Chapter 207: Card Change

August.

The sea breeze blowing from the southeast brought heavy rain, which lasted for three days, making the streets of the entire city wet.

Especially in places where there are no roads, the area is extremely muddy. When you walk through it, your shoes will be covered with thick mud.

After the rain, the streets became sunny again, crowded with people and cars, and it was a chaotic scene. It is a rare scene in East Africa, and it is probably only comparable to the development zones in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

Because East African cities have special police to maintain order. They used to be soldiers, but after the reform, some soldiers in the city were transferred to become police officers.

Therefore, the order in East Africa is quite good, even in the countryside. There are security personnel in the countryside. At present, there is no change in the security personnel in the countryside, so it has become a special existence.

The main reason is that there are too few people. There are only a few people in a village, and they are under the jurisdiction of the township or nearby city police station.

The ships entered the port as usual, and a large number of merchants and gangs at the dock began to compete for business. The merchants mainly took over the goods, while the gangs referred to the factions formed by the dock personnel themselves, most of whom were from the same village.

There was a bustling scene at the dock, but who could have imagined three years ago that there would be such a prosperous scene here, thought Richard from the German Commercial Liaison Office.

When I came here three years ago, it was still the size of a small town with a small population. The port facilities were not complete, and the buildings were very "quaint", with many mud houses with thatched roofs.

The only thing that has not changed is probably the residents here, who still look pale and thin, and it is obvious that most of them are malnourished.

That’s right, this is not East Africa, but Jiaozhou in the Far East.

Jiaozhou is a transit port for immigrants from East Africa and the Far East. Immigrants from North China will eventually gather here and be transported to East Africa.

Of course, some people from the northwest will also start from here, but the number is very small, and the farthest place that the East African official can reach is only Henan.

The current transit port in the South is in Shanghai, where the Heixingen Group has very little influence. Even in the immigration business, it still has to compete with Britain and the United States for food.

It has to be said here that the Germans are a bit stupid and are definitely no match for the Americans in spreading rumors. Even though many conditions in East Africa are "real", many people are still deceived into going to the United States to work as railroad workers.

The Pacific Railway in the United States was completed in the first half of this year. Only the Chinese people in the underground know how much blood and tears are involved.

These are things that local Chinese people are not aware of, but Ernst has no way of exposing this scam. The United States is no longer the American Empire, and the threat to East Africa cannot be ignored.

Especially in the Far East, unless the Heixingen Group no longer wants to do business, it will give up this source of immigration and market.

If a unified Germany did this, the United States would probably just fart.

Let's get back to the topic of Jiaozhou. Jiaozhou's status in the Far East was not very high. Before the arrival of the Heixingen Group, it was only the size of a small town.

After the Opium War, the Western barbarians used their powerful ships and cannons to blast open the door to the Far East, and Western merchants also flocked to various places along the eastern coast.

Originally Jiaozhou was just a few small fishing villages, but due to its advantageous geographical location and natural conditions, a small number of Western businessmen came here to do business.

However, it was not until 1865 that the Qing government set up checkpoints here to manage maritime transportation and collect taxes. This shows that Jiaozhou was still not important enough to the Qing government.

This was the most important port in Shandong and even the northern economy in the future. Now, it is Yantai, which is the British trading port.

Before the arrival of the Heixinggen Consortium, Jiaozhou was just a branch of the Yantai East Customs.

The Heixingen Group, in addition to engaging in immigration here, has now started doing business. Its own company's industrial products are indispensable, and agricultural products such as rice from East Africa are also mainly exported here.

The main competitive advantage is the low price. The immigrant ships that set sail from East Africa and return home will load a large amount of goods in East Africa and transport them here.

At the same time, Heixingen also set up several small factories here, mainly textile factories, but they were too small to be a big deal.

The reason for choosing this place is very simple. Neither East Africa nor Germany is currently suitable for the textile industry. East Africa is short of manpower. Although "labor" is almost "unlimited", it is simply wishful thinking to expect black people to do such delicate work as textile production.

Germany had developed the textile industry, but the results were not very good. Since someone had tried it before, Ernst naturally would not repeat the same mistake.

Relying on the Heixingen Consortium and commodity trade in East Africa, Jiaozhou's economy developed rapidly, especially the rapid increase in tariff revenue, which attracted the attention of the Qing government. It was separated from the Yantai East Customs and managed separately, and the local bureaucrats in Jiaozhou were therefore promoted to a higher level.

…

Just as Richard was reminded of the past, the plaque of the German Commercial Liaison Office had been removed and replaced by a brand new plaque of the Hechingen Far East Commercial Liaison Office.

"Mr. Richard, why did you change your brand?" asked a Qing government official who was responsible for contacting the Heixingen Group.

"It's like this, Mr. Wang. We have received a notice from our superiors that we will no longer use the previous brand."

"I know about Deutschland, but is this Hechingen the same as the Hechingen Bank that was newly established two years ago?"

"That's right. Hexingen is a state of Germany, so this change is not a big deal for you. Besides, the people who come to Jiaozhou to do business are mainly from our Hexingen consortium."

Wang Enke was completely confused by Richard's words. He asked, "Heixingen Consortium?"

"The Hechingen Group is one of the most powerful companies in Germany. You can understand it that way."

"Where is Germany?"

"Germany certainly exists, but we are no longer just representing Germany in trade with you, so the old name is no longer needed."

"Mr. Richard, excuse me for asking, which party does your company represent?" Wang Enke asked hurriedly.

The main thing is that it is a bit scary. It does not only represent Germany, but also other countries or regions.

"The Black Hingen East African Crown."

"this?"

“A new country.”

“Where is East Africa?”

"On the east coast of Africa. Africa is a large continent. You can imagine a place that is larger than your Qing Dynasty."

“East Africa is so big?”

"I said it's Africa. East Africa is just an important emerging country there, just like your Qing Dynasty is an important country on the Eurasian continent. The full name of East Africa is the Black Xinggen East African Royal Territory."

…

Although the German Commercial Liaison Office was changed to the Hechingen Commercial Liaison Office, its functions did not change at all.

The name change is a political signal after the Hechingen royal family migrated to East Africa. Now East Africa is mainly engaged in trade in the Far East, and diplomatic personnel will definitely be sent there after the establishment of a country in the future.

It was not good to still have the name of Germany at that time. People who didn’t know would think that Hechingen unified Germany! (laughing)

In addition to the Hechingen Group and East African business people, Jiaozhou naturally also had merchants from other German states and some missionaries.

Before Prussia completed its unification, its international influence could not reach here, so there was naturally no problem for the Hechingen Consortium to represent Germany in Jiaozhou.

This is indeed the case. Now the main body of Germany's trade activities in the Far East is the Hechingen Group, and other German businessmen naturally unite under the Hechingen Group.

Many negotiation issues were handled by the former "German Commercial Liaison Office". After all, the Hechingen Consortium was an armed merchant group overseas, and merchant ships equipped with artillery were still very convincing.

However, because of Ernst, everyone naturally lives in peace, provided that it does not hinder their immigration work. You can not support it, but you cannot oppose it. This is a completely insignificant problem for the Far East authorities, or it is not a problem at all. Even if I let you bring people in, you cannot keep up with the growth rate of the Qing Dynasty's population.

As for the others, having seen the brutality of Britain and France, the Heixingen Group is simply the conscience of the Western barbarians. It would be better if they did not carry guns.

In response, Ernst said, you are not confident in my conscience, but I am not confident in your moral integrity either!

(End of this chapter)