Chapter 741 Five hundred thousand bread?

The proposals of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Industrial University were quickly approved by the cabinet meeting, and the Ministry of Finance also stated that it would allocate 8 million Australian dollars to build these two universities.

Because of the royal prefix, Arthur also specifically stated that he would attend the groundbreaking ceremonies and first opening ceremonies of these two universities.

This also made the cabinet pay more attention to these two universities. Education Minister Kai Luo designated these two universities as the most important projects in university construction and supervised them personally.

After the education issue is temporarily resolved, the medical issue is actually not a big problem.

Australasia currently has two medical universities and one medical school, and the number of medical students trained every year is still large.

You know, Australasian universities attach the most importance to practical ability, and medical schools and medical universities are no exception.

Although most of these medical school students have only graduated a few years ago, they have already interned several times during their college career, and they are quite capable of helping practicing doctors.

After several years of experience accumulation and skill honing, they will also grow into qualified doctors in the hospital and then be transferred to other newly established hospitals.

Currently, the number of large hospitals in Australasia far exceeds the number of universities, and the average number of large hospitals in each state has exceeded 5.

What is more exaggerated is that in important cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and St. Arthur's Castle, the number of large hospitals is more than five.

In colonial areas such as Java and Sumatra, there are currently only 1-2 large hospitals.

One of the development plans for the medical sector is to increase the number of existing large hospitals.

In any case, only large hospitals have more advanced medical standards, especially surgeries with extremely high requirements.

Only with an increasing number of large hospitals can we ensure that more people can receive treatment when they need it.

The second is to provide substantial support to pharmaceutical companies.

Just having too many hospitals is not enough, the corresponding medical manufacturing industry must also be fully developed.

The current giant in the pharmaceutical industry in Australasia is undoubtedly the pharmaceutical group founded by Arthur.

As a pharmaceutical enterprise that Arthur attaches great importance to, the drugs currently produced by the pharmaceutical group are selling well throughout Australasia, accounting for more than 75% of the Australasian pharmaceutical market.

In addition, the pharmaceutical group also cooperates with many countries, and the net profit from drug exports is at least 25 million Australian dollars every year.

Although it seems like a lot, the profit from selling penicillin drugs accounts for most of it, and it is decreasing year by year.

This is not to say that the world population's demand for penicillin is decreasing. In fact, with the growth of population and wars around the world, the demand for penicillin cannot decrease, but will only increase year by year.

Even in later generations, the annual sales of penicillin drugs are a huge number. This is a market that will last for a long time.

Because of this, various countries coveted Australasian penicillin drugs and began to develop their own penicillin drugs very early.

One was to break Australasia's monopoly on the drug penicillin.

Especially the worldwide monopoly, which is a big blow to other powers and all countries, and also represents huge business opportunities after the monopoly is broken.

The second is to confuse the penicillin drug market.

As a good medicine to prevent wound infection, penicillin is definitely not a marketable drug, and it also represents the huge profits brought by the production of penicillin drugs.

Since the sale of penicillin in 1924, the production of penicillin drugs has brought revenue of more than 20 million Australian dollars to pharmaceutical groups every year, and even exceeded 35 million Australian dollars at its peak.

Although the current participation of other countries has caused the pharmaceutical group's penicillin sales revenue to have dropped to about 20 million Australian dollars, and this is still 20 million Australian dollars after currency devaluation.

But no one can deny that a stable annual income of 20 million Australian dollars is very attractive to any country and enterprise.

But no matter how successful the pharmaceutical group is, it still cannot conceal the fact that Australasia's pharmaceutical industry lags behind other major powers.

Apart from pharmaceutical groups, there are almost no other internationally renowned pharmaceutical companies, except for one pharmaceutical company that relocated to Australasia during the economic crisis.

What the Ministry of Medical Care needs to do, in addition to building more large hospitals, is to encourage the private pharmaceutical field and cultivate more excellent pharmaceutical companies.

Only when a large number of pharmaceutical companies invest in the research and development of drugs can we hope to see world-leading pharmaceutical products like penicillin born in Australasia.

Huge amounts of money need to be invested in drug research and development, which also means that support for those pharmaceutical companies must be great, because it is also related to the people's livelihood in Australasia.

Regarding these, Arthur's attitude is that a large amount of support can be provided, but the drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies must be produced and sold in Australasia first, and they must ensure that the drugs sold have sufficient efficacy.

Regarding pharmaceutical companies, Arthur has never heard of the saying that good medicine is not a good commodity.

Although it is understandable for companies to make money, under the premise of strong state support, if these pharmaceutical companies do not have any self-awareness, then Arthur will decisively give up support and let them fend for themselves.

