Chapter 1028 Economic Conditions in 1904
The planned economy is like a level-breaking game. If you pass the level, you will naturally feel happy. Similarly, an overly radical plan will drag East Africa into a place of no return. Just like now, it is somewhat unrealistic for East Africa to catch up with Germany and surpass the United States. However, in an old country like Britain, East Africa can try hard to catch up with Britain in the industrial field.
As the world hegemon, Britain is theoretically stronger than the United States and Germany. In the economic field, Britain is indeed above Germany, but the financial industry occupies a large share. However, in terms of industry, Britain is no longer a rival of the United States and Germany. Therefore, from an industrial perspective, it is not difficult for East Africa to surpass the British mainland.
"As of 1904, my country's annual cement production has exceeded 3 million tons, nearly doubled compared to before the First Five-Year Plan, and has a huge impact on my country's construction, transportation, water conservancy and other aspects."
The doubling of cement production is also a major highlight during the First Five-Year Plan in East Africa. Don't underestimate East Africa's 3 million tons of cement production capacity. In the previous life, when India was independent, the national annual cement production was only over 2 million tons, which was in the late 1940s.
This can also reflect the madness of East African infrastructure in the early years of the 20th century. Although the scale of infrastructure in East Africa in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s was not small, most projects did not use it, or the cement production could not keep up with the demand of the projects.
Therefore, East Africa's previous infrastructure reflected such a result in various fields. There were a large number of rammed earth, stone or wooden buildings in towns and villages, and the roads were mainly gravel roads. In terms of water conservancy construction, there was basically little cement material used in the repair of natural rivers.
The accelerated development of East Africa's cement industry also began in the 1990s, and the strong demand for cities, transportation and water conservancy during the First Five-Year Plan further catalyzed the development of East Africa's cement industry.
Similarly, the growth rate of basic building materials such as sand, gravel and wood is also extremely amazing, but these materials are difficult to be manually counted, but what can be seen with the naked eye is that the number of sand and gravel mining plants in East Africa has increased, and the forest area has shrunk rapidly.
Of course, the shrinking forest area is also related to the development of cities and agriculture in East Africa. Urban construction requires a lot of land, and agricultural reclamation is the biggest part. Compared with the wood required for production in East Africa, the former two are more destructive.
Of course, Ernst did not react to the sharp decline in forest coverage in East Africa. This was the inevitable result of sacrifices in the early development. Moreover, due to the short history of development in East Africa, the consequences of environmental degradation are far from being seen on a large scale. We will wait until there are signs.
According to Ernst's idea, at least in the first two five-year plans, East Africa does not need to consider the environment too much. In addition, the East African government has already done a lot of work within its capacity in the field of environmental protection, and is at the forefront of countries around the world. Therefore, the impact of industrial production in East Africa on the environment is controllable in a short period of time.
"In the past, my country's cement production mainly focused on supplying important transportation, cities and defense industry needs. Now, cement production can spill over to other fields, and there is great room for improvement. According to the First Five-Year Plan, by the end of 1905, my country's annual cement production should reach more than 3.5 million tons."
"The rapid growth in the production of basic building materials such as steel and cement also means that my country's infrastructure construction has entered a new stage. In the past, many infrastructure projects may face renewal problems due to material progress, such as roads, canals, river embankments, urban housing renewal, etc."
In this regard, Ernst could only express condolences to the black slaves in East Africa. With the development of the times, the infrastructure construction work in East Africa has not only not stopped due to the completion of various large-scale projects, but has intensified.
Up to now, East Africa still controls a large number of free laborers, and the overall number is still at least more than 10 million. In addition to the black slaves in the west, East Africa has also obtained some labor from Madagascar and South Africa.
The issue of black slave labor is also one of the important reasons why East Africa is unwilling to open its borders. At that time, East Africa was the only country in the world where slavery was still the mainstream, especially among the big countries.
Although there were a large number of de facto slaves in the colonies of colonial countries such as Britain and France, at least they would not continue this backward system in their homeland like East Africa.
In this case, if East Africa did not learn from the previous North Korea to close its borders, it might be criticized by the international community. Moreover, the political and economic system of East Africa is also very different from the current international mainstream. That is, East Africa does not export culture and politics to the outside world, otherwise it would have been united and encircled by other major countries in the world.
After all, the game system is different. In the eyes of European and American countries, everyone is not the same kind of people. Fortunately, East Africa's geographical location is relatively remote, separated from Europe by the Mediterranean and the Sahara Desert. East Africa also honestly does not cause trouble in its own land, otherwise other countries may really cause trouble for East Africa.
This is not an original sin in ideology, but an original sin in the rules of the game. Although East Africa does not belong to an advanced system country, the model of East Africa is easy to cause hatred.
For example, after the change of the French political system, it is easy for the people of neighboring countries to follow suit, and the traditional interest groups in other countries naturally hate Napoleon.
If East Africa was a European country, Ernst would never take this non-mainstream form of characteristic road. After all, Ernst never believed that East Africa could be as resilient as the Soviet Union, unless the monarchy in East Africa was abolished, which might be possible, but the Rhine royal family would definitely not do so.
While Ernst was thinking, the Ministry of Industry also conducted an overall analysis report on other industrial data. In 1904, all walks of life in East Africa showed a vibrant scene.
In the field of heavy industry, compared with other countries, East Africa has almost made up for most of its shortcomings. Whether it is the output or quality of heavy industrial products, it has reached the level of world powers.
It has further consolidated the advantages of emerging industries such as electricity, oil and automobiles, and the development of the chemical industry has also made great progress, realizing the creation of multiple key chemical industries from scratch.
The heavy industry system has basically been perfected, but there is a certain gap between the per capita share and other industrial countries. In short, most of the heavy industrial products can be produced by East Africa itself, but there is still room for improvement in overall output.
In the field of light industry, East Africa's development is still quite standard, but the development of industries such as textiles and medical care is relatively prominent. However, the overall gap between light industry and other countries is large, and handicraft products still account for a large proportion of light industry.
In terms of agriculture, in the past few years, the growth rate of East African agriculture has remained the same as in previous years, but the degree of mechanization has been further improved, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers has also made great progress, which has further increased the per-acre grain yield in East Africa.
In 1904, East African agricultural product exports further hit a new high, among which cash crop exports accounted for an absolute advantage, and tea, rubber, spices, fruits and vegetables all increased significantly.
On the contrary, the proportion of East African grain exports has further declined. Not only that, East Africa has also imported some high-quality grain and meat products from other countries.
This does not mean that East African grain production has declined. In fact, East African grain production has been increasing since the colonial era. Apart from other things, East Africa cannot relax in grain planting just to cope with the pressure of population growth.
The main reason for the decline in the proportion of grain exports is the increase in the proportion of cash crop exports. On the premise of maintaining domestic food security, the East African government has begun to focus on the development of cash crop planting in the agricultural field.
Moreover, international grain prices have basically remained at a low level since the 1970s, and the quality of East African wheat cannot be compared with that of major grain planting countries such as Russia, the United States, and Argentina, which have geographical advantages.
In addition, during the First Five-Year Plan, the proportion of rice cultivation in East Africa among the country's two main food crops increased significantly. The improvement of water conservancy facilities has enabled more areas in East Africa to meet the conditions for rice cultivation. In addition, rice has a higher yield than wheat, so the food structure in East Africa is quietly changing.