Chapter 882 Exit
March 2, 1894.
Kisumu city.
"Today, we counted a total of fourteen vehicles, as well as a large amount of cargo, mainly industrial products. All of this cargo will be sent to Jima City and then exported to the Abyssinian Empire."
At the Kisumu Railway Station, brand new cars built from the Mombasa Automobile Manufacturing Plant arrived in Kisumu City yesterday. Mombasa is the only city in the northern industrial belt that currently has the ability to manufacture complete vehicles.
Cities in the northern industrial belt, such as Kisumu and Nairobi, are only responsible for producing some auto parts, which are then transported to Mombasa by rail for arming.
Currently, East Africa's automobile industry has formed five centers, namely Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Harare, and Bulawayo. In addition, the new Frankfurt automobile industry, which was approved after Ernst's last inspection, may become the sixth automobile production city in East Africa in the future.
In addition, the upstream and downstream industrial cities involve a total of 78 East African cities and regions, in order to catalyze the unification of the domestic large market, reduce production costs, and enhance the strength of the East African automobile industry.
Among several automobile production bases, the automobile industry production capacity in the inland areas of East Africa is significantly stronger than that in the coastal areas, and priority is given to meeting the construction and development needs of the inland areas.
This is one of the benefits of locating high-end industries in inland areas. Even if technology and management models spill over, they will spread to the peripheral areas of East Africa first. By the time they are transmitted to other countries and regions in the world, the inland areas of East Africa have already completed product updates and technological upgrades.
Of course, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam in the coastal areas are currently developing well due to their comprehensive strength, but as the number of competitors increases in the future, their advantages will be further reduced. For example, the Port of New Hamburgo, the Port of Beira, the Port of Cabinda, the Port of Luanda, Benguela and the nearby Port of Lobito, etc., are growing faster than Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.
With East Africa's conquest of Mozambique and Angola, the monopoly of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam on foreign trade along the East African coast will be diverted in the future, forming a multi-faceted East African economic structure.
The so-called "one point with multiple faces" means that with central East Africa as the center, it radiates in the four directions of east, west, south and north. Currently, except for the British Cape Town colony, East Africa is making comprehensive efforts in the three directions of east, west and north.
Although the north is a continent, many inland ports have been established, among which Jima City, which is located at the border with the Abyssinian Empire, is the best.
In addition, there are the cities of Gezira, Dire Dawa and Sar, which are connected to Egypt, the Red Sea coast and the Sigmaringen colony respectively.
However, Egypt is a British colony, the economy of the Red Sea coast north of Dire Dawa town is relatively weak, and Sigmaringen is also under development. For the time being, it is unable to compete with the large market of the historic Abyssinian Empire.
Therefore, the Abyssinian Empire is an important part of the East African economic circle. In the past thirty years, the economic and trade relations between the two countries have continued to strengthen, especially after the Abyssinian Empire's relations with Egypt and Italy deteriorated. The Abyssinian Empire, which had no access to the sea, could only completely turn to East Africa.
At present, the Abyssinian Empire’s military products, industrial products, and high-end luxury products are basically from East Africa, making it a dumping ground for East African products. East Africa has also become the Abyssinian Empire’s largest trading country.
The train from Kisumu to Jimma carries industrial products from East Africa that are sold to the Abyssinian Empire today. The increasingly prosperous trade between East Africa and the Abyssinian Empire has also driven the development of cities around the Turkana Railway.
As early as several years ago, with the completion of the construction of the Turkana Railway, its starting point was located in Kisumu City, passing through the hinterland of Turkana Province, the west bank of Lake Turkana, and then through the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau into the city of Jimma on the east Abyssinia border, and then from Jimma City into Abyssinia.
"Including today's batch of cars, the number of cars imported by the Abyssinian Empire from our country this year may have exceeded 50. It's only March now, and it seems very likely that it will exceed last year's 167." said Alwed, a railway employee.
"This shows that the Abyssinian Empire had a large economy. Even though it was poor, the upper class had strong spending power, and the Abyssinian Empire was also rich in resources. Now there are agricultural products and minerals imported from the Abyssinian Empire on the railway every day. These agricultural products and mineral exports have created huge value for the Abyssinian Empire, so the Abyssinian dignitaries can be so extravagant." Andrew, a co-worker, replied.
It can be said that most of the agricultural and mineral resources of the Abyssinian Empire were transferred to East Africa, especially the northern industrial belt and Turkana Province.
Although the territory of the country had shrunk further due to the war with Italy in previous years, the Abyssinian Empire was still the second largest power in Northeast Africa after Egypt.
The country's territory still remains at more than 300,000 square kilometers, and most of it is the core area of the previous life. Except for the northeastern part which has lost its traditional core territory, other areas are mostly suitable for farming and are rich in resources.
The Italian Red Sea colony expanded the territory of the Abyssinian Empire east of Desai based on Eritrea, most of which was a transition zone between desert and plateau plains.
Although East Africa has swallowed up a lot of territory from Ethiopia in the past, it is mainly in the southern mountains (East African Rift Valley) and the arid areas of Ogaden.
Therefore, the overall size of the Abyssinian Empire is still very considerable. The plateau area is easy to defend and difficult to attack. This is the fundamental reason why Italy could not annex the Abyssinian Empire.
Of course, Italy will no longer have this opportunity in the future. In essence, Italy is different from its previous life. It can only be regarded as a small or medium-sized country in Europe. Now with the stability of the East African balance region, Italy's opportunity to invade the Abyssinian Empire no longer exists.
Moreover, after losing its northeastern territory, the Abyssinian Empire's idea of regaining access to the Red Sea was completely cut off, making it a completely landlocked country that could only carry out economic activities with East Africa in the south.
Of course, the Abyssinian Empire was not completely at a disadvantage in the economies of the two countries. As an important crossroads in Northeast Africa, the Abyssinian Empire had restored relations with Egypt in recent years, indirectly opening up trade links between Egypt and East Africa.
The restoration of relations between Egypt and the Abyssinian Empire was ultimately due to Italy's interference, which made the original disputed territorial issue between the two countries no longer exist.
After improving relations with neighboring countries, the Abyssinian Empire has maintained overall stable economic development in recent years. It has started a "middleman" business, transporting goods from East Africa to North Africa.
With the support of railways, the transportation cost is not much higher than sea transportation, especially in Sudan where Egypt’s inland transportation is poor.
On the whole, the Abyssinian Empire has been completely integrated into the East African economic circle. Although the trade between East Africa and the Abyssinian Empire is suspected of economic colonization, it meets the needs of the Abyssinian Empire.
First of all, after years of turmoil and colonial invasions, the Abyssinian imperial government relied on East African arms to maintain social stability and national territorial sovereignty.
Secondly, the means adopted by East Africa in its trade with the Abyssinian Empire were not strong. Like the United States today, it mainly relied on implicit economic colonization rather than direct plunder and aggression.
Although East Africa has annexed a lot of Ethiopian territory in the previous life, the Abyssinian Empire is not the same as Ethiopia. These lands did not originally belong to the Abyssinian Empire. At most, they were its affiliated or even hostile sphere of influence.
In the past, the Abyssinian Empire conquered the southern regions by force after learning about the power of the West, and eventually formed Ethiopia.
(End of this chapter)
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