The Rise of Australasia

Chapter 791 -591: House Prices and Mortgages_1

On 3rd March 1924, under the presidency of the British, a conference concerning the issue of German default opened in London, with participants from all countries entitled to reparations from Germany, including Australasia.

The conference had but one theme, and that was how to deal with Germany’s requisition to delay repayment.

After reduction, the sum of German reparations was around 15 billion pounds, of which over 1 billion pounds had already been repaid.

Of course, this does not mean that all repaid assets were in currency; the repayment included a considerable amount of industrial goods equivalent, mineral supplies, and even livestock.

This was a necessary measure, after all, Germany’s consumption during the war was already immense. It was impossible for them to produce a sum exceeding 15 billion pounds in a short period, unless other countries were willing to lend them the money.

But the problem is, even Frenchmen would not make the evidently unprofitable deal of lending massive funds to a defeated country to help it pay reparations.

Moreover, the United States, the only country in a relatively good financial position, also carried a significant amount of reparations, which made it difficult for the Germans to obtain loan support from other countries, naturally slowing the progress of amassing the reparations.

"Gentlemen, we reduced Germany’s reparation burden four years ago and gave Germany three years to recover its domestic economy.

But the results have told us the answer: constant concessions don’t work. They give a country due for punishment hope to escape it and cause the countries entitled to compensation to lose what they rightfully deserve.

I believe we should maintain the proportion of German reparations and urge the German government to repay this year’s reparations within two months. If the German government cannot do this, we are more than willing to obtain our deserved compensation ourselves,” declared the French representative at the start of the meeting, speaking passionately.

The last agreement to reduce Germany’s reparations already caused dissatisfaction among some French people. If concessions continue, French public opinion might be enough to drown their Cabinet.

"Indeed, we cannot condone Germany’s behavior of having money and not paying. It is a provocation to all the countries that suffered greatly during the war.

According to the data, Germany’s economy has seen considerable growth in the past four years, and its industrial scale has returned to about 60% of its pre-war state.

Such a speed of economic recovery already surpasses that of some countries present here. I do not believe Germany lacks the funds to repay the reparations, nor do I think Germany’s situation is worse than that of Russia,” the Russian representative also took a firm stand and said.

This was Russia’s first foray into diplomatic assertions since the Civil War and the first step taken by Nicholas II to restore Russia’s international standing after peace.

Clearly, Nicholas II was carefully chosen. Joining the ranks against Germany was seen as the righteous side, and Russia’s vocal stance would not only incur no losses but was bound to earn the gratitude of many small and medium-sized countries.

Compared with France’s relatively firm attitude, the British stance seemed somewhat ambivalent.

On one hand, the British were irritated by Germany’s repeated default, but they also did not wish to overburden the current Germany, leaving France without rivals in Western and Central Europe.

To put it plainly, Germany is the challenger that Britain has left for France. Germany must exist, and its condition should be properly maintained, not merely clinging to existence.

"Gentlemen, might we consider a different approach?” the British representative stood up at this moment and presented his perspective that he had long prepared: “Let’s set aside whether the German government has the funds for reparations for now, but their current financial situation is admittedly not very good.

Rather than simply repaying with mineral resources and funds, why should we not explore more methods?

For example, adopting the contract factory model, we provide the corresponding raw materials, place heavily polluting factories in Germany, and have Germany produce industrial goods to compensate us for free.

In the meantime, we would set the wages for German workers, which would be paid by the German government.

When they produce enough industrial goods to cover the reparations for us, then we can consider Germany’s reparations as paid. How about that?”

The British representative’s idea offered another path, capable of resolving Germany’s default crisis more peacefully and allowing other countries to obtain what they are due.

Of course, such a proposal from the British had its own motives.

In fact, while it might seem that heavy pollution from the industry was being moved to Germany, Germany’s industrial scale was bound to increase as a result.

Although in the short term the benefits appeared to be on the side of many countries, as long as the factories operate in Germany, the Germans are the ultimate winners.

Such a move would be able to swiftly restore the industrial strength of Germany, ensuring that a future Germany would still be a powerful country capable of challenging France.

The proposal of the British led many nations into deep thought; it seemed to be the best resolution available without resorting to the use of force.

