Chapter 18 Ocean Trade

After the Hechingen Consortium's colonial team reached an agreement with the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the Hechingen colonial team finally gained a foothold here.

The colonial team began to build carriages, tents and other travel tools in Zanzibar in preparation for exploring the interior.

At the same time, Dutch ships docked at the port of Dar es Salaam continued their journey to East Asia after replenishing fresh water and supplies.

…

Heixingen.

Looking back to Europe, a new building is being built in Hechingen. It is not far outside the city of Hechingen and has become a large construction site.

"Ernst, are you planning to open a factory in Hechingen?" Prince Constantine asked.

After the war, Prince Constantine retired from the Prussian General Staff in Berlin and returned to Hechingen.

Not long after he went to Venice to investigate, Ernst returned home and asked for a piece of land from his own hands.

Originally, Prince Constantine thought that Ernst wanted to take over his business and develop in the agricultural field. Although he did not participate in labor, the landlord also had to be able to settle accounts.

Prince Constantine thought that Ernst used these lands to conduct crop experiments, because some time ago, Ernst mentioned that he wanted to build a large farm in East Africa.

Unexpectedly, after not seeing each other for a few days, my field was pushed! It was piled with bricks, earth, sand, gravel and cement ordered by Ernst, and Prince Constantine, who had miscalculated, had to ask in person.

"Father, I want to build a school here." Ernst looked at the preliminarily formed building in front of him with satisfaction.

After saying this, Prince Constantine became even more confused. Isn't it nonsense to build a school in Hechingen?

This is not Prince Constantine's imagination. The most important thing in Hechingen is schools. After all, Prussia has long made compulsory education universal, and all the children in Hechingen have gone to school. There's no way Ernst could create a source of origin out of thin air! So it was impossible for Ernst to run an elementary school. However, there is also a high school in Hechingen, which was built during the time of Margrave Friedrich.

There are too few students in Hechingen who can go to middle school every year. Most people will go into the society after attending elementary school. After all, the cost of going to middle school is very expensive. They either go home to work in the farm or ask someone to find an apprenticeship in the city. .

There are only a hundred people who can go to middle school every year. In good years, there can be two to three hundred people, and in bad years, there are even only more than 80 people.

So Constantine was not sure what kind of school Ernst wanted to open, so he asked: "As far as I know, the education market in Hechingen is already saturated. You can't waste the resources you have in vain!"

After getting along with each other for several years, Constantine found that his son was a person who could not afford to start early, and he became more and more like a businessman. Fortunately, Ernst was so successful at the moment that Constantine had no objection to Ernst doing his own business. The idea developed, but Ernst would never engage in a loss-making business.

"Father, I want to build a military academy in Hechingen to train family talents." Ernst explained to Constantine.

When Constantine heard the words "Military Academy", his eyelids jumped and he quickly asked Ernst.

"What do you want to do? Military academies have to report to the government, right? You don't follow the military route, so setting up a military academy is unnecessary. As long as you tell me in advance, you can still get a full-time official position in the army. .”

Constantine said in confusion, "Moreover, even if you want to build a military academy, why not find a big city? How can someone come to a rural place like Hechingen without military cooperation?"

Ernst knew that Prince Constantine had misunderstood, and began to describe his thoughts: "Father, you have misunderstood. I do want to set up a military academy, but this military academy has nothing to do with Prussia. It is prepared for the development of East Africa. The so-called military academy is actually It’s not what you think.”

Of course Constantine understood. This is no formal school. Isn't this just training a colonial team? But Constantine's doubts grew worse.

"Even if East Africa is developed, there is no need to cultivate so-called talents individually. All you need to do is form a colonial team or hire a group of mercenaries."

Colonial force is indispensable these days, but it is all government troops, business teams and mercenary organizations that do these jobs. Constantine has never heard of separate schools for colonial activities, and they are military types.

"Father, this is related to my vision in East Africa. The area of ​​East Africa in the future may be larger than the entire Germany, so it is essential to prepare military talents in advance. If we monopolize such a large area of ​​land, someone will definitely covet it. .”

