Chapter 362 Overall Concept of the First Railway
K is the initial letter of Constantine’s name, 001 has no special meaning, it means first, and the first train is named “Constantine”, and subsequent Steam locomotives imported from East Africa will not be named unless there are special circumstances. They will all use numbers starting with K-, such as the K-002 locomotive being shipped to Dar es Salaam by sea.
Looking at the crude environment of the Dar es Salaam railway station, Constantine instructed the Dar es Salaam Municipal Government: "Dar es Salaam, as an excellent port, has the responsibility to It accounts for about 35% of the import and export trade in East Africa. With the development of the times, railway construction is the general trend. It is also imperative to expand the capacity of the First Railway in the future. At least warehouses and other necessary buildings must be built first to handle goods. Regarding storage issues, a road from the city to the train station can also be built. The existence of the new port cannot block the connection between the old port and the railway. An additional security check can be added when leaving the city to check for suspicious persons or goods. "
The First Railway that has just been opened to traffic cannot realize the dredging from the interior of East Africa to the coast, but this is only because the First Railway has only completed the preliminary plan. As early as when designing the First Railway, Ernst had considered the First Railway The future of railways.
That is to learn from the previous Tanzania-Zambia Railway plan, and on this basis, build the first railway line from Dar es Salaam to the Zimbabwe region.
Among them, the most difficult project is to cross the Zambezi River, which requires the construction of a strong cross-river bridge. The Zambezi River is not the only river encountered in the area where the First Railway passes.
The previous Tanzania-Zambia Railway built 320 bridges and dug 26 tunnels, crossing two countries. It cost more than 900 million and took nearly 8 years. In the end, nearly 70 people from the Far East paid for it. life. You can imagine how much manpower and material resources were spent on such a railway at that time.
If East Africa wants to build this railway, it will be very difficult, because including the Zimbabwe section, the total length of the railway will be more than 2,000 kilometers, hundreds of kilometers longer than the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, and it will span Crossing the Zambezi River, the difficulty escalates.
However, the East African Kingdom has huge advantages in building the first railway compared to Tanzania and Zambia in the previous life. One is land. The East African Kingdom does not have difficulties in expropriating land. Although Africa was very backward in the previous life, private ownership of land has been learned. The pattern, coupled with the large and small tribes, greatly delayed the construction schedule of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway.
Secondly, the East African Kingdom does not need to consider casualties when building the first railway. Casualties are just a number to the East African government. Single digits and five digits do not matter to East Africa. Countless projects in history have proved that, As long as you are willing to put human lives in it, nothing is impossible.
Finally, and the most important thing is that the East African Kingdom is a major agricultural country and a major food exporter. This advantage is unmatched by most African countries in previous generations.
As we all know, East Africa has the best agricultural conditions in Africa. However, in the past, countries such as Tanzania were barely self-sufficient in food. Railway construction requires a large amount of labor, which will cause the original agricultural production population to decrease. However, When Tanzania builds a railway, its agricultural production efficiency will not improve out of thin air, but the pressure on food supply will increase.
When Tsarist Russia was building the Siberian Railway in the previous life, the period with the largest number of workers was only close to 90,000 people. At the same time, the construction of the Siberian Railway was much more difficult than the First Railway. The long Russian winter alone The Siberian Railway is destined to become one of the most difficult railways to build in the world, but East Africa can guarantee year-round construction, and the number of workers depends entirely on the mood of the East African government. There is food in hand and there is no need to panic.
At the same time, the First Railway is not too long. Even if the Transvaal Republic is solved later and the First Railway is extended to the Transvaal, its length will only be about one-third of the Siberian Railway.
The construction environment of the First Railway is also stronger than that of the Siberian Railway. The Siberian Railway passes through frozen soil sections, which correspond to swampy areas in East Africa. Dealing with swamps is much easier than dealing with frozen soil.
In fact, the comparison between the First Railway and the Siberian Railway is a bit overwhelming. The First Railway is not worthy of lifting the Siberian Railway's shoes. It should be compared with the Canadian Pacific Railway of the same period. Canada began as an independent country in 1867. In 1871, the province of British Columbia on the west coast was tempted to join Confederation on the condition that a transcontinental railway be built within 10 years to connect it with eastern Canada.
Canada’s railway construction adopts the same formula as the Americans, that is, faster, faster and more economical. Therefore, Chinese workers have become the first choice, accounting for about 4-6% of the total number of workers. (Historically 5-9%).
This is the same pattern as northern Myanmar. Although East Africa secretly caused mischief in the Far East and publicized the misfortune of Chinese workers in the Americas, the Canadians were shameless and hired some Far Eastern businessmen to set up a business in Columbia. The labor agency specializes in recruiting compatriots from the Far East to work as road construction workers (true history). It is said that they have good noses and eyes, and they are specifically looking for acquaintances. We are all relatives, so we can't lie to you! So the success rate is quite high.
But these are all things for later. Currently, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the First Railway in East Africa are still only on paper. East Africa is a little ahead. After all, the first town in Dar es Salaam has already Completed.
The original idea of the First Railway was to replicate the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, but after the occupation of Zimbabwe, the plan was expanded. If the subsequent war against the Boers goes well, the South African section will also be added, and it should eventually reach about 3,000 kilometers. It is more than a thousand kilometers shorter than the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Canadian Pacific Railway has to cross the Rocky Mountains, but the eastern terrain is mainly plains, so the difficulty is about the same as that of the First Railway. Its main problems are similar to those in Russia, and it also has a long winter.
The same thing between East Africa and Canada is that it is vast and sparsely populated, but there are a large number of black people in East Africa, which saves a lot of effort in East Africa, as there is no need to go to the Far East, India and Italy to attract people like Canada.
And East Africa, excluding black people, has a larger population than Canada. However, Canada's population is relatively concentrated, mainly distributed in southern Canada in the previous life (at this time, northern Canada was still terra nullius).
At the same time, the total domestic economy of the East African Kingdom is also higher than that of Canada. This is an achievement achieved by the East African Kingdom itself without counting the wealth of the Hechingen Consortium.
The East African Kingdom has better agricultural conditions than Canada. The export of tropical cash crops is particularly developed. It almost monopolizes more than 40% of the entire German region and more than 20% of Eastern Europe, and is still expanding its advantages. In addition, its food exports far exceed Canada's, and its mineral resource exports both The difference is not big, mainly because East Africa absorbs a large part of it internally.
In other words, the overall economic level of East Africa far exceeds that of Canada. Without relying on the support of the Hechingen Consortium, East Africa itself has already had the economic capacity to build railways, but it only needs to use East Africa's resources and industries as its Collateral and borrowing from financial institutions are the basic procedures for railway construction in all contemporary countries.
As the ruler of the East African Kingdom, the Hechingen royal family is definitely not willing to allow foreign capital (except Austria) to enter from the perspective of national security. It can completely absorb it on its own, so the funds for the construction of the first railway will first be provided by Hechingen. Hingen Bank lent money to the East African government and repaid the debt through the economic benefits brought by the First Railway in the future, realizing that the left hand was the right hand and the soup was not spilled.
(End of this chapter)