African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1489: Chapter 33: Year-End Economic Conference (Part 3)

In 1921, East Africa’s steel production had declined to the level of 37 million tons, although still the world’s largest, the gap of over 3 million tons reduction also highlights the current market’s sluggish demand for steel.

In fact, amid the massive reduction in steel industry in 1921, the East African Government’s urging of some steel production enterprises for rectification was one of the important factors in the current decline in East Africa’s steel production, otherwise, increasing East Africa’s steel production by one or two million tons should not be an issue.

Because East Africa, after all, is only a primary industrial powerhouse, in terms of industrial quality, it ranks only mid-level among the great power nations.

The demand for steel in the domestic market of East Africa is actually increasing year by year, and the large number of European orders brought about by the World War meant that in previous years, steel growth surpassed the rate of steel demand in normal times.

Among these, a key factor to consider is that East Africa’s total population is as high as over 160 million, which, combined with East Africa’s position as a primary industrial powerhouse, led to East Africa’s steel production reaching the level of 37 million tons in 1921.

Therefore, based on per capita steel production, East Africa’s figures are not considered very high, although the United States’ steel production in 1921 was only over 30 million tons, America’s population was nearly 60 million less than East Africa’s.

In terms of population, East Africa’s steel market demand is definitely much larger than America’s, but East Africa’s steel production is only a few million tons more than America’s, which to some extent indicates there is still great room for progress in East Africa’s current economy.

Among other countries in the world, although Germany and the United Kingdom’s steel production is not as high as East Africa and the United States, from the perspective of per capita, it is higher than East Africa.

It should be pointed out here that Germany’s steel industry has also made great progress compared to the previous world, after all, this time Germany was not a defeated country, coupled with the need for post-war reconstruction, which made Germany’s steel and other fundamental industries recover and develop rapidly.

It can even be said that Germany’s industry was not greatly affected by the war, after all, from the start to the end of the war, there was no battlefield within Germany’s borders, Germany’s factories and related production equipment remained largely intact.

However, the industries truly most severely damaged by the war were France and Russia, especially France, which suffered extremely serious losses after the war; with France’s current situation, it might take many years for the economy to recover to pre-World War I levels.

As for Russia’s industrial losses, they were mainly due to the civil war, the domestic reactionary forces’ destruction of production materials, and the lack of raw materials and markets from Eastern Europe, which would also lead to some degree of impact on Russia’s industrial development.

Therefore, in terms of industrial development quality, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States remain ahead of East Africa, while France has completely sunk into the quagmire, and Russia has remained at the mid-to-low level since the era of Tsarist Russia.

However, France’s situation is not too bad, after all, since the Franco-Prussian War, Metropolitan France’s industrial development has always lagged behind other great powers.

The real focus for France was on investment in foreign industries, namely in the field of capital export; although the rise of the Russian Labor Party government devastated France’s financial industry, France’s foundation is solid, and France still has large investments in other countries, such as before the war, France’s investment in East Africa was steadily increasing. Besides that, France also has a large amount of assets and colonies that can serve as a bottom line.