Chapter 835: The High-Speed Era
In the face of the financial crisis, governments have resorted to all their might, some civilized, some barbaric, some intelligent, some stupid, some gradually effective, and some counterproductive......
Drawing on the experience of the previous successful response to the global economic crisis, the Irish government has embarked on a new round of ambitious plans to boost domestic demand. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 First of all, following the construction of the new city of Limerick in 1916-1920 and the construction of infrastructure with hydropower facilities and ordinary roads as the core from 1927 to 1930, the third round of infrastructure construction with expressways as the core was set off, with the goal of building a highway network with a total length of 3,500-4,000 kilometers in 5-6 years. The Irish government will invest at least 80 billion dollars in this project, and the service areas with gas stations and restaurants along the route will be contracted by private capital through public bidding for construction and subsequent operation. For an island country with a land area of less than 100,000 square kilometers and 30 years ago it was dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, this is undoubtedly an unprecedented project, and it has reached an astonishing level of modernization -- all expressways are divided into three levels according to geographical location and population density, the first class is two-way four-lane, and the width of the roadbed with the emergency lane is 26 meters, the second class is the two-way six-lane, and the width of the roadbed with the emergency lane is 34 meters, and the third class is the two-way eight-lane, and the roadbed width with the emergency lane is 42 meters. All levels of expressways are provided with a 1-2 meter wide green separation belt, and there are no street lights, but a reflective cement pillar is set up at certain intervals; The slope of the road surface is as small as possible, the turning radius is as large as possible, the asphalt surface is specially treated to increase the friction of the car tires, the ramp in and out of the motorway, the overpass where the two highways meet, and the service area with a gas station, a restaurant and a repair shop. Such a highway will not only allow the army to cross the east and west in one day, but also allow aircraft to take off and land in an emergency manner. The construction of highways and its associated effects have led to a rapid reduction in the unemployment rate in Ireland, a shortage of labor in many places, and tens of thousands of Europeans have come to make a living, giving the Kingdom of Ireland another great opportunity to recruit skilled personnel.
This was followed by an ambitious family car program in Germany and the United States. After more than 20 years of hard work, Ireland's metal smelting, chemical industry, engine manufacturing have reached the European first-class level, with the Limerick vehicle factory as the leader of the Irish automobile industry, long-term learning from Daimler-Benz, Ford, General Motors and other mature car brands production skills, combined with the advanced ideas of genius designers, independent research and development of a number of simple and easy-to-operate family cars. Soon after the financial crisis, the Irish government introduced a subsidy policy that reduced the landing price of a five-seater car with a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour to 3,200 yuan, which is equivalent to half the salary of a skilled worker, and can be purchased with an interest-free loan guaranteed by the government. Correspondingly, developed oil refining technology and self-exploited oil fields in Bahrain have made the price of gasoline in Ireland quite cheap, supplemented by the government's tax reduction policy, driving has quickly become a popular choice for ordinary families, and the monthly sales of family cars have quickly crossed the 500 mark, which means that the Irish automobile industry is maintaining strong production and sales capacity under the strong pull of domestic demand, and automobile manufacturing and its derivative related industries provide at least 200,000 jobs for the country!
Parallel to the family car plan is the road transport plan to develop trucks to drive economic development in remote areas. With the successive launch of expressway projects, those villages and farms that are not connected to trains and are dozens or hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest railway station will no longer rely on traditional manpower and animal power for the export of crops and animal husbandry products and the transportation of daily necessities, and the transportation cost and transportation efficiency will have undergone qualitative changes. From 1916 to 1939, the number of trucks in Ireland increased from 182 to 2,391, and with the introduction of the Irish government's special tax exemption and loan discount policy, in the first half of 1940 alone, Ireland's three major local automobile companies jointly sold 886 civilian trucks with a load of 1-3 tons, at the same time, the Irish military transferred 600 German-made Mercedes-Benz light off-road vehicles and 750 German-made Krupp 3-ton trucks to the public at a low price in the form of handling redundant equipment. Significant increase in road capacity in Ireland. In addition, the Irish government has also extended bus lines to relatively remote villages and towns with stations along the railway line, which has led to the popularity of 20/30-seater buses developed by the Irish State Motor Company.
