African Entrepreneurship Record

The Venice port was bustling with crowds.

”Don’t push, don’t push, everyone line up, register your information first, then you can get a number card to board the ship. People in the back, don’t jump the queue, don’t cut in line, we will be here for the next few days, so there’s no need to rush!” shouted an East Africa Immigration Office worker standing on top of a wooden box with a megaphone.

With the Austria-Hungary declaring war on Italy, the confused souls still not on board in the Venice area suddenly awoke—war had arrived!

In fact, the smart ones had already started looking for ways to escape upon noticing the Kingdom of Italy reinforcing the Venice and Lombardy regions.

According to past experience, most people with connections would choose to flee to the heartlands of Austria-Hungary or Italy, or simply take refuge in regions like France or Switzerland.

But this year was different from previous ones. The East African Kingdom and the Heixinggen Consortium had set the stage in advance, and many Italian ports had already docked ships bound for East Africa.

Ordinary people escaping war also meant unemployment, and to survive this period, they would either rely on relatives and friends or find work again in peaceful places.

Among these people, the workers in the Venice area were in a better position, as they had skills, and with the acceleration of industrialization in Europe, many places had a shortage of workers. The unlucky ones were farmers; many had spent a lifetime only knowing farming. When war broke out, those with relatives abroad could seek refuge, but most were forced to stay put and be filtered out by war.

East Africa had been recruiting immigrants from Italy for some time, but the usual effects were average due to the numerous options for Italians, with large numbers of Italian immigrants in North and South America. Now that war had broken out, the people of the Venice area, regardless of anything, brainlessly chose to board ships to East Africa. Besides being free, the main reason was that the Heixinggen Consortium had the most immigration ships here.

”What’s your name, which part of Venice are you from, down to the village or town, any relatives following you, your original occupation, any special skills?”

”Sir, my name is Thomas, I’m from Timost Village on the east side of Venice, following me are my wife and two daughters. My occupation? I’m just a farmer, and as for special skills, does fishing count?”

”Of course!” the staff member replied.

Then wrote in the occupation column: Farmer and part-time fisherman.

”Here’s your number card, take it to gather your family, and later return here. See that yellow sign? Gather there, someone will take you on board!” The staff handed Thomas a yellow card with the number 3303 written on it.

”Sir! Excuse me...”

”Don’t ask questions now! Talk to the person leading the group later if you have issues; I’m only responsible for registration here, move along quickly! There’s a long line behind you!” the staff urged.

”Okay, sir, sorry!” Thomas apologized, and had no choice but to turn around with the number card to fetch his family.

Thomas struggled through the crowd, turned a few corners, and finally saw his wife and daughters under a street lamp.

”Jenny, I’m back. I got the ship card. Look!”

”Dear, there’s only one card. Don’t I and the kids need one?”

”The person handling immigration told me that with this card, I could take my family to gather, so one card should be enough.”

His wife took the card to see if there were any signs, but there was just a bunch of German on it, which she couldn’t understand.

”Maybe it’s a family card. I saw many people with cards of colors different from ours, but the ones bringing their families all had yellow ones.”

Thomas scratched his head and said, ”Maybe that’s it! I wanted to ask, but there were too many people, and that staff member seemed impatient. He said we could ask the leader after assembling at the designated spot.”

He pointed to the over three-meter-high yellow sign erected on the dock, not far from other colored signs.

”Dad, Mom, where are we going? There are so many people here,” asked Thomas’s younger daughter, Little Jenny.

Thomas squatted down and said to Little Jenny, ”We’re going to a faraway place, and we’ll take a big ship across the sea. It’s called East Africa, and it will be our home in the future.”

”What about our old home?”

”Our old home will be gone.”

”Why?”

”Because there...” For a moment, Thomas didn’t know how to describe the cruelty of war to his daughter.

His wife Jenny intervened to explain, ”Because two big villains broke into our old home, making it unsuitable for us to live there anymore, so we’re moving to a new place.”

”Why doesn’t Dad defeat them so we don’t have to move?”

The couple fell into silence.

...

”Don’t push, everyone settle down!” Mars, an employee of the Venice Shipyard, began maintaining order among the boarding passengers.

”Before boarding, let me briefly introduce myself. I am responsible for the immigrants on this ship. You can call me Mars. During the journey, you can ask me any questions,” Mars said loudly in broken Italian.

”Before that, I must warn you that you will soon go to East Africa, a land governed by the rule of law, so some idle and lazy people can disembark now. Don’t regret it in East Africa later. To be honest, East Africa has stricter security than Europe, and it lacks entertainment venues, no casinos, no taverns. Therefore, gamblers and drunkards can also disembark now. Furthermore, East Africa is not a free market currently; there are no cash transactions, so thieves and robbers can disembark in advance as there is no room for you to play there.”

Mars’s words had an effect, and a few families withdrew, all childless couples. It seemed they planned to ”start a business” in East Africa, but Mars’s words dashed their hopes, so they decided to go to America or Argentina instead!

After these people left, no one else decided to withdraw.

At this moment, someone in the crowd asked, ”Mr. Mars, why does East Africa sound like a prison the way you describe it?”

Mars calmly replied, ”East Africa is a country governed by the rule of law, and the law serves the interests of the majority of people. Furthermore, the laws in East Africa are enforced much stricter than in Europe. Such an environment is naturally a good place for ordinary people, as long as you abide by the law, behave honestly, and work diligently. We just don’t welcome those who are idle, lack self-control, or like to take ’shortcuts.’”

”I don’t care about this. I just want to know if we and our families can have enough to eat in East Africa. Hardship and fatigue don’t matter,” someone asked, expressing their primary concern.

”As long as you’re willing to work, you can eat anywhere. I can tell you for sure that East Africa is short of manpower, so you don’t need to worry about jobs. It’s just whether you can accept them.”

”Can I find out what the main work in East Africa is?”

”Generally speaking, it’s farming, much like what many of your ancestors have done for generations. Of course, you can also enroll in the army, which offers better treatment. If you have skills needed by East Africa, you can also apply to the government for a matched job.”

”Sir, you mentioned earlier that East Africa has no currency. How do we deal with the cash we bring from Europe?”

”East Africa also has banks, where you can deposit your money or exchange it for East Africa’s special shopping vouchers, used to buy some daily necessities.”

...

Mars detailed some of the questions the immigrants had. Finally, Mars gave these people one last choice: if East Africa didn’t seem suitable for their family, they could disembark.

This time, no one chose to leave. In Mars’s few words, these people gained a lot of valuable information. Most importantly, the quality of life for most people heading to East Africa wasn’t much different from Europe, albeit simpler. However, they didn’t care, as Europe’s prosperity had little to do with these rural lower-class people.

The immigrants, screened twice, were thus absorbed by the East African Kingdom. Afterward, statistics showed that the Austro-Italian war led to an outward flow of over 300,000 people from Italy, of which ninety percent went to East Africa, with the most from the Venice area.