Chapter 352: The Sea Coachman of the Eastern Indian Ocean
Although the enemy was just natives, Samuel still took it seriously. Knowing yourself and your enemy will ensure victory in every battle. Samuel knew his troops quite well, but he didn't know the full picture of the enemy, so it was important to start with intelligence to understand the opponent.
However, before preparing to gather intelligence on the Abyssinian Empire, Samuel still has two things to do.
One is to solve the housing problem of the troops. This is not difficult. Although the city of Assab is small, it can still accommodate one of its own divisions if it is squeezed. The first division of the Italian Kingdom Expeditionary Force, which set out on the expedition, has a total of only 3,000 people, and is not large in scale.
With the help of the existing infrastructure of Assab Port and the construction of some houses, the housing problem can still be solved, but where can we find the building materials?
Samuel looked at the desert outside the city, which was barren of grass. There was no way to find wood, and even a few blades of grass could be seen. Most of the buildings in Assab were mud houses, but there was no need to worry about rain in the tropical desert climate.
If we exclude the strategic value of being close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the port of Assab has only a little commercial value. It is one of the Arab commercial bases, but Arab merchants only regard it as a place to rest. When the number of people increases, water supply becomes a big problem.
Fortunately, this place is close to the Ethiopian Plateau. Although the rainwater from the Ethiopian Plateau cannot flow here, it can replenish the groundwater here along the terrain. Therefore, the groundwater resources are still relatively abundant, but we need to dig more wells.
"Mr. Sapeto, how do you and your company employees usually solve the supply problem?" Samuel asked. This was the second problem Samuel had to face.
Eritrea's population is mainly concentrated in the mountains and hilly areas in the north, where the terrain can block some rain. Some areas even have abundant rainfall like the Ethiopian Plateau, but the coastal plains are even drier than Somalia.
The eastern lowlands in southern Eritrea, where the port of Assab is located, are the hardest hit area. Opposite is the arid Arabian Peninsula. The northeast trade winds bring the dry monsoon from the Arabian Desert, while the southwest monsoon from the Indian Ocean (the southeast trade wind belt changes direction due to the Coriolis force after crossing the equator) is intercepted by the uplifted Ethiopian Plateau, intercepting most of the sailors.
In addition, the terrain of the eastern lowlands of Assab cannot even retain the remaining moisture, making the area around Assab a truly barren land.
"Barren land" is an exaggerated adjective, but it is an objective description of Assab and its surrounding areas. In Somalia, the driest region in the East African kingdom, there are still tropical grasslands and two large rivers passing through, but Assab has nothing.
Sapeto: "The most important thing about Assab Port is its strategic position. It is one of the excellent ports near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but it is far inferior to the Somali region in the south. The climate in the south is much better than here, especially in the British protectorate of Somaliland, which can still produce some food. Assab can only obtain food through external trade."
Samuel: "So you usually buy food?"
Sapeto: "Yes, especially when we first arrived, our company bought food from the Yemeni caravans in Arabia. At that time, the Suez Canal had just been opened. Although there were European ships passing through here, most of them would not stay here, but went directly to the Far East."
Samuel: "If we rely on buying food, the burden will be heavy. The kingdom asked me to think of a way to try to raise food locally to reduce the pressure on local supply. I haven't even touched the edge of the Abyssinian Empire yet. How can I solve this problem?"
Sapeto: "General Samuel, I do have a solution, but it is only a temporary solution, and it can greatly alleviate the army's food supply problem in the early stages."
Samuel quickly asked, "What's the solution?"
Sapeto: "You can order food from the Sultanate of Zanzibar."
Samuel: "The Sultanate of Zanzibar?"
Sapeto: "Yes, you may not have heard of this country in Europe, but it is quite famous in the Indian Ocean. It was originally an independent country formed on Zanzibar Island east of Tanganyika in East Africa after the Oman Empire, which was once the hegemon of the Indian Ocean, split. When it was at its strongest, it radiated the entire western Indian Ocean region. Later, its continental territory was occupied by the Kingdom of Germany."
