Chapter 542: Birth of a Fleet
"Father-in-law, how is the work in the navy recently? Have you encountered any trouble?" Ernst asked after taking a sip of tea.
Today, Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Charlotte came to the First Town as usual to visit their daughter and grandson.
Karina is a model of a good wife and mother. She inherited all the virtues of Queen Sophie and kept the house in order. Of course, Queen Sophie was famous for the bad conflict between her and Princess Sissi.
In fact, Queen Dowager Sophie's strength was related to her family environment. Franz inherited the throne from his uncle Ferdinand I and ascended the throne during a riot.
Therefore, Queen Dowager Sophie's involvement in politics was partly out of ambition and partly out of helplessness. Ambition is not a bad thing. After all, mothers generally hope that their sons can be successful, so she was extremely strict with Franz. The helplessness was that Franz was too young when he came to power, so he needed Queen Dowager Sophie's help to maintain political stability.
After all, he was called "the only man in the court" by people of his time, which shows the political means and abilities of Queen Mother Sophie.
Karina has no such concerns. Ernst basically has the final say in East Africa, and the relationship between the Hechingen royal family is not complicated. There were only Ernst and Constantine before, so Karina does not have any troubles such as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts. She just needs to be Ernst's good wife.
In fact, Queen Mother Sophie seemed very strong, which was related to the relatively soft personalities of her husband and son. Things had gotten much better since Franz got older.
Of course, Franz was a rather old-fashioned person, so he was not very good at reconciling family conflicts. This was one of the reasons for the commotion in the Habsburg court. Princess Sissi also had a rather active personality, so naturally they could not get along.
Ernst's family situation is much simpler. With Karina's help, he can feel more relaxed. Constantine is also very confident in his son and daughter-in-law. Ferdinand and his wife are also very satisfied with Ernst as their son-in-law. The family lives in harmony.
Ferdinand was holding his grandson. He had shaved off his beard over the years and looked much younger and more energetic than before. He would come to the palace with Princess Charlotte to see his grandson whenever he had nothing to do, and he made little Friedrich in his arms laugh.
"I haven't been very busy in the navy recently, mainly because there are more people. My work doesn't have to be as busy as before. I'm even thinking about retiring in a few years and finding some hobbies to do."
The East African Navy now has a relatively sound talent training system. In addition to the well-run military academy, many international students who went to the Austro-Hungarian Naval School have also returned, greatly relieving Ferdinand's pressure.
Of course, the East African Navy is still in a state of vigorous development. Although there are no plans to add new ships recently, the construction of bases has achieved remarkable results.
Especially with the addition of the Lan Fang overseas province, the East African naval activities expanded to the entire Indian Ocean region, no longer limited to the western Indian Ocean.
However, the Lan Fang Overseas Province is quite far away from East Africa, so the main fleet of East Africa will not be stationed there.
It just so happened that the immigration business had declined recently, resulting in a lot of empty ships, so the armed merchant ships were modified to become the main fleet of the Lan Fang Overseas Province Navy. Although they could not compare with Britain, France and other countries in the Nanyang region, they were more than enough to compare with the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and other countries.
Now is the era of ironclad ships. Small countries can no longer keep up with the trend of the times. After all, their national strength is limited, and it is normal that it is better to buy than to build. The East African navy is generally purchased, but fortunately there are two ships built by themselves, but the cost-effectiveness is not high. However, in order to cultivate the shipbuilding industry in East Africa, it is worth spending more money.
"Ernst, the navy has expanded rapidly in recent years, and the number of ships is a little insufficient. I wonder what you think."
Ferdinand just mentioned it casually. After all, he was the commander-in-chief of the navy, and it was his duty to ask for funds. As for whether Ernst would give it or not, it all depended on Ernst's own idea.
"There are a lot of projects in East Africa recently. Construction is going on everywhere. Take the navy for example. They are also building a lot of bases, so the military spending is less."
Not to mention the navy, even the army is struggling. The Juba Integrated Training Base is so large that it costs a lot of money.
The navy has invested more in the base. After all, the East African coastline is relatively straight compared to other countries, so there are relatively few usable harbors. East Africa needs to carry out artificial transformation in this regard.
Anyway, there are not many profitable projects, which is what the economic system of East Africa can afford. Of course, although it is true that it is losing money now, it can still create a steady stream of income for East Africa in the future. It is to take advantage of the extremely low labor costs now and carry out large-scale construction in East Africa.
Otherwise, when all the black slaves are used up in the future, there will be no group that is so easy to exploit. The slavery system is said to be good, provided that you do not belong to the slave camp.
"Then you really don't plan to purchase new warships. The technological evolution has been quite rapid in recent years."
"We still need to add more warships, but we can build them ourselves, so we don't need to build too many. Now that the number of immigrants has decreased, I will also build a few more armed merchant ships to temporarily support the navy."
“Bagamoyo Shipyard?”
"Father-in-law, you also live in Bagamoyo. You should believe in the strength of our own shipyard. Don't we have experience in shipbuilding before? Practice makes perfect. In the future, we will be able to achieve complete independence in the naval military industry."
The shipbuilding industry is an industry that requires long-term investment. You should never expect to get rich overnight, but you should also not be afraid to try.
East Africa's infrastructure is already much better than that of many countries in the world, so since the conditions are in place to support its own shipbuilding industry, Ernst naturally strongly supports it.
Archduke Ferdinand: "I understand. After all, I also support the independence of equipment. However, coastal defense is not a joke. There are some needs that can be temporarily purchased. There is no problem with that."
"Don't worry, father-in-law. I have thought it through. When Karina is pregnant with her second child, I will buy an advanced battleship. The same will be true in the future until the military shipbuilding industry in East Africa is fully developed."
Karina said angrily: "You bastard!"
Archduke Ferdinand watched the little tricks between his son-in-law and daughter and joked, "What if the next baby is twins?"
"Hey, then buy two. Can't you be partial to one and ignore the other?"
After hearing what Ernst said, Archduke Ferdinand actually hoped that the next baby would be twins. Although what Ernst said just now was a bit unreasonable, he would always fulfill the promises he made.
Princess Charlotte said speechlessly: "You guys just like to make jokes like this. If you give birth to a child every year, you will buy a new ship. What if Karina gives birth to more than a dozen children? You can just bring back a fleet?"
Ernst smiled without saying anything. He held Kalina's little hand to cool her blushing face. As for things like a fleet, Ernst still had the financial resources to build one, but there was no need for it.
The strength of the East African Navy is just right now. If you feed too much, it will easily become useless. One of the reasons for the decline of the American shipbuilding industry in the past was that too many Liberty ships were built during World War II. Holding the idea that they were not unusable, many shipping companies stopped placing new orders, and shipyards could not get new orders. Finally, technological iterations could not keep up with other countries, and the American civilian shipbuilding industry declined.
To give an inappropriate example, the same was true of Far East gold-dollar football in the past. However, the fact that football could not develop had a lot to do with national conditions. After all, there was the college entrance examination, and most parents would not let their children choose football. Sitting in the classroom was much safer, and competitive sports were no joke with bumps and bruises.
(End of this chapter)
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