African Entrepreneurship Record

Mtwara City.

”According to the instructions from the provincial government, we must vigorously boost the cotton economy. In the future, Mtwara needs to increase cotton production by more than threefold to respond to the great development of the cotton economy policy, expand cotton export scale, reduce the area of grain cultivation, and adapt to the trend of agricultural production structure adjustment, providing post-development momentum for the city.”

Cotton planting in East Africa has always been in a lukewarm state, because the country’s key investments are not in the textile industry. In the past, it only formed three major cotton areas: the northern cotton area centered on Nairobi, the southern cotton area centered on Bulawayo, and the Malawi Lake cotton area. These three cotton areas accounted for half of East Africa’s cotton production. Besides these, there are also premium long-staple cotton areas like Jezira and Somali, and various small cotton-producing areas relying on cities.

The reason for the change in the East African government’s attitude to strongly encourage cotton planting is directly due to the increase in German orders.

The East African tour of German Chancellor Kapriwe was crucial in making East Africa one of the raw material supply bases for German industrial development, and among the various raw material supplies that East Africa can provide, East African cotton is particularly valued.

Germany lacks cotton. As of now, Germany is the largest textile country on the European continent, ranking third in the world, just behind the United Kingdom and the United States.

In Germany, more than thirty thousand workers, nearly forty thousand, are directly engaged in the textile industry, with one in every ten industry workers working in textiles.

In 1892, Germany’s cotton textile industry created nearly seven hundred million Marks in commodities, which was thirty percent higher than Germany’s second-largest industry, the coal industry, and forty percent higher than the steel industry.

However, Germany’s coal and iron ore resources can basically be self-sufficient, while its raw cotton is almost entirely reliant on imports. In one year in 1892, Germany imported more than seven hundred million pounds of cotton. No other German industry relies on imports for key raw materials as much as the cotton textile industry does.

At the end of the 19th century, the price of cotton continued to rise. The fundamental reason for the increase in cotton prices was that the two largest cotton-producing regions in the world, the United States and India, increasingly consumed their own cotton, with prices doubling.

Before the American Civil War, American factories only used about twenty percent of domestic cotton, but in the 1870s, this proportion rose to about thirty-three percent, and after 1892, it rose to over forty percent. India also benefited from British investment, and with population growth, the scale of the cotton textile industry continues to expand.

Therefore, Germany urgently needs to find a stable cotton supply base worldwide to meet the needs of its domestic cotton textile industry.

Before cooperating with East Africa, Germany had attempted cotton planting in its colony Togoland (now the Togo Republic in West Africa), but it ended in failure.

After all, in the 19th century, aside from East Africa and Egypt, as well as some North African countries, Africa basically had no experience in cotton planting.

In Togo, Germany couldn’t even find an abundant workforce with cotton planting experience, and cotton planting on German soil was small-scale. Compared to the UK and the US, Germany was lacking in experience in the field of cotton planting.

Additionally, Germany had only controlled Togoland for a few years and its understanding of local natural and climatic conditions was quite lacking, so failure was inevitable.

Of course, choosing Togoland for experimentation was not fundamentally wrong. Togoland, in its past life, was a major African cotton producer and after gaining independence, its cotton planting industry expanded over seventy times. Its neighbor, Benin (now the Kingdom of Dahomey and Portuguese Vida colony) even became Africa’s largest cotton producer in the 21st century.

However, making Togoland a German cotton supply base within a few years was unrealistic, and Togoland had a critical flaw—it was long and narrow, with a small area.

Beyond this, Togoland’s infrastructure was almost nonexistent. Selecting it as Germany’s cotton supply base would necessitate substantial investment, and the surrounding regions of Togoland were densely populated with colonies of other countries, making the investment risk high.

Germany’s other colonies, such as the Pacific islands and the largest, Cameroon, mostly belong to tropical rainforest regions, unsuitable for cotton planting.

Therefore, looking around the globe, no place was more suitable than East Africa as Germany’s cotton supply base. East Africa is already one of the main cotton suppliers for Germany and Austria-Hungary, especially in the field of premium long-staple cotton, which monopolizes the markets of both countries. Without sourcing from East Africa, one could basically only purchase at high prices from British merchants. Moreover, the reason East Africa was sanctioned by the United Kingdom also required an export point, so everyone is meeting their own needs.

”The Agricultural Academy and German experts have already conducted an in-depth study of the climate and soil around Mtwara, determining that Mtwara and surrounding areas are suitable for cotton growth. Coupled with our coastal advantages in Mtwara, we are allowed to vigorously develop the cotton planting industry under the central government’s directives.”

Mtwara has always been one of East Africa’s important port cities and one of the earliest developed port cities, being as important as Dar es Salaam, Bajamojo, and Tanga in early East African port development.

However, with the continual opening of East African territories, Mtwara City has faced increasing competitive pressure, especially with the emergence of new port cities rising rapidly like mushrooms after rain.

In fact, the three seaports within the new Württemberg province all face this pressure. Previously, the new Württemberg province could only cling to the Malawi Lake Industrial Zone, but now with German capital influx, the provincial government sees it as a new opportunity for economic development.

Not only German capital, but Austria-Hungary is the same, with both countries now entering a new stage of investing along the East African coast.

Regarding the cotton planting industry, aside from providing order support, there’s even a plan to invest in a batch of ginning factories along the East African coast to encourage East African cotton exports, saving labor costs, providing high-quality cotton varieties, standardizing cotton production quality, and sending domestic experts and technicians to scientifically guide the East African cotton planting industry.

This is beneficial for the East African cotton planting industry, and of course, East Africa’s excellent infrastructure also makes German capital optimistic about the East African market.

For example, basic infrastructure like railways, roads, and ports require little to no investment, which is crucial for German companies. If cotton were to be planted in Togoland, these supporting facilities would need to be constructed by German enterprises themselves.

Mtwara, for instance, already has port, railway, and road facilities. It inherently has a certain industrial and economic foundation. The new Württemberg province also has abundant land resources. Even without changing the original crop planting area, a large amount of cotton fields can be obtained through reclamation and other methods.

Of course, East Africa’s labor costs are also very important. Although wage costs are to be paid, East Africa is efficient!

In Togoland, Germans face not only the indigenous people’s lack of planting experience but also substantial management difficulties. Most importantly, the locals even fear large livestock!

Lastly, this matter is indeed absurd. After all, many African indigenous people weren’t part of a traditional agricultural civilization. As mentioned earlier, most native African oxen are located in Northeast Africa and North Africa.

To many African indigenous people whose main culture is hunting-gathering, the cattle species represent Africa’s native ’wildebeest, zebras, rhinos,’ etc., similarly aggressive and dangerous species.

Considering all factors, East Africa is the best choice for German capital. The East African immigrants are primarily farmer communities, East Africa is an agricultural powerhouse, and as long as operations are proper, investing in East Africa won’t likely lead to the same losses as in Togoland.