Anyway, the royal family's pharmaceutical group has already decided on the top of the pyramid of Australasian drug research and development, and can also ensure that Australasians can enjoy the world's advanced drug system.

Only by firmly adhering to the two policies of building large hospitals and encouraging pharmaceutical production and research and development can the medical field in Australasia usher in better development and catch up with the United States.

Yes, although the United States was no longer there, Arthur still targeted the United States at its peak.

In terms of industrial economy and population, if Australasia can reach the scale of the United States at that time, it will truly have the strength to covet the throne of world hegemony.

But before that, the British have to sit on the throne of world hegemony, and let the British maintain the stability of the world situation and avoid too many accidents.

After settling the issues of education and medical care, the meeting basically came to an end.

It is gratifying that the education and medical problems have been initially solved, but it also means that Australasia will have to pay tens of millions of Australian dollars for this.

Although it may not seem like much, it adds up to a considerable burden on the government's finances.

The Australian dollar has depreciated so far, and the current purchasing power of each Australian dollar is approximately 42% of its pre-depreciation level.

In other words, it previously cost about AU$4 million to build a state-of-the-art battleship, but now the cost of building a state-of-the-art battleship has exceeded AU$11 million.

The current currency still maintains a certain value, but it is indeed not as valuable as the previous currency.

This is a huge change in data. For many years before, the per capita annual income of Australasians remained at around A$60.

Since the sharp depreciation of the currency, the per capita annual income has continued to increase, and is now close to 152 Australian dollars.

This is actually one of the reasons why European countries are pursuing currency devaluation. In any case, it seems that people's real income and the country's fiscal revenue have increased.

Fortunately, the currency of Australasia was still strong before. Although it experienced a period of trough after the devaluation, the value of the currency did not fall from the sky and was still in a stable state.

Especially after deepening its binding with the British pound, the British pound-Australian dollar system is already the most popular world currency, and it is also the priority that countries give priority to in transactions in addition to gold and important materials.

But how to say it? It's not that the pound and Australian dollar systems are so great.

A closer look at the current world powers will reveal that, in addition to the British pound, Australian dollar system, other similar franc systems, the ruble system and the U.S. dollar system all have a lot of flaws. What's more, after the split of the United States, the international influence of the U.S. dollar has been close to zero.

No one is sure how long the value of the U.S. dollar can last. This has also resulted in the U.S. dollar being almost like waste paper in some large transactions, and no one chooses to accept large amounts of U.S. dollars.

Americans are also trying their best to exchange US dollars for supplies or other currencies. The most popular ones are still British pounds and Australian dollars.

With the exception of the pound and the Australian dollar, the depreciation of other currencies is uncontrollable. The world's monetary system is already in chaos, and the value of the franc can fluctuate considerably within a matter of days.

Of course, the French are definitely not the worst offenders.

The concept of currency devaluation has been proposed for many years, and basically all countries have abandoned the gold standard.

Of all the countries, the one whose currency has depreciated the most is probably the Germans. The outbreak of the economic crisis caused the Germans to suffer considerable chaos, and the German mark directly turned into waste paper.

Yes, it’s waste paper.

In fact, the value of the mark can be stable at the beginning. Although the devaluation of the mark is relatively large, it is not as exaggerated as imagined.

Arthur originally thought that Germany would not be as chaotic as in history, but unexpectedly, the chaos was only delayed.

Starting from the second half of 1929, the German mark experienced a strange depreciation.

How weird is it? This is a degree of depreciation that Arthur has never seen before, and it is so exaggerated that it has attracted the attention of economists in various countries.

From this time on, Mark gradually turned into a waste paper that people could not accept.

As mentioned before, the exchange rate between the mark and the pound is approximately 1,355 to 1.

This exchange rate seems very exaggerated, but it is already a relatively high exchange rate for now.

As of the latest news from Germany, the value of 1 Reichsmark has reached its lowest value.

There is no longer an exchange rate between pounds and marks because no one wants to exchange their pounds for marks.

If you look at the actual prices in Germany, you will understand that 500,000 yuan of bread is really not an exaggeration.

On the streets of Berlin, a pound of ordinary-looking white bread sells for about 3,500 marks.

And the price of a pound of black bread, which seems to make your throat tickle, is also as high as 1,700 marks.

Such data may not seem exaggerated. But you must know that the price of bread two years ago was only a few tenths of what it is now.

What is the current per capita annual income of German people?

Only working Germans are counted, and their annual income can reach 100,000 marks per year.

An income of 100,000 marks seems high, but if most of the income is used to buy bread and other food, it can only just keep oneself alive.

But in addition to these working people, Germany still has a large number of unemployed people. This is also one of the important reasons for the continuous depreciation of the mark and the continuous appreciation of the value of bread.

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