At the end of 1885, the western section of the Northern Railway was officially opened to traffic, while the Hessian Railway had not yet been completed, and the difficulty of the Hessian Railway was still much higher than that of the western section of the Northern Railway.

Because of the completion of the western section of the Northern Railway, the Mombasa City Government has discussed the matter separately.

Because Mombasa City is the starting point of the Northern Railway, the larger the radiation area of the Northern Railway, the more beneficial it is to boost the economic and political status of Mombasa City.

In fact, over the years, because of the exaggerated length advantage of the Central Railway and the vastness of the economic hinterland, the city of Mombasa has always been dominated by the city of Dar es Salaam.

And the most obvious of them is that the population, resources, and number of cities along the Northern Railway are much worse than those of the Central Railway.

Therefore, with regard to the construction of the western section of the Northern Railway, as well as the integration of the city of Kisan and the Central Railway, the city of Mombasa is strongly welcomed, so that it can have more motivation to compete with the city of Dar es Salaam, which is the largest economy in East Africa.

In terms of the domestic economic location of East Africa, Mombasa City does not have an advantage, but the advantage of connecting with foreign countries and East Africa can be found, that is, it is closer to the Eurasian continent than Dar es Salaam.

In the north, the city of Mogadishu, which focuses on agricultural exports and has a poor environmental carrying capacity, is not enough to compete with the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

"There is a huge gap between the western and eastern parts of East Africa, and the Northern Railway is an important factor in changing this, which means that the original traffic order has been broken in the entire northern region."

"In the competition between Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, an important reason why we are at a disadvantage is that the economy of the northern interior is much worse than that of the central and southern regions, and if it were not for the Great Lakes region as the population and economic ballast of the north, then we could have given up the competition with Dar es Salaam."

Although the Great Lakes region is dominated by agriculture, the current national economy in East Africa is also dominated by agriculture, and the Great Lakes region is densely populated and relatively rich in resources, so it is not an exaggeration to call the ballast stone of Mombasa's economy.

"With the western section of the Northern Railway, this situation will be greatly changed, and the progress of immigration in Sigmaringen can be greatly accelerated, and at the same time, it will play a huge role in the exchange of many northern provinces."

The royal territory of Sigmaringen and several northern provinces connected by the Northern Railway are actually very limited in development, and a large number of resources have not been developed, and the opening of the Northern Railway has provided transportation conditions for the development of these resources.

"The entire Northern Industrial Belt will be the beneficiary of the western section of the Northern Railway Project, the opening of the railway, the radiation area of the Northern Industrial Belt from the Great Lakes region directly to the westernmost part of the country, and connect the economy of the entire West Africa, to solve the lack of resources in the Northern Industrial Belt, this major shortcoming."

Mineral resources and markets are an important part of industry and are indispensable, followed by other factors such as water, population, transportation, and so on.

However, the Northern Industrial Belt is actually relatively short of minerals, or the quality of mineral resources is relatively poor, which also makes the quality of the products in the Northern Industrial Belt relatively poor, and Mombasa City has to import a large number of coal and iron ore from India to develop industry.

"But this is also a thing to be happy about in the short term, don't think that you can lie on this railway and eat dividends all the time because of the construction of the Northern Railway, although Eurasia is our main trade market in East Africa, but it can also radiate to Europe from the west coast, and can benchmark South and North America, plus a West Africa, which is also not negligible."

In the past, East Africa was to the south, and the economy of North America was mainly through the Cape Town Strait and the Red Sea route, but now the western section of the Northern Railway has been completed, which provides a new outlet for the future foreign trade of the North.

"Especially on the west coast, only the northern Angola area, the climate and environment are good, and the water transportation is convenient, which we can't compare with the northern industrial belt, the northern industrial belt mainly relies on the construction of the northern railway, and the future East African railway will definitely be more and more, until it is paved all over the country."

The economic future of the west coast is bound to be concentrated in the north of Angola, unlike the east coast, there are four large economic blocks alone, from north to south are Mogadishu and Kismayo in the Somali region, Mombasa is the starting point of the northern railway, Dar es Salaam is the starting point of the central railway, and the port of New Hamburg is the terminal of the central railway, forming a relatively fierce competition.

In the future, if the Atlantic coast is included in the East African territory, it will still compete with the city of Mombasa, because East Africa currently lacks economic pillar ports on the Atlantic coast, and most of the logistics in the west mainly rely on the eastern port, even if it is closer to the Atlantic.

The most intuitive embodiment is the trade between East Africa and North and South America, the Red Sea route is larger than the Cape Town route, which of course has the Cape of Good Hope, the bad weather on the coast of southwest Africa, and the reason why it is not suitable for ships to sail, and more importantly, most of the logistics in East Africa are now concentrated in more than a dozen foreign ports on the east coast.

"Therefore, to ensure the economic advantage of Mombasa City in the future, we must immediately lay out the northwest region to form a path dependence and minimize our disadvantage in distance."

Business path dependence, to put it bluntly, is to provide better services and ensure that the number of customers is not affected.

"Our main target is the economic links between the Sigmaringen Crown and West Africa, and it would be better for the provincial government to unite the entire northern region to create a Northern Economic Corridor with the Northern Industrial Belt at its core, from Mombasa to the heart of the West African interior."

With the Northern Industrial Belt as the core, it is because Mombasa City certainly does not have such strength, and the entire Northern Industrial Belt is one of the three major industrial regions in East Africa, so in the name of Northern Industries, it is possible to develop the economy of West Africa in the northwest of East Africa and the royal territory of Sigmaringen.

The city of Mombasa has transferred many of these benefits to Kisumu, Nairobi and other cities, but the ultimate beneficiary is still Mombasa, because the port of Mombasa is the end and starting point of the economy, as long as it is the economic activities of the northern economic belt, it will eventually converge to the city of Mombasa.

Therefore, to promote the development of the Northern Industrial Belt is to promote the development of Mombasa City itself, and under this logic, the Mombasa City Government is more motivated to give up some of its benefits, rather than developing alone.

In fact, Mombasa has felt the disadvantage of developing independently, especially compared with Dar es Salaam, which has a lot of brothers, Dar es Salaam itself has many surrounding cities, plus cities along the Central Railway, Mbeya, Dodoma, Mwanza, Harare, etc., so it is difficult for Dar es Salaam not to develop.

When the Hesse Railway is opened in the future, Dar es Salaam will go further, so this is also a problem that Mombasa City is worried about, and if you want to compete with Dar es Salaam, the only way out is to integrate the northern economy, and at the same time look for foreign aid to reduce the gap between Dar es Salaam and Dar es Salaam.

Of course, Mombasa City also knows that the competition with Dar es Salaam City is unlikely to win, mainly in order not to be widened, continue to enjoy the treatment of East African economic twin stars, and avoid Dar es Salaam City being dominant.

(End of chapter)