African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1028 Economic Conditions in 1904

A planned economy is like a game of passing levels. If you pass the levels, you will feel happy. Similarly, an overly radical plan will drag East Africa into an irretrievable situation. Just like now, it is a bit unrealistic for East Africa to catch up with Germany and surpass the United States. However, for an old country like the United Kingdom, if East Africa works hard, it is no longer a fantasy to catch up with the United Kingdom in the industrial field.

As the world hegemon, Britain is theoretically stronger than the United States and Germany. In the economic field, Britain is indeed above Germany, but the financial industry occupies a large share. However, in terms of industry, Britain is no match for the United States and Germany. Therefore, from an industrial perspective, it is not difficult for East Africa to surpass Britain.

"By 1904, my country's annual cement production had exceeded million tons, nearly double the amount before the First Five-Year Plan. This had a huge impact on my country's construction, transportation, water conservancy and other aspects."

The doubling of cement production was also a major highlight during East Africa's First Five-Year Plan. Don't underestimate East Africa's 3 million tons of cement production capacity. When India gained independence, the country's annual cement production was just over 2 million tons, and that was in the late 1940s.

This also reflects the madness of infrastructure construction in East Africa in the early years of the 20th century. Although the scale of infrastructure construction in East Africa in the s, s and s was not small, most projects did not use it, or the cement production could not keep up with the demand of the projects.

Therefore, East Africa's previous infrastructure reflected such a result in various fields. There were a large number of rammed earth, stone or wooden buildings in towns and villages, and the roads were mainly gravel roads. This was reflected in water conservancy construction, where cement materials were rarely used in the repair of natural river channels.

The accelerated development of East Africa's cement industry also began in the 1990s, and the strong demand for cities, transportation, and water conservancy during the First Five-Year Plan further catalyzed the development of East Africa's cement industry.

Similarly, the growth rate of basic construction materials such as sand, gravel, and wood is also extremely alarming, but these materials are difficult to count manually. However, what is visible to the naked eye is the increase in sand and gravel mining plants in East Africa and the rapid shrinkage of forest area.

Of course, the shrinking forest area is also related to the development of cities and agriculture in East Africa. Urban construction requires a large amount of land, and agricultural reclamation is the biggest expense. Compared with the timber needed for production in East Africa, the former two are more destructive.

Of course, Ernst did not react to the sharp decline in forest coverage in East Africa. This was the inevitable sacrifice of early development. Moreover, due to East Africa's short development history, the consequences of environmental degradation are far from appearing on a large scale. We will deal with it when signs appear.

According to Ernst's idea, at least in the first two five-year plans, East Africa does not need to consider the environment too much. Moreover, the East African government has already done a lot of work within its capacity in the field of environmental protection and is at the forefront of all countries in the world. Therefore, the impact of East African industrial production on the environment is controllable in a short period of time.

"In the past, my country's cement production was mainly used to supply important transportation, cities and the defense industry. Now, cement production can be spilled over to other areas, and there is great room for improvement. According to the First Five-Year Plan, by the end of 1905, my country's annual cement production should reach more than million tons."

"The rapid growth in the output of basic building materials such as steel and cement also means that my country's infrastructure construction has entered a new stage. Many infrastructure projects in the past may face the problem of renewal due to the advancement of materials, such as roads, canals, river embankments, urban housing renewal, etc."

In this regard, Ernst could only express his condolences to the black slaves in East Africa. With the development of the times, the infrastructure construction work in East Africa not only did not stop due to the completion of various large-scale projects, but intensified.

Up to now, East Africa still controls a large number of free laborers, and the total number is still at least over 10 million. In addition to black slaves in the West, East Africa also obtains some labor from Madagascar and South Africa.

The issue of black slave labor was also one of the important reasons why East Africa was unwilling to open its doors. At that time, among the countries in the world where slavery was still the mainstream, especially among the major powers, East Africa was the only one.

Although colonial powers such as Britain and France had a large number of de facto slaves in their colonies, at least they would not continue this backward system in their homelands like in East Africa.

In this situation, if East Africa does not learn from North Korea's closed borders, it may be criticized by the international community. In addition, East Africa's political and economic system is very different from the current international mainstream. In other words, East Africa does not export culture and politics to the outside world, otherwise it would have been united and besieged by other major powers in the world. After all, the game system is different. In the eyes of European and American countries, everyone is not the same. Fortunately, East Africa's geographical location is relatively remote, separated from Europe by the Mediterranean and the Sahara Desert. East Africa also honestly stays in its own land and does not cause trouble, otherwise other countries may really cause trouble for East Africa.

This is not an original sin in ideology, but an original sin in the rules of the game. Although East Africa is not a country with an advanced system, its model is prone to arouse hatred.

For example, after the changes in France's political system, it was easy for people in neighboring countries to follow suit, and the traditional interest groups in other countries naturally felt extremely disgusted with Napoleon.

If East Africa was a European country, Ernst would never have taken this non-mainstream and distinctive path. After all, Ernst never believed that East Africa could be as resilient as the Soviet Union, unless the monarchy in East Africa was abolished, which might be possible. However, the Rhine royal family would definitely not do that.

While Ernst was thinking, the Ministry of Industry also conducted an overall analysis report on other industry data. In 1904, all industries in East Africa showed a vibrant scene.

In the field of heavy industry, compared with other countries, East Africa has almost made up for most of its shortcomings, and both the output and quality of heavy industrial products have reached the level of world powers.

The advantages of emerging industries such as electricity, oil and automobiles have been further consolidated, and the development of the chemical industry has also made great progress, realizing the creation of many key chemical industries from scratch.

The heavy industry system has been basically perfected, but there is still a certain gap in per capita share compared with other industrial countries. Simply put, East Africa can produce most heavy industrial products by itself, but there is still room for improvement in overall output.

In the field of light industry, East Africa's development is still average, but the development of industries such as textiles and medical care is relatively prominent. However, the overall gap between light industry and other countries is large, and handicraft products still account for a large proportion of light industry.

In terms of agriculture, in the past few years, the growth rate of agriculture in East Africa has remained the same as in previous years, but the degree of mechanization has been further improved, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers has also made great progress, which has further increased the per-acre grain yield in East Africa.

In 1904, East Africa's agricultural product exports hit a new high, with cash crop exports occupying an absolute advantage, and tea, rubber, spices, fruits and vegetables all showing significant increases.

In contrast, the proportion of East Africa's food exports has further declined. Not only that, East Africa has also imported some high-quality food and meat products from other countries.

This does not mean that East Africa's grain production has declined. In fact, East Africa's grain production has been increasing from the colonial era to the present. Apart from other things, in order to cope with the pressure of population growth, East Africa cannot relax in its grain planting industry.

The main reason for the decline in the proportion of food exports is the increase in the proportion of cash crop exports. On the premise of maintaining their own food security, East African governments have begun to focus on the development of cash crop planting in the agricultural field.

Moreover, international grain prices have remained basically low since the 1970s, and the quality of East African wheat cannot be compared with that of major grain-growing countries such as Russia, the United States, and Argentina, which have geographical advantages.

In addition, during the First Five-Year Plan period, the proportion of rice cultivation in East Africa among the country's two main food crops increased significantly. The improvement of water conservancy facilities has enabled more areas in East Africa to meet the conditions for rice cultivation. In addition, rice has a higher yield than wheat, so the food structure in East Africa is quietly changing.

(End of this chapter)