African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 986: Peasants Enter the City
In addition to the development of the new west, the Dar es Salaam urban circle, three new steel industry bases, the largest road and bridge three-dimensional transportation network, etc., during the First Five-Year Plan, the East African government will continue to invest in basic industries, namely energy, mining, metallurgy, petroleum, chemicals, electricity, automobiles and other industries.

"In 1905, the urbanization level in East Africa should be increased by two to three percentage points, reaching at least %, in order to surpass the Austro-Hungarian Empire and catch up with France. my country's urbanization level is comparable to that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but Austria, Bohemia and other regions within the Austro-Hungarian Empire have strong industrial strength, so we should face up to the gap. Among the great powers, the urbanization and industrialization levels of Britain, Germany, the United States and France are far higher than those of East Africa."

"So it is unrealistic to surpass the above four countries in a short period of time. Among these four countries, France has the lowest level of industrialization, but it is still above 30%, which is at least 10 percentage points higher than East Africa. This gap cannot be offset in a short period of time."

After all, at the end of the 19th century, the industrial development speed of various countries was relatively fast, and France was no exception. From the 19s to the present, according to information obtained by the East African government, the French government is expected to invest billion francs to build its roads, ports, railways and other infrastructure.

If there were no Germany and the United States for comparison at the same time, France's industrialization progress would not be inferior to any country. Although the industrial scale of East Africa grew rapidly, the population growth rate in East Africa was also high. The two offset each other and were not so impressive. After all, the overall population of France did not change much, and the average industrial increase appeared to be much higher than that of East Africa per capita.

This is also the reason why East Africa is implementing its own industrial development plan. The industrial plan itself is to rapidly advance its own industrialization process by increasing its own industrial investment in a short period of time.

However, East Africa was still relatively modest, setting the urbanization level in 1905 at 1895%. This increase was actually not much faster than the development speed of many normal capitalist countries. Take Germany for example, its urbanization level has increased from % in to about % today. In the same five years, Germany's urbanization rate has increased by about %. This also shows the conservatism of East Africa's First Five-Year Plan.

There is no way around it. Although industrialization is the key task in East Africa, Ernst must also seek progress while maintaining stability. East Africa is not the Soviet Union, where communication between the state and the people can be achieved, thereby devoting all its energy to industrial construction.

One of the important sources of funds for the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan was Soviet agriculture. In order to provide funds for industrial development, the Soviet Union had long suppressed the prices of agricultural products. Not only the Soviet Union, but also East Africa and any other countries would exploit agriculture when developing industry, because before the industrial age, agriculture was the most important source of national income.

Funds for a country's industrial development must be obtained from agriculture. Take Britain as an example. In addition to exploiting its own farmers, its industrial development funds were also obtained through plunder. Britain's most important early colonies, India and the United States, were both agricultural areas at the time.

Therefore, raising funds for early industrial development was inseparable from the plunder of agriculture. East Africa could only obtain part of the industrial funds from relatively backward regions and countries through industrial production and trade activities. However, East Africa’s own colonies were basically worthless scraps and could not provide much value to East Africa for the time being.

During the First Five-Year Plan, industry was completely the focus of development in East African countries, and the emphasis on agriculture naturally declined. However, the status of agriculture as the foundation of the country will not change.

Ernst said: "I have always stressed the importance of agriculture. Ensuring food security for East Africans is fundamental. Therefore, my country must ensure a certain amount of arable land and maintain at least 100% grain production to be self-sufficient. On this basis, we can develop high value-added agriculture."

As time goes by, East Africa now pays more and more attention to cash crops and animal husbandry, and East Africa still has a surplus of grain production, so on this basis, the East African government naturally has to change its thinking.

“For big countries, food security is the lifeline. Some small countries can develop high value-added agriculture by relying on the economy or big countries. But for a big country like us in East Africa, it is obviously impossible to entrust the life and death of our country to other countries.” In the past, agriculture in the Netherlands was very developed. The Netherlands actually developed agriculture with a business attitude, and low input and high output was its basic principle.

The Netherlands has basically abandoned low-value-added agriculture such as grain production, and focused on developing high-value-added vegetable, flower and gardening, dairy, meat and animal husbandry, agricultural product processing, and seed and livestock breeding industries.

The Netherlands' agricultural exports are mainly flowers, vegetables, meat, dairy products and various processed agricultural products, while imports are mainly low-value-added grains, feed, oil raw materials, etc., as well as tropical agricultural products that the Netherlands cannot produce itself.

The Netherlands depends on the EU system. If other European countries blockade the Netherlands, then the Netherlands' agriculture will naturally be doomed. However, as a small country like the Netherlands, it does not have many options and is not threatened. In addition, it has other advantages such as its geographical location, ports, rivers, etc., so it can develop well.

Obviously, the agricultural development model of the Netherlands in the past cannot be replicated for a super-large country like East Africa, unless other countries in the world import similar agricultural products from East Africa, which is obviously impossible.

However, the fact that this agricultural model cannot be replicated across East Africa does not mean that it cannot be replicated in any region, especially in economically developed and conveniently transported areas such as the Dar es Salaam metropolitan area.

As East Africa's industry and cities develop, there is naturally an increasing domestic demand for high value-added agriculture, the most important of which are fruits, vegetables and livestock.

Ernst said: "On the premise of ensuring national food security, developing animal husbandry and cash crops outside cities is one of the important goals of East African agriculture in the First Five-Year Plan. The relatively abundant supply of products is also one of the important means of siphoning agricultural population into cities."

In other words, it is necessary to artificially improve urban living conditions, thereby stimulating the agricultural population in East Africa to move to cities, thereby promoting the country's industrialization.

After all, East African agriculture is quite unique. Under the East African agricultural system, farmers have a relatively stable quality of life and low risks. If it were in other countries, it would be unfavorable for urban development. The most typical example is France. During the Napoleonic era, French farmers had a relatively high quality of life, but this also restricted industrial and urban development in France to a certain extent.

Of course, improving the treatment of urban residents is only one of the means for East African governments to accelerate the migration of farmers to cities and turn them into citizens and workers. Under the East African system, a large number of agricultural households actually enter cities to work every year. Especially after the 1980s, East Africa's demand for foreign immigration has declined, and more energy has been devoted to promoting the country's already prosperous agricultural residents to move to cities through administrative means.

However, this process is not too intense. Urbanization must eventually be consistent with the level of industrialization. Excessive urbanization will lead to a large number of urban poor people like in Latin American countries in the past. After all, the country's industrial level cannot provide more employment plans, which will inevitably lead to the vigorous development of black and gray industries, thereby triggering the collapse of social order.

(End of this chapter)