Chapter 1516 Food Trade and Famine
After a period of time, a company named "Romanov" was registered in East Africa. Alexei and his wife directly used the name of the Tsarist family as the name of the company, focusing on three major areas: clothing, perfume and jewelry.
The jewelry industry is a relatively popular industry in East Africa. For example, diamonds, tanzanite, jadeite, opal, chrysoprase, turquoise, jade, etc. Africa itself has relatively excellent natural endowments in the jewelry field.
Among all the continents in the world, Asia and Africa are recognized to have the best gem resources, and many of Africa's gem producing areas are concentrated in East Africa.
In the past, Zambia, Tanzania, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and South Africa were all important gem producing areas.
At the same time, as a country where Chinese and Western cultures blend, East Africa is more inclusive in the jewelry industry. For example, jade, a typical oriental cultural artifact, also has a large market in East Africa.
With the Russian royal family as its signature brand, the development of the "Romanov" brand naturally went smoothly, making it one of the representative companies in the luxury goods field in East Africa in the future.
The East African government naturally strongly supports this newly established enterprise because East Africa, as one of the youngest countries in the world, lacks historical and cultural heritage.
This makes East Africa's competitiveness in the field of high-end cultural products very weak. Although Romanov originated from the former Russia, it also opened up a new track for East Africa and created jobs and tax revenue for East African society.
…
October 7, 1931.
Rhine City, Soviet Trade Representative Office in Rhine. Trade Representative Office is a special agency established by the Soviet Foreign Trade Committee in various countries around the world.
Responsible for the trade activities between the Soviet Union and other countries in the world, it is generally set up in the capitals of various countries, or developed cities, or some areas that have a profound influence on the former Russia.
For example, the London Trade Office, Berlin Trade Office, Rhine Trade Office, and Paris Trade Office are all located in the capitals of other countries, while the New York Trade Office, Shanghai Trade Office (Far East Empire), and Istanbul Trade Office are all located in the most economically developed cities in their respective countries.
The last case is relatively rare, represented by the Harbin Trade Representative Office of the Far Eastern Empire, where the former Russian influence once spread.
In fact, the Soviet Union had set up not only one trade representative office in Rhineland, but also one in Dar es Salaam, which also reflects that the trade between East Africa and the Soviet Union is still relatively active.
During this period, Soviet officials in Rhine City were quite busy because according to past practices, this period was an important time for Soviet agricultural harvest and grain export.
Unlike previous days, this morning Kantorovich, the special envoy of the Rhine City Trade Representative Office, first convened an internal secret meeting.
"Comrades, I want to inform you of an important telegram sent from Moscow early this morning. This matter is very important, so everyone present will sign a confidentiality agreement next."
Kantorovich's serious announcement made everyone in the trade representative's meeting room feel uneasy.
Considering the situation in the Soviet Union at that time, and the sensitive unit of the Trade Representative Office, their first thought was that something went wrong with the Trade Representative Office. It was not important what the problem was, but a small matter could rise to the political level.
After all, this is East Africa, a country where feudalism and capitalism are mixed. According to the Soviet definition, East Africa is simply one of the most evil countries in the world.
However, the trade representative office has to contact East Africa for work reasons, and in this process, even an unintentional word may become a turning point in one's future destiny.
Kantorovich saw their reactions, he clapped his hands, and diverted everyone's attention to himself.
"Don't overthink it. The purpose of this meeting is not about politics, but about the important task the country has given us. Next, the Rhine Trade Representative Office will be an important part of carrying out this task."
"This order was issued by Comrade Joseph himself. According to his instructions, in the recent grain trade settlement with East Africa, we must, on the one hand, increase the export of grain and other commodities to East Africa, and on the other hand, import a large amount of cheap grain from East Africa for the needs of national development."
East Africa has always been one of the important buyers of Soviet agriculture, such as wheat, oats, rye, etc. Although East Africa also produces wheat, the quality of East Africa's own wheat is not as good as that of the Soviet Union. In addition, in recent years, due to the adjustment of agricultural planting structure, East Africa's wheat production has decreased. Therefore, part of the market demand for wheat is shared by the international grain market.
