African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1163: Chapter 172: Rhodes Company

Buenos Aires.

Rhodes, the boss of Rhodes Company, is calculating the recent revenue, and judging by the corners of his mouth, the company’s business this month is still very prosperous.

Rhodes is a British immigrant, sharing the same name as the boss of the South African De Beers Mining Company, but the two chose different paths.

Despite losing most of its area to East Africa, South African mining is still very promising, but the De Beers Mining Company cannot become the giant it was in the past, nor can the Rhodesia colony from the past be established.

Rhodes from Argentina, also from Britain, clearly found more promise in developing the livestock industry in Argentina.

Of course, being British, Rhodes did not choose to be a farmer, but instead used his identity and British family connections to engage in trade between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

After setting down the accounts, Rhodes said to his secretary: ”Very good, this month’s revenue went up another eight percent. I really hope this war doesn’t end too soon, so we can make even more money.”

Secretary Boer wasn’t so optimistic, he reminded: ”Boss, the demand for goods in Europe is skyrocketing, even grain is in short supply, let alone the livestock industry. Taking advantage of this period, we should export more beef to Europe. However, we have some issues, many farm owners are taking the opportunity to raise prices, which has significantly increased our purchase cost, and the freight charges have also risen due to tight transport capacity.”

Everyone raising prices naturally thins out the profits, and besides, Argentina is just a small country, only able to drink a bit of soup, so Argentina definitely doesn’t earn as much as in the past.

This is easy to understand, the profits from World War I in the past were mostly eaten up by the United States, and now because of the existence of East Africa, it is even harder for other countries to get a sip.

This is especially true for countries like Argentina with relatively single industries. In the past, Argentina’s main competitor was the United States, because the United States itself is the largest food and agricultural producer outside of Europe, despite Argentina’s fertile land, its national territory is ultimately limited.

And now with the addition of East Africa, it’s even more excessive. Though East African agriculture seems unimpressive in the early days, through decades of development, East Africa has clearly become one of the few agricultural powerhouses in the world.

Although East Africa’s water and soil conditions are worse than the United States and Argentina, through soil improvement, agricultural technology enhancement, and comprehensive hydraulic engineering construction, East Africa’s level of agricultural development has reached the world’s top tier.

And the top tier has only two countries, one is Germany, the other is East Africa. Germany has leading advantages in fertilizers and pesticides and other agricultural technologies, while East Africa is the world’s number one in agricultural mechanization.

Achieving the number one level of agricultural mechanization in the world is quite terrifying, after all, East Africa’s domestic area exceeds 10 million square kilometers, having the world’s largest arable land area.

East Africa’s arable land area has surpassed that of the United States, and the reason for this situation is quite simple, East African population is more than that of the United States, breeding more people naturally requires developing more land.

Though East Africa’s land quality is not as good as Russia’s Ukrainian Plain, the U.S. central black soil area, Argentina’s fertile lands, compared to Germany, it’s much better. Without human amelioration, Germany’s northern part is actually unsuitable for traditional agricultural development.

Northern Germany is a temperate oceanic climate, in the past, it only suited pastoral development, glacial plains leading to poor soil, conversely, Germany’s southern part, although mainly hilly heights, is the main wheat-producing area of Germany. Of course, that’s history, through centuries of development, Northern Germany has clearly become a very developed agricultural area.

Actually, most areas developing agriculture only need to solve the issues of water and light heat to develop agriculture.

And for East Africa, solving the problem of water sources is the most important in agriculture, but this problem was resolved last century with large-scale hydraulic construction, what follows is just embellishment on water.

Back to Rhodes Company.

Rhodes replied to Boer: ”Nowadays, the only ones daring to do business directly with Germany and Austria-Hungary are the United States and East Africa, whereas we in Argentina ultimately have too weak a national power, we are too timid, truly a pity!”

Under the blockade of England and France, countries like Argentina are unable to be as bold as the United States and East Africa when trading with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

As two strong nations outside Europe, the United States and East Africa are not afraid of England and France retaliating in the future, but other countries are not, including Japan, which is also a great power.

Japan’s position is too far from Europe, if Japan dares to boldly engage with the Allies like the United States and East Africa, the United Kingdom and France would not give a friendly face, even though Japanese Navy strength is great, it doesn’t help.

The Japanese Navy now has over seventy million tons in total tonnage, this level in Europe is only slightly lower than Germany and France, but Japan fundamentally has no capacity to invest its navy in the Atlantic region, after all, Japan does not want to repeat Russia’s past mistakes.

Boer said: ”Argentina can’t be compared with the two strong nations, the United States and East Africa, even though we have the foundation to become a world great power, Argentina’s population shortcomings are too obvious. Looking at the world today, it is difficult for a country with less than forty million population to become a world great power.”

The standard Boer mentioned is referenced from France, whose population barely reaches forty million, it’s a relatively small population among the great powers.

Although Spain has even fewer people, Spain has completely replaced Japan, becoming the doorman among the great powers. In essence, Spain’s comprehensive national power could hardly be considered among the great powers, it’s a somewhat controversial nation, but having some controversy is better than none, just another event similar to the Spanish-American War and Spain may completely fall off from the world great power status.

On the contrary, Japan, in just a few years after the Russo-Japanese War, has firmly established itself as a great power nation, although Japan’s economic sphere may still be inferior to Spain, Japan’s military prowess can outstrip Spain by several streets.

Moreover, Spain’s economic scope doesn’t necessarily surpass Japan by much, after losing most overseas colonies, Spain almost has no retreat, whereas Japan still has Korea as a colony and plays a crucial role in Far East trade, almost monopolizing most of the business in the Far East Empire’s Northeast region.

Japan’s domestic population reaches as high as fifty million, ranking fourth in Europe, just behind Austria-Hungary, once the population exceeds fifty million, it almost qualifies as a great power.

In contrast, Argentina’s population is only eight million, making it unlikely to stir much trouble, it falls short even when compared to a small country like Belgium.

As a British man, Rhodes actually has little affection for Argentina, it’s just that his interests are now closely tied to Argentina, hence can’t help complaining a bit.

If Argentina really becomes a world great power, that would not be what Rhodes hopes for. Argentina’s territory is close to three million square kilometers, truly has the foundation for a great power, now it’s just in population and industry that Argentina has significant gaps compared to other great powers.

Rhodes told Boer: ”Ultimately, our most important task now is to secure more orders, first get the money, once we have money, whether Argentina matters to us or not is irrelevant.”

This is actually the thought of most Argentinians, Argentina is just an immigrant country, and many immigrants have only arrived in Argentina in recent years, so it’s impossible to have much affection towards Argentina.

This is different from East Africa; in its early days East Africa selectively chose poor populations for immigration and skillfully utilized national propaganda machines, thus East Africa’s image to its immigrants is very positive.

Now East Africa’s domestic population is in the third or fourth generation, their emotional attachment to East Africa is even deeper, and with the ability of the Argentine government, they simply cannot achieve East Africa’s level.