In the autumn of 1940, people living in the hemisphere were not immersed in the joy of harvest as in previous years, and the financial crisis defied the barriers of the oceans and set off storms in the Americas and Asia. Despite their efforts to stabilize finances and economies, governments have been unable to stop the wave of business closures and job losses triggered by the financial crisis. In order to get rid of the predicament of economic downturn and social turmoil, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and other countries have coincidentally taken measures to invest in infrastructure construction on a large scale to stimulate the economy by expanding domestic demand. Japan and Chile have adopted the most direct and effective method, that is, to use force externally, on the one hand, to stimulate the military industry to drive production, and on the other hand, to divert the attention of the domestic people. Taking advantage of the fact that the great powers were too busy to take care of themselves, Chile attacked its neighbor Peru over the boundary dispute over territorial waters, and the Japanese repeated the same trick of framing the Chinese army for violating the armistice agreement to attack the Japanese sentry and then attacking the Chinese army defense area along the Yangtze River......
According to the secret treaty signed between Ireland and the Chinese government in 1930, starting from the Japanese army tore up the armistice agreement and attacked the positions of the Chinese army across the river, the Kingdom of Ireland launched special military aid, and the two largest arsenals in Ireland rushed to work day and night. In three weeks, 10 million rounds of 7.62 mm rifle ammunition and 300,000 rounds of 80 mm mortar rounds were produced, and 10 million rounds of rifle ammunition of the same caliber and 600,000 grenades were transferred by the United States military from the strategic reserve, the cost of which was deducted from the war reparations payable to Ireland. Under the cover of the intervention of the League of Nations, these war materials were delivered to the Chinese army before the Japanese army completely blocked China's southern coastline, assisting them in resolutely blocking the Japanese army, or they entered China through Outer Mongolia through the Soviet-Russian Trans-Siberian Railway, and transported them from Gansu and Ningxia to Shaanxi and Shanxi, and sent them all the way to the hands of the soldiers on the front line who fought hard.
As temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere gradually cooled, the first winter after the financial crisis arrived, and many places were destabilized by economic depression and rising crime rates, while others were plagued by war and refugees. In this atmosphere, the Irish government lost no time in upgrading its immigration policy, which led to another wave of Irish immigrants from all over the world. By the end of 1939, Ireland's total population was 7.23 million, an increase of nearly 70% over 1916, and in the first 10 months of 1940, 590,000 people had applied for Irish citizenship, of which 540,000 were naturalized and more than 40,000 were allowed to enter the country. As a result, the total population of the Kingdom of Ireland quickly rose to an all-time high of 8 million, compared to 2.04 million in the Kingdom of Wales during the same period, meaning that the Irish would have an absolute majority in the United Kingdom once the two countries that respected the same monarch formed the United Kingdom.
The Kingdom of Ireland across the sea has been steadily moving forward in the winds of financial crisis and economic depression, while England and Scotland are in dire straits next door, which has made the Welsh people both envious and emotional. It is precisely because of the special relationship between the two countries that Ireland's state-owned enterprises usually give preference to Welsh goods when purchasing industrial raw materials and semi-products such as coal and steel, and the private sector and the common people are also emotionally inclined to the brotherly states under the rule of the same king, so that the industrial products of Wales that do not have much advantage in the international market have always had a stable market, thus ensuring the employment rate of the country. In November 1940, at the strong request of all sectors of the Welsh community, the Welsh government approved the construction of two highways across the territory of the east and west, north and south respectively, and the required funds were mainly financed by the Welsh government's loan to Ireland. The two 387-kilometre highways will provide around 20,000 jobs over a three-year period, meaning more than 10,000 Welsh households will be able to fill at least their stomachs during this period.
After entering 1941, a large number of surplus goods and vicious business competition led to the economic environment in Europe has not improved, the sharp reduction in foreign trade exports has a deeper impact on Ireland and Wales, the two export-oriented countries, more and more enterprises have no choice but to reduce production, cut workers' working hours, and even lay off workers in batches, although the operation of the unemployment insurance mechanism and the implementation of government relief have ensured the most basic survival needs of the people in the two countries, but the reduction in the quality of life has still dealt a heavy blow to the people's confidence in the future. On this occasion, the two governments held official meetings in Cardiff to discuss the establishment of an economic union, and used the press and radio to widely publicize the benefits of the economic union, thereby reducing the resistance of the people on both sides. On February 10, 1941, with the approval of the parliaments of the two countries, the Irish-Welsh Economic Union was proclaimed, and the customs duties on mutual imports were no longer levied, and the trade credit policy of mutual benefit and trust was implemented, which effectively enhanced the trade activity between the two countries, further strengthened the complementarity of the two economies, and more importantly, paved the way for the final establishment of a coalition government between the two countries.
(End of chapter)