African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1421 Iron Foundry

Robert is a businessman from Paraguay. The purpose of his visit to Letania Province is to inspect a batch of obsolete industrial equipment, and Massoud is the middleman and translator he hired.

The two of them were talking as they walked out of the station.

Masood said to Robert, "Mr. Robert, I believe you have gained a preliminary understanding of the current economic development of the empire."

Robert nodded. "That's right, Mr. Masood. You East Africans often say that seeing is believing. From what I saw today, that's indeed the truth."

"As far as the situation in Alexandria is concerned, East Africa is at least 30 years ahead of Paraguay. However, I don't know what the situation is like in other cities in East Africa. So I also want to stay in East Africa for a while to look for some business opportunities."

Robert and Masoud set out from Paraguay and arrived in East Africa on an East African passenger ship.

There are regular passenger ferry routes between Paraguay and East Africa. In the early 20th century, when the aviation industry was not yet developed, ships were the best means of transportation between countries across the ocean.

With the increasing trade and exchanges between East African and South American countries in recent years, the ocean shipping industry has also developed in full swing.

Some ocean shipping companies start from Cabinda in East Africa, follow the equatorial current of the South Atlantic to Brazil, then go south along the Brazilian warm current, passing through ports in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile, and finally drift eastward along the westerly current back to the African coastline, diverge in Cape Town, South Africa, and choose to go to the east and west coasts of Africa.

Robert and Massoud undoubtedly chose the route along the west coast of Africa, following the Benguela Current and eventually reaching East Africa.

The Benguela Cold Current passes through the Namibia and Angola regions of the past, namely the Southwest Province, Letania Province, Benguela Province, and West Coast Province of East Africa, and finally returns to Cabinda.

This creates a cycle in the South Atlantic, and shipping companies plan their operations accordingly.

So, along the way, the only three East African cities that Robert saw were Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, and Alexandria.

Although Walvis Bay and Swakopmund are important cities in the Southwest Province of East Africa, they are not very large. After all, the overall population size of the Southwest Province is not very large.

Therefore, before arriving in Lubango, Alexandria was the only "big city" in East Africa that Robert had ever come into contact with. Of course, from Robert's perspective, Alexandria was definitely a big city.

After all, Paraguay itself is a small country with a small population, and as an agricultural country, the level of urbanization is relatively low. Only a few cities such as the capital Asuncion are of some scale.

Masoud introduced to Robert: "Alexandria is not a big city in East Africa. The only city in the entire Leitania Province that is even slightly related to a big city is the provincial capital Lubango. Even so, Lubango has a population of only over 300,000."

"However, even so, Lubango is hardly considered a big city in East Africa. In East Africa, only cities with a population of more than 500,000 can be truly called big cities."

"However, although Lubango is small in size, its importance and political status in the empire are not low. After all, it is the provincial capital, an important transportation hub, a steel industry center, and one of the heavy industrial bases."

Although what Masood said was objective, Robert was still shocked by East Africa.

Robert said, "Mr. Masood, if I didn't know you well, I would suspect that you were deliberately showing off the power of the Rhine Empire."

"You should know that the total population of Paraguay is less than 2 million. Even if we calculate based on 2 million, the population of Lubango, which you call not a big city, alone accounts for more than 15% of the total population of Paraguay."

"As for your so-called big city standard, Paraguay can only achieve it if at least a quarter of the country's population is gathered in one city."

"This reminds me of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The population of Buenos Aires is probably about the same as our entire country. It turns out that for a big country like yours, a city is like a country."

Buenos Aires is the hottest city in Latin America today, so Robert thought of it first.

Masood said, "Buenos Aires is a freak. Not to mention you, it would probably be the most populous city in East Africa. In the last census, there were no cities in East Africa with a population close to two million. However, there are quite a few cities in East Africa with a population of over one million, and the number may have increased in the past few years."

The urbanization level in many South American countries is actually quite advanced, such as Argentina and Brazil. A big reason for this result is that these two countries are immigrant countries and most of their residents come from Europe.

After moving to the two places, European immigrants naturally tend to choose to settle in cities in the two countries, especially Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, which have the best comprehensive conditions in terms of politics, economy, transportation, and infrastructure.

The reason why East Africa, as an immigration country, can avoid this situation is that when the East African government was established, it was a strong government, and the immigrants selected by the East African government are easier to manage.

In order to achieve the goal of "moving people to the border" and thus digesting the colonies, the East African government had been actively promoting the migration of population to the inland and west, and developing arable land and using civilians as soldiers. This was actually the East African version of "military farming."

As a result, a big difference emerged between East Africa and other immigrant countries, that is, East Africa had a widespread traditional agricultural society stage.

For example, in East Africa, if you ask an East African where his hometown is, many East Africans may point you to a rural area somewhere in the eastern part of East Africa. This is very abnormal. After all, East Africa is an immigrant country. If you trace their roots, East Africans basically come from the Far East and Europe.

Now, in just less than a few decades, local culture and heritage have been formed in East Africa, even to a certain extent offsetting the memories of the motherland.

On the contrary, if you ask people in Argentina and Brazil where their hometown is, they may confidently answer a country or region in Europe. For example, if you ask Robert where his hometown is, he will definitely say Italy.

Of course, this is not because East Africans have "forgotten their roots", but rather it is caused by large-scale migrations led by multiple governments, especially in areas other than the eastern part of East Africa.

Because many people in East Africa today, their ancestors lived in the eastern part of East Africa, so they will immediately regard some place in the east as their hometown. Of course, if they go further back, they will have to look up their "family tree".

Although most people in East Africa do not have family trees, they can still trace their roots through word of mouth. After all, the history of East Africa is too short, and the older generation still has deep memories of their homeland.

