The Rise Of Australasia

Under Arthur's command, the government quickly took action, and the corresponding policies to further promote agricultural mechanization were distributed to various local governments.

The most interesting part for agricultural practitioners was the government's subsidies for agricultural machinery.

In order to encourage the large-scale purchase of agricultural machinery, the Australasian Government specifically stipulated that various machinery products would be subsidized by 10% to 15%, and a single machinery product could have a maximum reduction of about 30 Australian dollars.

Whether it was a large corporate farm or a small private farm, such a subsidy policy could save a considerable amount of money.

At the same time, with more machinery, the farm labor could save more manpower, and the cost of manpower would also be greatly reduced.

Although the use of machines also has costs, it is nothing more than daily maintenance and fuel expenses. Currently, Australia's tractors and other agricultural machinery are quite stable, and there should be no problems with their regular use. Agricultural machinery manufacturers also generally promise a warranty period.

On February 7th, the day after the launch of the agricultural machinery subsidy policy, farms on the outskirts of Sydney were swirling with heated discussions.

"Henderson, how many machines do you have on your farm now?" Two simple-looking old men sat together, chatting between two neighboring farms.

"Hehe, my farm has two tractors and three plows now. Originally, dozens of people were needed for the farm, but now it can operate with less than ten people." Henderson, the old man, chuckled and said proudly.

"What's that? I have five tractors, four plows, and several other machines. I've laid off most of the farm's workforce, and now these big guys are going to work." The other man sneered, eager to flaunt his own machinery count.

"That many? Kevin, where did you get so much money to buy these machines? Even with government subsidies, a tractor costs up to 200 Australian dollars, and the total cost of these machines should exceed 2,000 Australian dollars, right?" Henderson asked with surprise.

Government subsidies were indeed an incentive for them to purchase a large number of machines, but that did not mean they had to invest all their wealth into buying agricultural machinery.

Although their farms were quite large, with annual revenue of several hundred Australian dollars, depending on the year's harvest and the price of the grains.

But the problem was that the cost of this batch of machinery was equal to their income for several years. But most of their incomes were used to expand the farm, so it would be difficult for them to come up with 2,000 Australian dollars at once.

"Didn't the policy say that we could mortgage the land to get loans? It's easy to buy more than ten machines." Kevin explained with a smile.

"Are you crazy, Kevin? These 2,000 Australian dollars are at least four or five years of your income. Are you going to spend it all on machinery?" Henderson looked astonished as if he had heard some incredible news.

"You old fool, don't you see it yet?" Kevin shook his head, annoyed, explaining to his friend, "You have to know that strengthening agricultural mechanization was proposed by His Majesty, so there must be a good reason behind it. Although these machines cost 2,000 Australian dollars, they can save at least 20 people's manpower every year.

Based on the per capita annual income, they can fully recover the cost in two or three years. It's a surefire deal to make a profit. Buying machinery now is actually making money."

Henderson was stunned. He thought back to what his friend had said and it seemed to make sense.

Even if the income of the farm employees was lower than the national average, it was still more than 50 Australian dollars.

The labor cost of 20 people would be equivalent to around 1000 Australian dollars, which was not a small expense.

If this part of the labor cost could be saved, the 2,000 Australian dollars spent on agricultural machinery didn't seem like much.

Even with the additional fuel and maintenance costs, it could definitely break even in three or four years.

Any agricultural machine has a service life of more than ten years, and after three or four years of full cost recovery, the pure profit from agricultural machinery will follow.

"It does seem to be the case. My goodness, what have I missed?" Henderson nodded, with a somewhat wry smile.

"It's not too late, Henderson. Agricultural mechanization has become a trend, and less manpower can save us labor costs accordingly. Now the government offers subsidies for purchasing agricultural machinery, which is the best opportunity. You should thank His Majesty; otherwise, you would have to spend tens of dollars more for each machinery unit!" Kevin laughed and comforted his friend.

It was only the second day since the agricultural machinery subsidy policy was issued, and it was not too late to purchase agricultural machinery.

