African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 93: Chapter 89: Hamburg Oceanic Commercial Trade Fleet

July 1, 1867.

The ”North German Confederation Constitution” officially took effect.

The significance of this constitution is that Prussia legally led the affairs and military powers of the North German region. It maintained Prussia’s dominant position in the federation and the unmatched authority of the Prussian king in the government, while also donning a democratic guise.

The North German region legally became Prussia’s private domain, riding this eastern wind.

Ernst’s Hamburg maritime trade fleet was established, with a scale of eleven ships (before German unification, the registered German maritime merchant fleet had only 4350 sailing ships and 175 steamships). It wasn’t small in the entire North German region.

Combined with the Heixinggen fleet based in the Mediterranean in Trieste, the scale of commercial ships under Ernst’s name reached more than 50.

Many of these ships operated on the Far East to East Africa route, gradually replacing the hired Dutch merchant ships.

The main task of the newly established Hamburg maritime trade fleet was to undertake long-distance trade in the German region while helping Ernst carry some machinery equipment to East Africa.

After all, unlike the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the cultural level of the lower-class people in the German region is high, making them hard to fool, so immigration was not the main task.

The scale of ships under Ernst’s name was not small; after all, when running ocean routes, the bigger the ships, the better.

Among them, Venice’s own shipyard built self-use ships, which are only a few in number; most were procured from various European countries.

With the promotion of new steamships, especially the appearance of ironclad ships, the price of traditional sailing ships kept falling, so Ernst effortlessly bought a batch of decent-quality ocean-going sailing ships.

If you add the ships seized from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the number of large ships in Ernst’s hands exceeds sixty.

Simultaneously established along with the Hamburg maritime trade fleet was the new Heixinggen Shipyard (Hamburg).

Eggs can’t be put in one basket, so the splitting work of the Venice Heixinggen Shipyard also commenced.

As early as the acquisition of Martin Shipyard, Ernst inserted many German employees in it under the guise of a boss; now they will become the backbone of the Heixinggen Shipyard (Hamburg).

Among these German employees, there were also many Chinese interns, mostly students from Heixinggen School, whose latter half of life is essentially bought off to work in this industry until they retire.

The shipbuilding industry has always been an essential industrial sector in Europe, and it requires relatively high experience and education from its workforce, so every experienced shipbuilding worker is an invisible asset.

With the future unification of Germany and the outbreak of the German economy, the scale of the Hamburg maritime trade fleet will surely be considerable.

The Heixinggen fleet within Austro-Hungarian Empire doesn’t actually have a good profitability, especially the ones heading to East Africa—filled with immigrants without making money, only relying on specialties brought back from East Africa on return trips to replenish funds.

And the ships on the Far East route are even more tragic, as most of them are mixed with goods and immigrants stuffed together.

Even renting Dutch ships is the same, merely carrying immigrants—there’s not enough money for this, so they also need to carry some goods on the return trip to make ends meet.

And the fleet of Hamburg Port, its important task is to generate profit; after Germany’s unification, the number of merchant ships in the entire German region doubled, quickly becoming one of the world’s top oceanic trade forces.

And the Hamburg maritime trade fleet aims to expand itself with this propitious breeze.

For example, the Heixinggen consortium, its company’s goods and banking business development all requires expanding the world market.

The transportation of goods in the German region and the import of goods; these in the future are great business, even being a second-hand dealer is promising.

Besides making money, accumulating experience, technology, and talent for future East African colonies is also one of the reasons.

With the ongoing industrial revolution, the update speed in the shipbuilding industry is accelerating, and more and more new technologies are being applied in shipbuilding.

To avoid falling behind in the future, relying on the Venice Shipyard alone won’t suffice; as known, the two centers of the Second Industrial Revolution.

One is Germany, the other is America; Ernst cannot venture into America, but Germany is currently Ernst’s foundation.

As a member of the Hohenzollern family, Ernst himself is part of the ruling class in the German region, deeply tying interests with the German region.

Through the scientific and technological development in Germany’s Second Industrial Revolution, Ernst can reserve technology and talent for the future East Africa.

Germany is now; East Africa is the future, the sequence must not be messed up, only under the Prussian government’s protection can the current Heixinggen consortium develop and grow.

Only when future East African colonies can withstand the frenzy of European countries partitioning Africa, can Ernst dare to transfer the main industries to East Africa.

Otherwise, it would be a free benefit to other colonizers, leaving Ernst at a loss for tears.

Using Germany as an incubator for East African industries is safe, at least before the First World War, while Germany is in a booming technological period.

High-end technology and talents are not comparable to Venice, and it showed through the German navy during World War I.

Though the German navy ultimately failed, back then, how many rivals could compete with Britain on the seas?

Only Americans were decent, even French fell behind in the naval arms race.

Therefore, the frenzied expansion of German maritime strength after unification rests on a strong education system and technological accumulation from the Second Industrial Revolution.

The future shipbuilding industry in East Africa wants to benefit from this; it can only slowly accumulate in the German region first.

The future positioning of East Africa is a maritime power along the Indian Ocean coast; thus, there can be no delay in shipbuilding. Since East Africa currently lacks the capability and strength to develop the shipbuilding industry independently, it must first practice extensively within the German region.

East Africa currently holds four excellent ports, and with the development of East African colonies, the demand for cargo transportation is increasingly growing.

There will be other ports to be developed in the future, such as within Kenya, and southern Tanzania, which all have great potential.

Moreover, large inland lakes within East Africa will require inland vessels in the future, so accumulating experience, technology, and talent first is undoubtedly correct.

The lakes in East Africa are big guys; waterway transportation and inland fishing industries all depend on the development of ships, especially the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), whose transportation value in the future has at least a quarter of the potential of North American Great Lakes.

And Lake Soron (Lake Tanganyika), Malawi Lake, Frederick Lake... all have demand for surface vessels.

These lakes are located deep inland; their economic and strategic value is significant, with a huge potential for developing surface and submarine vessels.