Chapter 145 Tobacco Factory
While Zanzibar merchants are taking people and goods from East Africa, the Hechingen Consortium is also working hard to save the cost of commodity production to facilitate greater profits.
At the same time, it was also to ensure the safe and smooth flow of raw material channels. Before the establishment of the East African colonies, the world's tobacco cultivation was basically monopolized by a few overseas colonial countries. The East African colonies could just solve this problem.
Of course, the Hechingen Consortium is not stuck in a dilemma now. The current world is a coexistence of powerful powers, and no country can dominate.
When purchasing tobacco, the Hechingen Consortium can even shop around to select products that satisfy them.
Especially after the development of the East African colonies, the tobacco planting area has become wider and wider in the past two years, and the Hechingen Consortium is not worried anymore.
The cost of growing tobacco in the colonies is very low. In the end, it only needs to be brought back to Europe by ship, and the immigration ship can easily solve the problem when it comes back.
Of course, Ernst himself does not know how many kinds of industrial products the Hechingen Consortium has now. Basically, they are involved in products that are closely related to the lives of Germans.
The raw materials required for so many products are destined to be diverse and in huge demand.
Fortunately, the industrial scale of this era cannot be compared with Ernst’s previous life, nor can the people’s consumption power, so many raw materials can be provided by Europe alone.
Coal in the Ruhr area is a classic example, providing abundant and cheap energy for the future rise of German industry. Coal is one of the important indicators of the first industrial revolution.
The East African colonies shoulder the important task of supplying raw materials, but what East Africa currently imports most to Germany is not minerals, but timber and some special products.
When the immigration ship returned, it brought back a large amount of wood and agricultural products, which naturally attracted little attention.
Part of this wood was kept by the Hechingen Foundation for its own use, and was used to make handles for razors and other utensils, or some furniture. The rest were sold at low prices. There is no shortage of wood in Europe, so I wanted to rely on it. It is basically impossible to sell logs at a high price.
Although I can't make much money by selling wood, I can save a lot of money by buying wood. When I sell it, the profiteers keep saying that this won't work, that won't work, and when I buy it, I just have one He boasted vigorously and even cited production cuts as an excuse.
This is the colonial era, and the whole world is the back garden of Europe and the United States, and wood is basically available everywhere except deserts and ice sheets. How dare you say to reduce production?
However, when the Hechingen Consortium itself became a timber supplier, no matter how harshly it scolded those profiteers in the past, it now slaps them in the face more often, and in the end, it has become a life that it hates.
As for the specialty agricultural products of East Africa, they are the most profitable commodities in East Africa, such as cloves, sisal, various specialty fruits and vegetables...
August 11, 1868.
Mbeya.
It's a sunny day with a gentle breeze, and workers are building a new building downtown.
Under the guidance of German engineers, the engineering team formed by immigrants completed the task meticulously.
At present, East Africa already has a team of professional construction workers. They work hard at every construction site in East Africa. They are indispensable on roads, bridges and special-purpose buildings. Construction workers can also be regarded as the current group of workers in East Africa. main force.
The new building in Mbeya city is obviously a European-style factory building. The reserved vents and chimney openings indicate that equipment driven by steam engines will be installed here. According to time, the machine should be on shore now, and it will be shipped, assembled and put into production in less than a month. As long as the machinery is in place, this factory will be the first industrial cigarette factory in East Africa.
The East African colony had a clear goal when it was first established, to provide raw materials for the Hechingen Consortium.
The tobacco industry, as a hugely profitable industry in the hands of the Hechingen Consortium, naturally attracted Ernst's attention. At that time, the East African colony was opened with the purpose of supplying raw materials to the Hechingen Tobacco Company.
When the first town was opened in the East African colony, the colony tried to grow tobacco, and then gradually expanded inland.
Many places in the East African colonies were suitable for tobacco cultivation, especially those around lakes, among which the coast of Lake Malawi was an important production area.
Mbeya is the capital of the Upper Lake Malawi District. The northern part of Lake Malawi is within the jurisdiction of Mbeya, so Mbeya is very close to the tobacco growing area.
Compared with harvesting and processing tobacco, bringing it back to Germany, processing it and selling it, it is certainly not as cost-effective as producing the product in one step in East Africa and then selling it externally.
Where is the transportation price of tobacco and finished cigarettes? The volume of tobacco of the same weight is much larger than that of the finished product. The more you transport, the more you will lose. For businessmen, if you make less, you will lose.
As one of the tobacco growing areas, Mbeya is rich in raw materials and coal resources, which can provide continuous power for factory production.
It is also very simple to transport the finished product. Cigarettes are inherently profitable products, and the weight of a truck is only so small, which is not enough. You must know that Mbeya has to transport coal to various East African colonies. So transportation is not a problem at all.
Moreover, after cigarettes are produced locally in East Africa, they can be directly supplied to local immigrants in East Africa, thereby exacerbating the meager wages of many people.
At the same time, it can directly supply Zanzibar and Arab merchants, take the opportunity to expand the market around the Indian Ocean, and build the reputation of Hesingen tobacco.
Opening up markets around the Indian Ocean and even markets in Southeast Asia is an irresistible temptation for any businessman.
In the colonies, labor was much cheaper than in Germany, and with the self-sufficiency of raw materials, there was basically no cost.
The Hechingen tobacco factory in Germany will continue to purchase tobacco from tobacco merchants in other countries. If you eat alone, you will easily get beaten by a group, so it is better to be cautious.
And the development time of the East African colonies was too short. It can only be said that it has great potential. It is really unrealistic to think about satisfying the tobacco supply of Germany and Europe.
Therefore, taking all things into consideration, we cannot ruin relations with some partners, especially now that the German presence on the ocean is completely zero.
Even the Hechingen Consortium itself is the largest maritime trader in Germany. The Prussian Navy can only play in the Baltic Sea, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy is only active in the Mediterranean.
Except for the above two areas, the four oceans are all in the hands of countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. The merchant ships in Ernst's hands are untouchable.
Not to mention these maritime powers, some countries in the Arab region are also relatively powerful in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the East African colonies must continue to keep a low profile.
(End of this chapter)