African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 872 Cotton production expansion

 Mtwara City.

“According to the instructions of the provincial government to vigorously boost the cotton economy, in the future we in Mtwara will expand cotton production to more than three times in response to the development of cotton economic policies, expand the scale of cotton exports, reduce the area of ​​​​food planting, and adapt to agricultural production. The general trend of structural adjustment will provide the final impetus for the development of this city.”

Cotton cultivation in East Africa has always been in a tepid state, because the country's key investment is not in the textile industry. In the past, only the northern cotton region centered on Nairobi, the southern cotton region centered on Bulawayo, and Lake Malawi cotton producing area, these three major cotton producing areas account for half of the cotton production in East Africa. In addition, there are high-quality long-staple cotton producing areas such as Jezira and Somalia, and various small cotton producing areas relying on cities. .

 The direct reason why the East African government's attitude has changed and strongly encourages cotton planting is also because of the increase in orders from Germany.

 The most critical part of German Prime Minister Caprivi's trip to East Africa is to make East Africa one of the raw material suppliers for Germany's industrial development. Among the various raw material supplies that East Africa can provide, East African cotton is particularly valued.

Germany is very short of cotton. As of now, Germany is already the largest textile country on the European continent and ranks third in the world, second only to the United Kingdom and the United States.

The number of workers directly engaged in the textile industry in Germany reaches more than 300,000 and nearly 400,000. One out of every ten industrial workers is engaged in the textile industry.

 In 1892, the German cotton textile industry produced nearly 700 million marks, which was 30% higher than the coal industry, Germany's second largest industry, and 40% higher than the steel industry.

However, Germany is basically self-sufficient in its coal and iron ore resources, but Germany relies almost entirely on imports of raw cotton. In 1892 alone, Germany imported more than 700 million pounds of cotton. No industry in Germany relies on key raw materials. The cotton textile industry is so dependent on imports.

At the end of the 19th century, cotton prices continued to rise. The two largest cotton-producing areas in the world, the United States and India, increasingly consumed cotton themselves. This was the fundamental reason for the increase in cotton prices. Cotton prices had doubled.

Before the American Civil War, American factories only used about 20% of domestic cotton. However, by the 1870s, this proportion rose to about 33%, and after 1892 it rose to 100%. More than forty years ago, India also benefited from British investment. Coupled with population growth, the scale of the cotton textile industry continued to expand.

  After all, Africa in the 19th century had basically no experience in cotton cultivation except for East Africa, Egypt, and other North African countries.

 Before cooperating with East Africa, Germany had tried to grow cotton in its colony Togoland (the Republic of Togo in West Africa), but failed miserably.

 Germany cannot even find a rich labor force with cotton planting experience in Togo. However, Germany’s local cotton planting scale is small and there is less experience in cotton planting compared with the United Kingdom and the United States.

 Therefore, Germany urgently needs to find a stable cotton supply base around the world to meet the needs of its own cotton textile industry.

Furthermore, Germany had only controlled Togoland for a few years and had a very poor understanding of the local natural climate conditions, so failure was inevitable.

Of course, there is no problem in Germany choosing Togoland for its experiments. In its previous life, Togoland was a major cotton-growing country in Africa. Especially after its independence, its cotton planting industry expanded more than seventy times. Benin (next door) Today's Kingdom of Dahomey and the Portuguese colony of Weida) have become Africa's largest cotton growing country in the 21st century.

However, it is unrealistic to expect the Togoland colony to become a German cotton supply base within a few years. Moreover, the Togoland colony still has a shortcoming, that is, its territory is long and narrow, and its area is small. In addition, Togoland's infrastructure is almost zero. Selecting this place as Germany's cotton supply base will require heavy investment, and Togoland is surrounded by densely populated areas with colonies from other countries, so investment risks are still high.

 While other German colonies, such as the Pacific Islands and the largest Cameroon, most of them belong to tropical rainforest areas and are not suitable for cotton cultivation.

Therefore, looking at the world, there is no place more suitable for Germany's cotton supply base than East Africa. East Africa itself is one of the main cotton suppliers for Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Especially in the field of high-quality long-staple cotton, it monopolizes the markets of the two countries. If you don’t get goods from East Africa, you basically have to buy them from British merchants at high prices. And because East Africa is sanctioned by the British, it also needs a shipping point, so everyone gets what they need.

“Experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Germany have conducted in-depth research on the climate and soil of our Mtwara, and therefore determined that Mtwara and the surrounding areas are suitable for cotton growth. Coupled with the advantages of our coastal Mtwara, Under the direction of the central government, we are allowed to vigorously develop cotton planting industry.”

Mtwara has always been one of the important port cities in East Africa. It was one of the earliest developed port cities in East Africa. In the early days, it was an important port in East Africa like Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo and Tanga.

 However, as East Africa continues to expand its territory, Mtwara City is facing increasing competitive pressure, especially after a large number of new port cities have sprung up.

In fact, the three seaports in New Württemberg Province are facing this pressure. Previously, New Württemberg Province could only cling to the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone. Now German capital has entered and is regarded by the provincial government as the economic development of the province. new opportunities.

 Not only German capital, but also Austria-Hungary. Both countries have now entered a new stage of investment in the East African coastal areas.

As far as the cotton planting industry is concerned, it not only provides order support, but also plans to invest in a number of ginning factories along the East African coast in order to encourage East African cotton exports to save labor costs, provide high-quality cotton varieties, unify cotton production quality, and dispatch local experts and Technical personnel, scientifically guiding the cotton cultivation industry in East Africa.

This is good for the cotton planting industry in East Africa. Of course, the excellent infrastructure in East Africa also makes these German capitals optimistic about the East African market.

 Infrastructure infrastructure such as railways, roads, ports, etc. basically does not require investment, which is very important for German companies. If cotton is grown in Togoland, the above supporting facilities need to be provided by German companies themselves.

Like Mtwara, there are ports, railways, roads and other facilities, and it also has a certain industry and industrial foundation. New Württemberg Province also has a large amount of land resources. Even if the original crop planting area is not changed, through land reclamation and other means Large cotton fields are available.

Of course, the labor cost in East Africa is also very important. Although salary costs need to be paid, East Africa is very efficient!

In Togoland, the Germans faced not only the lack of planting experience among the local indigenous people, but also a long-standing problem in management. The most important thing is that the local people are actually afraid of large livestock!

 This last thing is indeed outrageous. After all, most of the indigenous Africans have a non-traditional farming civilization. As mentioned before, most of the native African cattle are located in Northeast Africa and North Africa.

From the perspective of many indigenous Africans whose hunting and gathering civilization is the mainstream, cattle represent the native African "wildebeest, zebra, rhinoceros" and other similar violent and dangerous species.

Therefore, considering various factors, East Africa is the best choice for German capital. East African immigrants are mainly farmers, and East Africa is a large agricultural country. As long as it is done properly, investing in East Africa will basically not be as wasteful as Togoland. Return.

 (End of this chapter)