Yasold then said to Val, "And you Swakopmund have the Swakopmund River as a source of water, which is much better than our Walvis Bay Harbor. ”

Speaking of the Swakop River, the Val is indeed a little proud, because the existence of the Swakop River has created Swakopmund, although the river flow is not very stable, but it is still a rare good place in the whole of southwest Africa.

"And the Whale Highway is also of great importance to you in Swakopmund, after all, the distance between our two cities is less than thirty kilometers, and you can connect it with the Whale Highway by building a short road, which is one distance, or use the road between our two cities directly." Yasold suggested.

There is a municipal highway between Walvis Bay Harbor and Swakopmund, which is built along the coastline, and Yasolde's suggestion is to let Swakopmund build a road directly connected to the Mango Whale Highway, because the Mango Whale Highway is from northeast to southwest, so Swakopmund can build a straight road connecting the Mangwan Highway on the east side, which can directly save the procedure of transferring from Walvis Bay Port.

"The road must be repaired, which is not difficult for us, I am just unhappy why not build the road directly to Swakopmund, so that you can reach Walvis Bay Harbor directly south from Swakopmund, you can save a lot of engineering and materials, avoid repeated construction problems, and improve the efficiency of road use."

Yasolde said: "This shows that the higher level government attaches more importance to the Walvis Bay Port than Swakopmund, and the only advantage of our Walvis Bay Port over your Swakopmund is probably this deep-water port, and you Swakopmund can't go further because of the problem of the Swakopmund." ”

The impact of the Swakopmund River on Swakopmund is two-way, and the abundant water sources do provide impetus for the development of Swakopmund.

But the Swakop River is also a river that passes through arid areas, and the vegetation upstream is scarce, resulting in a large amount of river sediment silting up at the mouth of the sea every year.

This is also the main reason why Swakopmund was first colonized in the previous life, and was later replaced by the port of Walvis Bay next door.

Hearing Yasolde's words, Val was also very helpless, he said: "So in the future, the two cities are very likely to merge and develop together, our city has water resources, you have the advantage of ports, if the two cities can be merged, then it can form a large city of more than 100,000 people in Southwest Africa in the future." ”

"Huh!" Yasolde said with a smile: "Do you really dare to think that in a big city with more than 100,000 people, there are probably more than 10,000 people in the whole of Southwest Africa now, and the combined population of our two cities is only more than 6,000." ”

"What do you really dare to think, I'm telling the truth, if the two cities expand relatively quickly, it will be a matter of time before they are connected."

Yasolde retorted: "You also said that after the two cities are going to expand, the problem is that the distance between our two cities is almost thirty kilometers, so how big do the urban areas have to be to meet each other?" The city of Dar es Salaam and the first town are also close to each other, and the two cities are developing at a fast pace. None of them came together. ”

"Oh, why can't you turn your brain! Urban integration is called integration if urban areas are together? Won't you do this by building more roads? And 30 kilometers is only how long, if we build a railway between the two cities, it will only be half an hour away, and we can commute to and from work, do you dare to say that this distance is far away? ”

With Val's reminder, Yasolde realized that he had entered a misunderstanding, transportation is developing day by day, and now the speed of trains on the railway is getting faster and faster, and no one can say what it will be like in the future.

Thinking of this, he said: "Doesn't that mean that in the future, as long as the traffic speed becomes faster and faster, the sense of marginality between cities will be weaker, for example, the distance between Vienna and Dar es Salaam will also be marginal because of the development of transportation." ”

Val didn't see it that way, and interrupted: "You're a little too optimistic, just the speed of the steam engine, it's already amazing, and I also believe that there will be faster power than steam power in the future, but the speed of technological development is not as fast as we imagined, at least don't think about it in our generation." ”

It is true that Europeans in the era of the Industrial Revolution were somewhat inflated, but it is unlikely that this time period is likely, and social confidence is directly proportional to the state of economic development, and the better the economic situation, the stronger the social confidence, and the worse the economic situation, the worse the social confidence.

And it is still in the economic depression stage, although the crisis has passed, but the anxiety still exists, which is why the great powers in the eighties stook their land around the world.

The main reason is the psychological crisis brought about by the last economic crisis for many countries, so more colonies are needed to share the risk, or to maintain a sense of security.

"Of course, the city is also to develop, the main urban area of the two cities will definitely be expanded in the future, which means that the distance between our two cities is now about 30 kilometers, then five years may only be 29 kilometers, ten years later it will be 28 kilometers, if the city development is good, then there may be less than 20 kilometers left, in addition to the development of transportation, the distance between the two cities will be closer."

Val continued: "Of course, this mainly depends on the development of your Walvis Bay port city, and now the higher-level government has placed a bet on your Walvis Bay port city, so in the future of the entire southwest Africa, your Walvis Bay port city will be in the top three positions, and it is also the economic engine of southwest Africa in the past ten years." ”

Yasold suspected that Val was killing Walvis Bay Harbor City, he said: "You are too optimistic about the development of Walvis Bay Harbor City, the higher level government did not say that it would focus on the development of our city, and economic development needs physical support, except for some misguided ships here, there is really no economic growth point worth paying attention to, and even the higher level government needs to allocate grain from the interior." ”

There was no problem with Yasolde's words, except for Cape Town, which could not be moved, and now the only ships that passed through the Cape Town Channel were South American ships.

After all, most European merchant ships will choose the Suez Canal, which is safer than the Cape of Good Hope, known as the "Cape of Storms", and the coastal waterway of Southwest Africa is not a good one, and Swakopmund is the "Skeleton Coast" to the north, where many European merchant ships used to sink in the sand.

The east coast of East Africa can rely on the huge resources of the inland to make the entire western Indian Ocean route prosperous again, and southwest Africa, located on the west coast, has a desert area of nearly one million square kilometers, and there is no population and products, so in the case of shipping is difficult to rise, Yasolde is not optimistic about the future of Walvis Bay Port.

In fact, the pillar industry of Walvis Bay has been fishing in recent years, and Swakopmund is no different, while the shipping and service industries have basically stagnated, because after being educated by the storm at the Cape of Good Hope, more and more ships choose to pass through the Suez Canal, unless they are not in a hurry, or the ships of the Cape Town colony, and now even French ships to Madagascar pass through the Suez Canal.

So in 1882, the largest customer of Walvis Bay's service industry was the British merchant ships, a potential enemy of East Africa, which was one of the main economic sources of Walvis Bay, second only to fishing, but the fishery resources of Southwest Africa were more self-produced and sold, unlike Somalia, which was close to the market.

(End of chapter)