African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1150 Rhodes Company

Buenos Aires.

Rhodes, the boss of Rhodes Company, is calculating the recent income, and judging from his grinning mouth, the company's business is still very prosperous this month.

Rhodes was a British immigrant with the same name as the owner of the De Beers mining company in South Africa, but the two chose different paths.

Although more than half of its area was cut off by East Africa, South Africa's mining industry still has great potential. It's just that the De Beers Mining Company could not develop into the behemoth it was in the past, and the birth of the Rhodesian colony in the previous life was even more impossible.

Rhodes from Argentina was also born in the UK, but in Argentina, it is obviously more promising to develop animal husbandry.

Of course, as a British, Rhodes did not choose to be a farmer. Instead, he relied on his identity and connections in his British family to start trade between Argentina and Britain.

After Rhodes put down the bill, he said to the secretary, "Very good, this month's revenue has increased by another 8%. I really hope that this war will not end too soon, so that we can make more money."

Secretary Boll was not so optimistic. He reminded: "Boss, the demand for supplies in Europe is skyrocketing. There is a shortage of food, not to mention the livestock industry. We can export more beef to Europe during this period. However, we are also in trouble. Many farmers have taken the opportunity to raise prices, so our purchase price has also increased a lot. In addition, due to the shortage of transportation capacity, the freight has also increased a lot."

If everyone raises prices, the profits will naturally be diluted. What's more, Argentina is just a small country that can only make a living, so Argentina certainly doesn't earn as much as in the past.

This is easy to understand. In the previous life, most of the benefits of World War I were taken by the United States, and now because of the existence of East Africa, it is more difficult for other countries to get a piece of the pie.

This is especially true for a country like Argentina with a relatively single industry. In the past, Argentina's main competitor was the United States, because the United States itself is the largest food and agricultural producer outside of Europe. Even though Argentina's land is fertile, its land area is ultimately limited.

What's even more outrageous now is the addition of East Africa. Although East African agriculture was not very impressive in the early days, after decades of development, East Africa has now become one of the few major agricultural countries in the world.

Although the water and soil conditions in East Africa are worse than those in the United States and Argentina, through soil improvement, agricultural technology enhancement, and perfect water conservancy project construction, East Africa's agricultural development level has reached the first echelon in the world.

There are only two countries in the first echelon, Germany and East Africa. Germany has a leading advantage in agricultural technologies such as fertilizers and pesticides, while East Africa ranks first in the world in terms of agricultural mechanization.

The fact that East Africa has the highest level of agricultural mechanization in the world is quite terrifying. After all, the land area of ​​East Africa is as high as more than 10 million square kilometers, and its arable land area ranks first in the world.

The arable land area in East Africa has exceeded that of the United States. The reason for this situation is very simple. That is, East Africa has a larger population than the United States. To support more people, more land must be developed.

Although the land quality in East Africa is not as fertile as the Ukrainian plains in Russia, the black soil region in central United States, and Argentina, it is much better than that in Germany. Without artificial improvement, northern Germany is actually not suitable for traditional agricultural development.

The northern part of Germany has a temperate maritime climate and was only suitable for animal husbandry in the past. The moraine plains made the land barren. On the contrary, although southern Germany is mainly hilly and highland, it is indeed the main wheat producing area in Germany. Of course, this was the situation in the past. Through the development in the past few hundred years, northern Germany has obviously become a region with very developed agriculture.

In fact, agriculture can be developed in most regions as long as the two problems of water, light and heat can be solved.

For East Africa, the most important thing for agriculture is to solve the water problem. However, this problem was solved as early as the last century by East Africa through large-scale water conservancy construction. Any further efforts will only be icing on the cake.

Back to Rhodes Company. Rhodes replied to Boll: "Nowadays, the only countries that dare to do business directly with Germany and Austria-Hungary are the United States and East Africa. After all, Argentina is too weak and is afraid to take any action. It's a pity!"

Under the blockade of Britain and France, countries like Argentina would certainly not be as tough as the United States and East Africa when trading with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

As two world powers outside Europe, the United States and East Africa were not afraid of being settled later by Britain and France, but other countries were not like that, including Japan, which was also a great power.

Japan is located too far away from Europe. If Japan dares to learn from the United States and East Africa and openly interact with the Allies, Britain and France will not give it a good face. Even if the Japanese navy is strong, it will be of no avail.

The Japanese Navy now has a total tonnage of more than 700,000 tons. This level is only slightly lower than that of Germany and France in Europe. However, Japan has no ability to deploy its navy to the Atlantic region. After all, Japan does not want to repeat Russia's mistakes.

Boll said: "There is no comparison between Argentina and the United States, two powerful countries in East Africa. Although we have the foundation to become a world power, Argentina's population shortcoming is too obvious. Looking at the world today, it is difficult for a country without a population of 40 million to become a world power."

The standard mentioned by Boll was formulated with reference to France, whose population barely reached 40 million, making it a relatively small country among the great powers.

Although Spain has a smaller population, it has completely replaced Japan and become the goalkeeper of the great powers. In fact, Spain's comprehensive national strength may not even be considered a great power. It is a relatively controversial country, but controversy is always better than no controversy. It only takes another event similar to the Spanish-American War, and Spain may completely fall out of its status as a world power.

On the contrary, it was Japan that completely established itself as a great power in just a few years after the Russo-Japanese War. Although Japan may not be as good as Spain in the economic field, its military strength is far superior to that of Spain.

Moreover, Spain's economy was not necessarily much better than Japan's. After losing most of its overseas colonies, Spain had almost no way out. On the other hand, Japan still had Korea as a colony and occupied an important position in the Far East trade, almost monopolizing most of the business in the northeast region of the Far East Empire.

Japan's native population is as high as 50 million, ranking fourth in Europe, only after the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Once the population exceeds 50 million, it is almost considered a great power.

In contrast, Argentina, with a population of only eight million, is unlikely to cause much trouble. Even compared with a small country like Belgium, it is somewhat inadequate.

As a British, Rhodes actually doesn't have much affection for Argentina, but now his own interests are closely related to Argentina, so he can't help but complain.

If Argentina really becomes a world power, this is not what Rhodes wants. Argentina has a land area of ​​nearly three million square kilometers, which is the foundation of a real great power. Now there is a big gap between its population and industry and other powers.

Rhodes said to Boll: "In short, our most important task now is to get more orders and make money first. With money, Argentina or not has nothing to do with us."

This is actually what most Argentines think. Argentina is just an immigrant country, and many immigrants have only arrived in Argentina in recent years, so it is impossible for them to have too much affection for Argentina.

This is different from East Africa. In the early days, East Africa specifically selected poor people as immigrants and was good at using the national propaganda machine. In this way, East Africa gave a very positive image to its immigrants.

Now that the native population of East Africa has reached the third and fourth generations, their feelings for East Africa are even deeper. However, with the capabilities of the Argentine government, it is simply impossible to achieve this level in East Africa.

(End of this chapter)