African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 18 Ocean Trade

  After the colonial team of the Hexingen Consortium reached an agreement with the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the Hexingen colonial team has gained a foothold here.

  The colonial team began to build carriages, tents and other travel tools in Zanzibar to prepare for exploring the inland.

  At the same time, the Dutch ship docked at the port of Dar es Salaam continued to set off for East Asia after replenishing fresh water and supplies.

  …

  Heixingen.

  Perspective Back to Europe, a new building is being built in Hechingen, not far from the city of Hechingen, and it has become a large construction site.

   "Ernst, are you planning to open a factory in Hechingen?" Prince Constantine asked.

  After the war, Prince Constantine withdrew from the Prussian General Staff in Berlin and returned to Hechingen.

   Unexpectedly, Ernst returned home not long after he visited Venice and asked for a piece of land from himself.

  Prince Constantine originally thought that Ernst wanted to take over his own business and develop in the agricultural field. Although he did not participate in labor, would the landlord know how to settle accounts?

  Prince Constantine thought that Ernst used these lands for crop experiments, because some time ago, Ernst mentioned that he wanted to build a large farm in East Africa.

   I didn't expect to see you for a few days, and my field was pushed! It was full of bricks, soil, gravel and cement ordered by Ernst, and Prince Constantine, who had miscalculated, had to ask himself.

   "Father, I want to build a school here." Ernst looked at the building in front of him with satisfaction.

   Having said that, Prince Constantine was even more confused. Isn’t it nonsense to build a school in Hexingen?

   This is not Prince Constantine’s wishful thinking. The most important thing Hechingen lacks is schools. After all, Prussia has long popularized compulsory education, and all children in Hechingen have gone to school. It's impossible for Ernst to change the origin out of thin air! So it was impossible for Ernst to run a primary school. But there is also a secondary school in Hechingen, which was established in the time of Marquis Frederick.

There are too few students in Hexingen who can go to middle school every year. Most of them will go to the society after finishing elementary school. After all, the cost of going to middle school is very expensive. They either go home to farm or ask someone to go to the city to find an apprentice job .

   There are only a hundred people who can go to middle school every year, two to three hundred people in good years, and even more than 80 people in bad years.

  So Konstantin was not sure what school Ernst would run, and asked: "As far as I know, the education market in Hechingen is saturated. You can't waste the resources in your hands for nothing!"

After getting along with each other for several years, Constantine found that his son is a person who has no profit and can't afford it early. He is more and more like a businessman. However, Ernst would never do business at a loss.

   "Father, I want to build a military academy in Hechingen to train family talents." Ernst explained to Constantine.

  Konstantin's eyelids twitched when he heard the word "military academy", and he hurriedly asked Ernst.

"What do you want to do? Military academies are required to report to the government! You don't follow the military route, so building a military academy is not superfluous. As long as you tell me in advance, it is still possible to get a half-time official in the army. .”

  Konstantin said puzzledly, "Also, even if you want to build a military academy, why don't you find a big city? Hexingen, a rural place, can someone come without the cooperation of the military?"

Knowing that Prince Constantine had misunderstood, Ernst began to describe his thoughts: "Father, you have misunderstood. I really want to establish a military academy, but this military academy has nothing to do with Prussia. It is prepared for the development of East Africa. The so-called military academy actually It's not what you think it is."

   Of course Konstantin understood, what kind of formal school is this? Isn’t this just to train a colonial team? But Constantine's doubts are even heavier.

   "Even if you develop East Africa, you don't need to train so-called talents by yourself. You just need to form a colonial team or hire a mercenary."

  Colonial forces are indispensable these days, but they are all government troops, commercial teams and mercenary organizations to do these jobs. Constantine has never heard of establishing a separate school for colonial activities, and it is still a military type.

"Father, this is related to my vision in East Africa. In the future, the area of ​​East Africa may be larger than the whole of Germany, so it is essential to prepare military personnel in advance. If we monopolize such a large area of ​​land, someone will definitely covet it. .”

