African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 429 Weak Foundation

On the train from Trieste to Vienna, Ernst browsed the Austrian countryside in a private compartment. On both sides of the railway, there were green wheat fields, hurried farmers on the field roads, ox carts dragging goods, and the occasional of villages.

 The scene in the Austrian countryside is actually not much different from that in the Middle Ages. If he were not sitting in the train, I would not be able to feel it. So every time Ernst takes the train, he will have a sense of time and space.

Hyper-speed development will bring about the situation that Ernst encountered. The powerful driving force brought by the Industrial Revolution is actively changing European society, and this situation is happening at the same time in more distant East Africa.

 …

With the arrival of railway workers, the East African railway project was officially launched. Aboriginal railway laborers were divided into more than twenty regiments to repair the railway lines.

In the mountains, the mountains are open, and the water bridge is under the command of the technical staff. The railway is gradually cleaned up along the railway.

 The north side of the Muchinga Mountains is a key point to be overcome by the East African Railway. There is a swamp here that the railway cannot bypass.

The East African government's handling method is also very simple and crude, that is, it uses a large number of black people to manually dredge the area. Thousands of black people, under the threat of rifles, hold water and various containers to drain the water from the swamp.

“In addition to the large number of hippos and crocodiles living in the swamp, there are also other dangers lurking, such as venomous snakes. These creatures are fatal threats to our workers, so this kind of work can only be left to the indigenous people.”

"This swamp can only be cleaned manually. If we follow the normal project speed, it will take about a few months to clean up. So we must seize the time to complete this section of work before the rainy season comes to prevent the area from returning again after the rainy season." Backfilled by rainwater.”

So, in order to prevent accidents from happening, the East Africans forced the natives to work day and night, trying to complete the cleanup of the swamp area within two and a half months.

For the construction of the Central Railway, there are many things like this, such as cutting down virgin forests to make room for the railway, and clearing boulders and other obstructions.

At the starting point of the railway, the first railway extension section, a large amount of raw materials are pulled inland through the flesh and blood of the indigenous people. The heavy rails are all carried manually. A little carelessness can easily cause fatal injuries to the workers. harm.

At the same time, in order to ensure railway construction, East Africa built three cement plants, 23 logging sites and quarries along the route, and also built a new steel plant in the Kalabari region of Zambia.

 In 1873, the annual steel production in East Africa was 240,000 tons. After the Kalabari Steel Plant was put into operation, East Africa's steel production will exceed 300,000 tons.

 In fact, after the steel plant in Mbeya City was replaced with guns, the annual output increased to more than 80,000, which can meet a large part of East Africa's needs.

The total steel demand for East African railways is about eight million tons, and Germany's total steel production in 1873 was about three to four million tons. Therefore, importing some steel from Germany and Austria can save East Africa a lot of money.

East Africa's steel output is actually ranked high in the world, but its coal output is somewhat insufficient in comparison, only about 1.5 million tons. During the same period, Germany's was 27 million tons, and Britain and the United States were even more. exceeded 100 million tons. However, due to the impact of the economic crisis, the steel and coal production capacity of various countries will suffer large-scale shrinkage. In contrast, East Africa will enter a stage of rapid growth.

In addition to the large demand for steel for railway construction, the demand for East African shipyards is also relatively large. Although the Bagamoyo Shipyard cannot build thousand-ton ironclads, it has also received orders for more than a dozen gunboats under Ernst's tilt. , and the tonnage of East African gunboats is generally upwards of 400 tons.

Inland shipyards cannot be ignored. By 1873, the number of inland shipyards in East Africa had expanded to 37. In addition to several large lakes, the West River in Zambia and the Congo River basin had the strongest demand.

  Putting aside the railway and shipbuilding industries, a series of factories will be introduced in East Africa next, and the demand for steel will be at a relatively strong stage.

These are some basic data in East Africa before the construction of the railway. After the completion of the railway, the construction of the southern industrial zone (Zimbabwe) and the development of the Zambian copper mining industry, the industrial growth in East Africa can reflect the true level of development in the economic crisis.

In fact, Ernst also wanted to learn from the five-year industrial plan and take advantage of the economic crisis to make East Africa take off. However, this was completely impossible for East Africa.

When most people look at five-year plans, they feel that I can do whatever I want. But in fact, there are only two examples of five-year plans, one is Tsarist Russia and the other is the Far East. Tsarist Russia’s First Five-Year Plan started in 1928, and the First Five-Year Plan for the Far East started in 1928. Started in 1953.

 In textbooks, it seems that as soon as the First Five-Year Plan was completed, the two countries got rid of their status as agricultural countries. After the completion of the Second Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union directly became an important industrial country in the world.

In fact, during the Tsarist Russia era, Tsarist Russia already had a complete industrial system. For example, now, Tsarist Russia is already the fifth largest textile country in the world, with tens of thousands of kilometers of railways and more than 3,000 factories. Before the Soviet Union, it had reached There are nearly 10,000 factories and more than 3 million workers.

At present, Tsarist Russia is already one of the great powers. How can it lag behind? It can only be said that the Soviet Union fully unleashed the potential of Tsarist Russia and made Tsarist Russia the closest to being number one in the world in history.

The industrial level of the Far East was low, but during the Westernization Movement, a number of military-industrial enterprises and government-owned enterprises were built. From the Beiyang period to the Republic of China, a number of private capital also developed. After 1953, there was actually a group of professionals in the local area. With the support of the Soviet Union, preliminary industrialization was barely achieved.

Ernst can be sure that the foundation of the Far East in 1953 must be much better than the foundation of the current East African Kingdom, and the leadership is much more capable than the East African Kingdom. However, it is still difficult to realize the Far East First Five-Year Plan.

 Hence the current conditions in East Africa, the total number of factories is more than 170, and most of them are based on low-tech rough processing manufacturing. The education level of the people is completely unable to support industrial development.

 Like planned economy, it is mainly reflected in the word plan. The formulation and execution of plans are an extremely test of a country's execution ability. If Ernst wants to implement a five-year plan, the first problem he will face is how to solve the talent problem. These require high-quality talents to implement.

 When the East African Kingdom develops agriculture, its bureaucratic capacity level can barely keep up. If it develops industry, it will be quite difficult for them. As for the current industries in East Africa, they are all realized by talents overflowing from the German region. The management of the Hechingen factory was recruited and hired from Germany and Austria. In the final analysis, it is still a problem of human incompetence.

 (End of this chapter)