Chapter 283: Control of mortality rates
Chapter 273 Controlling the Mortality Rate
The lack of labor in the colony was a bit unexpected for Franz.
Originally he thought that after so many immigrants, the labor force would be enough, but the reality is very face, most of these immigrants are gold diggers, let them go to work peacefully too difficult for people.
Everyone wants to get rich in one go. Unless their dreams are shattered, it is very difficult for them to settle down. Even if they do settle down, there won’t be many people willing to go mining.
The problem of the lack of gold mine workers, Franz does not worry, that is the matter of mine bosses, I believe that these people will be able to play the subjective initiative to solve this problem. If you can’t, you can just dig slowly, and you’re not in a hurry.
The main purpose of immigration is to open up plantations, establish an agricultural economy in the area, and provide raw materials and markets for domestic industrial and commercial production.
Prime Minister Felix said, ”Your Majesty, we are already emigrating at a fast pace, and the lack of labor in the colonies is already affecting our plans to develop the African continent.
The German region is overpopulated, and every year a large number of bankrupt people choose to emigrate overseas, and a large portion of them have to worry about the cost of traveling to emigrate.
Many emigrants to the U.S. had to sign a labor contract in advance, with the hiring party advancing the cost of the journey, a contract that was usually unequal and that people were forced to sign because they were forced to make ends meet.
If we promise to reimburse a round-trip boat trip, I’m sure a lot of people will be willing to take their chances in Africa, and we should be able to keep quite a few of them.”
Franz thought for a moment and said, “It’s easy to increase immigration, but how can we control the death rate? Even though we have strict health regulations, we don’t do a very good job of enforcing them.
Now the mortality rate of immigrants traveling to Africa due to disease within a year is actually as high as three percent, a figure that is too high and must be brought down.
We are attracting immigrants over to develop the African continent, and such a high death rate will certainly greatly reduce everyone’s enthusiasm for immigration.”
A large part of the high mortality rate of immigrants in the colonies was due to death from unforeseen circumstances, and disease was one of the killers.
Among them, the local high prevalence of infectious diseases, respiratory infections, diarrhea, and malaria in Africa were the main ones, so at the very beginning Franz called hospital specialists to set up anti-epidemic measures.
Respiratory infections can be skipped, this disease is mainly for middle-aged and old people, the pre-migration are all young and strong, this problem can be ignored, anyway, most of the countries per capita life expectancy is less than forty years old.
Diarrhea is mainly poor diet, for this reason also specially formulated nutritional packages, of course, at present, only the military and colonial government officials enjoy, ordinary immigrants eat, drink, and the government can not regulate to that point.
The carriers of the Gouda epidemic are the local natives, so in theory, as long as the immigrants are prohibited from having close contact with the locals, there will be no problem.
With the advent of the industrial age, quinine could be mass-produced after 1850, and the death rate from malaria had come down.
In order to reduce the spread of the disease, for example, mosquito nets, mosquito coils, and insect repellent …… went into the logistical equipment, and were distributed free of charge to immigrants in the early stages.
Theoretically, if the immigrants strictly enforce safety and health regulations, the mortality rate due to disease could not be so high. Nowadays, most of the immigrants are young and strong, with much stronger resistance, and under normal circumstances the mortality rate will not exceed one percent.
The difference is only two percentage points, but when the population base goes up, the difference is huge, and if the immigrants are old and weak, the mortality rate will be doubled.
Disease is only a part of the death rate, but there are also other factors to consider the death of immigrants. For example, now, in addition to disease, the gold miners outside the fire fight with people, is the second largest factor in death.
According to the preliminary statistics from the colonial government, the mortality rate of immigrants in the first year is as high as 5.8%. Such a high mortality rate directly makes the natural growth rate of the local immigrant population negative.
Other accidents, when the local situation is stabilized, can naturally come down.
The high mortality rate of diseases becomes a top priority. If left unchecked, for a long time to come, the population of the colony will grow negatively, relying solely on foreign immigrants to support it.
Can the disease mortality rate be effectively controlled? The answer is: yes.
This can be seen from the fact that the population mortality rate varies from one immigrant stronghold to another.
In New Brook, the earliest settlement, the disease mortality rate was kept at 1.4%, whereas in the later colonial settlement in Ghana, the disease mortality rate was as high as 3.9%.