The East African government is happy to see this happen. After all, it is conducive to the shaping of East African "homeland" feelings and increasing the cohesion of East Africa, which is exactly what other immigration countries lack. This is also a pleasant surprise. After all, the East African government did not expect this to happen at the beginning. It can only be said that the policies implemented by East Africa have led to a positive result.

Robert said: "That's true. The populations of Argentina and Brazil are highly concentrated in the capitals and other large cities. Paraguay is a special case in South America. Compared with neighboring countries, the population distribution in Paraguay is more even."

"At the beginning, the Paraguayan government actively distributed land to immigrants in order to attract them. My father was an Italian who fled to Paraguay. At that time, the Paraguayan government not only accepted him, but also arranged for him to live in the village where my mother lived. The two of them eventually got married, and that's how I was born."

The Paraguayan War of the last century had a huge impact on Paraguay. The population dropped drastically, many areas including the capital Asuncion were severely damaged, and the domestic population structure was seriously unbalanced.

This led to the new Paraguayan government promoting a series of positive policies in order to restore the population, such as distributing land to European immigrants, allowing indigenous people to become citizens, and actively promoting remarriage of widowed women.

Of course, the land distributed by the Paraguayan government to immigrants is not very good, but for some European immigrants who are in trouble in South America, it is a chance to get rich overnight.

After all, their difficulties in South America were largely due to the population growth in Europe, which led to land shortages and forced many farmers to go overseas to make a living.

A series of measures taken by the Paraguayan government have also enabled Paraguay's population to recover rapidly, and it may even exceed two million in the next few years.

In the past, during this period, Paraguay's population was less than one million, perhaps only around 700,000 or 800,000. This shows that the series of measures taken by the Paraguayan government were relatively effective.

However, even so, Paraguay's population is still the lowest in South America, ranking only ninth, second only to Uruguay, which has a population of about 1.5 million. At this time, there are only ten independent countries in the entire South America.

The populations of other South American countries are all over two million. For example, Ecuador, which ranks eighth, has a population of around two million.

Robert said: "Paraguay's population is now recovering, and a big reason for this is the various favorable policies of the government in recent years."

"This helped us in Paraguay to get through the most dangerous phase, especially in the territorial conflict with Bolivia in recent years, when the population of Bolivia is only a few hundred thousand more than that of Paraguay."

"The recovery of the population has naturally promoted the development of Paraguay's economy. Paraguay used to be the most developed country in South America, but now we have to start over again. This is also one of the purposes of my coming to East Africa. I believe that Paraguay's economy will develop further in the future, so we need to plan ahead."

In the last century, Paraguay was indeed considered the best country in South America in terms of development, otherwise it would not have been able to engage in a long-lasting war with the two major powers of Argentina and Brazil.

At that time, Paraguay had the only modern iron foundry in South America. At the same time, Pelosi the Elder also introduced other industries. Later, Lopez the Younger established the Paraguayan Arsenal on this basis, enabling Paraguay to have the ability to produce rifles, artillery, and even machine guns and other weapons.

However, with the failure of the Paraguayan War, these once glorious factories in South America also disappeared along with the Pelosi family.

Robert came to East Africa this time to purchase obsolete production equipment in East Africa and rebuild the iron foundry in Paraguay.

Robert said: "Paraguay has been in a state of disrepair due to the war in recent years, so I think there is a huge market for the steel industry in Paraguay."

"However, due to the limited mineral resources in Paraguay, the solution I came up with is to rebuild the iron foundry in Paraguay and produce primary iron products for sale in Paraguay."

Paraguay lacks coal and iron ore resources. Although Paraguay has iron ore, it has not been discovered at this time. Moreover, building steel mills and competing with foreign companies is also a big problem.

Therefore, Robert planned to import steel materials from East Africa and then ship them back to Paraguay to be processed into various industrial products.

Masood said with a smile: "Mr. Robert, you have finally come to the right place. We in East Africa have the most advanced steel industry system in the world, and the province of Leitania happens to be one of the important steel industry centers of the empire."

Robert reminded: "I don't have that much capital to purchase the most advanced equipment."

In response to this, Masood said: "That's even better, Mr. Robert, you don't know the situation in East Africa. In recent years, East Africa is undergoing a new round of industrial upgrading."

"This has led to the elimination of many outdated production equipment, which is also an opportunity for us to obtain a complete set of second-hand production equipment at a low price."

Robert was still a little worried and said, "Although my requirements are not high, I can't be a sucker, especially for second-hand equipment. If it becomes a pile of scrap metal in my hands due to quality problems, I will lose a lot."

Regarding his concerns, Masood said: "Mr. Robert, don't worry at all about this, because you don't know much about our country's recent economy."

"This industrial adjustment was completely forcefully promoted by the government, which resulted in a large number of steel companies being forced to shut down due to policy changes, especially those private steel-related companies that did not make timely changes."

"This economic adjustment has even caused some industrial equipment and machines that have just left the factory to become scrap metal that no one wants because they do not meet the standards."

"So, many of the second-hand equipment currently circulating in the East African market have not even been used. Are you still worried that there will be problems with these devices?"

Robert, who knew about these economic inside stories, said excitedly, "That means we can buy completely new production equipment in Leitania Province without spending too much money?"

Masood nodded and said, "That's right. Of course, I suggest you find a local professional to evaluate it, so that you can know that what I said is true."

"There should have been a lot of equipment flowing into the market in Lubango before. If no one wants it, it will most likely be treated as scrap metal. So it is a good choice for you to take advantage of the situation. After all, if there is no one to take care of the equipment, problems may arise if it is just left there."

Robert agreed with this statement. After all, in the eyes of East Africans, these obsolete equipment would be meaningless if not disposed of quickly. They also take up space, not to mention being carefully cared for.

(End of this chapter)