For private farm owners like them, the cost-saving of several tens of thousands of Australian dollars for each piece of machinery meant a considerable increase in income, which was definitely good news.

Of course, because their farms were on the outskirts of Sydney, they received the policy news faster, and it was more convenient for them to purchase the machinery from the factory.

For towns far from the urban area or remote farms, it would take some effort to purchase machinery equipment, which would also increase invisible costs.

February 13, 1921, Sydney Palace.

A week had passed since the announcement of the agricultural subsidies policy, and the Ministry of Agriculture officially reported the sales of agricultural machinery for that week.

Arthur was quite pleased with the data. In just one week, more than 20,000 pieces of agricultural machinery equipment had been sold nationwide, potentially reducing the agricultural workforce by at least one hundred thousand people.

Due to the short notice, the majority of these sales occurred near large cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, while sales in more remote areas had not yet officially begun.

It was expected that the real boom in sales of agricultural machinery would come when the subsidies were available to all towns and farms across Australasia.

This would also quickly provide the Australasian Government with a significant amount of excess labor to fuel the growth of other industries.

Of course, the proliferation of agricultural machinery was not that simple. Firstly, it was impossible for all existing farms to quickly familiarize themselves and operate the machinery from scratch, which meant that the government had to organize personnel to teach every farm that bought agricultural machinery how to use it.

This would be a significant task, as each farm had different circumstances, and it would take time for them to fully grasp the use of the machinery.

Of course, this was just the first major hurdle in the complete mechanization of the agricultural industry. Once the farms were fully acquainted with the use of agricultural machinery, the subsequent purchases of new equipment would not require the government's direct involvement in teaching.

Simply buying agricultural machinery would not be enough to achieve large-scale and complete mechanization of the land.

In addition to introducing agricultural machinery, it was necessary to have a consolidation of existing farms, transforming smaller farms into larger ones.

Currently, some small farms in Australasia were too fragmented, with a few unable to afford the purchase of machinery.

Alternatively, it could be said that it was not cost-effective for these small farms to buy machinery, as their staff numbers were limited, and purchasing machinery would become an additional burden.

If these small farms could not be consolidated into larger ones, they would continue to be a barrier to the mechanization of the Australasian agricultural industry.

For this reason, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed a new concept: the industrialization of agriculture.

Small farms would be encouraged to merge into joint-stock agricultural companies, forming medium-sized agricultural forces that could compete with larger landowners and corporate farms.

This would enable farmers to have enough income and a say in agricultural matters.

Of course, such a concept would not be easily accepted by small farm owners in the short term.

Once the farms were entirely industrialized, these farm owners would be very concerned about their profit distribution.

It remained a difficult task to consolidate small farms into medium or large ones, but it was not impossible for Australasia.

The Ministry of Agriculture proposed another method, land swapping, to connect farms owned by a single person and make them larger, wherever possible.

In addition to land exchanges, the government could opt to purchase entire farms at market prices and establish new farms in other regions.

Finding suitable new locations for farms in vast Australasia was not difficult, but obtaining government land permits was the challenge.

However, the land sales to the government could be used to buy equivalent land elsewhere at market prices.

This was effectively another form of land exchange – only that it was done directly with the government, thus the actual benefits derived may not have been as good.

The large number of orders for agricultural machinery kept the Agricultural Machinery Factory busy. Had it not been for Tanks splitting from the Agricultural Machinery Factory, their days would have probably been described as frantic. Continue your saga on empire

As it was, life was not easy for the management and employees of the Agricultural Machinery Factory. From February, there were almost thousands of orders for agricultural machinery every day.

This led the Agricultural Machinery Factory to run three shifts a day, hoping to produce as much agricultural machinery as possible to meet the surging demand arising from the further mechanization of agriculture.

The benefits of the popularization of agricultural machinery soon became apparent. A large influx of job-seekers suddenly poured into the Sydney job market, providing fresh blood to various industries in the city and accelerating their growth.