African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1479: Agriculture in Britain

Since the end of World War I, the international grain market has been in a sluggish state and has fallen into a long-term depression. Take wheat as an example. From the end of World War I to the present, in nearly ten years, the price of wheat in the international market has fallen below 60%. In other words, the agricultural depression occurred much earlier than the current economic crisis.

In the 20s, the level of mechanization increased significantly throughout the world, the output of pesticides and fertilizers increased dramatically, and agricultural technology progressed and improved, which were important reasons for the world's overproduction of grain.

Then there are the colonies and semi-colonial countries, as well as the land development of the great powers, which further intensified competition in the international agricultural market. As we all know, at the end of the 19th century, imperialism launched a frenzy of dividing up the world, and two or three decades later, the situation in these regions that were annexed and invaded by various countries has changed dramatically.

This process was indeed a disaster for the local people in the colonies and semi-colonies, but at the same time it disintegrated the originally backward natural economy of these regions and brought about more efficient management models and advanced agricultural technologies.

Take East Africa as an example. If this area of ​​more than 10 million square kilometers of land in East Africa were in the hands of the indigenous people, it might still maintain the primitive economic model of gathering and hunting. But now, after the transformation of East Africa, it has become the region with the most arable land in the world, and grain production has increased many times.

Not only can it supply nearly 200 million people in East Africa, but it can also export large quantities. And this is only in East Africa. Now, a large amount of arable land and plantations are also being developed in East Africa's overseas colonies.

This is only the case in East Africa. It is impossible for large colonial powers like Britain and France to completely ignore their colonies, especially Britain. In India alone, the increase in food and agricultural output in recent years is beyond imagination. This can be seen from the fact that India's population has exceeded 300 million. Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand... have all become important agricultural production areas.

Especially in Canada, Canada's agriculture has reached an astonishing level in terms of both scale and output. In 1928, Canada's grain output ranked fourth in the world, second only to East Africa, the United States and the Soviet Union.

Canada is the world's third largest food exporter, second only to East Africa and the United States. The reason why Canada's food production is so outstanding is very simple. That is, Canada also has a share of the Great Lakes and the Great Plains of North America, and these places are very suitable for mechanized operations.

Therefore, although Canada has a small population, it is able to support the large-scale development of its agriculture with its advanced agricultural technology, industrial capacity, excellent natural conditions, and abundant land resources.

Therefore, Britain was actually the culprit for the long-term downturn in the global food market in the 1920s. In addition to Britain's own colonies, major food exporting countries such as Argentina were also cultivated by British capital.

……

"If Britain's colonies could disappear from the world, the world's agricultural crisis would be largely solved!"

"The UK has done a lot of harm to others. They are the main culprit for the long-term downturn in the world food market."

"It would be nice if we could wipe Canada and other places off the map. Ten million people produce the fourth-highest amount of food in the world..."

People from the East African Ministry of Agriculture came to this conclusion after analyzing the latest global agricultural development survey report.

Minister of Agriculture Finkel said to Crown Prince Friedrich: "Your Highness, among the major agricultural export regions in the world, British colonies are almost all at the forefront. In a sense, the agricultural overproduction in British colonies is much worse than that in our country and the United States. After all, the populations in East Africa and the United States are substantial, while most of Britain's colonies, except India, are sparsely populated."

Although East Africa and the United States also have surplus food production and are the world's first and second largest food producers respectively without considering colonial factors, both countries also have large populations.

On the other hand, Canada and Australia are simply monsters created specifically to promote agricultural overproduction. With Canada's food production, Canadians can't even finish six meals a day. With the existence of such a "cancer", it would be strange if the world food market is not depressed.

Friedrich was also surprised by the exaggerated grain production in the British Empire's colonies today. He said: "In the past, we always regarded the United States as the main country that caused the collapse of world food prices. Now it seems that Britain is the country that should be blamed the most."

