Chapter 69: Hei Xingen Royal Territory
Thanks to Sergei's efforts, the Russian government finally decided to sell the Alaska colony to the Hechingen Consortium.
After repeated negotiations between the two parties, the final price was set at 7 million rubles, which is really a bargain.
Of course, in order to appease the Russian government, some of the more habitable islands and territories were not taken back by Alaska. The actual land area traded was about 1.6 million square kilometers.
In return, Sergei himself directly benefited from this transaction by nearly one million rubles.
March 13, 1867.
Witnessed by the Prussian government, the Hechingen Consortium and the Russian government signed the Agreement on the Transfer of the Alaska Colony, and the Alaska colony was transferred to Prince Constantine.
That is to say, from today on, the main body of the Alaska colony is an overseas territory of the Hechingen royal family.
This transaction was made public by some European media, but it did not cause any waves. After all, in the eyes of Europeans at that time, Alaska was just a barren land thousands of miles away, and perhaps polar bears were the most numerous residents in Alaska.
As for Ernst, although he paid money to buy Alaska, he had no intention of developing Alaska.
It was completely out of the mentality of trying every possible means. After all, it was too cheap. It would be impossible for me to encounter such a good thing in the future where I could get a large piece of land by spending a little money.
This time, thanks to the bribes to Sergei and others, although a million rubles were paid individually, in the end these Russian ministers did a good job in taking the money.
You should know that the United States spent more than 7 million US dollars to buy Alaska in the past, but Ernst only paid rubles.
During this era, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the ruble was basically two to one, and due to the impact of the Crimean War, the ruble still had room to continue depreciating.
So even if the money paid to bribe Russian ministers was added, Ernst still saved nearly half the money and took over Alaska.
That's 1.6 million square kilometers of land. Not to mention whether it's useful now, even if Ernst leaves it to his descendants in the future, it will be enough for them to live a rich life.
As for the possibility of failure, Ernst also took it into consideration, in addition to inviting the Prussian royal family to provide a guarantee.
Some work was also done in other areas, such as payments to the Russians, which Ernst adopted in installments.
After paying the first 2 million rubles, the remaining 5 million rubles must be repaid within 10 years, so the Russians have to be honest if they want to get the money.
In less than ten years, Ernst had a way to drive all the Russians out of Alaska, as stipulated in the previous agreement.
After all, the Russians still have the southernmost land in Alaska, which covers an area of 20,000 square kilometers, and they also need manpower to develop it.
Therefore, the agreement between the Hechingen Consortium and the Russian government clearly stated that Alaska (Great Alaska) under the Hechingen royal territory had the right and obligation to send Russians in its territory to Russia's South Alaska (Little Alaska) territory to assist in development. Similarly, Russians were not allowed to stay in the Greater Alaska area.
In the Greater Alaska region, Ernst planned to adopt the most advanced "closed-door" policy, expel merchants from various countries, and monopolize the local fur market.
At the same time, expedition teams and private individuals from various countries are strictly prohibited from entering the Greater Alaska area to engage in any activities. If the resources in Alaska are really discovered, Ernst's money will be wasted.
Now, Ernst just wants to buy Alaska and leave it there to gather dust, hoping that no one will discover its true value.
Including the newly acquired land in Zanzibar, the current territory of the Hechingen royal family has reached an astonishing area of about 2.8 million square kilometers.
In order to facilitate external announcement, Ernst and Prince Constantine discussed and decided to jointly call the two places the Hechingen Royal Territory of the Hohenzollern Family.
Such a vast territory would naturally attract the attention of interested parties, but other countries tacitly acknowledged that it was Prussia's overseas colony.
After all, Ernst's main industry is still based in northern Germany, and taxes are naturally paid to the Prussian government.
Currently, only the East African colonies can barely connect with Ernst's industry, which is limited to tropical crops such as grain and sisal.
As part of the raw materials, it was incorporated into Ernst's industry, and Ernst's industry was part of Prussia's industry, so it was the last industry of the East African colonies serving the German region.
Therefore, there is no problem in saying that the East African colonies were Prussia's overseas colonies, but Ernst and the Hechingen Consortium were the middlemen who connected the industries of East Africa and Germany.
At present, Prussia's voice in northern Germany is growing. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that as long as no other country interferes, it is only a matter of time before Prussia merges with northern Germany.
If Ernst wanted to get rich quickly, it would be very easy. He just needed to ask people to go to East Africa to look for mines, and he could definitely make a fortune in a short period of time.
But this may attract the attention of the great powers to Africa in advance. Productivity determines production relations. The reason why the great powers set their sights on Africa at the same time in the late 19th century was because the Second Industrial Revolution changed their production model.
They have moved from exporting goods to exporting capital, so they need to dominate the raw material market and consumer market all over the world.
The East African colonies are currently on the eve of this trend, so Ernst developed the relatively backward planting industry in East Africa. Although the planting industry takes a long time to accumulate wealth, it is stable and can slowly accumulate the colonial population.
Only when the population under its rule reaches a certain size will the future East African colony be able to resist the invasion of other colonists.
At the same time, the freedom of colonial immigrants was strictly restricted and a collective management model was adopted to prevent the outflow of some information.
For example, the current East African colonies have actually developed quite well among all the colonies in the world, but due to geographical reasons (the influence of the Ottoman Empire and the Arabs is spread throughout North Africa and East Africa), Europeans are still unfamiliar with this place.
The information lag gave Ernst room to maneuver. He could have made good use of the twenty years before the powers divided Africa, first determined the general scope of the East African colonies and consolidated immigration and migration work, and there was still a chance to gain a foothold in Africa.
In fact, as long as most countries do not commit suicide, it is difficult for other countries to take advantage of them. In the early stage, as long as Ernst just farmed honestly in Africa and stayed away from international hotspots, he would be very comfortable.
Therefore, apart from digesting the newly annexed Kenyan land, there was basically nothing major happening in the East African colonies afterwards.
As for the Alaska colony, in order to pack up and send away the Russians and merchants from other countries in Alaska first, Ernst decided to first transfer an East African colonial army to the Alaska colonial area to cooperate with the new Alaska colonial government.
(End of this chapter)
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