African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 845 Northern Mozambique

"These conditions are good, but most of the areas you provided are undeveloped areas. For example, this Bella looks like a completely new city on the map. I'm afraid there aren't even many people there now, right?" Rudolf pointed at the map. Bella asked, with the words "under planning" written on the front.

Ernst explained: "Currently our population in Beira has reached more than 7,000, and there is a direct inland railway to the port of Beira. Investing in building a factory here will definitely not be bad in the future, and we are strict in East Africa." In a sense, there is no shortage of population, especially when compulsory education is relatively mature in East Africa.”

"Furthermore, you don't understand the national conditions of East Africa. Have you seen this area? In fact, this is the most industrially developed place in East Africa. After the connection between Beira and the middle provinces is completed, the port of Beira will develop in the same way as you did back then. The Port of Trieste will also develop by leaps and bounds.”

The area Ernst is referring to is the largest industrial province in East Africa - Matabele Province. Obviously, if Beira can take over the important task of Matabele Province's seaport, its status will not be lower than that of Dar es Salaam in the future. Ram City.

 Because this is the fastest natural sea channel in Matabele Province, and it can radiate to the southern part of Lake Malawi, Hohenzollern Province and other central areas.

Ernst’s words made Rudolf a little incredible: “Isn’t your most developed area in East Africa the eastern coast?”

After all, according to what Rudolf saw and heard when he came to East Africa, the development of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam is no less than any city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bagamoyo and Tanga are also good. The first town The city is also very modern, so in his first impression, he never thought that the interior of East Africa would be more developed than the east.

Ernst nodded and said: "We have more than 20 provinces in East Africa. From a quantitative perspective, eastern East Africa is indeed the country's economic core zone. However, based on the comparison within the provinces, the industrial scale of the central Matabele Province is already It ranks first in the country, and other provinces in the central region are also developing well due to resource issues, so don’t underestimate the potential of the interior of East Africa.”

Rodolphe frowned and said, "Then why don't you open up the inland market and only develop the coastal areas?"

Moreover, Germany and Austria cannot invest too much in East Africa. It is not that they cannot build factories in their own countries. In fact, the two countries are not very developed in the financial industry, and the amount they can invest is also very limited.

As for the coast, Angola on the west coast can cooperate with Germany, and Mozambique on the east coast can naturally cooperate with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so that East Africa can reduce a lot of pressure.

 So the cooperation is real cooperation, rather than the support provided by Germany and Austria to East Africa. With the support of state-owned monopolies and resource base, in terms of economic size alone, East Africa itself is actually not much worse than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Rudolf also realized what Ernst said, that is, this cooperation itself is equal. In fact, it is to build a platform between the three countries to promote the mutual promotion and development of enterprises in the three countries and complement each other's advantages.

Therefore, East Africa fully supports the two countries’ investment in coastal areas, while the inland is the responsibility of the East African government itself. In particular, some East African heavy industrial sectors and defense industries must be placed inland.

 If we really talk about capital, Britain and France must be the strongest. Britain is the hegemon in the financial industry, and France is also known as the usury empire.

In the end, Rudolf signed an agreement with East Africa on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, East Africa has great potential. At least in the early stage, you don’t have to worry about losing your investment. Moreover, as a tropical country, East Africa itself needs special resources that Austria lacks. .

Of course, Germany and Austria are not open to charity. Enterprises from both countries also want to make money, so their investment in East Africa must be profitable. East Africa has no opinion on this point, as long as it does not owe its citizens salaries, it is entirely in East Africa. Within the tolerance range.

“Nonsense, we in East Africa are fully capable of developing the central and eastern areas on our own. Otherwise, why would we cooperate with Germany and Austria in the coastal areas?” Ernst asked rhetorically.

Furthermore, even if East Africa releases its inland restrictions, Germany and Austria cannot sincerely help East Africa develop. After all, they are not the kind of enemies that the Soviet Union did, and East Africa’s current international status cannot regard the two countries as its elder brothers.

