Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 419 The Second Ten-Year Plan

The successful completion of the first ten-year development plan and the doubling of national fiscal revenue were the basis for Li Mingyuan's decision to implement five years of free compulsory education.

Education is the foundation of a strong country and, based on the first ten-year development plan, education remained a top priority in the second ten-year development plan between 1889 and 1899.

We will improve the orphan care and education system, and fully include orphans created due to the death or loss of their parents during the wave of East Asian immigrants going abroad to seek a living under the national security system. The central government will provide funding to cover all orphans' expenses and education during their primary and secondary school years.

In the next ten years, the total tuition fees for secondary schools and colleges will be reduced by 30% and 25% respectively.

Gradually achieve the ultimate goal of universal and free education.

In terms of agriculture, we adhere to the production mode of family farm production as the main and medium-sized and large farms as the auxiliary, and continue to promote the standard family model of one household with seven people (two adult parents and five or more children) and 2000 acres of arable land. (Local agricultural researchers believe that the family model of one household with seven or nine people and acres of arable land or acres of ranch is most suitable for the stability of the local South American society.)
Integrate and monopolize South America's foreign grain trade channels, and have the state-owned grain export trading companies under the jurisdiction of the government uniformly formulate grain, livestock purchase and export prices, and formulate a grain protection system to avoid the phenomenon of low grain prices hurting farmers and high grain prices hurting the people.

In terms of population growth, we will unwaveringly adhere to the system of encouraging childbirth, gradually improve the system of employing workers, ease the pressure of industrial development on workers' families, and provide corresponding tax relief policies for some families with difficult financial conditions to reduce their social spending on education, housing, and child care.

In the field of heavy industry, we will continue to increase the construction of infrastructure such as railways, roads, bridges, and canals, and strive to achieve the goal of breaking through 1899 million tons of crude steel production and ranking the country's total steel production in the top six in the world by 150. …………

With the technical foundation laid by the first ten-year development plan, Li Mingyuan seemed more adept when formulating the second ten-year development plan.

"Population is the foundation of a country. Without a sufficient population, even the most advanced machinery and equipment cannot function. Therefore, introducing immigrants and encouraging childbirth will be a national policy that will be implemented forever. As for the problems that some officials are worried about, such as overpopulation and intensified social contradictions, there is absolutely no need to do so."

After the topic of the second ten-year development plan was first discussed at the grand court meeting, Li Mingyuan began to explain several issues that the officials were concerned about.

"There are two reasons. First, the country's industrialization is accelerating, and the number of workers entering cities to work is increasing rapidly. As a large number of farmers and educated young people enter cities and become urban populations, workers' working hours increase, their pace of life accelerates, and the cost of raising children will also be higher than that of rural families. Under the constraints of various factors, the willingness of urban worker families to have children will decline, and the number of newborns in cities will decrease.

This phenomenon exists not only in European countries such as France and Germany (Germany's population was 1871 million in 4100 and 1889 million in 5000. Although its population increased by 900 million during this period, the infant birth rate showed a downward trend. It was only because the death rate dropped significantly that the population seemed to be growing faster than before.), but also in local areas. According to the newborn population survey data of the past three years, in urban families such as Chang'an and Songjiang, the average number of babies born to each couple of marriageable age was 4.9, which was 5.1 percentage points lower than the average number of babies born to each couple of marriageable age in rural areas.

As the country's industrialization process accelerates, the people's willingness to have children is likely to decline further, so it will be difficult for the local population to maintain its current high growth model.

Second, even if the population continues to grow at a high rate, causing the population in the local area to exceed the optimal range, the central government can take appropriate countermeasures at this time, transferring part of the excess population to overseas colonies, thereby solving the problem of overpopulation in a moderate way. "

"Our land is vast and sparsely populated. We are restrained by the British Empire, which opposes our expansion into Brazil and Chile. We are also hostile to the United States and the Republic of Brazil, which are always looking for opportunities to dismember the empire.

Under this unfavorable internal and external situation, it is too early to discuss the problem of excessive population growth in the future."

From the perspective of the highest-level official in the country, Liu Pu's views are more consistent with Li Mingyuan's.

