African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 20 The First Town (Mrandizi)

  Starting from Dar es Salaam, heading west for about 58 kilometers, you can see a brand new village here, which is the first stronghold established by the Hechingen colonial team in East Africa.

  In order to commemorate this important place, Yarman, the leader of the colonial team, named this place the first town (the later town of Mlandizi in Tanzania), which symbolizes that this is the first step in the development of the colony.

  The first town is located in the buffer zone between the East African coastal plain and the plateau. There are no mountains around it, only a few hills in the southwest, and the terrain is relatively flat and open.

  The first town is located in the coastal plain not far from the Indian Ocean, close to the border of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, affected by the warm and humid air flow near the equator, the annual precipitation of the first town is above 1300mm, and the surrounding vegetation is lush.

Due to the uneven distribution of precipitation in Africa, after a large amount of precipitation in the upper reaches of the rainy season flows into the river, it may accumulate in the lower reaches and cause floods. Therefore, the first town is located on a high ground to avoid the impact of sudden floods in the rainy season. .

There is a big river passing through the north of the first town, originating from the Uluguru mountain area, named by the head of Yarman as the Little Rhine (Lufu River), this river extends to Bagamoyo in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and enters Zanzibar Strait.

  The first town is located in the Little Rhine River Basin. The whole area has abundant rainfall, and because it is located near the equator, it has sufficient sunlight and heat, which is suitable for the growth of rice, flax, corn and other crops.

  Currently, this place is still barren, except for wild beasts everywhere, only the slave hunters of the Sultanate of Zanzibar occasionally pass by here.

  Because of the perennial slave hunting operations in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, there are basically no large-scale indigenous tribes nearby. The slave hunting team must go deep inland to gain anything, so they only stop here for a short time.

  The Hexingen colonial team dug trenches around the first town and built low fences to prevent wild beasts from sneaking in. This is a large project, so the scale of the village is not large.

  Currently, there are about 800 residents in the first town, including members of the colonial team who stayed here and Chinese immigrants who just came from afar, and more than 500 aborigines are temporarily detained here.

In February, the first batch of 700 East Asian immigrants came here by the Dutch fleet. Most of them were deceived by the name of recruiting. In fact, they may not be able to leave East Africa for the rest of their lives before returning to their hometowns. .

  Hechingen's employment contract lasted for twenty years, and he didn't even need to think about it. He could only work for the Hohenzollern family for a lifetime. After all, the people who came here were all adults. In this era where the average life expectancy is not long, twenty years basically declares that most of the life will be spent here.

  However, with the development of East Africa in the future, even if Ernst sent someone to ask them to leave East Africa, they might not want to return to their distant and disaster-ridden hometown.

  After docking at the port of Dar es Salaam, the immigrants were kicked off the ship by the staff, and the port personnel who had been prepared for a long time carried out disinfection work on these immigrants.

  In the temporary huts, every group of 50 people stripped off their clothes and cleaned them with water and soap from a wooden bucket. In hot weather, there is no need to worry about catching cold.

  Put on uniform German costumes (mostly second-hand Prussian military uniforms bought by Ernst), and start cutting hair and shaving.

   Cutting off the braids caused a small-scale panic. After all, it has been suppressed for nearly a hundred years, and there is still fear in my heart. But when you come here, it's not what you say, even if you don't want to, you have to accept it honestly.

  After the cleaning work was completed, these people were sent to the first town to carry out reclamation work. It took the colonial team a month to clear up the surrounding beasts, and the surrounding five or six kilometers were all safe areas.

  Because it is close to Zanzibar, there are not many indigenous tribes nearby, only a few small-scale villages, most of which were driven away under the physical threat of the colonial team, and a few disobedients were directly captured as free labor.

As for why they didn't catch them all, but chose to drive away, it was because there were too few people. Every member of the colonial team is currently a valuable asset, and it is not worthwhile to use tough methods with these tribes, but those who are unwilling to leave their land are still natives. was established as a model.

Now they are digging ditches and building roads in the prisoner-of-war camp in the first town. They were used to complete the village ditches a few days ago. At present, more than 500 people are building the first road from the first town to the port of Dar es Salaam. gravel road.