   Bigger than Germany? Prince Constantine didn't dare to think anymore, his son's head won't be broken, right? So whimsical.

   Naturally, Constantine knew about Africa, but he hadn’t learned about it specifically, so Constantine took Ernst’s hand and was about to go home.

   "Go, let's go back and study."

   Soon, a world map spread out on the table in front of Constantine, and he pointed to Tanzania on the map, "Is it here?"

   "Yes, father." Ernst began to draw on the map with a pen, and soon a circle was formed on the map.

   This circle includes later Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and southern Kenya.

"This is my initial idea. Now other European countries have not paid attention to this place. I plan to use the Hechingen Consortium to bring this place under the rule of our Hohenzollern family like the British East India Company did." This is En For the first time, Sturt showed his ambition to others.

   "Different from India, it is an ancient civilization with a long history, and Axum is the only civilization in East Africa." He crossed the Ethiopian region on the map with a pen.

"Axum's sphere of influence is in the northern part of East Africa. I will not move there. The only threats to us in East Africa are the colonial teams of various countries and the Sultanate of Zanzibar." Then, Zanzibar and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique Circle it with a small circle.

   "These colonial teams are nothing to worry about. Most of them are small teams of slave hunters and ivory hunters. As long as the European countries pay attention to this place, we can use various means to clear the site in advance."

   Ernst went on to say: "The Sultanate of Zanzibar has a population of more than 100,000, and it is an Arab country, so it is not a big threat. Our first colonial team has successfully landed."

   "As for the Portuguese, they have been in decline, and their control over the colonies is not as good as before, but Mozambique is a threat, and the local colonial government still needs to be careful." Ernst said with a serious face.

  “However, the Portuguese don’t care much about the rest of East Africa, and they mainly operate along the coast, which gives me room to maneuver.”

Ernst continued: "I plan to send people first to establish many strongholds in the interior of East Africa, focusing on Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi." pictured.

   "As long as hundreds of thousands of people immigrate, this place can be completely included in the hands of our Hohenzollern family."

  Prince Constantine heard this and asked: "Where did you find such a large population? This is more than the entire population of Hechingen?"

   Ernst replied: "Here!"

  The pencil in the hand pointed to the Qing Dynasty in East Asia.

  Prince Constantine frowned and asked: "If this goal is achieved through foreign races, why should we go far away? Can't we use local indigenous people?"

"Father, this question is easy to answer. The Qing Dynasty is the most populous country in the world. Their human resources are surplus, and the people live in poverty. Every year, many people go to sea to beg for a living because of famine and war. To the native Africans, we are Invaders, they will not be willing to accept our rule, so we introduced Qing people, these Qing people can only rely on us to survive when they first arrive in a strange place."

   "Then why not import people from the German region?" Constantine asked.

"I think so too! Father, the cost of introducing population from Germany is too high. I hired the first batch of colonial teams with a lot of money, and the Qing people can work for us as long as they have a living. This is a cost issue. "

   Ernst went on to say: "Secondly, now that the American Civil War is over, most Germans will choose to develop a mature life and work in the United States. If you tell Germans to go to Africa, they may be timid when they hear about Africa."

  Affected by previous public opinion, Africa represents wild beasts and various tropical diseases in Europe, so that now Europeans only establish colonial strongholds along the coast of Africa, and dare not go deep into the inland to create opportunities for Ernst.

   "Then how do you control the Qing people? If there are too many people, there will be chaos." Constantine said.

"The current idea is to cultivate our own talents. This is also the original intention of establishing the Hexingen Military Academy. The students will be recruited from the Qing Dynasty. We will indoctrinate them with ideas and make them obey the management. In the future, we will go to Africa to assist the Germans in dividing and governing the Qing Dynasty. Immigrants, after using the Qing Dynasty to develop the land in East Africa, we can stop introducing immigrants from the Qing Dynasty, and instead attract people in Germany and Europe, and then establish a preliminary industrial system for East Africa through the Hexingen Consortium, and finally bring the local aborigines expulsion, so that we can create something like a country between Brazil and the United States."

