Chapter 673 Ivory

Selling naval vessels is actually no different from dealing with scrap copper and rotten iron, except that in this era even scrap copper and rotten iron have very high value.

What's more, an ironclad ship with a weapon system can be said to be the most advanced technological weapon of this era, and is on the same level as the aircraft carrier of the previous life.

After Archduke Ferdinand arranged the naval-related work, von der Leyen began to report to Ernst about last year's ivory business in East Africa.

"The East African ivory business has always been prosperous. Last year, the trading volume of ivory was over 40,000 pieces, of which we have over 20,000 pieces in stock, which is one of the approximately 10,000 elephants that died at the gunpoint of East African hunters in 1884."

The ivory business has always been one of the most prosperous businesses in East Africa. The Europeans initially colonized Africa for three things: gold, ivory and black slaves, so there are terms such as Gold Coast and Ivory Coast. In fact, the "Black Coast" should also exist, but Europeans and Americans still have to erect a "monument" after all.

"How much ivory do we have left in stock?" Ernst asked.

"There are still more than two million, which, based on the current annual shipment volume, is enough for us to export for more than a hundred years."

In the past twenty years, more than three million elephants have been poached in East Africa, with an average of more than 100,000 elephants slaughtered each year. However, the number of wild elephants in East Africa remains at least over six million. After all, there are no relevant statistics in East Africa, so the exact number is difficult to judge.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of African elephants in the whole of Africa should have been more than 26 million, which is more than the current number of black people in East Africa. Compared with the previous life when there were only more than 400,000 African elephants left, this is indeed a bit exaggerated.

"The international ivory market was not doing well last year because the shipment of ivory from West Africa increased, so we had to lower the price of ivory a little bit."

The reason why East African ivory faces competition from West Africa is very simple. In recent years, European and American colonists have intensified their activities in West Africa, and East Africa has monopolized most of the raw material supply sources, so the ivory production in West Africa has been rising steadily.

Of course, the price paid is also obvious, that is, the elephants in West Africa have once again suffered a tragic loss and are heading for the same path as their relatives in East Africa.

The reason why it was said to have suffered again was that the ivory trading center used to be on the coast of West Africa. Later, with the integration and large-scale development of East Africa, East Africa, with tens of millions of square kilometers, became the new world ivory supply center. Currently, the world's largest ivory trading market is in Mombasa.

East Africa accounts for one third of Africa, and the desert terrain of North Africa is obviously not suitable for elephants to survive, so the remaining elephants are mainly in West Africa, Abyssinia, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Town.

West Africa has the largest area, so it is the second largest ivory producing area after East Africa. However, West Africa's colonial history is earlier than that of East Africa, so the number of wild elephants was not more than that of East Africa at the beginning.

That is, in the 1970s, after East Africa's rapid external expansion and development, a large number of wild elephants in East Africa became extinct, so the number of elephants in East Africa fell sharply in the 1970s.

It is hard to say whether West Africa or East Africa has more elephants now, but the hunting of elephants in East Africa has been greatly reduced.

To be frank, they have been almost killed, especially in the eastern region. The human activity area has basically not expanded, and Ernst is too lazy to cause trouble for the animals anymore. As for the western region, which is being developed at an accelerated pace, it is completely different.

"Find some time to conduct a survey on the number of elephants in East Africa. We need to have a full understanding of the wild elephants in East Africa. After all, ivory is a resource that is not as easy to grow as leeks," Ernst ordered.

Elephants have a long lifespan and only have one pair of tusks in their lifetime, so it takes time for ivory to grow. African elephants not only far outnumber Asian elephants in number, but also in ivory production, because only male Asian elephants have tusks, while both male and female African elephants have tusks.

Ernst's purpose in understanding the current number of elephants in East Africa is of course not out of compassion, but to maintain the ivory business. Just like the kangaroos in Australia in his previous life, if there are too many, they can be killed. According to the current number of elephants in East Africa, as long as it is kept within a reasonable range, a stable supply can be guaranteed in the future.

However, in the past, most African countries chose to exhaust all resources, so the number of African elephants has been declining and cannot be effectively restored.

Ernst now hopes to help other countries go a step further so that East Africa’s future can be sustainably fished out.

"In recent years, we have increased our ivory stock to 30,000 pieces, and maintained our annual export volume at around 40,000 pieces. We import the rest from West Africa."

Imported from West Africa?

"Your Highness, are you sure you're right? East Africa is the world's largest producer of ivory. Why don't we import ivory from West Africa?"

Ernst said: "Because I am not satisfied with the current ivory market structure, we want to unify East Africa and South Africa in the future. We can ignore these small markets, but West Africa is a competitive market that threatens us, so we should explode this market."

"To be honest, the growth cycle of elephants is quite slow, while the world's demand for ivory is increasing every year. Based on our experience in East Africa, it is difficult or even impossible for elephant populations to recover under large-scale extinction."

"As a centralized country, we in East Africa can also adjust policies in a timely manner to ensure that the number of African elephants remains within a reasonable range and ensure the sustainability of ivory production in East Africa in the future."

"The future sovereign states in West Africa don't care about these things. They just want to gain more benefits from West Africa. So in the next 20 to 30 years, the elephant population in West Africa will suffer a devastating blow. I predict that by the beginning of the 20th century, the number of African elephants in West Africa may be halved."

"Our job in East Africa is to further exacerbate this market trend. We can also make a certain profit by reselling ivory. We just have to pay more for shipping. After the western section of the northern railway is completed, it will be a matter of course."

Ernst's goal is to accelerate the ivory trade in West Africa. Isn't there a saying that there would be no killing without trade?

East Africa could achieve this through trade with the native peoples of West Africa, and the price paid was nothing more than cheap industrial products and food.

The ivory purchased from West Africa can then be resold to the Far East Empire, the world's largest ivory consumer. This can still guarantee a certain profit because ivory is in short supply overall.

In the past, in order to obtain substitutes for ivory, some people even went to Siberia to look for ivory from mammoths frozen in the permafrost, which shows how vast the market is.

"Your Highness, do you mean to seal up most of our ivory and ensure the living space for elephants in the future?" The subordinates thought Ernst was having a wild idea.

After all, the 19th century was a period of transition between the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, which gave mankind the illusion that "man can conquer nature" in the future. Now, what Ernst is doing is definitely a waste of effort in the eyes of most people.

But Ernst doesn't care. After all, the thinking patterns of people nowadays are somewhat different from those in the 21st century. Ernst is not a member of the animal protection group. He is simply considering this issue from an industrial perspective.

In the 21st century, in order to restore the number of elephants, countries can be said to be using all their own methods. If East Africa kills fewer elephants, it is estimated that it will be able to monopolize most of the market by the end of the next century, so it is still very cost-effective.

After all, East Africa today is different from those poor African countries in the past. There is no need to rely solely on the ivory business to increase income. Ivory income only accounts for a very small share of the income of East African countries and can basically be ignored. However, the profit from a single transaction is higher than that from food and ordinary industrial products.

(End of this chapter)