"These conditions are good, but most of the areas you provide are undeveloped areas, such as this Bella, looking at the map, it is a completely new city, I'm afraid there are not even many people now, right?" Rudolph asked, pointing to the three words "planned" written in front of Bella on the map.

"At present, our population in Beira has reached more than 7,000 people, and there is a direct railway to the port of Beira, and the future of investing and building factories here will certainly not be bad, and we have no shortage of people in East Africa in the strict sense of the word, especially when the compulsory education in East Africa is relatively mature," Ernst explained. ”

"Besides, don't you know the situation in East Africa and see this area? In fact, this is the most industrially developed place in East Africa, and when Beira and the intermediate provinces are docked, the port of Beira will develop by leaps and bounds, just like the port of Trieste that you developed back then. ”

The area to which Ernst is referring is the province of Matabele, the largest industrial province in East Africa, and it is clear that if Beira can take over the important task of the province of Matabele, its status will not be lower than that of Dar es Salaam in the future.

Because it is the fastest natural access to the sea in Matabele Province, and it can radiate to the central regions such as Lake Malawi and Hohenzollern Province.

And Ernst's words made Rudolph a little incredulous: "Isn't the most developed region of your East Africa the east coast?" ”

After all, according to what Rudolph saw and heard when he came to East Africa, the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam were no less developed than any other city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bagamoyo and Tanga were also good, and the first towns were very modern, so he never thought that the interior of East Africa would be more developed than the east at first impression.

Nestie nodded and said: "We have more than 20 provinces in East Africa, if you look at the number of East Africa, it is indeed the economic core of the country, but from the comparison of provinces alone, the industrial scale of Matabele Province in the central part of the country is already the first in the country, and the other provinces in the central region are also developing well because of resource problems, so don't underestimate the potential of the interior of East Africa." ”

Rudolph frowned and said, "Then why don't you let go of the inland market, but only develop the coastal area!" ”

"Nonsense, we in East Africa are fully capable of developing the central and eastern parts on our own, otherwise why cooperate with Germany and Austria in the coastal zone?" Ernst asked rhetorically.

Moreover, even if East Africa lifts its inland restrictions, Germany and Austria will not be able to sincerely help East Africa develop, after all, they are not the wronged leaders of the Soviet Union, and it is impossible for East Africa to recognize the two countries as big brothers in its current international status.

Therefore, East Africa fully supports the investment of the two countries in the coastal areas, while the inland is borne by the East African government, especially some of the heavy industry sectors and defense industries in East Africa must be placed inland.

And the coast, Angola on the west coast can cooperate with Germany, and Mozambique on the east coast will naturally cooperate with Austria-Hungary, so that East Africa can relieve a lot of pressure.

Of course, Germany and Austria are not open-minded, and the enterprises of the two countries also have to make money, so their investment in East Africa must be profitable, and East Africa has no problem on this point, as long as they do not owe their own citizens salaries and are completely within the scope of East Africa.

Moreover, Germany and Austria are unlikely to invest too much in East Africa, and it is not that they cannot build factories in their own countries, and the two countries are actually not very developed in the financial industry, and the amount of investment they can invest is also very limited.

If you really talk about capital, it must be the strongest in Britain and France, Britain is the hegemon of the financial industry, and France also has the "good name" of the usury empire.

Therefore, cooperation is real cooperation, not the support of Germany and Austria for East Africa, and with the blessing of the state-owned monopoly and the resource base, in terms of economic volume alone, in fact, East Africa itself is not much worse than Austria-Hungary.

Rudolf also felt that the cooperation itself is equal, in fact, it is to build a platform between the three countries to promote the development of enterprises in the three countries and complement each other's advantages.

In the end, Rudolph signed an agreement with East Africa on behalf of Austria-Hungary, after all, East Africa has great potential, at least in the early stage, there is no need to worry about the loss of investment, and East Africa, as a tropical country, itself needs the special resources that Austria lacks.

