Chapter 566 Comparison

In short, Japan's national conditions are inherently deficient. If it relies solely on its own resources for development, the level it can achieve will be quite limited.

However, this is not absolute. A country’s development has a lot to do with its own resource endowments, but national governance ultimately depends on the rule of people.

However, Japan has great potential in rule by man. Firstly, it knows shame and then becomes brave, and is good at learning from the strong. Secondly, Japan has a large enough population, and having a large population always has advantages. It just depends on how to transform the population from a burden into wealth.

For example, why is Japan's raw silk industry so competitive internationally? It is because the labor cost is too low, the Japanese are able to endure hardships and work diligently, and the government does not lag behind and strongly supports the development of industry and commerce. Therefore, Britain and the United States are naturally willing to invest in such a country, and at the same time, they can also contain the Far East Empire.

Similarly, a large number of Japanese go abroad to work, bringing a large amount of remittances to Japan.

Remittances are important to national development, especially for countries with extremely overpopulation, such as Egypt, the Philippines, and Bangladesh in the past. Remittances are one of the important sources of national income. If a country relies solely on its own country to provide jobs, it will inevitably produce a large number of refugees.

In addition to low-end industries, especially labor-intensive industries, where Japan has inherent advantages, Japan also attaches importance to education and science, which is extremely rare in this era. This provides a foundation for Japan's future industrial upgrading. Therefore, Japan became the only great power in Asia decades later, which was also the result of its own efforts.

"General Grace, I would like to ask, if Japan really goes to war with you, what are your chances of winning as the supreme commander of East Africa?" Luo Yijun asked curiously.

Although East Africa has many Chinese people and can only be considered a half-Western country, it is also a Western country. Now that the West is powerful, East Africa's strength is not top-notch among Western countries, but it is not weak either. So Luo Yajun really wants to know what kind of sparks will be created when this "ordinary" Western country collides with Japan, the second most powerful country in the Far East.

Glaze was not arrogant. He had a relatively good understanding of the Japanese Navy. Although the Japanese Navy was not strong, if the whole country's strength was mobilized, they could still fight against his fleet.

So he said modestly, or conservatively: "Probably 40-60! Of course, our side is 60, and the Japanese Navy is 40. However, the navy is the most unpredictable branch of the military, and it is easy to have accidents that subvert common sense. After all, the sea is quite dangerous.

According to your Far Eastern Empire, fighting a war requires the right time, right place and right people. I can be sure that the right time and right place are not on our side. Our East African Navy has just arrived and is naturally not very familiar with the waters here.

So the only thing that the East African Navy can compare with the Japanese Navy is the people. We have some advantages in this aspect, but I am not sure about the Japanese side. "

Hearing a German like Gracie talking about Eastern culture made Luo Yijun quite proud. It is always a happy thing for a country's culture to be recognized by other countries.

He said, "I didn't expect the general to be quite knowledgeable about Far Eastern culture. You are right. Our Eastern sages summarized the three aspects of weather, location, and people, which are the three decisive factors for winning a war. I just don't know what advantages your navy has in terms of people and people?"

Glaze did not keep the suspense and said bluntly: "This has to do with three aspects. First, it is a recognized point that our navy's ships and equipment are one level stronger than Japan's.

Secondly, we have to talk about officers. Our advantage in East Africa is that the commander-in-chief is Archduke Ferdinand, who was once the commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Other officers are either from the Austro-Hungarian Navy or have studied at the Austrian Naval School like me.

In addition to officers, we have to talk about sailors. Our sailors have a higher level of education than Japan, which is of great benefit to the control and command of ships. After so many years of development, the lowest level of education in the navy is now primary school education. "

In the past, the Japanese did not fully popularize compulsory education until 1907. This is completely different from East Africa today. East Africa also took advantage of Germany's popularization of compulsory education. There are not many professional teachers, but it is still easy to popularize it by teachers who read from textbooks.

This is easy to understand. There are quite a few pure Germans in East Africa, and most Germans have been to school. East African immigrants are mainly young people, so most Germans have not returned their knowledge.

Speaking of this, Ernst was very grateful for the great kindness of the German countries. It goes without saying how effective the implementation of compulsory education was for Germany. Historically, the United States has benefited from this dividend from Germany. With so many knowledgeable immigrants coming to the United States to develop, it is difficult for the United States not to develop.

Now with Ernst's interception, these people have become a benefit to East Africa and have contributed to the construction of East Africa.

Although most of them are just primary school students, there are at least five or six million pure German immigrants in East Africa, which means several million primary school students. Coupled with East Africa's literacy campaign and universal education, as long as it develops step by step, East Africa will definitely have a bright future.

In this regard, the United States is somewhat worrying. So many high-quality immigrants have been snatched away by East Africa, and so many blacks have been stuffed in. Ernst shudders at the thought. Although there are many blacks in East Africa, in an era when the average life expectancy is only 35, this problem will not exist in East Africa in 30 or 40 years.

In the past, Ernst still had some conscience and wanted to find a way out for the blacks, and send them away in a few years. Now they are completely immune. Once the bottom line is broken, there is no bottom line.

Black people represent economic interests, especially for East Africa, where black people account for half of the nearly 50 million population, so at least half of East Africa's national economy is created by black people.

Especially in East Africa's tropical cash crops, such as coffee, cotton, rubber, etc., many of them need to be produced by black people, which saves East Africa a lot of labor costs.

In the face of huge economic benefits, the East African government even wanted to introduce more black people, but this was rejected by Ernst.

The large number of primary school students in East Africa means that both the navy and the army are not short of high-quality soldiers, especially the navy, a high-tech branch of the military.

Among the East African Navy, it is common to have high school education and there are also many college students. In this respect, the Japanese Navy is far from comparable to the East African Navy.

After all, even if Japan popularizes compulsory education, it is still difficult to make a meal without rice. The knowledge of compulsory education needs to be learned from Europe. A large amount of education funds are invested in international students, and studying abroad is relatively expensive. East Africa does not have this problem because the Hechingen royal family has its own schools and fiefdoms in Europe, which can save a lot of costs. In addition, there are enough people in East Africa with primary school education.

Moreover, as a militaristic country, Japan has invested a lot of money in the industrial and military fields. Compared with other countries, its education funding is actually very limited. Therefore, it will take at least half a century for Japan's universal compulsory education to show results.

(End of this chapter)