African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1287: Chapter 296: The Merchant of Basra

February 14, 1917.

Basra Port.

Since the Baghdad railway was fully completed, it has become the main artery of trade between East Africa and the Allies.

At Basra Port, as the railway extended here, the port also underwent a new round of renovation. However, even the renovated Basra Port clearly cannot meet the current busy operations of the Baghdad railway.

Large cranes and drawbridges continuously transport goods from ships while tens of thousands of dockworkers gather here to unload bulk goods from the ships.

Some important materials are loaded onto trains as soon as they are unloaded from the ships, heading directly north along the railway. Basra Port also gathers numerous cars and ships to share the pressure of the Baghdad railway.

Even so, there is still a large amount of cargo that can only be temporarily stored in Basra’s warehouses, among which are not limited to food, cotton, arms, and other wartime supplies.

To ensure the safety of this lifeline, the Ottoman Empire Navy and the East African Navy constantly patrol the Persian Gulf Region.

The main task of the Ottoman Empire Navy is to prevent the British from launching sneak attacks on Basra Port, while the East African Navy naturally operates under the guise of escorting their own country’s merchant ships.

Meanwhile, the British Navy in the Persian Gulf can only be impotently furious, much like East Africa facing the English Channel and the Suez Canal.

The British Navy in the Persian Gulf and the colonies clearly do not have the powerful strength of the home fleet, challenging the East African Indian Ocean Fleet. The Indian Ocean is the home field of the East African Navy.

At some point, a large building complex rose at Basra Port. It didn’t look like a storage area, nor a residential area, but rather a military zone.

Karl looked at the Basra refugee camp and jumped off the truck, greeted by a squad of Allied forces.

It was clear that they were wearing Ottoman Empire army uniforms, but the leader was a German officer.

The German officer, upon seeing Karl’s convoy, happily said, ”Mr. Karl, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

Karl replied quite familiarly, ”Officer Dor, let’s skip the pleasantries for now. How is the situation at Basra refugee camp?”

The German officer named Dor said, ”Currently, there are more than three thousand immigrants at Basra, most of them from Ukraine. They’re all young and strong, with women making up as much as forty percent...”

It is not uncommon to see German officers at Basra Port, as the Ottoman Empire is also an Ally member, and there are numerous German instructors in the Ottoman Empire. Dor was one of them, and he was introducing the refugee camp population situation to Karl and other East Africans.

Karl, the ”merchant” from East Africa, said, ”We’ll conduct health inspections on them and evaluate prices based on our standards.”

Dor replied, ”That’s certainly no problem, but I hope that Mr. Karl can be lenient, as we are under enormous pressure to support the daily operation of this refugee camp.”

The so-called refugee camp is actually a hiding spot for stolen goods. After all, Europeans could never set up a refugee camp within Indian Ocean Coast under the Ottoman Empire’s territory.

Tall walls, barbed wire, numerous watchtowers, and armed soldiers all indicate that this ”refugee camp” is actually more like a concentration camp.

Karl said, ”Certainly, as long as you do not tamper with things, we will naturally not raise the bar.”

Dor assured, ”We definitely won’t falsify anything. In today’s Europe, human life is the cheapest commodity. There are plenty of refugees in the Allies’ occupied zones, and after careful selection, we transport them to Basra. Besides a few who are unsuitable due to the environment, the physical condition of the rest absolutely meets your requirements.”

Karl said, ”Qualifying them still requires inspections by our medical personnel. After all, these refugees come from conflict zones, and wars often bring diseases. We cannot afford such risks.”

”We are also doing small-scale business, considering that a single infection source could potentially destroy an entire ship’s worth of cargo.”

Upon hearing Karl’s words, Dor’s expression slightly twitched, cursing internally, what small-scale business, since the establishment of the refugee camp in Basra, Karl has taken away more than thirty thousand refugees from him!

Nonetheless, Dor still said, ”Mr. Karl, rest assured, if there were any problems, they would have already surfaced in Basra. We have complete contingency plans, your worries are excessive.”

Karl replied, ”Whether excessive or not is naturally judged by our personnel. Compared to you, I prefer to trust professional medical personnel.”

Subsequently, Karl’s medical team began screening the refugees in the camp, but the final results were quite satisfactory.

A medical staff member wearing a mask and a white coat reported, ”Boss, based on our inspections and statistics, most of them are in very good health. Only eighteen individuals have some minor issues.”

On the surface, Karl’s identity is that of a labor company owner, hence his subordinates referred to him that way.

Karl asked, ”What minor issues?”

The subordinate replied, ”Thirteen individuals have physical disabilities, three have vision problems, and two possibly suffer from poor adaptation and bad spirits.”

”Are the physical disabilities severe?” Karl asked.

The subordinate said, ”There shouldn’t be any significant issues. According to our judgment, they are merely superficial injuries left by war.”

”Since that’s the case, except for the two who are unadapted, start distributing contracts to everyone else, have them sign, and those who are illiterate can use fingerprints.”

The Ukraine Region belongs to Russia’s agricultural zone, especially under Allies’ occupation in Western Ukraine, the economy is underdeveloped, and the illiteracy rate is naturally high.

Bluntly speaking, ninety-nine percent of those sent to the Basra refugee camp were Russian illiterates who wouldn’t even write their names.

Then, under Karl’s arrangement, each Ukrainian started signing their names on contracts, or placing fingerprints on them.

As expected, most Ukrainians couldn’t write their names, so more than ninety percent of the contracts bore red fingerprints.

As work proceeded in an orderly fashion, Dor finally asked, ”Mr. Karl, now that these procedures are complete, how about your payment?”

Karl said, ”Officer Dor, rest assured, this is our prepared agreement, please confirm it first, and once we both verify everything is correct, I’ll sign it. You can take this agreement to the two hundred and third warehouse at Basra Port and exchange it for goods.”

Then Dor picked up the agreement that Karl had prepared and looked at it carefully, then frowned, ”Mr. Karl, why is the price much lower this time than last time?”

Karl explained, ”We require more females. This time, females among the refugees only account for forty percent, naturally we can’t offer the same as last time. If you provide more female refugees, we can offer a better price.”

After hearing Karl’s explanation, Dor’s tightly furrowed brows also relaxed, he said, ”Mr. Karl, rest assured, next time, we will certainly provide more female refugees.”

Karl emphasized, ”Young, healthy female immigrants!”

This was obviously a minor issue for Dor too, he said decisively, ”No problem, you just tell us how many you need, and we can provide however many refugees you want, of all ages and conditions.”

Hearing this, Karl cheerfully extended his hand and said, ”Then let us wish for a pleasant cooperation in the future!”

”Pleasant cooperation!” Dor said, shaking his hand.

After both parties confirmed the details were accurate, with the help of Ottoman soldiers, Karl’s team successfully escorted these refugees onto vehicles.

Meanwhile, Dor took the ”cheque” from East Africa and went to the warehouse established by the East African Government in Basra to acquire goods.

This was an immigrant trade, where the Allies used Russians to exchange for various goods they needed from East Africa.