African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 419: Chapter 96 Black Industrial Chain

The No. 1 Canal is being constructed in three segments; the third section has already excavated three kilometers. Due to its location on the alluvial plains between the Wami River and the lower Rhine River, the soil here is relatively soft, with a thick layer and few stones, making it less difficult compared to Canal No. 2 and No. 3. These two canals are closer to the piedmont alluvial fan plains, inevitably encountering large boulders and gravels deposited in the area.

To ensure the excavation work of the No. 1 Canal, Ernst purchased sixty thousand high-quality iron shovels and pickaxes from a subsidiary factory of the Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company in Germany at a high price.

Buying from one’s own company is not economical in terms of price, but the quality can be absolutely guaranteed. The current German products mainly focus on imitation and shoddy work, while the enterprises under the Heixinggen consortium are relatively superior in this aspect.

Since Ernst places considerable emphasis on standards, the companies of the Heixinggen consortium have also set relatively stringent uniform production standards, leading to higher quality, although low prices are unlikely.

A company like the Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company, dedicated to seriously making products, cannot avoid the fate of being imitated. However, the company has its own response strategies.

Besides making efforts on trademarks, the most effective way is to have one’s own exclusive stores. This is the significance of Heixinggen’s supermarkets and stores. As long as the tools are purchased from these authorized stores and supermarkets, they are basically authentic. If you are being cheap and buy counterfeit goods elsewhere, you cannot blame the companies under the Heixinggen consortium.

Of course, according to the current income level of European workers and farmers, the first choice is definitely a low price. If the quality is not as good, it can still adjust automatically; bringing it to the blacksmith for reinforcement, patching up for another three years.

Since the Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company’s share in the European low-price market is not significant, and the middle and high-end product markets are not as large as the low-end market, the middle and high-end production will be partially absorbed by the East African kingdom.

As a semi-command economy, East Africa is more selective about product quality. Diversity is not high, but materials are solid and durable.

The so-called ”if a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools.” For land in East Africa that hasn’t been developed for hundreds of millions of years, it would be too difficult if advanced tools were not used.

...

The soil excavated from the canal was directly piled on both sides of the river channel. Laborers pushed wheelbarrows to dump the soil on the riverbank, which was then leveled by workers on the bank.

Constantine personally went down to the riverbed to inspect the laborers’ working conditions, making the personal guards very nervous. They tried to surround Constantine while maintaining a certain distance to avoid affecting the King’s senses.

The overseers were also quite cautious, even taking out their guns to be ready for any unexpected incidents. Constantine’s visit was unannounced, so they didn’t know which important figure had arrived, making caution the correct approach.

Constantine spoke up, ”Everyone, don’t be nervous. My safety is assured by the guards. You continue with your work as usual!”

With the king’s command, the canal manager signaled to the overseers to continue with their supervision of the laborers.

”The clothes these laborers are wearing look like...” Constantine observed the clothes worn by the laborers with some uncertainty.

”Yes, Your Majesty. The old styles have been discontinued, but the machinery hasn’t been retired. So it’s specifically used to produce shorts and short-sleeved clothes for these laborers.”

The old styles refer to the simple Prussian military uniforms that every East African immigrant had a set of back then, which are no longer produced and distributed free. Currently, East African citizens can use the Rhine Shield to purchase new-style workwear at exclusive stores.

However, those machines were retained by Ernst, specifically to make clothes for indigenous laborers to wear. After all, under the bright sky of East Africa, it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to work naked, which would be quite uncouth.

Spending some costs isn’t wasted either. Now that the slave trade is being strictly controlled, a characteristic of traditional slave ships is that Black Slaves have no clothes.

This way, when British and French inspection ships identify illegal slave trading, they check whether the Black Slaves are naked. The clothes distributed to indigenous laborers in East Africa can serve this purpose.

Additionally, these clothes can help American buyers save some trouble, no need to spend extra on fabric; once they reach their destination, they can be sent to farms to work.

After collaborating with Haiti, the slave trade business conducted by the East African kingdom has been very prosperous. The slaves sold from East Africa have had ”work experience” in East Africa, with some even mastering multiple skills, and their prices are lower than during the era of the slave trade. Sometimes, slaves with defects are even given for free in batches as gifts, satisfying the Southern plantation owners greatly.

Even more satisfactory is that the Haitian government issues labor certificates for the slaves, allowing Southern plantation owners to bypass federal government laws and continue legally owning slaves.

Not only that, but they also became secondhand traders themselves, providing cheap labor services to Northern factory owners. The Black Slaves who underwent a three-to-five-year reformation in East Africa are not inferior in obedience compared to Chinese Laborers in the Far East, Indians, or Italians, and are cheaper, further boosting the current railway construction in the United States and Canada.

The East African Immigration Office even established a unique agency—the Haitian Immigration Bureau—this Haitian Immigration Bureau is a genuine official Haitian agency, but it doesn’t exist in Haiti itself, as there are no restrictions except for the ocean to the world from Haiti.

The East African government issues a full set of certificates to slaves transported to America, arranging them with bilingual English and French documents.

And the reason is quite legitimate: the Haitian government’s talent introduction plan announced in January this year under the pretense that the Haitian government is recruiting immigrants worldwide for the sake of their country’s economic development. After the plan was made public, no region or country other than Africa has responded thus far.

Has Haiti’s economy been developed? The answer is indeed developed, and at high speed. The Haitian government and various parties can share the profits from the slave trade, and even ordinary Haitians can benefit, being able to solve marital issues and gain their own slaves just by paying a little money.

This enables ordinary Haitians to also have the ability to exploit more land, provided they can suppress slave revolts. At this time, the East African government can provide services again, purchasing slaves and receiving guns for free.

With the equipment of Dreyse Rifles, dealing with old rifles became a problem since the East African army wants to eliminate the Dreyse Rifles. Those old relics became even less useful.

With the supply of guns and a stable supply of slaves, Haiti’s plantations can operate again. Haitians use the same methods once employed on them by the French, applying them to the slaves bought from East Africa. Slave plantations have reappeared on Haitian territory. These Black people from East Africa aren’t their compatriots; they can be thoroughly exploited. (Haitian Black people mainly come from West Africa).

In order to support Haiti’s slave business, Ernst recently planned to give some old ships from East Africa to Haiti for free, including two Zanzibar sailing warships that served in the navy.

After all, East Africa can handle slave transportation to Haiti, but transportation from Haiti to the United States can only be managed by Haitians themselves. Clearly, Haiti’s deficient transport capacity can hardly resolve this issue independently.

Reliance on just the ships given by East Africa is not enough. The East African government specifically negotiated (ordered) with the Sultanate of Zanzibar to scrap some unused old ships. Over the years, the Sultanate of Zanzibar has been prospering by relying on East Africa.

With money, the merchants of the Sultanate of Zanzibar have replaced many old ships. As for the old ships, they won’t be used anyway, so they are sent along with the Sultanate of Zanzibar Navy ships to Haiti.

As East Africa’s control over the Sultanate of Zanzibar deepens, keeping a navy in the Sultanate of Zanzibar becomes unnecessary. Apart from the two warships East Africa took from the Sultanate of Zanzibar back then, there were still twelve warships in the Zanzibar navy. This is because East Africa only took the Sultanate’s military ships on the mainland, and the Zanzibar island part remained unaffected.

```