African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 207
August.

The sea breeze blowing from the southeast brought a heavy rain. It rained for three days in a row, making the streets of the whole city wet.

Especially in places where no roads have been built, it is even more muddy. If you walk over, your shoes will be covered with thick mud.

After the rain, the streets became bustling with pedestrians, horses and horses passing by, in a state of chaos. This is a scene that is rarely seen in East Africa, and it is estimated that it can be compared with the development zones of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

Because cities in East Africa will have special police officers to maintain order. They used to be soldiers, but after the reform, some soldiers in the cities have been transferred to become police officers.

Therefore, the order in East Africa is quite good, even in the villages, where there are security personnel. At present, the security personnel in the countryside have not changed, so they have become a special existence.

The main reason is that there are too few people. There are only a few people in a village, and they are under the jurisdiction of the police stations of townships or nearby cities.

The ships entered the port as usual, and a large number of merchants and gangs at the port began to compete for business. The merchants mainly received goods, and the gangs referred to the factions formed by the port staff, most of whom were from the same village.

There is a lively scene on the pier, but three years ago, who would have thought that there would be such a prosperous scene here, Richard from the German Business Liaison Office thought so.

I came here three years ago. It is still a small town with a small population, the port facilities are not complete, and the buildings are also very "quaint". There are many mud houses and grass roofs.

The only thing that hasn't changed is that the residents here still look sallow and emaciated. It is obvious that most of them are malnourished.

That's right, this is not East Africa, but Jiaozhou in the Far East.

Jiaozhou is a transit port for immigrants from East Africa and the Far East. Immigrants from the North China region will eventually gather here and transport them to East Africa.

Of course, there are also some people in the northwest who will start from here, but the number is very small, and the farthest that the East African officials can radiate is the territory of Henan.

The current transshipment port in the South is Shanghai, where the Heixingen Consortium has very little influence. Even in the immigration business, they have to compete with Britain and the United States for food.

Here I have to say that the Germans are a bit stupid, and they are definitely not as good as the Americans in spreading rumors. Even though many conditions in East Africa are "real", there are still many people who are fooled into the United States to work as railway workers.

Just in the first half of this year, the Pacific Railway in the United States was completed, and only the underground Chinese know how much blood and tears there are in it.

These are not clear to the local Chinese, but Ernst has no way to expose this deception. The United States is not the United States now, and the threat to East Africa cannot be ignored.

Especially in the Far East, unless the Hexingen Consortium doesn't want to do it anymore, give up this place of origin and market for immigrants.

If it was a unified Germany to do this, it is estimated that the United States would just fart.

Let’s talk about Jiaozhou. Jiaozhou’s status in the Far East is not high. Before the arrival of the Heixingen Consortium, it was only the size of a small town.

After the Opium War, Western barbarians opened the gates of the Far East with strong ships and artillery, and Western merchants also poured into the eastern coast.

Originally Jiaozhou was just a few small fishing villages, but the geographical location and natural conditions here are superior, so there are a few western businessmen doing business here.

However, it was not until 1865 that the Qing government set up checkpoints here to manage shipping and collect taxes. This shows that the importance of Jiaozhou to the Qing government is still insufficient.

This is the most dynamic and important port in Shandong and even the north in later generations, now!It was Yantai, which was a treaty port for the British.

Before the arrival of the Heixingen Consortium, Jiaozhou was just a sub-pass of Yantai East Customs.

In addition to engaging in immigration here, the Hexingen Consortium has also started doing business now. The industrial products of its own company are indispensable, and at the same time, agricultural products such as rice in East Africa are also mainly exported to this place.

In terms of competitiveness, it is mainly cheap. Immigrant ships that set sail from East Africa and return will pull a large amount of goods from East Africa and transport them here.

At the same time, Heixingen has also set up several small factories here, mainly textile factories, but the scale is too small to be successful.

The reason for choosing this place is very simple. East Africa and Germany are not suitable for the textile industry at present, and there is a shortage of manpower in East Africa. Although the "labour" is almost "unlimited", it is simply whimsical to expect black people to engage in such fine work as textiles.

And Germany has developed the textile industry, but the effect is not very good. Since someone has tried the water, Ernst will naturally not repeat the same mistakes.

Relying on the Hexinggen Consortium and East Africa’s commodity trade, Jiaozhou’s economy developed rapidly, especially the rapid increase in tariff revenue, which attracted the attention of the Qing government, and separated it from Yantai East Customs, and managed it separately. Jiaozhou The local bureaucrats have thus stepped up to a higher level.

……

Just when Richard fell in love with the scene, the plaque of the German Commercial Liaison Office has been removed, and a brand new plaque of the Hechingen Far East Commercial Liaison Office has been replaced.

"Mr. Richard, why did you change your brand!" A Qing government official who was in charge of contacting the Hexingen Consortium asked.

"It's like this, Mr. Wang. We have received a notice from above, and we will not use the previous brand in the future."

"I know Deutsche, but does this Hexingen mean the same thing as the newly built Hexingen Bank the year before last?"

"That's right, Heixingen is a state of Germany, so this hasn't changed much for you, and the people who come to Jiaozhou to do business are mainly people from our Heixingen consortium."

Wang Enke was completely confused by Richard's words, and he asked, "The Heixingen Consortium?"

"The Hechingen Consortium is one of the most powerful companies in Germany, you can understand it that way."

"Where did the Deutschland go?"

"Of course Germany exists, but now we are not just representing Germany to trade with you, so the previous name is no longer used."

"Mr. Richard, forgive me for asking, which party does your company represent?" Wang Enke asked hastily.

The main reason is that it is a bit scary. It not only represents Germany, but also other countries or regions.

"Hexinggen East African Royal Family Territory."

"This?"

"A new country."

"Where is East Africa?"

"On the east coast of Africa, Africa is a big continent. You can imagine a place bigger than your Qing Dynasty."

"East Africa is so big?"

"Speaking of Africa, East Africa is just an important emerging country above, just like your Qing Dynasty is an important country on the Eurasian continent, and the full name of East Africa is the royal territory of Hexingen East Africa."

……

Although the German Commercial Liaison Office was changed to the Hechingen Commercial Liaison Office, the functions remained unchanged.

The name change is a political signal after the royal family of Hechingen migrated to East Africa. Now East Africa is mainly engaged in trade in the Far East. After the founding of the country in the future, diplomats will definitely be stationed.

At that time, it was not good to bear the name of Germany. Those who didn’t know thought that Hexingen unified Germany! (happy).

In addition to the Hexingen Consortium and business personnel from East Africa, Jiaozhou naturally also has businessmen from other German states, as well as some missionaries.

Before the unification of Prussia was completed, the international influence would not radiate here, and the Hexingen Consortium would naturally have no problem representing Germany in Jiaozhou.

The fact is also the same. Now the main body of Germany's trade activities with the Far East is the Hexingen Consortium, and other German businessmen are naturally united under the banner of Hexingen.

Many negotiation issues were handled by the original "German Commercial Liaison Office". After all, the Hexingen Consortium is an armed business group overseas, and the merchant ships equipped with artillery are still very convincing.

However, because of Ernst, everyone naturally gets along peacefully, provided that they do not hinder their immigration work. You may not support it, but you cannot oppose it. This is a trivial problem for the Far East authorities, or It's not a problem, even if I let you pull people, I can't keep up with the growth rate of the Qing population.

As for the others, I am used to the ruthlessness of the British and French, and the Heixingen Consortium is the conscience of Xiyi. It would be even better if they could not carry guns.

In this regard, Ernst said, you are worried about my conscience, and I am still worried about your integrity!
(End of this chapter)