African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 301: Chapter 288 Long-Staple Cotton

This time, the entire city of Nairobi plans to relocate a population of 80,000, and with the previous population of 20,000, it will almost break through 100,000, with the hope of becoming the first large city in East Africa with a population exceeding 100,000.

The industry planned to support such a large population in Nairobi is the textile industry, with the surrounding agricultural areas mainly planting cotton as the economic crop.

At the same time, to broaden the product variety, East Africa plans to introduce Egyptian cotton for planting in the upper regions of rivers in Somalia. Egyptian cotton, also known as Egyptian long-staple cotton, has a long-standing reputation worldwide and is praised as ”Platinum.”

Originally from the South Asian subcontinent, Egyptian cotton thrives in high temperatures and heavy rainfall, making tropical savannas, temperate, and tropical monsoon areas ideal for its growth. Globally, as irrigation technology has developed, cotton has increasingly concentrated in arid areas with irrigation conditions.

However, the finest quality output is from the Egyptian improved long-staple cotton. The Kingdom of East Africa plans to directly introduce this Egyptian variety for cultivation.

The Nile Delta and the banks of the Nile River in Egypt ensure that cotton planting never lacks water due to the river’s presence. The soil moisture content remains consistent, humidity is stable at about 60%, and the temperature is constantly high and hot. The sunlight and rainfall are perfect for cotton growth, making it an ideal natural cotton irrigation system — a typical case of being favored by nature.

In search of similar environments worldwide, Somalia stands out, even though it lacks the advantage of the world’s longest river. However, the Shebelle River and the Juba River are both significant African rivers.

Particularly, the Shebelle River, in natural conditions, is most similar to the Nile, as they both flow from tropical savanna climate regions towards tropical deserts, forming irrigation areas downstream.

Currently, Egypt is the world’s largest producer of long-staple cotton. During Ali’s era, Ali vigorously developed water conservancy, dredged old canals, excavated 20 new canals, built nearly 30 dams, promoted improved waterwheels, tested steam irrigation machines, and introduced new crops and varieties. The renowned Egyptian long-staple cotton was popularized during this period. Cotton exports rose from 944 bales in 1821 to over 250,000 bales by 1849, providing convenience for the development of Egypt’s cotton textile industry and supplying Ali’s government with substantial funds to establish more modern factories.

Of course, Egypt’s economic system has now been completely destroyed by the British, especially the cotton textile industry. As the ”workshop of the world,” Britain’s primary industry was textiles, so its colonies in India and Egypt’s original cotton textile industries were destroyed, reduced to cheap raw material supply locations.

In other words, Egyptians are now planting cotton for the British, and the textile industry established during Ali’s era has no longer existed.

East Africa planting long-staple cotton offers substantial economic benefits and relies on the Austria-Hungary and German markets, which are unsuitable for long-staple cotton cultivation. Thus, East Africa has a natural advantage and will not conflict with local textile industries because their targets differ. The characteristics of long-staple cotton predetermine its focus on high-end consumer markets.

Hence, Ernst’s plan is to establish several new long-staple cotton cultivation bases in the northern province, Juba Province of Somalia.

Finally, these cottons will be transported to Nairobi after harvest, processed, and then exported to the Middle East and European areas.

Venice’s textile industry has a long history and was the most important textile center in medieval Europe, so the relocated workers to Nairobi do not face technical issues.

At the same time, Nairobi is near the northern East African livestock farming area, and East Africa plans to raise large flocks of sheep on the Kenyan plains.

The aim is to make Nairobi not only the center of the cotton textile industry in East Africa but also the center of wool textile industry. Ernst also plans to introduce Far Eastern silk technology in Kisumu in the Great Lakes Region to establish another silk fabric industry center, together forming the East African light industry manufacturing center belt with Nairobi and Mombasa.

Currently, due to the war, Franz’s plan with the Heixinggen royal family to develop Kenya in cooperation with the Austro-Hungarian Empire has not been launched, so East Africa can only independently develop the Kenya region.

However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has indirectly aided Kenya’s development. Large numbers of farmers from the Venice area disembark at Mtwara port following immigration ships, then travel by boat upstream the Ruvu River before overland travel to Lake Malawi, then board another ship, reaching the western shore of Lake Malawi, and then flood into Zambia.

The citizens of Venice trapped in the city by the Austro-Hungarian Empire are sent to various eastern cities in East Africa primarily to promote the development of East African handicrafts, such as glass manufacturing, textiles, and ironware manufacturing.

Most of these Venice citizens are workers and thus have certain skills divided among various East African cities. Although their Italian cultural attributes are relatively deep, especially in Nairobi, as the city develops to a certain stage, it will inevitably enter a population negative growth phase. At that time, East Africa’s rural areas will have long left only a single German cultural population, so the cities in their regions will inevitably be assimilated by German culture.

Due to the Italo-Austrian War, the number of Italian immigrants in East Africa is expected to approach that of Slavic immigrants this year. Aside from a few from the Balkan Peninsula, most Slavic immigrants come from Czarist Russia, while those within the Austro-Hungarian Empire are categorized as Germans in East African statistics. The primary groups are the former Slovenians and Croatians, who are deeply influenced by German culture and whose living standards are not much different from Austria apart from their language and religion. Meanwhile, East Africa continuously promotes German communication and deliberately secularizes.

Currently, over 20,000 German-speaking people exist in Nairobi, so there are no significant issues regarding assimilation. After mixing with Far Eastern and Italian immigrants, language communication challenges will inevitably arise, as Italian and Far Eastern languages cannot communicate directly, and German naturally becomes the bridge for communication.

In summary, Nairobi, originally an inconspicuous small city in East Africa, will become an important industrial city in East Africa through its ”vampirism” of Venice.

Now Ernst only needs to wait for the day Austria captures Venice and then acquire Venice’s machinery and equipment without cost to East Africa, completing a kind of pirate-like industrial transfer.

Staff of the Heixinggen Consortium has already reached an agreement with the Austrian military to help the Austrian soldiers monetize their ”trinkets” acquired in battle, while Heixinggen Bank is responsible for transporting these ”trinkets” to the docks.

The cost is not high; after all, these soldiers cannot take these mechanical devices as war trophies, and East Africa only needs to pay for transportation.

As for Venice’s business owners and landlords, a large portion has already been sentenced to death by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, mostly those who previously opposed Austrian rule and colluded with the Sardinian Kingdom. They either flee abroad or are exiled, with their lands and assets confiscated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These will be used, besides providing rewards to imperial soldiers, to accommodate a large number of Austrians.