"In the past, we really ignored the agricultural development of these British colonies. We didn't expect that Canada, Australia, and even small colonies like South Africa and New Zealand had food production that should not be underestimated."

"If we count all of Britain's colonies, plus their semi-colonies and agriculture controlled by other countries, this explains why Britain can still maintain its position as the world's hegemon until now."

"With food alone as a weapon, Britain has the ability to bring about earth-shaking changes in the agricultural market around the world."

East Africa has indeed underestimated the strength of Britain, the world hegemon. In recent years, Britain's performance has been getting worse year by year, but if we dig deeper, we will understand how many resources Britain has controlled in the world.

Take food as an example. The combined food output of those once inconspicuous British colonies is much more exaggerated than that of East Africa and the United States, the two so-called world agricultural powers. Britain is the real world's number one food producer and largest grain trader.

It is no wonder that East Africa ignored British colonies such as Canada and Australia. At least in the last century, the strength of these colonies was certainly not as exaggerated as it is today. However, times have changed, especially with the advancement of mechanization and agricultural technology, which has allowed these regions to develop agriculture to an astonishing level in just two or three decades.

Minister of Agriculture Finkel said with a serious face: "Not only that, food is just the tip of the iceberg in the field of agricultural production in the UK. In recent years, the UK has made rapid progress in the field of cash crops, and has had a huge impact on the imperial agriculture."

"For example, in cotton, rubber, spices, tea, tobacco and so on, Britain's development of colonies in South Asia and Southeast Asia led to the rise of a prosperous and large-scale new tropical cash crop production area in the world."

"The cash crop planting in this region has replaced the Caribbean region and become the world's main cash crop production area."

“During the era of triangular trade, the Caribbean Sea relied on its natural and cost advantages to become the most important production area for cash crops in Europe and the world, bringing huge profits to European countries.”

"However, with the end of the slave trade, environmental damage, the rise of the United States and other factors, the Caribbean economy has been declining, and Britain has also turned its attention to South Asia and Southeast Asia."

"This process lasted for nearly half a century. Now the time has come for Britain to reap the rewards of its efforts, but this is definitely not good news for us." Britain's focus in the field of cash crops was once on the Americas, especially North America. With the independence of the United States and its continuous expansion into the Americas in the last century, Britain could only turn its attention to South America, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions.

However, with the sudden rise of East Africa, Britain's expansion in Africa was not smooth. As for South America, it faced a double blow from the United States and East Africa, which left Britain with only South Asia and Southeast Asia options.

The large-scale transfer of Britain's cash crop supply to these two regions began in the late 19th century, such as cotton and tea plantations in India, rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, etc.

Take tea as an example. Although Britain had tried to cultivate tea trees in India as early as the beginning of the 19th century, this was only in the initial stage. It must have taken a long time for Britain's tea industry in India to develop to a certain scale.

It was not until the 19s that India's tea production exceeded Britain's imports from the Far East Empire, and tea was already considered one of Britain's earliest cash crops in India.

In terms of cotton cultivation, from the mid-19th century to the end of the 19th century, Britain's cotton planting area in India more than doubled. The expansion of cotton fields also triggered the Great Famine in India.

This also shows the urgency of Britain to open up new cotton-producing areas in India at that time.

After all, the most important cotton supplier to Britain at that time, the Southern United States, had its ports blocked by the North due to the Civil War, making it impossible to export to Britain, which triggered a "cotton famine" in the British textile industry.

Before the Civil War, 80% of Britain's cotton came from the southern United States, which forced Britain to look for new cotton producing areas to replace imported cotton from the United States.

Finally, rubber. Britain introduced rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia and South Asia even later, and it was not until after the 20th century that large-scale rubber cultivation was formed.

But today, British rubber plantations in South and Southeast Asia threaten East Africa's control of the world's rubber industry.