……

February 1892

Port Pemba.

Pemba is an important port in the northeast of Mozambique, which was built relatively early in East Africa, and of course, it is also the more economically developed region in the whole of northern Mozambique.

Because the port of Pemba is a natural harbor, hidden and easy to enter, its topography is similar to that of the port of New Hamburg, which is pocket-shaped, except that the area of Pemba is larger, the harbor is eight kilometers wide and 14 kilometers long, and the port entrance is 2.5 kilometers wide, and the narrowest point is 1.8 kilometers.

In addition, the port of Pemba is close to the province of New Württemberg (southern Tanzania) in East Africa, so it is also easy to gain support from East Africa.

East Africa's development of North Mozambique is mainly concentrated on the coast, namely the three coastal ports or islands of Pemba, Nacala and Mozambique.

Among them, Pemba and Mozambique are mainly responsible for the foreign economic port functions of North Mozambique, while the port of Nacala is a key military port for the East African Navy.

In fact, it is easy to understand that the island of Mozambique was developed early, as early as 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on the place, and even earlier from the 10th century to the late 15th century, the island and its natural port were used as a maritime trade center by Arab merchants, and when East Africa took over, Mozambique was already quite developed and densely populated.

The island played an important role in Portugal's efforts to take over trade between India and the East Indies, which is probably the reason for the name of the Mozambique colony.

However, the importance of the island of Mozambique is slowly being replaced by Maputo in the south, but the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and the island of Mozambique was still a relatively economically developed region in Mozambique before East Africa took over.

Historically, the Portuguese built the port of Pemba in 1904, so before the East African capture of Pemba, it was just a natural harbor that had never been developed, and the port of Nacala was similar to the port of Pemba, and the Portuguese did not have time to develop the local area, so it fell into the hands of East Africa.

Of course, based on the history of Mozambique, even if the Portuguese were able to develop these two ports, it would probably be after the 20th century

"Nacala is one of the strategic ports for the key development of the navy, and it is one of the best places in China's naval military bases, such as Bagamoyo and Pemba, although the conditions are also good, but the population and economy are also relatively developed, and the location of Nacala is destined to be of little importance in the national economy of East Africa."

"Moreover, to the northeast of Nacala is the Comoros Islands, and due east is the island of Madagascar, and the three are each other's horns and cooperate with each other, which is of great significance for our country to master the Mozambique Strait."

"The civilian ports in the northern Mozambique region are mainly handled by the port of Pemba in the north of the port of Nacala and the island of Mozambique in the south."

Of course, this is the main situation in the ports of North Mozambique at the moment, in fact, there are still many natural bays in North Mozambique that have not been developed, this is a more tortuous part of the East African coastline, and it is located in the center of the western part of the Mozambique Channel, so the location is very important.

From the perspective of previous lives, the three main ports of Mozambique are Maputo, Beira, and Nacala, while the layout of East Africa is obviously different, in which Nacala became a military port, and the island of Mozambique, a small place that was not well known in Mozambique in the previous life, has also received the attention of East Africa.

In fact, the decline of the island of Mozambique is mainly caused by natural and man-made disasters, and the political turmoil in Mozambique has led to the exodus of the population of Mozambique, and the status of the island of Mozambique, which has lost its industry and population, has plummeted.

The only pity is that the island of Mozambique is not connected to the mainland, but this is not a big problem for East Africa, in the previous life, Mozambique built a bridge on the road for several kilometers to connect here with the mainland, and East Africa will naturally do the same in the future.

North Mozambique as a whole is not very attractive in the East African economy, but it has already surpassed some northern and southern provinces, but after completing the national map, the position of North Mozambique is highlighted.

This is the central location of the eastern coast of East Africa, so the development of the coastal area cannot be bypassed North Mozambique, if it is not for the topography and other reasons, such as the barrier of Lake Malawi, the development of this area is not inferior to any other coastal area in East Africa.

(End of chapter)

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