African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1183 Sahara Railway

Speaking of Du Ping's company, it is quite well-known in Mombasa. Its main business is to transport agricultural products from the Great Lakes region to Mombasa and then export them overseas.

However, compared with several state-owned grain trading giants in East Africa, Du Ping's small company has limited power after all. So far, Du Ping's grain trading company can only accept orders from some small and poor countries in the Middle East or Europe.

Among them, several countries on the Italian peninsula are the most important business areas for Dupin's company. In addition to Teka, Dupin also knows many Italian businessmen and has business dealings with them.

Today, the Italian Peninsula is a relatively explosive region in Europe. Among the three countries on the peninsula, the Kingdom of Italy, which has the best economic situation, can only barely achieve self-sufficiency in food, and this is even with the support of the Red Sea colonies.

The situation in the Papal States and Naples is even worse. Naples has become one of the areas with the most serious population outflow in Europe, making an important contribution to the immigration cause of the Americas and East African countries.

……

Small businessmen like Dupin are aware of the risks of trade between East Africa and Europe today, and the East African government is no exception.

1915 6 Month 29 Day.

The East African government held another meeting specifically for this matter.

"Just in May this year, several of our ships were illegally intercepted by British warships. This was the result of our arranging warships to escort in the Atlantic."

"As for the Suez Canal, the British have also tightened their inspections on our merchant ships. It's obvious that the British are deliberately obstructing our trade activities with our allies." John Lear, Minister of Commerce for East Africa, said worriedly.

In comparison, the situation in the direction of Gibraltar is much better. After all, there is Spain in the direction of Gibraltar. Although the Port of Gibraltar is in the hands of the British, the Strait of Gibraltar is not like the Suez Canal, which is a waterway that is completely controlled by the United Kingdom.

Merkel also said: "It seems that our trade in the Mediterranean is very passive now. There are only two sea trade routes between East Africa and Mediterranean countries, one is the Suez Canal and the other is the Strait of Gibraltar, both of which are under British surveillance."

“So in order to expand the safety of our trade routes, is it necessary to use land transportation in North Africa, learn from Germany’s experience in building the Baghdad Railway, and build several railways across the Sahara Desert, directly going out to the sea from the southern coast of the Mediterranean?”

Merkel's bold idea has indeed caused controversy among many people. As the world's largest desert, building a railway through the Sahara Desert would definitely be an incredible project.

In fact, the idea of ​​building a railway in the Sahara has been discussed in East Africa before, but this is the first time it has been discussed at a high-level meeting.

Siwei Te shook his head and said: "It is more difficult than one can imagine to build a railway in the Sahara Desert, and the cost is definitely unacceptable."

"There are not many people in the entire Sahara Desert, and the desert terrain will inevitably increase the difficulty of choosing the route for this railway. I am afraid that the cost of building this railway will not be recovered even in a hundred years."

Whether a railway can be profitable has a lot to do with the economic conditions along the line. Most areas of the Sahara Desert are uninhabited and barren lands with no economic value at all. After all, there are no people, let alone creating economic value.

Ernst did not express his opinion directly, but asked Minister Andre of the Ministry of Railways: "If we build this railway, will it be possible? Will there be any technical problems that cannot be solved?"

Minister Andre shook his head and said, "There should be some difficulty, but it is not the decisive factor. After all, we have a lot of experience in railway construction in Somalia and Southwest Africa, and the terrain conditions in Southwest Africa are much more complicated than the Sahara Desert. Not only is it a desert, the terrain there is more complicated, with many mountains and canyons."

"But we have built a lot of railways in Southwest Africa, so theoretically there are no technical problems in building the Sahara Railway." "However, as Duke Sweet said, the cost of building the Sahara Railway is too high. I think it is not worth it."

"After all, the Sahara Desert is not our territory. Our railway construction in Southwest Africa is related to people's livelihood, national defense, economy and other aspects. For other countries in the Sahara Desert, we will definitely only consider the economic value."

The railway in Southwest Africa is a national defense and livelihood project with far higher value than economic value. Moreover, Southwest Africa has abundant mineral resources, so the construction of the railway in Southwest Africa is a must for the East African government.

But the Sahara Desert is different. In fact, Andre's words are not rigorous. The Sahara Desert still has some relationship with East Africa. For example, the city of Gezira in East Africa is also part of the Sahara Desert. Therefore, East Africa not only has a lot of land in the Sahara Desert.

Of course, as the world's largest desert, the Sahara Desert territory occupied by East Africa is just some marginal scraps, which is completely insignificant compared with the main body of the Sahara Desert.

Merkel said: "It may not be completely without value. This is mainly related to the route selection. For example, if we choose Egypt as the Sahara Railway route, we can connect Egypt and East Africa."

"Imagine that starting from Gezira and all the way to Alexandria in the north, this line can go directly along the Nile River and connect all of Egypt's core territory. In this way, we can strengthen our influence on Egypt's hinterland economy through this railway."

"After all, Egypt's economy is still quite large. If we choose the eastern route, it will not be completely unprofitable for us, and we can also make further progress in geostrategic terms."

Merkel's argument was very convincing, but Softt immediately poured cold water on it: "This plan is totally unfeasible. Let alone the trade between East Africa and Egypt, it is impossible to compete with the Red Sea route by land. The advantages of sea transportation are too great."

"What's more, Egypt is the British sphere of influence. Under this premise, it is impossible for us to build this railway at this stage."

Egypt would certainly be interested in building this railway, but Egypt is not a sovereign state but a semi-colony of Britain. Apart from other things, at this stage Britain's control over Sudan is far higher than that of the Egyptian government. After all, Sudan was conquered by the British.

Andre also interjected, "The Red Sea route and the Sahara Railway that Minister Merkel mentioned can be said to be parallel routes, and the two are too close and the competition is too fierce. If there were no Red Sea, our construction of this railway would definitely be of great use, but the existence of the Red Sea makes it impossible for us to do such a thankless task, unless..."

Unless East Africa wants to plot against Egypt, although Andre did not finish his words, most people have already guessed it.

After all, if a railway running through Egypt's core area is controlled by East Africa, it basically means that Egypt will completely become an economic vassal of East Africa.

Of course, East Africa certainly does not have this idea now, mainly because it does not want to fall out with Britain. As for Egypt, East Africa has always taken a slow approach.

However, Sweet believed that this railway could be used to "seduce" the Egyptian government, thereby indirectly putting pressure on Britain to make some concessions on the Suez Canal.

After all, losing Egypt means losing the Suez Canal. If East Africa builds a railway in Egypt, all aspects of Egypt's economy will be affected by East Africa, thus threatening Britain's control over Egypt.

This is definitely not what the British want to see, so even if East Africa only wants to build this railway verbally, Britain will strongly oppose it. After all, Egypt is too important to Britain.

So Ernst said to the ministers: "We can use the Egyptian railway as a cover to make Britain correct its attitude on the Red Sea route, so we should contact the Egyptian government first and publicize this plan. I think Britain will definitely make concessions to us."

(End of this chapter)