African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 359: Chapter 38 Urbanization Rate

”Beep... beep... beep...”

A sharp whistle broke the tranquility of the morning, echoing throughout the migrant transition point, waking the sleeping migrants.

Room 023, 013 dormitory.

The sleeping Yuan Ye suddenly sat up from the bed: ”What’s going on?”

At this moment, Li Ji also woke up, rubbing his sleepy eyes: ”Why disturb people’s dreams so early in the morning! And that’s a whistle making that sound, but it’s too unpleasant.”

As everyone was complaining, the whistle finally stopped, but then a melodious sound floated faintly from afar.

”Dong... dong... dong...”

This was the sound from the clock tower of Dar es Salaam, which signified that it was exactly six in the morning in East Africa when it rang.

However, at the migration transition point, the clock tower of Dar es Salaam could only be heard when awake, which is why the East African Immigration Office used a whistle to wake people up.

In the isolated migrant residential area with Li Ji and others, employees of the East African Immigration Office were providing wake-up services for the migrants.

Walking along the corridor, knocking on doors with batons, ”bang bang bang...” Wooden doors seemed ready to explode at any moment.

”Get up! Don’t sleep! Hurry up and wash, you’ll miss breakfast if you’re late!”

First shouting in German, then in Chinese, the originally lazy migrants quickly put on their clothes and got out of bed as no one could stop the migrants’ enthusiasm for eating.

In this era, ordinary people had plenty of opportunities to sleep in; most migrants in East Africa came from the countryside and maintained a routine of working at sunrise and resting at sunset, so their sleep was still quite good.

Filling the belly was the real challenge; once seeds were planted, the rest was left to fate. If the weather was good, they could barely make ends meet, but a slight disaster would lead to famine.

Europe was a bit better; in case of famine, going to a factory could prevent starvation, but in the Far East, most could only flee from famine.

Of course, the situation in Europe wasn’t much better. In 1871, the urbanization rate in Germany was about 30.6%, in France 31%, and in Austria-Hungary 25%, and that’s just the urbanization rate.

The level of urbanization was even lower because most towns depended on agricultural production. A considerable portion of the town’s people still engaged in primary industry, only living in the town. Heixinggen Town was like this; if the year wasn’t good, many faced the risk of bankruptcy.

The most comfortable living at this time were the British, whose domestic urbanization level exceeded 60%. Industry had already become the main body of its economy, and in recent years, due to increased agricultural production in East Africa, North America, and Tsarist Russia, international food prices had steadily decreased, making food prices in industrial countries quite stable, even showing a downward trend.

In 1871, the urbanization rate in East Africa was 17.3%, exceeding the world average (world urbanization rate at 12%), which was relatively high for an agricultural country. At the same time, the urbanization rate in the United States was around 25%, higher than East Africa. Tsarist Russia was about 11%, lower than East Africa, while the world’s most populous country, the Far East, had an urbanization rate of merely about 4%.

The high urbanization rate in East Africa was for a simple reason. First, due to a relatively low population and a majority of migrants, to accelerate the integration of various ethnic groups, East Africa tended to concentrate the population a bit more, to prevent single ethnic group settlements, which was a policy consideration.

Secondly, East African agricultural development focused more on cooperation, so the population was relatively concentrated. Before the establishment of East African colonies, East Africa was truly barren, with more beasts than people. In such an environment, without a sufficient number of people on newly cultivated land, it would be reclaimed by nature in less than three months.

Therefore, East African agriculture was somewhat reminiscent of a national system, requiring central unified resource dispatch. Clearing beasts sometimes required mobilizing militia organizations, even the military, not to mention quite a few indigenous regimes existed here.

Lastly, in recent years, the Heixinggen Consortium had also set up many enterprises in East Africa. Just the newly built Bajamojo Shipyard employed over two thousand workers, and the sisal industry employed more than five thousand workers.

However, the above reasons are not the main ones. The primary reason for East Africa’s high urbanization rate was that the large number of Black people was not counted in the East African population.

The Black population was nearly four times that of the migrant population in East Africa, even after driving away quite a few Black people.

This also led to a rather monotonous life for East Africans, but their living standards were not low globally. After all, they had mines, land, and an exploitable population (Black people), combined with corporatized governance, preventing small farmers from going bankrupt. Even if a region’s grain production decreased, the losses could be offset by grain allocation from other areas.

Moreover, East Africa had multi-season harvests annually, generally more than two seasons a year. This factor was crucial.

Just like how the Far East’s population and industry accelerated southbound after the Song Dynasty, even if the south suffered a disaster, it could be replanted in time, unlike the north, where there was no harvest at all, nor would they face the risk of freezing if extreme weather were not encountered in winter.

East Africa took it a step further, with not much climate difference throughout the region. While rainfall had seasons, it was abundant and not as extreme as in the Far East, resulting in little fluctuation in overall grain output (excluding the factor of continued reclamation).

