Chapter 290 Long Staple Cotton
This time, the entire Nairobi city plans to immigrate to a population of 80,000. Adding in the previous 20,000 people, it will almost exceed 100,000. It is expected to become the first large city in East Africa with a population of more than 100,000.
The planned industry to support such a large population in Nairobi is the textile industry. In the agricultural areas around Nairobi, the main cash crop grown is cotton.
At the same time, in order to broaden product categories, East Africa plans to introduce Egyptian cotton for planting in the upper reaches of the rivers in Somalia. Egyptian cotton, also known as Egyptian long-staple cotton, has long been famous in the world and is known as "white gold".
Egyptian cotton is native to the South Asian subcontinent and likes high temperatures and rainy weather. It is most suitable for its growth in savannah, temperate zone and tropical monsoon areas. With the development of irrigation technology around the world, cotton is increasingly concentrated in arid areas with irrigation conditions.
But the product with the best quality is the Egyptian long-staple cotton improved by the Egyptians. The East African Kingdom plans to directly introduce Egyptian varieties of long-staple cotton for cultivation.
In Egypt's Nile Delta and along the Nile River, the existence of the Nile River ensures that there will be no shortage of water for cotton cultivation. The moisture content of the soil is consistent, the humidity is constant at about 60%, the temperature is constant and high, and the sunlight and rainfall are very suitable. The growth of cotton is a perfect natural cotton irrigation system, a typical example of God's blessing.
When looking for similar environments around the world, Somalia is unparalleled. Although it is not blessed by the world's longest river, the Shabelle River and the Juba River are both African rivers.
The Shabelle River, in particular, is most similar to the Nile River in terms of natural conditions. They both flow from the savannah climate area to the tropical desert, forming an irrigation area downstream.
Egypt is currently the world's largest producer of long-staple cotton. During Ali's era, Ali vigorously built water conservancy projects, dredged old canals, dug 20 new canals and built nearly 30 dams, promoted improved waterwheels, tried out steam drainage and irrigation machines, and introduced new crops. Products and new varieties, the famous Egyptian long-staple cotton was promoted during this period. Cotton export volume increased from 944 bales in 1821 to more than 250,000 bales in 1849. Cotton cultivation provided convenience for the development of Egypt's cotton textile industry, and the development of the textile industry provided the Ali government with a large amount of funds to open more modern factories.
Of course, now Egypt's economic system has been completely destroyed by the British, especially the cotton textile industry. As the world's factory, Britain's most important thing is the textile industry, so the original cotton textile industries of its colonies in India and Egypt have been destroyed. Become a single source of cheap raw materials.
In other words, the Egyptians are now growing cotton for the British, and the textile industry established during Ali's time no longer exists.
In addition to its huge economic benefits, long-staple cotton cultivation in East Africa also relies on the Austro-Hungarian and German regional markets. They are not suitable for long-staple cotton cultivation. Therefore, East Africa has a natural advantage in this regard and will not conflict with its local textile industry. , because of its different positioning, the characteristics of long-staple cotton are destined to focus on the high-end consumer market.
Therefore, Ernst’s plan is to build several new long-staple cotton planting bases in the Northern Province and Juba Province of Somalia.
After harvesting, the cotton is transferred to Nairobi, processed and then exported to the Middle East and Europe.
The Venetian textile industry has a long history and was the most important textile center in medieval Europe, so there was no technical problem with workers migrating to Nairobi.
At the same time, Nairobi is located near the northern livestock production area of East Africa. East Africa has plans to raise a large number of sheep on the grasslands of Kenya.
While promoting Nairobi to become the cotton textile center of East Africa, it will also become the wool textile industry center of East Africa. Even Ernst plans to introduce silk technology from the Far East and build another silk fabric industry center in Kisumu City, Great Lakes Region, together with Nairobi and Mombasa. It forms the heartland of East African light industry manufacturing.
At present, due to the war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz's plan to cooperate with the Hechingen royal family to develop the Kenyan region has not been carried out, so East Africa can only develop the Kenyan region independently first.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not help the development of Kenya. A large number of farmers in the Venetian area followed the immigrant ships and landed at Mtwara Port, and then took a boat upstream from the Rufuma River and went through a journey on land. , arrived at Lake Malawi, then changed boats, then arrived at the west coast of Lake Malawi, and then poured into Zambia.
The Venetian citizens who were trapped in the city by the Austro-Hungarian Empire were imported to various cities in East Africa. Most of them were used to promote the development of East African handicraft industries, such as glass manufacturing, textile industry, iron manufacturing, etc.
Most of these Venetian citizens are workers, so they have certain skills and are divided among various cities in East Africa. Although their Italian cultural attributes are relatively deep, especially in Nairobi, when the city develops to a certain stage, it will inevitably enter a stage of negative population growth, and East Africa's By then, only a single population of German culture will remain in the countryside, so the cities in their regions are destined to be assimilated by Germany.
Through the Italian-Austrian War, the number of Italian immigrants in East Africa is expected to be close to that of Slavic immigrants this year. Except for a small number of Slavic immigrants from the Balkan Peninsula, most of them come from Tsarist Russia. The Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire are classified as Germans in East African statistics. Mainly the Slovenian and Croatian people in the previous life were deeply influenced by German culture. Their lives are not much different from those in Austria, except for language and religion. East Africa has been promoting German-speaking exchanges and deliberately de-religious. .
Nairobi currently has a German-speaking population of more than 20,000, so there is not much problem in assimilation. After the Far Eastern immigrants and Italian immigrants mix, it will inevitably cause problems in language communication. Italian and Far Eastern languages cannot communicate directly. And German automatically becomes this bridge of communication.
All in all, Nairobi, a small and inconspicuous city in East Africa, will become an important industrial city in East Africa after passing through the blood-sucking Venice.
Now Ernst only needs to wait until the day Austria captures Venice, and then smuggles Venetian machinery and equipment to East Africa, completing a bandit-like industrial transfer.
The staff of the Hechingen Consortium have already made good arrangements with the Austrian military. The Hechingen Bank helps cash in the "baubles" seized by the Austrian soldiers, and they are responsible for transporting these "gadgets" to the dock.
The price is not high. After all, these soldiers cannot take these mechanical equipment as trophies. East Africa only needs to pay the transportation fee.
As for Venetian business owners and landowners, a large part of them have been sentenced to death by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The vast majority were those who previously opposed Austrian rule and collaborated with the Kingdom of Sardinia. They either fled abroad or were exiled. Their land and assets will Confiscated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in addition to paying imperial soldiers, it will also be used to resettle a large number of Austrians.