Samuel: "What does this have to do with us! The kingdom's goal is to solve the problem of food supply for the army with less or no money. If we still have to pay to buy it, we might as well spend the money on home soil and let the kingdom's farmers earn more."
Sapeto: "General, this is a matter of money. The kingdom is in financial difficulty right now. What it lacks most is money and food. Zanzibar merchants can provide the cheapest food in the entire Indian Ocean region, and they can also deliver food to your door, which can save a lot of money."
Samuel: "You just said that the Sultanate of Zanzibar is just an island country! An island country supplies the cheapest food along the entire Indian Ocean coast?"
It's not that Samuel has doubts. He has seen the map of Africa and he knows that the Sultanate of Zanzibar is not very big. Now it has lost part of the continent. Unless Zanzibar masters the technology of growing crops in the sea and has its own grain planting base, it can reduce the price of grain to a level cheaper than India. However, this is obviously impossible.
The price of food in India is not cheap. Although India is the place with the best conditions for growing food along the Indian Ocean coast, there are too many Indians and the British masters cannot starve them to death. In addition, the level of productivity is low at that time. India's food production can only be supplied to the British mainland and then exported in small quantities. In order to make money, the British are more keen to grow cash crops in India, such as tea, jute, cotton, etc.
During the rule of the East India Company, tea plantations occupied a large amount of arable land. After the end of the American Civil War, Britain promoted cotton plantations on a large scale in India to replace the plantations in the southern United States. Therefore, India's grain output has further declined in the past two years.
Sapeto: "General, don't get me wrong. Although the Sultanate of Zanzibar is not large in area and has a small grain production, the Sultanate of Zanzibar is backed by Germans. German farmers are good at farming in the East African Kingdom. In the grain trade along the Indian Ocean coast in the past two years, the Sultanate of Zanzibar has been the most active. They mainly rely on ships to sell East African grain to various places along the Indian Ocean coast, especially rice from North Africa and the Middle East, most of which is supplied by the commercial fleet of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Starting last year, our company also began to purchase grain from merchants from the Sultanate of Zanzibar."
Samuel: "Rice, but I'm afraid the soldiers won't be able to adapt."
Sapeto: "Cheap is the truth. Just like my company, we have to buy cheap food to make a profit. Maybe the employees are not used to it in the early stage, so they just need to eat more. Besides, General, you just need to solve the problem of food supply in the early stage. The Abyssinian Empire can produce wheat. Once the kingdom occupies the Abyssinian Empire, we can grow wheat on a large scale."
Samuel: “What’s the price?”
Sapeto: "The price of grain plus the freight is always cheaper than shipping it from the mainland. The kingdom is also short of grain now, and it also imports a lot of grain from the Hexingen Food Company. In fact, most of the grain of the Hexingen Food Company is also imported from East Africa, not Germany and Hungary as they advertise. Only I know this trick. I went back to Italy two years ago and found that a ship of the Hexingen Ocean Trading Company entered the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal and unloaded directly in La Spezia, Italy. It was the cheap flour that was very popular in Italy, but the origin of the packaging was written as Hungary."
Samuel: "Then can we buy flour directly from the East African Kingdom? After all, pasta and pizza are more to our taste."
Sapeto: "General, the price of rice in East Africa is 20% cheaper than flour."
Samuel was silent for a moment and said, "Then let's choose rice! The soldiers will get used to it, but why don't we buy it directly from the Kingdom of East Africa, instead of paying an extra fee from the Sultanate of Zanzibar?"
Sapeto: "The reason is simple. East Africa does not have enough ships, so they can only focus on the European market. The Sultanate of Zanzibar has brought together a large number of Arab merchants. I estimate that Arab ships registered in the Sultanate of Zanzibar now account for more than 50% of the entire Western Indian Ocean. They all trade under the banner of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Zanzibar merchants are now known as the sea coachmen of the Western Indian Ocean."
(End of this chapter)
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