African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 352 Sea Coachmen in the East Indian Ocean

  Although the enemy is only aborigines, Samuel still takes it seriously. Knowing the enemy and the enemy, Samuel knows the enemy well, but he doesn’t know the whole picture of the enemy, so it is very important to understand the opponent from intelligence first.

  But before preparing to inquire about the intelligence of the Abyssinian Empire, Samuel still has two things to do.

One is to solve the housing problem of the troops. This is not difficult. Although the city of Assab is small, it can still accommodate a division of its own. Thousands of people, small scale.

  With the help of the original infrastructure of Assab Port, building some houses can still solve the housing problem, that is, where can I find building materials?

  Samuel looked at the desert without a blade of grass outside the city. Don’t even think about wood, not even a few grasses. Most of the buildings in Assab City are mud houses, and there is no need to worry about rain in the tropical desert climate.

If the strategic value next to the Mandeb Strait is excluded, Assab Port has only a little commercial value, and it is one of the commercial strongholds of the Arabs, but the Arab businessmen only regard this place as a resting place, and the number of them is large. Drinking water is a big problem.

   Fortunately, here is next to the Ethiopian plateau. Although the rainwater from the Ethiopian plateau does not flow here, it can supplement the groundwater here along the terrain. Therefore, the groundwater resources are relatively rich, but more wells need to be drilled.

   "Mr. Sapeto, how do you and your employees usually solve the supply problem?" Samuel asked. This is the second problem Samuel has to face.

  The population of Eritrea is mainly concentrated in the mountains and hills in the north, where some rainwater can be blocked because of the terrain. Even some areas have abundant precipitation like the Ethiopian plateau, but the coastal plain is even drier than Somalia.

The eastern lowland in the south of Eritrea, where Assab Port is located, is the hardest-hit area. The opposite is the arid Arabian Peninsula. After crossing the equator, the direction is changed by the deflection force of the earth) and most of the sailors are intercepted by the uplifted Ethiopian plateau.

  In addition to Assab, the terrain of the eastern lowlands cannot even retain the remaining water vapor, making the surrounding area of ​​Assab a truly barren land.

   Barren land is an exaggerated adjective, but it is an objective description of Assab and its surroundings. The Somali region, the driest part of the East African Kingdom, still has tropical grasslands and two large rivers pass by, but Assab has nothing.

Zapeto: "The most important thing about Assab Port is its strategic position. It is one of the excellent ports near the Mandeb Strait, but it is far behind the southern Somali region. The climate in the south is much better than here. In particular, the British protectorate in Somaliland can still produce some food, and Assab can only obtain food through external trade."

  Samuel: "Then you usually buy food?"

Sapeto: "Yes, especially when we are newcomers, our company buys food from Yemeni caravans in Arabia. At that time, the Suez Canal was opened not long ago. Although there were European ships passing by here, most of them would not stay here. Instead, head directly to the Far East.”

Samuel: "If you rely on buying food, the burden will be heavy. The Kingdom asked me to find a way to raise food locally as much as possible to reduce the pressure on local supply. I haven't even touched the edge of the Abyssinian Empire yet. ,how to solve this problem."

  Sappeto: "General Samuel, I have a solution, but it's a temporary solution, not the root cause. It can greatly alleviate the army's food supply problem in the early stage."

  Samuel hurriedly asked: "What method?"

   Zapeto: "You can order food from the Sultanate of Zanzibar."

  Samuel: "The Sultanate of Zanzibar?"

Sapeto: "Yes, you may not have heard of this country in Europe, but it is quite famous in the Indian Ocean. It was originally located on Zanzibar Island in the east of Tanganyika in East Africa after the division of the Oman Empire, the former overlord of the Indian Ocean. The independent country that was formed, radiated the entire western Indian Ocean region when its national power was strongest, and later its mainland territory was occupied by the Kingdom of Germany."

