African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 958 Paraguay

1899 years.

Asuncion, Paraguay.

After the Paraguayan War, Paraguay has now fully recovered and its population returned to its pre-war level in the 1980s.

The only pity is that after the Paraguayan War, Paraguay was further away from the sea, but through the two excellent waterways of the Paraná River and its tributary, the Paraguay River, Paraguay's domestic and foreign trade was not greatly affected.

At the fork of the Paraná and Paraguay rivers, the commercial fleet for the Paraguayan trade with East Africa is being diverted.

"The destination of the Aaron Green, Owim and Balakinma is Oriental City, while we will head northwest into the Paraguay River and then arrive at Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay," Captain Corid said to the trainee crew members.

"In the trade between East Africa and Paraguay, Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, and Ciudad del Oriente, the second largest city in Paraguay, are our main destinations. In the future, your ships will most likely be traveling between these two cities and East Africa."

"Captain, is there anything special about Dongfang City?" someone asked. The main reason is that there is also an Dongfang City in East Africa, on Pemba Island in the Indian Ocean.

Captain Corrid explained: "Paraguay's Ciudad del Oriente is on the banks of the Parana River. In the local language, it should be called Ciudad del Este, but Ciudad del Este means Oriental City. As for our Oriental City in the Indian Ocean, the two concepts are completely different. Paraguay is a small country with a small population and a small economy, so our trade with Paraguay is mainly carried out through Asuncion and Ciudad del Oriente, two cities of barely qualified size."

Although Paraguay's economy and population have emerged from the shadow of war, it cannot change the actual national conditions of Paraguay as a small country with a small population. Today, Paraguay's population is only more than 700,000, of which only Asuncion and Orientale have a population of more than 50,000.

"Asuncion is the capital of Paraguay, and Argentina is across the river, so Asuncion is actually an important trade node city between East Africa and Paraguay and Argentina."

In fact, Asuncion and Argentina were not originally separated by a river, but after the Paraguayan War, the south bank of the Paraguay River was ceded to Argentina, and the other side of the river was actually the original Paraguayan territory.

However, after the Paraguayan War, the population of Paraguay was almost wiped out, so there were basically not many former Paraguayans left in the ceded territory. Now the population of Paraguay is mainly a mixture of three major ethnic groups: Italians, Indians, and Paraguayans.

Captain Corrid continued, "Compared to them, Dongfang City is even more amazing. Dongfang City is located at the confluence of the Parana River and the Iguazu River, with Argentina and Brazil next to it. The three countries are divided by the Parana River and the Iguazu River. Such a geographical location is destined to make Dongfang City's business and trade more prosperous. On the other side of Dongfang City are Brazil's Iguazu Falls City and Argentina's Porto Iguazu."

Therefore, as long as East Africa transports goods to Ciudad Oriental in Paraguay, there will be an opportunity to sell these goods to Brazil and Argentina. Of course, this is basically the job of Paraguayans.

Paraguayans acted as middlemen and made a lot of money, which was one of the main reasons for the rapid recovery and accelerated development of the economies of Asuncion and Ciudad del Oriente.

"Paraguay is the earliest window for trade between East Africa and South America. It has made a significant contribution to the export of East African goods and is also a witness to the friendship between the two countries," Captain Corid said with considerable pride.

As they were talking, the fleet that Captain Corrid was on had already completed the diversion, and the Caguan that Captain Corrid was on also sailed into the Paraguay River with the other three ships. From here on, it also meant that the fleet officially entered the border between Paraguay and Argentina.
Of course, the fleet did not arrive directly in Asuncion, but stopped at the Argentine Port of Formosa, which was originally a Paraguayan territory established by the Argentines in 1879.

The merchant ships from East Africa are one of the main sources of imports for Argentina in Formosa, but the East African Paraguayan trade fleet only has one merchant ship left here. After all, Formosa is just a small border town in Argentina, and its purchasing power is completely incomparable to that of Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, and their goods are not easy to cash in.

The main exports of Argentina and Paraguay are agricultural products such as beef and wheat, and East Africa itself is a major agricultural and animal husbandry country, so East Africa's trade activity in the region is not very high.

However, due to their unique geographical environment, the quality of beef and wheat in Paraguay and Argentina is higher than that in East Africa. In this case, East Africa still has a certain demand for their agricultural products.

The East African commercial fleet exported local beef and other agricultural products directly to Europe or shipped them back to their homeland, earning a meager profit.

Soon, the East African Paraguayan commercial fleet arrived in Asuncion. As the East African merchant ships entered the port, many Paraguayan businessmen had already stopped and waited.

The main commodities imported from East Africa to Paraguay are textiles, power equipment, and automobiles. Of course, the sales of the latter two are not too prominent. At that time, cars are luxury goods, and in Paraguay, a country with a small population, only a very small number of upper-class people can afford them. As for power equipment, the sales are not much better. After all, Europe, the United States, and East Africa still have a long way to go to popularize electricity, not to mention a marginal South American country like Paraguay.

Of course, no matter how small the Paraguayan market is, it is still a piece of meat. During the Lopez era, Paraguay had already laid telegraphs and built railways, so the locals are relatively receptive to new things.

However, the Paraguayan War interrupted Paraguay's development, including the most "developed" industry in South America. After that, East Africa and the Austro-Hungarian Empire squeezed into the Paraguayan market.

Today, 40 percent of Paraguay's electricity comes from East Africa, followed by France and Austria-Hungary.

Before the Paraguayan War, Paraguay's largest trading partner was France. Lopez graduated from France and regarded Napoleon as his idol. After Lopez's death, the Paraguayan government's policies continued to change, which allowed East Africa to get a ticket to the market.

However, it was not East Africa that did business with Paraguay at the beginning, but the Heixingen Group. East Africa did not have such capability at that time.

Later, after East Africa's economic and industrial strength increased, it began to rely on the trade channels of the Hexingen Consortium to gradually accumulate the scale of trade with Paraguay.

After entering the 1990s, with the rapid development of East African industry, East African industrial products can now compete with those of other countries in Paraguay even without lowering prices. Among them, power equipment and automobiles are Paraguay's priority options. In these two fields, East African manufacturing is a high-end product and is very competitive in the global market.

Of course, in the 19th century, even the worst countries would not lack markets if they worked hard to develop their industries. The industrial production capacity in the 19th century was limited, and the demand for industrial products was very strong.

Although Paraguay is a small country with a small population, its per capita consumption capacity is strong. After the Paraguayan War, in order to quickly restore the national economy and population, Paraguay's economic policies were relaxed. The original social classes were also broken up due to the war, so ordinary people have many opportunities, and even if they only develop agriculture, their income is relatively considerable.

Coupled with the increase in Italian immigrants, Paraguay has been provided with a rich industrial and commercial population, which has led to relatively good economic development in Paraguay today, and even to further progress in the industrial and agricultural sectors than before the war.

After all, many Italian immigrants who fled to Paraguay came from Venice, a relatively developed region in Italy, and Venice itself is a region with a strong industrial and commercial atmosphere.

(End of this chapter)