African Nationhood

Chapter 171 Internal Affairs Meeting-Transportation Industry
  Ouyang Geng's suggestion was acceptable to Shi Jintang, but he didn't know what Governor Robinson meant. In fact, he could also bring the two Boer countries together to do it.

"I will consider this matter and wait for news."

Ouyang Geng nodded, "Okay, I'm gone."

After finishing speaking, Ouyang Geng tidied up and went back to his seat. Shi Jintang looked down and nodded to James Lister.

James Lister has now been transferred to the Transportation Bureau and is mainly responsible for the transportation situation within the entire company.

He spoke in English, and his Chinese language skills were not good enough. The people present either came back from studying in the United States or were white, so they all understood English.

James Lister took his speech and did not follow the trend of hanging up the charts first. He simply listed the numbers first.

"After I became the director of the Transportation Bureau, I sorted out the road traffic situation within the company's territory. Sharing it with you here is also a kind of inventory of the company's development in the past few years.

1. Railway transportation

The three main railway lines, Whale-An Line, An-Jin Line, and Jin-Wen Line, built by Mr. Shi with the mortgage loan from the Second Gold Mine, have been completed one after another. The Jin-Wen Line, which was the latest to be completed, was completed at the end of December last year. .

On behalf of the company, I passed the acceptance check with the bank. At present, the operating rights of the three railways have been controlled by our Transportation Bureau. The three lines have a total length of 402 kilometers and are currently operating well. "

James Lister's speech inspired everyone present at the meeting. Railways are of great importance. Railways are a symbol of the "modernization" of an organization or region.

“The current average speed of the three lines is 40 kilometers per hour. From Walvis Bay Port, you can reach Hot Spring City in 10 hours at the fastest, which greatly speeds up the commuting speed between the coastal area and the inland areas. This is a huge improvement for us.

In addition to the above three railway lines, the company has also built a Mei-Wen line from Meibu City to Hot Spring City. According to feedback from the construction team, this railway line will be open to normal traffic as soon as October this year. "

At this point, everyone spontaneously applauded, which was a kind of encouragement.

James Lister waited until the applause stopped and continued to speak.

"2. Road transportation

Since its establishment, the company has never stopped constructing highway transportation. So far, it has built 43148 kilometers of simple highways, 26000 kilometers of first-class highways, and 15048 kilometers of second-class highways. "

The roads here are standard, simple roads, the kind that leave traces after walking on them.

The first-class highway standard is a road that has been paved and smoothed by manpower. This kind of dirt road cannot be used by heavy vehicles or rainwater, otherwise there will inevitably be potholes,

Judging from the rainfall in the Namib region of Southwest Africa, there is basically no need to worry about potholes on Class 1 roads in the central and southern parts of Africa.

Class 1 roads in the northern region require frequent maintenance.

The secondary highway can basically be regarded as the standard of rural roads in later generations. In addition to being rammed and smoothed, gravel was also laid and drainage pipes were pre-installed.

As for third-class highways and fourth-class highways, Nanhua Company's current financial resources really cannot afford them.

"It took a lot of manpower and material resources to lay these roads. These achievements are hard-won!"

Everyone applauded again!

The applause stopped and James Lister continued to speak.
  “3. Water transportation,
  The company's waterway transportation mainly transports the island guano fleet to the stopping points along the way. Currently, there are about 58 stopping points along the way, with a total mileage of 1400 kilometers.

The company's offshore transportation fleet has a total of 21 small transport boats with a total transportation capacity of 2234 tons.

The above three categories are the company’s existing transportation data. Next, I want to talk about the company’s future transportation plan. "

After saying that, James Lister also took out the chart he prepared and hung it on the stand.

This map depicts the entire territory under the control of the South China Company, including the Namib region (Namibia), the Orange Grove region (now the area north of the Orange River in South Africa), the Bechuanaland region (Botswana), and the Matabeleland region. (Mainly in Zimbabwe), Ronda (mainly in Zambia), and the Port of Mapu region (southwestern Mozambique) leased from Portuguese East Africa.