Samuel: "What does this have to do with us! The purpose of the kingdom is to solve the army's food supply problem with little or no money. If you still have to spend money to buy it, it's better to spend the money on the mainland and let the The kingdom's farmers have multiple incomes."

Sapeto: "Your Excellency, this is the problem of money. The kingdom is currently in financial difficulties. The most lacking is money and food. Zanzibar merchants can provide the cheapest food in the entire Indian Ocean region, and they can also deliver it to your door. , can save a lot of money.”

  Samuel: "You just said that the Sultanate of Zanzibar is just an island country! An island country supplies the cheapest food along the entire Indian Ocean?"

It’s not that Samuel suspects, he has seen the map of Africa, he knows that the Sultanate of Zanzibar is not big, and now it has lost the mainland, unless Zanzibar has mastered the technology of growing food in the sea and has its own food The planting base can reduce the price of food to the point where it is cheaper than India, but it is obviously impossible.

Food prices in India are not cheap. Although India is the place with the best conditions for growing food along the Indian Ocean, there are too many Indians, and it is impossible for the British master to starve them to death. In addition, the level of productivity in this era is low, and India's food production is at most After supplying the British mainland, they will be exported in small quantities. In order to make money, the British are more keen on growing cash crops in India, such as tea, jute, cotton, etc.

During the rule of the East India Company, tea gardens occupied a large amount of arable land, and after the American Civil War ended, the British promoted cotton plantations in India on a large scale to replace plantations in the southern United States. decline.

Sapeto: "Your Excellency, General, don't get me wrong. Although the Sultanate of Zanzibar is small in size and its food production is small, there are Germans behind the Sultanate of Zanzibar. German farmers are good at farming in the East African Kingdom. In the past two years, the Indian Ocean In the grain trade along the coast, the Sultanate of Zanzibar is the most active. They mainly rely on ships to sell grain from East Africa to the coasts of the Indian Ocean, especially rice from North Africa and the Middle East. Most of them are sold by the commercial fleet of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Since last year, our company’s grain has also been purchased from businessmen in the Sultanate of Zanzibar.”

  Samuel: "Rice, but I'm afraid the soldiers won't adapt."

Sapeto: "Cheapness is the truth. Just like my company, in order to make a profit, it is natural to purchase cheap food. Maybe the employees are not used to it in the early days. They just need to eat more. Besides, you just need to solve the problem of food supply in the early stage. Yes, the Abyssinian Empire can produce wheat, and when the kingdom occupies the Abyssinian Empire, it can grow wheat on a large scale."

  Samuel: "The price?"

Sapeto: "The food price plus the shipping price is always cheaper than transporting it from the mainland, and the kingdom is also short of food in the mainland, and it also imports a lot of food from the Hexingen Food Company. In fact, the large Hexingen Food Company Part of the food is also imported from East Africa, not Germany and Hungary as they advertised. Only I know this trick. When I went back to Italy the year before last, I discovered that a ship of a Hexingen ocean trading company entered the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal. Unloaded directly in La Spezia, Italy, it is the kind of cheap flour that is very popular in Italy, but the origin of the package is written as Hungary.”

  Samuel: "Then can we buy flour directly from the East African Kingdom! After all, pasta and pizza are more in line with our taste."

  Sapeto: "Your Excellency, the price of East African rice is 20% cheaper than flour."

  Samuel was silent for a while and said: "Then choose rice! The soldiers will get used to it, but why don't we buy it directly from the East African Kingdom, instead we have to pay an extra fee from the Sultanate of Zanzibar?"

Sapeto: "The reason is very simple. There are not enough ships in East Africa. They can only focus on the European market. The Sultanate of Zanzibar has brought together a large number of Arab businessmen. I estimate that the Arab ships registered in the Sultanate of Zanzibar account for the entire More than 50% of the western Indian Ocean, they all conduct trade under the banner of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and Zanzibar merchants are now known as the sea coachmen of the Western Indian Ocean."

  (end of this chapter)