Chapter 1336 Railway Power
Compared with population data, East Africa's railway traffic data is released faster. After entering the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the enthusiasm for railway construction in East Africa has completely slowed down. Except for the reconstruction of existing lines, only the railway mileage in the northwest region has increased rapidly.
In the field of railway construction, over the past two decades, it can be said that East Africa has maximized the advantages of the planned economic system and achieved remarkable results that have attracted worldwide attention.
Wells, the Minister of Railways of East Africa, reported the relevant situation: "As of 1918, the total length of railways that had been completed and put into operation in the country reached more than 320,700 kilometers, ranking second in the world."
"From the 1990s to the first 20 years of this century, my country's railway growth exploded, and most of the country's railways were built during this stage."
“As a result, we have built a regional railway network that is the third most developed in the world after North America and Europe, supporting the strong rise of our country’s economy.”
North America is undoubtedly the region with the most railway construction in the world. The United States has built nearly 400,000 square kilometers of railways on its own, which exceeds that of any other continent in the world.
Due to the impact of the war, there was almost no increase in railways in Europe. However, before World War I, the length of European railways had reached nearly 350,000 kilometers. Therefore, even though there was no growth during the war, it still ranked second in the world. In particular, the railway density in Western Europe was comparable to that in the eastern United States.
However, there is not only one United States in North America. Countries such as Canada and Mexico have also made impressive achievements in railway construction. Before World War I, Canada had more than 50,000 kilometers of railways, and by now it should be at least 60,000 kilometers, and Mexico has more than 20,000 kilometers of railways.
If other North American countries are included, the total railway mileage in North America is around 500,000 kilometers, firmly ranking first in the world.
Wells said: "If we use countries as the statistical standard, then my country is the second largest railway country in the world after the United States, and in my country, nearly 4,000 kilometers of electrified railways have been transformed, which ranks first in the world."
The electrification of railways is now a key research and promotion project of the East African railway department. After all, Ernst had emphasized at the beginning of this century that the total mileage of East African railways only needs to be maintained at around 300,000 kilometers.
This means that after the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the railway department's idea of accumulating political achievements by simply relying on railway growth was strangled in the bud.
Moreover, even the speed of electrified railway transformation is much lower than the construction of ordinary railways in the past. There are two main reasons for this situation. First, the railway construction standards have been improved and the inspection has become more stringent. Second, the slavery system in East Africa has been completely eliminated.
During the planned economy era, the speed of railway construction in East Africa was unprecedented in the world. The maximum length of railway construction per year even reached nearly 14,000 kilometers, with an average annual level of about 10,000 kilometers.
This is equivalent to building one-third of France's national railway every year. Before World War I, France's national railway was only more than 30,000 kilometers.
In the era of fully planned economy, the speed of railway construction in East Africa was even higher than that of the railway construction maniac - the United States.
There is nothing wrong in saying that the United States is the world's railway construction maniac, because since the 1930s, when the length of American railways exceeded that of the United Kingdom, the United States has always been the world's largest railway country, which means that the United States has been on this throne for nearly a century.
Moreover, based on the current trend of railway construction in the United States, the United States will most likely maintain this status for a long time, or even forever. After all, from the perspective of the time dimension of previous lives, the United States' railway mileage remained the world's first until the 21st century.
The country most likely to threaten the United States' position as the world's number one in railway mileage in this time and space is East Africa, but unfortunately, Ernst's plan does not include any intention of surpassing the United States.
The reason why the speed of railway construction in East Africa has been almost twice that of the United States in the past two decades is that East Africa has made extreme use of the slave economy. The difficulty of railway construction lies mainly in three aspects, namely labor, technology and land.
The latter two have little impact on East Africa. Technically, East Africa has accumulated experience in railway construction since the 1970s, and the supporting talent training mechanism is relatively complete. As for land, land acquisition is very convenient under the state-owned land system in East Africa. Coupled with the dividends of East Africa's colonial countries, this makes the land problem the easiest to solve.
In other countries, land is a long-standing problem. For example, India in the past was deeply troubled by private land ownership, which seriously hindered the development of India's economy.
After solving the technical and land problems, the only limitations of East African railway construction were materials and labor. By the 1990s, East Africa already had a certain industrial base, and with its vast land and abundant resources, there was no shortage of materials for railway construction.
The last labor force was the fundamental reason that drove the East African Railway to achieve amazing success in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
During this period, the construction of East African railways focused on achieving miracles with great effort. No matter whether it was high mountains, dangerous peaks, rivers, ponds, or deserts and rainforests, the extent of the difficulties faced by the East African government and railway departments did not depend on geographical limitations, but on the number of "lives" invested.
To put it cruelly, what supported the construction of East Africa's developed railway network was not the rails, sleepers and gravel, but the flesh and blood and bones of black people.
From the grasslands of East Africa to the desert and then to the rainforest, countless souls of black slaves are buried under almost every section of railway.
