The sale of naval ships is actually no different from the disposal of scrap copper and rotten iron, except that in this era, scrap copper and rotten iron also have a high value.

What's more, it is an ironclad ship with a weapon system, which can be said to be the most advanced technological weapon in this era, and belongs to the same level as the aircraft carrier in the previous life.

After Archduke Ferdinand arranged for the navy, von der Leyen began to report to Ernst for the ivory business in East Africa last year.

"The East African ivory business has been thriving, and last year there were more than 40,000 ivory traded, of which we had more than 20,000 in stock, which was one of the more than 10,000 elephants that died at the muzzle of East African hunters in 1884."

The ivory business has always been one of the most prosperous businesses in East Africa, and the Europeans first colonized Africa for three things, gold, ivory and black slaves, so with the existence of the terms Gold Coast and Ivory Coast, in fact, the "Black Coast" should also exist, but after all, Europeans and Americans still have to set up "archways".

"How much ivory do we have left in stock?" Ernst asked.

"There are more than two million pieces, according to the current annual shipments, enough for us to export for more than 100 years."

In the past two decades, more than 3 million elephants have been hunted in East Africa, with an average of more than 100,000 elephants slaughtered each year, but the number of wild elephants in East Africa remains at least more than 6 million.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of African elephants in the whole of Africa should have been more than 26 million, which is more than the number of black people in East Africa today, which is indeed an exaggeration compared with the remaining African elephants in the previous life.

"Last year, the international ivory market was not doing well, because the ivory shipments in West Africa became larger, so we could only follow the ivory price a little bit."

The reason why East African ivory is subject to competition from West Africa is very simple, because in recent years, European and American colonizers have intensified their activities in West Africa, and East Africa has monopolized most of the raw material supply production areas, so the ivory production in West Africa has been rising.

Of course, the price to be paid is clear: elephants in West Africa have once again been murdered and have followed the same path as their East African relatives and friends.

The reason why it is said to be brutal again is because the former ivory trading center was on the coast of West Africa, and later with the integration and development of East Africa, East Africa, which sits on tens of millions of square kilometers, has become the new world ivory supply center, and the world's largest ivory trading market is currently in Mombasa.

East Africa is equal to one-third of Africa, and the desert terrain of North Africa is obviously not suitable for elephants, so the remaining elephants are mainly in West Africa, Abyssinia, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Town.

West Africa is the largest in area, so it is the second ivory source after East Africa, but West Africa has a long history of colonization earlier than East Africa, so the number of wild elephants was not more than that of East Africa at the beginning.

That is, in the 70s, after the rapid expansion and development of East Africa, a large number of wild elephants in East Africa were extinct, so the number of elephants in East Africa fell off a cliff in 70 years.

It's hard to say who has the largest elephant population in West and East Africa, but elephant hunting in East Africa has been greatly reduced.

To put it mildly, it is almost killed, especially in the eastern region, where the area of human activity has basically not expanded anymore, and Ernst is too lazy to trouble the animals, while the western region, which is accelerating development, is completely different.

"Find a time to do a survey of the elephant population in East Africa, and we need to have a good understanding of the wild elephants in East Africa, after all, ivory is not as easy to grow as leeks." Ernst commanded.

Elephants have a long lifespan and only have one pair of tusks in their lifetime, so it takes time for the ivory to grow, and the African elephant not only far exceeds the Asian elephant in number, but also in the production of ivory, because the Asian elephant only has tusks for male elephants, while both male and female African elephants have tusks.

Ernst understands the purpose of the current elephant population in East Africa, not the heart of the Virgin, but to maintain the ivory business, just like the kangaroos in Australia in the previous life, if there are more, they can be killed, according to the current number of elephants in East Africa, as long as it is guaranteed within a reasonable range, a stable supply can be guaranteed in the future.

However, in the past life, most African countries chose to fish as much as possible, so the number of African elephants has been declining and has not been effectively recovered.

Ernst now wants to help other countries go one step further so that East Africa can continue to fish sustainably in the future.

"In recent years, we have increased the number of ivory in stock to 30,000, and the number of ivory exported every year has remained at about 40,000, and we import the rest from West Africa."

Importing from West Africa?

"Your Highness, are you sure you're right? East Africa is the world's largest producer of ivory, so why don't we import ivory from West Africa? ”

"Because I'm not happy with the current ivory market structure, East Africa and South Africa, we want to complete the unification, these small markets can not care too much, but West Africa is a competitive market that threatens us, so we should blow up this market," Ernst said. ”

"To be honest, the elephant growth cycle is quite slow, while the world's demand for ivory is increasing every year, and in our experience in East Africa, it is very difficult or even impossible for elephant populations to recover from mass extinctions."

"As a centralized country, we in East Africa can also adjust our policies in a timely manner to ensure that the number of African elephants is maintained within a reasonable range and ensure the sustainability of ivory production in East Africa in the future."

"And these are things that the future suzerains of West Africa don't care about, they just want to get more benefits from West Africa, so in the next two or three decades, the elephant herd in West Africa will suffer a devastating blow, and I predict that by the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of African elephants in West Africa may have to be reversed."

"And our job in East Africa is to further exacerbate this market trend, and we can also get a certain profit by reselling ivory, but we have to pay more freight, anyway, when the western section of the Northern Railway is completed, it will be a matter of the way."

Ernst's aim was to speed up the ivory trade in West Africa, and there is a saying that there is no killing without buying and selling!

East Africa can achieve this through trade with the indigenous people of West Africa, at the cost of cheap industrial goods and food.

If the ivory purchased from West Africa is resold to the Far Eastern Empire, which is the world's largest ivory consumer, a certain profit can still be guaranteed, because ivory as a whole is in short supply.

In previous lives, in order to obtain substitutes for ivory, some people even went to Siberia to find the ivory of mammoths that had been sealed in the permafrost, which shows the vastness of the market.

"Your Highness, do you mean to seal most of our ivory and ensure the living space of the elephants in the future?" The subordinates thought Ernst was a little whimsical.

After all, the 19th century was followed by one or two industrial revolutions, which gave mankind the illusion that "man will conquer heaven" in the future, and Ernst is doing this now, which is definitely a waste of effort in the eyes of most people.

But Ernst doesn't care, after all, there are some differences between people and the 21st century mindset, and Ernst is not a member of animal protection, but only considers this matter from the industrial side.

In the 21st century, in order to restore the elephant population, countries can be said to be eight immortals across the sea, each showing their own magical powers, and East Africa only needs to kill a little less, and wait until the end of the next century, it is estimated that it can monopolize most of the market, so it is still very cost-effective.

After all, East Africa is different from those poor African countries in the past, and there is no need to simply look at the ivory business to increase income, ivory income accounts for only a small share of the income of East African countries, which is basically negligible, but the single profit is higher than that of grain and ordinary industrial products.

(End of chapter)