible. What qualifications does a country that cannot even master the construction technology of the pre-dreadnought have to start building dreadnoughts after the birth of the dreadnought?
Although the dreadnought is a new type of warship that was born after the pre-dreadnought was improved in all aspects of technology, almost all the technologies were reformed and replaced, which made the dreadnought crush the pre-dreadnought.
But if there were no pre-dreadnoughts, the birth of the dreadnought would no longer exist.
Now the arrival of the island country's diplomatic mission also allowed Arthur to see how Australia allowed the technical experts in the shipyard to master the technology of building battleships without spending money.
By selling battleships abroad, not only can a lot of profits be earned, but also these experts can have battleships to build and be familiar with the technology they learned from German experts.
Australia will naturally make money, and the island country will not lose money, at least before the birth of the dreadnought.
This kind of arms trade that is willing to be done by both parties cannot be complained about being cheated just because the arms will be eliminated in the future.
On November 19, 1902, after a long period of discussion and visits, the diplomatic delegation of the island country finally determined the final order for arms trade.
This is a purchase plan that includes a battleship, four armored cruisers, a coastal protection frigate (gift), 20,000 Gew98 rifles, 100 German Maxim heavy machine guns, 30 105mm Krupp howitzers and tens of millions of rifles, heavy machine gun bullets, 10,000 artillery shells and a series of light and heavy weapons and warships.
These weapons can even directly equip a navy in the top 20 in the world and an elite army of 20,000 people with powerful firepower.
What's more, the island country's army was originally very strong. The navy was equipped with five battleships purchased from Britain and one battleship captured in the previous naval battle, a total of six ships, ranking among the top ten in the world.
As for the army, with sufficient population and militarism, the island country can easily arm a huge army of millions of people, and even arm an army of more than three million people on the premise of shaking the country's foundation.
In addition to this arms trade treaty, the island country also signed a resource import and export treaty with Australia.
Resource imports are not just simple coal and iron ore, but also a series of metal minerals and resources including oil, nickel, aluminum, etc.
This resource import and export treaty stipulates that Australia must provide at least 100,000 tons of mineral resources to the island country every year, and the selling price of mineral resources shall not exceed twice the market price.
In order to compensate Australia for its output in minerals, the transportation of these mineral resources will be the responsibility of the island country, and Australia only needs to transport them to the seaport.
This treaty is a win-win situation for Australia and the island countries. Australia can use its mineral resources, which are everywhere in the country, to exchange for some foreign exchange. These foreign exchange can also be used to purchase more advanced industrial equipment from Europe, accelerating the progress of Australia's industrialization and technological development.
At the same time, the island countries can also change the current situation of lack of mineral resources in their own country to a certain extent, so that some industries that have been sluggish and stagnant due to the limitation of mineral resources in their own country can make progress and breakthroughs.
The arms trade treaty and the mineral resources import and export treaty constitute the general treaty signed by the diplomatic delegation of the island countries and Australia, that is, the preliminary agreement between the island countries and Australia on strengthening economic and military cooperation, also known as the island-Australia agreement.
This agreement does not have any military attributes, and the arms involved are just actions taken by Arthur to open up Australia's military exports.
This agreement still has a certain impact on the international aspect. Although Australia has seized part of the British arms trade market, because of the good relationship between Australia and the British Empire on the surface, and Arthur's good reputation in the British Empire, the British Empire has not taken any action or voice.
The United States is also happy to see the cooperation between Australia and the island countries.
The United States and the Russian Empire are also neighbors, and even the closest land between the two countries is less than four kilometers away.
Of course, the situation of the two countries being adjacent was also promoted by the Russian Empire. The current territory of the United States, the land of Alaska, was once a colony of the Russian Empire.
However, due to the poor financial management of the Russian Empire, it was sold to the United States and became a new state of the United States.
It is also this state, which is less than four kilometers away from the easternmost island of the Russian Empire in the Far East, that makes the Russian Empire and the United States neighboring countries.
With the rise of American industry and economy, the United States is not satisfied with keeping its influence within the scope of North America.
But the world has basically been divided up by European powers. No matter how hard the United States tries, it can only snatch a little food from countries like the already weakened Spain.
In order to strengthen its influence, the United States must expand its reputation to other regions and countries.
The east is naturally impossible. The other side of the Atlantic is the most prosperous and developed Europe. Judging from the current military strength of the United States, it is not enough to confront the European powers.
Therefore, the United States can only look to Asia across the Pacific Ocean and go to war with Spain. Seizing the Philippines is a microcosm of the US plan.
But in Asia, the United States also faces several relatively powerful enemies. In northern Asia, the Russian Empire, which spans eastern Europe and the easternmost part of Asia, is one of the old European powers and one of the countries with great influence in Asia and the Far East.
In East Asia, the big countries here have basically been divided up by the powers, and the United States can only get a share and cannot realize its own interests.
Further south is Southeast Asia and Oceania. Whether in the past or now, most areas of these two places are not touched by the United States.
Whether it is the colonies of the British Empire or the Dutch Southeast Asian colonies supported by many powers, and Australia, which has good relations with the British Empire and the German Empire, they are all existences that the United States cannot afford to provoke for the time being.
Even though the United States' current industry and economy are already very developed, its military technology is still relatively backward and cannot yet confront the European powers.
Since the United States cannot directly intervene in the situation in Asia, it is very necessary to support and support a country to become a troublemaker.
At this point, the British Empire and the United States have almost the same purpose. That is, when they cannot directly intervene, they support and support a country with certain military strength to confront the hegemonic countries in Asia.
It can not only weaken the hegemony of the hegemonic countries in Asia, so that the power of the British Empire and the United States can be better extended in Asia, but also not drag down their own countries and do not need to be involved in the vortex of war.
Judging from the current situation, the Russian Empire is obviously much stronger than the island country. This is why the British Empire, known as the troublemaker in Europe, does not oppose this cooperation.
In addition to the British Empire, another German Empire that has a good cooperative relationship with Australia does not object to this.
Although the cooperation between Australia and the island countries has strengthened the military strength of the island countries, the Russian Empire's advantage in the Far East has become weaker, and it even has a considerable disadvantage in the number of armies.
But isn't this an opportunity for the German Empire? The German Empire has always wanted to remove the Russian Empire from the Franco-Russian Treaty, and the current conflict between the island countries and the Russian Empire in the Far East is a good opportunity.
France does not support the Russian Empire to focus more on the Far East, which also allows the German Empire to see an opportunity to win over the Russian Empire.
As long as the Russian Empire, the European bulldozer, can be removed from the Franco-Russian Treaty, or the Russian Empire can remain neutral between the conflict between the German Empire and France, then the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire only need to face one enemy, that is, France.
This is the best news for the German Empire. Germany, which just slaughtered France decades ago, is not afraid of going to war with France.
If it is just a one-on-one duel between Germany and France, the Germans are confident that history will repeat itself and let the French feel the taste of losing territory and large compensation.
Therefore, the expansion of the island nation's power is what the German Empire wants to see. After all, the stronger the island nation is, the more Tsarist Russia needs support from other countries, right?
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