This is not surprising. For example, East Africa still imports wheat from Argentina, Paraguay, the Far East Empire and other regions to balance trade or supplement domestic market demand. As for crops such as oats and rye, East Africa has almost no large-scale planting due to climate reasons.
Abram, the head of grain trade at the Trade Representative Office, asked in confusion, "Comrade Commissioner, you mean that we are expanding our grain exports to East Africa while purchasing a large amount of grain from East Africa. Isn't this a bit contradictory?"
Anyone who heard what Kantorovich said just now would think so. After all, going back and forth like this was a bit of a waste of time. The Soviet Union sold grain to East Africa and then bought the grain from East Africa back to the country, which would inevitably require it to bear more transportation costs.
Moreover, the Soviet Union was a major grain exporter, and it was even more unreasonable for it to purchase a large amount of grain from East Africa.
Abram's idea is not surprising. Before 1931, including Russia, Soviet Russia and then the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union (Russia) was indeed a major grain exporter during this period, except for some special periods, such as World War I and the civil war.
Therefore, in the minds of Abram and others, the Soviet Union did not lack food, and it was particularly unreasonable to import large amounts of food from East Africa.
However, they did not realize that there had been tremendous changes in Soviet agriculture, and that this change had taken place during the First Five-Year Plan, namely, the collectivization of Soviet agriculture.
By 1931, agricultural collectivization in the Soviet Union was basically completed. Collective farms were built all over the country, land was reclaimed, and all means of production were shared. At the same time, the Soviet Union launched a severe crackdown on landlords and rich peasants.
This led to a decline in Soviet agricultural output in 1931. However, during the First Five-Year Plan, Soviet political propaganda was completely different. Various newspapers reported that after the establishment of collective farms and cooperatives, the country's agricultural output had a bumper harvest.
The reasons given by various places are also reasonable and well-founded. After collectivization, the production enthusiasm of farmers in farms has greatly increased, water conservancy construction has increased significantly, the level of mechanization has improved, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers has increased...
These are obviously good news for agricultural development. Therefore, for those who are not at the grassroots level, it is reasonable to say that Soviet agriculture in 1931 should not only not have reduced production, but should have increased significantly.
The truth is just the opposite, because the increase in grain production is indeed closely related to the above factors, a typical example being East African agriculture, but the Soviet government ignored the importance of "farmers" in agriculture.
It can also be called the importance of "people". There are also cooperatives and state-owned farms in East Africa. However, why East African agriculture has achieved brilliant results? One of the key points is that the East African government attaches importance to guaranteeing the interests of "farmers".
To put it simply, the East African government recognizes the legitimate income of farmers and has established a relatively fair reward and punishment system. This is the real reason for mobilizing their enthusiasm.
In fact, grain crops are extremely delicate crops. A little waterlogging or drought may affect grain production. During the planting period, farmers and enterprises need to carefully manage how to select seeds, how to care for seedlings, how to prevent and control subsequent diseases and pests, etc.
The Far Eastern Empire, which cultivated agriculture meticulously, is a good example. If a sudden rainstorm came in the middle of the night and the farmland did not need so much rainwater, the farmers in the Far Eastern Empire would go to the farmland in the middle of the night to check the situation, carry iron shovels, dig through the ridges, and drain the excess water.
But if this happened in the Soviet Union today, the situation might be completely different. When a farmer on a collective farm heard heavy rain in the middle of the night, he might choose to continue sleeping soundly and let the farmland be flooded by the rain.
After all, this farmland belongs to the collective, not to him personally, or it is not within his scope of responsibility, so he can avoid making any contributions but only seek to avoid making any mistakes.
This may be the only reason that has led to a decrease in grain production this year, not to mention that there are many actual situations in agricultural planting that must be adapted to local conditions and the times. This cannot be solved by simple and rigid planned agriculture.
In summary, the Soviet leaders took the development of the agricultural sector for granted, were good at one-size-fits-all approaches, and did not pay much attention to it themselves.
The emergence of this situation is not surprising, because the Soviet government itself said that they represent the interests of the working class. Many government officials are workers, not farmers, and they don’t know much about agriculture.
