Chapter 1150 Rhodes Company
Buenos Aires.
Rhodes, the boss of Rhodes Company, is calculating the recent income, and judging from his grin, the company's business is still very prosperous this month.
Rhodes is a British immigrant who has the same name as the owner of the De Beers Mining Company in South Africa, but the two chose different routes.
Although most of the area was cut off by East Africa, South Africa's mining industry still has a lot of potential, but De Beers Mining Company cannot develop into the giant that it was in its previous life, let alone Rhodes in its previous life. The Birth of the West Asian Colonies.
As for Argentina's Rhodes, he was also born in the UK, but in Argentina, the development of animal husbandry is obviously more promising.
Of course, as a British man, Rhodes did not choose to be a farmer. Instead, he relied on his identity and the connections of his British family to start trade between Argentina and Britain.
After putting down the bill, Rhodes said to his secretary: "Very good, this month's income has increased by 8%. I really hope that this war will not end too soon, so that we can earn more. "
Secretary Bol was not so optimistic. He reminded: "Boss, the demand for supplies in Europe has skyrocketed. Even food is in short supply, not to mention the breeding industry. Taking advantage of this time, We happened to export more beef to Europe during this period, but we also had some troubles. Many farmers took the opportunity to increase prices, so our receiving prices also increased a lot, and because of tight shipping capacity, freight prices also increased a lot. "
If everyone raises prices, the benefits will naturally be diluted. What's more, Argentina is only a small country and can only drink soup, so Argentina will definitely not earn as much as in the previous life.
This is easy to understand. In the past, most of the dividends from the war were eaten by the United States, but now because of the existence of East Africa, it is even more difficult for other countries to get a share of the soup.
This is especially true for a country like Argentina with a relatively single industry. In its previous life, Argentina’s main competitor was the United States, because the United States itself is the largest food and agricultural producer outside of Europe. Even though Argentina’s land Fertile, but Argentina’s land area is limited after all.
And now there is an additional East Africa, which is even more excessive. Although East African agriculture was unremarkable in the early days, after decades of development, East Africa has now become one of the few major agricultural countries in the world.
Although the soil and water conditions in East Africa are worse than those in the United States and Argentina, through soil improvement, agricultural technology improvement, and complete water conservancy project construction, East Africa's agricultural development level has reached the first echelon in the world.
There are only two countries in the first echelon, one is Germany and the other is East Africa. Germany has a leading advantage in agricultural technologies such as fertilizers and pesticides, while East Africa ranks first in the world in terms of agricultural mechanization.
It is quite terrifying to be the first in the world in terms of agricultural mechanization. After all, East Africa covers an area of more than 10 million square kilometers and ranks first in the world in terms of arable land area.
The cultivated land area in East Africa has exceeded that of the United States, and the reason for this situation is very simple. That is, East Africa has a larger population than the United States. To support a larger population, more land must be developed.
Although the quality of the land in East Africa is not as fertile as the plains of Russia and Ukraine, the black soil areas of central America, and Argentina, it is much better than that of Germany. Without artificial improvement, northern Germany is actually not suitable. development of traditional agriculture.
Northern Germany has a temperate maritime climate. In the past, it was only suitable for the development of animal husbandry. The moraine plains resulted in barren land. On the contrary, although southern Germany is dominated by hills and highlands, it is indeed the main wheat-producing area in Germany. Of course, this is what happened in the past. Through development in recent hundreds of years, northern Germany has obviously become a very developed agricultural region.
In fact, most areas can develop agriculture as long as they can solve the two problems of water, light and heat.
For East Africa, the most important thing about agriculture is to solve the water source problem. However, this problem was solved through large-scale water conservancy construction in East Africa as early as the last century. Any subsequent efforts will just be icing on the water.
Back to Rhodes Company. Rhodes replied to Boll: "Now the only ones who dare to do business directly with Germany and Austria-Hungary are the United States and East Africa. After all, our national strength in Argentina is too weak and we are timid. What a pity!"
Under the blockade of Britain and France, countries like Argentina will certainly not be as tough as the United States and East Africa when conducting trade with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As the two world powers outside of Europe, the United States and East Africa are not afraid of Britain and France settling scores in the future, but other countries are not, including Japan, which is also a great power.
Japan's location is too far away from Europe. If Japan dares to imitate the United States and East Africa and blatantly interact with the Allies, Britain and France will not give it a good look. Even if Japan's navy is powerful, it will not help.
The Japanese Navy now has a total tonnage of more than 700,000 tons. This level in Europe is only slightly lower than that of Germany and France. However, Japan simply does not have the ability to invest its navy in the Atlantic region. , after all, Japan does not want to repeat the mistakes of Russia.
Boll said: "Argentina and the United States, two powerful countries in East Africa, are not comparable at all. Although we have the foundation to become a world power, Argentina's population shortcomings are too obvious. Looking at the world today, there are not 40 million It is difficult for a country with a large population to become a world power. "
One of the standards mentioned by Bohr is based on France. France's population barely reaches 40 million, which is a relatively small population among the great powers.
Although Spain has a smaller population, Spain has completely replaced Japan and become the gatekeeper of the great powers. In fact, Spain’s comprehensive national strength may not even be considered a great power. It is a more controversial country, but disputes are better than It is not controversial. All it takes is another incident similar to the Spanish-American War, and Spain may completely fall out of its status as a world power.
On the contrary, Japan, after the Russo-Japanese War, in just a few years, it has completely established its identity as a great power. Although Japan may not be as good as Spain in the economic field, Japan's military strength can surpass Spain by several blocks.
Furthermore, Spain may not be much better than Japan economically. After losing most of its overseas colonies, Spain has almost no way out. On the other hand, Japan still has Korea as a colony, and it occupies an important position in Far East trade. Monopolized most of the business in the northeastern region of the Far Eastern Empire.
Japan’s native population is as high as 50 million, ranking fourth in Europe, only behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Once the population exceeds 50 million, it almost has the assets of a great power.
In contrast, Argentina, with a population of only eight million, is unlikely to cause much trouble. Even compared with a small country like Belgium, it is somewhat powerless.
As a British person, Rhodes actually doesn't have much affection for Argentina, but now his interests are closely related to Argentina, so he can't help but complain.
If Argentina really becomes a world power, this is not what Rhodes hoped for. Argentina's land area is close to three million square kilometers.
Rhodes said to Boll: "In short, our most important task now is to get more orders and make money first. With money, what kind of Argentina is not going to follow us?" It doesn’t matter.”
This is actually what most Argentinians think. Argentina is just a country of immigrants, and many immigrants have only arrived in Argentina in recent years, so it is impossible to have much affection for Argentina.
This is different from East Africa. The early selection of immigrants in East Africa specifically selected poor people and was good at using the state propaganda machine. In this way, East Africa gave its immigrants a very positive image.
Now that the native population of East Africa has reached the third and fourth generations, they have even deeper feelings for East Africa. However, with the capabilities of the Argentine government, it is simply not possible to reach the same level as East Africa.
(End of this chapter)