February 22, 1873.

Sweete Palace.

Ernst convened the East African government and all the top officials of the East African Railway Company to discuss the construction of the East African railway, which could be built in the face of the economic crisis.

At the meeting, Ernst described in detail the initial blueprint for the construction of the East African Railway:

"The planned railway is divided into four parts, one is an extension of the first railway, which will be renamed the 'Central Railway' after completion, to connect the East African coast, the East African Plateau, the Katanga Plateau, the Ronda Plateau, the Matabele Plateau, and the South African Plateau."

"The Central Railway is in the shape of a 'T', with a total length of more than 4,600 kilometers, starting from Dar es Salaam and passing through the first town, Mbeya, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Harare, Bulawayo and Pretoria."

"The second is the 'Northern Railway', with a total mileage of more than 1,000 kilometers, starting from the city of Mombasa, passing through the city of Nairobi and ending in the city of Kisumu."

"After the completion of the two sections of the railway, the length of the East African Railway, about 5,600 kilometers, effectively connects the land of East Africa, the Central Railway undertakes the task of cross-regional passenger and freight exchange between the eastern, western and southern regions of East Africa, and the Northern Railway undertakes the task of connecting the Great Lakes region with the coast."

(Picture)

Ernst said to the General Technical Adviser of the East African Railway: "Mr. Nordin, now you will describe the specific construction conditions and plans with you in detail, and you can also directly say any difficulties!" ”

So Nordin said: "Ladies and gentlemen, long before the construction of the first railway, we carried out the survey work of the railway lines in East Africa, and it took almost three years to select the relevant routes, trying to avoid the complex terrain sections, but there are still some swamps and wetlands along the line, which is also the biggest problem faced by the central railway, compared to the northern railway, there is no such problem." ”

"I simply take the Pacific Railroad in the United States as an example, the total length of the Pacific Railroad is about 3,000 kilometers, and the planned length of our central railroad is much longer than that of the Pacific Railway, and the amount of construction work within the same unit distance is also higher than that of the Pacific Railway."

The problem of construction volume is Ernst's own fault, because Ernst believes that the construction of the East African Railway has seized the best section of the entire East African Kingdom (avoiding mountainous sections and not developing tunnels), and the future is almost certainly the main artery of the East African Railway, so he simply built a three-track railway, while Europe and the United States in the same period were mainly single-track railways and double-track railways.

"Taking the industrial bases of the two countries as an example, the United States has a complete industrial system that can almost completely meet the entire demand for railway production, while East Africa has zero foundation in this area and cannot complete even the most basic rail production."

This means that the construction of East African railways still depends on imports, but East Africa calculates that the current import is lower than East Africa's own production costs, which is certainly not the case in normal times, but after the outbreak of the economic crisis in Europe and the United States, a large number of railway excess capacity is just enough to meet the appetite of East Africa, and now Ernst is waiting for the European and American railway industry to completely fall to the bottom, and is ready to start acting.

So Ernst added on the side: "You don't have to worry about this problem, we will buy a lot of relevant materials from Europe, and Austria and Germany have abundant excess steel production capacity to meet the needs of the East African railway, even if there is not enough in Germany, there are also British, French and American ......."

Nordin: "Your Highness, this is just one thing, and then there is the problem of the shortage of skilled workers, maybe blacks can solve more than eighty-five percent of the needs, but some technologies are impossible for blacks to solve, and professional railroad workers are needed to do it." ”

Ernst: "That's not a problem, I can tell you a clear news, that is, there is a serious economic crisis in Austria at the moment, more than a dozen railway companies have gone bankrupt, and this number is still rising, and the economic crisis will spread to other industrial countries, especially the United States, Germany and France, which have also overbuilt railways in recent years, which means that many railway workers are unemployed, and I have telegraphed Austrian companies to recruit a large number of experienced railway workers. When they arrive in East Africa, they can effectively solve this problem. ”

Nordin: "As for the construction period, according to Your Highness's request to complete the construction of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway within three years, we compare the data of the Pacific Railway and believe that at least more than 60,000 workers will be needed. ”

It took four years from construction to completion of the Pacific Railroad, and the total number of workers remained at about 15,000.

This time, the construction length of the Central Railway in the East African Kingdom alone will exceed that of the Pacific Railway by nearly 1,500 kilometers, and with the Northern Railway, the amount of work is almost twice that of the Pacific Railway, and the conditions of the East African Kingdom are far from those of the United States, especially in terms of transportation, and the construction period is short, so it needs a lot of manpower to fill.

Ernst: "Well, in order to support the construction of the railway, the government recruited 100,000 indigenous labourers from all over the country to complete the work. ”

100,000 indigenous laborers, which is a lot, is actually not as large as the number of laborers in the Central Canal being excavated in East Africa, the number of workers in the Central Canal is currently more than 250,000, and in this respect it has not actually surpassed the Suez Canal, Egypt paid 120,000 lives for the construction of the Suez Canal, and the Kingdom of East Africa is still far behind!

It can be seen that the amount of work of the railway and the canal is completely incomparable, but the advantage of the canal is that the technical difficulty is not high, and the excavation work can be completed by the ancient monarch of Emperor Yang of Sui thousands of years ago, and the Suez Canal after a thousand years still maintains such a high casualty rate, it can only be said that the French who presided over the construction of the canal really treated the lives of the Egyptians as animals, no, it is not as good as livestock.

Although the kingdom of East Africa is a little more conscientious than the French, it is limited to treating blacks as cattle, and the animals also have to eat forage, so that they do not even want to pay for this forage like the French.

100,000 indigenous railway workers, for East Africa is completely sufficient, you must know that in the previous Far East to the thirties of the twentieth century, the national railway workers were 230,000, and the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway used a total of 90,000 workers, and the total length of the Trans-Siberian Railway is nearly 10,000 kilometers, which is almost twice the current railway construction plan of the East African Kingdom, and it is still the most difficult to construct the tundra, that is, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the Far East will be more difficult than the Siberian Railway in the future (alpine hypoxia plus permafrost), At least in the summer, the conditions for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway are much better.

Taken together, we found that the only problem in the construction of the East African railway was the weak industrial base, and the others were all minor problems.

Ernst then goes on to say: "The construction of the railways will be accompanied by the initial industrialization of East Africa, so that by 1880 we will be able to achieve complete autonomy and get rid of the dependence on the steel needs of Germany and Austria." ”

This is also an important reason why Ernst asked to complete the construction of the central railway within three years, because if East Africa wants to develop industry, it can develop Zimbabwe's coal and iron mines by the way, and all this needs to be supported by the railway, the number of coal mines and iron ore resources in the East African plateau is still too small, as for South Africa, we still have to wait, that location is the border of East Africa, there is no absolute strength, or do not develop it first.

Moreover, after the development of Zimbabwe, East Africa's control over the territory will be raised to a higher level, and its ability to control the south and west will be greatly enhanced, and it will not be as top-heavy as it is now, relying only on the military to maintain regional security.

(End of chapter)