In the end, it was the French representative who first spoke up, voicing his own concerns, “May I ask the Representative of Britain, how do you explain such a proxy production method? We have so many countries, does each country need to sign a similar proxy production agreement?”

"Not necessarily.” smiled the Representative of Britain. “We can unite, demanding the German government establish a centralized subcontracting factory system for us. We provide some raw materials for heavily polluting industries, placing the heavily polluting factories in Germany to solve our domestic environmental pollution issues.

At the same time, we could also save on unnecessary costs, using raw materials to directly receive industrial finished products, avoiding the hassle of building factories.

To ensure uniformity in proxy production among all our countries, we should clarify the specific industries we need to produce by proxy. We would jointly produce in the same industry, and based on the proportion of raw materials contributed by each, we would receive a corresponding share of the industrial finished products, how’s that?” said the Representative of Britain with full confidence.

This plan was the answer that the British Government had arrived at after thoughtful deliberation, and the British representative was already well-versed in it.

"Will Germany bear all the costs for the workers and factories? What happens if the German government doesn’t recognize this factory system?” The Russian representative asked the questions that small and medium-sized countries were concerned about.

"Of course, it would all be borne by the German government.” The British representative replied with a smile. “This is a concession due to Germany’s inability to pay reparations. I believe the German government will understand our necessity. As for the possibility of Germany not recognizing such a system, I think that is unlikely; Germany will value our opinions.”

"Even so, the German government must not impose any import or export taxes on our raw materials and industrial finished products. In addition, the site selection for these corresponding heavily polluting factories should be determined by us, and the ownership of the factories should belong to all of our countries, not Germany.” The French representative pondered for a moment before laying out his terms.

While such conditions indeed allowed nations to receive materials equivalent to compensation, the act of placing factories in Germany was still too risky, causing the French representative some unease.

Specifying factory ownership, demanding the right to site selection, and even requiring the German government to not levy any taxes were proposals aimed at minimizing the German government’s influence on these factories as much as possible.

Whether such factories would draw away part of the domestic capital investment wasn’t for these politicians to consider, after all, every government has its term limits, and who would take the initiative to consider the next government?

Even the French hadn’t grasped this sense of crisis; otherwise, the French government wouldn’t be overly reliant on industrial finished products from Germany, leading to a mediocre pace of recovery in their own industrial scale.

In fact, a significant amount of French capital had already overflowed, heading to other countries for substantial investments.

The real estate prices in European and American Countries have already increased several times over, with the shadow of British and French consortia looming behind them.

Although these countries are not very populous, it is easy to speculate real estate prices in a certain specific area, especially in some of the important cities of these countries, where housing prices have been successfully inflated and have risen continuously.

Before the real estate speculation began, London’s housing prices ranged from a few dozen to several hundred pounds, but now the cheapest houses in the London City area have reached over a hundred pounds, and even every property transaction is purchased and sold at a premium.

While the speculative fever in London does not affect the outskirts and other Small Towns, as one of the most populous and developed cities, the heat of speculation has a significant impact on the British Empire.

Of course, speculative fever isn’t limited to London; it has occurred in big cities like Paris, France, and New York, United States.

The current highest real estate prices should be in New York, where housing prices have grown from below 700 dollars to more than 1100 dollars, and they are even in the state of no market despite the demand.

By conversion ratio, the current real estate prices in the New York City area are twice that of the London City area, which is befitting for the city where Arthur focuses on real estate speculation.

Thanks to the soaring housing prices, one visible outcome is the amount of control and construction of real estate by various consortia.

Previously, one could build their own homes in cities like London and New York, but now self-construction requires quite stringent approval procedures, or else you can only purchase a pre-built house.

A large number of new houses have been erected, and some have even been pre-sold before they were built, allowing many capitalists who invested in real estate to make a fortune and attracting more assets and capitalists to the industry.

Making money from just selling houses is clearly not enough; some capitalists saw the business opportunity and have launched mortgage policies, attempting to squeeze every bit of value from the Common people.

A seemingly manageable mortgage can make a 1100 dollar house actually cost over 1300 dollars, making a significant portion of Americans effectively mortgage slaves, spending over ten years of their youth on mortgage payments.

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