  In the early days, these natives were still substitutes for livestock and machines, and they were the source of power for the colony. There were dozens of miles of land around the first town waiting for them to act as animal power.

  The land in Tanzania is flat and open, and these immigrants did not feel uncomfortable when they came here, because the first batch of immigrants basically came from the north of the Qing Dynasty, which is also an open plain.

  Although the weather is hotter, it is better than cold. As for the strong ultraviolet rays in Africa, it is nothing to these farmers who face the loess all year round.

  What is the first problem new immigrants encounter? Even Ernst didn't expect, or forgot to explain, that the climate in East Africa near the coast is more humid and hot, which is more suitable for growing rice.

  However, most of these immigrants are from the north and have no experience in rice cultivation, and Ernst did not prepare rice seeds.

   It’s not that wheat cannot be grown. Wheat can be grown in tropical areas, but the yield is not high. Tropical wheat is suitable for planting in plateau areas, but the first town is located in the plains along the coast of East Africa.

  For example, in India, the Deccan Plateau is mainly planted with wheat, and the Ganges is mainly planted with rice. India’s annual wheat production is no less than that of rice.

  In this case, we will use wheat instead of rice planting for the time being, but no longer pursue output, just plant some rations, and switch to cash crops in other areas.

  Sisal is the key development crop of the Hechingen colonial team. Later generations, Tanzania, located in the tropics, is a world-renowned sisal producer. Sisal fiber has strong toughness and is not afraid of seawater erosion. It is the first-class raw material for manufacturing ship cables, sacks, and carpets.

The current era is still the era of wooden hulled boats. The good characteristics of sisal and the huge market make the economic value of this crop is on the rise. Compared with food, Ernst can say without exaggeration how much How much to charge.

After all, the development of the grain market is a long process. The largest number of people in the world is still farmers, and the largest industry is agriculture. Every country has its own grain industry. The intensity of market competition can be imagined, and all staple grains are sold with small profits. Profit cannot be made quickly, which is why there are so many plantations in the United States.

   But sisal, which is in short supply, is different. Basically, it can be widely planted only in tropical areas, and it requires high precipitation. After all, not all tropical areas are places with abundant rain, and there are also climates like tropical deserts.

Tropical rain forests are also not suitable for sisal planting. It’s not that the climate conditions of tropical rain forests are not good, but that it is difficult to develop. As far as the land is concerned, there are too many trees in tropical rain forests, so it is more difficult to cut them down. does not stand out.

  Tanzania is different. In addition to superior climate conditions, it has a vast land area, especially the arable land area.

   According to statistics from later generations, the arable land area of ​​Tanzania may reach 600 million mu, accounting for more than 40% of the country's land area, and can feed 400 million people.

  Ernst didn't know how the data came from, but his personal experience in his previous life told him that East Africa is indeed suitable for agriculture.

  The East African Plateau is a vast area. Although it is a plateau, Ernst, who grew up in the North China Plain, feels that East Africa and North China are very similar, that is, the altitude of East Africa is a bit higher. Otherwise, in Ernst’s eyes, there is basically no other difference from the plains.

  The most unique feature of the East African Plateau is that it does not form a shield like that of Brazil along the coast, the coastal plain and the plateau transition slowly, and the economic hinterland has superior conditions.

  So the population distribution of Tanzania in later generations is very even, unlike the population of Brazil, which is all crowded in the southeast corner of the Brazilian plateau.

  The main body of Tanzania is on the East African plateau. The domestic terrain is undulating and stable, basically on the same plane. The mountains are distributed in the East African Rift Valley on the border, such as Kilimanjaro. The towering mountains that suddenly appear on the flat land are quite spectacular.

   This is also Ernst's puzzling doubt, because Kilimanjaro and the African grasslands are clearly separated, unlike other areas where there is a buffer between mountains and plains.

  In any case, Ernst believes that the natural conditions in East Africa are superior, and the only thing that restricts land development is water resources. This is where the agricultural dilemma in Tanzania in his previous life lies.

   Lack of water conservancy facilities and reservoirs for water storage. In the rainy season, a large amount of precipitation flows into the Indian Ocean along the river in vain and has not been effectively utilized.

  So in the future, solving the problem of water diversion and water storage in the East African colonies will solve the biggest constraint on East African agricultural development.

  (end of this chapter)