Australia and New Zealand, both of which are located in the southern hemisphere and are close to each other, are two countries that many people in the country are familiar with and unfamiliar with.
Familiarity is due to the fact that they are often seen in various videos, while strangeness is due to the fact that most people only know a little about these two countries.
The world only knows that Australia and New Zealand are very rich developed countries, but they don't know that in fact, these two countries started by selling resources, and the industrial standard is very poor.
By selling resources to become developed countries, Singapore and Australia have not taken the usual path
We can use a set of data to visualize how dependent Australia and New Zealand are on resources.
According to a 2017 statistical report, mineral resources accounted for 46% of Australia's total exports, while agricultural products accounted for 50% of New Zealand's total exports in the same period!
It can be seen from this that these two brother countries in Oceania, one by selling minerals and the other by selling grain, have become developed countries in this way!
In 2022, Australia's GDP totaled $1.68 trillion, reaching $64,000 per capita, while in the same year, New Zealand's total GDP was $247.2 billion, with a per capita GDP of $48,000.
Sydney
Singapore and Australia have taken a completely different path from other developed countries, that is, they have reached the peak by relying only on primary industries such as minerals and agriculture instead of relying on industry and high technology.
Truth be told, there are pros and cons to such a development model. The advantage is that making money is fast and easy, and the disadvantage is obvious, that is, where to go in the future when resources are exhausted?
Wellington
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Australia and New Zealand have not always relied on selling resources, they have also developed industries for a long time in the past.
The development and decline of industrialization in Australia
The history of both countries is not very long, Australia only became independent in 1901, while New Zealand was founded in 1907.
They were colonies of the United Kingdom before independence, and later members of the British Commonwealth.
The timing of the independence of the two countries coincided with the technological blowout period of the second industrial revolution, and various new industries sprung up like mushrooms.
Australia seized the opportunity of the second industrial revolution and began to introduce and build its own automobile industry and steel industry in large quantities.
Automobiles and steel were once Australia's pillar industries, but only for a while.
The steel industry was the first to fall. Why did it fall so quickly?
The most important reason is that there are few people and the labor cost is too high, you must know that there are only more than 20 million people in Australia today.
Australia's local steel companies produce only about four million tonnes a year at most, and are already struggling to stay out of business.
Australia's automobile industry developed very early, and Ford's production line was introduced in 1917, making it one of the earliest countries in the world to produce automobiles.
However, early development does not mean good development!
All car factories in Australia closed before 2017, including Australian's homegrown brand Holden Motors.
Why is Australia's car industry also falling?
It is also because of the small population, high labor costs, and the small size of the domestic market, which simply cannot support the automobile industry.
Today's Australia has been completely rotten in terms of industry, and it is no longer playing!
For Australians, it's easy to sell minerals!
New Zealand's industrialization was also half-
In fact, New Zealand can be regarded as a small Australia, the two countries are very close to each other, both speak English, have the same culture, and even the industrial development is extremely similar.
New Zealand's livestock products such as cheese, wool, meat, butter and so on are internationally renowned.
As early as the 19th century, New Zealand's meat and dairy products were mainly sold overseas, and the level of internationalization was very high.
cheese
Selling agricultural products overseas required a lot of technology, machinery and equipment to preserve and transport them, which was the driving force behind New Zealand's early industrialization.
Coupled with the gold rush that followed, fanatical gold diggers from all over the world came to New Zealand, which not only increased the population of New Zealand, but also brought capital, which in turn promoted the development of industry.
New Zealand's Gold Rush
Before the Gold Rush, New Zealand had only a few small factories and workshops, such as breweries, bakeries, wood processing factories, etc., which could only be said to be barely related to industry.
After the gold rush, New Zealand began to have factories that truly belonged to the industrial era. Such as machinery factory, metal processing factory, building materials factory, shipyard and so on.
New Zealand is very close to industrialization.
In 1910, New Zealand's population was just 1 million, and there were more than 3,500 factories in the country, with nearly 50,000 regular factory workers, or one worker for every 20 people.
It was not until the late 80s that New Zealand began to deindustrialize and gradually transformed into agriculture, tourism, and service industries.
epilogue
Although Australia and New Zealand are living on resources now, this is an overdraft for future development.
Now Singapore and Australia, in terms of industrial manufacturing level, the gap with late-developing countries is getting bigger and bigger!
It is important to know that Australia's minerals are not endless, and one day they will be exhausted, and New Zealand's agricultural products alone are also a very passive development model.
In general, a country still has to have some core technologies and industries in hand, and resources alone will not be too practical!