Chapter 543: The Dingkou Tax
Chapter 531 – Dingkou Tax
South Africa, ever since the gold mines were discovered in large quantities, there was a labor crisis there. Many people have joined the gold rush team in order to get rich overnight.
With the emergence of the first wave of exploding households, it ignited the gold rush. Farms closed down, stores went out of business, and even many employees in the colonial government quit their jobs and ran off to pan for gold.
Lack of manpower has become the biggest problem for the colonial government. Even though there has been a sharp increase in the number of foreigners in recent times, it does not help. These people are all gold seekers and will not feel comfortable working in the area.
Even the arrival of these foreigners, but also disturbed the order of the South African region, in order to maintain local stability, Fikeni Governor of the South African region of the police force has been expanded twice.
“His Excellency the Governor, last month another 386 employees in the government submitted their resignation letters, including 136 police officers, and 194 resignation applications have been approved according to the regulations.
The rest could not find replacements for a short period of time, so we had to force them to stay. According to the regulations, this period should not exceed three months, which puts a very heavy pressure on our recruitment work.
As a result of the gold rush, the number of people applying for government service has dropped drastically. The Personnel Department has lowered the recruitment standard to the minimum, but it is still unable to complete the recruitment task.
The Ministry of Personnel proposes to ask for help from the country, and the central government will coordinate the transfer of some people from other parts of Africa to take over the work, in order to ensure the normal functioning of the colonial government.”
Colonial government employees are not able to resign if they want to, the government signed a labor contract as well as the individual, and if they want to leave they must complete the handover of work according to the regulations, usually this time is one month, and the longest can continue for three months.
The government can not recruit people, this kind of thing has not happened in Austria for many years. Ever since compulsory education was introduced in Vienna, the government has never been short of public employees.
Of course, the colonial situation is special, and certain posts in remote areas are still unpopular. But as soon as the standards were lowered and the pay raised, none of these problems existed.
This time was different, the gold rush had had too much impact, and young people wanted to get rich, so they simply didn’t want to apply for government public officials.
It’s not that the government can’t recruit people, it’s mainly that it can’t recruit that many qualified public officials. No matter how much the standards are lowered, the most basic abilities are still guaranteed, and there are special skill requirements for certain positions.
Governor Fikeni frowned, this situation had been going on for a few months, and he didn’t realize that there was a tendency for it to get worse.
“Make a report to the country as you planned, and also ask the central government’s organization department to recruit 1,000 government employees from the country for us, as well as 3,800 veteran police officers.
Anyone willing to come over will be paid at double the average domestic average for the same position, as well as bonuses and benefits referenced to Vienna government employee standards.”
It was difficult to recruit from the colonies, so they recruited from within the country. With the large number of gold mines, the South African colonial government became a wealthy unit and could afford to pay.
Personnel Administrator Charlie: “Yes, His Excellency the Governor!”
After a pause, the Director of Mines, Kasper Tymsoe, took out a statement, “Your Excellency the Governor, this is a report on the development in the recent period.
Last month, 12 more gold mines were discovered in the South African region, all of them were of relatively high quality, with the gold content of the ore exceeding 5 grams per ton, and 2 of them even had reserves exceeding 50 tons.
Up to now, 78 gold mines of various sizes have been discovered in South Africa, and the total gold reserves with mining value have been initially judged to be more than 3,800 tons.
Also found 5 diamond mines, 7 coal mines, 2 copper mines, 5 iron ore mines, 3 manganese mines, 1 chrome mine, 2 phosphate mines ……
What is even more rare is that all these ores are of very good quality, and judging from the current figures, the South African region has become the richest region in the Empire in terms of mineral resources.
This is the advantage of South Africa, but want to develop these minerals is very difficult, the biggest problem is the lack of people, followed by the transportation problem.
To solve the transportation problem, we must first solve the manpower problem. According to the planning of the railroad department, if we want to solve the transportation problem within ten years, we need to provide at least 200,000 laborers.
To develop these minerals, even more labor is needed. Without two or three million laborers, it is simply impossible to develop South Africa’s mineral resources effectively.
However, the reality is very bad, not to mention two to three million laborers, even 200,000 laborers, the South African region cannot come up with.
The existing labor resources are somewhat insufficient even for gold mining. To continue to develop, we still need a large population.”
“Lack of people” was a common characteristic of all the Austrian colonies and a common problem faced by the major colonial empires.
No, the British were the exception. They had the human resources of India to supplement them, as long as they were willing to invest capital.
Austria was different, there was already a small population in Africa. Combined with the previous labor export policy, over the past decade or so Austrian Africa has sent 4.3 million laborers to the Americas and 1.1 million to the Persian region.
The number of local aborigines has been drastically reduced, and the West African region, which was developed earlier, no longer sees indigenous tribes.
At present, there are only a few indigenous tribes in Austrian East Africa and South Africa, but the total population will never exceed 3 million.
This can be seen during the Anglo-Boer War, the later stages of the war actually developed to the point of a lack of cannon fodder, the entire Austrian Africa together, are not enough to use sea tactics to level Cape Town.
