Chapter 866 BASF Delegation

While Ernst was traveling on his inspection tour, new development opportunities were also emerging in the city of Beira on the Indian Ocean.

Beira is different from Maputo. It is a completely new city developed and built in East Africa. However, its development speed surpassed all cities in East Africa, including Maputo, the former capital of Mozambique, in 1892. The main reason for this situation is the policy bias of East African countries towards Beira.

In the past, African industry was concentrated in the northeast of South Africa, which is the former Transvaal Republic, including Johannesburg (the largest city in South Africa and an undeveloped city in East Africa) and Pretoria (now the city of Otto in East Africa), and other important industrial and mining cities in South Africa.

With Johannesburg as the center, there are more than 60 gold mines within a radius of 240 kilometers. It is located in the center of the world's largest mining area and South Africa's economic center. Johannesburg and the numerous surrounding industrial and mining cities together account for about half of South Africa's total industrial output value.

The industry in East Africa was concentrated in Zimbabwe in the past, rather than in South Africa. This led to the port location of Beira being given more attention, and supporting facilities including railways, ports, and roads were quickly developed. Population, capital, technology, and industry were also concentrated in the region.

August 17, 1893.

The Beira Municipal Government welcomed a group of important guests from Germany at the dock, including a delegation from BASF, one of the German chemical industry giants.

BASF is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, across the river from Mannheim in the Duchy of Baden. It rose in the 19th century due to the development of the chemical industry. Ludwigshafen formed a joint port with Mannheim on the opposite bank. BASF was founded in 1865 and its original name was Baden Aniline and Soda Factory.

Many chemical factories in Germany were established in the 1960s and 1970s, and were initially concentrated in the textile industry. At that time, the mainstream products of the dye industry were still natural dyes, but because they were mainly derived from plants, their ingredients were complex, product concentrations were unstable, and hues were unstable.

Therefore, it was difficult to achieve standardized production in modern industry and unable to meet the growing needs of the textile industry. BASF chose to enter the field of synthetic dyes and use coal tar, a by-product of coal gas, to make synthetic dyes.

In 1869, BASF successfully synthesized the first natural dye: alizarin, which became the company's first global success story. Subsequently, new dyes such as aurantium, red and yellow were introduced one after another.

Starting in the 1970s, BASF entered a period of expansion and acquired two extremely important dye sales companies in Germany. At the same time, BASF began to establish production facilities and sales offices abroad, including the United States, France and Tsarist Russia.

In the 1980s, the application of new technologies enabled BASF to become the world's largest sulfuric acid producer at that time.

When BASF was first established, it had only more than 30 employees, but now it has become a large German chemical company with thousands of employees. Don’t be fooled by the small number of employees. In fact, the salary in the chemical industry is much higher than that in other industries. Even the average salary of new employees who have just graduated and joined the company is 25 times that of other industries.

It can be seen that the chemical industry was making huge profits at that time. Of course, BASF, which started out as a dye company, was at the forefront of the times. The rapid development of the textile industry led to people's higher demand for textiles, and "textiles", as the "clothing" in food, clothing, housing and transportation, were absolutely necessary products.

Therefore, it goes without saying that East Africa or Ernst attaches great importance to the chemical industry. This inspection of Beira City is one of the important contents of the cooperation between East Africa and Germany.

Of course, where BASF and other German chemical companies will eventually invest and build factories depends on the means of various cities in East Africa. Yes, before coming to Beira, BASF had already conducted inspections in Mombasa, Tanga and other cities. While visiting Beira, BASF also had inspection teams visiting the port city of New Hamburgo and Luanda on the west coast.

Therefore, the Beira City Government has no idea whether this investment promotion will be successful. Compared with Beira, Mombasa, Tanga and the New Hamburg Port obviously have better basic conditions. Only Luanda on the west coast is currently at the same level as Beira.

"Gentlemen, welcome to Bella City for inspection. I am the mayor of Bella City, my name is Curry Bolilan. We have prepared catering and accommodation for you in advance. You will definitely feel at home when you come to Bella City." Bella City Mayor Bolilan said enthusiastically.

After the typhoon two years ago, the development speed of Beira City was not affected at all. Instead, it reached a higher level in 1892. The city expanded rapidly with the increase of population and labor force. The port was basically formed and the railway was about to be completed. Now Beira City can be said to have everything ready, only lacking the east wind, and this east wind is industry.

Boliland didn't know much about the chemical industry, but since it was highly valued by the East African Central Government, it must be something special. So even if it had to do it with a shameless face, Boliland would find ways to keep BASF's branch in Beira.

The members of the BASF delegation were not at all shy about the enthusiasm of the local officials, as they had received such courtesy in other East African cities before.

A relatively young member of the inspection team said, "Hello, Mayor Bolilan, you don't have to be so enthusiastic. Our main purpose this time is to conduct an inspection. As a company, BASF still hopes that the local area meets our standards for setting up a branch."

Bolilan looked at the young man in front of him and said, "What is your name? Are you the leader of this inspection team?"

The reason why Bolilan paid attention to this young man, besides the fact that he stood in the first place, was mainly because his appearance made Bolilan feel a little strange. If he thought about it carefully, wasn't this the characteristic of East African mixed-race people!

His bone structure is more German, but he has thick black hair, and his face and skin color also combine the characteristics of Edward and China.

"Of course, my name is Xia Lieran, and I am the leader of this inspection team. However, my ability as the leader of the inspection team is not very high. It is because I am originally from East Africa that the company considered sending me to the local area to investigate the situation. Therefore, I will be more strict in the next inspection."

Xia Lieran openly stated the reason why he became the leader of the inspection team, but his last sentence also showed that he would not relax the inspection standards because of his East African nationality, but would make them more stringent.

However, now Bolilan was very interested in Xiali'an's experience and also wanted to establish a good relationship with the representative of BASF, so the two of them started chatting.

Later, with Bolilan's indirect questioning, Xiali'an's experience gradually became clear. The reason why Xiali'an, an East African, could become an employee of BASF was mainly due to the benefit of East Africa's education system.

East Africa sends a large number of international students to study in Europe every year. However, the freedom of these students is not strictly restricted by the East African government. The main constraints imposed by the East African government on them are "tuition fees" and family.

Tuition fees are easy to understand. All international students in East Africa study at public expense, and tuition fees for college students in the 19th century were very high. This remained the case even though the governments of Germany, Austria and other countries gave them some leniency for the sake of the East African government. Family is a natural bond, and this is not actually a measure taken by the East African government. Except for orphans, the families of international students must mainly have parents living in East Africa.

After completing their studies abroad, some students can choose to return to their home country in order to "repay the loan", in which case the study abroad loan will be directly canceled. Students who do not choose to return to their home country can choose to work in Europe and then repay the "loan". In this way, most international students will choose to return to their home country for development, while a small number of those with connections may stay in the more prosperous Germany.

Xia Liyan had connections. His father was a German immigrant and his mother was Chinese, but his grandfather and other relatives still stayed in Germany. So he returned to Germany to "return to his roots" as his father instructed. In addition, he studied chemistry when he was studying in Germany and had excellent grades, so he was noticed by BASF and was offered a high annual salary. This allowed Xia Liyan to pay off his loan in just one year after graduation and stay in Germany.

(End of this chapter)