African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1025: Prepare for a rainy day

Affected by the Russo-Japanese War, the fifth battleship originally planned to be built in East Africa has also been temporarily suspended. The main purpose is to learn from the experience and lessons learned from the Russo-Japanese naval war, so as to achieve a more perfect state of this battleship.

Now we just have to wait for the Japanese Combined Fleet and the Russian Second Pacific Fleet to fight to the death in the Far East. According to the current progress of the Russian Navy, the earliest they can reach the Far East waters may be the end of October this year.

It is already early October 1904, and about 80% of the East Africa plan has been completed. Therefore, according to the calculations of the East Africa Planning Commission, East Africa should be able to complete various goals of the plan ahead of schedule in 1905.

With the advancement of the plan, starting from 1903, East Africa's industrial data once again increased significantly, including the output of important basic industrial products such as steel, cement, textiles, electricity, petroleum, fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals.

At the same time, a large number of emerging industrial towns have appeared in the western region, and the number of cities and towns in the country has increased significantly. However, the specific urbanization rate cannot be estimated. While the scale of industry in East Africa is rapidly expanding, the population of East Africa is also growing further, and the urbanization rate will eventually be even higher. Look at the combined data of the two.

However, taking the central region as an example, many cities including the Rhineland are accelerating their expansion. This is something Ernst can intuitively see. Because of the expansion of industries and the growth of urban population in East Africa, the corresponding urban buildings will naturally increase. Including various types of factories and residential areas.

In the past few years, the new population of Rhine City has reached 110,000, which has also caused the population of Rhine City to exceed 290,000, and it is rapidly developing towards a large city.

As the capital of East Africa, Rhine City does not lack transportation and land resource advantages. The main factor limiting population growth is industrial layout. Although it is the capital, the East African government has not allowed Rhine City and other East African cities to seize too much industrial share. There are many major and minor factors. Industries are deployed in cities surrounding the Rhineland, such as New Frankfurt, Kabwe, etc.

Even so, the development of Rhine City is quite amazing in the world. You must know that Rhine City is currently the youngest capital in the world.

The city's permanent population of nearly 300,000 is not small when compared to other countries in the world. It turns out that the first town in the capital only has a population of more than 100,000 after so many years of development. So one can imagine the resources East Africa has invested in Rhine City. So many.

Rhine City is just a microcosm of East African cities. During the planning period, the construction of western towns is the focus, while the scale of towns in other regions has also been further expanded. For example, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and other traditional economic and industrial strong cities, during the planning During this period, great progress has been made.

At the same time, the trade volume between East Africa and other regions of the world has also further expanded, especially the South American and Russian markets. During the Russo-Japanese War, the relationship between East Africa and Russia further deepened, and East African industrial products became easier to enter the Russian market.

Especially in the first half of this year, East Africa's trade with Russia has continued to grow and has strong momentum. This is the benefit of siding with Russia, which is obviously something that Japan cannot give to East Africa.

Although Japan is also an important emerging market, the Japanese market is almost dominated by the United Kingdom and the United States. For example, in the power industry where East Africa has a comparative advantage, exports of products and related equipment to Japan are not as good as those of the United States.

Moreover, Japan cannot come up with any products that appeal to East Africa to promote a substantial increase in trade volume between the two countries. Japan has limited types of agricultural products and relatively scarce resources, but Russia is different. Many of Russia’s minerals are needed for the industrial development of East Africa. At the same time, East Africa can also transport industrial products and raw materials such as cotton to Russia.

And the trade between East Africa and Russia obviously still has a lot of room for development, especially next year. With East Africa's support for Russia in this round of war, East-Russia relations will be in a new period in the next few years.

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"Industrial output has increased, which has further expanded market demand. Although we can absorb the increase in domestic industry through the large domestic market, this method can also easily cause some conflicts."

"Now that the international market is recovering, and the Russo-Japanese War has created a lot of demand, we can benefit more or less from it."

"At the same time, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. The Russo-Japanese War is a good example. It is a further escalation of competition between countries. Many countries attach importance to the development of the Far East market and hope that this region will become the second India." "There is no doubt that interest disputes in the Far East are relatively complicated. As a food on the table in the eyes of countries around the world, this has also made competition among local forces increasingly fierce."

Most of the colonies in the world have been carved up, so countries can only focus on some weak countries or relatively independent backward areas.

The Far Eastern Empire is such a "weak country". No matter who controls the Far Eastern market alone, there is no doubt that with the Far Eastern Empire's huge market and rich resources, they will create a giant that is more powerful than the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets. come out.

Britain's Indian area of ​​more than three million square kilometers is enough to support its world hegemony, and the Far Eastern Empire is undoubtedly more attractive fat than India in the eyes of the great powers.

This is also the reason why the great powers further strengthened their penetration into the Far Eastern Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, which resulted in the emergence of a large number of warlord forces with the nature of capital from various countries in the Far Eastern Empire.

Although Ernst had no intention of being cruel to his motherland in his previous life, he could not allow East African interests to be squeezed out by other powerful countries.

Therefore, the current East African government has made some discussions on how to maintain the interests of East Africa in the Huaihai Economic Zone and Zhuhai Economic Zone.

"We also have some long-term interest partners in the Far East Empire, including Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants in the past and some people at the government level. Now the domestic situation in the Far East Empire is becoming increasingly severe, especially under the instigation of the United Kingdom and the United States. Any political crisis can lead to a loss for all."

"So we should support a group of partners to deal with crises that may explode at any time within the Far East Empire in the future, and to ensure our country's legitimate interests in the Far East."

Like Germany, East Africa is not afraid of fair competition in the industrial field, but is afraid of opponents using politics, conspiracy and other means to engage in unfair competition.

The most typical ones are the colonial powers such as Britain and France. It is not impossible for other countries to enter the British and French colonial markets, but they have to pay more costs.

Although East Africa is a colonial power on the surface, the colonies in East Africa are not rich, have small populations, poor environments, and are somewhat far away from the mainland of East Africa.

I am not worried about countries like Britain and France, I am mainly worried about the United States and Japan. For example, if Alaska shows a higher value, there is no doubt that East Africa is beyond the reach.

The same is true for the Far East market. No matter how strong East Africa is, it does not have the distance advantage. Therefore, to ensure the safety of the Far East market, the East African government must prepare for rainy days.

Similarly, Ernst is not worried about Britain and France, but is still wary of the United States and Japan. Even if Britain and France can now have an advantage in the Far East, when the European war breaks out, it is basically impossible for Britain and France to spend any extra money. Focus on other areas.

East Africa has this energy, but the Far Eastern Empire is too far away from East Africa. Like other overseas colonies in East Africa, it is too close to the United States and Japan. Therefore, East Africa's priority should be the competition between the United States and Japan.

The same is true for the South American market. Now the South American market is mainly controlled by the United Kingdom. In the previous life, the United Kingdom was unable to take care of both due to World War I, and was taken advantage of by the Americans. East Africa obviously must also make relevant preparations, otherwise when the time comes, I'm afraid Can't even drink the soup.

(End of chapter)