The Rise of Australasia

Even the military could choose the best-designed aircraft among three manufacturers, after all they were all Arthur’s enterprises, so there was no loss for Arthur.

After the selection of sites for the Douglas and Boeing companies, the most important task was to build their own wind tunnels.

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Wind tunnels are critical for the design and construction of aircraft because they can simulate the airflow around the aircraft, ensuring the design is sensible and, on that basis, creating the fastest and most stable planes.

The world’s first wind tunnel was probably built by the British approximately 58 years ago; it was a wooden box with open ends, 45.7 cm × 45.7 cm in cross-section and 3.05 meters in length.

Although this wooden box was rudimentary in appearance, it successfully measured the drag experienced by objects moving through the air.

Since the birth of airplanes, the construction of wind tunnels has continually been a topic of exploration for major aircraft manufacturers.

The Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory in Australasia was no exception and successfully built its own wind tunnel.

Wind tunnels didn’t become widespread in the world until after World War II, however, because of Australasia’s leading advances in aircraft, they saw success in building wind tunnels as well.

At present, Australasia owns low-speed, medium-speed, and high-speed wind tunnels, and the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory will also help the Douglas Company and Boeing to construct the wind tunnels that they need.

A typical wind tunnel consists mainly of the tunnel itself, the propulsion system, and the measurement system. To develop a sufficiently good aircraft, it must undergo numerous tests in the wind tunnel.

Once Boeing and the Douglas Company have their own wind tunnel laboratories, it is believed that they will have better ideas for aircraft design.

Just as Australasia’s extensive bottom-fishing operation was going smoothly, an accident occurred quite suddenly.

At the end of April 1927, intelligence personnel reported a large amount of bottom-fishing in the American stock market. Upon investigation, it was found that this bottom-fishing originated not from domestic consortia, but from the capital movements of certain European nations.

While these bottom-fishing activities did not target Australasia, they definitely impacted Australasia’s bottom-fishing operations.

After all, the market only had so much to offer, and while these capitals were bottom-fishing, they reduced the number of enterprises that Australasia could target.

Additionally, the actions of the native land consortia not only turned the American stock market into a mess but also made those enterprises on the brink of bankruptcy highly sought after for acquisition.

This situation was bound to occur, and Arthur was not surprised by it.

Although stock exchanges in European countries including the London Stock Exchange also faced huge crises, the countries in Europe were too close to each other to engage in unrestrained bottom-fishing activities; they would only move quietly, grabbing whatever little they could.

More often, European nations were saving their own stock markets; with such heavy losses in their own arenas, they didn’t have the energy to concern themselves with others.

But the United States was different. First of all, the United States was relatively far from the European countries and didn’t pose much of a threat to Europe.

Secondly, after the United States stopped the payment of indemnities, it had already offended many European nations.

This made bottom-fishing by various European countries in American enterprises somewhat inevitable; after all, the United States seemed like a wealth-holding soft target—who else, if not the United States, were they supposed to take advantage of?

By the time the American people caught on, everyone would huddle together and claim that it was just normal commercial behavior, what could the American people do?

In fact, the bottom-fishing by the European countries had already started in March but was initially cautious and subdued, largely done in secret.

However, after a month of probing and realizing that the American government’s control over the stock market wasn’t strict, the bottom-fishing by European countries became frenzied. РÁ𐌽ÓβÈṦ

As American enterprises were acquired one after another, the United States finally reacted in May and announced that it would regulate the stock market.

But by then, it was too late. All forces were frantically buying low in the American stock market, making management difficult.

Taking advantage of the Americans not having taken action yet, Arthur quickly provided a list of enterprises he wanted to acquire and asked the intelligence bureau to act swiftly.

The list mainly focused on the chemical, electrical, military, light industry, and shipbuilding sectors. Not to mention anything else, America’s shipbuilding technology was still commendable; after all, the size and strength of the American navy were the underlying confidence for America to maintain its status among the Powers.

These were almost all heavy industries, which the Americans probably would not give up easily. However, Arthur was not seeking to acquire everything.

If acquisition was not possible, he would buy as much technology as possible from these renowned enterprises in the industries and then set up factories in Australasia to produce them.

Particularly, the technology in the American shipbuilding and chemical industries was something Australasia was currently lacking and could be massively purchased during the economic crisis.

The Hoover administration’s announcement to control the stock market was welcomed by the American people, but they soon realized something was amiss.

Firstly, controlling the stock market was not as easy as it seemed and could potentially lead to even further chaos in the market.

As for shutting down the stock market, the American government did not have the resolve for such a drastic step. After all, the stock market was critical to the large consortia, and these consortia could influence the American government.

Although the American government had investigated and found out which countries were behind the frantic buying, the problem was that the government didn’t have very good solutions.

After all, the combined strength of these countries was something the American people simply could not resist. Could America possibly wage a full-scale war against the European countries?

Furthermore, for America’s greedy capitalists, the true principle was to sell the enterprise to whoever offered more money.

As for the government’s promoted theory that selling enterprises would endanger the government, that kind of nonsense only mattered to the common people. In the eyes of the capitalists, there were only money and power. What was patriotism?

Because many capitalists prioritized profits and tangible money, the American government’s measures to control the stock market were not well executed.

This resulted in tens of thousands of American enterprises being acquired within a few short weeks, including many in the steel, petroleum, shipbuilding, car manufacturing, and agriculture industries, dealing an immeasurable blow to America.

It’s worth mentioning that countries like Turkey, which hadn’t suffered much during the economic crisis, were also entering the fray.

However, Turkey was clearly aware of its limitations and did not target the important heavy industries; instead, it acquired a large number of smaller, cheaper factories to enhance its industrial base.

While this might seem insignificant, it was a fatal blow to American industry.

Though these factories were cheap, Turkey’s capital was acquiring them in large quantities. Moreover, Turkey was not the only country unaffected by the economic crisis—numerous countries with industrial deficiencies were entering the market to seize American industry.

Securing a single factory was like creating a bit of industry for one’s country at a price far below cost.

While one factory might seem negligible for national industrial enhancement, the cumulative effect of dozens or hundreds of factories could significantly supplement countries with originally small industrial scales.

In a one-on-one situation, these countries might have feared the United States, but now with all nations frantically buying into the American stock market, they grew bolder.

After all, everyone understood the concept that there’s safety in numbers; the Americans, no matter how powerful, were unlikely to oppose all nations involved in the buying spree.

Moreover, some of the nations participating in the frenzy had the backing of the British. This was also a British strategy: how to protect the London Stock Exchange from being bought out? The best way was to turn the attention of other nations to the New York Stock Market, and by sacrificing the United States to protect Britain.

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