Chapter 186 Issuance of New Currency

For Australia, the result of this naval battle is also good news.

The current navy can no longer tell the winner, and the island countries and the Russian Empire will naturally pay more attention to wars on land.

Currently, the Tsarist Empire is already speeding up its troop mobilization to the Far East. Even from the second day after the war broke out, the Tsarist Empire had already mobilized its troops and began to provide support to the Far East.

But for a country as large, decadent and backward as the Tsarist Empire, the war machine would start extremely slowly.

The war broke out on February 8, but it was already the end of March when the first batch of soldiers arrived in the Far East.

This news is not unacceptable to the Tsarist Russian Empire. According to the current dispatch speed, the Tsarist Russian Empire can support about 20,000 troops to the Far East every month. At least before the end of the year, the Tsarist Russian army in the Far East can be maintained at 30,000 troops. About ten thousand people.

This number can already compete with the number of the island country's army. This is why the Russian Empire, from the Tsar to the officials down to the top, is confident.

Although the system is somewhat backward compared to other European powers, the Russian Empire is still one of the most powerful countries in the world. The majesty of the Tsarist Empire was definitely not something that a small island country could offend.

But there are enough personnel, but the corresponding weapons and equipment are not that sufficient.

War represents a large consumption of weapons, equipment and ammunition, especially ammunition.

As the country closest to the Far East and capable of providing the world's most advanced weapons, Australia has been favored by the Russian Empire and island countries.

Of course, for the Tsarist Empire, the more reason for this is that the loan from the German Empire has not been spent, and this loan has been designated by the German Empire to only purchase arms in Australia.

Therefore, shortly after the war ended, Arthur received requests from the governor of the Far East of the Russian Empire and diplomats from the island countries.

The purpose of their meeting is basically the same, they all want to buy more weapons and equipment and sufficient ammunition from Australia, so that they can't meet the needs of a more brutal land war.

Arthur was fine with that. After all, the military factory had already produced a large amount of weapons, equipment and ammunition under Arthur's preparation.

These are prepared for this war and are a good opportunity for Australia to make a fortune.

In the end, Australia signed an arms import order with the Russian Empire and the island country respectively.

The Tsarist Empire obviously held its breath this time and wanted to use a victory to ease the already conflicting situation in the country.

The Tsarist Empire's import list includes 20,000 Gew98 rifles, 5 million rounds of supporting ammunition, 100 German-made Maxim heavy machine guns and 30 CA-1 machine guns.

In fact, the Russians wanted to buy the German 105mm howitzer, but after Australia demonstrated the powerful firepower of the CA-1 cannon, they immediately chose the CA-1 cannon without hesitation.

Of course, there is another key reason for this, that is, the cost of one 105mm howitzer is enough to buy two CA-1 cannons, but the output frequency of the CA-1 cannon is enough to buy several 105mm howitzers. Firepower.

Although the real lethality and degree of damage are not as great as howitzers, the current owner of the Far East is the Russian Empire, and the island country plays the role of the attacker.

Naturally, the Russian army does not have to face the threat of a solid fortress. In terms of destructive power, the CA-1 machine gun is enough to make the island army with only one body feel death.

These weapons and equipment are in stock in Australia. Therefore, under the premise of a 10% price increase, all these weapons and equipment were loaded on the truck the next day and shipped to the Pacific Fleet. Currently, they still occupy the port of Port Arthur.

In order to prevent being affected, all the flags flying on the transport fleet were the flags of the German Empire.

The island country was not stupid enough to provoke another enemy to itself during the war. Therefore, when facing the fleet flying the German flag, it had no choice but to let it go.

The island country purchased more weapons and even purchased several warships.

Of course, this is also a helpless choice. The Tsarist Empire is about to see the completion of the Crown Prince's maintenance, so there is no need to worry about its naval strength.

But island countries are different. The damaged warships of the island nation are all advanced warships produced by the British Empire, so the difficulty and time of repair will naturally increase significantly.

Judging from the current level of the island country, it will take at least half a year to complete all repairs on these warships.

But no one can guarantee what will happen in half a year, so it is very necessary to increase one's naval strength again.

In this naval battle, the Australian Duke-class cruiser aroused the interest of the islanders.

Although this kind of small and medium-sized warships cannot play a role in real naval battles, they are still very useful when performing certain tasks.

Whether it is protecting transportation lines or cutting off enemy transportation lines, or performing tasks such as cruising or laying out minefields, this kind of cruiser with fast speed, high protection and good firepower can always complete the task well.

And its high speed also allows him to escape when faced with danger, especially when facing the older battleships of the Tsarist Russian Empire.

This time the island country lost almost half of its cruisers, which also means that there are not many warships capable of performing missions.

Warships like the Duke-class cruiser, which are not expensive to build and can be launched in a short time, naturally aroused the interest of the islanders.

Under the premise that Australia could launch four ships within half a year, the island country ordered four Duke-class cruisers in one fell swoop, and also urged the launch of the Braunschweig-class battleship.

Yes, the Braunschweig-class battleship ordered by the island country has not yet been launched and is still in the final stage of construction.

