Chapter 587: East America's "Westward Movement"
Sigmaringen is cost-effective, and so is East Africa. The material and labor costs in East Africa are not high. A large part of the previous railway construction took advantage of the global excess steel production capacity during the economic crisis of 1873.
Now that East Africa has steel mills of all sizes in operation, it is no problem to meet its own needs. As for labor costs, the construction of this railway is nothing compared to the current water conservancy project construction.
East Africa completed the layout of related industries such as steel and railways in the 1970s. In these two areas, it can be said that it is already on the same level as Russia. The quantity is sufficient, but the quality is relatively rough.
If you want to get things done in East Africa, money is one aspect, and material allocation is another. With an annual steel production capacity of one million tons, the two East African state-owned enterprises, East African Steel and East African Railways, have become trust enterprises in their respective fields.
During the same period, the steel production in Britain and the United States was more than 1.3 million tons, which was lower than the level before the economic crisis. The economic crisis in 1873 caused at least one-third of the steel companies in the two countries to go bankrupt, and now the economy continues to be sluggish.
The situation in East Africa was the opposite. Throughout the 1970s, the East African economy developed wildly, and a large number of bankrupt steel companies and production machinery were acquired from Europe and the United States. Through the national system and Ernst's understanding of East Africa's mineral resources, the entire East African steel industry grew rapidly and occupied an important share in the world.
The most direct beneficiaries are East Africa's military-industrial enterprises and railway companies. As for other fields, the demand for steel is also extremely strong. A typical example is that in the 1970s, East Africa's agricultural machinery reached a higher level in terms of materials and quality, which promoted the further release of East Africa's agricultural productivity and laid the foundation for various projects in East Africa.
As the East African railway industry got back on track at the end of the 1970s, the actual demand for steel weakened, and more steel production capacity was further transferred into other fields and even exported to the international market.
Therefore, compared with other countries, East Africa's steel production is actually in excess. If East Africa were a free market country, the steel industry in East Africa would definitely go bankrupt and undergo large-scale restructuring. However, East Africa has always implemented a planned economy, resulting in the overall state of East Africa still being in a state of deflation.
In fact, in 1880, the westward movement of the United States had basically ended, while East Africa was completing its own westward movement and the inland was being developed. It was expected that by 1890, the central region of East Africa, mainly the Matabele Province, the Hohenzollern Province and the Swabian Province, would reach the current level of development in the eastern region.
East Africa's westward movement is very different from that of the United States. First of all, in terms of industry, the westward movement in the United States was mainly focused on agricultural development, while East Africa focused more on industry.
As mentioned earlier, most of East Africa's mineral resources are distributed in the central region, so most of East Africa's industrial investment in recent years has been inland, the most prominent of which are metallurgical industries such as steel, railways, and copper mines.
The situation in the United States is completely different. The resources in the western United States are obviously not comparable to those in the northeastern United States. Therefore, the most iconic products of the American westward movement are cowboys and farms. Of course, the same is true for the crazy railway construction. Before that, the United States built five railways between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the same time. At the same time, East Africa only had one central railway that could be considered a half-oceanic railway (because of Portuguese Angola, it did not complete the connection to the Atlantic Ocean).
Of course, the construction of the East African railway started later than that of the United States, and the economic crisis of 1873 was the dividing line. Although the United States seemed to be in a mess after the economic crisis, it was still not a small amount after the economic shrinkage. In other words, the economic data was seriously inflated, and the stock market and investment market raised the value of the railway to a position where it should not be.
On the contrary, the railway output value in East Africa is more objective and real because the East African government does not need to raise the value of the railway.
Another reason why East Africa's westward movement focused on industry was that agriculture in the east was already relatively complete and developed. Before the westward movement, the food production capacity of eastern East Africa was already quite considerable in the world.
On the contrary, the industry in eastern East Africa was not developed before, and the important reason for the rise of coastal industrial cities such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa was the momentum of the westward movement.
Before this, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa were still cities, but their development was not focused on industry. Instead, they were national commodity distribution centers and service industry centers.
After the construction of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway was completed, rich industrial assets were left to the two cities. For example, the railway locomotive manufacturing center remained in the east because it was the starting point of the two major railways in East Africa.
But this was only the industrial investment that East Africa had to make in the early stages. After the two major railways were completed, the focus of East Africa's industrial investment immediately shifted to the central region. The improvement of transportation conditions provided conditions for the industrial development of the three central provinces.
The industrial layout of this era was still oriented towards the origin of raw materials, rather than the market as in later generations. This was particularly evident in the steel and other mining industries.
This is also an important reason why East Africa and Japan’s industries started at the same time, but East Africa was able to quickly widen the gap with Japan, to the point that Japan couldn’t even see the back of East Africa. Japan’s local mineral resources are scarce, and even a good cook cannot cook without rice.
Secondly, the East African version of the westward movement was completely led by the East African government, while in the American westward movement the government only played a guiding role and basically did not intervene afterwards.
Therefore, the development of the interior of East Africa is purposeful, planned, and gradual, while the United States' development path is barbaric, disorderly, chaotic, and fiercely competitive.
In contrast, the East African government army cleared inland threats, the government guided and arranged immigration in an orderly manner, and rationally arranged industries, with almost no twists and turns in the process.
From the outset, the American West faced a shortage of police force, armed groups attacking each other, wanton massacres of Indians, frequent robberies and murders, and other chaotic scenes, which gave the impression of a country ruled by gangs.
However, the US development model naturally has both advantages and disadvantages. The government basically does not need to invest in the early stages. The United States is a typical small government, and even taxation is difficult. It does not have sufficient funds, so it can only rely on private forces.
After all, the history of armed taxation in the United States is only less than 20 years old. The Internal Revenue Bureau was established in 1862 to raise war funds during the Civil War, and was quickly abandoned after the war.
Furthermore, the fierce competition in the westward movement in the United States also represented opportunities, especially for ordinary people. Being ruthless and ruthless could accumulate huge wealth in a short period of time and create a large number of early rich people. Such groups were not uncommon. Large and small bank and train robberies created countless wealthy Americans.
In comparison, East Africa is petty. The East African government has made great efforts, but naturally it has also taken away a large amount of wealth and income, only satisfying the basic food and clothing needs of immigrants.
The East African government is a typical powerful state machine. Under the violent armed forces such as the army and the police, it is difficult for crime to exist in East Africa. The East African people are screened and are typical small farmers and workers who are easy to rule.
Different people have different opinions on these two development paths. However, the end result is the same: both the United States and the western part of East Africa have been effectively developed, but the westward movement in the United States lasted for hundreds of years, while that in East Africa only lasted for less than ten years.
Although East Africa's westward movement focused on the industrial sector, the overall level of industrialization in East Africa was not high, and agricultural investment still occupied the dominant position.
(End of this chapter)
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