Chapter 872 Cotton Production Expansion
Mtwara City.
“According to the provincial government’s instructions, we will vigorously boost the cotton economy. In the future, we in Mtwara will expand cotton production by more than three times to respond to the great development of cotton economic policies, expand the scale of cotton exports, reduce the area of grain cultivation, adapt to the general trend of agricultural production structure adjustment, and provide subsequent impetus for the development of the city.”
Cotton planting in East Africa has always been in a lukewarm state because the country's key investment is not in the textile industry. In the past, only the northern cotton area centered on Nairobi, the southern cotton area centered on Bulawayo, and the Lake Malawi cotton producing area were formed. These three major cotton producing areas account for half of East Africa's cotton production. In addition, there are high-quality long-staple cotton producing areas such as Gezira and Somalia, and various small cotton producing areas relying on cities.
The direct reason why the East African government has changed its attitude and strongly encouraged cotton planting is also because of the increase in German orders.
The most critical purpose of German Chancellor Caprivi's visit to East Africa was to make East Africa one of the raw material suppliers for Germany's industrial development. Among the various raw materials that East Africa could provide, East African cotton was particularly valued.
Germany is in great shortage of cotton. As of now, Germany is already the largest textile country on the European continent and ranks third in the world, after Britain and the United States.
In Germany, there are more than 300,000 and nearly 400,000 workers directly engaged in the textile industry. One out of every ten industrial workers is engaged in the textile industry.
In 1892, the German cotton textile industry generated nearly 700 million marks in merchandise volume, 30 percent higher than Germany's second largest industry, the coal industry, and 40 percent higher than the steel industry.
However, Germany was basically self-sufficient in coal and iron ore resources, but its raw cotton was almost entirely imported. In 1892 alone, Germany imported more than 700 million pounds of cotton. No other industry in Germany was as dependent on imports for key raw materials as the cotton textile industry.
At the end of the 19th century, cotton prices continued to rise. The fundamental reason for the increase in cotton prices was that the two largest cotton producing regions in the world, the United States and India, increasingly consumed cotton themselves. Cotton prices had doubled.
Before the American Civil War, American factories used only about 20 percent of domestically produced cotton, but by the 1870s, that proportion had risen to about 33 percent, and after 1892 it had risen to more than 40 percent. India also benefited from British investment, and with population growth, the scale of its cotton textile industry continued to expand.
Therefore, Germany urgently needs to find a stable cotton supply base in the world to meet the needs of its own cotton textile industry.
Before cooperating with East Africa, Germany had tried to grow cotton in its colony of Togoland (Togolese Republic in West Africa), but failed miserably.
After all, in the 19th century, except for East Africa, Egypt, and other North African countries, there was basically no experience in cotton cultivation in Africa.
Germany cannot even find a rich workforce with experience in cotton planting in Togo, and the scale of cotton planting in Germany is small, and the country lacks experience in cotton planting compared to Britain and the United States.
Moreover, Germany had only controlled Togoland for a few years and had little knowledge of the local natural and climatic conditions, so failure was inevitable.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with Germany choosing Togoland for the experiment. Togoland used to be a major cotton-growing country in Africa. Especially after its independence, the cotton planting industry expanded more than seventy times. Its neighboring Benin (now the Kingdom of Dahomey and the Portuguese colony of Ouidah) became the largest cotton-growing country in Africa in the 21st century.
However, it was unrealistic to expect the Togoland colony to become a cotton supply base for Germany within a few years. Moreover, the Togoland colony had a major flaw, which was its long and narrow territory and small area.
Besides, Togoland has almost no infrastructure. Selecting it as a cotton supply base for Germany would require a huge investment. Togoland is surrounded by other countries' colonies, so the investment risk is high.
Germany's other colonies, such as the Pacific islands and its largest colony, Cameroon, were mostly located in tropical rainforest areas and were not suitable for cotton cultivation.
So looking around the world, there is no place more suitable than East Africa as a cotton supply base for Germany. East Africa itself is one of the main cotton suppliers for Germany, Austria-Hungary and other countries, especially in the field of high-quality long-staple cotton. It monopolizes the markets of the two countries. If you don’t get goods from East Africa, you can basically only buy them from British businessmen at high prices. The reason why East Africa was sanctioned by the United Kingdom is that it also needs a shipping point, so everyone takes what they need.
"Experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Germany have conducted in-depth research on the climate and soil of Mtwara, and have determined that Mtwara and its surrounding areas are suitable for growing cotton. In addition, given the coastal advantage of Mtwara, the central government has allowed us to vigorously develop the cotton planting industry."
Mtwara has always been one of the important port cities in East Africa and one of the earliest developed port cities in East Africa. In the early days, it was an important port in East Africa like Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo and Tanga.
But as East Africa continues to expand, Mtwara is facing increasing competition, especially as new port cities are springing up like mushrooms after a rain.
In fact, all three seaports in the province of New Württemberg are facing this pressure. Before this, the province of New Württemberg could only cling to the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone. Now that German capital has entered, it is seen by the provincial government as a new opportunity for the province's economic development.
This is not only true for German capital, but also for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Both countries' investments in the coastal areas of East Africa have now entered a new stage.
Take the cotton planting industry as an example. In order to encourage the export of East African cotton, we not only provide order support, but also plan to invest in a number of cotton ginning mills along the coast of East Africa to save labor costs, provide high-quality cotton varieties, unify the quality of cotton production, and send local experts and technicians to provide scientific guidance to the East African cotton planting industry.
This is good news for East Africa's cotton planting industry. Of course, East Africa's excellent infrastructure also makes these German capitals optimistic about the East African market.
For example, infrastructure such as railways, roads, and ports basically requires no investment, which is very important for German companies. If cotton is grown in Togoland, all of the above supporting facilities will need to be built by German companies themselves.
For example, Mtwara has ports, railways, roads and other facilities, and it also has a certain industry and industrial base. The New Württemberg Province has a large amount of land resources. Even if the original crop planting area is not changed, a large number of cotton fields can be obtained through land reclamation and other means.
Of course, the labor cost in East Africa is also very important. Although wage costs need to be paid, East Africa is highly efficient!
In Togoland, the Germans not only faced the local indigenous people's lack of planting experience, but also the long-standing problem of management. The most important thing was that the locals were actually afraid of large livestock!
The last thing is indeed outrageous. After all, most of the indigenous people of Africa are not traditional agricultural civilizations. As mentioned before, most of the native African cattle are located in northeastern Africa and North Africa.
In the eyes of many African indigenous peoples who live in a hunting and gathering civilization, the cattle species represents similar violent and dangerous species native to Africa, such as "wildbeest, zebra, rhino, etc."
Therefore, considering various factors, East Africa is the best choice for German capital. East African immigrants are mainly farmers, and East Africa is a major agricultural country. As long as the operation is proper, investing in East Africa will basically not result in a total loss like Togoland.
(End of this chapter)
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