African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 659 Trade with Afghanistan

 Turkana Province, Jimma City.

East Africa's main purpose of occupying the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau was to ensure the safety of the Omo River water source in the upper reaches of Lake Turkana.

With East Africa’s occupation here, not only the Omo River, but also the water source security issues of many rivers such as the Shabelle River and the Juba River have been solved, making it the “small water tower” in northeastern East Africa.

  Today’s trade with the Abyssinian Empire has made Turkana Province the most important land trading port in East Africa, and the Abyssinian Empire is also the largest land trading country in East Africa.

The main reason is that the Abyssinian Empire was large. Among the countries and regions bordering East Africa, the most populous ones are the Abyssinian Empire and Egypt.

It is a pity that the core area of ​​Egypt is too far away from East Africa, and the Sudan in the middle is too barren. Moreover, Egypt is now a semi-colony of the United Kingdom. East Africa can only watch this market helplessly.

“This pile of wood carvings can only be exchanged for three Rhine guilders, because the wood carving market is not booming now, especially your kind of wood carvings. Although they have their own cultural characteristics, they are worthless in the eyes of other countries.”

"Mr. Hans, these wood carvings were carefully made by the most famous art masters in Negmut City for several days. Look at the patterns and the texture of the wood, not to mention the carving skills. No matter what, the value of this wood alone is not cheap."

It has to be said that East Africa has inherited the characteristics of Germany, that is, there are too many people named Hans. If you shout it on the street, six or seven people will turn around. However, the immigrants from the Far East Empire have greatly enriched the diversity of East African names and surnames. .

 “Then how much do you want?”

 “At least twenty rhine guilders!”

"There are too many. This batch of your goods is not worth so much money. As I said before, your culture is ultimately different from that of Europe, and even different from Arab countries, so it is very possible to blindly carry forward the traditions of your country. It’s not popular with the market. I told you before that it’s better to make it according to the sample we provided, so as to open up the market.”

The wood carving samples provided by Hans were naturally specially customized for Europe, mainly based on religious and cultural factors. After all, Europeans are willing to pay tithes and indulgences, so it is not too much to buy some cultural products to support "God".

Of course, the more important thing is that the Abyssinian carpenters are good at craftsmanship. Many religious figures can be vividly represented. This should be the talent of Africans.

Hans continued to lower the price: "Look at this pattern, such good wood has been wasted. It can even be said that the original high-quality wood is worth more than three Rhine guilders. How can it be sold for 5 Rhine guilders with handwork? , just because you have made your own decisions, three rhine guilders are now considered a high price."

Calle was obviously convinced by Hans's words, but was it really because of his own opinion that the value of these wood carvings was devalued?

"Mr. Hans, how about we take these wood carvings back and redo them? If we make them slightly smaller, we should be able to save some value." Carle asked tentatively.

How could it be possible? The meat was already in his mouth. Hans naturally didn’t want to spit it out. As for the fact that he had made these wood carvings worthless before, how could he do business? Everyone knows that it is a process of mutual discounting.

But Hans was telling the truth. If the wood carvings of the Abyssinian Empire were not improved according to European aesthetics, it would be difficult to sell them. However, it does not mean that there is no market, especially for those artists. I am very interested in the wood carvings with their original wild beauty.

 European artists are all wealthy people and have always been generous with their purchases. However, the artist group is a minority after all, and mass products are also a target that East Africa attaches great importance to. This is why Hans asked Party B to produce products based on European religious and cultural elements. So Hans said: "Let's just take it back and modify it. After all, it will take more time to go back and forth, and it will also affect our next transaction. This time I suffered a little loss, so I bought it for four rhine guilders."

East Africa's purchase of large quantities of handicrafts from the Abyssinian Empire is actually a helpless move, because the Abyssinian Empire itself does not have any outstanding mineral resources. Agriculture is the pillar industry of the Abyssinian Empire, and East Africa is also It is a large agricultural country, so for trade between the two countries, East Africa needs to find more ways to make the Abyssinian Empire affordable.

Taking the craft of wood carving as an example, East Africa could also produce it itself in the past, but the craftsmanship of the local indigenous people obviously cannot be compared with that of ancient civilizations like the Abyssinian Empire.

Moreover, the labor cost of the Abyssinian Empire is much lower than that of East Africa. The population of East Africa is too small compared with the territory, while the situation of the Abyssinian Empire is the opposite. The territory of the Abyssinian Empire in the past few years The area has been shrinking, the cultivated land has decreased, but the population has increased instead of falling, and labor costs have further declined.

 So handicrafts such as wood carvings, carpets, etc. were all handed over to the Abyssinian Empire in East Africa. Of course, these were limited to handicrafts.

East Africa attaches great importance to industry, not handicrafts. After all, compared with handicrafts, no country in the world is a rival of the Far Eastern Empire. Many handicraft products in East Africa will be purchased directly from the Far Eastern Empire.

 The handicrafts purchased from the Far Eastern Empire were mainly used for domestic consumption, while the handicrafts of the Abyssinian Empire were mainly used for resale to other countries and regions. In fact, they were the goods of second-hand traders in East Africa.

 In fact, Turkana Province can also rely on the Abyssinian Empire to develop its own industry, which is quite rare in the interior of East Africa.

The method is also very simple. The population of Turkana Province is not large in East Africa, and it is not particularly rich in resources, especially basic industrial raw materials such as coal and iron.

Turkana Province has a large area and certainly does not lack these minerals, but it lacks the population to mine these minerals. Therefore, one of Turkana Province's measures to develop industry is to use its trade advantages with the Abyssinian Empire to bring Abyssinia into the province. The Bisinian Empire became a raw material supplier and market for Turkana Province.

 Among other things, all the iron ore and coal in Jimma, a border city in Turkana Province, are imported from the Abyssinian Empire.

At the same time, Jimma City is an important gold trading market, because the gold mine reserves of the Abyssinian Empire are relatively rich, and the industry is relatively mature. Jimma City uses various industrial commodities to transfer the gold and other wealth of the Abyssinian Empire. Exchange and go.

Of course, the most famous trade between the two countries is the arms trade. The Abyssinian Empire has to pay a sum of money every year to purchase arms from East Africa. This is a long-term business, because the three countries surrounding the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa, Italy, Britain (Egypt), none of them are easy to mess with.

Between these three countries, the Abyssinian Empire was naturally very anxious, so East Africa's arms trade with Abyssinia ensured that its country would not collapse.

For East Africa, a complete Abyssinian Empire is beneficial to East Africa, because the situation here is complicated. If the Abyssinian Empire falls into pieces, which country is behind the various forces will become one. A mess.

 As for the existence of the Abyssinian Empire as a whole, its strength has long been weakened by East Africa, and its future potential has also been greatly reduced. After all, it does not have a land as large as its previous life. In the future, the population of Abyssinia will always be maintained at the level of tens of millions.

The most important thing is that the import and export trade of the Abyssinian Empire is basically monopolized by East Africa. It is the first de facto supplier of raw materials and a completely open market in East Africa, so East Africa naturally wants to ensure the current regime of the Abyssinian Empire. stability.

 (End of this chapter)