African Entrepreneurship Record

Borland spoke eloquently, but the members of the inspection team showed no reaction; instead, they took notes line by line.

”Mr. Charlieran, seeing is believing. Next, I will take you on a field inspection so you can vividly see the conditions in Bela City.”

Subsequently, under Borland’s arrangement, they went straight to the city’s location. By then, Bela City had already built quite a few factories, but most remained idle.

”Look, this location is less than a kilometer from the station, and to the left is the Pelong Kui River, whose waters can be fully utilized.”

Chemical companies are generally built near rivers or by the sea because the industry is water-intensive and also generates significant pollution.

Therefore, in later generations, chemical enterprises prioritized downstream river areas or opted for seaside locations with more relaxed discharge standards. Of course, in the 19th century, there was no strict concept of ”pollution,” like the BASF company’s main plant, which was built inland by the Rhine River.

”The railway can directly transport coal, lead, zinc, and other resources from Matabele Province and the central areas to Bela City. Moreover, East Africa is abundant in rubber, being the world’s largest rubber producer. We have also planned new rubber production zones in the railways’ western areas, and by then, Mozambique will also become an important rubber producing area in East Africa.”

Mozambique, especially in its central and northern regions, has very abundant rainfall and a climate suitable for rubber growth. In contrast, the Matabele Plateau experiences reduced rainfall due to its highland terrain, making it less suitable for rubber.

Of course, another important reason for planning new rubber production areas in Mozambique is its proximity to sea ports, with large areas of land suitable for rubber planting, facilitating exports.

Rubber is widely used in the chemical industry. Even rubber products such as tires and mats contain large amounts of chemicals and thus belong to the chemical industry. Goodyear in the United States was the first to develop and master vulcanized rubber technology, which significantly enhanced rubber’s utility.

In the early 19th century, the rubber industry emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, rubber had a fatal flaw: it was overly temperature-sensitive. A slight temperature increase would make it soft, sticky, and odorous, while a lower temperature would make it brittle and hard. This flaw rendered rubber products unmarketable, causing early rubber industries to invariably face crises.

In January 1839, Goodyear’s experiment made a major breakthrough. He accidentally heated rubber, lead oxide, and sulfur together, producing a leather-like substance that did not decompose at high temperatures like elastic rubber was known to do.

Nevertheless, this world-changing technology did not change Goodyear’s fate, as he died in poverty in 1860.

Due to the low technical barrier of vulcanized rubber technology, most enterprises directly used it, including those in East Africa. By then, Goodyear had been dead for over thirty years, and the massive development of the rubber industry worldwide, including in East Africa, owes gratitude to this American.

Especially in East Africa, standing at the forefront of the automobile industry’s development, coupled with early investments in rubber planting, East Africa has profited immensely from the rubber industry.

This is equally important for BASF. As a giant in the German chemical field, BASF has made breakthroughs in the rubber industry, and the fundamental reason for this result is the influx of cheap East African rubber into the German market.

German land, though fertile, sees Junker nobility still primarily engaged in grain cultivation. Given the limited space, priority is given to grain crops.

In grain crop cultivation, East Africa is far below Germany, especially in mechanization and fertilizer industry development. Germany, with a few hundred thousand square kilometers of land, can support a population of nearly fifty million thanks to agricultural technological progress.

Naturally, this aligns with East Africa’s agricultural development strategy. In recent years, East African agriculture has increasingly shifted towards the economic crop industry.

In the field of commodity grain agriculture, there are too many competitors, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Tsarist Russia, all strong nations in this area.

But in the realm of tropical cash crops, East Africa’s competitors are only Brazil, several small South American countries, and India. These four major competitors, with France possessing many overseas colonies, barely counts as half a competitor.

Moreover, these tropical countries or powers are far inferior to East Africa in agricultural technology, similar to how East Africa is lagging behind Euro-American countries in commercial grain agriculture.

Furthermore, East Africa’s land area far surpasses the aforementioned tropical countries. Even Brazil has nearly a third less area than East Africa. Brazil’s population is also a drawback, with a national population of less than twenty million, approximately fifteen million.

In the 19th century, Brazil was not yet in the frenzy of developing its interior like in the previous life. Brazil’s population is mainly concentrated in the southeast’s narrow region, with the northern Amazon rainforest occupying more than half the country, making its development of interior tropical grassland areas negligible compared to East Africa.

However, Brazil’s southeast does indeed have superior climate conditions, belonging to a subtropical monsoon climate, similar to southern Mozambique in East Africa.

Currently, the primary destination for European immigrants is evidently southern Argentina. Additionally, Portugal, Brazil’s sovereign country, has a relatively small population, so Brazil’s current development is entirely expected.

In other words, without the support of the two major areas of population outflow, the Far East and the German Region, East Africa would not have been able to develop the African continent in a short time.

Once the population has formed, East Africa’s development naturally progresses rapidly. Despite most of East Africa being underdeveloped, it must be noted that the current East African population is mainly concentrated in the central and eastern regions.

The combined area of these two regions reaches nearly three million square kilometers, even before the South African war, East Africa’s population and economic scale had already reached the standard of a great power.

...

”Mayor Borland, thank you for your introduction. We will faithfully report the specific conditions of Bela City to headquarters. As for the specific results, we still have to wait for headquarters’ decision,” Charlieran said politely.

Borland naturally understood Charlieran’s words, but the purpose of the inspection team was to provide a data analysis report. The members’ views are crucial, and their description will undoubtedly contain subjectivity.

Therefore, after the preliminary inspection of Bela City, the city government still provided everyone with complete thoughtful service.

Three days later.

The inspection team members concluded their visit in Bela City, and Borland, along with municipal officials, personally saw them off at the dock.

However, Charlieran and others were tight-lipped. No matter how Borland tried, they revealed no more information.

Thus, in a state of anxiety, Borland waved farewell to the BASF inspection team. As the steamer’s whistle blew, Borland sighed and said, ”We’ve done everything we could. As for the outcome, it’s no longer within our control. Let’s head back!”

Fortunately, Borland’s hopes were not in vain. A month later, the East African Central Government formally instructed Bela City’s government to fully cooperate with BASF in setting up a factory.

Of course, Bela City was not the only city given the opportunity, as Mombasa City also succeeded in hosting a BASF branch.

BASF is very optimistic about the market prospects in East Africa, so it decided to establish branches in both Mombasa and Bela City.

Mombasa needs no elaboration, as it is already an essential city for East Africa’s textile industry, along with western Nairobi, with excellent foundational conditions.

Bela City was chosen because BASF, after understanding the central industrial development in East Africa, made a strategic bet. As BASF’s main business is still textile dyes, and the second-largest textile center in East Africa is Bulawayo in Matabele Province, BASF’s choice of Bela City as a branch location was a strategic move aimed at the core goal.