In the 19th century, railways, mining, and river digging were all high-risk occupations, and the average life expectancy was generally less than 40 years old. Even the most developed industrial countries in the world at that time could not change this situation, and strikes and resistance movements by railway workers in various countries continued despite repeated bans.
The living conditions of the black slaves who served as the main laborers on the East African railways were even more miserable. Although other Western capitalist countries also exploited railway workers to the extreme, they at least gave them a meager salary. The black slaves in East Africa worked completely in vain, which made the average life expectancy of black slave railway workers in East Africa generally less than 25 years old.
Of course, the East African government will certainly not acknowledge these historical processes. In fact, since the Third Five-Year Plan, the East African government has begun to eliminate a series of evidence of oppression and exploitation of black slaves in East Africa.
From the central government of East Africa to lower-level governments and even to the private sector, a large number of archives, materials, documents and evidence about the slave economy era were burned. Today, there is not a single paper record in the East African government that black slaves ever existed in East Africa.
Of course, the qualifier is black slaves. The East African government did retain and forge a number of files on the number of black people in East Africa and their final whereabouts.
After all, no matter how East Africa tamperes with history, it cannot change its past colonial history. The world has memory. Before the establishment of this country in East Africa, tens of millions of black people once lived on the land in today's East Africa.
According to official documents in East Africa, there were indeed a large number of black people living in East Africa, but these black people had left East Africa and went to countries and regions such as the United States, the Ottoman Empire, West Africa, and Brazil. There were no such words as "exploitation, oppression, massacre, and repression".
In addition, East Africa did engage in the slave trade and drove many black regimes and populations to West Africa and other places, such as the Buganda, Burundi, Swaziland, etc. Half-true and half-false information can minimize and beautify East Africa’s past colonial history.
Back to the issue of railways, the railway construction in East Africa during the planned economy era was able to achieve brilliant results only through the unlimited consumption of black people.
This also helped East Africa overcome various social problems in its early industrialization. Looking around the world, whether it is Britain, France, Germany, the United States or other industrial countries, they all had to go through the most brutal stage in their early industrialization, and this brutality was mainly aimed at the lower-level workers and farmers.
The primitive accumulation of capital is the bloodiest. Whether it is today's imperialist countries or the future Soviet economic model countries, they cannot avoid this. If they want to develop, they must pay a price.
The sheep-eating incidents in Britain (Enclosure Movement), the Great Famine in Ireland, the black slaves in the United States, the widespread famine and war in Germany last century, and the frequent social movements in France, do not even count the social problems that were transferred by imperialism through colonial plunder.
In order to develop industry, the Soviet Union caused widespread famine in Ukraine, and even the Far Eastern Empire experienced several years of the most difficult economic period.
It can be said that if you want to complete the original accumulation of capital, you must pay a price and concentrate the wealth and labor value of others in order to promote a qualitative leap in productivity. If you cannot take this step, there is no way to talk about the next step of development.
Therefore, if East Africa wants to become an industrial country, some people, and most of them, will have to sacrifice. These people can be black people, or they can be citizens of East Africa, or they can be from countries that are more backward than East Africa.
The most "harmless" black people naturally became the natural choice of the East African government as the best sacrifice targets. The local people were the foundation of East Africa's rule, while East Africa had limited capacity to harvest from backward countries and regions. After all, in the early days, East Africa did not have large and wealthy colonies like those of European countries such as Britain and France.
However, by today's time, East Africa's primitive accumulation has long been completed, which is why East Africa is ready to get rid of the last batch of black slaves remaining in the country.
Today, East Africa has more advanced and efficient large-scale construction machinery to assist in the construction of East African railway projects, especially in the process of railway electrification, where modern technological tools such as cars, cranes, and excavators are widely used.
Moreover, because East Africa's transportation and infrastructure have been greatly improved from the last century to the first decade of this century, and the living conditions of workers have also been greatly improved, the construction of East African railways used to be basically done in the open air and overcoming difficulties. Now, it only requires continuous expansion and extension along the transportation routes, and the difficulty and workload have been greatly reduced.
Minister of Railways Wells said: "The construction of the Empire Railway has passed the stage of blind expansion and pursuit of quantity, and has turned to high-quality development. The degree of mechanization has been greatly improved, the education level and safety awareness of workers have been greatly improved, and the treatment and wages have also increased slightly."
East African workers are indeed able to endure hardships, but the social security system and welfare benefits of East African citizens are relatively complete in the world, especially East African state-owned enterprises.
Although the era of fully planned economy in East Africa has passed, some of the impacts left behind have not dissipated.
In the era of fully planned economy, because of the state-owned enterprise system, East African governments could supervise the implementation of the Labor Law. This allowed East African citizens, especially the former working class, to develop relevant awareness, and this awareness did not disappear with the end of the planned economy era.
Although this is not conducive to industrial competition between East African governments and other countries in the world, after all, exploitation and deprivation can reduce production costs, it has played a huge role in social stability in East Africa.
