African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 145 Tobacco Factory
While the Zanzibar businessmen are taking people and goods from East Africa, the Hexingen consortium is also working hard to save the cost of commodity production so as to obtain greater profits.

At the same time, it is also to ensure the safe and smooth flow of raw material channels. Before the establishment of the East African colony, tobacco cultivation in the world was basically monopolized by those overseas colonial countries. The East African colony can just solve this problem.

Of course, the Heixingen Consortium has not encountered the dilemma of being stuck. In the current world, all powers coexist, and no country can be the champion.

When purchasing tobacco, the Heixingen consortium can even shop around and choose the products they are satisfied with.

Especially after the development of the East African colony, in the past two years, the tobacco planting area has become wider and wider, and the Hexingen Consortium is even less worried.

The cost of tobacco cultivation in the colonies is very low. In the end, it only needs to be pulled back to Europe by boat, and the settlement can be solved easily when the immigrant boat returns.

Of course, Ernst himself doesn't know how many kinds of industrial products the Hechingen Consortium has. Basically, he has been involved in products that are closely related to the lives of Germans.

The raw materials required by so many products are also destined to be diverse and in huge demand.

Fortunately, the industrial scale of this era cannot be compared with that of Ernst's previous life at all, and the consumption power of the people is also completely incomparable, so many raw materials can be provided only by Europe.

Coal in the Ruhr area is a classic example, providing abundant and cheap energy for the rise of German industry in the future. Coal is one of the important indicators of the first industrial revolution.

The East African colonies are shouldering the heavy responsibility of raw material supply, but what East Africa currently imports most to Germany is not minerals, but timber and some special products.

When the immigrant ship returned, it brought a large amount of wood and agricultural products back, so naturally it did not attract much attention.

Some of these woods were left by the Heixingen Consortium for their own use, and they were used to make handles for razors and other utensils, or some furniture. impossible.

Although I can't make a lot of money by selling wood myself, I saved a lot of money for buying wood. Let's talk about production cuts.

This is the colonial era, the whole world is the back garden of Europe and the United States, and wood is basically found everywhere except deserts and ice fields. How dare you say that production is reduced?

However, when the Heixingen Consortium itself became a timber supplier, how much they scolded those profiteers in the past, they slapped them in the face now, and finally lived a life that they hated.

And the characteristic agricultural products of East Africa are the most profitable commodities in East Africa, such as cloves, sisal, and various special fruits and vegetables...

1868 8 Month 11 Day.

Mbeya.

Today is sunny and breezy, and workers are building a new building downtown.

Under the guidance of German engineers, the engineering team formed by the immigrants completed the task meticulously.

At present, East Africa already has a team of professional construction workers. They are fighting in every construction site in East Africa. They are indispensable for roads, bridges and special-purpose buildings. Construction workers are also the main force of the current East African worker group.

The new building in downtown Mbeya is obviously a European-style factory building, and the reserved vents and chimneys indicate that equipment driven by steam engines will be installed here.

According to the time, the machine should have landed now, and within a month, it will be delivered, assembled and put into production.As long as the machinery is in place, this factory will be the first industrial cigarette factory in East Africa.

When the East African colony was first established, it had a clear goal to provide raw materials for the Hexingen Consortium.

The tobacco industry, as a profiteering industry in the hands of the Hexingen consortium, naturally attracted Ernst's attention. At that time, the purpose of opening up the East African colony was to supply raw materials for the Hexingen Tobacco Company.

When the first town was opened in the East African colony, the colony tried to grow tobacco, and then gradually expanded inland.

Many places in the East African colonies are suitable for tobacco cultivation, especially those around lakes, among which the coast of Lake Malawi is an important production area.

And Mbeya is the capital of the Upper Lake Malawi region, and the northern part of Lake Malawi is under the jurisdiction of Mbeya, so Mbeya is very close to the tobacco growing area.

Compared with harvesting and processing the tobacco, bringing it back to Germany, and then selling it after processing, it is definitely not as cheap as getting the product in place in East Africa in one step and then selling it to the outside world.

The transportation price of tobacco and finished cigarettes is placed there. The volume of tobacco of the same weight is much larger than that of finished products. The more you pull, the more you will lose.

Mbeya, as one of the tobacco growing areas, is rich in raw materials and has sufficient coal resources, which can provide a steady stream of power for factory production.

It is also very simple to transport the finished product. Cigarettes are a profiteering product, and the weight of a truck is only so small, which is not enough. You must know that Mbeya is going to transport coal samples to the East African colonies, so transportation is not even a problem. question.

Moreover, after cigarettes are produced locally in East Africa, they can be directly supplied to local immigrants in East Africa, blowing up the meager wages of many people.

At the same time, it can directly supply Zanzibar and Arab merchants, take the opportunity to expand the market around the Indian Ocean, and start the reputation of Hexingen tobacco.

It is an irresistible temptation for any businessman to open up markets around the Indian Ocean, or even the Southeast Asian market.

In the colonies, labor is much cheaper than in Germany, and with self-sufficiency in raw materials, there is basically no cost.

However, the Hechingen Tobacco Factory in Germany will continue to purchase tobacco from tobacco merchants in other countries. Eating alone is easy to be beaten by groups, so it is better to be cautious.

Moreover, the development time of the East African colony is too short, so it can only be said that it has full potential. It is really unrealistic to think about being satisfied with the tobacco supply of Germany and Europe.

Therefore, considering it comprehensively, it is not possible to spoil the relationship with some partners, especially now that the presence of Germans on the ocean is completely equal to zero.

Even the Hechingen Consortium itself is the largest maritime trader in the German region, the Prussian navy can only jump in the Baltic Sea, and the Austro-Hungarian navy is only active in the Mediterranean region.

Except for the above two areas, the four oceans are all in the hands of countries such as Britain, France, Netherlands and Portugal, and the merchant ships in Ernst's hands cannot be touched.

Not to mention these maritime powers, even some countries in the Arab region have relatively strong maritime power in the Indian Ocean, so the East African colonies will continue to keep a low profile.

(End of this chapter)