African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 581 "Locomotive"

Waltz is talking about the submarine cable from the Southern Ryukyu Islands to Fuzhou. The straight-line distance from Miyako Island to Fuzhou is close to 700 kilometers, so the workload and consumption are huge, so the task of the No. 1 Cable State-owned Factory in Dar es Salaam is The portion is huge.

Mori: "Submarine cables are indeed not simple, and the quality requirements are also higher. After all, the situation in the sea is complex, and ordinary cables cannot withstand it. But if you give us some parameters and a thorough understanding, our factory can be mentally prepared. I wonder what the length of this Far East submarine cable is?”

Waltz: "Hey, it's not a secret. Didn't we in East Africa have a conflict with Japan in the Far East a while ago? It's a group of islands in the Pacific on the map. Our navy heard that we had a fight there, so that's our place. Yes, but it’s too far away from East Africa, so the higher authorities must solve the communication problem there.”

Morrie probably had some understanding after hearing this. Although Morrie was born as a German country bumpkin, he also read a lot of books. In terms of the cultural level of this era, he "knows astronomy from the top and geography from the bottom."

This is not an exaggeration, because the simplest books that Morrie had access to in the East African troops were East African textbooks, and East African textbooks were for students to learn history and geography.

Mori: "If the Southern Ryukyu Islands can be telegraphed, it will definitely not be a small project. As far as I know, this archipelago is at least a few hundred kilometers away from the Far East Continent. So I will use a ruler later to estimate how far away this archipelago is from the Far East Continent." It's far away, so it's easier to arrange production tasks for next year and not fight an unprepared battle."

Waltz: "There's no need to go to such trouble. The Southern Ryukyu Islands are about six to seven hundred kilometers away from the Far East Continent. If you guarantee the production to be five hundred kilometers in length first, then there will be no problems. You can just make up for it when the time comes."

Mori: "This telegram is not simple. It seems that the Southern Ryukyu Islands are of great significance to the country, so there must be other factories that have also received the task, right?"

Waltz nodded and said: "You are right. There are a dozen factories participating in this production task, and some companies in Europe are bidding. The factories we have received the task in East Africa are mainly Dar es Salaam, Pakistan Gamoyo City, Tanga City and Mombasa City are also convenient for production because they are close to the sea.”

Morrie: "This time is a big move. We have never taken on such a big job before. In the past, the submarine cables laid by East Africa were imported from Europe. Three or four years ago, from Pemba Island to Pakistan Gamoyo’s submarine cables were still shipped from factories in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.”

Waltz: "If we don't import from Europe, how can we still grow it from the ground? I remember that our factory was one of the first cable factories in East Africa. It was established three or four years ago. At that time, I'm afraid you couldn't even figure out how to operate the machine. Bar?"

Morrie: "You're right. At that time, I and the two technicians in the factory were the only ones who could make machines. We had to teach everything. Moreover, the raw materials were imported from overseas at that time, so we just made small repairs and made do. .”

When the first cable factories in East Africa were established, they couldn't even get the raw materials together. The railway had just opened to traffic at that time, so the inland copper mines had not yet been developed, so most of the copper mines were imported from Austria-Hungary. The empire imported it and then processed it on the East African coast.

As for coal mines and rubber, there is no shortage of them in East Africa. Coal mines in East Africa are close to the coast. As for rubber, East Africa completely occupies the largest rubber producer in the world. The second is Brazil. The advantage of Brazilian rubber is that it is close to the coast. Especially in the Amazon Plain, where the Amazon River exists, shipping is very convenient. The collected rubber can be directly loaded onto ships and shipped to all parts of the world.

East Africa is far behind in this regard. The main rubber producing area in East Africa is in the eastern part of the Congo Basin. The Congo River is also not of great use. The downstream outlet is a group of waterfalls, so it can only be transported by land to the eastern coast, which is more time-consuming and laborious.

However, there are other rubber producing areas in East Africa that can be substituted, especially the intersection of the eastern coastal plain and plateau, where rainfall is relatively sufficient and can be directly transported to Dar es Salaam through the central railway. Comparatively speaking, the advantage of Mombasa is that the Northern Railway and the Great Lakes Shipping can transport rubber from the Great Lakes region and Hesse Province to the east. The disadvantage is that Mombasa is far away from the copper producing areas in East Africa.

Therefore, the development of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa is like two locomotives. No one gives way to the other. There is no problem in saying that they are locomotives. The two most important railways in East Africa, the Central Railway and the Northern Railway, happen to start from Dar es Salaam. Salaam and Mombasa and, of course, the port city of New Hamburg to the south of the Central Railway.

As the saying goes, a train runs fast because of its headband. Dar es Salaam and Mombasa serve as locomotives. As for the new Hamburg Port City, it is too short after all, and its heritage cannot be compared with these two old cities. In the future I can't say for sure.

However, Ernst does not think that the new Hamburg Port City will surpass the two old predecessors. Whether it can even join the top three among coastal cities is very questionable.

This involves the Port of Maputo, which Ernst cherishes so much. However, the Port of Maputo is still in the hands of the Portuguese. I don’t know when East Africa will use their own means to seize it. At that time, the New Hamburg Port City was already there. After many years of development, the first-mover advantage is obvious.

For example, if Maputo is in the hands of East Africa, it will definitely be built in the southern section of the Central Railway. But now it is a done deal and the New Hamburg Port City has taken the lead.

The role of railways in driving the economy is quite obvious, especially trunk lines like the Central Railway. There may not be any railway line in East Africa that can surpass the Central Railway in the future. After all, when Ernst designed this line, it can be said that he coordinated the entire The best part of East Africa.

In the Central Railway, the more well-known capitals of African countries in the past include Dodoma (the capital of Tanzania), Lusaka (the capital of Zambia), Harare (the capital of Zimbabwe), and Dar es Salaam, which served as the capital. Pretoria; a number of important African cities, Mbeya, Bulawayo, Lubumbashi, etc.

 The line basically covers most of the mineral producing areas, cities, and villages in East Africa. Therefore, East African cities that can connect with the Central Railway will have a high starting point for future development.

As for the new Hamburg Port City, a sea and land transportation hub, combined with the rich mineral resources of the former Transvaal Republic and the Zulu Kingdom, if it can develop reasonably in the future, it can compete with Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Yes, but the specifics will depend on whether the leadership of the new Hamburg Port City will provide adequate support in the future.

As of now, the only cities in the first echelon of East African urban economies are Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Mbeya and Nairobi.

If the New Hamburg Port City wants to be on an equal footing with these cities, it depends on subsequent development. However, it should not be difficult to surpass Mbeya and Nairobi in the future. It is also a matter of time, because the New Hamburg Port City is in South Africa and guards the two cities. Inaccessible resources.

As for the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, it is almost impossible to be overtaken. These two cities have the most advantageous conditions in East Africa and involve the large regional economy in East Africa. However, overall they are still relatively high. Es Salaam has the advantage. After all, Dar es Salaam is surrounded by other cities, while Mombasa can only stay together with Nairobi and Tanga.

 (End of this chapter)