African Entrepreneurship Record

In August 1887, the British Parliament passed a derogatory trademark law clause, specifically stipulating that goods imported from Germany must be marked with ”Made in Germany” to distinguish inferior German goods from superior British goods.

Putting down the newspaper, Ernst felt somewhat emotional; some things wouldn’t change just because of the meddling in East Africa, like Britain’s latest Trademark Act.

Britain’s amendment of the trademark law was primarily due to the rapid rise of industrial power in countries like Germany, which made them feel pressured; it was advanced countries suppressing latecomer countries.

Even if it were another country, it would be the same. As long as it posed a threat to Britain, it would receive the same treatment as Germany does now. So, this is an inevitable trend of history, unless there emerges a foolish Prime Minister in Britain who persuades Parliament to let Germany off the hook.

Such a situation is almost impossible to occur; after all, the British are now renowned for their steadiness unless, like in a past life, the entire society experiences a wave of anti-intellectualism and then further kidnaps these politicians through the ”democratic system.” Currently, British society is not yet rampant with ”lies.”

Referring back to the impact of this bill, setting aside how this direct insult emotionally harms the Germans, the ”pirate nation” of East Africa indeed felt the biting cold.

After all, many East African products could be considered knockoffs of German products; thus, for Britain, East African industrial goods are knock-offs among knock-offs.

In regard to standardization efforts, the Heixinggen consortium and East African state-owned enterprises should be viewed separately. Most enterprises under the Heixinggen consortium are innovative and emphasize product quality.

However, the state-owned enterprises, which are the pillars of the East African national economy, have significant deficiencies in this aspect, especially in the ”re-knockoff” of Germany, the ”pirate nation.”

There’s no way around it; the construction of the East African industrial system began in the 1870s, primarily importing entire sets of industrial machinery from Germany and Austria-Hungary, so it was unavoidable to embark on this path.

The process of industrial development from scratch is akin to famine victims not being picky about food: fill the stomach first, or the picky ones would have starved long ago.

Therefore, the current British crack down on ”German goods” actually indirectly targets ”East African goods,” and since German technology updates rapidly, East Africa might suffer greater losses than Germany.

”What the British say is unpleasant, but what they say is essentially the truth. To German enterprises of all sizes and the German government, this is a highly shameful political-economic incident, causing extremely adverse effects on the national image. It also signifies the beginning of a new stage in the struggle between the two countries for the commodity market. We might even consider this incident as the beginning of the world factory shift,” Ernst told the industrial department officials.

Don’t just look at the negative implications of such ”insults.” In fact, it also represents Britain’s recognition of the German industrial competition as ”helpless,” a manifestation of being driven to desperation.

Since the first industrial revolution led by Britain, it is still the ”world factory” today. However, competitors to Britain have emerged, including Germany, the U.S., France, and...the rise of numerous industrial countries has posed a significant threat to British commerce and industry, with Germany being the ”leading bird” that the British intended to chastise.

Putting quality aside, German goods are indeed cheap, and Germany’s industrial production capabilities have greatly improved, with high output, plus means such as ”copying” and ”branding,” can achieve a one-to-one restoration of ”genuine products” in appearance.

So when the British bought ”domestic goods” only to use them and expose the flaw, the scene of cursing at home is something Ernst could fully imagine.

”Our export enterprises are essentially part of the German goods export trade system, so they will inevitably be affected by this incident. This is a good warning for us; the domestic standardization of product quality should also be revisited to change the international community’s stereotype of our products!”

Ernst emphasized standardization, but previously East Africa had no ability to promote such matters. After all, the machinery was all imported from Europe, so they could only adhere to others’ rules of conduct, and at that time, East Africa’s talent pool was evidently unable to propel East Africa’s industry towards the path of independent innovation.

Currently, East Africa still doesn’t fully have this capability, but East Africa should have ample reserves in basic technical personnel. On the one hand, it’s because students studying abroad are returning, and on the other hand, the number of middle school students is surging.

However, theoretical learning and practical conditions differ significantly. Making the younger generation directly transform East Africa’s industrial system likely entails a road of ”setbacks.”

”A related standards-setting agency formed by the government and enterprises should not be difficult based on the current situation in East Africa, especially evaluating East African product standards on the original product classification basis.”

Before this, East Africa indeed established a preliminary corporate-level product classification, though this product classification was built at the expense of domestic products.

To compete with the international market, only those high-quality products could be selected for sale in the international market, while the defective products were left for domestic consumption.

Although, even now, the East African populace still feels that supply is outstripped by demand, largely due to production capacity issues. East Africa currently cannot be considered an industrial nation; apart from a low urbanization rate, the number of industries is also a significant problem.

In the early 19th century, the standard for an industrial nation was an urbanized population exceeding thirty percent; however, East Africa’s urbanization level is still below twenty percent (including the Black population), but excluding black people makes East Africa appear much better.

Moreover, many cities in East Africa should be considered agricultural-industrial mixed residential spots, particularly prominent in the west and north, where many cities were merely facilitated by administrative means rather than born of industrialization.

Currently, the countries recognized as complete industrial nations are only Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, with others like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Tsarist Russia, Spain, East Africa, and Japan are catching up.

Of course, East Africa is developing most rapidly in a few fully-focused industrial sectors, mainly in steel, electricity, automobiles, and food processing industries.

On the flip side, industries such as textiles and machinery manufacturing are relatively underdeveloped, and East Africa annually needs to import them from the Far East and German regions.

”The establishment of standardization agencies requires discussions and exchanges with the royal enterprises and several large foreign-invested enterprises; they have rich experience in this area.”

The royal enterprises and large foreign-invested enterprises, along with Heixinggen Bank, or the Heixinggen consortium, were the earliest organizations to establish product standards.

This is related to the industries in which the Heixinggen consortium is involved; whereas East African state-owned enterprises do not meet the conditions of the Heixinggen consortium, they are relatively more standardized than many small European and American workshops.

However, East Africa has many enterprises hosted by local governments, and the quality of their products is uneven, but aside from the textiles and food processing industries, they are the pillars of East Africa’s light industry sectors.

”The Ministry of Industry should take the lead, with other foreign enterprises in East Africa supervising and guiding to form an institution that guides the production quality of East African products, naming it the East African Standardization Association.”

The East African Standardization Association is actually a reproduction of the German Standardization Association in a past life, and the German Standardization Association was not established until 1917 in a past life.

Initially, it was just a private organization and was later absorbed by the German government; East Africa, on the contrary, directly had the state facilitate the completion of this matter, which is also the difference between the two.