Chapter 436 Malicious Competition
When the Little Rhine was being managed in East Africa, Vienna actually also widened the Danube. However, compared to East Africa's management for the sake of management, Vienna's reason was more special. It was for the 1873 World Expo held in Vienna, so it was a political achievement project.
The World Expo started in May, but Ernst did not join in the fun. On the one hand, he had a lot of schedule, and on the other hand, the Vienna Expo was too chaotic.
Although Ernst had not participated before, the World Expo served as a showcase for world products, so the Hechingen Foundation actively participated in it.
The exhibits of the Hexingen Consortium are divided into three categories: "European scientific and industrial products, East African specialties, and the Hexingen Consortium's participation in trade between the Far East and Europe."
Science and technology and industrial products, that is, the products of various companies under the Heixingen Group, are mainly in the three areas of electricity, light industry and medicine.
East African specialty products are mainly concentrated in the cash crops of East Africa, which are high-quality industries in East Africa. Grain agriculture and dairy agriculture are strong industries in Europe and the United States.
Therefore, under the influence of the economic crisis, East Africa's commercial grain exports to Europe have almost stagnated, and it only continues to retain its advantages in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa that are not suitable for agricultural development.
On the other hand, tropical cash crops are completely different. If we only discuss cash crops, the United States is not bad, but most of the United States is in the cold temperate zone. Some parts have subtropical climates, but there are no tropical areas (Hawaii has not yet been annexed).
If possible, Ernst certainly had the idea of Hawaii, but it was just a thought. This place is not like Alaska, which is covered with ice and snow. It is located in the center of the North Pacific and has a very prominent strategic position. Not to mention the United States, even Japan, Canada, the Far East Empire, Britain, and Tsarist Russia would not be able to choose East Africa.
East Africa can blockade Alaska and slow down its development, but it cannot do the same to Hawaii, which is a stopover for passing ships and cannot be avoided. However, sometimes it is okay to think about it, and it will not lose a piece of meat.
In addition, East Africa's main competitor in tropical cash crops is the Caribbean Islands, where the main development area is sugar. For various reasons, Western colonizers paid more attention to the Caribbean coast than South America, such as Haiti and Cuba.
South America is not so good. Ernst believes that this may be because the sovereign countries in South America are relatively weak, and the strength of South American countries has become stronger after independence. For example, Brazil and Argentina have large areas and large populations, so they are not easy to control.
The advantages of the Caribbean Sea are its fertile land, abundant rainfall, and its location on the main transportation route between North and South America, not far from Europe.
The advantage of the East African Kingdom over the Caribbean is that it is close to the European, especially Central and Eastern European, and Central Asian markets. It also has higher organizational capabilities and production efficiency, a larger land area, and a planting industry that focuses on planning, giving full play to its own advantages.
At the same time, the geographical environment of East Africa is more diverse than that of the Caribbean region. It has all kinds of tropical climate types, including tropical rainforest climate, tropical savanna climate, tropical desert climate, and high mountain plateau climate. The tropical savanna climate has great differences internally, and is divided into plateau climate type (East African Plateau), plain climate type (East African coastal plain), rainy climate (Great Lakes region), little rain climate (South Africa), double rainy season climate, single rainy season climate, long rainy season climate, and short rainy season climate.
Therefore, although East Africa is dominated by a tropical savannah climate, the temperature and precipitation levels make the tropical savannah regions of the East African Kingdom vary greatly, providing more space for the development of different crops.
At the Vienna World Expo, the main East African specialties launched by the Hechingen Foundation include sisal, cloves, Somali bananas, mosquito coils (pyrethrum), asparagus fern (a kind of fruit), East African gum (gum arabic), tea, coffee, East African rubber and other 237 large-scale tropical economic crops.
There are also more than 40 kinds of animal specialties such as horn specimens of East African bighorn cattle (Watusi longhorn cattle), lion skins, ivory, crocodile leather goods, etc. There are also 17 kinds of high-quality wood carving samples such as African teak, African neem, African red walnut, etc.
There were some interesting scenes at the expo:
“Why does your so-called East African rubber look exactly like our Brazilian exhibits?”
"Don't spit blood on me. This is a rubber tree species that our company dug up in the Kingdom of East Africa. It is a high-quality local rubber tree species that we discovered after going deep into the heart of Africa."
Amid the skeptical gaze of the Brazilian exhibitors, the employees of Hexingen said righteously: "Africa is an unexplored continent, and it is not surprising to find anything there."
Others don't care whether the rubber tree species in East Africa are stolen. They just ask the price and buy from whoever offers the lowest price. Although rubber planting in East Africa started late, the planting volume is larger than that in Brazil, so it is very competitive.
In the banana exhibition area.
In order to compete maliciously, the Heixingen Group specifically compared American bananas with East African bananas so that everyone could taste the difference between the two bananas, and the origins of the two bananas were clearly marked.
"Thin skin, thick meat, big and sweet, leading the pack."
"The trees are irrigated with high-quality water from the Shabelle River, which originates from the Ethiopian Plateau, and nurtured by twelve hours of sunshine. The farmers take good care of the trees, and provide one-on-one guidance to each person per tree. As a result, the trees are of better quality, sweeter in taste, and more fragrant."
Faced with malicious competition from Somali bananas in East Africa, the Caribbean region, especially the Boston Fruit Company in the United States, is very dissatisfied.
"You must have selected the lowest quality products from the Caribbean to compare with your best bananas. We refuse to accept this!"
"Whether you agree or not, let the facts speak for themselves. Only after everyone has tasted the two bananas can we feel which one is the king of bananas!"
"Then we cannot use the samples you provided for comparison. We will use the bananas we brought from the production area. We are absolutely sure to win."
So with the support of the crowd, a banana competition was started on the spot.
"The banana on the left is from Somalia in East Africa, and the banana on the right is from the Caribbean. How the two bananas taste depends on everyone's vote. Everyone can participate."
So a food tasting meeting began, and the Heixinggen employees also thoughtfully prepared drinking water for everyone to rinse their mouths to prevent the smell from spreading.
"Well, generally speaking, both bananas taste good, but I personally think Somali bananas are sweeter."
"Not to mention the sweetness, just looking at the color and freshness, I think Somali bananas look better."
Finally, it was the comments of the heavyweights. Carol I, who came from Romania to attend the conference, said after carefully tasting the two bananas: "To be honest, Somali bananas win."
Indeed, there was no selfish motive. Many kings came to the World Expo, such as William I, Alexander II, Francesco II of the Kingdom of Naples, etc. Carol I really just happened to come to watch the fun and then participated in the activities. Although they were relatives, Ernst would not ask Carol I to be a shill for him to promote bananas.
So at this World Expo, Somali bananas were named the "sweetest bananas in the world." Out of jealousy of the United States' development over the years, British newspapers slandered it sourly: "American banana products, like American industrial products, have developed by copying and passing off inferior products as good ones..." This fully demonstrates the old father's care for his rebellious son.
(End of this chapter)
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