In the previous life, the Far East rated farmland quality into 15 levels, with the best lands mainly in the south. The top three regions with the best overall farmland quality levels were the middle and lower Yangtze River area, South China, and Jiangnan; an essential factor was that the southern farmland had more sufficient heat, three harvests a year. Medium-class lands mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Sichuan, Shanxi, etc. The black soil of the three northeastern provinces, though fertile with high grain quality, had a significant drawback in insufficient heat. It’s a trade-off.

As agricultural experts would say: ”The black soil of Northeast, squeezed it oozes oil, but due to light and water conditions, only one harvest a year, this is a congenital insufficiency. Regardless of what technology is used, one season’s rice yield per mu is just over a ton, and corn is also just over a ton. This can only be a single-harvest champion, but farmland quality level is based on annual yield, and the three-harvest southern land has more advantages.”

By this previous life’s Far East standard, most farmland in East Africa would be of mid-to-high grade, and the Great Lakes Region would be excellent. Hence, East Africa was destined to be an agricultural powerhouse.

Although the immigrants were eager to get up for breakfast, the Immigration Bureau, which always emphasized order and hygiene, decided to make things a bit more difficult for them.

”Make sure your bedding is tidy! Don’t leave things scattered around. Someone will come to inspect soon. If anyone dares to be sloppy, don’t blame me for not warning you; the consequences are your own responsibility!”

”What’s going on in Dorm 041? There’s so much dust on the floor. Quickly clean it up, otherwise, no dinner for you.”

”Whose clothes are these, number 8856? They’ve only been issued a few days ago! Smell this, does it make sense? Hurry up and wash it clean!”

...

The bustle of the hygiene inspection soon caught the attention of the aid group members, and they could hear the shouts from the immigrant living area, along with the noise of the immigrants washing up.

Ande: ”Shiyan! It’s so noisy in the east! And it sounds like someone is scolding, using both German and Chinese. Could it be that East Africa is mistreating the immigrants?”

Li Ge: ”Dear Thicker Brother, let me go ask and find out!”

So Li Ge walked towards the house where the guides arranged by the East African Immigration Bureau lived.

”Knock, knock, knock...”

”Who’s there? Up so early?”

”...” Li Ge was a bit at a loss because the other person spoke in German.

After a while, the door opened, and seeing Li Ge standing outside, the guide remembered that these people didn’t speak German.

Guide: ”Mr. Li Ge! What brings you here?”

Li Ge: ”Oh, it’s like this, why is it so noisy in the east living area this morning?”

”Is that what you’re asking? Actually, it doesn’t have much to do with you. Those are new immigrants. Naturally, they need to undergo some East African education; otherwise, it’s hard to adapt to the living environment here. If there’s nothing else, you can go back to sleep! Don’t worry about them.”

Li Ge: ”That’s not necessary; we’re just curious. Could we go over there to take a look?”

”Ah! What’s there to see? They’re just people with two eyes and one nose. But if you’re really curious, you can go take a peek, just be sure to come back quickly, so you don’t miss a meal.”

Li Ge: ”No problem, sorry for disturbing you.”

”Not at all! I’m here to provide you with consulting services. Ah...” The guide yawned, saying, ”I’ll go wash up first. If you have any issues, decide for yourselves! Just don’t leave the immigration transition area.” Saying this, the guide turned back indoors to look for towels and toothbrushes.

Li Ge returned with the news: ”Dear Thicker Brother, let’s go and see what’s happening over there!”

Ande: ”Shiyan, is this allowed?”

Li Ge: ”No problem, I’ve already asked. As long as we don’t leave the immigration transition area, we can move freely.”

Ande: ”Then let’s go together!”

So the two headed to the immigrant living area. It was their first time seeing immigrants in East Africa, fresh from the boat. Those who had settled for years in a place like Dar es Salaam were of little interest.

The immigrant living area was concentrated in the east, bustling with people. Everyone was busy washing up and cleaning.

Many had towels around their necks and toothbrushes in hand, heading to the communal bathrooms. Others were making beds and sweeping floors.

Li Ge and Ande noticed that it was very crowded there, but in perfect order. The small dorm room housed eight people, yet it wasn’t dirty or messy, possibly because the immigrants had little luggage.

Li Ge: ”Thicker, I feel like this is less of an immigrant center and more of a military camp!”

Ande: ”Indeed, their uniform style matches that of East African military and police uniforms, only there are slight differences in color and other details.”

Li Ge: ”Also, did you notice? The immigrants here look quite different from Da City’s residents, generally appearing a bit thin.”

This was inevitable, especially among Far East immigrants. If Li Ge and the others had seen the immigrants right off the ship, they would have seemed barely alive. Most immigrants in the transition area had been recuperating for some time, and it was fortunate they were in decent spirits now.