Chapter 435 Steel and Population
"Your Highness, we have integrated a total of 17 steel companies in the German region, including 3 large steel companies and the rest are small and medium-sized steel companies. According to country categories, there are 8 steel companies in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 7 in Germany, and 2 in Luxembourg."
Since 1870, Luxembourg began to mine domestic iron ore in large quantities, and vigorously developed the steel industry based on the Thomas steelmaking process, and achieved great progress. The two large steel companies acquired by East Africa are from Luxembourg, and another large steel company is from the Ruhr area.
In 1873, Germany's industrial development reached an unprecedented peak. In just a few years, its steel mills increased from 920 to 1,720, and pig iron production doubled to 2 million tons, so the steel companies that Ernst poached were just a drop in the bucket for Germany.
During the economic crisis, a large number of steel companies in the entire German region went bankrupt. Generally, they were small and medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises have a higher ability to resist risks. This is also the reason why two of the large steel companies acquired by the Hechingen Consortium are Luxembourg companies.
"As of August, we have recruited more than 34,000 steel workers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to immigrate to East Africa. According to your request, more than 13,000 of them are Czechs, and the rest are mostly Slovenians and Croatians."
"Too little, still too little!" Ernst said somewhat dissatisfiedly.
"Your Highness, the main reason is the lack of shipping capacity. This year, the number of merchant ships we have deployed in America accounts for almost 5%, and another 25% of the shipping capacity is invested in rail transportation. We don't even have enough merchant ships of our own now, and even if we cooperate with the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Naples, we still can't meet so many demands."
Ernst pondered for a moment and said, "Well, in this case, it seems that I can only use this last trick."
The so-called last resort is to hire British merchant ships, but there is no other choice.
The Hexingen Ocean Trading Company is currently the largest shipping company in the world, owning more than a thousand large merchant ships. This is because the Hexingen Ocean Trading Company is said to be a private enterprise, but in fact it has monopolized the entire East African trade and is also involved in trade in the Americas, Europe and the Far East.
Although Hechingen's merchant ships were large in size, they had no way to compete with the British. In the early 19th century alone, the British Royal Navy had about a thousand warships of various types. The number is smaller now because the British Royal Navy is in the process of replacing its equipment. Ironclad ships are launched every year, and there is no need to pile up wooden warships, but to focus more on tonnage.
Britain is particularly outstanding in the field of civilian ships. In the 19th century, Britain was a veritable shipping empire, producing more than 80% of the world's ships and owning about half of the world's fleet.
Even if East Africa took out all its assets, it would not be able to match it. If it were not for the appearance of ironclad ships, the navies of the world would not even have the chance to challenge the British Navy.
Ernst then instructed: "However, when negotiating business with the British, don't talk to those big companies, but talk to those small companies or even self-employed people. At the same time, in addition to the UK, look for the Mediterranean coast. It doesn't matter which country, as long as the price is lower than the British, you can talk."
Generally speaking, shipping prices are definitely the lowest in the UK, but now is a time of economic crisis and there are always exceptions.
The Heixingen Group's own fleet is a little lacking in this respect. Some necessary positions cannot be replaced, but cleaners, cooks and other jobs on the ship can be done by Chinese people, mainly because they are cheap.
"How are the steel orders going at the moment?" Ernst asked.
"We have negotiated a deal with the Austrian government for 300,000 tons of steel per year, but Austria's production is too low. Germany's production is relatively high. The Ruhr region alone has reached an order of 400,000 tons per year. If we add our own production capacity, we should be able to import 1.1 million tons of steel to East Africa per year."
"Our steel production capacity is mainly concentrated in the Czech Republic and Slovenia, except for Luxembourg and the Ruhr area."
After completing the capital injection, Ernst expanded the steel companies he acquired, so his strength was greatly enhanced.
Luxembourg and the Ruhr area are key production areas, one is rich in iron ore and the other is rich in coal mines. The Czech Republic is a little worse, and the Slovenia region is entirely due to Trieste, the excellent port closest to East Africa.
Of course, East Africa itself also has to bear part of the steel production, and this requires the construction of separate steel mills. The good news is that Ernst is not short of technicians and steel workers, so there is no technical problem in building a steel mill in East Africa.
However, it is obviously impossible for East Africa to absorb so many steel workers. Some of them go to East Africa mainly to fill the population, and they are not needed to engage in steel production. The most likely possibility is that they will be arranged to open up wasteland inland.
Cross-industry employment is not a big problem. European countries have only been industrializing in recent years, and many workers are from rural areas. It is impossible to say that they do not know how to farm.
"With the help of this economic depression, we will absorb a large number of unemployed and agricultural populations in Austria and its surrounding areas within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the focus on non-Germans. As for the Germans, they should be left to the Austro-Hungarian Empire!" Ernst emphasized.
It was really not easy for the Habsburg family. The Slavic (Czech, Slovak, Polish, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian...) population plus the Latin (Romanian and Italian) population accounted for more than half, and the Austrians and Hungarians together did not even make up half.
Ernst could not change the population structure of the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it was possible to change only Austria and its surrounding areas.
There are two places that Ernst believes have the greatest impact on Austria. One is the Czech region and the other is Slovenia. Czech means industry, while Slovenia represents ports.
The main target of immigrant recruitment this time is the non-Germans in these two places. As for where East Africa will absorb the Germans from this time, in addition to Germany being the focus, the largest source country is the United States.
In the past, Ernst would definitely not have adopted this strategy of recruiting immigrants in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but times have changed.
In the past, East Africa was in urgent need of German-speaking people, and people in Austria were starving. Now there is no shortage of German-speaking people in East Africa. After nearly a decade of efforts, German has basically become the unified language of East Africa.
There are no statistics on East African population in the past two years, but Ernst estimates that the current population of East Africa should be around 8 to 9 million, and the German-speaking population is at least 7 million.
As for the new immigrants who cannot speak German, if they are placed in the big melting pot of East Africa, they can basically become Germans through the language environment within a year. If they are too stupid, then there is nothing that can be done.
Once the language is unified, issues of cultural identity will basically become minor details. East Africa can now choose its own "high-quality" immigrants from all over the world.
However, there is no need to do so during an economic crisis. There are unemployed people everywhere in Europe and the United States. In the United States alone, the number of unemployed people recorded in history exceeds three million. This is just an estimated number, and the real number is definitely more than this.
There must be a lot of unemployed people in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ernst is sure that the number of unemployed people in Germany is even greater than that in the United States, because Germany's current population is larger than that of the United States.
Even without the economic crisis, Germany has the highest outflow of population in the world, which shows that Germany's unemployment rate is high at ordinary times, and it must be even higher after the economic crisis. Just from the territorial size of the two countries, Germany, with its palm-sized territory, cannot have more means to deal with crises than the United States.
Historically, Germany’s population outflow was not reversed until the end of the 19th century, that is, after 1893, so Germany still has great potential.
Currently, the focus of East Africa's absorption of immigrants from Germany has shifted from southwestern Germany to northeastern Germany. In addition to the industrial development in the southwest (mainly Lorraine and Alsace, which have driven the development of the steel and textile industries), which have absorbed a large number of people, there is also the fact that after being absorbed by East Africa for ten years, there is basically no population surplus in the southwest. On the contrary, the East Prussia region has a serious population surplus due to its backward industrial development level and mainly agricultural industry.
(End of this chapter)
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