Chapter 652 Economic Income
Yasold then said to Val: "And you have the Swakop River as a water source in Swakopmund, which is much better than our Walvis Bay."
Speaking of the Swakop River, Vaal is indeed somewhat proud, because the existence of the Swakop River created Swakopmund. Although the river flow is not very stable, it is still one of the rare good places in the whole of southwest Africa.
"And the Mount Whale Highway is also important to your Swakopmund. After all, our two cities are less than 30 kilometers apart. You only need to build a short highway to connect to the Mount Whale Highway, which is only one distance. Or you can directly use the highway between our two cities." Yasold suggested.
There is an urban highway between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, which is built along the coastline. Athold's suggestion is to have Swakopmund directly build a road connecting to the Mount Whale Highway. Because the Mount Whale Highway runs from northeast to southwest, Swakopmund can build a straight road connecting to the Mount Whale Highway on the east side, which can directly save the transit procedure in Walvis Bay.
"The road must be built. It is not difficult for us. I just don't like why the road is not built directly to Swakopmund. In this way, we can go directly south from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay, which can save a lot of engineering and materials, avoid repeated construction problems, and improve the efficiency of road use."
Yasold said: "This shows that the higher-level government attaches more importance to Walvis Bay than Swakopmund. The only advantage of Walvis Bay over Swakopmund is probably this deep-water port. On the contrary, Swakopmund cannot make further progress because of the problem of the Swakop River."
The Swakop River has a two-way impact on Swakopmund. The relatively abundant water resources have indeed provided impetus for the development of Swakopmund.
But the Swakop River is also a river that passes through an arid region, with sparse vegetation in the upper reaches, resulting in a large amount of river sand silting up at the estuary every year.
This is also the main reason why Swakopmund was colonized first in the past and later replaced by the neighboring Walvis Bay.
Hearing what Yasold said, Val felt helpless. He said, "So the two cities are likely to be merged and developed together in the future. Our city has water resources, and you have the port advantage. If the two cities can be merged, then a large city with a population of more than 100,000 can be formed in Southwest Africa in the future."
"Haha!" Yasold laughed, "You're really bold to think of a big city with more than 100,000 people. Right now, the entire Southwest Africa probably has only about 10,000 people. Our two cities combined have a population of only over 6,000."
"What do you mean by bold thinking? I am telling the truth. If the two cities expand quickly, it is only a matter of time before they are connected."
Athold retorted, "You also said that the two cities will expand. The problem is that the distance between our two cities is almost 30 kilometers. How big do the urban areas have to be for them to touch each other? Dar es Salaam and First Town are also very close. The development speed of the two cities is quite fast! They haven't even touched each other."
"Oh, why can't you think straight! Does urban integration mean that urban areas must be together? Can't you achieve this by building more roads? Besides, thirty kilometers is only a short distance. If we build a railway between our two cities, it will only take half an hour to travel, and people can go back and forth to get off work. Do you still dare to say that this distance is far?"
With Val's reminder, Athold realized that he had fallen into a misconception. Transportation is developing day by day, and the speed of trains on the railway is getting faster and faster. No one can predict how it will develop in the future.
Thinking of this, he said: "Doesn't it mean that in the future, as long as the speed of transportation gets faster and faster, the sense of margin between cities will become weaker and weaker? For example, the distance between Vienna and Dar es Salaam will no longer have a margin because of the development of transportation."
Val didn't see it that way and interrupted, "You're a little too optimistic. The speed of a steam engine is already amazing. I also believe that there will be faster power than steam in the future, but the speed of technological development is not as fast as we think, at least not for our generation."
Europeans during the Industrial Revolution were indeed a bit arrogant, but that is unlikely at this time. Social confidence is directly proportional to economic development. The better the economic situation, the stronger the social confidence, and the worse the economic situation, the worse the social confidence.
We are still in the stage of economic depression. Although the crisis has passed, the anxiety still exists. This is also the reason why the great powers were scrambling to grab land all over the world in the 1980s.
It is mainly because of the psychological crisis that the last economic crisis brought to many countries, so more colonies are needed to share risks, or to maintain a sense of security.
"Of course, cities also need to develop. In the future, the main urban areas of the two cities will definitely expand. This means that the distance between our two cities is about 30 kilometers now, but it may be only 29 kilometers in five years, and 28 kilometers in ten years. If the city develops well, it may be less than 20 kilometers. With the development of transportation, the distance between the two cities will be even closer."
Val went on to say, "Of course, this mainly depends on the development of your Walvis Bay. Now that the higher-level government has placed its bets on your Walvis Bay, your Walvis Bay will be in the top three in the entire Southwest Africa in the future. It is also the economic engine of Southwest Africa in the past decade."
Yasold suspected that Val was praising Walvis Bay too much. He said, "You are too optimistic about the development of Walvis Bay. The higher-level government has not said that it will focus on developing our city. Moreover, economic development needs physical support. Apart from some misguided ships, there is really no economic growth point worth paying attention to here. We even need the higher-level government to allocate food from the inland."
There was nothing wrong with what Athold said. Apart from Cape Town, which could not be moved, the only ships passing through the Cape Strait were those from South America.
After all, most European merchant ships will choose the Suez Canal. Its safety alone is better than the Cape of Good Hope, which is known as the "Cape of Storms". Moreover, the coastal waterways of southwest Africa are not easy to deal with. To the north of Swakopmund is the "Skeleton Coast", where many European merchant ships have been wrecked in the past.
The east coast of East Africa can rely on the vast resources in the inland to make the entire western Indian Ocean route prosperous again, while Southwest Africa, located on the west coast, has a desert area of nearly one million square kilometers and has few people and products. Therefore, when shipping is difficult to develop, Athord is not optimistic about the future of Walvis Bay.
This is indeed the case. In recent years, fishery has been the pillar industry of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. The shipping and service industries have basically stagnated because after being taught a lesson by the storm in the Cape of Good Hope, more and more ships choose to pass through the Suez Canal, unless they are not in a hurry or are ships from the Cape Colony. Now even ships from France to Madagascar pass through the Suez Canal.
Therefore, in 1882, the biggest customer of Walvis Bay's service industry was East Africa's potential enemy - British merchant ships. This was one of the main economic sources of Walvis Bay, second only to fisheries. However, the fishery resources in Southwest Africa were mainly self-produced and self-sold, unlike Somalia, which was close to the market.
(End of this chapter)
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