African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 431 Residence

Kurland and his party first had to report to the city hall. After registering at the city hall, Kurland and several agricultural experts each obtained a property in Soga City.

Although he got a house for free, Kurland asked with some worry: "This house really doesn't cost money? What's its quality like?"

“You can rest assured that allocating housing is a very routine operation in East Africa. As high-quality talents introduced by the East African government, you will also enjoy better treatment than ordinary immigrants and even officials.”

Hearing is believing, seeing is believing. Later, Blanco took a few people to visit their new home.

"Each house has an area of ​​140 square meters, with three bedrooms, one living room, two bathrooms, one kitchen, and a small garden. Suojia City is also a garden city. You see, in addition to the gardens of every household, there are also these named The green belt thing, that’s unique to our East African cities.”

However, Kurland's focus was obviously not here. He asked Blanco: "I always feel that your use of land is a bit too unrestrained. The walking path in front of the house is okay. Is the road we came just now? Too wasteful? I used to live in Landshut, and have also been to Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and other cities. To be honest, the roads in Soga are a bit ridiculously wide, but Dar es Salaam has more people. I understand, but there aren’t many people in Suojia, so the utilization rate is too low.”

Blanco said indifferently: "Wide roads are not a big problem. As for the low utilization rate, more and more people will come to Soga in the future. Don't worry about this. After all, cities are developing. Nowadays in Europe The roads in various countries are also much wider than before, although the improvement is not significant."

Having said that, Professor Kurland said: "You are a little too urban."

While talking, Kurander also noticed that the street lights in Suojia seemed to be equipped with electric lights, which also surprised Kurander.

“I am increasingly doubting that the East African Kingdom is not an African country. You have also popularized electric lights in the city. I am afraid that only the capitals of various countries can do this.”

"Electric light is also a rarity in East Africa. Only the capital and Soga have achieved widespread use. Cities like Mombasa and Dar es Salaam have only used it in a small part. As for other cities, only Nairobi in the interior. The two industrial cities of Beia have electric lights, but in other areas only a few government agencies may use them."

 Blanco opened the door and took Brand's luggage to the house.

 You can see that the quality of these houses is very good, and there is no cut corners. I just looked at the outside, and everything on the inside is good.

"Completely solid wood furniture, but considering your preferences, we have only prepared a few basic pieces of furniture, a desk, two chairs, and a bed. If you need it, everyone can go to the furniture store to get what you like. .”

"Each room has an electric light, which is a wire switch. However, I want to remind you that using electricity is very dangerous. Do not modify the circuit at will, or touch the wires and circuits with wet objects, including metal, and your hands. If there is a problem, Just go to the electricity bureau to find professionals to repair or modify it.”

This kind of science popularization is very necessary. The second industrial revolution has just started. As a new thing in the second industrial revolution, electricity is still relatively unfamiliar to many people in this era.

“The living room actually has a partition, which can be used to place desks and bookshelves. It faces the balcony, so it has good lighting.”

“This is the bathroom, equipped with faucets, sinks, flush toilets and bathtubs, with water supply 24 hours a day.”

"We haven't decorated the kitchen too much. Just like the furniture, you can decorate it according to your own ideas. However, there are also public canteens in Suojia City that can solve the problem of eating. The bad news is that you need to pay. The good news is that the price is very cheap and the cooks are skilled. It's quite good. The current public canteen is configured according to the size of 700 people. Because Suojia doesn't have many people, only one is opened, which is in the northwest corner of this block."

"There are three bedrooms in total. You can bring your family members from Europe to live here. Otherwise, living alone in such a big house would feel a bit empty." Brand was quite satisfied with the living environment here, but he quickly thought of a problem. , that is the issue of exchanges with Europe.

“Is there a telegraph office in Suojia City?”

Blanco: "Of course, Professor Brand, the telegraph office, shops, canteens, etc. are all in the northwest of the community. Telegraphs here can directly communicate with Europe."

“That’s great, I think I can call all my family and friends over after a while,” Brand said.

It is also great for East Africa. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and Brand, as a biologist, is destined to be more than unknown in his circle.

However, Brand also said that it will take some time, because he is still in the inspection stage of East Africa, and the most important thing is that the working environment has not been carefully inspected.

 Soon Blanco overcame his doubts.

"This is the East African Rice Research Institute. The location is a bit off. This is because the experimental site is different from ordinary scientific research, so we chose it on the outskirts of the city. However, it is not far from your residence, only two kilometers away. If the distance is less than 100 meters, the government will issue East African traffic rules notices and means of transportation to relevant personnel."

What means of transportation! The answer is bicycles. Bicycles are not a rare thing. However, Hechingen Daily Necessities Company does not mass-produce them, but takes the luxury route. The main reason is that East African rubber has not yet been mass-produced on a large scale. The rubber used in European bicycles comes from Brazil imports rubber, but Brazilian rubber production is actually not high. As for Southeast Asia, there is no trace of rubber now. Historically, it was not until 1876 that the United Kingdom began to introduce rubber to Southeast Asia. At present, the only country in the world where rubber is grown on a large scale and prepared for commercial rubber production is East Africa.

Moreover, the bicycles produced by the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company are rather strange. Its tires are solid and are only used for shock absorption. In this way, the bicycle is relatively easy to use on flat ground, but much worse off-road. This makes the bicycle a kind of A novelty only enjoyed by the rich and aristocrats because of its poor practicality.

Of course, there are hollow pneumatic rubber tires. The Hechingen Consortium has applied for a technology patent. However, Ernst does not want to promote it on a large scale now, mainly because he does not want the money to be made by Brazil. Brazilian rubber is now a monopoly market, and raw materials The pricing power is not in the hands of the Hechingen consortium.

However, this situation will change this year, because the rubber in the Great Lakes region is ready to be put into production. In addition to the Great Lakes region, there are actually several small rubber planting areas in East Africa at the same time, mainly distributed in Turkana Province and the coastal plains. A rainy area at the intersection of plateau areas.

As for the larger tropical rain forest production area, that is, the west side of the Mitumba Mountains, because the planting time is relatively late, it will take a few years to wait. However, the output of the Great Lakes Region and several small producing areas is enough to meet the needs of the world's natural rubber market.

Hechingen did not liberalize the production of bicycle technology in Europe. Instead, it adopted the form of squeezing toothpaste and continued to be innovative in appearance and decoration. After all, bicycles are now the playthings of aristocrats, so they look luxurious.

 When the rubber in East Africa matures, the company will make plans to invest in and build a number of factories centered on the rubber industry in East Africa, and bicycle tires are one of them.

Blanco continued: "Of course, this distance is actually not that far. It doesn't take long to walk, and there are public carriages available."

“In addition to these, there is a library in the center of the city, where some non-special materials can be consulted. Because the construction has just been completed, the collection of books is not very rich, but it is being replenished all the time.”

 (End of this chapter)