Finally, the Soviet Union believed too much that industrialization alone could solve agricultural problems. Therefore, although the Soviet Union's degree of mechanization, agricultural technology, and pesticide and fertilizer production did improve, the agricultural development situation was not ideal.
Now, Abram and others, on the one hand, did not understand agriculture itself, and on the other hand, were influenced by the Soviet government's public opinion. They certainly could not imagine that there were huge problems in domestic agriculture.
The highest head of the trade representative office, Kantorovich, only learned about the possible "food shortage" problem in the Soviet Union after receiving telegrams and instructions from Moscow.
He explained to Abram and others: "The telegram from Moscow said that due to climate reasons, domestic grain production may decrease this year. In addition, in order to improve people's living standards, the demand for grain in the livestock industry has increased significantly."
"This has led to a temporary food shortage in the country, but the problem is not serious. We can adjust to it next year, but we must solve this year's food gap."
"Therefore, importing cheaper grains from food exporting countries such as East Africa has become a good choice. After all, food prices in capitalist countries such as East Africa are already low because of the economic crisis and overproduction."
"We can fully use this opportunity to take advantage of these capitalist countries and promote the development of the workers' motherland. According to Comrade Joseph, this is to fleece the imperialists, so everyone should not have any psychological burden."
"Of course, if we want to fleece the imperialists, we can't let those evil capitalists and aristocratic landlords know our plans in advance. This is why this mission needs to be kept highly confidential."
As he explained, the members of the trade representative office basically believed what he said, especially the second point, the demand for grain in the livestock industry.
This is a good reason. After all, one of the long-term tasks of the Soviet government is to improve the quality of life of its people. This requires more meat, eggs and milk on the table. If the Soviet people want to eat better, they must vigorously develop the animal husbandry industry, which in turn requires a large amount of grain.
Although the Soviet Union's grain output was not low, they knew the fact that its agricultural production efficiency was lower than that of other countries.
Take East Africa as an example. East Africa has achieved full mechanization in the field of grain crop cultivation, while the Soviet Union’s tractor factories at the same time had not yet been fully completed and put into production, and other fertilizers, pesticides, breeding and planting technologies were far behind.
Therefore, officials at the trade representative office thought that the Soviet Union certainly had "enough" food, but if they wanted to invest more in the livestock industry, it should, probably, or probably was not enough.
…
Moscow.
Joseph was furious at the Ukrainian officials: "In the Tsarist era, Ukraine was known as the granary of Europe. In the past ten years, Ukraine's grain production has not been a big problem. Now, agricultural machinery is more advanced, and the output of fertilizers and pesticides is higher. Ukraine's grain production has dropped sharply:"
"This is obviously caused by the inaction of your local cadres. If a large-scale famine occurs because of the Ukrainian issue, who among you can bear the responsibility?"
"The agricultural officials in the Ukrainian region should be held responsible for this matter first and investigate whether there are spies, speculators, anti-state elements from other countries and western Ukraine who are undermining the agricultural construction of our great workers' motherland."
Then he said to the staff of the Foreign Trade Commission: "Ministry of Trade, find a way to make up for this year's food deficit. I don't care what method you use, go to Europe, North America, and East Africa to make up for these food deficits. In short, Ukraine must not have any problems."
The reason why Joseph attached so much importance to Ukraine's agricultural issues was largely due to the fact that Western Ukraine, a "pseudo-country" certified by the Soviet government, still existed.
In the past, the Soviet Union occupied the entire Ukraine. Therefore, it didn't matter if Ukrainian farmers contributed more to social construction. At most, they could be compensated later. But now the existence of Western Ukraine makes Joseph feel worried.
Once famine occurs in the Ukrainian region under Soviet rule, the puppet regime in western Ukraine may take advantage of the situation to provoke confrontation between the Ukrainian people and the Soviet government.
Therefore, Joseph's requirement for the Ukrainian region now is that people should not starve to death. Even if it means sacrificing the income from the Soviet Union's exports this year and buying a large amount of grain from other capitalist countries, it is worth doing so.
In a sense, the existence of Western Ukraine has changed the fate of many Ukrainians under Soviet rule.
(End of this chapter)
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