Finkel said: "With the large-scale planting of cash crops in South Asia and Southeast Asia by the UK in the mid-to-late last century, these cash crop planting industries have now completely formed a scale and mature system."

"Moreover, South Asia and Southeast Asia have the advantage of cheap labor costs, which we do not have. This also means that our agricultural income source in the past, namely cash crop exports, will be at a disadvantage in the competitive position."

Although cotton and tea cultivation can be mechanized in East Africa, it will sacrifice the quality of the finished product. For example, mechanized cotton picking will leave too many impurities, which require complex processes to remove. Tea harvesting will damage the appearance of the finished product, and rubber is basically impossible to mechanize. Other cash crops...

In summary, the mechanization promotion of cash crop planting in East Africa is not going smoothly at this stage, and the advantages of manual planting in cost and quality cannot be replaced.

Finkel therefore said: "Therefore, not only should we limit the scale of production in the grain planting industry, but the empire should also speed up the transfer of cash crop planting to other regions to ensure competitiveness in the international market and reduce losses in the agricultural crisis."

"In the past, the profits from agricultural production allowed us to barely maintain the full development of agriculture in our country. Now, many have become a burden on economic development. Many farms and plantations are completely unprofitable and rely on government subsidies and tariff protection to survive."

Crown Prince Friedrich had to admit the existence of this situation. After all, East Africa was different from Britain. Britain's colonies had a large amount of cheap labor available, while the residents of East Africa and the colonies naturally could not be used as "Indians".

He said: "In this case, it seems that in this national agricultural adjustment, we should strengthen the construction and investment in colonial agriculture, and at the same time, we should pay more attention to those spheres of influence in East Africa."

"The local planting and production of food and cash crops should be tightened, those agricultural planting and production enterprises that are unable to make ends meet should be banned, and the transfer of cash crops from the local area to other countries should continue to be expanded."

"However, we cannot put all our eggs in one basket. In addition to the transfer of agriculture to Southeast Asia, we should also move to West Africa and South America to ensure the security of our planting industry."

East Africa’s colonies in the Southeast Asia region have no shortage of land and a considerable population, but in the eyes of the Rhine royal family, the security of the Southeast Asia region is questionable. Just like in the previous life, during World War II, Japan’s expansion in the Southeast Asia region directly led to the Allies’ rubber source falling into a very passive situation.

Therefore, for security strategic considerations, Crown Prince Friedrich believed that part of the agriculture should be moved to the Atlantic coast. In this way, East Africa would have relevant layouts in both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, making it difficult for other countries to restrict East Africa.

Minister of Agriculture Fingel also gave Friedrich an idea at this time. He said, "Your Highness, we actually have another good option. That is the French colonies in India, which can also share some of our pressure, especially the Kingdom of Imerina."

The Kingdom of Imerina is the French colony with almost no presence in the eastern part of Madagascar Island. Although East Africa also has territory in Madagascar, it is basically distributed in the tropical savannah area.

The territory of the Kingdom of Imerina is a typical tropical rainforest and plateau semi-humid area. At the same time, the Kingdom of Imerina has a large area and a large population, making it a good investment target.

Although it is a French colony, Madagascar Island is right under the nose of East Africa, and the Kingdom of Imerina is directly bordering East Africa, so East Africa has no worries about wasting investments here.

The current population of the Kingdom of Imerina is about three million, which is comparable to the most populous colony in East Kalimantan. More importantly, the labor cost in the Kingdom of Imerina is obviously much lower than that in East African colonies such as East Kalimantan, making it perfect for developing a plantation economy. In addition, it has convenient transportation to and from East Africa and extremely low transportation costs, making it one of the most ideal regions for building plantations.

As for France, to put it bluntly, even if East Africa invades the Kingdom of Imerina now, the French government will at most protest. In the eyes of East Africa, France is no different from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries. Their glorious era has long passed. France has a strong national foundation, but among the world powers, France is not even in the top five.

(End of this chapter)