African Entrepreneurship Records

 Chapter 844 Rudolf

  As early as two months before the signing of the Entente, Caprivi had returned to Germany. After all, as the imperial prime minister, it was impossible to stay abroad for too long, especially since East Africa was too far away from Germany.

For example, when leaders of European countries visit abroad, they usually travel within Europe, and the distance is not too far away. It is the same reason that Confucius actually traveled around the Central Plains when he traveled around the world.

 Many European countries in East Africa are actually at the same level as provinces or cities. Of course, there are also big countries like Tsarist Russia with an exaggerated local area, and colonial countries like Britain and France with huge overseas colonies.

 After signing a cooperation agreement with Germany, East Africa once again turned its attention to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The development of East Africa cannot be separated from the support of Austria, especially in recent years, the cooperation between the two countries has been carried out for many years.

Of course, again, Austria is not equal to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is the only pity, but Austria played a considerable role in the construction of the East African coastal area.

At that time, East Africa opened up its northern industrial belt to cooperate with Austria, but the results were not significant. It mainly relied on East Africa's own accumulation to barely support the development of the northern industrial belt. Austrian investment was mainly concentrated in Mombasa, and did not go deep into the interior. Of course, this is also related to the policies of East Africa and the basic conditions of the northern industrial belt.

The Northern Industrial Belt has never been a resource-rich region, but this was in the past. Since the expansion of the Northern Railway, resources from northern East Africa have been able to continuously reach Mombasa through the Northern Railway. This is why Mombasa can be on an equal footing with Dar es Salaam. main reason.

Furthermore, Mombasa is closer to international markets, which to a certain extent makes up for the gap with Dar es Salaam.

 …

“Rudolph, you seem to have matured a lot over the years. How is your relationship with your family now?”

Rudolf smiled bitterly and said: "Brother-in-law, don't mention this. I said in my letter that His Majesty the Great Emperor doesn't look down on me at all. Now our family basically lives in its own way."

When I met Ernst, I couldn't help but care about this little brother's situation. After all, Ernst had been away from Europe for so many years, and I didn't know if Rudolf had returned to the historical track.

The Austrian government attaches great importance to the invitation from East Africa. After all, East Africa has already lost its independence. Since the South African War, no country has dared to underestimate the potential of East Africa. Therefore, a victory in the South African War not only promoted East Africa's Geopolitical security has comprehensively enhanced East Africa’s international status.

 At the beginning of 1892, Crown Prince Rudolf of the Austro-Hungarian Empire came to negotiate cooperation with East Africa on behalf of the Austrian government.

Ernst comforted him: "Your father is quite stubborn and always thinks in the same old way, but this is not a bad thing for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, it is really frustrating to govern an empire that is always on the verge of splitting."

Ernst saw Rudolf's complaints, but he had no good solution. After all, this was Rudolf's family matter. Ernst could only act as a tree hole for Rudolf's emotions and try his best to make the Austro-Hungarian Empire's future The owner needs to take less detours.

As he grew older, Rudolf could understand Franz's difficulties, but the gap between father and son had already been established, so it was difficult to change this situation.

Rudolph said: "I also understand the reason why my father did this, but the main reason is that there are too many troubles in the palace, especially the lack of control over destiny. It's not like you in East Africa who keep your promises and can do whatever you want."

"You can't govern the country as you please. As for destiny, it is an obligation in itself for the nobles. As long as you relax your mind, there is nothing to complain about. After all, we are born with corresponding rights." Ernst said. Of course, Ernst can also understand what Rudolf is going through, but now that Rudolf can stand completely in front of Ernst, Ernst is quite satisfied.

Historically, at the end of 1888, due to the failure of "love", Rudolf, who had a mental breakdown, chose to die for love. Now it is 1892, Rudolf is still alive, and history has completely changed. I don't know whether it will be a blessing for the future Austro-Hungarian Empire. disaster.

But in Ernst's view, this is a good thing. After all, Rudolf is already in his thirties and will mature completely in a few years. After all, as the old saying goes, you will not be confused at forty. Rudolf's character can always be understood. Grinding, and Ernst speculated that Rudolf would most likely become someone like Franz in the future.

After reminiscing, Ernst no longer cared about Rudolf's psychological problems. After all, he still had to explore this path by himself, and others did not help him much. At least now Rudolf did not know his mistress from his previous life. And being alive is the biggest change.

"This cooperation is because Germany has reached an economic agreement with us in East Africa before. After all, this kind of good thing cannot be favored. In the past ten years, although the cooperation with Austria has been longer, it has not gone deeper. Now you are also We know that we have gained a lot of new territory, and we need Austria’s help to develop these territories.”

Cooperation with the Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally requires the Mozambique region. East Africa's own capabilities are ultimately limited, so it must make good use of external forces. And this time there is no economic crisis to help, so it can only find more partners.

Rudolph asked: "We would like to deepen our cooperation with East Africa, but the problem is that East Africa is too closed. Many companies do not operate smoothly in East Africa. The laws and regulations are too strict, and the labor costs are even comparable to those in Europe."

In this regard, East Africa is quite similar to India in the previous life, that is, the management of foreign investment is very strict, which undoubtedly limits the development of East Africa.

Of course, Ernst does not intend to solve this problem now, because the 19th century was a time of great disputes. Not to mention East Africa, except for the United Kingdom, all countries had the same economic system.

Especially after the economic crisis in the 1970s, various trade protectionisms became prevalent, so East Africa's isolation policy did not seem out of place in this international environment.

And even the United Kingdom, which advocates free trade, has become somewhat negative after experiencing a severe beating from Germany and the United States. Of course, in backward regions and colonies, free trade is still the mainstream promoted by the United Kingdom.

The scale of local monopolies in East Africa is very large. In fact, it is the same as Germany and the United States. It is just that as a non-free market country, East Africa has done more thoroughly.

"The system in East Africa is indeed difficult to change, and the laws are also to protect the interests of its citizens, but we also have a basis for cooperation. To a certain extent, we can give Austro-Hungarian investment enterprises preferential conditions for five years, including tax exemptions and factory construction. Expenditures and so on," Ernst said.

The reason why Ernst was so generous was naturally because the black population in East Africa was too large and difficult to deal with, so he simply continued to squeeze their surplus value.

And now East Africa urgently needs to develop the East African coastal areas. After the seizure of Mozambique and Angola, the East African coastline has doubled, and nearly three-quarters of the coastline has not been effectively used and developed.

Let Germany and Austria first build factories along the coast of East Africa. East Africa will collect less taxes and add more cheap indigenous labor. This will speed up the construction of the coasts of Mozambique and Angola.

For the East African government, this is a problem of making less money. Tax revenue is temporarily dispensable to East Africa. After all, the number of companies that can invest in East Africa should not be too many. After all, East Africa’s reputation is not very good. If it weren't for the size and market, it wouldn't necessarily be very attractive.

 (End of this chapter)