Chapter 412 Combination of Buying and Manufacturing
After discussing the naming issue of the naval school, the construction of the Ferdinand Naval Academy is a certainty. Like the Hechingen Military Academy, Ernst also serves as the honorary principal.
Prince Constantine said: "Ernst, are you addicted to being a principal?"
"Father, this is a misunderstanding for me, although my personal military qualities are not very good. , but the issue of ideological and political construction on campus is my expertise.”
Although Ernst does not often participate in teaching work, he thinks that he has unique characteristics in ideological and political construction. After all, he has grown up. Just get this education.
"Vigorously developing the navy is a necessary measure for the current East African Kingdom. The East African Navy has become East Africa's fatal shortcoming, which makes the East African Kingdom more likely to be threatened by sea than by land.
In comparison, the East African Army In terms of national defense, the pressure is relatively small, because the East African Army has developed to the largest size in Africa. To put it bluntly, no country can defeat East Africa in the interior of Africa unless it uses all its strength. >As for the navy, our shortcomings are very obvious, including insufficient personnel and insufficient number of ships. As long as other countries send a fleet, the entire East African navy may be sunk into the sea. Therefore, developing a navy capable of protecting the coastal waters of East Africa is now our top priority. Goal," Ernst said bluntly.
The development of the East African navy is urgent. Of course, Ernst will not expand the size of the navy to an exaggerated level. The main reason is that as Archduke Ferdinand said, what East Africa lacks is a system, not strong ships and guns. No matter how many ships are purchased, if there is no system to maintain them, they will be a pile of scrap metal.
Constantine: "The naval issue has a long way to go and cannot be completed overnight. It is not as strong as Germany. Without decades of development, it is impossible to develop a navy all at once. Therefore, our East African Kingdom only needs to It is enough to operate the African region step by step and down-to-earth.”
The size of Germany is much more exaggerated than that of East Africa. In addition to the advantage in area, East Africa is far inferior to Germany in all data. But now Constantine is quite satisfied. At least the two can still be compared, like Hechingen before. The Princely Kingdom does not have this qualification at all.
But the East African Kingdom is definitely not resting easy. First of all, East Africa has actually become the world's largest slave exporting country. This is contrary to the increasingly powerful abolition movement of the international community.
In Ernst's view, the abolitionist movement was like crocodile tears, extremely hypocritical, and could be used to deceive the Holy Mothers of Europe.
The actual reason is that with the development of British industry, the slave trade no longer makes money. In the past, British industry was completely dependent on the slave trade, and industrial products had to rely on slave ships to be sold around the world.
Now that productivity levels have improved and product quality has greatly improved, the British no longer need to forcefully sell their products through slave trade, but have embarked on the path of promoting free trade. In fact, when the British But when they encounter setbacks, they will fall into their old ways again. The Opium War is an example.
There are many examples of Europe and the United States jumping over the wall in the past. For example, in the automotive field, when oneself makes money, it is free trade, and when others make money, it is dumping and anti-dumping investigations.
The market requires others to be willing to open it to you before you can enter, or you can forcefully open other people's markets like they did in the colonial era. Otherwise, why should Europe and the United States cut the world's leeks and live a life of superior human rights? , In fact, before Ernst crossed over, Europe had already embarked on the old path, and leeks were becoming more and more difficult to cut, so we should first think of ways to deal with the pensions and other benefits of our own citizens.
As for the United States, it has been following the path of foreign immigrants suppressing its own residents. Sparks have washed out of the plates of Latinos. The rednecks at the bottom have been trapped in unspeakable misery, like the decline of old industrial areas and old villages. It doesn't look like it.
The same is true for the slave trade. The bulk of the profits were actually snatched away by later participants, so Britain and France improved their "morality" and transformed from slave traders to "noble gentlemen" who opposed the slave trade.
East Africa is one of such latecomers. Now because the world economy is doing well, great powers such as Britain and France will not care about the East African Kingdom. Once the economy encounters a decline, it will inevitably embark on the path of expansion again.
North America and South America, the two traditional colonial areas, have begun to escape the control of the great powers after hundreds of years of development, so Africa is the next preferred target of the great powers. In this undercurrent that is already looming, if the East African kingdom wants to be independent, it must develop its own navy to defend its enemies from outside the country.
Ernst continued: "Father-in-law, I need you to pay more attention to the purchase of warships. Except for some other small ships, there is no need to consider it for the time being."
Fei Archduke Dinan: "Of course, this is my duty, but small ships also They are an indispensable part of the navy. What are your thoughts in this regard? "
Ernst explained: "My plan is to design and build these small ships by the four major shipyards in Hechingen. , to accumulate talents and technology for East Africa’s independent shipbuilding.”
There is absolutely no problem in handing over small self-use ships to Hechingen's own shipyard for construction. In fact, if the funds are available, it is also feasible to undertake the construction of some large warships.
However, Ernst did not dare to bet. It was very common in Europe for private enterprises to manufacture warships, and even the British Navy followed the path of integrating military and civilian operations.
However, the shipyards in Hechingen have no experience in building military ships, and are especially lacking in some advanced technologies.
As for the wooden warships manufactured by East Africa before, the technology source was the Venetian Shipyard. The Venetian Shipyard had experience in building ships for the Venetian Navy in the sailing battleship era, and the other three shipyards were copied from the Venetian Shipyard. technology.
However, with the rise of steam power and ironclad ships, the Venice Shipyard has actually declined. It was only after Ernst injected capital that it began to restart steam power research.
Ernst continued: "The Bagamoyo Shipyard will undertake most of the work this time. Technology can be introduced from Europe. The main thing is that the workers need to be vigorously trained."
Bagamoyo Shipyard Most of the workers are immigrants from Germany and Italy, with only a few immigrants from the Far East.
This is also a characteristic of East Africa. It is actually like a factory that requires a little more skills. The workers are mainly immigrants from the German region.
Immigrations from the German region have received basic education, so they are more suitable to be industrial workers. However, some immigrants from the Far East cannot even distinguish between left and right, and they cannot count to five. It is really difficult for them to enter the factory.
Of course, this situation is also changing. The first generation of primary school students in East Africa graduated last year. This is one of the reasons why East Africa can send students to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In this regard, East Africa has some advantages over the Far East. There is no language barrier. The first batch of official foreign students from the Far East also went to Germany and the United States to study this year. There are fifty people in total, thirty of whom went to Germany on the recommendation of the East African Embassy. and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The reason for the East African Embassy is also very good. You are a feudal monarchy. Foreign students are not allowed to study in Germany and Austria, which are also monarchies. Instead, they choose the United States. I really don’t know what to think. You deserve the Qing Dynasty. Want to die.
The first batch of international students in East Africa was 500, which was a small number because in the early colonial days of East Africa, not many brought their families to East Africa. Moreover, East Africa itself has its own educational base in Germany. The schools in the Principality of Hechingen maintain a scale of more than 20,000 every year (including orphans from Europe and Germany).
(End of this chapter)