Chapter 165 Development of the Lascampoli Trade Market
Somalia, Ras Kampori This former small village prospered due to the establishment of the Ras Kampori Trading Market by the East African Colony.
The village of Lascampori does not belong to the East African colony, but is located in Somalia. However, the East African colony wanted to save time and was too lazy to name the market, so they just took the local name and named it directly.
Therefore, the Ras Kampori Market and the Ras Kampori Village are not the same concept, but belong to the East African colony and the Geledi Sultanate in southern Somalia. The predecessor of the Geledi Sultanate was the Agulan Sultanate, which had been in a state of fragmentation and was later unified by Adel, the founder of the Geledi Sultanate.
This era was the end of the heyday of the Geledi Sultanate. The previous Sultan Yusuf Mahmud Ibrahim had made great military achievements and defeated the Omani Empire (including Zanzibar) at that time. However, according to the original history, in 1871, the Zanzibar Sultanate defeated the Geledi Sultanate again and became its vassal until the arrival of Italian colonists.
Therefore, the Geredi Sultanate, like the Zanzibar Sultanate, has declined. Its national strength only looks good on the surface, but in reality it will collapse with a single poke.
Many Arab merchants gathered at the Rascampori trade market, purchasing supplies and goods from here and promoting them to the inland areas of North Africa.
The village of Raskanpuri under the rule of the Geredi Sultanate also benefited from the Raskanpuri trade market. Merchants were more concerned about costs, so many small merchants chose to stay in the village of Raskanpuri to save money.
Even so, some merchants choose to stay directly in the hotel in the Lascampori Trade Market.
Because the architecture of the Lascampo Trade Market is completely European in style and the facilities are relatively complete, which is far from comparable to a small village under the rule of the Geledi Sultanate, some businessmen who pay more attention to enjoyment or face will still choose hotels in the Lascampo Trade Market.
After more than half a year of development, the Ras Kampori trade market has become quite prosperous. Only big cities such as Mogadishu in the Sultanate of Geredi can compare with the Ras Kampori trade market.
This place also became the first major tax collection center in East Africa. The Lascampoli trade market basically monopolized the trade between the entire East African colonies and North Africa. The original southward trade route of Arab merchants was forcibly interrupted due to the expansion of the East African colonies.
Moreover, the East African colonies went all out and directly blocked the border to prevent the return of the indigenous people and the so-called explorers from entering the East African colonies to inquire about the situation, so that Arab merchants and slave traders were also kept out.
Cutting off someone's source of income is like killing his parents, so while East Africa was blocking its borders, it opened up the Rascampori trade market to trade with merchants from North Africa.
In addition, the East African colonies did not raise the prices of original East African products, and frequent wars caused the price of slaves to continue to decline, so the costs of Arab merchants decreased instead of increased.
Logically speaking, the Rascampo Trade Market should not be very profitable in the East African colonies, because coastal cities such as Mombasa and Dar es Salaam should be the most commercial areas in East Africa.
However, the East African colonial government basically did not collect taxes on the coast, or only charged a symbolic service fee.
After all, the colonists on the sea are not easy to deal with. It is not easy to establish the East African colony, so we have to continue to pretend to be the grandson.
As for sovereignty, it is just something to listen to in this era. Even in the unified Germany in the previous life, without the support of maritime power, overseas colonies were still a piece of meat in the mouths of Britain and France.
After World War I, it was divided up among various countries. Of course, the German navy itself was not weak, but it was unfortunately blocked and beaten by the British at its doorstep.
After the unification, Germany was a top power with such strong national strength. The East African colonies, as an isolated African "island", naturally did not have the strength to negotiate with those maritime powers.
Portugal and the Netherlands, which had already declined in the eyes of Europeans, were maritime powers in the eyes of their East African colonies, not to mention Britain and France.
Collecting taxes is simple, and East Africa is able to resist for a period of time relying on the fortifications built along the coast, but the Black Hingen ships on the sea are the foundation of the East African colonies.
To maintain the immigration and trade routes between Europe and the Far East, without the immigrant population, the population of the East African colonies can only slowly grow by relying on the fertility of existing local immigrants. It takes at least twenty years for a generation to grow up, and in twenty years, the opportunity would be lost.
East Africa cannot grow by relying on the natural growth of its population. In the future, it can at most reach the level of South Africa in its previous life, or even be inferior to South Africa. After all, South Africa still has abundant resources.
Although East Africa is relatively rich in resources, the most important resources such as coal, iron and oil are relatively scarce.
Moreover, the population size is not enough. Faced with the threat from Western powers in Africa, East Africa may not be able to cope with it. After all, East Africa is a German colony, and if it does not handle international relations well, it is likely to be beaten up.
Although the number of immigrants in East Africa now far exceeds the number of colonists in Africa in previous lives, they still have natives who can be used as cannon fodder.
In short, it is impossible to collect taxes in economically developed port cities such as Dar es Salaam. In the era when there was no Suez Canal, with so many merchant ships docking in East Africa, it would be bad if they provoked a powerful enemy.
Ernst was certainly not afraid of the colonists from various countries, but East Africa would suffer too much if it entered into disputes with them, which would be tantamount to sacrificing its own development potential and causing trouble for other colonists.
The Las Campoli trade market is different. Its audience is mainly Arabs from North Africa. The East African colonies are afraid of the colonists from the Western maritime powers, but they never back down when facing the Arabs from North Africa.
After all, North Africa's trade routes are mainly on land. East Africa is indeed weak on the sea, but on the African land, East Africa is like a powerful country.
Therefore, East African tariffs are concentrated in the Rascampori trade market, while the North African market is not small, especially for the tribes living in the Sahara Desert and oases, who are in short supply of everything.
Before the opening of the East African colonies, only Egypt, Ethiopia and some West African countries grew food crops on a large scale. Although food crops were also grown in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, they lacked high-quality seeds such as wheat, rice, corn... These staple foods were brought over by later immigrants when they colonized Africa.
So it is difficult to describe the farming industry of the indigenous people of Africa. Take the eight northwestern countries that were just destroyed in East Africa as an example.
It was still in a state of semi-agriculture, semi-pastoralism, semi-fishing and semi-hunting, and occasionally some technological innovations could be seen in the East African colonies on the land that was originally cultivated.
For example, terraced fields and water conservancy facilities have already appeared in some areas, but Africa’s backwardness has prevented these innovations from spreading.
These innovations discovered in the northwestern countries are also exceptions. The reason is simple: Africa is too comfortable, and planting is not as convenient as just waiting for various tropical fruits and vegetables to mature.
Moreover, Africa lacks good seeds, and the yield of crops may not be better than those of wild plants. In addition, there are rampant animals in Africa. If Ernst were an African, he would have no motivation to engage in planting.
Africa's agricultural output is not good, and North Africa is influenced by Arab culture, so its eating habits are completely different from those in sub-Saharan Africa.
Therefore, if North Africa wants to import food, it mainly relies on the Mediterranean or the Middle East. Now the East African colonies have provided it with an additional channel, especially Arab merchants in Somalia can also participate in the competition with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern merchants.
(End of this chapter)
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