African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 309 Private Agent Organization

  "Richard", actually his real name is Augusta, is one of the heads of the British branch of the dark thread organization of the Hechingen Consortium's Commercial Intelligence Service.

  The Business Intelligence Department of the Hechingen Consortium was established in 1866. Its initial function was indeed to collect business intelligence for Ernst's reference.

Later, with the development of the consortium and the development of the East African colonies, they also began to search for national and regional intelligence. Ernst directly separated some people from the intelligence department of the Hexingen consortium to form a dark thread organization, which is the group business intelligence in name The collectors are actually an organization of spy agents under Ernst.

   Most of its members are selected from the Hechingen Military Academy, have received professional training, and have a relatively high degree of loyalty. The disadvantage is that they are generally young, which is why Augusta and others are relatively immature.

The dark thread organization of the Hexingen Commercial Intelligence Office does not currently belong to the East African government, but a secret agent organization under the private name of Ernst. Inside East Africa, it is stored in the national auditing department to monitor the state of operation of the East African countries. Lian Kang Standing was unaware of the existence of this organization.

  Although the dark thread organization is now under the private leadership of Ernst, it is bound to integrate into the East African state organs in the future, which can be regarded as the predecessor of the East African national security department.

In foreign countries, the dark thread organization of the Hexingen Commercial Intelligence Office mainly exists in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and other democratically elected countries. After all, the experience of the dark thread organization members is relatively weak, so it is better to work in these countries with less strict control, and gradually accumulate intelligence personnel work experience.

  An autocratic country with a strong government like East Africa is not suitable for spy activities, and it is easy to show its feet. Of course, the premise is that the state agency system has not collapsed. Old countries like the Far East and the Austro-Hungarian Empire can be infiltrated into a sieve.

   Fortunately, Ernst's intelligence agency currently has limited capabilities, and its main activities are in countries that may pose a threat to East Africa. Britain, the United States, Portugal, and France are the focus.

Among them, Britain, Portugal and France have colonies in Africa, while the United States is looking for trade markets everywhere under the suppression of the United Kingdom, so East Africa is not very popular with American businessmen. The situation in Japan is relatively clear. For a country as big as East Africa, if you can hide it for a day, you naturally don’t want to deal with the Americans. Even the American businessman’s attempt to set up a trading site in Zanzibar was rejected by East Africa.

In this era, the United States is still the United States, not the American emperor of the previous life, but a poor creature under the British and French, so the packaging is very good. American businessmen do come to Zanzibar Island to do business under the banner of fair and free trade, but Ernst chose to refuse.

American businessmen operating in the Indian Ocean also came to the conclusion that the country of East Africa is quite closed, but it is also understandable that a German overseas colony without the help of the mother country should be more vigilant. Anyway, except for the Austrians, they have not seen East Africa yet. Which country is the government friendly to businessmen?

In fact, there are still some, that is, businessmen from the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The Sultanate of Zanzibar is the younger brother of East Africa, so East Africa is naturally relieved. At the same time, a large share of East Africa’s import and export trade is carried out through the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Markets along the Middle East and the Indian Ocean also depend on the Sultanate of Zanzibar to open.

  …

  Dar es Salaam city.

  Three Hechingen ocean-going ships carried the Dreiser gun production machines eliminated from the Hechingen Arsenal in Berlin and began to unload. The East African government organized a large number of horse-drawn carriages and manpower to pick up the goods at the port.

"This batch of machines is relatively new, and it only took four or five years. Compared with the machines in the East African arsenal, they are very advanced and more complete. The parts are sealed in boxes, and the seals should not be broken until they reach their destination. , and don’t let the rainwater drench and infiltrate the parts in the box.” Vicente, the technician on board, said to Bryce, a member of the East African government who came to hand over the parts.

  Bryce: "Don't worry, we have prepared enough rainproof cloth and hemp rope to ensure that these machines will not be exposed to the rain before they reach their destination."

  Vicent: "Also, it's better not to be too bumpy on the road. Although these machines are not so expensive, it's not good if they are damaged due to transportation."

Bryce: "No problem. We have experience in transporting a batch of mining equipment to Mbeya before. At present, we send people every month on the road from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya. Maintenance, unless you encounter extreme weather, the general road conditions can still be guaranteed.”

  Vicent: "These are not the main points, I want to know how the factory construction is going?"

Bryce: "I don't know about this, but there should be no problem. After all, the government will definitely consider the factory building problem. At least the construction can be completed on the way you come here. There is no shortage of manpower in Mbeya City. The capacity of several factories is still there, and they have been contacted by telegram, so they must have got the news two months ago."

  The level of infrastructure in East Africa is still good, especially for large-scale projects. There are about 10 million indigenous people living in East Africa. The number is so large that East Africa is too lazy to count now. At least the low-level labor force is in a state of flooding.

   Excluding the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, there are still millions of laborers, but the lifespan of the indigenous people is extremely short, and basically there are no people who are too old.

Ernst was lucky. The planning of the Mbeya arsenal this time was a good time. The Prussian government intends to phase out the outdated Dreiser rifles. Coupled with the unification of Germany, the next military products will naturally be unified into the Prussian standard, resulting in Many German military enterprises are facing the problem of changing careers. If they are lucky, they will be absorbed by Prussia. If they are not good, they will have to close down. Especially in the states below Germany, many of them have their own military industries. Although they are mainly small workshops, they Some of the equipment is still good, but the scale is relatively small.

  So at almost the price of scrap iron, you can buy a bunch of machinery and equipment, piece together, really let Ernst put together a complete weapon production chain.

  Although the Hechingen Arsenal in Berlin produces guns, the parts are mainly purchased, and there are complete gun parts and accessories production workshops under these states.

  After acquiring a large number of various weapons production machinery and equipment, as long as they are reassembled in East Africa, basically most of the weapons that can be produced in Europe, plus the steel in Mbeya, can be completed independently in East Africa.

  Including pistols, bayonets, daggers, small artillery and other weapons that cannot be produced in East Africa, they were all supplied by East Africa in this procurement.

  Although the output may be unsatisfactory due to the low production efficiency of the manual workshops and the large gap in steel production capacity, the autonomy of East Africa's weapons and equipment can be regarded as an important step.

  (end of this chapter)