African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 604: Chapter 282: The Journey Home

Constantine’s inspection trip to Matebele Province lasted only a few days before he had to return to First Town City to celebrate the New Year with his family. This journey to Matebele Province basically stopped at Harare City.

As he boarded the special train, Constantine regretfully said, ”This time is rushed, if only I could go to Bulawayo and take a look!”

”Your Majesty, you can visit Bulawayo City next year. Now that there is a railway, it’s not troublesome to go to these cities. Besides Bulawayo, the only city worth visiting in the south is New Hamburg Port City, but New Hamburg Port City is entirely built following the template of cities like Dar es Salaam; they are more or less the same, without any particular uniqueness.”

Kade, the steward, said so, but in fact, New Hamburg Port City is quite different from many ports in East Africa because it has three port areas within the bay, including a naval port, and there are both inner and outer ports. If you really go to New Hamburg Port City to browse by ship, you can appreciate its unique layout.

As for Kade’s comment that it was constructed according to the template of coastal cities like Dar es Salaam, it wasn’t wrong, but it’s more about having the same standards reflected in urban infrastructure and living facilities.

”Kade, how is Heixinggen Province doing, which is the former capital of the Transvaal Republic, Pretoria? I haven’t heard much news about it,” Constantine inquired.

Before East Africa occupied the South African region, Pretoria was undoubtedly one of the top cities in South Africa, only Cape Town being a notch above. Now there’s no news at all, so Constantine was quite curious.

Kade replied, ”Pretoria is now entirely a military stronghold of South Africa, with no remarkable economic development. In recent years, the population growth in Heixinggen Province, Southern Border Province, and New Baden Province has been far less than in Matebele Province next door. Only the coastal New Hamburg Port City has been developed, mainly due to the construction of the Central Railway.”

”Wasn’t there talk of Ernst planning to raise sheep in South Africa? How has that turned out?”

”Raising livestock takes time. We spent a whole decade and more just to catch up with other countries in order to improve East Africa’s livestock industry. East Africa’s land area is dozens of times that of a typical country, so our livestock industry scale is not actually large when you scale it, quite the opposite. Raising sheep is also like that; it’s currently only in the Southern Border Province.”

Hearing this, Constantine felt it was a bit petty and said, ”Just one province, the Southern Border Province? Isn’t that a bit small in scale?”

Kade laughed and said to Constantine, ”Your Majesty, the Southern Border Province is not small at all. You’ve been in East Africa for too long and have become accustomed to thinking in terms of a big country. One province in East Africa is larger than many countries in Europe. If taken alone, it compares to some medium-sized countries, so the ranching industry of a province like Southern Border may be much stronger than in many countries. Other countries have to consider grain cultivation, so they can’t use all their land for grazing.”

Listening to Kade’s words, Constantine suddenly realized that his thinking mode had indeed changed. In Europe, aside from serving the Prussian military, he was mostly focused on the industries of his fief.

In contrast, the Principality of Heixinggen was essentially a township; sometimes Constantine would worry about the limited land of the subordinate villages. However, after arriving in East Africa, with lands spanning tens of thousands of square kilometers, he had become numb. For instance, this inspection trip to Harare City was in the name of inspecting Matebele Province, which itself spans over 300,000 square kilometers, almost as large as half of Germany.

When Constantine first arrived in East Africa, the territory was confined to the region around the East African Plateau, which was two to three times the size of Germany. Over the years, there has been continuous territorial expansion, and East Africa has become one of the world’s major countries.

Converting land into national power takes time, but reaching a certain size is quite satisfying, fulfilling Constantine’s great vanity. The only drawback is that he cannot boast about his achievements to his old friends in Europe like before.

Kade continued, ”Of course, the Southern Border Province is only developing the eastern region. The western part, bordering the former Orange Free State, has not been developed. The east is not just about sheep farming; there’s also some agricultural activity, not much different from other eastern regions. The north mainly raises cattle, horses, and pigs, considering industry differentiation to avoid direct competition. New Hamburg Port City is now busy building a wool textile center to form two textile centers in East Africa with Nairobi City in the north. It is heard that Bulawayo City is also actively working toward becoming a central textile hub in the middle, following a two-pronged approach. The western region where Bulawayo is located has a relatively arid climate, making it suitable for cotton cultivation and sheep farming.

Raising cattle is significantly different from raising sheep, but cattle are certainly more demanding. Looking at the world’s quality pastures, areas like Europe and Argentina have excellent grasslands. Northern Europe’s temperate oceanic climate and Argentina’s subtropical grassland climate reflect mild temperatures and lush grass, making them ideal for cattle farming.

Relatively arid climates are suitable for sheep farming, typical examples being Australia’s Murray-Darling Grasslands and the northwestern regions of the Far East Empire. Much of the South African Plateau receives limited rainfall and has a relatively dry climate, making sheep farming very suitable.

Of course, South Africa is also suitable for cattle farming. Cattle, sheep, and humans alike prefer climates that are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, a characteristic that East Africa’s vast plateau region meets.

The choice to raise cattle by the former Transvaal Republic, or the Boers, relates to their habits and markets. Many Boers came from the Netherlands and the Three Kingdoms of Germany and France, countries where the livestock industry primarily focused on cattle. So, they continued their traditional practices upon immigrating to South Africa, with Europe as their export market. Europe and America are the regions with the highest beef consumption in the world.

In comparison, East Africa still lags a bit in this regard. Nevertheless, East Africa’s livestock industry is also primarily focused on cattle. However, given the short development time of East Africa’s livestock industry, it will take time for East African civilians to enjoy beef.

As for sheep farming, aside from the wool textile industry mentioned earlier, mutton itself also has a high export value. East Africa is in close proximity to the Arab regions and Central Asia, both of which have a considerable consumption of lamb.

While Constantine and Kade were speaking, the special train had already entered East Africa’s largest railway bridge, the Zambezi River Railway Bridge.

The Zambezi River Railway Bridge is one of the notable projects constructed in East Africa, entirely built using steel structures with steel imported from Europe during the 1873 economic crisis, so the costs were not high.

Although East Africa has the Nile River and the Congo River, world-class rivers, the significance of the Zambezi River to East Africa is far more important than the former two.

Because the Zambezi River is likely to become East Africa’s unique world-class river in the future, its lower south bank is still under Portuguese control.

As for the Congo River, while East Africa controls a large portion, the river runs through tropical rainforest regions, which have low economic value.

The Nile River fares slightly better than the Congo River, but its natural conditions and economic value within its range are far inferior to that of the Zambezi River basin.

Lastly, there’s the relatively obscure Orange River. As a frontier river, it’s not emphasized, with rather poor conditions within the region, and only the upper reaches, which border the Transvaal and Orange Free State, have any value and are suitable for human habitation.

Of course, none of East Africa’s rivers can completely satisfy Ernst. East Africa’s river basins are also fragmented, so their contribution to bolstering East Africa’s economy does not compare to other rivers of similar rank around the world.

The only avenue with promising hydropower resources is currently undevelopable. However, this can be advantageous for East Africa, given that humanity’s exploration zeal for major river basins is quite strong, as demonstrated by the tracing of the Nile River.

The lack of accessible inland rivers in East Africa has hindered other colonizers’ colonial processes in Africa, contrasting with regions like the Niger River, where favorable conditions accelerated Western colonizers’ conquest timeline.