Bigger than Germany? Prince Constantine didn't dare to think about it anymore. His son's brain wouldn't be damaged, right? So whimsical.

Constantine naturally knew about Africa, but he had not learned about it specifically, so Constantine took Ernst's hand and started to go home.

"Come on, let's go back and do some research."

Soon, a world map was spread out on the table in front of Constantine, pointing to Tanzania on the map, "Is this here?"

"Yes, father." Ernst began to draw on the map with a pen, and soon a circle was formed on the map.

This circle included later Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and southern Kenya.

"This is my initial idea. Other European countries have not paid attention to this place yet. I am going to use the Hechingen Consortium to bring this place into the rule of our Hohenzollern family like the British East India Company did." This is En. For the first time, Ste showed his ambition to others.

"Unlike India, it is an ancient civilization with a long history, and there is only one civilization in East Africa: Aksum." As he spoke, he crossed out the Ethiopian region on the map with a pen.

"Axum's sphere of influence is in northern East Africa. I won't move there. The only threats to us in East Africa are the colonial teams of various countries and the Sultanate of Zanzibar." As he said, he added Zanzibar and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Circle it with a small circle.

"These colonial teams are nothing to worry about. Most of them are small teams that hunt slaves and ivory. As long as the European countries pay attention to this place, we can use various means to clear the area in advance."

Ernst continued: "The Sultanate of Zanzibar has a population of hundreds of thousands. It is an Arab country, so the threat is not great. Our first colonial team has successfully landed."

"As for the Portuguese, they have been in decline, and their control over various colonies is not as good as before. But Mozambique is a threat, and the local colonial government still needs to be careful." Ernst said with a serious face.

"However, the Portuguese are not interested in other parts of East Africa and mainly operate along the coast, which gives me room to operate."

Ernst continued: "I plan to send people first to establish many strongholds in the interior of East Africa, focusing on Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyiga and Lake Malawi." As he spoke, he used a pen to mark the area between the three lakes. Picture it.

"As long as hundreds of thousands of people immigrate, this place will be completely in the hands of our Hohenzollern family."

Prince Constantine heard this and asked: "Where did you find such a large population? This is more than the entire population of Hechingen?"

Ernst replied: "Here!"

The pencil in his hand clearly pointed to the Qing Dynasty in East Asia.

Prince Constantine frowned and asked: "If this goal is achieved through foreigners, why should we sacrifice the near and seek the far away? Can't we use the local indigenous people?"

"Father, this question is easy to answer. The Qing Dynasty is the most populous country in the world. They have excess human resources, and the people live a relatively difficult life. Every year, many people go to sea to seek life due to famine and war. To the native Africans, we are Invaders, they will not be willing to accept our rule, so we introduced Qing people, and these Qing people had to rely on us to survive when they first arrived in a strange place."

"Then why not introduce people from the German region?" Constantine asked.

"I think so too! Father, but the cost of bringing in people from Germany is too high. I hired the first colonial team with a lot of money, and the Qing people can work for us as long as they have food to eat. This is a cost issue. "

Ernst continued: "Secondly, now that the American civil war is over, most Germans will choose to develop a mature life and work in the United States. If you tell Germans about going to Africa, they will probably become timid after hearing about Africa."

Affected by previous public opinions, Africa represented a land full of wild beasts and various tropical diseases in Europe, so that now Europeans only established colonial strongholds on the coast of Africa and did not dare to go deep into the interior, creating opportunities for Ernst.

"Then how do you control the Qing people? You must know that too many people will cause chaos." Constantine said.

"The current idea is to cultivate our own talents. This is also the original intention of establishing the Hechingen Military Academy. The students will be recruited from the Qing Dynasty. We will instill ideas in them and make them obey management. In the future, we will go to Africa to assist the Germans in dividing and governing the Qing Dynasty. Immigration, after using the Qing Dynasty to develop the land in East Africa, we can stop introducing immigrants from the Qing Dynasty, and instead attract populations in Germany and Europe, and then establish a preliminary industrial system in East Africa through the Hechingen Consortium, and finally bring the local indigenous people Drive away so we can create a country similar to that between Brazil and the United States."