  After hearing Ernst's idea, Prince Constantine couldn't calm down for a long time. This is a big project, but there is still room for theoretical manipulation.

  If Ernst completes it, it will be tantamount to re-establishing a country overseas for the Hohenzollern family. It is a new country that is no smaller than Germany and dominated by the Hohenzollern family. Prince Constantine was overwhelmed by such a map.

"Well, since you have your own ideas, I also support them. Apart from other things, I still have contacts and connections in the land of Germany, so you can go ahead and do it!" Constantine suppressed the excitement and calmness in his heart Said.

  …

   Jiaozhou Bay.

  German Commercial Liaison Office, this is a new liaison office with the Prussian flag, and another one in Zhuhai, but Ernst especially emphasized the establishment of one in the north, and directly selected Jiaozhou Bay.

  The German Commercial Liaison Office in Jiaozhou Bay, in addition to being responsible for the sales of the products of the Heixingen Consortium in the northern part of the Qing Dynasty, also had a special task, sending people to select 500 healthy teenagers from the north, especially the area along the Jishui River, and bring them back to Germany.

  The standard is no disease, no cultural education, and the most important one must be from a poor peasant family.

   This is the source of students selected by Ernst. In those parts of the Qing Dynasty, the clans were most likely to form a group, which was an unstable factor in the rule. Especially the clans in the south were all powerful, so Ernst did not recruit students in the south.

As for why it is by the Jishui River, it is because it was Ernst’s hometown in his previous life. In this era, there is no Mandarin, and dialects are everywhere. Ernst doesn’t want his subordinates to speak and he can’t understand. If it’s his hometown dialect, Ernst can still understand it. Probably, after all, the language in the north is much more unified than that in the south.

Ernst established the Hechingen Military Academy in person to serve as the principal, and he may also give lectures. The language must be unified, otherwise these teenagers will be embarrassed if they don’t understand what Ernst said. Give these people three years to learn German , Ernst will not need to personally supervise and manage in the future.

The Jiaozhou Bay German Business Liaison Office is also responsible for recruiting workers to East Africa and bulk commodity trading. In addition to Ernst’s own products, Ernst has reached a cooperation agreement with some businessmen in Berlin, taking this opportunity to jointly develop for Germany in the Far East. market.

  Popular products such as cigarettes and kerosene lighters have begun to be welcomed by high-ranking officials and nobles in the Far East market, and the Hexingen Consortium borrowed the cheap raw materials from the Far East and the population needed in East Africa to transport them back on Dutch ships.

  The Dutch themselves have added a lot of Far Eastern specialties, such as silk and porcelain, and tea is a staple.

  Through this voyage and trade, Ernst initially established the trade routes of three centers in Europe, East Africa, and the Far East. Although he relied on the strength of the Dutch, he also cultivated the experience of the Germans on board.

  After the opening of the Suez Canal in the future, the fleet of Venice will almost be formed. At that time, a completely German-led commercial route can be established.

  The main process of this commercial route is that Europe exports industrial products, sells them in the Far East, recruits people from the Far East to develop them in East Africa, and then transports the crops and minerals developed in East Africa back to Europe.

Of course, the Heixingen Consortium in the early stage still operated this route at a loss, because East Africa is still barren and can only produce products after the population is in place. At the same time, the Far East market has not been fully opened, and the business of the two commercial liaison offices is still limited. In coastal areas, advertising investment and personnel salaries cost money, so Ernst can only look at the profitable industries in Europe to cover his colonial activities.

However, this process may take several years. The good news is that Berlin Energy Power Company has made a major breakthrough, and Ernst’s laying hens will increase again. The funds in Te's hands are more abundant than before. Sure enough, the banking industry is the real wealth fighter and industrial incubator.

  (end of this chapter)