This is also one of the main reasons why Ernst turned a blind eye to the Russian Labor Party. As long as the Russian Labor Party completes the construction of its national power, it will inevitably force other imperialists to improve the welfare and treatment of their workers.
In this way, East Africa will not fall into a situation where it is difficult to back down. After all, from a factual point of view, the human rights issues of other imperialist powers have actually formed "malicious competition" against East African industries.
This is similar to the past when Europe and the United States played the human rights card in order to restrict the industrial development of other countries. However, under the consensus of the international community today, East Africa obviously cannot be the first to stand out and become a traitor among imperialist countries.
If East Africa asks other imperialist countries to improve workers' treatment and raise their labor costs, it will probably only be criticized and ridiculed, so the best way is for the Soviet Union to play the villain.
As long as the Soviet Union exports its ideology abroad, other imperialists will have no choice but to follow the policies currently being implemented in East Africa.
In fact, East Africa is currently in a very embarrassing situation. On the one hand, workers are paid more than in other imperialist countries and the cost of industrial development is relatively high. On the other hand, East Africa’s social system does not allow it to encourage and export its economic development model, thus dragging down other imperialist counterparts.
The reason why East Africa can maintain social stability and healthy economic development at the current stage is essentially due to the influence of World War I. During World War I, most other imperialist countries, except Japan, turned to war economy, thereby freeing up and creating a large market. This is the fundamental reason why East Africa is in good economic condition today.
However, wars must eventually end, and East Africa cannot continue to develop its economy in this way forever.
The solution is clear but difficult, which is to continue to improve productivity and develop high-end industries, thereby reducing the impact of labor costs on the economy.
The railway electrification currently promoted by the railway department is the embodiment of this strategy in the transportation field.
Wells went on to say: "Compared with other countries, the disadvantage of my country's railway transportation development is that the labor cost is relatively high. Therefore, the Ministry of Railways actively promotes the research and development of railway engineering equipment, and at the same time reduces other costs by integrating and optimizing resources, thereby offsetting the disadvantage in labor costs."
"Today, the empire's railway utilization efficiency is at the forefront among the world's major industrial countries, thereby ensuring the problem of waste and overcapacity in railway construction."
The railway utilization efficiency in East Africa is higher than the average level of major industrial countries in the world. In addition to management aspects, the railway utilization efficiency is also closely related to the density of railway construction.
Take the Far Eastern Empire for example. The railway utilization efficiency of the Far Eastern Empire is considered high among countries in the world, but this is not because the railway construction of the Far Eastern Empire is developed, but rather that the railway construction of the Far Eastern Empire is relatively backward and cannot meet the railway transportation needs.
The opposite example is the United States. The United States has the longest railway mileage in the world, but the many duplicate railway constructions have resulted in low railway utilization and an oversupply of railway transportation.
The reason for this result is that, first of all, the railways in the United States are a "financial product". In order to raise the stock price, various regions across the country blindly followed suit and invested in the construction of railways. Moreover, due to the financial attributes of railways, speculators have also built many unfinished projects, resulting in the actual data of US railway mileage being "overstated".
Secondly, there are many railway companies in the United States, with no unified standards and a lack of effective management, which has resulted in a huge waste of railway capacity. For example, different railway companies have different ticket prices, which has triggered a price war and caused most railway companies in the United States to be in a loss-making state. Or because of inconsistent railway construction standards, the connecting ends of a railway may have to replace locomotives or railway employees because they belong to different railway companies.
The railway problems in some European countries are even more serious than those in the United States. This is mainly because the railways in some European countries are too concentrated.
Although the total railway mileage in Europe is as high as more than 300,000 kilometers, almost equivalent to East Africa, there are many countries in Europe. Some countries have a very high railway density, while some countries have a very low railway density, especially between Eastern Europe and Western Europe, and there is a significant gap between Southern Europe and Northern Europe.
In terms of railway density alone, Germany's railway density is more than four times that of East Africa, while the United States' railway density is nearly twice that of East Africa, and East Africa's railway density is nearly six times that of Russia.
This also explains the gap in railways between countries. In fact, the current East African railway is even more than three times the size of the Soviet Union's railway. The Soviet Union was not very active in railway construction in the past, and only expanded it more than twice compared to the Tsarist Russia era. This is one of the reasons why the Soviet Union's railway utilization efficiency ranked first in the world.
According to Ernst, the railway mileage of the Soviet Union in the previous life was obviously too low. After all, the Soviet Union was far more dependent on railways than East Africa. Of course, it is unknown how the Soviet railways developed in this life.
Currently, East Africa's 310,000 kilometers of railways have reached their peak, no more, no less. In addition to the relatively evenly distributed trunk railways, East Africa's railways are mainly concentrated in the central and southern regions, with considerable freight and passenger traffic.
The future construction direction of East Africa's railways is simply to continue to repair and patch up this already most developed and efficient railway network in the world. From this perspective, East Africa has become a railway power rather than a single railway power.
(End of this chapter)
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