Chapter 89 Hamburg Ocean Commercial Trading Fleet
July 1, 1867.
The Constitution of the North German Confederation officially came into effect.
The significance of this constitution is that Prussia legally dominates the affairs and military and political power of North Germany. Prussia's dominant position in the federation and the overriding power of the King of Prussia in the government were maintained, and it was also covered with the cloak of democracy.
The North German region became a Prussian private territory in legal form, relying on this common style.
Ernst's Hamburg ocean-going commercial trade fleet was established. The size of this fleet reached eleven ships. (Before the unification of Germany, the registered German maritime merchant fleet only had a total of 4,350 sailing ships and 175 ships.) In the entire North The German region is not small either.
With the addition of the Hechingen ocean-going fleet in the Mediterranean with Trieste as its home port, the number of merchant ships under Ernst's name reached more than 50.
Many of these ships ran routes from the Far East to East Africa, slowly replacing the hired Dutch merchant ships.
The main task of the newly established Hamburg ocean-going commercial trade fleet is to undertake the ocean-going trade in the German region and at the same time help Ernst carry some machinery and equipment to East Africa.
After all, unlike the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the people at the bottom of the German region have a high level of education and are not easy to fool, so they do not take immigration as their main task.
The ships under Ernst's name are not small in size. After all, the bigger the ship, the better.
Among them, Venice's own shipyard only builds single-digit ships for its own use, and most of them are ships purchased from European countries.
With the promotion of new steamships, especially the emergence of ironclad ships, the price of traditional sailing ships has been falling, so Ernst bought a batch of good quality ocean-going sailing ships without much effort.
If you include the ships captured from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the number of large ships in Ernst's hands is more than sixty.
At the same time, the new Hechingen shipyard (Hamburg) was established with the establishment of Hamburg's ocean-going commercial trading fleet.
Eggs cannot be put in one basket, so work has begun on the unbundling of the Venice-Hechingen shipyard.
As early as the acquisition of Martin Shipyard, Ernst added many German employees to it in the name of the boss, and now they will become the backbone of Hechingen Shipyard (Hamburg).
There are also many Chinese interns among these German employees, most of whom are students from Hechingen schools. They are basically bought out for the rest of their lives and have to work in this industry until retirement.
The shipbuilding industry has always been an important industrial sector in Europe. It has relatively high requirements for the experience and academic qualifications of its employees, so every experienced shipbuilder is an intangible asset.
With the future reunification of Germany and the explosion of the German economy, the scale of Hamburg's ocean-going commercial trade fleet will definitely be considerable in the future.
The Hechingen ocean-going fleet in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is actually relatively poor in profitability, especially when going to East Africa. Every ship it pulls is full of immigrants, so it makes no money at all. It can only rely on the specialties brought back from East Africa on the return voyage. Return blood.
The ships taking the Far East route are even worse. Most of them are mixed with people and cargo, and immigrants and cargo are put together.
This is true even if you rent a Dutch ship. If you just attract immigrants, you won’t have so much money to pay back. You still have to bring some goods along the way to get back the money.
The important task of the Hamburg Port fleet is to make profits. After the reunification of Germany, the number of merchant ships in the entire German region doubled, and it quickly became one of the top forces in the world's ocean trade.
The Hamburg ocean-going commercial trading fleet is to use this trend to strengthen itself.
For example, the Hechingen Consortium needs to develop the world market in order to develop its products and banking businesses.
The transportation of goods in the German region and the import of goods are all good businesses in the future, and even being a second-rate dealer has a bright future. In addition to making money, accumulating experience, technology and talents for the future East African colonies is also one of the reasons.
With the progress of the industrial revolution, the shipbuilding industry is updating faster and faster, and more and more new technologies are being applied to shipbuilding.
If we want to not fall behind the times in the future, we cannot rely solely on the Venice Shipyard. As we all know, the two centers of the second industrial revolution.
One is Germany and the other is the United States. The American Ernst cannot intervene, but Germany is currently Ernst's base.
As a member of the Hohenzollern family, Ernst himself was a member of the ruling class in the German region, and his interests were deeply bound to the German region.
With the development of science and technology in Germany's second industrial revolution, Ernst can reserve technology and talents for East Africa in the future.
Germany is the present and East Africa is the future. The order cannot be arbitrary. Only under the protection of the Prussian government can the current Hechingen Consortium develop and grow.
Only if the East African colonies in the future are able to withstand the frenzy of European countries to divide Africa, will Ernst dare to transfer the main body of industry to East Africa.
Otherwise, the other colonists would be advantaged in vain, and Ernst would have no place to cry.
Using Germany as an industrial incubator in East Africa is safe at least until World War I, and Germany is currently in a dividend period of technological explosion.
High-end technology and talents are not comparable to those of Venice, which can be seen through the German Navy during World War I.
Although the German navy failed in the end, how many opponents in the world could compete with Britain on the sea at that time?
Only the Americans are not bad, even the French have fallen behind in the maritime arms race.
Therefore, Germany's crazy expansion of maritime power after reunification was still backed by a strong education system and the technological accumulation of the Second Industrial Revolution.
If the shipbuilding industry in East Africa wants to reap this dividend in the future, it can only slowly accumulate in the German region.
East Africa's future positioning is to be a maritime power along the Indian Ocean coast, so it cannot delay in the shipbuilding industry. Since East Africa currently does not have the ability and strength to develop the shipbuilding industry on its own, it should first practice hard in the German region.
East Africa currently has four excellent ports, and with the development of the East African colonies, the demand for cargo transportation is also growing.
There are other ports that will be developed in the future, such as in Kenya and southern Tanzania, both of which will have great potential in the future.
In addition, the large inland lakes in East Africa will also need inland lake ships in the future, so it is right to accumulate experience, technology and talents first.
The lakes in East Africa are all big. Water transportation and the fishing industry in the inner lakes are inseparable from the development of ships, especially the Great Lakes (Lake Victoria). Its shipping value will account for at least a quarter of the five Great Lakes in North America in the future. potential.
And Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika), Lake Malawi, Lake Friedrich... all have needs for surface ships.
These lakes are located deep inland, are of great economic and strategic value, and have great potential for the development of surface and underwater vessels required for their development.
(End of this chapter)