The city of Bulawayo, once the capital of the kingdom of Matabele, is now the second largest city in the province of Matabele in East Africa.

Originally, the basic conditions here are relatively good, and the central railway passing through here has created good traffic conditions for the development here.

In its former life, Bulawayo was known for its industry and was the largest manufacturing centre in Zimbabwe. Including steelmaking, machinery manufacturing, food, textiles, fertilizers, daily chemicals and other industrial sectors, this configuration can show Bulawayo's economic status in Zimbabwe, after all, industry is quite rare for African countries.

The main factors for the casting of Bulawayo to become Zimbabwe's industrial status are historical heritage, transportation advantages, and rich mineral resources.

After East Africa occupied Bulawayo, it inherited most of Bulawayo's assets, but the main assets left by the Ndebele people in the local area were houses, which solved the housing needs of the early population resettlement in East Africa, and the treasury of Ndebele had already been handed over to the East African treasury, mainly precious metals and precious stones such as gold, and other things, but East Africa did not look down on them.

The world's preference for gold is the same, and so are the Ndebele people, and the treasury of the Kingdom of Matabele is also the most fruitful since the colonization of Africa in East Africa, after all, the Kingdom of Matabele has a large scope and has accumulated a lot of wealth.

In the past, East Africa also wiped out a number of indigenous countries, but most of them did not accumulate as much wealth as in the historic Zimbabwe, and some migrated from other countries, taking with them the wealth accumulated over generations, such as the Musiri regime and the former Great Lakes (Lake Victoria) countries.

Zimbabwe's history is fragmented, but this does not prevent the Ndebele people who later conquered the region from inheriting the legacy of the Shona ancestors, after all, the forces that were able to build the ruins of Greater Zimbabwe must have been like regional hegemons in their time.

As for whether the ruins of Great Zimbabwe were built by the Shona people, Ernst believes that there must be the Shona people involved, just like Egypt, although it has been conquered many times, but the race is still the same race, and it will not change because of a change of culture, unless it is like the United States and East Africa, where there is a massacre or a cage for birds.

"Bulawayo is rich in coal resources, and the biggest advantage here compared with Mbeya is that the terrain is flat and open, that is, the precipitation is a little worse, but this also provides conditions for cotton planting, so Bulawayo is not only suitable for the development of the steel industry, but also suitable for the textile industry like Nairobi."

"Mayor Luoan, you mean envy Nairobi?"

"Hehe, there's nothing to be ashamed of, Nairobi is a 'textile city', we started late in Bulawayo, but we also want to work hard to improve!"

"This point still needs to be investigated before we come to a conclusion, after all, you can't build a textile enterprise here because of your words, after all, your Bulawayo development is not slow, there is a steel industry, but many cities can't ask for it."

Bulawayo's steel industry is mainly steelmaking, which is inseparable from the rich coal and iron ore resources of the Matabele department.

After all, East Africa is the world's largest country in terms of chromite reserves, and Matabele province is second only to Hexingen province in terms of chromite reserves.

The main product of chromite is chromium, which is one of the main raw materials of stainless steel, and there are many other East African ores such as manganese ore and nickel ore.

Of course, there is no stainless steel industry in East Africa now, the previous British metallurgist Henry Blearley, he invented stainless steel in 1912, so now there is no stainless steel, as for Ernst of course knows stainless steel, stainless steel originated from Blairley's discovery of ferrochrome (stainless steel), Ernst directly knows the answer, but in order to interfere as little as possible in history, Ernst does not plan to let stainless steel come out in advance, only experiments in the Bulawayo Institute of Metals.

East Africa has almost ninety percent of the world's chromite reserves, so in the future, East Africa is not worried that other countries will surpass East Africa in this regard, just like the tungsten ore of the Far Eastern Empire, the stainless steel market will not escape from East Africa in the future, so Ernst is not in a hurry to develop.

"This year, the Ministry of Agriculture has carried out experimental demonstrations in our city of Bulawayo, opened up three cotton experimental fields in Bulava District, and achieved good results, just waiting for the analysis of cotton samples after the harvest, not to mention the final results, but this land is definitely suitable for cotton planting, and the growth of cotton fields is very good."

"Is that so? That means the Ministry of Agriculture should have some arrangements for Bulawayo, and Mayor Roan doesn't need to ask us for help, right? ”

"It's different, the Ministry of Agriculture can't control the construction of the factory, they just think that the environment near Bulawayo is suitable for cotton planting, and they can't ensure that the cotton textile mill is located in Bulawayo, so do you still have to ask your industrial department for help in this matter! In addition, the textile industry is a big industry, and Nairobi city will definitely not be able to eat it, and we in Bulawayo originally intended to help them share a part. ”

The volume of the textile industry is naturally quite huge, the textile industry in the United Kingdom is the pillar industry, and the population of East Africa has grown rapidly in recent years, so Nairobi's output really can't keep up.

So Mayor Roan continued: "You see, our city of Bulawayo is suitable for growing cotton, the industrial base is also good, and the transportation conditions are the same, and the industry in East Africa is still concentrated in the eastern region, and the inland, especially in the south, will definitely be developed on a large scale in the future, so the population growth is unstoppable, and the demand will definitely increase greatly, so there are definitely many benefits to building a textile factory in Bulawayo." ”

"This is not something we can decide, but we will hand over your suggestions to the higher authorities, but I want to remind you first, if you want to build a textile factory, you must first solve the problem of raw materials and personnel, I am not too worried about the personnel, the higher departments will definitely consider, it is very likely to transfer personnel from Nairobi to support, the problem of raw materials is more tricky, you have to discuss with the Ministry of Agriculture, and quickly expand the cotton planting area."

"What you said is also that our city government will give priority to this aspect, and if the quality of cotton in the experimental field this year is passed, we will apply for large-scale planting in the west of Bulawayo next year, and strive to solve the cotton yield problem in a short time."

"Hehe, aren't you afraid that when the time comes, you will blindly expand the planting area, and as a result, the factory will not be able to approve it, resulting in serious waste?"

"Then you will underestimate me, but I have inquired with the East African Import and Export Trading Company in advance, even if Bulawayo has not built a factory, they can eat the cotton production, on the one hand, the domestic demand is large, this year East Africa also imported several batches of cotton from the Far East, on the other hand, the foreign demand is also high, such as Germany and Austria-Hungary, the land area itself is not high, and the population is large, so the market is relatively large."

"It seems that Mayor Luoan is fully prepared, so I will no longer persuade you, according to what you say, the probability of success is very high, and it is estimated that your position in this market will be able to move up at that time."

"Haha, borrow your auspicious words, if it really happens, I will be the east when the time comes, and I will invite you to dinner."

(End of chapter)