African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 208 Choice Difficulty

  With the support of the Hexingen Consortium and East Africa, Jiaozhou has already formed the prototype of a large Far Eastern city, and it is also the most influential eastern city in Germany.

  Very different from those semi-colonial treaty ports, Jiaozhou is a port controlled by the Qing government, but out of distrust of the bureaucratic groups of the Qing government, the Heixingen Consortium chose to continue to use force.

Even if the officials of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties did not have this courage, those local gangs would not necessarily be the same. Local snakes are local snakes after all, and they are absolutely courageous. As long as the interests are in place, they dare not. Really no deterrent.

  Don’t think that being a foreigner can be domineering. That is the treatment only available to Britain and France.

  …

"Father, I intend to build an experimental railway between Dar es Salaam and the first town to strengthen the connection between Dar es Salaam and the first town, and at the same time to accumulate experience for the future railway construction in East Africa " Ernst picked up the phone and said to Prince Constantine.

   Speaking of the topic of railways, Prince Constantine was very interested, especially since this is a railway that belongs to his own family.

  Hexingen in Europe is a remote place with neither a decent river nor a railway passing by, and the transportation basically depends on horses and horses and on foot.

  But the road situation in Hechingen is not very ideal, not even comparable to East Africa at this time. European roads have not changed much until the eighteenth century.

  Even the roads built in the ancient Roman era were used by mending, but this was already the best road in Europe at that time.

  After the 18th century, Europeans began to pay attention to transportation construction, and roads and railways developed rapidly, but none of this had anything to do with Hechingen.

  Heixingen's geographical location, construction conditions, products and population cannot support road renovation. At most, the original dirt road can be repaired a little bit.

   "Very good, but the railway is not an ordinary project, do you have a specific plan?"

   "Father, the Ronce Railway Company I bought is now on its way to East Africa. After they arrive in East Africa, they will plan the route according to the actual local conditions."

   "Lone's Railway Company? I haven't heard of it!"

   "It's a small company in the Grand Duchy of Baden, so it's not very well-known."

   "Then hand over this project to them, can it be completed!"

   "You can rest assured about this. They have experience and have been building railways for the French before."

"France?"

   "Yes, but it is mainly outsourced projects. After all, South Germany has abundant human resources, and they are cheap, and they are better managed than French workers."

  Prince Constantine nodded and said, "Well, then I'm relieved. What I'm most afraid of is that they don't have relevant experience. But even so, how do you deal with the materials for building the railway?"

   "Cement can be provided in East Africa at present. Things like sleepers can be made from East Africa. There is no need to worry about land resources, that is, locomotives, rails, and some parts and equipment need to be imported from Germany.

  In addition, the distance between Dar es Salaam and the first town is not far, and the terrain is relatively flat. The final construction cost of this railway will not be too high. "

   "Then what do you need me to do?" Prince Constantine asked.

   Isn’t this problem solved? Call me just for this?

   "It's such a father, I still need to discuss some details of this railway with you, for example, a while ago, didn't you say that you would build a defense project in the first town!

The railway is a strategic means of transportation. You have seen the effect of Prussia’s use of railway troop transport last time, so we must pay more attention to this railway in terms of national defense. Dar es Salaam is very close to the first town. With this A railway, the speed of travel between the two is even faster.

  So when you start this project, you must include the railway, and there must be no loopholes. "

   "I know about this. The defense project has not started yet, and I will arrange for people to set up checkpoints."

   "This requires the cooperation between designers and railway companies, so there is no rush, at least wait until they arrive in East Africa. Moreover, railways belong to national defense transportation. At that time, the government should set up a Ministry of Railways by the way!" Ernst said.

"Any question?"

   "There is also the issue of the gauge of the railway, which I still can't make up my mind about.

At present, we can mainly refer to 1000mm, 1435mm, 1520mm, 1676mm, etc. 1435mm is the most popular, and now Prussia is also the same. If we directly use 1435mm, we can save some costs, but the larger the railway gauge is, the more freight is transported. The larger the amount. "

  Constantine pondered for a while, and said: "I don't know much about railways. You can tell me in detail about the railways in various countries."

"There is no unified standard for railway gauge, and it is more flexible. For example, 1435mm is the width of Roman chariots, and European carriages also adopted this figure. Later, the British first developed railways, so this figure is in Britain, its colonies. , the United States, and some European countries use.

  1000mm is mainly used by France and its colonies, especially the French colonies. It is characterized by being suitable for mountainous areas and cheap.

  1520mm belongs to the wide gauge, mainly used by the Russians, who do not want to integrate with Europe due to military considerations.

  1676mm belongs to wider railways. Apart from these types, there are many different standards. "

"I almost understand what you mean. 1435mm is currently the most widely used, but it should be relatively common among various railway standards. The narrower one is cheaper and more flexible, but the capacity is lower. It is wider than him. , the cost is high, the flexibility is poor, and the transportation volume is large, that’s what it means!"

"That's not true. Railways. You think there are only two iron bars. These two iron bars are the main cost. If they are parallel on two straight lines, the width is actually the same, and the material used for turning is a little more. And there is Sleepers are longer and occupy more land area.

  But none of the above is a problem for East Africa. East Africa has a lot of land, and there is no shortage of wood. The loss at the turn can be offset by the volume of transportation.

  After all, the railway is a long-term operation project, so it is true that the construction cost is slightly higher, but the longer the subsequent railway operation, the higher the profit and efficiency, after all, the large volume of transportation. "

Hearing this, Constantine fully understands. This kid still prefers to use wide gauge in his heart. After all, he started to defend wide gauge before he finished speaking. However, because the 1435mm railway is mainly used in the world, especially in Europe, So it's hard to make a choice, after all, people follow the crowd.

So, Prince Constantine said: "Let's use broad gauge! But you also said that there are many standards for broad gauge, and we don't discuss which one to use first. After the railway company moves to East Africa, let the East African government and professionals Experts make an assessment based on the actual situation in East Africa, so let’s choose another standard.”

  (end of this chapter)