Chapter 1025 Prepare for a rainy day

Affected by the Russo-Japanese War, the fifth battleship originally planned to be built in East Africa was temporarily suspended, mainly to learn from the experience and lessons of the Russo-Japanese War, so as to achieve a more perfect state for this battleship.

Now we are waiting for the Japanese Combined Fleet and the Russian Second Pacific Fleet to fight to the death in the Far East. According to the current progress of the Russian Navy, they may arrive in the Far East at the earliest as late as the end of October this year.

Now it is the beginning of October 1904, and the plan of East Africa has been completed by about 80%. Therefore, according to the calculation of the East African Planning Commission, East Africa should be able to complete the various goals of the plan ahead of schedule in 1905.

And as the plan progresses, starting from 1903, the industrial data of East Africa has once again increased significantly, including the output of important basic industrial products such as steel, cement, textiles, electricity, oil, fertilizers, and medicines.

At the same time, a large number of emerging industrial towns have emerged in the western region, and the number of towns in the country has increased significantly. However, the specific urbanization rate cannot be calculated. While the scale of East African industry is rapidly expanding, the population of East Africa is also growing further, and the urbanization rate ultimately depends on the comprehensive data of the two.

However, taking the central region as an example, many cities, including Rhine City, are accelerating their expansion, which Ernst can see intuitively. Because of the expansion of industry and the growth of the population of East African cities, the corresponding urban buildings will naturally increase, including various factories and residential areas.

In the past few years, the number of new residents in Rhine City has reached 110,000, which has also made the population of Rhine City exceed 290,000 and rapidly develop towards the direction of a large city.

As the capital of East Africa, Rhine City does not lack transportation and land resource advantages. The main factor limiting population growth is industrial layout. Although it is the capital, the East African government has not allowed Rhine City and other East African cities to grab too much industrial share. Many light and heavy industries are deployed in cities around Rhine City, such as New Frankfurt City, Kabwe City, etc.

Even so, the development of Rhine City is quite amazing in the world. You must know that Rhine City is the youngest capital in the world.

The city's permanent population of nearly 300,000 is not small in other countries in the world. The original capital's first town has only a population of more than 100,000 after so many years of development, so you can imagine how much resources East Africa has invested in Rhine City.

Rhine City is just a microcosm of East African cities. During the planning period, the construction of western towns was the highlight, and the scale of towns in other regions was further expanded. For example, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and other traditional economic and industrial strong cities have made great progress during the planning period.

At the same time, the trade volume between East Africa and other parts of the world has also expanded further, especially the South American and Russian markets. During the Russo-Japanese War, the relationship between East Africa and Russia deepened further, and East African industrial products were more likely to enter the Russian market.

Especially in the first half of this year, East Africa's trade with Russia continued to grow and the momentum was strong. This is the benefit of standing with Russia, which is obviously something Japan cannot give to East Africa.

Although Japan is also an important emerging market, the Japanese market is almost occupied by Britain and the United States. For example, East Africa's relatively advantageous power industry exports to Japan products and related equipment are not as good as those of the United States.

Moreover, Japan cannot produce any products that would attract East Africa to promote a substantial increase in trade between the two countries. Japan has a limited variety of agricultural products and relatively scarce resources, while Russia is different. Many of Russia's minerals are needed for East Africa's industrial development. At the same time, East Africa can also supply industrial products and raw materials such as cotton to Russia.

And there is obviously still a lot of room for development in trade between East Africa and Russia, especially next year. With East Africa's support for Russia in this round of war, East-Russia relations will be in a new era in the next few years.

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"Industrial output increases, and market demand further expands. Although we can digest the domestic industrial growth through the large domestic market, this method can easily cause some conflicts."

"The international market is now recovering, and the Russo-Japanese War has created a lot of demand, so we can benefit from it more or less."

"At the same time, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. The Russo-Japanese War is a good example of further escalation of competition between countries. Many countries attach importance to the development of the Far East market and hope that the region will become the second India."

"There is no doubt that the interest disputes in the Far East are relatively complicated. As a dish in the eyes of countries around the world, this has also made the competition among local forces increasingly fierce."

Most of the world's colonies have been divided up, so countries can only focus on some weak countries or relatively independent and backward regions.

The Far Eastern Empire is such a "weak country". No matter who controls the Far Eastern market alone, there is no doubt that with the huge market and rich resources of the Far Eastern Empire, a giant more powerful than the British Empire will be created.

Britain's world hegemony is supported by the Indian region of more than 3 million square kilometers, and the Far Eastern Empire is undoubtedly a more tempting fat piece of meat in the eyes of the powers than India.

This is also the reason why the powers further strengthened their penetration into the Far Eastern Empire in the early 20th century, which led to the emergence of a large number of warlord forces with capital from various countries in the Far Eastern Empire.

Although Ernst had no intention of taking ruthless action against his motherland in his previous life, he could not let the interests of East Africa be squeezed out by other powers.

So this round of East African governments have discussed how to maintain East African interests in the Huaihai Economic Zone and the Zhuhai Economic Zone.

"We also have some long-term cooperative partners in the Far East Empire, including the Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants in the past and some government officials, etc. Now the domestic situation in the Far East Empire is becoming increasingly severe, especially under the instigation of the United Kingdom and the United States. Any political crisis may lead to a total loss."

"So we should support a group of partners to deal with the future crisis that may explode at any time within the Far East Empire to ensure our country's legitimate interests in the Far East."

Like Germany, East Africa is not afraid of fair competition in the industrial field, but is afraid that opponents will use politics, conspiracy and other means to engage in unfair competition.

The most typical example is the colonial powers such as Britain and France. It is not impossible for other countries to enter the British and French colonial markets, but they have to pay more costs.

Although East Africa is a colonial power on the surface, its colonies are not rich, have a small population, a harsh environment, and are somewhat far away from the East African mainland.

It is not that they are worried about countries like Britain and France, but mainly about the United States and Japan. For example, if Alaska presents a higher value, East Africa will undoubtedly be out of reach.

The same is true for the Far East market. No matter how strong East Africa is, it does not have the advantage of distance. Therefore, to ensure the security of the Far East market, the East African government must prepare for a rainy day.

Similarly, Ernst is not worried about Britain and France, but is still wary of the United States and Japan. Even if Britain and France can now occupy an advantage in the Far East, when the European war breaks out, Britain and France will basically not be able to spare any extra energy to take care of other regions.

East Africa has this energy, but the Far East Empire is too far away from East Africa, which is the same as other overseas colonies in East Africa. Instead, it is too close to the United States and Japan, so East Africa should be wary of the competition between the United States and Japan.

The same is true for the South American market. Now the South American market is mainly controlled by Britain. In the past, Britain was unable to take care of both because of World War I, so the Americans took advantage of it. East Africa obviously has to make relevant preparations, otherwise, when the time comes, I am afraid that I will not even be able to drink soup.