Chapter 256: House of Representatives Proposal for Additional Cabinet Seats
Although the first meeting ended with Arthur's failure to secure a deal, he knew that the issue wasn't that the warships he was offering weren't appealing; it was simply that the other side's finances were somewhat tight.
Additionally, the envoy's knowledge of warships wasn't extensive, so it was clear that securing a military order in the first meeting would have been problematic.
In fact, even though the Qing Dynasty was a country in decline, it had managed to increase its financial revenue severalfold in recent years through some reforms and industrial construction.
If Arthur remembered correctly, the Qing's financial income in 1908 had exceeded 230 million taels of silver, which was no small sum.
However, this income was not as impressive as it seemed on paper. When converted, 230 million taels of silver amounted to roughly 32.85 million pounds or 65.71 million Australian dollars.
This was almost double the financial income of Australasia from the previous year, though Australasia had a population of just over 7 million, while the Qing Dynasty had a population of nearly 400 million.
Moreover, a significant portion of the 230 million taels of silver was allocated for compensation due to past events, with the rest being divided among the high-ranking officials and nobility, leaving only a small portion for government use.
Such a high income could only be sustained through the exploitation and oppression of the lower classes.
It seemed almost inevitable that such a country would eventually collapse, but a unified country could still benefit Australasia. Additionally, the involvement of major powers in the region made a unified nation beneficial to all the great powers, except for the island nation.
But who cared about the island nation's opinion? Since the recent wars had not resulted in a complete victory, the international view of the island nation was that it was an emerging secondary power, barely touching the threshold of the great powers.
However, gaining full recognition as a great power by countries like Britain, Germany, Russia, and France would likely take the island nation a long time.
On May 17, the East Asian delegation once again requested a meeting with Arthur.
To facilitate the discussions, this meeting was on a much larger scale. The entire delegation had arrived, and Arthur also mobilized a team consisting of several ministers and deputy ministers.
The subsequent negotiations mostly revolved around price disputes, matters which Arthur felt were not suited for him to personally engage in.
After all, it was unnecessary for Arthur to personally negotiate over small profits; such matters were better handled by experienced politicians.
Nonetheless, Arthur did set specific goals and bottom lines. First, for the battleships—if the Qing Dynasty was truly interested in purchasing them, the price could be set at the same level as Russia's.
For a range of industrial equipment and weapons, Arthur decided to increase the prices as much as possible. After all, such profits were too easy to miss.
The reason for slightly lowering the battleship price was because their cost was already extremely high. A battleship could easily cost over a million pounds, and in silver, the price for a single battleship would be over 10 million taels of silver. That was no small amount.
However, the battleship was still the most valuable item Australasia could currently produce. The cost of one battleship alone could rival a large arms trade order.
The negotiations lasted several days, and during that time, several ministers also reported on matters that required Arthur's decision.
For example, the Qing Dynasty wished to send some students to study at Australasia's universities and military schools.
Because of the regulation that graduates from the Royal Military Academy must serve two years in the Australasia military, this required Arthur's approval.
After thinking it over, Arthur decided to approve the proposal for sending students. However, he set a fixed fee for each student—no less than 3,500 taels of silver per year, or approximately 1,000 Australian dollars.
For the students sent to the Royal Military Academy, Arthur also waived the requirement for them to serve two years in the Australasia military.
After all, these military students would return to their country as high-level professionals and could even become independent warlords or key figures in existing warlord factions.
This could benefit Australasia's interests. Having a country friendly to Australasia was always better than one that aligned itself with other great powers.
Of course, the student exchange request this time was different from the last one. The previous request had come from the private sector, but this time it was from the Qing government.
Moreover, while the previous students mostly attended Australasia's universities, this time the main focus was on the newly established military academies in Australasia.
As for the weapons, the order from the Qing Dynasty was also substantial.
The Royal Intelligence Bureau had intelligence operations in some regions of East Asia, so they were aware of recent uprisings. Although these uprisings failed due to lack of support, they still caused significant disruption to the decaying empire.
Based on the tone of the current delegation, it seemed they planned to establish a fully armed division equipped with foreign weaponry, with a focus on Australasia.
The reason for this was simple: Australasia's arms trade had already gained some recognition in the Far East and East Asia. The Qing had closely watched the arms trade during the Russo-Japanese War.
Being trusted by both Russia and the island nation, it was clear that Australasia's weapons were of good quality.
More importantly, arms could be exported to them, whereas Britain was more inclined toward the island nation, and Russia was in no position to provide weapons due to its own shortages.
Germany was also a viable option, but due to the neutrality treaty with Russia, Germany had scaled back its interests in East Asia.
Moreover, the high transportation costs of acquiring German weapons made it more practical for the Qing Dynasty to choose Australasia, which was geographically closer.
Upon hearing about the proposal from the delegation regarding an armed division, Arthur's expression was somewhat peculiar, but he still approved the order.
According to the delegation's plans, they would purchase at least 12,000 Gew98 rifles, 10 MA-96 Maxim machine guns, 20 75mm artillery pieces, along with over a million rounds of ammunition and several thousand shells, in order to initially arm a division and assess its combat capabilities.
If the armed division proved to be effective, they would consider further purchases to strengthen their defense.
For Arthur, the more weapons they bought, the better. After all, weapon orders not only bolstered Australasia's arms trade market, but the profits largely went to Arthur's own military factories, benefiting both him and Australasia.
As for the expensive battleships, although the envoy showed some hesitation, they indicated that they would need to consult with the government and the emperor before reaching a final decision.
Arthur was not surprised by this, as it seemed that the original goal was to seek help for reform, with the arms trade being a secondary interest.
The last matter was about sending experts to help with the Qing Dynasty's reforms. According to the friendly agreement between the two nations, Australasia would send 20 legal and administrative experts, 5 industrial experts, 5 economic experts, and 10 military experts to assist with government, economic, industrial, and military reforms.
In exchange for ensuring the safety and protection of these 40 experts, the Qing government would pay Australasia 1.2 million taels of silver per year, and sell various necessary resources to Australasia at discounted prices.
Additionally, the previous arms trade and student exchange programs would require a one-time payment of 300,000 taels of silver, plus at least 350,000 taels of silver annually.
Yes, according to the terms of the student exchange program, the Qing Dynasty would send around 100 students per year, a number that was already considerable.
It seemed that the Qing Dynasty did indeed have intentions of reforming, though whether the reform would succeed depended on the attitudes of the great powers and internal factions.
With both parties signing the treaty, the friendly exchange agreement officially came into effect.
For Australasia and Arthur, this was a small event, and it wasn't very significant for the country's development.
What was truly important remained the upcoming House of Representatives election. But even before the election, the House had already put forward some proposals.
On May 29, 1908, just before the June election month, the House of Representatives submitted several proposals to the Royal Parliament for review and for Arthur's consideration.
This situation was quite common for Australasia, as the Royal Parliament held the most power. If the House of Representatives faced problems they could not resolve, they would often report them to the Royal Parliament for review.
However, after receiving the proposals, the Royal Parliament immediately forwarded them to Arthur, asking for his opinion.
This usually indicated the importance of the proposals. When it involved significant matters for the country, the members of the Royal Parliament would be uncertain and await Arthur's final decision.
Arthur picked up the proposals on the table, and the first thing that caught his eye was a proposal regarding the request to increase the number of cabinet seats in the House of Representatives.
(End of Chapter)
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