The main reason for this situation is that the earlier immigration was all government-led, with everyone enforcing safety and health regulations, while the later immigrants entered spontaneously, with little government regulation.
If this situation does not change, the high mortality rate will certainly cause panic, and then it will be difficult to attract immigrants.
Colonial Minister Josip Jelacic explained, “Your Majesty, the current immigrants come from all over the world and frequent the jungles, making it difficult for the colonial government to effectively regulate them.
If we regulate them too tightly, it might make some civilian colonization teams, choose to leave to settle in other countries’ strongholds.”
Franz said seriously, “Let them leave if they want to, in our territory, they have to follow our rules.
Popularize the safety regulations and enforce them in all colonial strongholds. Anyone who violates them will be fined, and any repeat offender will be put out of business.
In short, I don’t care what tactics the colonial government uses, the disease must be kept under control.
Starting next year, it is necessary to limit the death rate of disease among immigrants to two percent.
If the negotiations among the seven countries reach an agreement, then the annual mortality rate of immigrants next year must also be limited to four percent.
Within three years, the annual mortality rate of immigrants must be limited to 3.5 percent, or you can get the hell out of here beforehand.
The Cabinet will promote those who should be promoted and dismiss those who should be dismissed according to the completion of each region. If they can’t do it, then change a group of people to do it, we are short of everything, just not short of people who can do the job!”
Bureaucrats should not be expected to produce results if they are not pressured. Franz didn’t put it all in place at once either, but spread it out over time.
Now the mortality rate of the British and French colonial immigrants is basically limited to less than three percent, with the exception of the Gulf of Guinea region, of course, where the mortality rate brought about by going out in search of gold is too high.
If they were only active in the coastal areas, then the target Franz set for them would probably be three percent.
As for lower, Franz didn’t have the luxury. It was better to wait until the medical staff was increased and the level of medical technology improved!
In the era when medical equipment was lacking, doctors saw patients mainly by experience, and personal knowledge accumulation, and the training cycle of doctors was inevitably long.
Since Franz succeeded to the throne, the Vienna government has stepped up the training of medical personnel, the earliest trainees are still a year before graduation.
In order to improve the medical conditions in the country, short-term training was given to local doctors, eliminating the traditional bloodletting therapy and allowing them to receive new medical knowledge.
Overseas colonies really couldn’t care less, doctors in this era were middle class, people didn’t want to go and the government couldn’t force them.
Now all that can be done is to make sure that a colonial stronghold has a hospital, and the number of doctors in it tends to be just two or three, plus a few apprentices and it’s open for business.
It will be a few years before the problem of insufficient medical resources can be solved. Starting next year, Austria will have twelve thousand rookie doctors every year, out of school and into the medical system.
Together with the apprentice doctors trained in the traditional way, there will be 20,000 more doctors in Austria every year, which can greatly alleviate the problem of insufficient medical resources.
In contrast, nursing personnel are trained much faster, in batches of two or three years, 20,000 to 30,000 at a time.
These people are mainly nursing, and in an era when there is a severe shortage of doctors, they can’t see patients, but they can still do a good job of selling medicine based on the patient’s symptoms.
If there was an error in judgment that caused adverse consequences, then unfortunately, you could only count yourself unlucky. This era is so cruel, medical conditions are at this level.
Prime Minister Felix replied stiffly, “Yes, Your Majesty!”
After hesitating for a moment, he added, “Your Majesty, since we want to cultivate the immigrants’ awareness of safety and hygiene, why don’t we start at home!
Previously, we were only advocating for people to follow the safety and hygiene code, but we haven’t forced it to be enforced, so why don’t we make a law now and force it to be promoted among the people?
As long as everyone develops good habits, then they will consciously follow the rules when they arrive in the colonies.”
Compared to the high mobility in the colonies, which made it difficult to enforce, it was much easier to legislate the promotion of the safety and hygiene code in the country.
Newspapers have been publicizing it for a long time, and most people have already agreed with the concept of “safety and hygiene”, but acceptance is acceptance, but whether or not they can abide by it is another question.
Now mandatory legislation is undoubtedly a further promotion on the basis of the previous.
“It is also necessary to strengthen the education of safety and hygiene in the country.”
In Franz’s opinion, this is a good thing for the country and the people. The fact that everyone follows the safety and hygiene guidelines is very positive in curbing the spread of diseases.
(End of chapter)