 …

 February 1892

 Port of Pemba. Pemba is an important port in the northeastern part of Mozambique. The construction here was relatively early in East Africa. Of course, it is also the most economically developed area in northern Mozambique.

Because Pemba Port is a natural port, hidden and easy to enter, its topography is similar to New Hamburg Port, both are pocket-shaped, except that Pemba is larger in area. The harbor is eight kilometers wide and fourteen kilometers long, and the port entrance is two kilometers wide. .5 kilometers, and the narrowest point is .8 kilometers.

Moreover, Pemba Port is close to the New Württemberg Province in East Africa (southern Tanzania), so it is easy to obtain support from East Africa.

 East Africa’s development of northern Mozambique is mainly concentrated on the coast, that is, the three coastal ports or islands of Pemba, Nacala, and Mozambique Island.

 Among them, Pemba and Mozambique Island are mainly responsible for the external economic port functions of North Mozambique, while Nacala Port is a military port focused on the construction of the East African Navy.

In fact, this is easy to understand. Mozambique Island was developed early. As early as 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed there. And even further back, from the 10th century to the late 15th century, the island and its natural port were used by Arab merchants as a maritime A trading center, the island of Mozambique was already quite developed and densely populated when East Africa took over.

The island played an important role in Portugal's efforts to take over trade with India and the East Indies. This is probably an important reason for the name of the colony of Mozambique.

It’s just that the importance of Mozambique Island was slowly replaced by Maputo in the south, but the skinny camel was bigger than a horse. Before East Africa took over, Mozambique Island was still a relatively economically developed area in Mozambique.

Historically, the Portuguese built Pemba Port in 1904, so before East Africa captured Pemba, it was just a natural harbor that had never been developed. The Nacala Port was similar to Pemba Port, and the Portuguese had no time to carry out the local development. development, it falls into the hands of East Africa.

Of course, according to the history of Mozambique in its previous life, even if the Portuguese were able to develop these two ports, they would probably have to wait until after the 20th century.

"Nacala is one of the strategic ports focused on the development of the navy. It is currently one of the places with the best conditions among our country's naval military bases. Bagamoyo and Pemba Islands, although their conditions are also good, have relatively developed populations and economies. , and the location of Nacala is destined to not be too important in the national economy of East Africa.”

“And to the northeast of Nacala is the Comoros Islands and to the east is the island of Madagascar. The three are horns of each other and cooperate with each other, which is of great significance for our country to control the Mozambique Strait.”

“The civil ports in northern Mozambique are mainly responsible for Pemba Port in the north of Nacala Port and Mozambique Island in the south.”

Of course, this is the current main situation in the ports of North Mozambique. In fact, there are still many natural bays in North Mozambique that have not been developed. This is a place with a relatively tortuous coastline in East Africa, and it is located in the center of the western part of the Mozambique Channel, so the location is very important.

From the previous life, Mozambique’s three main ports were Maputo, Beira, and Nacala. However, the layout of East Africa is obviously different. Nacala became a military port, and Mozambique Island, a little-known port in Mozambique in its previous life. Small places are also getting attention in East Africa.

In fact, the decline of Mozambique Island was mainly caused by natural disasters and man-made disasters. The political turmoil in Mozambique caused the population of Mozambique Island to drain out, and the status of Mozambique Island, which lost its industry and population, plummeted.

When East Africa takes over the local area, Mozambique Island will naturally no longer be able to withstand repeated baptisms of war. The only pity is that Mozambique Island is not connected to the mainland, but this is not a big problem for East Africa. In the previous life, Mozambique built a road bridge of several kilometers. By connecting this part of the country to the mainland, East Africa will naturally be able to do the same in the future.

Northern Mozambique as a whole is not too promising in the East African economy, but it has surpassed some northern and southern provinces. However, after completing the national territory, Northern Mozambique's position has become prominent.

 This is the center of the eastern coast of East Africa, so the development of coastal areas cannot bypass North Mozambique. If it were not for reasons such as terrain, such as the barrier of Lake Malawi, the development of this area is not inferior to any other coastal areas in East Africa.

 (End of this chapter)