African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1289: Eastern-French Relations Depend on Britain

Faced with Ambassador Thomson's pointed gesture of goodwill, Freer easily understood the other meaning behind Ambassador Thomson's words.

That is, after the war, France and East Africa reached a tacit understanding to jointly deal with the pressure from Britain and the United States. After all, Britain and the United States are both Anglo-Saxon countries, and the two countries have broad room for cooperation.

Britain is still the world hegemon, owning fertile and large colonies such as India, Canada, Australia, etc., and holds the world's financial hegemony, with hundreds of years of accumulated technology and experience. The United States has a strong industrial base and just lacks Britain's raw materials, markets and technology.

In this situation, France naturally has to be wary of the British. After all, Britain and France have been enemies for hundreds of years, but their attention has only been diverted by the Germans in recent years.

Looking at the major powers other than the Allies, Russia's future is currently uncertain, Spain's role is limited, and the United States and Japan are relatively close to Britain.

France is also worried about being isolated in the future, so it needs to find suitable partners to stabilize France's international status and voice after the war.

Of course, all of this is based on the premise that France is a victorious country. If France had failed in World War I, these issues would not have needed to be considered by Thomson and other French senior officials.

Following Thomson's words, Freer also began to think about the possibility of cooperation between East Africa and the French.

In fact, apart from the fact that East Africa is a German country, East Africa and France do have a very good basis for cooperation.

Although France has always been suppressed by the British, it is second only to the UK in all aspects. For example, in the financial field, apart from the UK, France is the strongest.

Before World War I, France was known as "usurious imperialism". The French, who held a huge amount of wealth, invested heavily all over the world, on a scale second only to that of Britain.

France's largest investors are Russia and East Africa. Before the war broke out, East Africa received far more loans from France than from any other country.

This situation is mainly due to the national conditions of France and East Africa.

French industrial capital was relatively backward among the great powers, especially after the northeastern industrial areas of Lorraine and Alsace were taken away by Germany, which further promoted the development of French financial capital.

After all, the cost of investing in local industry is too high, and France's fertility rate has remained at a low level. In addition, the living standards of the French people are higher than those of other countries. At this time, the number of workers in France has long lagged behind other powerful countries.

Since modern times, France has been a powerful country in Europe second only to the United Kingdom and has accumulated a large amount of social wealth. In the context of poor investment conditions at home, investing overseas has naturally become the first choice for French capital.

Moreover, unlike Britain which was keen on productive investment, France was keen on issuing public debt to other countries, many of which were usurious. Most of the loans France issued to Russia were of this type.

Although such loans are difficult to repay, Russia, as a weak link in imperialism, obviously has no better choice, so the two countries are like Zhou Yu fighting Huang Gai, one willing to fight and the other willing to be beaten.

In addition to Russia, there are many other countries that borrowed such loans from France, which is also the origin of the name "usurious imperialism".

The interest rates on France's loans to East Africa are relatively much lower than those on France's loans to Russia and other countries.

Because when East Africa borrowed money on a large scale, its industrial scale was already quite considerable and its economy had been on an upward trend, so East Africa had bargaining power.

Although lending to East Africa would not bring as much return as other countries, the promise made by the East African government was too big. With a debt market of billions of Rhine guilders, no country could resist being tempted.

Moreover, East Africa's international credit has always been good. Unlike Russia, East Africa does not have a record of default. Due to various reasons, East Africa received a large amount of investment from France at that time.

Although most of East Africa's debts to France have been repaid, this does not mean that the transaction between the two countries has ended. After all, through the export of industrial products and war materials, the French businessmen who invested in East Africa and the French government have indeed gained a lot of benefits. If France wins the war in the future, France will definitely be able to gain a lot of benefits, and East Africa, a country that has already had a cooperative experience, will definitely become a hot spot for French financial investment again.

This is similar to the British's past enthusiasm for investing in American industry.

Furthermore, as the second largest empire in European history for a long time after Britain, France has a strong influence in the world second only to Britain.

France and its colonies were also one of the world's largest suppliers and markets for raw materials, both of which East Africa currently lacked.

Although the development of French industry has not been satisfactory in recent years, they have international connections and channels second only to those of the United Kingdom, such as the typical industry of luxury goods.

France has long been a benchmark for world luxury goods. Through cultural exports and packaging, France has a profound influence in the field of high-end goods and artworks.

This is obviously what East Africa lacks. Even though East Africa played an important role in the Second Industrial Revolution, East African industrial products, especially consumer products, lack historical heritage and cultural support.

If East Africa wants to get involved in high-end consumer goods or cultural products, using French channels is a good choice.

In addition, although France has not made much industrial progress among the great powers, it has profound advantages in technology and academia and has always been one of the academic exchange centers in Europe.

For example, the Curies, one of the pioneers in the study of radioactive materials, show that France is still forward-looking and has a deep accumulation in the academic and scientific research fields.

France also has technological advantages in traditional fields, and East Africa also has urgent needs. East Africa basically missed the first industrial revolution, so it has shortcomings in machine tools, basic physics, chemistry, steam engine technology, mathematics and many other aspects.

These, in turn, happen to be the advantages of developed countries like France. It is impossible for East Africa to surpass these countries with centuries of accumulation and experience in all aspects through just a few decades of efforts.

With this in mind, Freer became more interested in the cooperation that Thomson mentioned, and he didn't mind giving the French a good deal.

Freer said: "We in East Africa are certainly happy to cooperate with France in international affairs in the future and work together for world peace. We also hope to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the fields of economy, culture, scientific research and technology, colonies, etc."

“As Ambassador Thomson said, there is a lot of room for cooperation between the two countries, especially in the face of Anglo-Saxon hegemony. We in East Africa respect your interests.”

The friendly relations between East Africa and France are all due to the suppression of Britain. After all, the two countries have similar emotions and historical origins when facing Britain.

The French and the British were once sworn enemies, but now they have to stand together to deal with the threat from Germany. East Africans also fought with the British over Southern Africa in the past, and relations have eased in recent years.

But in the final analysis, East Africa and France still have more resentment and vigilance towards Britain, so dragging down the British was the catalyst for the rapid rapprochement between East Africa and France.

Although Ambassador Thomson did not obtain a commitment from the East African government, hearing these words from Freer was still a good gain. This at least showed that there was still room for cooperation between East Africa and France.

After all, if even East African high-level officials like Freer showed indifference or disgust towards France's attitude, then France would be in real danger.

Now that Freer can communicate with him in a friendly manner, this to a certain extent shows that East Africa is unlikely to join the war for the time being, and naturally will not join the Allied camp.

Therefore, in order to continue to win over East Africa and keep it from standing idly by during the war, Ambassador Thomson decided to give East Africa some practical "benefits" first.

(End of this chapter)