After hearing Ernst's idea, Prince Constantine could not calm down for a long time. This was a big project, but there was still theoretical room for maneuver.

If Ernst completed it, it would be equivalent to re-establishing a country overseas for the Hohenzollern family. It would be a new country no less large than Germany and dominated by the Hohenzollern family. Prince Constantine's heart was filled with excitement when he heard about the opening of such a map.

"Well, since you have your own idea, I also support it. Apart from anything else, I still have connections in Germany, so just go ahead and do it!" Constantine suppressed the excitement and calmness in his heart. said.

…

Jiaozhou Bay.

The German Commercial Liaison Office, a new liaison office flying the Prussian flag, also had another one in Zhuhai, but Ernst particularly emphasized the establishment of one in the north, and directly selected Jiaozhou Bay.

The Jiaozhou Bay German Commercial Liaison Office, in addition to being responsible for promoting the products of the Hechingen Consortium in the north of the Qing Dynasty, also had a special task. It sent people to select 500 healthy teenagers from the north, especially the area along the Jishui River, and bring them to Germany.

The criteria are no disease, no education, and the most important one must be from a poor peasant family.

This was the source of students selected by Ernst. In those areas of the Qing Dynasty, clans were most likely to unite, which was a destabilizing factor in rule, especially in the south where clan power was widespread, so Ernst did not recruit students in the south.

As for why it is Jishui River, it is because it was Ernst’s hometown in his previous life. In this era, there was no Mandarin and dialects were everywhere. Ernst did not want his subordinates to speak in a way that he could not understand. If it was the hometown dialect, Ernst could still understand it. Probably, after all, the language of the north is much more unified than that of the south.

When Ernst established the Hechingen Military Academy, he would personally serve as the principal and may also give lectures. The language must be unified, otherwise it would be embarrassing for these teenagers not to understand what Ernst said. Give these people three years to learn German. , there will be no need for Ernst to personally supervise and manage it in the future.

The Jiaozhou Bay German Commercial Liaison Office is also responsible for recruiting workers to East Africa and bulk commodity trading. In addition to Ernst's own goods, Ernst has gathered some businessmen in Berlin to reach a cooperation agreement, taking this opportunity to jointly develop Germany in the Far East. market.

Key products such as cigarettes and kerosene lighters have begun to be welcomed by dignitaries and nobles in the Far East market, and the Hechingen Consortium borrowed Dutch ships to transport cheap raw materials from the Far East and the needed population in East Africa.

The Dutch themselves also added a lot of Far Eastern specialties, such as silk and porcelain, and tea was a big deal.

Through this voyage of trade, Ernst initially established trade routes with three centers in Europe, East Africa, and the Far East. Although he relied on the power of the Dutch, he also gained the experience of the Germans who accompanied the ship.

After the opening of the Suez Canal in the future, Venice's fleet will be almost ready, and then a completely German-dominated commercial route can be established.

The main process of this commercial route is that Europe exports industrial products, sells them in the Far East, recruits people from the Far East to develop in East Africa, and then transports the crops and minerals developed in East Africa back to Europe.

Of course, the Hechingen consortium in the early stage still operated this route at a loss, because East Africa is still a barren area, and product output can only be produced after the population is in place. At the same time, the Far East market has not been fully opened, and the business of the two commercial liaison offices is still limited. In coastal areas, where advertising investment and personnel salaries cost money, Ernst could only look to Europe's own profitable industries to fund his colonial activities.

However, this process may take several years. The good news is that Berlin Energy Power Company has made a major breakthrough. Ernst will have more egg-laying hens. In addition, the Hechingen Development Bank's reputation has increased in Germany. Ernst has made a major breakthrough. The funds in Te's hands are actually richer than before. Sure enough, the banking industry is the real wealth fighter and industry incubator.