African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 930 Hanseatic Province

East Africa’s financial difficulties are essentially due to the fact that there were too many projects and projects in East Africa throughout the 1990s, and money had to be invested in all aspects. Under such circumstances, the East African government must optimize financial investment and achieve comprehensive development in various fields.

Although military spending has been reduced, this is compared to other fields. According to the development process of East Africa's economy, military spending is actually still growing, but at a slower pace. However, compared with other countries, the actual military construction in East Africa is still growing. Great progress has been made.

 …

 City of Maputo.

 After the administrative division adjustment, Maputo City was merged into the Hanseatic Province, but the capital of the Hanseatic Province was still the city of New Hamburg.

However, Maputo City is one of the excellent seaports in East Africa, and the Hanseatic Province has high hopes for Maputo. In October 1897, the Hanseatic Provincial Government decided to build Maputo into one of the province’s foreign economic windows.

Although the conditions of the New Hamburg Port City are not bad and the resource endowment is excellent, the New Hamburg Port City is not completely without shortcomings. As one of the naval bases, the New Hamburg Port City has higher confidentiality than ordinary coastal cities. In addition, the port area It is small, so when it is shared between the military and civilians, land resources are quite tight.

Maputo City has no such concerns. Maputo also has the advantage of an excellent port. To the north is Pingyuan Province, which is a new province. Its economic conditions are not as good as those of Hanseatic Province. After all, Hanseatic Province has new cities. The Port of Hamburg is a large city with the highest economic level in East Africa.

During the Portuguese colonial period, Maputo was also the economic and political center of the entire Mozambique, while Xinxiang City, the capital of Plains Province, was originally just the town of Saukwe under Maputo City during the Portuguese period. There was already a significant gap between the two, even if Xinxiang The city has now counterattacked and become the provincial capital, but as an inland area, the transportation infrastructure has not yet been formed, so it is difficult to compete with Maputo.

“According to superior documents, although our city of Maputo is not the provincial capital, due to its favorable geographical conditions and the excellent economic foundation in Mozambique, Maputo was assigned to a university, the Maputo Agricultural College. According to The document instructs to comprehensively utilize Maputo City’s agricultural infrastructure to create a strong regional agricultural city.”

Maputo is also part of the southern plains of Mozambique. At the same time, because it is backed by the Drakensberg Mountains, precipitation is abundant and many rivers flow through the area, so the basic agricultural conditions are very good.

Although other areas of Hanseatic Province also have plains, their area is not as vast as that around Maputo City. In line with the development trend of agricultural mechanization, Maputo's advantages are more obvious.

"Our city has a large area of ​​plains, many rivers and lakes, and vast waters. There are mountains and terraces in the west, and it faces the sea in the east. Therefore, the comprehensive conditions for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery have obvious advantages. This is also an important priority for the Hanseatic Agricultural College in Maputo. one of the reasons."

“At the same time, according to the instructions of the provincial government, in addition to the establishment of a provincial key university, eighteen industrial projects will be invested in our city in 1898, covering the two major fields of agriculture and industry, including Maputo City Woolen Mill, Timber Processing plants, real estate..."

The appearance of real estate on the project list was rather abrupt, but Mayor Hans Layton soon gave an explanation.

“According to the opinions of the provincial government, our city, as an important commercial and trade port in the southern hemisphere, vigorously develops the service industry, relieves the pressure on the reception of the new port of Hamburg, the provincial capital, and builds a number of service-oriented real estate such as restaurants, hotels, pubs, and ship repair shops surrounding the service industry. , mainly serving ships and passengers calling in the Hanseatic Province.”

 In fact, this is the same route as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, but compared to the two cities, Maputo's location is too remote.

