Chapter 290 Long-staple Cotton
The entire city of Nairobi plans to relocate 80,000 people this time. Combined with the previous population of 20,000, the population will almost exceed 100,000, and it is expected to become the first major city in East Africa with a population of over 100,000.
The industry planned to support Nairobi's large population is the textile industry. In the agricultural areas around Nairobi, the main cash crop grown is cotton.
At the same time, in order to expand the product range, East Africa has plans to introduce Egyptian cotton for cultivation in the upper reaches of the river in Somalia. Egyptian cotton, also known as Egyptian long-staple cotton, has a long-standing reputation in the world and is known as "white gold".
Egyptian cotton originates from the South Asian subcontinent. It prefers high temperatures and abundant rainfall. Tropical savannas, temperate zones and tropical monsoon regions are most suitable for its growth. With the development of irrigation technology worldwide, cotton is increasingly concentrated in arid areas with irrigation conditions.
However, the cotton with the best output quality is the Egyptian long-staple cotton improved by the Egyptians. The East African Kingdom plans to directly introduce the Egyptian variety of long-staple cotton for cultivation.
In Egypt's Nile Delta and along the Nile River, the existence of the Nile River ensures that cotton cultivation will not lack water. The moisture content of the soil is consistent, the humidity is constant at around 60%, and the temperature is constantly high. The sunlight and rainfall are perfect for cotton growth. It is a perfect natural cotton irrigation system, a typical blessing from God.
If we look for similar environments around the world, Somalia is second to none. Although it does not have the world's longest river, the Shabelle River and the Juba River are both major rivers in Africa.
The Shabelle River, in particular, is most similar to the Nile River in natural conditions. They both flow from the tropical savanna climate zone to the tropical desert, forming irrigation areas in the lower reaches.
Egypt is currently the world's largest producer of long-staple cotton. During Ali's time, he vigorously built water conservancy projects, dredged old canals, dug 20 new canals, and built nearly 30 dams. He promoted and improved water wheels, tried steam irrigation machines, and introduced new crops and new varieties. The famous Egyptian long-staple cotton was promoted during this period. Cotton exports increased from 944 bales in 1821 to more than 250,000 bales in 1849. Cotton planting facilitated the development of Egypt's cotton textile industry, and the development of the textile industry provided Ali's government with a large amount of funds to open more modern factories.
Of course, Egypt’s economic system has now been completely destroyed by the British, especially the cotton textile industry. As the world’s factory, Britain’s main industry is the textile industry, so the original cotton textile industry in its colonies of India and Egypt was destroyed and turned into a single supplier of cheap raw materials.
In other words, the Egyptians were now growing cotton for the British, and the textile industry established during Ali's time no longer existed.
In addition to the huge economic benefits of growing long-staple cotton, East Africa also relies on the markets of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German region, which are not suitable for growing long-staple cotton. So East Africa has a natural advantage in this regard, and there will be no conflict with its local textile industry. Because of the different positioning, the characteristics of long-staple cotton are destined to target the high-end consumer market.
So Ernst’s plan is to build several new long-staple cotton planting bases in the Northern Province and Juba Province in the Somali region.
Finally, after the cotton is harvested, it is transported to Nairobi, processed and exported to the Middle East and Europe.
Venice's textile industry has a long history and was the most important textile center in medieval Europe, so there was no technical problem for workers migrating to Nairobi.
At the same time, Nairobi is located near the livestock production area in northern East Africa, and East Africa has plans to raise large numbers of sheep on the Kenyan grasslands.
While promoting Nairobi to become the cotton textile center of East Africa, it also became the wool textile center of East Africa. Ernst even planned to introduce silk technology from the Far East and build another silk textile industry center in Kisumu, Great Lakes Region, which together with Nairobi and Mombasa would form the light industrial manufacturing center of East Africa.
At present, due to the war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz's plan to cooperate with the Hechingen royal family to develop the Kenya region has been delayed, so East Africa can only develop the Kenya region alone first.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire also helped in the development of Kenya. A large number of farmers from the Venetian area disembarked at the port of Mtwara on immigrant ships, then took a boat upstream on the Ruvuma River, and after a journey on land, they arrived at Lake Malawi. They then changed boats and arrived at the west shore of Lake Malawi, and then poured into the Zambia region.
The Venetian citizens trapped in the city by the Austro-Hungarian Empire were imported to various cities in the east through East Africa. Most of them were used to promote the development of East African handicrafts, such as glassmaking, textile industry, ironmaking, etc.
Most of these Venetian citizens were workers, so they had certain skills and were divided up among various cities in East Africa. Although their Italian cultural attributes were relatively deep, especially in Nairobi, when cities developed to a certain stage, they would inevitably enter a stage of negative population growth. By then, the rural areas of East Africa would only have a single German cultural population left, so the cities in their regions were destined to be assimilated into Germany.
Through the Italo-Austrian War, the number of Italian immigrants in East Africa is expected to approach that of Slavic immigrants this year. Except for a small number of Slavic immigrants from the Balkan Peninsula, most of them come from Tsarist Russia. The Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were classified as Germans when East Africa was counted. They were mainly Slovenes and Croatians in the previous life. They were deeply influenced by German culture and there was not much difference between their lives and those in Austria. The only differences were language and religion. East Africa has been promoting German-language exchanges and deliberately de-religiousizing.
There are more than 20,000 German-speaking people in Nairobi, so there is not much problem with assimilation. Later, when immigrants from the Far East and Italians mix together, there will inevitably be difficulties in language communication. Italian and Far Eastern languages cannot be directly communicated, and German automatically becomes the bridge of communication.
In short, Nairobi, an originally inconspicuous small city in East Africa, will become an important industrial city in East Africa after sucking the blood of Venice.
Now Ernst only needs to wait until the day Austria conquers Venice, and then take Venice’s machinery and equipment to East Africa for free, completing a kind of robber-like industrial transfer.
The staff of the Hechingen Consortium have already made arrangements with the Austrian military. The Hechingen Bank helps the Austrian soldiers to cash in the "gadgets" they have seized, and they are responsible for transporting these "gadgets" to the dock.
The price is not high. After all, it is impossible for these soldiers to take these mechanical equipment as trophies. East Africa only needs to pay the transportation fee.
As for the business owners and landlords in Venice, a large number of them had been sentenced to death by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The vast majority of them were those who had previously opposed Austrian rule and colluded with the Kingdom of Sardinia. They either fled abroad or were exiled. Their land and assets would be confiscated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In addition to paying the imperial soldiers, they would also be used to resettle a large number of Austrians.
(End of this chapter)
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