Chapter 89 Hamburg Oceangoing Commercial Trade Fleet
July 1, 1867.
The Constitution of the North German Confederation officially came into effect.
The significance of this constitution was that Prussia legally dominated the affairs and military and political power of the North German region. It maintained Prussia's dominant position in the federation and the Prussian king's overriding power in the government, and also covered it with a democratic cloak.
With this favorable wind, the northern German region legally became a Prussian reserve.
Ernst's Hamburg ocean-going commercial trade fleet was established, with a size of eleven ships (before the unification of Germany, the registered German maritime merchant fleet had a total of only 4,350 sailing ships and 175 steamships). It was not a small scale in the entire North German region.
Together with the Hechingen ocean-going fleet with Trieste as its home port in the Mediterranean, the number of merchant ships under Ernst's name has reached more than 50.
Many of these ships sailed from the Far East to East Africa, gradually replacing hired Dutch merchant ships.
The main task of the newly established Hamburg ocean-going commercial trade fleet was to help Ernst carry some mechanical equipment to East Africa while undertaking ocean trade in the German region.
After all, unlike the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the lower-class people in Germany have a high level of education and are not easy to fool, so immigration is not their main task.
The ships under Ernst's name are all of considerable size. After all, when sailing on the sea, the bigger the ship, the better.
Among them, Venice's own shipyard has built only a single digit number of ships for its own use, and most of the ships are purchased from various European countries.
With the promotion of new steam ships, especially the emergence of ironclad ships, the price of traditional sailing ships has been falling, so Ernst bought a batch of high-quality ocean-going sailing ships without much effort.
If the ships seized from the Sultanate of Zanzibar are included, Ernst has more than sixty large ships.
At the same time as the Hamburg ocean-going commercial trading fleet was established, the new Hechingen shipyard (Hamburg) was also established.
All eggs should not be put in one basket, so the splitting of the Venice Hechingen Shipyard began.
As early as when he acquired the Martin Shipyard, Ernst added a number of German employees to the company in the name of the boss. Now they will become the backbone of the Hechingen Shipyard (Hamburg).
There are also many Chinese interns among these German employees, most of whom are students from Hechingen schools. They have basically been bought out for the rest of their lives and have to work in this industry until retirement.
The shipbuilding industry has always been an important industrial sector in Europe. It has relatively high requirements for the experience and academic qualifications of its employees, so every experienced shipbuilding worker is an intangible asset.
With the future unification of Germany and the booming German economy, the scale of Hamburg's ocean-going commercial trade fleet will surely be considerable.
The Hechingen ocean-going fleet in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was actually not very profitable, especially when it went to East Africa. The ships were full of immigrants and they made no money at all. They could only make their money by bringing back specialties from East Africa on their return voyages.
The situation of ships sailing to the Far East was even more appalling, with most of them carrying a mixture of people and cargo, with immigrants and cargo being placed together.
This is also true even if you rent a Dutch ship. There is no way you can afford to lose so much money just to transport immigrants, so you still have to transport some goods to make back your investment.
The important task of the fleet in the Port of Hamburg is to make profits. After the unification of Germany, the number of merchant ships in the entire German region doubled, and it quickly became one of the top forces in the world's ocean trade.
The Hamburg ocean-going commercial trade fleet aims to take advantage of this favorable wind to strengthen itself.
For example, the Heixingen Group, the companies under its name need to develop the world market in order to expand their commodity and banking businesses.
The transportation of goods and the import of cargo in the German region will be good businesses in the future, and even being a middleman will have great prospects.
In addition to making money, another reason is to accumulate experience, technology and talents for the future East African colonies.
With the progress of the Industrial Revolution, the shipbuilding industry has been updated at an increasingly faster pace, and more and more new technologies have been applied to shipbuilding.
If we want to keep up with the times in the future, we cannot rely solely on the Venice Shipyard, which is known to be the two centers of the Second Industrial Revolution.
One is Germany and the other is the United States. Ernst cannot intervene in the United States, but Germany is Ernst’s base at present.
As a member of the Hohenzollern family, Ernst himself was a member of the ruling class in the German region, and his interests were deeply tied to the German region.
With the help of the development of science and technology during Germany's Second Industrial Revolution, Ernst was able to reserve technology and talents for the future of East Africa.
Germany is the present and East Africa is the future. The order of priority cannot be messed up. Only under the protection of the Prussian government can the current Hechingen Consortium grow and develop.
Only if the East African colonies in the future were able to withstand the European countries' frenzy of dividing Africa, would Ernst dare to transfer the main industry to East Africa.
Otherwise, the other colonists would get it for nothing and Ernst would have no place to cry.
Using Germany as an industrial incubator for East Africa was safe, at least before World War I, and Germany is currently enjoying the dividend period of technological explosion.
Venice cannot compare with its high-end technology and talents, as can be seen from the German Navy during World War I.
Although the German Navy was ultimately defeated, how many opponents were there in the world at that time that could compete with Britain on the sea?
Only the Americans are doing relatively well; even the French have fallen behind in the maritime arms race.
Therefore, Germany's crazy expansion of its maritime power after unification was still backed by a strong education system and technological accumulation from the Second Industrial Revolution.
If the shipbuilding industry in East Africa wants to reap the benefits in the future, it can only accumulate slowly in the German region first.
East Africa is positioned as a maritime power along the Indian Ocean coast in the future, so there can be no delay in the shipbuilding industry. Since East Africa currently does not have the ability and strength to develop the shipbuilding industry on its own, it should first work hard on its internal strength in the German region.
East Africa currently has four excellent ports, and with the development of East African colonies, the demand for cargo transportation is also increasing.
There are other ports to be developed in the future, such as those in Kenya and southern Tanzania, which will have great potential in the future.
In addition, the large inland lakes in East Africa will also require inland lake ships in the future, so it is definitely a good idea to accumulate experience, technology and talents first.
The lakes in East Africa are all large, and water transportation and inland lake fishing industries are inseparable from the development of ships, especially the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), whose shipping value has the potential to be at least one-quarter of the five Great Lakes in North America in the future.
Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika), Lake Malawi, Lake Frederick... all have a demand for surface ships.
These lakes are all located deep inland, have important economic and strategic value, and have great potential for the development of surface and underwater vessels required for their exploitation.
(End of this chapter)
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