African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 707 Trade and Market

"Ambassador Alander, we need railways and telegraphs, but we also need military equipment to resist invaders. Otherwise, even national security cannot be guaranteed, and we have no intention of building our own country." Johannes IV said.

Alande: "I am also aware of His Majesty's concerns. We in East Africa will make some preparations for this to ensure the security of your country!"

How to ensure the security of the Abyssinian Empire is naturally to resolve the current military conflict between Italy and the Abyssinian Empire.

Therefore, Alande's promise is very important to the Abyssinian Empire. After all, the Abyssinian Empire alone will definitely not be able to reach a consensus with Italy.

Of course, giving such courtesy to the Abyssinian Empire is related to the importance of the Abyssinian Empire to East Africa. The Abyssinian Empire is the only country with a population of tens of millions whose trade is monopolized by East Africa.

Although the Far Eastern Empire market is huge, East Africa's imagination in the Far East is very limited. Even the Huaihai Economic Zone market is shared with Germany, Austria and other countries.

Although trade in the German region is prosperous, East Africa's industrial products cannot compete with their German counterparts of the same type. Instead, they are exported to East Africa itself, which is not friendly to East Africa's industrial product exports.

In 1887, East African trade suffered a great setback, especially industrial products, which changed from growth to stagnation. This was a great obstacle to the industrial development of East Africa.

Next is the Middle East. At present, the best areas of the Middle East are basically under the control of the Ottomans. East Africa can only compete with it through Oman.

Therefore, supporting the Abyssinian Empire is an important strategy for the current industrial development of East Africa. The first step is to build roads. Otherwise, the southern trade of the Abyssinian Empire will never replace the Red Sea trade and become the mainstream trade of the Abyssinian Empire. line.

Therefore, the current goal of East Africa is to open up the transportation problem between the Abyssinian Empire and East Africa, and further expand trade volume, especially industrial export volume, to support the development of East African industry.

East Africa, the first town.

Therefore, judging from the current situation of several major markets, the current importance of the Abyssinian Empire to East Africa is self-evident.

The reason why the Abyssinian Empire is now the largest import and export country in East Africa is because the Italians blocked the Red Sea, but wars and hostilities cannot remain unchanged.

If Italy and the Abyssinian Empire reach a compromise and the Abyssinian Empire can reuse the Red Sea route, East African trade will soon be frustrated. After all, the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau is mountainous and is not naturally as well located as the Red Sea region.

……

Von der Leyen: “In the past ten years, our export trade has been subject to fierce competition from various countries, especially the Southeast Asian market. The colonial expansion of Britain and France here has greatly reduced East Africa’s export volume in the region, such as Myanmar. Cambodia, Annan, and even Thailand have been affected to some extent."

"In Africa, after West Africa divided its sphere of influence, our trade was also affected to a certain extent."

"If the Huaihai Economic Zone had not continued to grow, the export of industrial products this year would likely have entered negative growth, so opening up new markets is an urgent problem in East Africa." "We can compete with European and American countries in the electric power and automobile industries, and we are in an advantageous position. However, the markets for both are narrow and difficult to promote on a large scale even domestically. The main market for traditional industrial products is the Abyssinian Empire in the north, so we must further build a better relationship with the Abyssinian Empire."

The above is that East African trade is currently affected by the world situation. The great powers divide colonies around the world, compressing the living space of East African industrial products. Only trade with the Abyssinian Empire and the Far Eastern Empire has not been greatly affected.

So von der Leyen continued: "We now have three directions to fight for. Among them, the Abyssinian Empire must ensure its existence, so coordinating its relationship with Italy is what we should do. The most important thing is to let The two stop fighting."

Of course, East Africa did not end the hostility between the Abyssinian Empire and Italy, but merely ceased the war. After all, if Italy really swallowed up the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa's international trade would be greatly affected.

Therefore, it is important to maintain a balance between the two. Anyway, Italy has made little progress against the Abyssinian Empire. Instead, it promoted the unity within the Abyssinian Empire under the leadership of Johannes IV, so the war between the two countries was completely There is no need to continue.

"The second is the Far Eastern Empire. It is very important to continue to maintain the friendly relations between the two countries, and we need to give it more military funding, especially in the navy. Some of our ships are facing replacement problems, and the Far Eastern Empire is facing the Japanese puppet government supported by the British. Threats, while ensuring the autonomy of the Far East Empire government, can also make the Far East Empire favor us in the trade between the two countries."

"The last one is South America. We have insufficient conditions along the Atlantic coast, but we cannot ignore the size of South American countries, especially the countries in the east of South America."

"South America is a large market worth tens of millions of dollars, and it has a certain degree of autonomy, especially Argentina and Brazil, so the Atlantic route must be active. Important measures to open up trade with South America should be divided into three points."

“Southwest Africa has our only three ports on the Atlantic coast. Orangemond, the southernmost one, can be ignored for now. It cannot connect to the production bases and markets in the central and eastern parts of the country. Swakopmund is a military port, so foreign trade cannot go there either. Swakopmund, then Walvis Bay is the only option.”

"In addition to these three major breakthroughs, our trade with the German region, Eastern Europe, and the Arab region must also be maintained. Industry and agriculture must be viewed separately. These three regions are the main consumer markets for East African agriculture. Agriculture remains It is the main pillar of our country’s foreign economy.”

Ernst: "That's right. Therefore, if we want to achieve major breakthroughs in foreign industrial commodity trade, there are currently two main directions. One is to open up new markets, and the second is to upgrade the industry.

In the field of emerging industries, the gap between us and other countries is not big, and we are even among the leaders. Therefore, we must expand this advantage, especially continue to expand our layout in new industries such as the electric power and automobile industries, and at the same time establish relevant research and development institutions, universities , boost development, provide stamina for subsequent development, and get rid of dependence on the German region. "

Improving industrial production capacity and reducing costs is an important means to improve the competitiveness of East African industrial products and expand the market.

Of course, the current mainstream approach in Europe and the United States is to seize colonies and forcefully open the commodity market. In addition to providing a market for their own industry and commerce, it can also "shut out" competitors.

This is not another kind of isolation, so there is no problem with East Africa's national policy. The domestic market is the lifeblood of East Africa, and the requirement to ensure the stability of the domestic market is to ensure the stability of social order.

This is also the biggest problem that East Africa has to deal with. Therefore, East Africa cannot start the war lightly and must ensure that major economic regions are not affected.

Of course, the war cannot be started lightly. It is not that East Africa does not want to start a war, but that it must be fully prepared before starting a war in southern Africa. East Africa's desire for war is no weaker than that of the Southern Transvaal, the British and the Portuguese.

(End of this chapter)