African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 218: Chapter 206: Choice Paralysis

With the support of the Heixinggen Consortium and East Africa, Jiaozhou already has the prototype of a major Far Eastern city, and it is simultaneously the most influential oriental city for the Germans.

Unlike those semi-colonial commercial ports, Jiaozhou is a port controlled by the Qing Government. However, due to distrust in the Qing Government’s bureaucratic group, the Heixinggen Consortium chooses to continue holding military power.

Even if Man Qing officials lack the courage, local gangs might not, as kingpins are always kingpins, and they are bold enough. As long as there’s profit, there’s nothing they wouldn’t dare to do. These people really live by the edge of the knife, without armed forces there’s really no deterrent against them.

Don’t think that foreigners can act arrogantly—that privilege belongs to the British and French, who couldn’t wish more for the Qing Country to harm their citizens as an excuse for another war.

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”Father, I plan to construct an experimental railway between Dar es Salaam and First Town to strengthen the connection between the two places, and also to accumulate experience for future railway construction in East Africa.” Ernst picked up the phone and spoke to Prince Constantine.

Speaking about railways, Prince Constantine became very interested, especially since this railway would be privately owned by the family.

In Europe, Heixinggen is quite a rural area. It doesn’t have a significant river, nor is it traversed by a railway. The transportation is mainly reliant on horse-drawn carriages and walking.

However, the road condition in Heixinggen is not very ideal, even inferior to that of East Africa at the time. European roads hadn’t seen significant changes until the 18th century.

Even roads built during the Roman era were patched up and used, yet they were the best roads in Europe at that time.

After the 18th century, Europeans started to pay attention to transportation infrastructure, with roads and railways developing rapidly, yet none of this had anything to do with Heixinggen.

The geographical location, construction conditions, natural resources, and population of Heixinggen couldn’t support road renovations, at most smoothing out the existing dirt roads a bit.

”Very well, but railways are not ordinary projects, do you have a concrete plan?”

”Father, the Ron railway company I acquired is now on its way to East Africa. Once they arrive, they’ll plan the route based on the actual conditions there.”

”Ron railway company? Haven’t heard of it!”

”It’s a small company from the Grand Duchy of Baden, so its reputation isn’t high.”

”Will they be able to complete the project if you entrust it to them?”

”Rest assured on that point, they have experience; they’ve been building railways for the French previously.”

”French?”

”Yes, but mainly as an outsourcing project, as Southern Germans offer abundant and cheap labor and are easier to manage compared to French workers.”

Prince Constantine nodded solemnly: ”Hm, then I am at ease. The worst fear would be that they lack related experience. But, even then, how do you plan to solve the railway construction materials issue?”

”Cement can be provided by East Africa at present, sleepers can be made locally in East Africa, and land resources don’t need to be worried about. It’s just locomotives, rails, some components, and equipment that need importing from German regions.

Given the relatively short distance and flat terrain between Dar es Salaam and First Town, the final construction cost of this railway won’t be too high.”

”What do you need me to do then?” Prince Constantine asked.

Have all these issues been resolved? Just called me for this matter over the phone?

”It’s like this, father, I need to discuss some details of this railway with you. Like, didn’t you mention doing a defense project in First Town a while ago?

Railways are strategic transportation tools. You saw the effectiveness the Prussians had in mobilizing troops via railroads last time, so we need to pay attention to national defense regarding this railway. Dar es Salaam is very close to First Town and with this railway, the speed of travel between them would be faster.

So when you do this project, you must include considerations for the railway, there can’t be any loopholes.”

”I understand this matter, the defense project hasn’t started yet, I’ll arrange for checkpoints to be set up at that time.”

”This requires cooperation between the design personnel and the railway company, so it can’t be rushed. At least wait until they arrive in East Africa. Moreover, since the railway pertains to defense transportation, a Ministry of Railways should conveniently be established within the government.” Ernst suggested.

”Any more problems?”

”There’s one more thing, the issue of the railway gauge, I’m still undecided.

We currently have several options to consider: 1000mm, 1435mm, 1520mm, 1676mm, etc. 1435mm is the most popular, currently used by the Prussians too. If we directly adopt the 1435mm gauge, it could save on costs, but the larger the railway gauge, the higher the freight capacity.”

Constantine pondered for a moment and said, ”I don’t quite understand railroad matters, can you give me a detailed introduction on the situation of railways in different countries?”

”There is no unified standard for railway gauges, quite flexible. For instance, 1435mm is the width of Roman chariots; European carriages also adopted this number. Later, the British developed railways first, so this number is used in Britain, its colonies, the US, and several European countries.

1000mm is mainly used by France and its colonies, especially the French colonies, which are suitable for mountainous constructions, hence cheaper in cost.

1520mm belongs to the broad gauge, mainly used by Russians who, due to military considerations, don’t want to connect with Europe.

1676mm is an even broader gauge, apart from these, there are many varying standards, a mishmash, so it’s difficult for me to decide on this.”

”I roughly understand your meaning, 1435mm is currently the most widely adopted, but among various gauge standards, it should be relatively ordinary. Narrower ones have lower construction costs, higher flexibility, but smaller freight capacity, whereas wider ones are costly, less flexible but have greater freight capacity, is that what you mean?”

”That’s not quite it; two iron rails are the main cost, and if parallel on two straight lines, the width doesn’t differ much. It’s just during turns more material is used, plus longer wooden sleepers occupy more land.

But in East Africa, these aren’t concerns; there’s abundant land and timber, and the turning losses can be compensated by freight capacity.

After all, railways are a long-term operation project, so while initial cost is slightly higher, the longer the railway operates afterward, the higher profitability and efficiency are, given the larger freight capacity.”

Hearing this, Prince Constantine understood completely. The young man was inclined toward adopting a broad gauge in his heart, after seemingly justifying for it. But due to the predominance of 1435mm railways in the world, especially in Europe, he found it difficult to choose, since people tend to follow the herd.

Thus, Prince Constantine said, ”Let’s use the broad gauge then! But as you said, there are many standards for broad gauge. We won’t discuss using which for now; when the railway company relocates to East Africa, let the government and experts there evaluate according to actual conditions, then we’ll pick a standard.”