Chapter 450 Population Crisis
With the blessing of the economic crisis, East Africa has ushered in a rare wave of immigration. In East Africa, the immigration wave specifically refers to German immigrants, not other immigrants. If East Africa really relaxes its immigration policy, the population growth rate will be terrifying.
So in 1874, East Africa once again went the other way, further raising the immigration threshold and tightening the health review of immigrants. Don’t underestimate the health review indicator, which alone can screen out a large number of immigrants who do not meet Ernst’s psychological expectations.
The 19th century was actually an era where darkness and development coexisted. People in the Far East in the 21st century feel that the West is in chaos when they look at the drug problem in the West, but the 19th century was the real chaos, because drugs were not a problem in the 19th century but something that people were used to.
Ernst could have felt this in his previous life in Africa. The living conditions of Africans are actually not much different from those in modern times outside of Europe and the United States.
There are drug addicts on the streets of Africa in almost every African city. They are not as picky as Americans. They use high-tech products or import them from Mexico. They can smoke anything from cough syrup to glue and aviation fuel.
There wasn't so much fancy stuff in the 19th century. It was just that opium and chemical drugs were rampant, and there was no regulatory system, so it was easy for ordinary people to buy them.
Therefore, once East Africa tightens its health screening, it can immediately screen out 20% of immigrants. Of course, it’s not just about drug issues, but also other indicators.
In fact, anyone in Ernst's position would feel fear about the surge in immigration. Even if you don't feel it for a day or two, after a long time you will find that the immigration policy you originally set was still a bit rough.
The population growth rate in East Africa is extremely fast, faster than that of any other country in the world. For example, the United States, which is also an immigrant country, had a population of only five million in 1800. By 1850, the population had more than quadrupled to more than 23 million.
According to the population trend of the United States, if East Africa implemented the same population system as the United States, by the end of the 19th century, the population of East Africa would be at least 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 have to think too much about such things. In the 21st century, many older generations in rural Far East still held the idea of "more children, more blessings", and so did Ernst's parents. Even if an agricultural country in East Africa became an industrial country in a very short time, social thinking would continue to be maintained for a long time by inertia.
Most industrialized countries will experience a population boom in the early stages of industrialization, but this may not happen in East Africa because its population growth has already exploded and it has a relatively rudimentary industrial system.
So even if productivity and medical standards improve, East Africa's population growth will not increase suddenly and 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 finances are two systems.
The Hechingen royal capital was the main force in East Africa’s construction, and although the country’s fiscal revenues were small, the expenditure burden was relatively light.
Although it is called a planned economy, in reality the state-owned enterprises consist of only a few small factories, and the state's agricultural taxes are its largest source of finance.
Agricultural taxes cannot be underestimated. East Africa is not an ordinary agricultural country, but a major agricultural country. Agricultural taxes are higher than the fiscal revenue of many countries in the world.
Therefore, the fiscal revenue of the East African Kingdom is not small compared with many countries, and the bulk of the fiscal revenue is used to support the newly born population in East Africa.
This included several major items, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, and education, which allowed the East African population to grow wildly and recklessly in the first decade. Therefore, Ernst planned to terminate this support program in 1875. If the East African people continued to reproduce like this, the country would no longer be able to afford it.
Moreover, the population of East Africa is now a mystery. The population data has not been collected for three years. It is not that East Africa has been slack, but that the statistics are difficult to be as detailed as before. The data you collect today may be overturned tomorrow due to the increase in the number of newborns. If the population data is collected every year, the statisticians in East Africa will be exhausted.
Of course, stopping the newborn subsidy cannot be done just by saying so. The policy change must first be spread throughout East Africa so that the public does not know about the policy change and continue to have more children.
"The population growth rate in East Africa has exceeded expectations, so starting next year, except for education which will remain free, all other types of fertility 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 immigration). If this phenomenon becomes common in East Africa, what will be the population of East Africa in 20 years? A large number of newborns have become a burden on East Africa, so we now have to return East Africa's population growth rate to normal levels and reduce government intervention and guidance," Ernst said at the East African Population Conference.
After Ernst finished his speech, others 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 some backward regions. Even if the number of newborns in a family does not reach seven or eight, there should be at least four or five. And this is not the limit. It has only been ten years since East Africa went from a colony to a kingdom. The population base has been cultivated. What will happen in the next ten years?"
"This does not include immigration, which is also quite large. Our immigration scale is on the same level as that of the United States. Especially during this economic crisis, I am afraid that more than one million people will flow into East Africa."
"So it's not just newborn subsidies, the immigration population should also be restricted. East Africa is relatively empty right now, but we can't blindly import people just to develop East Africa. No matter how much land there is, it is limited."
"There is also the issue of national ideology. As an immigrant country, our national ideology in East Africa is not yet solid. The continuous influx of foreign population will dilute our previous efforts."
There are those who oppose and those who support, but the reasons of the supporters are not very convincing.
After all, the East African kingdom is not going to implement birth control, it's just stopping birth subsidies. No one will stop you if you want to have a baby, but it depends on whether your salary is enough. If you voluntarily save money to have children, you can continue, but in East Africa, abandonment is a felony, so you must live within your means and consider carefully.
"Okay, this is settled. We still have five months to do this. You need to notify governments at all levels and inform every household of this policy change. Newborns born next year and beyond will no longer enjoy government subsidies. Of course, those who are pregnant this year must be fully counted. The next five months are the final window period."
At the government's daily work meeting in 1874, East Africa's population policy changed, which actually demonstrated that the East African population could complete self-renewal and meet East Africa's construction needs without immigration.
The population of the East African Kingdom is no longer a national shortcoming. At the same time, East Africa's pursuit of population has begun to transition from quantity to quality.
Although the population of the western inland is still insufficient, the population of the eastern part has reached a level that can meet the conditions for overflow. In addition, immigration work is still in progress, so it is only a matter of time before the western inland area is absorbed.
(End of this chapter)
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