"In the future, if the local population is overpopulated, we can expand our territory to the north, or disperse the population to overseas colonies. If the Congo colony cannot accommodate more people, the imperial army can also use its population advantage to use its guns and artillery to obtain enough living space for the local Chinese in Southeast Asia and Africa!" …

Government officials and military generals expressed their opinions one after another. Although they had different standpoints, their views were very consistent. "Last year, some officials had different ideas because of the conflict between new and old immigrants. In the first half of the year, the Americans fanned the flames, exaggerating the Han population threat theory in South America on the grounds that the local population was growing too fast, and encouraged Brazil, Chile and other countries to join forces to curb local development. Under such circumstances, some officials believed the so-called Malthusian theory of the West, and then their ideas were shaken. They followed the Americans' steps to provoke conflicts between new and old immigrants. It was really stupid!"

Li Mingyuan's tone turned cold, and he reiterated: "Malthusian theory is nothing but a fallacy with many loopholes and endless harm.

The Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Rites should do a good job in external and internal propaganda, refute the Americans' hypocritical slanderous propaganda, expose the sinister intentions of the United States and some Western countries to the local people, prohibit the spread of Malthusian ideas in the local area, continue to increase the efforts to introduce immigrants and encourage the implementation of fertility policies! "

A tall tree attracts the wind. The Han Kingdom, with an actual controlled area of ​​360 million square kilometers and a population of more than 1700 million, has become the second largest country in the Americas in terms of comprehensive national strength, second only to the United States.

The annual net population growth is over 100 million. Excluding the number of overseas immigrants, based on the average newborn birth rate of 5.02 babies per couple of childbearing age, the local natural population will double in less than years.

Even compared with the data in Malthus' theory that the population doubles every 25 years, the population growth rate in the Han Dynasty is extremely rare among all countries in the world.

The Han Kingdom, which ranks first in South America in terms of industry, military and population, will attract the attention of the United States and some countries that are hostile to its homeland even if it develops in a low-key manner.

In the struggle for dominance in South America and even the entire American region, while the Americans were competing head-on with the British, they also did not forget to use various means to curb the development of the Han country.

First, they used the Chinese Exclusion Act to plunder Chinese property and cut off the Chinese's ability to expand and develop in the United States. Then, they used the explosive population growth as an excuse to exaggerate the Han threat theory.

The conflicts and disputes between the United States, Britain and the mainland have attracted the attention of many European countries.

There were quite a few radical elements within Tsarist Russia, Italy and France who applauded the American actions, but at the national level, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy were either indifferent or, like Russia, made some statements but lacked the strength to exert influence in South America.

Officials who have managed to get to the top of the national leadership will not do things that are not beneficial to the country just because of American propaganda. After all, everyone knows that in terms of absorbing immigrants and population growth, the United States ranks first.
In addition to the United States, South American countries, Canada, Mexico and other countries are also absorbing immigrants. However, due to factors such as the small number of Chinese in the early days of the founding of the country and the harsh international environment around it, the Han Dynasty continued to adhere to the policy of introducing immigrants, which made the population growth rate more prominent.

Using immigrants to populate newly occupied areas was something that all European countries did. Britain and Russia, as colonial powers, were also the most active countries in evacuating native immigrants to newly occupied areas.

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were the key immigration destinations and colonies for Britain, while the vast Siberia and Central Asia regions became the first choice for Tsarist Russia to resettle the poor.

From large countries like Britain and Russia with populations of tens of millions to small countries like the Netherlands and Portugal with populations of millions, all were sending population overseas and to colonies. The difference was that the Americans used this as an excuse to attack the Han Dynasty.

Overseas immigration is subject to constraints such as transportation capacity and immigration costs, and the number of immigrants cannot grow indefinitely. Based on this understanding, although Western countries are curious about the population growth rate of the South American Han Kingdom, considering the huge financial expenditures brought about by imitating the Han government and organizing immigration transportation and resettlement by the state, most countries wisely chose to give up. A small number of countries with strong comprehensive strength, such as Britain, Germany, and Italy, have learned from the experience of the South American Han Kingdom and the United States and adopted a more enlightened policy than in history.

Led by the national government and some private colonial institutions, the lower-class people in the country were encouraged to migrate to overseas colonies. …………

(End of this chapter)