This battleship has been built for one year and four months. Under normal estimates, it will be ready for sea trials in another half a year.

After repeated urging by diplomats from the island country, and finally spending an additional 100,000 pounds to express "condolences" to the employees and experts who built the warship, Arthur nodded and promised to launch the warship as soon as possible within four months. , and delivered to the island country.

In addition to four cruisers and one hundred thousand pounds, the island nation also ordered a lot of army weapons.

The first is 30,000 Gew98 rifles.

In the first landing battle, the islanders felt the power of this German-made weapon. The island country's army equipped with Gew98-style rifles indeed exploded with strong combat effectiveness, which made the island country's government shine.

It is worth mentioning that the island country’s army is trained based on the German army, and many island country soldiers have also been exposed to German-made weapons. Therefore, the replacement of weapons is relatively smooth.

This is also the reason why island countries dare to order weapons and equipment on a large scale. They can almost omit the relatively long training time. At least the soldiers can exert their combat effectiveness after getting the weapons.

In addition to these 30,000 rifles, the island country also ordered more than 40 German-made Maxim heavy machine guns and more than 30 artillery pieces.

These artillery pieces are all 105mm howitzers and 155mm howitzers. They are intended to increase the firepower of the advance landing force and break through the fortresses of the Russian Empire in the Far East as quickly as possible.

Because they are the attackers, the island country's attack difficulty and casualties will be greater than that of the Tsarist Russian Empire.

At least the fortresses built by the Tsarist Empire in some areas were enough to cause headaches for the island countries. This is also the reason why the island countries suffered more than 300,000 injuries in this war in history.

In addition to these weapons and equipment, the island country has also ordered 10 million rounds of rifle bullets, 5 million rounds of machine gun bullets and tens of thousands of artillery shells to replenish the ammunition depot that has been rapidly depleted since the war began.

Once a war starts, for each country, the biggest consumption is not the population, but weapons, equipment and ammunition.

According to unsourced statistics, more than 20,000 bullets were needed to destroy an enemy in World War I and World War II, and tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 bullets were needed to destroy an enemy in wars after World War II.

In terms of pure consumption, it is indeed so terrifying.

But such calculations are actually very approximate. They simply divide the number of ammunition consumed by the number of enemies killed, ignoring many situations that occur in the war, including daily training, capture, losses, etc.

Excluding some special factors, the data that can be reluctantly believed is that two thousand rounds of bullets kill an enemy. This is a more credible ratio of bullet consumption to number of kills in World War I.

From this ratio alone, we can see how huge the war consumes logistics. If you want to kill 10,000 enemies in a day, you will have to consume at least 20 million rounds of ammunition.

Not to mention the island countries and the Russian Empire, even the current British Empire and the German Empire cannot afford such logistical consumption.

This is also the reason why World War I and World War II were able to bring down European countries. In addition to the massive destruction and loss of land and population caused by the war, the consumption of the war also exhausted all countries.

The two weapons orders will bring Australia at least half a million pounds in revenue, although more than half of them belong to military factories and shipyards.

Taking advantage of this momentum, coupled with the joy brought to Australians and New Zealanders by the establishment of the Federation of Australia and New Zealand some time ago, Arthur successfully issued a new currency-the Federation Commemorative Coin.

Of course, the Federation commemorative coin also has a complete name, that is, the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand commemorative coin. It also has a relatively simple and nice name, which is the Australian Dollar Commemorative Edition.

There are three types of Commonwealth commemorative coins, namely Australian dollars, shillings and pennies.

Australian shillings and pence are basically the same as British pound shillings and pence, they are all equivalent.

One pound is equal to two Australian dollars, one Australian dollar is equal to ten shillings, and one shilling is equal to twelve pence.

The front of the Australian dollar uses Arthur's portrait and the words "Commemorative of the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand", plus the number 1 and the English word "One Australian Dollar" written by Arthur himself.

On the back is the Australian royal emblem and some anti-counterfeiting stripes, plus the specific time when the Federation of Australia and New Zealand was established, forming this brand-new currency.

The shilling uses the portrait of Queen Victoria on the front and the coat of arms of the British royal family on the back, which also declares Arthur's distinguished identity and bloodline.

The front of the penny shows a preview of Sydney Palace, and the back is a simplified map of the Federation, which also announces the specific scope of the Federation.

Whether it is Australian dollars, shillings or pennies, their denomination numbers are all written by Arthur himself, and a lot of anti-counterfeiting stripes are also added.

The total issuance of the three currencies is approximately 15 million Australian dollars, 50 million shillings and 1.2 billion pennies.

The total value of these currencies is equivalent to fifteen million pounds, and it will take some time for them to be fully circulated in the markets of Australia and New Zealand.

Of course, with Arthur's good reputation and the good credibility of the Australian government, there is no problem in making these currencies popular and occupying a considerable part of the market.

In addition, Australia's currency exchange rate is temporarily aligned with the pound, basically maintaining the ratio of one pound equal to two Australian dollars, and there is no need to worry about the Australian dollar being affected.

Now it just takes time for more people to accept the new currency and for the currency to circulate in more places.

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