African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 295: Chapter 282: The Chain Scheme

”The other members of this batch of cadets should be sent to East Africa, right? Now that the war in East Africa is over, the army can be reorganized.” After sending off Heinrich and Leopold, Ernst thought.

It just so happens that some older German mercenary officers can be retired.

...

The East African war has ended, but the war in Europe has not. Prussia advanced rapidly through France, and a major French army group surrendered without a fight on October 27, 1870, after being besieged for 72 days in Metz.

Meanwhile, Admiral Karl led his troops marauding through northern Italy, stirring up trouble in Lombardy, forcing the Lombardy front-line troops to split their forces to prevent a rear assault.

This allowed Archduke Albert to seize the opportunity, cutting off communication between the Lombardy and Venice troops. Venice was surrounded by the Austro-Hungarian forces. The imperial troops commanded by Archduke Albert gradually wore down the Venetian defenders’ energy. The entire city of Venice slowly teetered on the brink of collapse due to the blockade, especially its citizens, who were struggling deeply.

”Fulton, our household is about to run out of food completely. This might be our last dinner!” Lisa said to her husband with a worried expression.

Fulton looked at the pot of porridge made from dough on the table and did not know what to say.

Lisa continued, ”Since the war began, food prices have increased thirteenfold, and there’s still a shortage. Now, nobody has food at home, and Ailaiyi’s family sold their house a week ago. They have five people, and without raising more money, they might starve to death.”

”Ah, damn war!” Fulton sighed, ”I’ll think of something, see if Mr. Martin can advance my salary a bit.”

Martin is Fulton’s boss, running a textile factory. He is the same Martin who sold his shipyard to the Heixinggen consortium back then.

Back then, Martin invested in textiles with the cash paid by the Heixinggen consortium, catching the great opportunity after Venice was annexed by Italy. By leveraging the unified market, he made a fortune selling textiles to southern Italy.

As a result, at the end of 1869, when the Suez Canal was opened, the revival of shipbuilding in Venice seemed imminent. Martin felt some regret about selling his shipyard. However, a few months later, the war broke out, shipbuilding halted, and it was the textile factory that made a huge profit from military orders. Martin had to sigh about his good luck.

”Knock knock knock...”

The door of Fulton’s house was knocked.

”It’s so late! Who is it?” Fulton asked.

”Mr. Fulton, it’s Mole.”

”Oh, it’s Mole? Do you need something?” Fulton asked.

”Mr. Fulton, I came to say goodbye,” Mole said with a bitter smile.

”Goodbye? You’re leaving Venice?”

”Yes, our family is planning to go to East Africa.”

”That’s impossible!” Fulton exclaimed in surprise, ”Isn’t this a time of martial law? How could you possibly leave Venice?”

Mole smiled bitterly, ”Haha! You overestimate the integrity of Venetian bureaucrats. As long as you pay more, they can satisfy all your needs.”

”I know that, but even if you could bribe your way to move freely, how would you get out of Venice, since the outside is surrounded by Austro-Hungarian forces and the sea is blockaded by the Austro-Hungarian navy?”

”I heard the news from Mr. Winston, as you know, he was my previous boss. His company went bankrupt, and he’s planning to leave Venice for Paraguay and then head to the United States. He told me that there are, in fact, ships that can travel on the sea, but only those of the Heixinggen Ocean Trade Company can freely enter and leave Venice, supposedly because they are backed by Prussian capital, so the Austro-Hungarian navy lets them through.”

”Is that the Heixinggen Ocean Trade Company that recruited people in Venice before the war?”

”Yes.”

”I thought they had stopped operations!”

”Haha, I thought so too, but because of the previous martial law, information was blocked. If not for Mr. Winston, I would still be in the dark.”

”At which dock are they?”

Mole said, ”It’s at the Heixinggen shipyard, which is their premises, so it’s quite closed. Had I known things would turn out this way, I would have left with my family and those country folks long ago.”

”But if your family goes to East Africa, how can you be sure you’ll find work? And the fare must not be cheap!”

”That’s not a worry, I inquired yesterday, going to East Africa or Paraguay doesn’t require money, but the destination isn’t for us to decide.”

”Is there any difference between East Africa and Paraguay?”

”Probably not much difference! But Mr. Winston mentioned there might be more options in Paraguay, though for us poor people, it doesn’t matter where we go.”

As for why the Heixinggen consortium would help Paraguay with population transfer, we have to start from the end of the Paraguayan War at the beginning of the year.

On February 27, 1870, Lopez was surrounded but refused to surrender. He even ordered the execution of his mother and sisters. On March 1, he was captured by Brazilian troops. After shouting, ”I live and die with my country!” Brazilian soldiers hacked him to death with large knives, and then buried him anonymously in the jungle. Thus, the Paraguayan War fully ended.

After taking over the government, Paraguay’s new leaders faced a devastated country, with the biggest problem being the lack of population. Besides the massive loss of adult males due to the war, East Africa also absorbed a substantial number of Paraguayans during the conflict.

In the end, a population survey revealed that Paraguay was left with only 130,000 people, a catastrophic blow for the nation.

This wasn’t the end, as East Africa did not stop, forcing the new Paraguayan government to confront the issue. Considering international implications, Ernst agreed to help Paraguay restore its population.

As for where the new population would come from, East Africa naturally wouldn’t return people, so they had no choice but to continue extracting from Venice.

Originally, East Africa couldn’t fully absorb the Venetian immigrants, so it started sending those who didn’t meet East African standards to Paraguay.

This benevolent act was naturally one that Austria-Hungary would participate in, especially since Venice had more Italian population than desired. Now, everyone together would send Italians to South America.

This was also the reason for Archduke Albert’s slow progress, as Austria-Hungary was organizing large numbers of agrarian people from occupied territories for dispatch to South America, not just Paraguay, but also including Argentina and Brazil.

According to Paraguay’s current demographic structure, the country could absorb 100,000 young single Italian men. Of course, the numbers would be much larger, as Austria-Hungary was eager to send large populations from Venice to South America, possibly even restoring Paraguay to pre-war levels.

Sending hundreds of thousands of people out was challenging for Austria-Hungary at the time. However, East Africa could assist, on the condition that all East African immigration ships halted operations to only serve the Venice area, requiring Austria-Hungary to pay East Africa, which called for imperial fiscal appropriations.

Of course, Paraguay wasn’t without cost. East Africa wasn’t engaging in charity, sharing economic benefits, including significant land and mineral rights in Paraguay, with Austria-Hungary.

However, these couldn’t be monetized, so it was a losing deal overall. Austria-Hungary gained the most, as Veneto, being mostly a rural area, had the largest population. But since Austria-Hungary was eager to secure Hungarian support through massive fiscal appropriations, it agreed to cede part of Lombardy’s western lands to Hungary, albeit with the condition that no Italians were to be left on those lands.

This was another venomous strategy. For Hungary to take Lombard lands, it would have to send Hungarians there. But considering Lombardy’s developed economy, Hungarian nobility was willing to go through with it. As for the Italians, they weren’t of concern. The idea was to drive them towards the Kingdom of Sardinia.

As for the Kingdom of Sardinia, actually avoiding war, some people had already started moving towards France and the Americas. The French Republican Government, under the advice of Count Medina, organized these Italians fleeing from Italy and sent them to the frontlines as cannon fodder to slow down Prussia’s advance.