Chapter 120: Mass Production of Automobiles
After visiting the entire gold mine and refinery, the issue of the required gold reserves for issuing the new currency seemed to have found a solution.
Only after issuing the new currency could Australia effectively reduce its reliance on the pound and decrease the British Empire's control over Australia's economy.
Of course, this is a long-term plan. As long as the British Empire does not lose its position as the number one global power, the pound will always be an extremely important currency in any region.
Arthur wasn't aiming to completely replace the pound in Australia; he simply hoped that the new currency could circulate to some extent, reducing the influence of the British Empire over Australia.
After all, Arthur is the monarch of Australia, and for him, an Australia not influenced by any other country would be his true territory.
At this stage, Arthur could only minimize the influence of Britain on Australia. Completely eliminating that influence was impossible, as the demographic composition of Australia determined the special relationship Australians had with the British Empire.
Once back at the estate, Arthur reunited with Princess Louise and his two sisters after more than a month. After a simple dinner with his family, Arthur returned to his room.
Now that he was back in Australia, it was time to accelerate the country's development.
Australia was currently undergoing a lot of construction, including industrial areas in Western Australia, steel mills, military factories in New South Wales, shipyards, and more. There was also a focus on the construction of industrial railways, hospitals, schools, as well as nursing homes and orphanages.
With sufficient indigenous labor, Arthur felt it was essential to speed up these construction plans, even at the cost of thousands or even tens of thousands of indigenous casualties.
Although Australia had enjoyed over a decade of prosperity before World War I, who could guarantee that reality would follow the course of history?
If any unexpected changes occurred in Europe and Australia wasn't prepared, then everything Arthur had done could end in failure.
Therefore, in addition to closely monitoring the situation in Europe, accelerating Australia's development was also crucial.
After finalizing his short-term plans, Arthur fell into a deep sleep on his bed once again after many days.
On May 17, 1902, Arthur arrived at the Benz Automobile Factory.
A year later, Arthur returned to the Benz factory, adjacent to Diesel's engine factory.
His last visit had been a year ago when Benz and Diesel had jointly invented the new automobile.
It was also during that time that Arthur had first introduced the concept of the assembly line to Benz and Diesel, which greatly surprised them and prompted them to start modifying their factories.
More than six months had passed since the successful establishment of the assembly line. With the workers at the Benz Automobile Factory now proficient in assembly line production, and with the repeated modifications and improvements made by Benz and Diesel to the assembly line technology, the cost of producing a car had been reduced to a number Arthur found acceptable—around eighty pounds.
Was eighty pounds high for production costs? If we consider this time period, it wasn't really that high.
After all, even the later T-model, when its technology was already highly developed, had a final price of $260, which was over fifty pounds.
And when the T-model first launched, it was priced at more than $800, or over 140 pounds.
The initial pricing of the T-model caused it to be snapped up quickly and was hailed as the car for the masses.
It was precisely because of the T-model's low price that cars became accessible to the general public, becoming one of the most important modes of transportation and completely replacing the horse-drawn carriage.
By comparison, based on the original price of the T-model, each car produced at the Benz factory already brought in a profit of over sixty pounds, which was an extremely large amount.
If you consider the total production of 15 million T-models, this translates to at least 900 million pounds in profit.
While the price of cars would continue to decrease over time, the cost of producing them would also gradually decrease, possibly even to thirty or forty pounds.
This would mean that each car would have a net profit of at least ten pounds, and the total profit from the entire automobile industry could surpass one billion pounds.
At present, the automobile industries in various countries were still in their infancy. Benz could certainly seize the opportunity to dominate the global automobile market with superior performance and affordable pricing, earning massive profits.
This is why Arthur paid such close attention to the automobile industry. Not only could it bring him substantial profits, but the transformation brought by automobiles could also help Australia leap ahead economically and militarily. Automobiles were undoubtedly extremely important products.
A year later, Benz and Diesel were still the same as before. With the expansion of their respective factories and owning 10% of the shares, both had become wealthy with fortunes of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Even their salaries were over a hundred pounds per month.
However, they did not care much about their appearance. They continued to wear their work uniforms at the factory, stained with large and small oil patches and dirt, which didn't match their newfound status.
When Arthur arrived, Benz was very excited and immediately had someone call Diesel from next door.
Diesel, who was usually very busy with research, even had to wait if Minister Pierre wanted to meet him.
But when Diesel learned that Arthur had arrived, he quickly stopped his work and personally came over to the automobile factory next door.
Seeing both of them again, Arthur couldn't help but feel nostalgic. With a smile, he asked, "I've heard that your automobile factory has started mass production now?"
According to Arthur's previous agreement with Benz, if they couldn't ensure that the production cost of a car remained around eighty pounds, they would not begin mass production.
Since the automobile factory had already started mass production, it meant that the production cost had indeed been lowered to around 80 pounds, or that Benz's assembly line had achieved initial success.
"Yes, Your Grace. A month ago, our improved assembly line was already able to keep the production cost of the cars at around eighty pounds, which meets your requirements for mass production," Benz said with a smile, nodding. "But at that time, since you weren't in Australia, we couldn't report this to you. Since the production of the cars was something you had already instructed us to do, I took the liberty of starting mass production."
(End of Chapter)
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