African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 290 Long Staple Cotton

This time, the planned immigrant population of Nairobi is 2. In addition to the previous population of [-], it will almost exceed [-]. It is expected to become the first large city in East Africa with a population exceeding [-].

The planned industry supporting such a large population in Nairobi is the textile industry, and the main cash crop grown in the agricultural areas around Nairobi is cotton.

At the same time, in order to broaden the variety of products, East Africa plans to introduce Egyptian cotton for planting in the upper reaches of Somalia's rivers.Egyptian cotton, also known as Egyptian long-staple cotton, has a long-standing reputation in the world and is known as "platinum".

Egyptian cotton is native to the subcontinent of South Asia and likes high temperature and rain. It is most suitable for growth in tropical grasslands, temperate zones and tropical monsoon regions. With the development of irrigation technology in the world, cotton is increasingly concentrated in arid regions with irrigation conditions.

But the best output quality is the Egyptian long-staple cotton improved by the Egyptians. The East African Kingdom intends to directly introduce the Egyptian variety of long-staple cotton for planting.

In Egypt's Nile Delta and along the Nile River, because the existence of the Nile River ensures that cotton planting will not lack water, the moisture content of the soil is consistent, the humidity is constant at about 60%, the temperature is constant and high, and the sun exposure and rainfall are too suitable The growth of cotton is a perfect natural cotton irrigation system, a typical god's feast.

Looking for a similar environment around the world, Somalia is second to none. Although it does not have the blessing of the longest river in the world, the Shabelle River and the Juba River are both major rivers in Africa.

In particular, the Shabelle River is most similar to the Nile River in terms of natural conditions. They both flow from the tropical grassland climate area to the tropical desert, forming an irrigation area downstream.

At present, Egypt is the world's largest long-staple cotton producer. During Ali's era, Ali vigorously built water conservancy, dredged old canals, dug 20 new canals and built nearly 30 dams, promoted improved waterwheels, tried steam drainage and irrigation machines, and introduced new crops. Products and new varieties, the famous Egyptian long-staple cotton was promoted during this period.Cotton exports increased from 1821 bales in 944 to more than 1849 bales in 25. Cotton planting facilitated the development of the Egyptian cotton textile industry, and the development of the textile industry provided Ali government with a large amount of funds to open more modern factories.

Of course, the economic system of Egypt has been completely destroyed by the British, especially the cotton textile industry. As the factory of the world, the British textile industry is the most important thing, so the original cotton textile industries of its colonies in India and Egypt have been destroyed by them. Become a single source of cheap raw materials.

In other words, the Egyptians are now growing cotton for the British, and the textile industry established in the Ali era no longer exists.

The long-staple cotton planted in East Africa, in addition to its rich economic benefits, also relies on the markets of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. They are not suitable for planting long-staple cotton. Therefore, East Africa has a natural advantage in this regard, and it will not conflict with its local textile industry. , because of the different positioning, the characteristics of long-staple cotton are destined to focus on the high-end consumer market.

So Ernst's plan is to build several new long-staple cotton planting bases in Juba Province, the northern province of Somalia.

Finally, after the cotton is harvested, it is transferred to Nairobi City, processed and exported to the Middle East and Europe.

The textile industry in Venice has a long history and was the most important textile center in medieval Europe, so the workers who migrated to Nairobi had no technical problems.

At the same time, Nairobi is located near the animal husbandry production area in northern East Africa. In East Africa, there are plans to breed a large number of sheep in the grasslands of Kenya.

While promoting Nairobi to become the cotton textile center of East Africa, it has also become the wool textile industry center of East Africa. Even Ernst plans to introduce silk technology from the Far East and build another silk textile industry center in Kisumu City, the Great Lakes District, together with Nairobi and Mombasa. It constitutes the heartland of light industry manufacturing in East Africa.

At present, due to the war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz's plan to cooperate with the Hechingen royal family to develop the Kenya area has not yet been carried out, so East Africa can only develop the Kenya area alone first.

And the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not fail to help the development of Kenya. A large number of farmers in the Venice area landed at the port of Mtwara with immigrant ships, and then took a boat from the Ruvuma River upstream, after a journey on land. , arrived at Lake Malawi, then changed boats, reached the west bank of Lake Malawi, and then poured into Zambia.

The citizens of Venice who were trapped in the city by the Austro-Hungarian Empire were imported from East Africa to various cities in the east. Most of them were used to promote the development of East African handicrafts, such as glass manufacturing, textile industry, and iron manufacturing.

Most of these Venetian citizens are workers, so they have certain skills and are divided up by various cities in East Africa. Although their Italian cultural attributes are relatively deep, especially Nairobi is the most prominent, but when the city develops to a certain stage, it will inevitably enter a stage of negative population growth. By that time, only a single German cultural population remained in the countryside, so the cities in their regions were destined to be assimilated by Germany.

Through the Italian-Austrian War, the number of Italian immigrants in East Africa is expected to be close to that of Slavic immigrants this year. Except for a small number of Slavic immigrants from the Balkan Peninsula, most of the Slavic immigrants came from Tsarist Russia. The Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were classified as Germans in the East African statistics. Mainly the Slovenians and Croats in the previous life, who were deeply influenced by German culture, have no big difference in life from Austria, only the language and religion are different, and East Africa has been promoting German communication, while deliberately de-religious .

Nairobi currently has a German-speaking population of more than 2, so there is no big problem in assimilation. After the Far East immigrants and Italian immigrants mix, there will inevitably be problems in language communication. Italian and Far East languages ​​cannot communicate directly. And German automatically becomes the bridge of communication.

All in all, Nairobi, a small and inconspicuous city in East Africa, will become an important industrial city in East Africa after passing blood-sucking Venice.

Now Ernst only needs to wait until the day when Austria breaks through Venice, and then send Venice's machinery and equipment to East Africa for free, completing a robber-style industrial transfer.

The staff of the Hexingen Consortium have already greeted the Austrian military. The Hexingen Bank helped the Austrian soldiers seize the "gadgets" in cash, and they were responsible for transporting these "gadgets" to the dock.

The price is not high, after all, it is impossible for these soldiers to take these mechanical equipment as trophies, and East Africa only needs to pay the handling fee.

As for the business owners and landlords in Venice, a large part of them have been declared death sentence by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Confiscated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in addition to paying the imperial soldiers, it will also be used to resettle a large number of Austrians.

(End of this chapter)