Before the opening of the Suez Canal, Maputo may have been the only place for many ships to pass through. However, after the opening of the Suez Canal, the closer East African cities are to the north in terms of commercial trade, the easier it is to succeed. This is why Mombasa has weak overall conditions. Under such circumstances, the main reason for being able to compete with the city of Dar es Salaam. Of course, Maputo City’s approach is not wrong. After all, East African coastal trade is a big piece of cake that cannot be swallowed by these two cities alone. This is the case with the development of the New Hamburg Port City.

Of course, the early development of the new Hamburg Port City actually focused more on industry rather than commercial trade. Its commercial and trade activities were mainly carried out with the Portuguese and British colonies. But now the two Portuguese colonies have been merged into East Africa, which makes A leg of the foreign trade of the new port city of Hamburg was broken.

However, with the most developed industry in southern Africa, the New Hamburg Port City can still stand out among the others, and domestic trade accounts for a large part of the New Hamburg Port City's trade.

For example, most of the mineral resources in the southern region are exported from the New Hamburg Port City to resource-poor areas such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, especially coal and iron ore, which account for the majority.

At the same time, the industrial products of the New Hamburg Port City are also exported to the inland, including the provinces of Hechingen, Orange and Baden. At the same time, relying on its seaport conditions, it can also export certain daily necessities to Southwest Africa.

As the southernmost seaport city in East Africa, New Hamburg Port City has actually developed out of sync with Mombasa and Dar es Salaam in the north. What threatens the status of New Hamburg Port City is actually the former Mozambique coastal cities, including development The extremely fast city of Beira.

Take the two advantageous resources of iron ore and coal exported by the New Hamburg Port City as an example. After the opening of the Beira Railway, the central Bohemian Province (formerly Matabele Province) can also transfer coal in the province through Beira. and the transportation of iron ore to coastal cities.

In this case, Hanseatic Province urgently needs new cities to ensure its economic status in southern East Africa, so creating a twin-star city pattern of Maputo and New Hamburg Port has become an important goal of Hanseatic Province.

There is a railway connection between the New Hamburg Port City and Maputo, and communication is also convenient, so linked development can further consolidate the economic status of Hanseatic Province.

Of course, the goal of Hanseatic Province is actually to prevent Zambezi Province, which is the capital of Beira, from being overtaken. As for the plain province between the two, it has been positioned as an agricultural province, and its development is restricted, making it difficult to achieve anything in a short period of time.

Of course, it is quite difficult for Hanseatic Province to compete with Beira City. Behind Beira City is the largest heavy industry base in East Africa. Although Matabele Province was split and Bulawayo City was merged into Lorraine Province, The cities in Bohemian Province, headed by Harare, far surpass the New Hamburg Port City in terms of comprehensive economic strength.

Hanslayton said: "Although Maputo left a certain industrial and agricultural foundation during the Portuguese colonial period, it has fallen far behind compared with East African cities. Therefore, if our city wants to become an important city in southern East Africa, it must Reintegrate the city’s resources while bringing into play the influence left by the original Portuguese, transforming and upgrading the port area’s resources to provide more convenient and high-quality services for domestic and foreign ships.”

During the Portuguese rule, Maputo had basically zero industry. There were only a few small-scale factories, which were the most primary industries such as tobacco and wood processing. The biggest asset left by the Portuguese was actually a bunch of handicraft workshops. These workshops were mainly to meet the needs of the city of Maputo at that time. They were self-sufficient, but they were unable to expand. In addition, after Maputo fell into the hands of East Africa, a large number of local people returned to Portugal, and the already prosperous handicraft industry also shrank.

These are what Hanslaiden wants to reuse. Currently, the city of Maputo does not have many policy resources. After all, so many cities in East Africa are competing, and there are too many people, and even the resources that can be obtained are limited.

Therefore, according to Hans Layton’s idea, the original handicraft industry in Maputo City was reintegrated. Although it is not as efficient as large-scale factories, it is enough to support the early development of Maputo, and many handicraft industries are temporarily unable to achieve industrialization. production, so Hans Layton believes that the operational space is relatively large.

 (End of this chapter)