African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 134: Chapter 126 Ras Canpoli Trading Market_2

”How could I forget such a thing!” Hans Buck said with annoyance.

”Alright, you all don’t need to rush and don’t wear a sad face. Who is it? Ikaramu, right! Do you know the place Ras Canpoli (a small town at the southern end of the Somali)?” Hans Buck asked.

”Your Excellency, are you talking about a village on the eastern coast?” Ikaramu said uncertainly.

”Yes, that’s the place, that village. If you walk a few miles south along the coastline, you’ll see a trading market. If you want to acquire goods, you should go there!” Hans Buck said.

Ikaramu was still a bit hesitant. ”But, sir, it requires a big detour, and who knows if they have the goods we need there!”

”You don’t need to worry about that. Most of the products you see in the south are available there. Of course, I can’t guarantee medicine, but at least you can bring some goods back to make a return,” Hans Buck said.

This Ras Canpoli trading market, needless to say, is another trading place of the same nature as the Dar es Salaam slave market.

A slave market doesn’t necessarily have slaves; it could also have ivory, sisal, or even Heixinggen’s expiring products...

Of course, the Ras Canpoli trading market surely is not a slave market. The East African colonies are relatively principled. They gave the Sultanate of Zanzibar a hearty beating in the past. Even Ernst felt a bit embarrassed. To appease (reduce Zanzibar Sultanate’s resistance to ceding lands), East African colonies packaged the slave business and handed it over to the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

Which means the Sultanate of Zanzibar is the sole dealer of slaves from the East African colonies, monopolizing the trade.

Currently, the Sultanate of Zanzibar seems quite satisfied with this.

”Moreover, heading south now, you may not even encounter those tribes and villages anymore, so trading at Ras Canpoli is your best bet!” Hans Buck hinted to Ikaramu.

At this point, Ikaramu finally understood the hidden message in Hans Buck’s earlier words. When they first met, Hans Buck mentioned that whether the southern tribes existed was still a problem, and now he emphasized it again. Isn’t that clearly indicating something?

Ikaramu felt an icy chill in his heart; this Heixinggen certainly wasn’t a good person. As a merchant, Ikaramu had traveled far and wide, with extensive experience, the farthest west to Liberia in North Africa and the farthest east to Damascus, and had also been to parts of Kenya in the south, seeing a wide variety of things.

In this region, disputes between Arabs and Westerners, Arabs and natives, and native tribes and other native tribes were numerous.

Now there’s a new player in East Africa, and quite a strong one at that. It seems this business deal might not go through, so they could only try their luck at this Ras Canpoli of the Heixinggen forces.

Ras Canpoli is a transliterated place name and an important stop on many trade routes. So for Ikaramu, who has been doing business in this area for years, hearing Ras Canpoli immediately knew where it was, though they didn’t pronounce it very ”correctly.”

”Thank you all for the reminder; we’ll head east to Ras Canpoli to try our luck,” Ikaramu said to Hans Buck and the others.

”Also, try to stay north of the desert and avoid running into our people. If the officer of the next group isn’t as easygoing as I am, you know!” Hans Buck emphasized.

”Thank you, thank you!” Ikaramu expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Hans Buck this time; such information was life-saving.

Afterwards, the two parties parted ways, and the cautious Ikaramu naturally retreated far north before continuing east towards Ras Canpoli.

Hans Buck and the others, on the other hand, continued advancing west towards Divu (a base name).

...

Four days later.

”This is the Ras Canpoli trading market; it seems of a decent scale!” Ikaramu said.

The Ras Canpoli trading market was established by the East African colonial government, not far south of the original village of Ras Canpoli.

Ikaramu noticed that some Arab merchants had already started doing business here; they were all Arabs, like Ikaramu, persuaded into this place.

The managing authority of the market was precisely the Heixinggen force, with armed personnel patrolling, dressed similarly to Hans Buck’s group they had seen on the road that day.

The East African colonial government had specially prepared many local specialties, such as ivory and cloves, sisal woven products, grains, and European industrial goods.

After tying up his camels, Ikaramu led his people into the market.

”Hmm, the quality of this weave is nice!” Ikaramu contemplated, holding some fabric produced in Tanga.

He tugged on the sample, and it was quite sturdy. High-quality, inexpensive cloth like this would sell well to ordinary residents in Somalia.

Ikaramu was keen on the quality of sisal cloth and wanted to use it to process some household items like carpets and utensils, either as decoration or to reduce costs, since the prices were relatively low.

The Ras Canpoli market primarily sold raw materials such as unprocessed ivory, animal skins, hemp rope, cloth, logs, grains, etc. Aside from ivory, most were needed in Somalia and North Africa, and ivory’s high profit margin was certainly attractive.

Unfortunately, the number of Arab merchants currently at the Ras Canpoli trading market was too few, and many products for trade were not acceptable, such as salt, a necessity for many natives.

East African salt is mainly divided into two parts: one part is the salt farms built after acquiring the coastal area, and the other is imported from German areas. Germany is a major salt exporter in Europe, especially with large quantities shipped from Hamburg Port to solve East Africa’s salt issues, with good quality.

Of course, Arab currency was still acceptable, but for trinkets used to deceive natives, the East African colonial administration wasn’t interested.

Most of the Arab merchants who arrived this time could only gaze at the goods with frustration, then go back to collect money or other materials accepted by East Africa.

Ikaramu, however, made some gains and bought a large batch of cloth, which wasn’t expensive, planning to take it back to sell.

The Ras Canpoli trading market had just been established but provided a commercial channel for the southern Somalia region; many goods previously needing to be transported from North Africa (Egypt) could now be bought directly at Ras Canpoli, and at more affordable prices, greatly facilitating Arab merchants in making a profit.