Chapter 69 Hechingen Royal Territory
With Sergei’s efforts, the Russian government finally decided to sell the Alaska colony to the Hechingen Consortium.
After repeated pushback from both parties, the final price was set at 7 million rubles, which was a really high price.
Of course, in order to appease the Russian government, some of the more habitable islands and territories were not taken back by Alaska. The actual land area traded was about 1.6 million square kilometers.
In return, Sergey himself directly benefited from this transaction by nearly one million rubles.
March 13, 1867.
Witnessed by the Prussian government, the Hechingen Consortium and the Russian government signed the "Agreement on the Transfer of the Alaska Colony", and the Alaska Colony was placed under the name of Prince Constantine.
That is to say, from today on, the main body of the Alaska colony will be the overseas territory of the Hechingen royal family.
This transaction was made public by some European media, but it did not cause any waves. After all, in the eyes of Europeans at that time, Alaska was just a barren land thousands of miles away. Perhaps polar bears were the largest number of residents in Alaska.
As for Ernst, although he paid for Alaska, he had no intention of developing Alaska.
It's entirely out of the mentality of having dates and not having dates. After all, it is too cheap. It is impossible to encounter such a good thing in the future that you can get a large piece of land for a little money.
This time, thanks to the bribes given to Sergey and others, although they paid millions of rubles individually, in the end these Russian ministers did well with the money.
You must know that in the previous life, the United States spent more than seven million U.S. dollars to buy Alaska, but Ernst only paid rubles.
In this era, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the ruble is basically two to one, and due to the impact of the Crimean War, the ruble still has room to continue to depreciate.
So even if the funds paid to bribe the Russian ministers were included, Ernst still saved nearly half of the money and won the Alaska region.
That is a full 1.6 million square kilometers of land. Not to mention whether it is useful now, even if Ernst leaves it to his descendants in the future, it will allow them to live a prosperous life.
As for the possibility of wasting money, Ernst also considered it, in addition to inviting the Prussian royal family to guarantee it.
Some work was also done in other areas, such as payment to the Russians. Ernst used installments.
After paying the first 2 million rubles, the remaining 5 million rubles will be paid off within 10 years, so that the Russians must be honest if they want to get the money.
In less than ten years, Ernst would be able to drive away all the Russians in Alaska. This was stipulated in the previous agreement.
After all, the Russians still have the southernmost land in Alaska in their hands, which is a full 20,000 square kilometers, and the Russians also need manpower to develop it.
So the agreement between the Hechingen Consortium and the Russian government clarified that Alaska (Greater Alaska) under the royal territory of Hechingen has the right and obligation to send Russians in the territory to Russia's Southern Alaska (Little Alaska) ) territory to assist in development. For the same reason, Russians are not allowed to stay in the greater Alaska area.
In the greater Alaska region, Ernst planned to adopt the most advanced "closed-door" policy, expel businessmen from various countries, and monopolize the local fur market.
At the same time, expedition teams and private individuals from various countries are strictly prohibited from entering the greater Alaska region to engage in any activities. If the resources in Alaska are really discovered, Ernst's money will be really wasted. Now, Ernst just bought Alaska and left it there to gather dust. It would be best if no one discovered the true value there.
Including the newly acquired land in Zanzibar, the current territory of the Hechingen royal family has reached an astonishing approximately 2.8 million square kilometers.
In order to facilitate external declaration, Ernst and Prince Constantine discussed and jointly called the two places the royal domain of Hechingen of the Hohenzollern family.
Such a huge territory will naturally attract the attention of interested people, but other countries have defaulted to the fact that this is Prussia's overseas colony.
After all, the main body of Ernst's industry is still based in North Germany, and taxes are naturally paid to the Prussian government.
At present, the East African colonies can barely integrate with Ernst's industry, which is limited to tropical crops such as grain and sisal.
It was incorporated into Ernst's industry as part of the raw materials, and Ernst's industry was part of the Prussian industry, so it was the last industry in the East African colonies to serve the German region.
So there is no problem at all in saying that the East African colonies are Prussian overseas colonies, but Ernst and the Hechingen Consortium are the middlemen, liaising between the industrial integration between East Africa and Germany.
Currently, Prussia’s voice in North Germany is increasing day by day. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that as long as no other country interferes with Prussia’s merger with North Germany, it is only a matter of time.
If Ernst wanted to get rich quickly, it would be too easy. As long as people go to East Africa to look for minerals, he can definitely make a lot of money in a short time.
But this may cause the great powers to pay attention to Africa in advance. Productivity determines production relations. The reason why the great powers also focused on Africa in the late 19th century was because the second industrial revolution changed the production model of the great powers. .
They have switched from commodity export to capital export, so they need to dominate the raw material market and consumer market around the world.
The East African colonies are currently on the eve of this trend, so Ernst launched the relatively backward planting industry in East Africa. Although the planting industry accumulates wealth slowly, it is better than stability and can be slow at the same time. Slowly accumulate colonial population.
Only when the population under its rule reaches a certain scale, will the future East African colonies be able to resist the invasion of other colonists.
At the same time, the freedom of colonial immigrants was strictly restricted and the collective management model was adopted to prevent the outflow of some information.
For example, the current East African colonies are actually developing well among the colonies in the world. However, Europeans are still not interested in this place due to geographical reasons (the influence of the Ottoman Empire and Arabs is spread across North and East Africa). Don't understand.
The lag in information gave Ernst room for maneuver. He made good use of the two decades before the great powers divided Africa. He first determined the general scope of the East African colonies and consolidated immigration. There was still a chance to gain a foothold in Africa.
In fact, as long as most countries do not commit suicide, it is difficult for other countries to take advantage of them. In the early stage, as long as Ernst farmed the land honestly in Africa and less involved in some international hot spots, it would still be very comfortable. of.
So, apart from digesting the newly annexed Kenyan land, the East African colonies basically had nothing major to do next.
As for the Alaska Colony, in order to pack away the Russians and traders from other countries in Alaska first, Ernst decided to first dispatch an East African colonial army to the Alaska colonial area to cooperate with the new Alaska colonial government.
(End of this chapter)