It was not only the export of labor that led to the sharp decline in population, but also the lower birth rate, with the infamous “dinkum tax” being the main culprit.
In order to raise revenue, the colonial government levied a tax of one guilder per person per year on all indigenous tribes, which directly led to a decrease in the birth rate of the local population.
Governor Fikeni smiled coldly: “The problem of lack of people has been promised to be solved by the country, the European agricultural crisis has broken out, and it won’t be long before there will be a wave of bankruptcy of farmers, and the country will prioritize the immigration to the South African region.
In addition, the colonial government of the South Pacific region has also promised to sell us 100,000 laborers in the next five years. The Arabian Peninsula Governor’s Region will have a big action in the near future, they will dispose of all prisoners of war to us at a low price.
If we want to increase the labor force in the short term, we can still only tap the internal potential. It’s better this way, raise the dinkum tax to 1 divine guilder per person per month, and anyone who can’t afford to pay will be sent to me to dig for mines.
The scope of the tax can be expanded to include all non-Austrian citizens. Foreign immigrants can be given a one year tax holiday.
If you learn German within a year, you can apply for naturalization, and the naturalization test period is inconveniently still 3 years, during which time you can also be exempt from taxes.
If you fail the test, you can either get the hell out of here or stay and pay your taxes. It’s not that easy to take advantage of us!”
In order to increase the labor force, Viscount Fikni was prepared to leave no stone unturned. A dinkum tax of 1 divine guilder per person per month was practically forcing the locals to all go digging and to work hard to do so, or else they wouldn’t be able to scrape together a family’s dinkum tax.
Even the foreign gold diggers didn’t escape, if they couldn’t become an explosive household within the first year, it was better to learn German early and apply for naturalization, otherwise the butokou tax would hurt their wallets.
Come as you are, Governor Fikeni has never welcomed these unruly gold diggers anyway. As a traditional aristocrat, Viscount Fikeni hated speculators and explorers.
Even though he also made his fortune in gold mining, it doesn’t affect Viscount Fikeni’s personal perception. He may have been ruthless during the colonization, but back in Austria, Viscount Fikeni is a strict adherent of the aristocratic code.
This kind of double standard concept is not only possessed by Viscount Fikeni, but also by many colonizers.
……
Vienna, the cabinet has been busy since the Austrian government decided to find an unlucky man to divert the crisis.
War was not child’s play and required a combination of pros and cons. The European continent had been stabilized with great difficulty, Franz did not want to cause chaos in the world, the object chosen had to be careful.
Prime Minister Felix: “Your Majesty, the current situation is somewhat complicated, the only suitable objects for us to strike are Poland and the Ottoman Empire, neither of which are very desirable.
By moving against Poland, we can reduce a competitor in the international food market and alleviate the world’s agricultural crisis, but the aftermath is very serious.
First of all, the Russians are likely to get involved, and the Kingdom of Prussia will not be idle. The Kingdom of Poland is very poor, and if we take military action, it is unlikely that we will be able to obtain direct reparations, and we will have to recover the cost of the war by ceding land.
In this way, there is a half chance of a fourth partition of Poland by Prussia, Austria and Russia, and a forty percent chance of a Prussian-Polish merger, with only a one in ten chance of maintaining the status quo.
There’s also the reaction of Britain and France to consider; they won’t want to see us continue to get bigger. Besides, Poland owes them a great deal of money, and if this debt is lost to them, the financial worlds of both countries will give us a hard time.
The situation facing the Ottoman Empire is equally complex. It still involves Britain, France and Russia, and the debt problem of Britain and France is also inescapable, as well as the strategic conflicts of various countries.
Especially with Britain and Russia, the tsarist government has been waiting for us to act, so that we can fall on the Ottoman Empire, to regain the Transcaucasian region.
If we do not occupy the territory of the Ottoman Empire is just, if we seize the Middle East, will extend the sphere of influence to the Persian region, the British sensitive nerves are afraid to be stimulated again.
The South African issue is still nagging at them, and if we irritate the British again, I’m afraid that Anglo-Ottoman relations will be over.”
Franz also had a headache, the current situation was really not suitable for rash action. No matter which of the unlucky ones is picked to strike, Austria will not be able to maximize its interests.
“You can’t eat the mutton, and you have to get into trouble.” Any way you look at it, Austria was at a disadvantage, which did not fit Franz’s style of acting.
After wandering around for a few steps, Franz turned back fiercely: “If you want to get benefits, you have to pay the price. This agricultural crisis hurt not only us, but also the Russians and Prussia.
Either we join hands together to face the pressure of Britain and France; or we hold back together to see who is more resistant to pressure.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs communicates with the Prussians and Russians, and whoever of them offers a high price, we’ll engage in cooperation with them. If the returns are too low, then abandon the program.
With our family background, it is not a big problem to hold out for three to five years, so there is no need to rush. Prussia and Russia won’t be able to hold out for that long, whoever can’t stand it first, let them be the ones to stand out!”
……
(End of chapter)