Chapter 421 East African Railway Project
February 22, 1873.
Svet Palace.
Ernst convened all the senior executives of the East African government and the East African Railway Company to discuss the construction of the East African Railway. Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the construction of the East African Railway can begin.
Ernst described the preliminary construction blueprint of the East African Railway in detail at the meeting:
"The planned railway is divided into four parts. One is the extension of the first railway, which will be renamed the 'Central Railway' after completion. It will connect the East African coast, the East African Plateau, the Katanga Plateau, the Lunda Plateau, the Matabele Plateau, and the South African Plateau."
“The Central Railway is in the shape of a ‘T’, with a total length of more than 4,600 kilometres, starting from Dar es Salaam and passing through First Town, Mbeya, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Harare, Bulawayo and Pretoria.”
“The second one is the ‘Northern Railway’, which has a total length of more than 1,000 kilometers, starting from Mombasa, passing through Nairobi, and ending in Kisumu.”
"After the completion of the two sections of the railway, the railway mileage in East Africa will be about 5,600 kilometers, effectively connecting the territory of East Africa. The Central Railway will undertake the task of cross-regional passenger and freight exchanges between the eastern, western and southern regions of East Africa, and the Northern Railway will undertake the task of connecting the Great Lakes region with the coast."
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Ernst said to the chief technical advisor of the East African Railway Company: "Mr. Nordin, please describe the specific construction conditions and plans in detail. If there are any difficulties, you can also tell us directly!"
So Notting said, "Everyone, long before the construction of the first railway, we started surveying the railway lines in East Africa. It took us almost three years to select the relevant routes and try to avoid sections with complex terrain. However, there are still some swamps and wetlands along the route. This is also the biggest problem facing the Central Railway. In comparison, the Northern Railway does not have this problem."
"Let me take the Pacific Railway in the United States as an example. The total mileage of the Pacific Railway is about 3,000 kilometers, while the planned length of our Central Railway is much longer than that of the Pacific Railway. At the same time, the construction volume within the same unit distance is also higher than that of the Pacific Railway."
Ernst brought the problem of construction volume upon himself, because he believed that the construction of the East African Railway had seized the best sections of the entire East African Kingdom (avoiding mountainous sections and without the need to develop tunnels), and that it would almost certainly be the main artery of the East African Railway in the future. Therefore, he simply built a three-line railway, while Europe and the United States at the same time mainly built single-track and double-track railways.
"Take the industrial bases of the two countries as an example. The United States has a complete industrial system that can almost fully meet all the needs of railway production, while East Africa has zero foundation in this regard and cannot even complete the most basic rail production."
This means that the construction of East African railways will still have to rely on imports. However, after calculations, East Africa believes that the current import cost is lower than its own production cost. This is definitely not the case under normal circumstances, but after the economic crisis broke out in Europe and the United States, a large amount of excess railway capacity just happened to satisfy East Africa's appetite. Now Ernst is waiting for the European and American railway industries to hit rock bottom before he is ready to take action.
Ernst added: "Don't worry about this problem. We will purchase a large amount of related materials from Europe. Currently, Austria and Germany have abundant excess steel production capacity, which can fully meet the needs of East African railways. Even if Germany is not enough, there are still Britain, France and the United States..."
Nottingham: "Your Highness, this is just one of the problems. The next problem is the lack of skilled workers. Perhaps black people can solve more than 85% of the demand, but some skills are impossible for black people to solve. They need professional railway workers to complete them."
Ernst: "That's not a problem. I can tell you something clear. Austria is currently experiencing a serious economic crisis. More than a dozen railway companies have gone bankrupt, and the number is still rising. At the same time, the economic crisis will spread to other industrial countries, especially the United States, Germany, and France, which have also overbuilt railways in recent years. This means that many railway workers will lose their jobs. I have ordered Austrian companies to recruit a large number of experienced railway workers. Once they arrive in East Africa, they can effectively solve this problem."
Nodin: "Regarding the time limit, Your Highness requested that the construction of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway be completed within three years. After comparing the data of the Pacific Railway, we believe that at least more than 60,000 workers will be needed."
It took four years from construction to completion of the Pacific Railway, and the total number of workers remained at around 15,000.
This time, the construction length of the Central Railway of the East African Kingdom alone will exceed that of the Pacific Railway by nearly 1,500 kilometers. Together with the Northern Railway, the project volume is almost twice that of the Pacific Railway. Moreover, the conditions in the East African Kingdom are far different from those in the United States, especially in terms of transportation. Coupled with the short construction period, a large amount of manpower is needed.
Ernst: "Don't worry about that. In order to support the railway construction, the government has recruited 100,000 indigenous workers from all over the country to complete this work."
One hundred thousand indigenous laborers may sound like a lot, but in fact they are less than the number of laborers on the Central Canal that is being dug in East Africa. The Central Canal currently has more than 250,000 workers. In this respect, it has not actually surpassed the Suez Canal. Egypt paid 120,000 lives for the construction of the Suez Canal. The East African Kingdom is still far behind!
It can be seen from this that the engineering volume of railways and canals is completely incomparable. However, the advantage of the canal is that the technical difficulty is not high. The work of excavation could be completed even by an ancient monarch like Emperor Yang of Sui who lived a thousand years ago. And the Suez Canal still has such high casualties a thousand years later. It can only be said that the French who presided over the construction of the canal really treated the lives of the Egyptians as animals. No, they were worse than animals.
Although the East African Kingdom is more conscientious than the French, it only treats black people as livestock. Livestock also need to eat grass, so it is not like the French who are unwilling to pay for the grass.
One hundred thousand indigenous railway workers are more than enough for East Africa. You should know that in the 1930s, there were only 230,000 railway workers in the Far East. Russia's Siberian Railway employed a total of 90,000 workers, and the total length of the Siberian Railway is nearly 10,000 kilometers, almost twice the current railway construction plan of the East African Kingdom. It is also the most difficult permafrost zone for construction. In other words, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the Far East will be more difficult than the Siberian Railway in the future (high altitude, lack of oxygen and frozen soil). At least the construction conditions of the Siberian Railway in summer are much better.
In summary, we found that the only problem with East African railway construction is the weak industrial foundation, and all other problems are minor.
So Ernst went on to say: “While we are building the railway, we must also take advantage of the situation to complete the initial industrialization of East Africa. Before 1880, we can achieve complete independence and get rid of our dependence on the steel demand of Germany and Austria.”
This is also an important reason why Ernst required the construction of the Central Railway to be completed within three years. If East Africa wants to develop industry, it can also develop Zimbabwe's coal and iron mines at the same time, and all of this requires railways as support. The number of coal and iron ore resources on the East African Plateau is still too small. As for South Africa, we still have to wait. That location is the border of East Africa. Without absolute strength, it is better not to develop it first.
Moreover, after the development of Zimbabwe, East Africa's control over its territory will be able to take a step forward, and its ability to control the south and the west will be greatly enhanced. It will no longer be top-heavy as it is now, relying solely on the military to maintain regional security.
(End of this chapter)
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