Chapter 320 Double Standards
The Hei Xingen Bank is the core component, or the trunk, of the Hei Xingen Consortium. Its many large subsidiaries are the branches extending from this trunk, and the trunk is surrounded by numerous leaves, including these corporate business partners, raw material suppliers, sales terminals, small companies and enterprises invested by the Hei Xingen Bank, etc. The Hei Xingen Bank headquarters is the brain of the consortium.
It is definitely impossible to relocate the main body of the consortium to East Africa. Currently, East Africa cannot support the development of such a world-class consortium. However, the bank headquarters can be relocated to East Africa first. As long as communication is guaranteed to be unobstructed, it can continue to direct the operation of the entire consortium.
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Ernst: "That's settled. Now let's discuss the second thing, about the textile industry. Clayson is in charge of this sector, right?"
Clayson: "Yes, Your Highness."
Ernst: "Please tell us about the textile industry situation last year and this year."
Claessen: “No problem, Your Highness. The textile industry is developing very well this year, especially last year when the war broke out and a large wave of production capacity was generated. We have received a large number of orders from Germany and Austria-Hungary. In particular, the abundant cheap labor in the Far East and the high efficiency of the new factories have allowed us to share the pressure of European factories. We are the first among our peers to free up machines and workers to ensure a continuous, sufficient and stable supply of military orders.
The military has always been the best customer. Germany expanded its military by one million in North Germany alone last year. Before that, the size of the North German Federal Army was about 600,000. In the Italo-Austrian War, Austria also recruited 200,000 troops from the rear in the middle and late stages of the war. Together with the southern German countries at the time, the Franco-Prussian War and the Italo-Austrian War, these two wars almost contributed a million-scale military market. A soldier needs more than one set of spare clothes, and these two wars almost spanned from summer to winter, so the supply of winter clothing is extremely large. However, in the later stages of the war, the production capacity of other competitors' factories also increased, which diverted some orders from our subsidiaries and investment factories.
Just in the military uniform business, we make a lot of money thanks to low production costs, sufficient production capacity and first-mover advantage.
Everyone needs to note that in addition to military uniforms, we also made a lot of money from related products such as quilts, bed sheets, backpacks, and military boots. Of course, compared with our best finance and investment, it is still a long way off.”
The last sentence is basically nonsense. The Hechingen Bank's forte is definitely the financial industry. In addition, it reaped nearly one-third of the dividends from the Franco-Prussian War and the Italo-Austrian War, and its profits were astronomical, almost tripling the size of the Hechingen Consortium compared to before the war.
Ernst concluded: "The textile industry is a highly profitable industry. At present, the textile industry of the consortium can be divided into two categories according to equity. The first category is our wholly-owned enterprises and factories, and the second category is the textile enterprises in the United States and Europe that we have invested in (mainly banks making profits through loans). I will not discuss the second category for now, and we will mainly talk about our own enterprises.
At present, the textile industry is mainly concentrated in Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company, which is managed by Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company. This is the same as the food processing industry. The textile industry has now reached the scale to be independent, so for the convenience of management, I will definitely separate the textile industry from Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company and establish a new textile industry group, which will be a subordinate enterprise directly led by Heixinggen Bank. What do you think? "
There was no idea at all. Everyone unanimously supported the boss's decision that the textile industry should have been separated from the Heixingen Daily Necessities Company long ago.
Since the Far East Textile Factory was built, the production capacity of the Hexingen Group's textile industry has reached a first-class level. Coupled with the Nairobi Textile Factory that is currently under construction, the Hexingen Group has a considerable say in the world textile industry.
It ranks fifth in the world, after the four Far Eastern countries of Britain, the United States, France, and others. The previous fifth place was the Kingdom of Italy, but the textile industry of the Kingdom of Italy was hit hard by the war, and it lost industrially developed regions such as Venice and part of Lombardy, as well as the domestic market of Naples.
The reason for comparing with countries is that the Hechingen Consortium itself monopolizes the textile market in the East African Kingdom, and also has a certain market share in the textile industry in Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Tsarist Russia and the Far East.
As for the four Far Eastern countries of Britain, the United States, and France, they are huge in size, have large populations, and have huge supplies of raw materials.
The most typical example is the United States. After the huge scale of cotton plantations in the South was combined with the industries in the North, local production capacity increased rapidly.
There is nothing much to say about Britain. Holding the trump card of India is enough for it. France is also an old power and Napoleon III was a good hand at developing the economy, so the size of its textile industry ranks among the top five in the world.
The Far East is huge in size, and its handicraft industry alone can reach the top level in the world. In addition, due to the Westernization Movement in recent years, a large number of state-owned factories have been built in its coastal areas, and the efficiency is also improving. However, because of the state-owned nature, the management is relatively rigid, and the equipment upgrades are far inferior to those of the British, French and East African factories investing in China at the same time.
Currently, the Jiaozhou Textile Factory is the largest and most advanced in the Far East. The Jiaozhou Textile Factory is considered an East African industry. After all, all negotiations with local officials in Jiaozhou are handled by the East African Consulate in Jiaozhou.
In addition to the above countries, Belgium, the rapidly developing Japan, Austria-Hungary and Germany, and Tsarist Russia are also relatively strong in the textile industry, but the textile industries of Austria-Hungary and Germany have a lot of overlap with the textile industry under the Hechingen Consortium.
In short, the world as a whole was in a state of extreme prosperity in 1871, and even Paraguay, a country that was almost destroyed by the war, recovered with the support of a steady influx of Italian immigrants.
The Kingdom of Italy and France were in a worse situation, but compared to the Kingdom of Italy's current nationwide desperation, although the north of France suffered huge losses due to the defeat, the south, led by Marseille, developed quite well.
The north of France will not be peaceful in the future. While Ernst is holding the meeting, the citizens of Paris, an old district, are about to lead the world again. Today is March 21st, and there are only seven days left.
Ernst certainly knew the significance of this movement, but he did not take it to heart. Just like the African natives who were suddenly pulled into capitalist society from primitive society, they could not handle capitalism well. On the contrary, the slave kingdom society was more suitable for the current African natives. It would be considered a kind of progress to understand the slave kingdom first. The feudal kingdom was too advanced for the African natives. If they were suddenly pulled into capitalist society by the colonists, they would inevitably distort the scriptures and turn them into tribal capitalism with African characteristics.
East Africa did the same thing. They never reformed the African tribes and kingdoms. Those that were eliminated were eliminated. Those that were not eliminated went to West Africa to maintain the status quo. It would be the best if they were willing to cooperate with East Africa. They would sell them any weapons or industrial products as long as they were paid. It didn't matter whether you were a tribe, a slave owner, a king, or just a village chief.
In a word, East Africa will not interfere in the internal affairs of the indigenous people. Those who should be slave owners will continue to be slave owners, those who should be chiefs will continue to be chiefs, and those who should be kings will continue to be kings, provided that they are not hostile to East Africa or conflict with the interests of East Africa.
Well, when you think about it, it is indeed a bit difficult to deal with the indigenous people around East Africa. It all depends on the conscience of the East African Kingdom. However, from the moment Ernst started his colonial activities, he said that he did not have such a thing.
(End of this chapter)
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