These areas add up to 290 million square kilometers, but the level of development is still at the lowest level.

As you can see from the picture above, the road traffic in the western half is very heavy.

There are also simple highway signs in the eastern half, but not many, because most of the indigenous people's routes are fixed around the tribes and they cannot go far.

There is a first-class highway, from Flamburg in Dongjin Region to Bulawayo (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) and then to Gweru Town (Gweru City, Zimbabwe).

There is only one secondary road, which is the nearly 1,000-kilometer road from Mapu Port to Bulawayo City, and the others are blank.

“Based on the territory we control, what we have to solve now is to build a railway connecting several regions from the Namib region to the two kingdoms.

Only in this way can the company achieve effective rule over the major regions under its control. The preliminary plan of the Transportation Bureau is to build three horizontal railway trunk lines, plus three vertical railway trunk lines.

Horizontal trunk line:

They are the Mei-Lu line from Meibu City (Tsubume City, Nguyen) to Lusa Town, Lunda Kingdom (now Lusaka, the capital of Zambia);
  Windhoek from Hot Springs (Windhoek) to Bulawayo;

New wiring from New Orange Town (now Kuruman Town, South Africa) to Bulawayo (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe);

Vertical trunk line:

Lu-Wire from Lusa town in Lunda Kingdom to Bulawayo in Matabeleland Kingdom;

Wen-Xin Line from Hot Spring City in Zhongyuan District to Xinju Town in Liyuan District;

Ma-Road from Mapu Port to Bulawayo;

The total mileage of these three lines exceeds 10000 kilometers and consumes huge amounts of money. We plan to introduce foreign investment.

The primary target of attracting investment is the London bankers group to lay a railway of this length.

According to international practice, the land along the railway line must be handed over to a group of banks for auction and development.

What does Mr. Shi think of this suggestion? "

It is indeed an international practice for backward areas to let capital build railways on their behalf by donating land development rights.

For example, in Argentina, British capital began to enter Argentina in 1884.

The Argentines gave away the ownership of 15 kilometers of land on both sides of the railway line and a large amount of low-priced land in exchange for the British helping them build the railway.

With the help of the British, Argentina built a developed railway network.

At its peak, Argentina had more railways per capita than the United States, with a density of 173 kilometers per square kilometers.

The land in Argentina is not valuable, and there are no gold mines under their railways.

Many places under the Matabeleland Kingdom are filled with gold and diamond mines, and Shi Jintang cannot let go.

“It’s OK to give away land, but the minerals under the land cannot be given away. This must not be compromised during negotiations.

All mineral resources within the territory under the jurisdiction of Nanhua Company belong to the company's assets. "

James List nodded to show that he understood, and then continued to speak: "In addition to the bankers group, we also plan to negotiate with the cabinet, mainly to cooperate with the 'Double C Plan' formulated by President Shi.

Although this plan has been snubbed by the current cabinet, at this year's Berlin Conference, the British Ambassador Sir Mallett has publicly announced the plan.

Therefore, we are confident that we can get preferential conditions for building the railway network from the Cabinet. "

Shi Jintang agreed with James List's plan.

Calculating the time, the term of the current cabinet should be expiring soon. At best, Prime Minister Gladstone will quit No. 10 Downing Street by this time next year.

"Well, the negotiations with the British bankers' capital group can start with the construction of a small section of railway.

For example, the route from Mapu Port to Bulawayo, or from Hot Springs (Windhoek, Namibia) to Foramberg (Fort Frances, Botswana), areas where the land value is not high are negotiated first.

More land can be given along the route. As for the railways within the two indigenous kingdoms, we will have to wait a little longer.

According to intelligence provided by insiders, there will be changes in Downing Street in London next year at most. "

As soon as Shi Jintang said these words, everyone present secretly speculated that Mr. Shi had really established a network of connections in London.

Even the news from Downing Street can be heard. This city's thoughts are really terrifying!

James Lister was stunned when he heard this, "Well, okay, I will contact the banker in London as soon as possible."

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  (End of this chapter)