African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 434: Chapter 111 East Africa Railway Project

February 22, 1873.

Sweet Palace.

Ernst convened the entire leadership of the East African government and the East African Railway Company to discuss the construction of the East African Railway. Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the East African Railway could also begin construction.

During the meeting, Ernst detailed the preliminary construction plan for the East African Railway:

”The planned railway is divided into four parts. One is the extension of the First Railway, which will be renamed ’Central Railway’ after completion, to connect East Africa’s coast, the East African Plateau, the Katanga Plateau, the Longda Plateau, the Matebel Plateau, and the South African Plateau.”

”The Central Railway is T-shaped, with a total mileage of over 4,600 kilometers, starting from Dar es Salaam, passing through First Town, Mbeya, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Harare, Bulawayo, and Pretoria.”

”The second is the ’Northern Railway,’ totaling over 1,000 kilometers, starting from Mombasa, passing through Nairobi, and ending in Kisumu.”

”Upon completion of these segments, the railway mileage in East Africa will be about 5,600 kilometers, effectively connecting the territories of East Africa. The Central Railway will undertake the task of inter-regional passenger and cargo exchange between the eastern, western, and southern regions of East Africa, while the Northern Railway will connect the Great Lakes Region with the coast.”

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Ernst said to the chief technical advisor of the East African Railway Company: ”Mr. Noding, please describe the specific construction conditions and plans in detail to everyone. Feel free to mention any difficulties!”

Noding said: ”Gentlemen, before the construction of the First Railway, we had already conducted surveys on the railway lines within East Africa, taking nearly three years to select the routes, avoiding complex terrain. However, we still cannot avoid swamps and wetlands along the way, which is the main challenge for the Central Railway. In contrast, the Northern Railway does not have this issue.”

”Let me briefly use the Pacific Railway in the United States as an example. The total length of the Pacific Railway is about 3,000 kilometers, while our planned length for the Central Railway far exceeds the Pacific Railway, and the construction workload per unit distance is also higher than that of the Pacific Railway.”

The issue of construction volume is one that Ernst brought upon himself, as he believed this East African railway construction occupied the best routes within the entire East African Kingdom (avoiding mountainous regions without the need for tunnel development). It’s almost certain to be the main artery of the East African Railway in the future, so they simply built a three-line railway, while Europe and America at the time mainly used single-line or double-line railways.

”Regarding the industrial foundation of both countries, the United States has a complete industrial system that can almost fully meet all railway production needs, whereas East Africa’s foundation in this area is zero, unable to even complete basic rail production.”

This means the construction of the East African Railway still relies on imports, but East Africa calculated that currently, imports are cheaper than producing them locally. Normally, this wouldn’t be the case, but after the economic crisis broke out in Europe and America, an excess of railway capacity perfectly suits the appetite of East Africa. Now, Ernst is waiting for the railway industry in Europe and America to completely hit rock bottom before preparing to take action.

So Ernst added: ”There’s no need to worry about this issue, as we will be purchasing a large quantity of materials from Europe. Currently, Austria and Germany have an abundance of surplus steel production capacity that can fully meet the needs of the East African Railway. Even if the German region is insufficient, there are still England, France, and the United States...”

Noding: ”Your Highness, that’s only one issue. The next problem is the shortage of technical workers. Although Black people can meet more than 85% of the demand, some skills are beyond their capability and require professional railway workers.”

Ernst: ”This is also not a problem. I can inform you that Austria is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis, with over a dozen railway companies going bankrupt, and this number is still rising. Meanwhile, the economic crisis will spread to other industrial countries, especially the United States, Germany, and France, which have also excessively built railways in recent years. This means a lot of railway workers are unemployed. I have already ordered Austrian enterprises to recruit a large number of experienced railway workers, and once they arrive in East Africa, they can effectively solve this problem.”

Noding: ”As for the construction period, your requirement is to complete the main construction of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway within three years. Compared with the data of the Pacific Railway, we believe at least over 60,000 workers are needed.”

The Pacific Railway took a total of four years to complete, with a total workforce of about 15,000.

This time, the East African Kingdom’s Central Railway alone exceeds the length of the Pacific Railway by nearly 1,500 kilometers, and combined with the Northern Railway, the project volume is almost twice that of the Pacific Railway. The conditions in the East African Kingdom are vastly different from those in the United States, especially in terms of transportation. Given the short construction period, a large amount of manpower is necessary.

Ernst: ”Rest assured, regarding this point, to support the railway construction work, the government has mobilized 100,000 indigenous laborers from various places to complete this task.”

Although saying 100,000 indigenous laborers sounds like a lot, it is actually less than the workers currently digging the Central Canal in East Africa, which exceeds 250,000. In this regard, it has not even surpassed the Suez Canal. Egypt paid for the construction of the Suez Canal with 120,000 lives, yet East Africa is far from that!”

This shows the incomparability between railway and canal construction volumes. However, the advantage of canal digging lies in its low technical difficulty; Emperor Yang of Sui, an ancient monarch from a thousand years ago, could command this, and a thousand years later, the Suez Canal still maintained such high casualties. It can only be said that the French people in charge of building the canal truly regarded Egyptian lives as livestock. No, worse than livestock.

The East African Kingdom, although slightly more conscientious than the French, still merely considers Black people as livestock; livestock still need to be fed, unlike the French, who didn’t even want to pay for that.

100,000 indigenous railway workers are completely sufficient for East Africa. It’s worth noting that in the 1930s in the Far East, there were only 230,000 railway workers nationwide. The Russian Trans-Siberian Railway employed a total of 90,000 workers, and the total length of the Trans-Siberian Railway is nearly 10,000 kilometers, almost twice the current railway construction plan of the East African Kingdom. It was also in one of the most difficult to construct permafrost zones. In the future, the difficulty of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the Far East will even exceed that of the Trans-Siberian Railway (cold, hypoxia plus permafrost); at least in the summer, the construction conditions of the Trans-Siberian Railway are much better.

Overall, everyone finds that the only issue with East African railway construction is the weak industrial foundation; everything else is a minor problem.

So, Ernst continued: ”While constructing the railway, we should also complete the preliminary industrialization of East Africa by 1880, achieving full autonomy and freeing ourselves from dependence on steel demands from Germany and Austria.”

This is also why Ernst demands the completion of the Central Railway construction within three years. East Africa needs to develop industry, and it can concurrently develop coal and iron mines in Zimbabwe. All of this requires the railway as support, as the coal and iron ore resources on the East African Plateau are still too few. As for South Africa, that will have to wait, since without absolute power, that region is the border of East Africa, and development should be paused for now.

Moreover, once Zimbabwe is developed, East Africa’s control over its territories will reach a new level, significantly enhancing control over the southern and western areas, preventing the current imbalance of relying solely on troops to maintain regional security.